School Lunches

[chrissy]

hi all, are any of your celiac kids eating school lunch? my girls have been making their own lunches to bring to school. it would be so much easier to give them a better variety if they had access to a refridgerator and a microwave at the school. i know that by law, if i wanted to make a stink, (but i don't want to) they would have to provide gluten free meals for my kids. would it be totally unreasonable to ask that they be allowed access to the home-ec room to use the fridge and microwave?

christine

[Carriefaith]

would it be totally unreasonable to ask that they be allowed access to the home-ec room to use the fridge and microwave?

No, I don't think that asking is unreasonable. I think that they will understand

[TammyGivens]

Hi! I am new here as my 6 year old daughter was just diagnosed a few weeks ago. I was curious to know what your daughters packed for lunch? I can't find a bread that we like for sandwiches and everything else either requires a fridge or microwave also! I'm feeling quite frustrated thinking we may never get the hang of this! Any advice would be greatly apprieciated!!!

Sincerely,

Tammy

hi all, are any of your celiac kids eating school lunch? my girls have been making their own lunches to bring to school. it would be so much easier to give them a better variety if they had access to a refridgerator and a microwave at the school. i know that by law, if i wanted to make a stink, (but i don't want to) they would have to provide gluten free meals for my kids. would it be totally unreasonable to ask that they be allowed access to the home-ec room to use the fridge and microwave?

christine

[Smunkeemom]

I made it very clear to my daughter's school that I was doing them a favor by bringing in her breakfast (she only went half day) and that by law they should be providing her with gluten free food.

I don't think there should be a problem at all with her using a fridge and microwave if she needs them, you might get a note from her doctor saying that this is a medical diet, and that she may need acomodations (like a fridge and microwave) that should get you the use of them pretty quick.

I eventually pulled her out of school (for unrelated reasons) and am homeschooling her, but we still pack our lunch on Friday's for homeschool co-op.

Hi! I am new here as my 6 year old daughter was just diagnosed a few weeks ago. I was curious to know what your daughters packed for lunch? I can't find a bread that we like for sandwiches and everything else either requires a fridge or microwave also! I'm feeling quite frustrated thinking we may never get the hang of this! Any advice would be greatly apprieciated!!!

Sincerely,

Tammy

Tammy,

my girls like what I call "roll ups" where we roll up meat and cheese into a corn tortilla, they are good cold even better warm, then I pack chips, and some fruit, a small yougurt, and a juice box. It seems to go over pretty well, when we have to pack our lunch.

[jmj0803]

hi all, are any of your celiac kids eating school lunch? my girls have been making their own lunches to bring to school. it would be so much easier to give them a better variety if they had access to a refridgerator and a microwave at the school. i know that by law, if i wanted to make a stink, (but i don't want to) they would have to provide gluten free meals for my kids. would it be totally unreasonable to ask that they be allowed access to the home-ec room to use the fridge and microwave?

christine

Christine-

This is not an unreasonable request. My daughter's school let us provide a microwave for her use only. It is located in the lunch room. The school assigned an aide to help her heat her lunch(She is 7yrs). I go in and clean it regularly during the week. It has worked out fabulous!!!

Jessica

[chrissy]

i thought i posted a reply on this thread, but i don't know what happened to it??? my girls don't particularly like roll-ups done with corn tortillas. i am thinking of making swedish lefse for them to make sanwiches with instead. lefse looks like a flour tortilla, but is made with mostly potatoes and a little flour---it should be easy enough to substitute gluten-free flour. my girls take homemade cookies and muffins--our old favorite recipes with gluten-free flour. i also buy snack pack pudding, rice crispy treats (post cocoa pebbles and gluten-free marshmallows), rice cakes with or without peanut butter, cheetos, fritos. we have made bread with bette hagman's featherlight bread recipe and we have also made a bread mix from anna's (but it cost us a small fortune) both breads were pretty good---my 10 year old takes sandwiches with this bread--not sure if my twins have made sandwiches much.

some other ideas that we haven't done yet---a cooked gluten-free hot dog in a thermos with ketchup for dipping, soup in a thermos, rice crackers and homemade cheese ball, rice crackers with nutella---i think i read that inutella is gluten free. celery with cream cheese or peanut butter, peanut butter balls (peanut butter, honey and instant powdered milk)

fruit is always good, you can buy individual serving packages of it. it is a little more pricey that way, but maybe it is worth it if we can't get access to a fridge.

christine

[Jnkmnky]

Kinnikinnick white sandwich bread is great. Toast lightly or just warm, pack in lunch box. All three of my kids take these sandwiches almost everyday. If cost is an issue, make half sandwiches and add things such as cheese sticks, fruit, peanut butter in a small tupperware, or other sides to fill them up.

Chebe is great. Make chebe balls and butter them. Pack a thermos of soup, stew, hot dogs and beans, or whatever and add the Chebe balls with butter. Or chebe sticks.

Chebe also makes excellent pizza sticks for school lunch. Make chebe, add chopped pepperoni, garlic salt, mozzerella cheese, roll into sticks, bake.

Pack with a side of spaghetti sauce for dipping.

Chebe makes great corn dogs. Roll dog in chebe, bake. Pack for lunch. Heat slightly, dip in ketchup or mustard.

Tinkyada pastas in a thermos. My son loves "noodles and sauce" with mozzerella cheese sprinkled on top. He takes that at least once a week. Chebe ball or sticks with the noodles and sauce are great.

A tupperware with salad. Add chopped deli meats such as turkey/ham or eggs.

[Guest nini]

I freeze leftovers in small containers then heat them up in the microwave then put in her thermos... like leftover spaghetti (with rice noodles), beefaroni (ground beef, Tinkyada elbow noodles and velveeta), Tuna Rice Casserole, (tuna, cooked rice, peas and a gluten-free creamy portobello mushroom soup), stuff like that...

Ians Allergen free chicken nuggets or fish sticks heated up in microwave in the morning then wrapped in foil with ketchup for dipping

fruit cups, pudding cups, fresh fruit, cheese sticks, EnerG crackers, baby carrots, chopped broccoli and cauliflower (sp?) with ranch dressing to dip, salad fixins

sandwiches made with Kinnickinick sandwich bread, (I heat up the bread in the microwave just til its soft and warm, make the sandwich then put in a ziploc sandwich bag... )

[elfkin]

We pack lunches for our outing day each week. My kids love ham roll-ups (it is just the ham, no tortilla), yoplait yogurt smoothies, cheese cubes or slices, and fruit. We use gluten-free crackers sometimes. I make them "trail mix" with gluten-free pretzels, cereals, raisins, etc. We sometimes take homemade muffins. If we get stuck out we will stop for Oscar Meyer ham, Kraft cheese, and yogurt for a car picnic. I keep a bag of plastic cutlery and paper products in the car. We were homeschooling out oldest for educational reasons, but my son gets rashes from practically looking at gluten (a little exageration), and he will be at home too. His anaphalactic allergies are enough to scare me away from school for awhile. I feel for those of you making it work to send them to school. Good luck and happy lunch packing! I hope it the schools will become more and more celiac and food allergy friendly as it is a real problem. I used to teach and I remember a child with peanut allergy in my class. I always personally supervised his meals because so much depended on who was paying attention in the cafeteria! Best wishes for yummy and safe lunching!

[lonewolf]

lefse looks like a flour tortilla, but is made with mostly potatoes and a little flour---it should be easy enough to substitute gluten-free flour.

I posted a recipe for lefse before Christmas. I'm sorry I don't know how to post a link to it. It's in the cooking and baking section. It turns out great and my kids all love it. I was just thinking that I should make some more for "wraps", but it gets eaten so fast!

[2Boys4Me]

We're in Canada, so we don't have this 504 thing I read about all the time. What we have is an elementary school with no fridges (except in the staff room) and no microwaves (except in the staff room). There is no lunch room or cafeteria. 90% of the kids attending stay for lunch. We all pack lunches with ice packs and/or thermoses.

Everyday (except the first two weeks of school) Ty takes 2 or 3 slices of banana bread, a sliced hard boiled egg, 2 or 3 slices of pepperoni and some cheese cut up into cubes.

Our school has a pizza or Arby's fun lunch roughly 14 times a year. The first one, I took a homemade gluten-free pizza up to school. All the rest, I've brought in some chicken fried rice. The principal was not very pleased and didn't seem to want to cooperate with letting him use the microwave on the fun lunch days until I said, "Shouldn't all the kids have a chance to enjoy a fun lunch?" Having said that, I have used the microwave for him only once, and I was there, so I heated it up. Next time, his lunchroom supervisor has agreed to do it, because I will be out of town, and all she said was have him remind me the day before and we'll keep it hush hush. She thinks it's silly that the classes don't have microwaves for the kids. I guess it would make the supervisor's job a lot busier, but it would sure be nice to have a hot lunch from time to time that isn't boring old soup.

[marie]

i live in va my kids eat luch at school the dr written a letter for both children so the schools buy certanin foods for them and cook them and they will eat them cheryl

[chrissy]

liz, what kiind of flour did you use in your lefse?

christine

[lonewolf]

liz, what kiind of flour did you use in your lefse?

christine

I just used my gluten-free mix, from Bette Hagman's gluten-free Gourmet book. It's brown rice, potato starch and tapioca starch. Then I add LOTS of xanthan gum for the lefse. I'm sure you could find the recipe if you do a search for "lefse".