When our daughter, Lydia was first diagnosed with Celiac, I panicked. She just had her 7th birthday party and we had served a giant brunch and cake for our closest family friends. It was a gluten feast consisting of pancakes, pastries, gluten filled sausage, and cake. I was still new to the gluten free world as we were a few years into Josh being celiac and I had never tried to create gluten free birthday party food before. Because Lydia was diagnosed as Celiac at such a young age, I was determined to make our home gluten free and still provide her with awesome birthday parties as she grew up. Here are the essential gluten free birthday party food ideas we discovered on our journey:
Barbeque Style Party
When throwing a Barbeque style birthday party, we would include the following gluten free birthday party food:
- Hotdogs or Burgers
- We may have either hotdogs or burgers at the party and have often served both if both adults and kids are attending. When picking out both the hotdogs and burgers, we read the labels in store to ensure they are gluten free and safe. Look for words like “wheat filler” on the package. May companies now market their burgers and hotdogs as gluten free which reduces the amount of label reading, although I recommend doing a quick check as well.
- We have gluten free buns available for the people who need gluten free. We make sure these are separate from the regular buns to ensure no cross contamination takes place. If we are serving burgers and don’t feel like providing gluten free buns, we provide a lettuce station for lettuce wrapped burgers. I often find adults prefer lettuce wrapped burgers even in if they aren’t following a gluten free lifestyle.
- Most burger and hotdog toppings are gluten free and easy to put out. Ketchup, mustard, relish are typically safe. We also slice up tomatoes, lettuce and pickles for burger toppings.
- Finger Snacks – Chips, Chips and Salsa
- Barbeques are the perfect chance to have gluten free birthday party food options such as gluten free chips. So many chips are gluten free because they are made just from potatoes. You need to read the labels to ensure the toppings used are gluten free. For more info on Gluten Free Chips in Canada, see our article here. Otherwise, read the label and serve your favorite gluten free chip at the party.
- Corn Chips and Salsa make a perfect gluten free birthday party food snack. Corn chips are gluten free! Just make sure you don’t buy the kids that are labeled multi-grain and you have a perfect gluten free chip. Add salsa and you have a fun side dish for you gluten free birthday party barbeque
- We always have a veggie tray out for our gluten free birthday party food. Veggies are healthy and naturally gluten free. Peas, carrots, cucumber, broccoli and cauliflower all make delicious finger food for a barbeque party
- For dessert, we will make gluten free cupcakes. See our easy and delicious gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe. We accompany these with gluten free ice cream, again read the label to ensure no wheat filler. And often we have gummy candy as a fun treat.
Brunch Style Party
We used to throw a Bruch style birthday party for Lydia every year. It was the perfect way to get all of our friends together with their kids and celebrate Lydia. We would have 30-50 people over, it was a blast. We moved, so these parties haven’t happened for a few years much to everyone’s disappointment.
Our perfect gluten free birthday party food brunches consisted of the following after Lydia was diagnosed with Celiac:
- Gluten Free Pancakes
- We would have a handful of people who needed gluten free so we would offer gluten free pancakes and also normal waffles. We created two distinct types so that there was no confusion over the gluten containing items and the gluten free. Looking back now, I think I would just make the entire thing gluten free and make either waffles or pancakes for everyone. For ease, I always use the Betty Crock Gluten Free Bisquick. They just always work and haven’t failed me yet. Click to buy Gluten Free Bisquick.
- We buy frozen strawberries, put them in a bowl and top with some sugar. They are delicious once thawed and we serve with whip cream and syrup for the waffles/pancakes
- Eggs
- We always cooked up large batches of scrambled eggs to serve everyone at the birthday party. Eggs mixed up with a bit of coffee cream are delicious and you can easily serve large crowds and easily keep them warm in the oven while you are prepping other food
- Bacon
- We typically served bacon at our brunches. We found it easy to find delicious bacon that was gluten free and preferred it over sausage. There are many varieties of breakfast sausage that are gluten free, but are a bit harder to find than bacon. We placed the bacon on cookie sheets and would cook large amounts at a time in the oven to prepare for our brunch crowd
- Hashbrowns
- We found bags on diced potato square hashbrowns in the freezer section at our grocery store. Read the labels as a lot of brands use wheat to keep the pieces from sticking. We throw them in a pan and then add Tex-Mex seasoning (it’s our secret ingredient) while cooking them up. Grab yourself some Gluten Free Tex Mex Seasoning. We find Taco seasoning also works well, but I always reach for Tex-Mex first if we have it. Here is a link to the Taco seasoning we keep on hand
- Fruit Tray
- To accompany the gluten free birthday party food listed above, we also make sure to have a delicious and colorful fruit tray. On this tray we pick a seasonal fruit variety such as grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon. It always disappears especially with the kids picking at the bite sized pieces
- Dessert
- For dessert we serve our No Fail Gluten Free Cupcakes. I often make mini sized ones for this gluten free birthday party food spread. People are really full from the giant brunch and usually enjoy a smaller bite sized treat. You can see our recipe for these cupcakes they are delicious.
- Coffee and Juice
- Because these brunch parties are typically held mid-morning, we ensure there is delicious and ever flowing coffee for the parents. We also make a pink lemonade punch for the kids. We mix up pink lemonade, mix it with sprite, and add sliced strawberries to it. Everyone is always happy with these drink options.
Kids Activity Party with Snacks
When Lydia wants to have an activity birthday party, we create gluten free birthday party food for the event snack style. Parties we have had in the past include splatter paint parties, bowling, and cheerleading. Usually the kids do an activity for 1-1.5 hours and then we get a party room after for snacks and presents. We serve the following gluten free birthday party food:
- bite sized fruit or veggie tray
- gluten free cookies or gluten free cupcakes
- juice boxes or occasionally we have served pop
- gluten free chips
- gluten free candy
These are the best type of parties as a parent in my opinion!
Creating a birthday party with gluten free food doesn’t have to be difficult. You can easily make the whole thing gluten free or ensure there are many safe options for your guests and kiddos. What other gluten free birthday party food hacks do you swear by?
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