My Personal Gluten Free Rules When Dining with Friends & Family

Do you ever find yourself worried about cross contamination when going to a party or when catering a party or event at your home?. Well, I have personally come up with some rules you can follow to help ease the stress of cross contamination and help you not only educate your guests but make sure you stay healthy. Read these rules and bring the FUN back into partying with friends & family. 
These apply to both events being catered by you and events you attend.

• When it comes to parties that you attend, make sure you become good friends with the host and make sure your needs are understood. Having good communication with the host is very important. Make sure you ask what ingredients are in every dish, so you know what you can have and ones you should avoid.
• When you are at an event that you know has some gluten free items and some food made with gluten, ask the host if they would allow you to go and get your food first. This will eliminate any possible cross contamination that will done to the gluten free food that is present. *Make sure that you pile your plate high because you may not be able to go back for seconds, and please do ignore the looks you may get, just remind yourself you need to eat too. If need be, just explain your situation to those who complain.*
• Organize the table setting or counter. Leave all the gluten free items on one side and all of the gluten food on the other. Tell everyone that they can serve themselves the gluten free food first and then go on to the gluten food. Try your best to keep the bread and buns for last as they tend to have the most gluten.  *Unless it is gluten free bread/buns of course*.  
• Use disposable plates and tell your guests to get a new plate each time they go for seconds. This will eliminate the chance of some crumbs getting into your gluten free dish.
• Tell your guests to scoop up a portion of the dish with the spoon provided and shake it unto their plate. Try to avoid touching the plate as the spoon may touch a dish that has gluten in it & then when it is put back into your bowl or container, it cross contaminates it. 
• When it comes to condiments, I suggest bottled or squirt out containers as it is harder to cross contaminate. However, do keep an eye on how the guests handle them as you may have to wash the bottle before using it again yourself. 
• Chips can be cross contaminated as well, do yourself and your guests a favor as ask them all to pour out the chips onto their plates and tell them to refrain from reaching in and just grabbing a whole hand full of them. 
• Use silverware and tools for grabbing the food for each of the items on the table, refrain from using a spoon for one dish and grabbing another item with that same spoon as this will confuse your guests and cross contaminate for you. 
• If your host has no idea how to make something gluten free and is afraid to do so, your best option is to just bring your own gluten free dish that you know is 100% gluten free. *Remember most parties have deserts, so make sure and bring yourself a fun gluten free treat as well.* 
• Consider purchasing label picks for those guests who just do not get it and cannot understand. Tell them that the ones that need to be touched carefully are the ones with the pick that says gluten free. 
• Please remember that not all drinks are gluten free, most wines are gluten free but not all. Most beers are NOT gluten free but some are, just be careful and ALWAYS READ LABELS.  This includes non alcoholic drinks and some juices.  *Google is your friend*
• Watch your guests and their behavior and habits, you are your own protector, so do yourself a little favor and watch how they act when they are serving themselves food, handling the food, consuming the food and then going back for more. They may assume that they did not cross contaminate something but you may have seen them touch their pants which you know has gluten on it. It is very easy to accidentally get glutened just because someone forgot they touched something. Keep in mind, gluten is everywhere because after most people eat gluten, they touch things like tables, chairs, counters, sink faucets, silverware you name it. So be watchful. 
• Do not allow the sharing of your butter or anything else that you know you'll use later. Use a new stick that you know will either get thrown away afterwards or used by those who do not have your dietary restrictions. 
• Do not quickly assume someone knows exactly how to be careful because unless they have done their research & completely understand, it is risky for you. They need to be able to make your meal to your standards and practice very strict procedures. If they make one tiny mistake, it could send us to the bathroom and give us weeks of sickness. So double check and maybe even triple check that they know their stuff. It wouldn't even hurt to quiz them on a few questions just to determine their understanding. 
• Last but not least please know, you are not the only one who has to deal with this challenge. Just be aware that where ever you go, you will more than likely have to explain your situation and condition multiple times & you may get some weird looks, but just think of it like this: They are getting an education and you are bringing celiac awareness to the community.  We are awesome! 

With these rules, you are sure to be able to enjoy the event! 

STAY GLUTEN FREE!

-The gluten free Momma