Avoiding Contamination #4

The toasted sandwich maker hasn't had much of a workout since Miss 3's allergies turned up and even less since my diet was restricted. I don't know about you but I tend to just give it a wipe with a damp paper towel and that's the extent of my cleaning of it. Which means I leave lots of things on it like the margarine I used on the outside of the bread to make it golden and the bread itself, and the cheese - you get the idea.

I thought I'd give toasted sandwiches a try since I was looking for an easy Sunday night dinner and I used to love them as a kid. And thankfully allergen-proofing wasn't particularly hard - I used my trusty roll of baking paper and created a lining to put the sandwich in and it cooked beautifully! Pity Miss 3 wasn't that thrilled about a toasted baked bean sandwich. Will have to think about yummier options for her - she's not that keen on baked beans or tinned spaghetti (not that I can blame her!). Any ideas for dairy and egg free toasted sandwiches?

Check out my other posts on avoiding contamination in the kitchen - #1, #2 and #3

Avoiding Contamination #3

The Microwave.
It tends to be full of crumbs doesn't it? I used to just pop our bread in on it's own to defrost it. Now I have to be regular in cleaning the microwave and always use a plate. This helps to avoid contamination.
I had better clean my microwave...!

Avoiding Contamination #2

I posted about this a while ago and here's another tip.

Fact: Gluten free bread tends to require toasting to improve it's enjoyment factor.
Another fact: Toasters are covered in crumbs
One more: If you put your gluten free bread in your toaster, you will risk contamination from other breads.

What can you do about it? Well, if you only have a small toaster, I would buy a cheap second, especially if your child reacts easily. For us, we have a 4 slice toaster and we have dedicated 2 slice sides to be gluten free. It works pretty well, gluten free bread tends to need a lot longer in the toaster, so we keep the timers set - so if you put your normal toast in the GF side - you will be 'punished' with burnt toast :)

If you keep using the same toaster it's worth thinking, as I read here, "Why don't you just sprinkle bread crumbs on your food?"

Avoiding contamination

When you are continuing to serve allergens to other family members, you have to be careful not to contaminate your allergic child's meals. This means using separate utensils, saucepans and even different jars of jam etc if you don't dip a clean knife in every time.

Since my kids are still quite young, we still use face washers to clean them up after each meal. My husband and I have developed a 'code'. My son gets the darker coloured washer and my daughter, the lighter coloured one. This helps us make sure that we don't, for example, wipe dairy or wheat onto our daughter's face from our son's breakfast that we just wiped up on him. Trouble is, sometimes, like today, I do something silly like choose the same colour washer... had better do something about that right now :)