Lunch Ideas

[KaitiUSA]

Yes it needs to be gluten free not just wheat free. Most of the time as was said there will be rye,barley, and oats of some sort in it. They are good brands out there with cookies and so forth. Kinnikinnick has some really good donuts too

https://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=12

You should take a look at this list it has safe and forbidden foods. The forbidden list will help as a guideline so you know what things to watch out for. When you learn the ropes it gets easier

[lbsteenwyk]

momma j

There are some good gluten free cookies out there. My 3 yo daughter likes:

Pamela's Shortbread Swirl

Glutino Zebra Dreams (like a cream sandwich cookie)

Frookie Gluten Free double chocolate and chocolate chip - they make regular cookies too, so be careful. These are really good - nice and soft, but they are sometimes hard to find.

We get all these products at our local healthfood store.

If you have access to Whole Foods Market, they came out with a line of Fresh Baked Products that they make in a dedicated gluten free bakery. The molasses cookies and blondie bars are excellent. They make about 20 fresh baked gluten free products- breads, muffins, pizza crust, etc.

[Roo]

I just found something new for my son for lunch. Not that it is so healthy but it's something that he used to have sometimes before he was diagnosed and it's just one more thing for variety.

Lunchable Nacho with cheese/salsa dip. They actually taste good and how bad can chips and cheese be?

Roo

[jcgirl]

I was having the same problem coming up with ideas for school lunch. I got alot a great suggestions here. I have sent my son to school with mac & cheese that he likes to make himself. We use rice pasta and powdered kraft cheese that I found at Wal-Mart next to the parm. cheese and spegetti sauce (thank you celiac3270 for that wonderful idea). Another idea is cheese sticks and the bite size peperoni, can't remember the brand but it says gluten free on the package, I love that, it makes it so much easier when shopping. I think they may be Hormel. For a snack, rice crispy treats made with fruity or cocoa pepples.

[sheljer]

I have 3 children, 2 of them are gluten-free and also my husband. My 10yr. old daughter who has celiac also is type 1 diabetic AND a vegetarian by choice for 2 yrs. My husband has been gluten-free for over 2 yrs. and my two youngest kids have been gluten-free since Aug. 2004. Anyway, lunches for my daughter can be quite challenging. One thing that my husband makes for him and the kids are gluten-free pizzas. He uses the gluten-free baguettes, and slices them lengthwise and then in half. He also uses the little gluten-free pizza crusts and cuts them into fourths before freezing, and puts gluten-free tomato sauce, cheese, olives. He puts pepperoni and chicken on some of the others for us meat-eaters in the family. He makes maybe 20 of them at once and then freezes them. We just thaw it before school and then she eats it at room temp. at lunchtime with fruit and veggies as sides. She also eats gluten-free cereal for lunch a lot. I just put it in one of those ziploc plastic containers and then she buys a milk at school and she'll have yogurt or a piece fruit on the side. She takes a lot of vegetarian gluten-free soups and I heat them up really hot and pour into her thermos before school. It's still warm at lunchtime.Sometimes if we have pasta for dinner the night before, I'll throw it into a plastic container with some sauce and she'll have that. Hope these ideas help! I feel like my choices are even more limited since she's a vegetarian and diabetic as well, but she's doing awesome so far!

Shelley

[Meadow]

Like Shelley, I've got a 12-year old almost-vegetarian with type 1 diabetes. Still waiting for dx from biopsies, and going gluten-free as a precaution. I've just substituted pasta with tinkyada products, switched pancakes/waffle/muffins with gluten-free mixes, and buy gluten-free cookies. Other than that, his normal lunchtime diet is relatively intact and naturally gluten-free. - veges, fruits, nuts/seeds, rice cakes/muffin/cheese roll-up (corn tortilla), bottle of water. Which does make me wonder, has he subconsciously been avoiding gluten in recent years? It has been my experience that elementary school (where one son still is), they want thier lunches to look like everyone elses. In middle school, its cool to be a little different.

[Guest nini]

my daughter will be 5 in less than 2 weeks and will be starting Kindergarten next fall, so I am grateful for all of these ideas. I need to find out if they will be able to warm up foods for her or if everything will have to be pre warmed (or cold) and in thermoses or what not. I've been trying to stockpile ideas for when the time comes. Because right now in pre-k I don't have to pack a lunch for her. I keep the kitchen staff stocked up with plenty of varieties of food for her, she has her own spot in the freezer and her own shelf in the pantry at school, they try to make her lunches as similar to what the other kids are eating. I also try to provide them with meals that they can do for the entire class maybe twice a month so that she can share her food with her friends. We've done Amy's rice crust cheese pizza parties, and the Mrs. Leepers (hamburger helper type meals) for the entire class. They love it and my daughter loves it.

Some ideas that I've come up with for lunch boxes for next year are

fruit cups

pudding cups

baby carrots or broccoli pieces with a small container of ranch dressing (Annies Naturals Cowgirl ranch)

Envirokids cereal bars

Glutino ceral bars

Larabars

Fritos and Cheetos snack bags

sliced cheese (individually wrapped) I use either Kraft or Horizon Organic

string cheese

Libby's vienna sausages (by Con Agra)

Real Foods Corn Thins with Applegate Farms Turkey Bologne and Cheese as a sandwich

some of my other ideas are dependent on being able to microwave them... so I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about that

[Guest nini]

microwaveable ideas I had are

Kids Kitchen Beanies and Weanies or Chicken and Rice

Dinty Moore Beef Stew in Kids Kitchen size cup

Tostitos Corn Chips with cooked Taco Meat and Shredded Cheese to make nachos

Amy's frozen meals ie: Rice Mac and Cheese, Rice Pasta Garden Vegetable Lasagne, or Enchiladas

I also take leftovers and put them in the small Glad disposable/reuseable plastic containers and freeze them. They can then be reheated with the lid off for approx 2 minutes. This works well for many different dishes, soups, casseroles, etc. (I keep these in my drop in freezer and use them for quick meals for myself and my daughter when I don't feel like cooking)

Using that idea I also make Tinkyada Rice Pasta spagetti noodles and cook and drain, mix in a can of Amy's Creamy Tomato Soup, Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper and voila! Just like Chef Boy Ardee! It freezes and reheats extremely well, and my daughter loves to sprinke Kraft Parmesan Cheese all over it!

[gigimom]

one of my kids favorite lunch items is cheesey Chebe balls. i make the dough in advance and cook them in the morning. i also pack gluten-free spaghetti sauce in the little reusable plastic containers for dipping into. they love these, but only if cooked that morning, otherwise they get rubbery. you can also add pepperoni to the balls or wrap the dough around a small piece of string cheese before baking. my 9 yr. old is concerned about what the other kids will say about her food and this passes the test. my younger kids will eat the same things over and over again if i make them more interesting like cheese or meat cut outs from small cookie cutters on gluten-free crackers. i always try to pack a special dessert so the kids look forward to their lunch instead of feeling like they are missing out. Pamela's makes the best cookies, esp. choc. chip!