When my husband first told me he had to go for a minimum of 10 business days to Germany for a business trip, we both panicked a bit - a celiac in Germany (homeland of bread, beer and pastries)?!!?!!
We decided, let's do this together, with our daughter, 2 years old, and get a place with a kitchen - we can totally figure this out...right?
It's not just celiac disease, it's also our daughter's {seemingly random} allergies to different fruits including: mango, any kind of berry, grapes, raisins and banana. And my own sensitivity to dairy, gluten, pork (again - in the homeland of pork - really?!) and anything in the nightshade family (potato, peppers, tomato, goji berries and eggplant) and my husband's secondary allergies to brown rice and eggs from his celiac disease.
Seems complicated to outsiders, but we manage to eat amazingly well and varied at home - we know we can do this outside our usual shopping routine and access to our normal 'go-to' products.
I want to inspire others with similar matrices of complicated eating habits to know that you can still have fun in another country, outside your routine and comfort zone with some prep and packing ahead. That is my hope at least!
After a lot of preparation, here's what we pre-packed. Stay tuned for what we actually did in Germany. Note that this amount of food did take almost an entire piece of luggage and we knew we were getting a place with a kitchen, pots, pans, etc..
The items noted with stars are items I specifically packed 2-3 of for each of us on the plane:
[Costco] 3 bags of Krave turkey jerky [lemon and garlic]
[Amazon] 2 small containers Mana Loa Mac nuts*
[Whole Foods] Nature Valley gluten free chocolate chip granola bars*
[Amazon] 1 whole box of Island fruit leather apricot bars*
[Amazon or Costco now carry 3 lb bags of Nature Valley all natural] Dried apricots and figs
Chocolate bars*
[Costco, Amazon, Whole Foods or New Leaf] Justin Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
[Amazon] Sahale pomegranate cashews*
3 packs Andean Dream quinoa pasta
[GlutenFree Mall] 3 packs rice noodles
[Amazon] 1 pack Bob's Red Mill certified GF Oats
[Amazon] 2 packs GlutenFreeda apple cinnamon instant oatmeal *
[Amazon, New Leaf or Whole Foods] 2 boxes Tanka Bars*
[Amazon] 1.5 boxes Cashew and Sunflower/Chocolate MacroBars*
[Costco] Living Intentions Pumpkin Seeds and Sunflower Seeds
[Amazon] Individual packs of Annie's gluten free vanilla chocolate bunnies*
[Whole Foods or New Leaf] Prunes (excellent for times when you or your little one need a BM)
[Whole Foods or New Leaf] Coconut oil in a plastic container (I plan to pick up olive oil, but coconut oil is so good for you and your skin that it was a great alternative in case we couldn't get to the store or wanted to save money - usually I buy everything in glass but opted for plastic since it would be packed in our bags)
[Whole Foods or New Leaf] Organic peanut butter (in plastic) (again, I opted for plastic because it would be packed. We live off peanut butter as an emergency protein and fat source and Europeans are less keen on PB than us Americans - so to save $$ and hassle, I packed it on my own.)
For spices I did the following:
Himalayan pink salt
And using Oxo Tot food (toddler) 2 oz food jars I pre-packed a few spice mixes like:
Mustard and cumin seeds (equal parts)
Tumeric and garam masala (1:2 ratio respectively)
Herbs de Provence
Cinnamon
Bauman Spice of Life (nutritional yeast, dill, seaweed mix - high in B vitamins and chromium!)
And separately I packed poultry seasoning, annato seeds and arrowroot powder to make some high seasoned dishes with little effort or packing space.
My so-called 'natural pharmacy' included a series of teas as well. Here is the list:
1. Green tea: fantastic antioxidant to battle airplane radiation and general flying stress
2. Nettle tea: good to tone the liver and help with detoxification
3. Raspberry leaf: excellent for women and PMS
4. Ginger: good soother for the tummy whether in the air or during the trip
5. Tulsi tea: Amazing at soothing the nervous system from traveling stress (or stress of dealing with a toddler who is jet lagged!) I personally like the sweet rose tulsi tea
Lastly, I love the collapsable silicon lunch plates for travel. I packed each of us rice, chicken/apple sausage, steamed carrots and greens for our dinner (note, dinner was served on the plane - however most airlines will only allow you to request a special meal for ONE type of allergy - so if you are like myself and don't eat gluten and dairy - sorry, out of luck - bring your own). We ate before we boarded and stuffed the containers and lunch bag in the stroller bag. There are several brands offering this now and they are all great. Reviews to come soon. I packed a few extra in our bags to store extra food and lunches for when we go into work as well.
Stay tuned - we will make this a reality for 3 whole weeks in Germany. You can too!
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