Vegan / allergy food at Orlando Disney Parks & Universal Studios. Can you take food into the parks if you have an allergy or Vegan ?

One thing we've REALLY struggled with out here in Orlando is food at the parks. It's awful. I'm not being negitive for the sake of it, but other than Babycakes NYC not many places cater for Vegans, especially vegans who have an allergy to Soya or gluten.

Most places cook everything in soy oil, which seems mad to me since surely they are cutting those with soy allergies like us off from having a meal, which means less money for them!? Hard Rock Cafe at Universal, is trialling a new menu, and instead of Canola oil, they're now using soy oil?! Seems crazy to me. So 3 of the places we've tried to eat at, Hard Rock, Planet Hollywood and Season's at Epcot have basically said they have nothing than plain dry salad ( no dressings- nothing) or green beans and poatao wedges for a meal. CRAZY?! It makes me mad they simply can't do a plain bowl of pasta, with veggies, or even carry a bag of vegan cheese to do jacket potaoes? But that would be too obvious right, they cook everything in dairy or soy. Depressing.

So, I've had to get wise.

I've started packing food for us. Oxo's baby travel plates, bowls, and cutlery make life so much easier as there is nothing worse than trying to feed a baby who's motor skills are still growing from a wobbly plate or worse out of a plastic sandwich bag.... so I've been taking the plate, bowl and cutlery with us, which has been a massive help. I've been packing Potato wedges, pizza, houmous sandwiches, salads, carrot sticks, fruit salads and lots of other things for the boys to snack on.

Two of my go-to foods in England came in so useful.... Nakd bars and Nakd Raisins to tide the boys over until we could get healthy meals, or well... just ANY meals that Opeie and I aren't allergic to. We've also been packing plenty of Ella's Kitchen smoothie pouches since they're nutritious and they contain plenty of fruit which is great since it's water based and it's been super hot here lately! 

In regards to the park, you can take food / drink items in, as long as they're not in a hard plastic 80's style cooler box. We took ours in a plastic freezer style bag I picked up at Wholefoods and put ziplock bag that I filled with ice cubes- to keep it cold.


What would you eat at Disney ?

Why I became Vegan / My weight story .( and pregnancy ) UK Vegan Mom | Parenting | Food Blog

I thought Id share my reason / story for becoming Vegan & my weight journey too.

I'd been a veggie since I was 4, and have no interest at all in eating meat or fish .

My life so far :

I have been on a weightless journey since being in hospital / being cared for at home in bed which lasted almost a year . So I thought I'd share with you the reason I gained weight .

4 years ago, come Autumn , I met my partner , Pauly . It was such a fun, lovely time , we went out a lot together and took Seth ( then 3 ) lots of cute places to eat, and adventure around . We were enjoying life, but eating too much "'sometimes food" ( as I call it with my children ) - I think you can guess what happened ? I gained weight . I went from a size 12 to a size 16/ 18

A year later we decided to have a baby and that's when I got very ill. My illness' are something that still scare me now, at 5.5 weeks pregnant my hyperemisis started, I'd had it with Seth my eldest, and it went by 22 weeks , I was admitted twice for fluids, but coped ok , with my 2nd baby I had it so much worse, by week 8 I'd been admitted to hospital 5 times , stayed for 4/5 days then being ferried out , even though my ( amazing, wonderful, lovely ) independent midwife knew I was going to still suffer was desperately trying to arrange drips at home for me . Lots happened in between, but at 8 weeks I suffered 2, pulmonary embolisms , and was given a 1 in 3 chance . It was horrific , and spent a long time in hospital, the hyperemisis continued at full force ( sick 40-60 times a day ) until the day I had Opeie , who was way over due .

Consultant trying to get blood out of me when I'm really dehydrated isn't fun, it clotted all the time as it came out.

Bump at 32 weeks.

Bump at 35+4 weeks.

 I might talk about hyperemisis again at some point as its something that changed my life forever .

During my time of illness , I was lying on my back 99% of the time in a hospital bed or at home almost completely fed through a tube.

Due to this, laying in one position and not eating it changed the way my body functioned .

When I was able to walk without my wheelchair / support of someone I realised my leg muscles had literally turned to jelly.

I also started eating again normally, after loosing 3.5 stone in the time I was ill ( and I might add also pregnant ) my metabolism was literally like a tumbleweed . So , I started to gain weight . A lot of weight .

Due to becoming vegan in about an hour of discovering Opeies Dairy, Egg, Soya allergy, I was clueless of what to eat . I had to give it it, to make sure he had the correct breast milk .

I really did feel unhappy about giving up dairy ,eggs,soya as I was THE biggest dairy fan you've ever met , loved omelettes , egg mayo , soya burgers the lot . So I started eating things that I liked that weren't healthy to compensate the lack of variety. Crisps , biscuits , flapjacks ( a lot of flapjacks) mash with a ton of pure spread in it , loads of bread, crusty baguettes , and I pretty much put on the 3.5 stone I'd lost ( through my illness) in around 4 months .

When I was eating the things, I wasn't really questioning why I did it , it was more of a " well ... There's nothing else for me to eat that I like " and justifying it that way .

Until I went to Florida and discovered all the amazing vegan foods at wholefoods . I will be forever grateful to the vegan guy there . Amazing guy !

So, getting to now. I know what I should be eating . I know when I should be eating , I know why I should be eating what ... And what foods need to be eaten together to keep me fuller , more energised .

And in the last month - 6 weeks I've thankfully lost over a stone . I've still got around 1.5 - 2 to loose before I'm 100% ready to try on a wedding dress , but I'm getting there . And you know what ? I LOVE my vegan diet . LOVE it !

Why? Because my asthmas completely gone , I haven't had a single chest infection in 3 yrs ( thank goodness! ) I feel cleaner in my body , my digestions improved , I enjoy my meals more, the list goes on ...

I would never go back to eating dairy or eggs now , but would like to have Soya again .

So, that's my reason / story of how I became a vegan . And alittle about my difficult pregnancy.

He was totally worth it though!  I'll leave you with a few pictures.....................

Method hand soap wash - Pink Grapefruit

I'm always thinking of what were putting into our bodies, especially what we put into our skin .

I think that working for a cosmetic brand as a Make-Up artist , made me question everything even more. The reason being that we were told that we were to use alcoholic hand sanitizer after every client - which is fine ! I'm all for cleanliness - especially when someone is doing your eye make up etc . However a few months down the line, the skin on my hands has dramatically aged. The skin under my engagement ring is so damaged I can't wear it at the moment . It's scarred too .

So when I was looking for a happy, Eco hand wash at Wholefoods the other week, I decided to try the method one. I think I wash my mitts around 20-30 *times a day , depending what I'm doing . It's not dried my skin out like the supermarket branded one I've had before . ( I am OCD about washing my hands since I spent almost a year in hospital ,Continually in & out )

I'm sure hand wash isn't the most important thing on your mind at the moment , but I wanted to let you know the Method one is great . It smells very clean, looks great in the sink area ( although I'd prefer the Orla Kiely ones ) and they do last !

The only negative thing is I personally find pressing the dispenser down the whole way gives you too much gel, and so I press it down lightly .

My hand wash was around £2.50, which is good value I feel , for an Eco, plant based, earth / skin friendly product .

I'm really hoping to try the other ones, as grapefruit isn't my preferred smell if I'm honest .

Have you tried them? What's your favourite one ?