January was surprisingly full of food-related activities needing dye- and gluten-free substitutes sent from home.
Braaaaaaains!
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| Dye-free strawberry gelatin |
Z's Kindergarten had a week learning about the brain and nervous system. So for the end of the week, the teacher planned to make a large jell-o brain. Initially I was going to provide 6 boxes of
dye-free gelatin mix, but I only had 3 at home, and that brand was no longer being made. By the time I tried a few stores and called around, it was too late to order them on Amazon, so the teacher and I decided that she'd make the class a dye-filled one, and I'd send something safe for Z.
Luckily, I happened to have a
mini brain mold (surprise surprise) and made some strawberry vegetarian gelatin brains to send to school. I packed them in a
Laptop Lunches Bento Buddies medium container and mismatched lid.
Day Camp Snacks
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| Dye-free gluten-free chocolate chip marshmallows, Van's GF Everything Crackers |
A local kiddie gym offered a day camp for Martin Luther King Jr Day. Their camps are mostly for ages 3 and up, but they have a limited number of spots for younger non-potty-trained kids. Since we had just gone to an open house there over the weekend, and E had enjoyed herself and hadn't noticed I was still in the lobby until an hour later, I decided to try it out and sign her up for camp with Big Sis!
I packed the girls matching snacks in a
mini pink lace box and
mini black polka dot box. I had spoken to the gym owner and found out the other kids would be getting marshmallows and crackers, and maybe cookies or fruit. So I packed safe marshmallows and crackers, and figured if there was fruit available, they could have some too. And the marshmallows should trump cookies, if they were on offer to the other kids too.
"Blue Friday" Cupcake
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| GF vegan lemon cupcake, dye-free sprinkles |
Since we're near Seattle, the Seahawks are our home team. So naturally the private Kindergarten we attend wanted to show their team pride by celebrating "Blue Friday." I was running a little late that morning (surprise surprise) and saw the snack parent haul in a flat of blue and green cupcakes. Nuts! So E and I raced home to get a safe dye-free gluten-free cupcake out of the freezer to take back to school before snack time, so Z wouldn't miss out.
Since I only had lemon and chocolate cupcakes in the freezer, I included some India Tree Nature's Colors
blue sanding sugar and
green jimmies sprinkles in a
Laptop Lunches dip container (mismatched with Seahawks colors!) for her to make her cupcake festive and colorful like the other kids', after the frosting had thawed enough for them to stick!
Tools of the Trade
