Picky Kid

[sarad1]

I desperately need some real kid friendly recipes that are actually healthy. My family eats pretty healthy most of the time, but it's so hard with a picky gluten free 5 year old! I'm running out of things to feed him. I also need some suggestions for packing his lunch because even though we have used a variety of things he is getting tired of our variety and needs something else. Any suggestions?

[mamaw]

What does he like? maybe then we all can give some suggestions. Our kids take soup, jerky, salads, breadsticks & sauce to school for lunches. Pizza, corn dogs, veggies & cheese or dip. Tacos, sandwiches, leftovers from supper. Our school permits the use of their micro & refrige & freezer.

We have a safe bag in each of their rooms & cookies , ice cream sandwiches,cupcakes, & brownies in the freezer for a party or a snack after lunch.

hth

mamaw

[taweavmo3]

I'm really lucky that my kids actually like the same thing in their lunch each day, lol. Makes it easy for me! We just recently found Gillians french bread rolls...which I am totally in love with. They taste very much like the real deal, and make thick, soft sandwiches.

Other items that they eat for lunch...apples w/peanut butter & honey. Corn chips or carrot sticks w/hummus. They eat alot of dried fruit and nuts too....honey roasted peanuts, dried mango, pineapple, craisins, Glutino pretzels.

We also do a lot of fried brown rice with veggies and chicken. I use a terriyaki or soy sauce, and it keeps well for lunch. Leftover spaghetti is also a hit for lunch. Hope that helps you some, good luck!

[celiac-mommy]

We do all of the same as mamaw, I have a 6yo and I let her help me with the lunches. We have a small thermos that we use ~3x week. Whatever I put in it, I heat it to boiling point before I put into the thermos, then it's still pretty warm when her lunch comes around. We also make 'super' quesadillas with whatever cheese she feels like, black beans, chicken and a veggie. I usually let her dictate what she wants in it. For the lunch itself she chooses from: fruit, vegetable and main dish (sandwich, soup leftovers, etc...) She goes thru the fruit drawer and adds what she wants, the same with the veggie and then I take care of the main dish. Fridays I let her pick a treat to add to the lunch box. I keep money on her lunch ticket for milk. My kids don't get much juice, so I rarely do the juice boxes. Hope this helps. It seems for us that the more I get her involved, the more happy she is with her meals.

[missy'smom]

Here's what we usually do for lunches.

Open Original Shared Link

If you do a search here for "bento" or "lunch" there are many threads with suggestions.

This is an interesting website for inspiration as are the links on it.

Open Original Shared Link

[sarad1]

These are all great suggestions and all things that my non gluten free kids would love, but he will not eat veggies, fresh fruit, meats, soups, stews, quesadillas, rice......lets just say he pretty much won't eat any of the foods suggested. I guess I should have mentioned that before I made you all respond! I would like to try the Gillians french bread, if someone could tell me where I might find it. Also someone mentioned breadsticks, where could I find some good gluten free ones? Part of the problem is that he goes to a private school that does not have access to fridge or micro or anything so it's kind of a pain. We do send in bags of snacks to keep in the room with him, but again there are only certain things he will actually even eat and he gets sick of stuff really quickly. He was on a grilled cheese kick for a while and that was all he wanted and then suddenly one day he hated grilled cheese! Same with cheeseburgers.

Thank you to all that responded I appreciate the help and I will probably try many of these things, maybe as he gets better at eating! I did make him a patty melt for dinner and he thought it was the best thing in the world.

[Juliet]

The only problem with a lot of the pre-made bread and rolls is the lack of nutrition they actually have; often there is very little fiber and no whole grains. That's why I bake our bread using whole grain gluten free flours (combined with the necessary xanthan gum and starches) most of the time and I often add ground flax seed and/or gluten free oats into the mix for added fiber.

Also, since fruits & veggies are difficult to get down, have you tried things like banana, zucchini, carrot, or pumpkin, or even sweet potatoes, bread? You could lessen the amount of sugar (or in the case of banana and carrot, no sugar at all), add a little extra flax seed, oats, and if he'll eat them, nuts (or add almond meal, too, if nuts are not a problem other than the fact he won't eat them ) and bake. It's one of the ways I sneak in fruits and/or veggies into my youngest. Also, I bought for my sister the recipe book "Deceptively Delicious". Now, nearly every recipe has gluten in it, and honestly, I don't have the time to adjust them all. But if you take a few minutes at the bookstore and look through it, it does give you ideas on what vegetable and fruit purees you could add to different cooked products that are easily hidden. One of the suggestions was to add carrot & spinach puree to chocolate brownies. My sister swore up and down that they tasted good. She also has a recipe where she added whole garbanzo beans to chocolate chip cookies. But another thing she suggested was adding a yellow or pale colored puree (like squash or cauliflower) to regular macaroni & cheese.

I know it takes WAY more work to do things this way, but if you have the time (and of course, the storage space - that's what we lack even more than time), it may help you out.

[celiac-mommy]

Also, I bought for my sister the recipe book "Deceptively Delicious". Now, nearly every recipe has gluten in it, and honestly, I don't have the time to adjust them all.

I bought that book too. If you're going to cook dinner with a recipe anyway, it doesn't take any extra time to modify a recipe (from my experience with it). My kids love it and everything works out great--I guess the only extra step I add is adding xanthan gum as necessary in the baked goods, otherwise I just straight across sub my gluten-free flour mix and try to keep some bread/cracker crumbs handy if i want/need to bread something. It actually has worked out really well. I don't use gluten-free cookbooks at all though, so it's pretty much 2nd nature to me to modify any recipe.

[sarad1]

I bought that book too. If you're going to cook dinner with a recipe anyway, it doesn't take any extra time to modify a recipe (from my experience with it). My kids love it and everything works out great--I guess the only extra step I add is adding xanthan gum as necessary in the baked goods, otherwise I just straight across sub my gluten-free flour mix and try to keep some bread/cracker crumbs handy if i want/need to bread something. It actually has worked out really well. I don't use gluten-free cookbooks at all though, so it's pretty much 2nd nature to me to modify any recipe.

Ooh.....I have a good idea then....how about some recipes or maybe a few ideas.....

[celiac-mommy]

Ooh.....I have a good idea then....how about some recipes or maybe a few ideas.....

I'm on call tonight, so I probably won't get a chance till tomorrow--I'll try to put some stuff together and get back to you tomorrow.

[sarad1]

I'm on call tonight, so I probably won't get a chance till tomorrow--I'll try to put some stuff together and get back to you tomorrow.

That would be awesome, thank you!

[celiac-mommy]

That would be awesome, thank you!

Took me a while to type it out but here ya go!

Baked oatmeal (not from the book, but made it this morning-super good-I ate 3 of the 4-breakfast, lunch and snack, DD devoured it!)

Cooking spray

1 c gluten-free oats

[celiac-mommy]

I made the broccoli dredged chicken nuggets. WOW! They were fantastic, I had everyone try to guess what was in it, No one could. My 2y/o son who eats nothing let alone a vegetable ate one without spitting it out claiming "I no like that!" DD and DH were fighting over the leftovers. Regarding the baked oatmeal recipe--I'm having girlfriends over for breakfast tomorrow and I'm making it again!

[sarad1]

Wow, celiac mommy, thank you so much for doing that! I just read through the recipes and they all look like something I will try...if not for my step son then at least for me! I would have never thought of using spinach or broccoli puree in the dredging process, what a great idea. Again, thank you for taking the time to do that, I appreciate it!

[celiac-mommy]

Wow, celiac mommy, thank you so much for doing that!

No Problem!! I love to cook, I collect cookbooks and I'm always trying out new things. Baking is really my thing and it's been a little difficult to try to create these recipes and make them taste like their gluten-filled counterpart but also be healthy. Lately things have been working out pretty well-I guess lots and lots and lots and lots of practice gets you closer to 'perfection'. If I come across a recipe I love, I'm always quick to pass it along.

[sarad1]

I just wanted everyone to know that last night I made the chicken nuggets posted by celiac mommy, and they are incredible! The broccoli actually gives them great flavor and my kids were none the wiser! They loved them! I used crushed gluten-free pretzels and tortilla chips for the coating, didn't have paprika like I thought I did...OR onion salt...but they were still great!