June 11, 2011

Kids Gluten Free Pizza for Breakfast!?

When I was growing up as a gluten free child, breakfast was probably the hardest meal to deal with.  There wasn't the variety of breads and cereals that we have today.  Growing up I rarely ate gluten free bread as the only variety available was a tapioca and rice bread which left quite a lot to be desired.  As for cereals, the laws for labeling were different and most companies were not labeling barley malt as an ingredient, so I did used to eat frosted flakes and rice krispies and I was none the wiser about the fact that I could not have what I was consuming. 

When I was a teenager I went through a low carb phase and for breakfast I usually had fruit and yogurt every single day.  Not very exciting after a while, but very health conscious.  Now if we fast forward to the present day there are so many varieties of cereals, breads, muffins, waffles you can purchase or buy the products to make at home.  Options, options, options!

As for my children, they were diagnosed when they were 3 years old and in some ways that is good and in other ways it was difficult to deal with a diagnosis at that age.  It is good because like myself who was diagnosed at the age of 2, I do not recall what eating gluten items is like so I would say my remorse over not being able to eat those items is quite minimal.  Though I must say I still do admire and fancy to try some gluten items, often I ask people what items taste like and live vicariously through them.  One of the toughest parts about being diagnosed when the twins were three was trying to explain to them why all of sudden there was a huge change in their diet. Their vocabulary and their toddler stubbornness skills made this hard for them to understand.  It was a bit easier since we had explained to them prior to their diagnosis that their mommy was allergic to certain foods and they seemed to have a good understanding of that.  Though there are still times when we are out at a party or somewhere where they cannot have anything, usually their understanding goes out the window and I cannot really expect any less, it is hard for them to fully grasp the situation correctly.  If you have a toddler that has just been diagnosed, just expect to be tolerant while they learn about being celiac.  Just now that the girls are four, they are learning the vocabulary and starting to understand how to tell other people that they are allergic to wheat and need gluten free, it is quite cute to see how they try to explain this to others. 

To try to keep things exciting for them, we have tried to come up with a variety of breakfast options for both myself and them to keep things fun.  They are very active and helpful in the kitchen I hope that this will give them a better understanding of healthier choices and also help them understand which items are safe for them to eat and which are not. One morning I woke up and one of my daughters wanted her favorite-cereal again! However, my other daughter would not have it but could not decide what she wanted.  An idea popped into my head, how about pizza for breakfast?   Why not?  It was an easy recipe using a brown tortilla wrap and ingredients the girls could use to make their own breakfast pizza.  Hope you and your kids enjoy!

Gluten Free Breakfast Pizza

Brown Rice Tortilla Wraps
Sauce: use a choice of peanut butter, jam, cream cheese or nutella
Fruit Toppings: Bananas, Strawberries, mango, kiwi, etc
Other Toppings: Nuts, dried cranberries, dried raisins, coconut, chocolate chips, etc

1. Heat pan and slightly brown rice tortilla wrap or warm in microwave for 30-45 seconds until tortilla is slightly firm to hold toppings.
2. Let kids apply sauce to wrap.
3. Add fruit toppings and other toppings.
4. Slice the same as a pizza and enjoy!

No comments:

Post a Comment



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...