Party food for dairy/gluten intolerant children plus vegetarian child

[Foxranawaywithhisshoes]

It's like my DS2 chose his friends to provide me with a cookery challenge! Friend 1 is vegetarian (totally - none of the but he eats fish and chicken rubbish), Friend 2 is allergic to dairy, nuts, fish and gluten (as well as oranges), Friend 3 is your usual fusspot, Friend 4 is dairy intolerant and Friend 5 has no known food issues!
DS1 and DS2 eat most things but DS1 won't eat any visible vegetables except carrots (cooked), olives and houmous.
Normally I would serve sausages and pasta for birthday lunch followed by cake but none of that works!
Any ideas? Happy to do more than one option but would like not to end up having to provide something different for each child!
Thanks.

Baked beans and home-made potato wedges? Crispie cakes with gluten free cereal. Cakes made with gluten free flour- ask the mum for advice. Or get them all to bring a lunchbox!? You have my sympathy.

Am seriously considering the "bring your own lunchbox" option!

Tesco Free From range does high meat content gluten free hotdogs and all supermarkets do sausages that are GF.

You could get some gluten/dairy free rolls and make/ buy burgers.

How old are children ?

It's DS2's 6th birthday - his friends are 5 also nearly 6.

could you do a gluten free pizza base, and add toppings based on the allergy? For instance the dairy intolerant could have tomato base with, say, ham and pineapple, and the vegetarian child could have cheese etc...

Or do jacket potatoes and have toppings? Hummus/cheese/baked beans

mexican theme perhaps? corn tortillas with chicken/beans/cheese?

or just do a plate of chips

re: cake. could you use rice flour instead of flour and Pure dairy free spread instead of butter? You could do brownies and use cocoa powder....

Wow, ilove, that's a lot of ideas. Thanks.

Gluten and dairy free cakes are easy.
You can get blended flour (with xanthum gum) and pure dairy free spread. Fairy cakes/ cup cakes are probably easiest as gfcf cooking takes a which in terms of judging cooking times. Individual cakes are more forgiving.
Gfcf sausages are available at the super market.
I make chicken nuggets with gfcf bread for breadcrumbs for ds2 too.

Oh yes popcorn is popular.

A proper veggie won't eat jelly I'm afraid! Beans and wedges sound good but you'll need to check the baked beans are gluten free as most brands aren't.

Maybe a buffet? If there's quite a few choices then everyone can find something (hopefully). I'd ask advice from child 2's mum anyway because the contamination issues can be complicated with serious allergies.

Good luck

Lunchbox from home. |The comtamination risk isn't worth it.

If you still wanted to do pasta you can get gluten free, rice pasta is pleasant enough. A tomato sauce should be fine for everyone, just keep cheese in a separate dish so it can be added/not added as required.

I'd break with tradition and do something completely different for his birthday! I'd take them out somewhere which doesn't involve food! Just reading your OP gives me a headache!

We're going out for a treat but I feel I have to feed them something before I send them home.
And there has to be something in the dreaded party bag.

I'd keep it simple but make what you can suitable for all. You'd probably find a better range of things in your local wholefood shop or Holland and Barrett. And the staff are usually much more knowledgeable about the sorts of ingredients than supermarket staff.

For the birthday meal, guests get a helping of chips/wedges and a choice of veggie or gluten-free meat sausages. Then cake.

My DC love Redwoods veggie sausages, which just need warming up but aren't gluten-free. Also, Fry's do good quallity veggie sausages if you can get them but they aren't gluten-free either. They do go in the oven though. Or you could get tofu ones, which are usually ready-cooked and just need warming up.

Ask the gluten-intolerant child's mum about sausages and if she can advise you on a good cake recipe that is suitable for her child. Ice it with butter icing made from Pure (or similar) and decorate it with Whizzers (which are allergy-care sweets like smarties). Goody Good Stuff sweets are often dairy and gluten-free too.

My DB had lots of food intolerances due to all the additives in food. This was in the 1980s when people were much less familiar with such things. My mum always offered to send a party bag of food that my DB could have so the hosts didn't have to worry. The bag included cake too. Perhaps some of the parents are happy to do the same for cake?

I'd be surprised if the fusspot child wouldn't eat any of the things we've suggested. Especially cake. I've yet to see a child refuse a dairy-free cake as these cakes still look like cakes IYSWIM.

Corn is gluten free so that would be fine.
Party bags can be bubbles, stickers and plastic tat toys, half the time the cake is totally crushed and squished beyond being edible if it goes in there anyway so I really wouldn't worry too much about having to have food for them.

That took me ages and there's been lots of cross-posts!

Definitely talk to the mum of the child with dairy, nut and gluten allergies. I expect she'll be more than happy to help you sort something out. She'll want her child to be OK and she'll probably want her child to feel like it's a similar treat to what the others are getting and that they are not missing out.

Where you can, give the others what this child is getting. (Unless this child is bringing their own food.)

The whizzers sweets I mentioned before could go in party bags?

Just a thought but have you tried posting in the allergy section as well?

Holland and Barrett are ace and do veggie jelly crystals.

If you shop online you will be able to check ingredients. Tesco Free From is good. I would aim for similar rather than the same and make plates up in advance. It is only one meal and I would cater for friends 2 and 4. Veggie shouldn't be too hard.

Good luck

You could do bowls of pasta - gluten free for whichever one needs it! - and little bowls of toppings for them to add their own depending on allergies/preferences. So tuna, sweetcorn, hotdogs, veggie sausages, cheese, tomato sauce etc. We do this a lot for visiting children and it always works well. And what about crispy cakes with dairy free chocolate? Would that work?