Living with Family Allergies the Healthy Freezer Meal way

As you may recall, I have many food allergies. It seems more and more people are learning of one allergy or another. Family parties have become a guessing game as to who can eat what and if there is something for everyone.

For about 2 years I was doing really well with cooking from scratch, buying only organic, watching all the labels and planning meals. But due to some budgeting, some life schedules and probably a little laziness I have fallen off the wagon…and my body is telling me so. For me I get the gluten belly (I look like I am 3 months prego), I have a very hard time concentrating, low energy and the fun one – lightning diarrhea (eww right). Every time I get into one of these slumps it reminds me I how much this disease controls me. Right now we are closing out Allergy and Celiac awareness month and of course mainstream media has kicked in. While I did think Jimmy Kimmel’s skit was a little funny it also was a bit hurtful to the gluten-free community. If you missed the skit watch it in the video below.

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/AdJFE1sp4Fw”]

Yes the gluten-free diet has become a fad for some but for others it’s a very real thing, and I am betting that just about everyone that has a sensitivity knows exactly what Gluten is. So sadly this makes us all look like we don’t and it’s all in our head. If you need more information on what gluten is see here.

.The hardest part of sticking on my diet is making dinners. I have a family of 4 and I am the only one with 6 major food allergies. It’s hard pleasing everyone and making a tasty meal at the same time. So a bit ago my sister in passing mentions to me this Wildtree company, they are all organic, no GMOs, no nuts, no fillers and about 80% of their product is gluten free. I meant to look into it but then I forgot. A week or so later I went to a vendor show and Wildtree was there. I was talking to that consultant for a bit and she had donated a prize for one of the charity raffles, I came home from the show with a few products (a marinade and fajita seasoning). I made a few things with these new found seasonings and wow! A couple weeks ago I came across them again at the Gluten and Allergean Free Expo and they were looking for consultants. Only $49, I get a bunch of samples and a discount… sure sign me up.

I received my kit and item after item was delicious. During my training I learned about these freezer meal parties you could offer your hosts in addition to the tasting parties. Well my sister volunteered to be my first ginnie pig…err I mean host. It was tons of fun…we had about 6 ladies there, a few bottles of wine and freezer bags. Wildtree provides 10 different recipes along with a list of items you need to buy and then you purchase their marinades/seasonings. One by one we put together about 10 meals and it took us a little under 2 hours (though we did lots of drink mixing and chatting between). It’s so great just having 10 meals ready to go and you don’t have to think or shop for anything, and the best part… the kids and hubby like them!  Most of the servings are for 4-6 so I also usually have some left over for lunch the next day too. I still have 4 meals to go out of that party and then I will probably do another. If I have them all planned out I am less likely to stray from my diet.

Overall I just love the company and what their mission is. It was started by a woman who has 2 children with allergies, and her inspiration was the issues she was having creating healthy allergen free meals.

There are many ways to do Freezer meal parties, so I would encourage you to do them. It saves the headache of “what am I going to make for dinner tonight” problem. I just never got organized enough on my own to research the meals and put together a shopping list. I guess that is one of the other items that I loved about the Wildtree Freezer Party, it was all planned for me.

If you would like more information on Wildtree click here. I’m working on a way to do a virtual healthy freezer meal party so just comment if you are interested.

What healthy freezer meal plans have you tried? Please post links below to any meal/shopping lists.