What Do You Put In The Lunch Box?

[Jennifernawrockicor]

Hi everyone...I am the mother of a newly diagnosed 11 year old girl with celiac. I am glad that we finally have some answers about chronic abdominal pain but now the work begins. I am just wondering what parents pack in a lunch box. I have heard the breads are not good unless toasted so sandwhiches are out....what have you all done for school? (She also has an ulcer so for the next 6 months we have to avoid lactose, fried food, spicy food and acidic foods.) Just looking for some ideas. Thanks!

[Roda]

I pack lunches for both of my boys. They are 7 and almost 11. I do pack them sandwiches on Udi's bread or bagles. I wrap the slices in moist paper towels and defrost them in the microwave. I will then wrap the sandwich in moist(not sopping) paper towels and put it into a sandwich container or baggie. It seems to work pretty good. I will also do sandwiches on homemade crepes or the Udi's bagles.

Here are a couple of links to give you some ideas to start off with.

This one describes the lunch tote I got for my boys and some lunch suggestions also.

[ptkds]

I pack lunches for my 2 younger kids and sometimes my 11 year old dd. Here's the usual contents: bag of chips (cheetohs, funyuns, lays, etc), fruit cup, pudding cup, juice pouch, and an udi's sandwich (if we have the bread).

In my experience, Udi's never needs to be toasted. It's great right out of the bag. If it's frozen, just wrap in a paper towel and thaw it out some. No need for the moist paper towel IMO. We also occasionally do leftovers in a thermos. My little ones also enjoy hot dog weiners, but my 11 yr old is embarrassed to eat those at school.

You can also pack salads, fresh fruits or veggies, cold pancakes, baked potato with toppings on the side, etc.

It's time to think "outside the box." Get creative and let her help you figure out some things.

[Juliebove]

My daughter is 13 now so mostly packs her own lunches. But when she was younger it was often something in a thermos. I quit doing this after one accident with tomato soup that spilled all over eveything...the lid came loose. And twice when neither she nor the teacher could get the lid off. But I would make extra dinner food and send the leftovers in.

I bought some some little containers that had a holder in the middle for dip. I would fill this with hummus and then add gluten-free pretzels or baby carrots. Little packets of nut butter worked great until she developed the nut allergies.

Other sources of protein would be leftover cold meat cut in bite sized pieces, a slice of bologna, pepperoni, salami or cheese or yogurt if she can eat those things. We bought coconut yogurt for a while. Not overly high in protein but she liked it.

Pasta salad. Easy to make using larger shapes of pasta. I buy the quinoa and corn. Cook until just barely al dente then plunge in cold water to stop the cooking and drain. Mix with whatever beans and raw veggies she likes. I use cucumber slices, baby carrots or carrot shreds, bite sized pieces of celery, peppers, sliced green onions, black olives and kidney beans. I do put grape tomatoes in there but she won't eat tomatoes so I leave those out of her portion. Italian dressing.

Tuna or chicken salad in a thermos. I don't have problems with the thermos and cold foods. But for some reason the hot foods seem to make the top glue down and we can't get the top off.

She also likes green salad and black olives topped with canned chicken and sesame dressing from Costco.

We can get prepared Chef salads from the grocery store that are gluten-free. She loves those I think because they look like a normal food anyone might eat. But they are expensive so I usually limit her to two per week unless I can find them on sale.

Teff wraps. These look like tortillas. Made by La Tortilla Factory. In some stores they are sold with the gluten-free foods and in others with the tortillas. Heat in the microwave for maybe 10 seconds just to soften. Place on foil or waxed paper. Spread with butter, margarine, mustard, whatever she likes. Add a layer of shredded lettuce then some form of meat. My daughter likes the Buddig lunch meats. Roll up like a burrito. If there are no nut allergies, you can spread with nut butter, jelly then add a banana and roll up. My daughter used to LOVE these!

My daughter loves sliced apples. She takes these pretty much every day. There is also drinkable applesauce widely available now.

I buy small cans of diet sparkling juice or small water bottles for drinks. My daughter is on a low carb diet so she can no longer take juice boxes.

[gluten free overseas]

Having a good soup thermos (thermos brand works great) is so key. I pack left overs from supper--the one I bought even has a spoon that is attached to the lid. You can put spaghetti, chicken, soup.... it keeps it hot. My kid LOVES it.

[maximoo]

I always put my DD's thermos inside a large size ziplock bag as we did have a small spill one day. If there is any my leakage or spill it is contained inside the ziplock.

[missy'smom]

When your kiddo is able to have dairy again, you can send grilled cheese sandwiches. My son never minded that they weren't warm. I sent variations of them regularly- grilled ham and swiss, cheddar, provolone and salami, mixed cheeses etc.

I called our school and asked about the salads because of an allergy and they connected me up with the district facility where they are packed. OUr school district packages them individually at a central location so no cc issues so my son regularly purchases the chef salad and a fruit. It's the only non-gluteny menu item but he's happy to be able to buy something and feel normal, ven though he's not a big salad fan.

[Kelleybean]

We do sunbutter or peanut butter on Udi's bread a lot. I found a recipe using gluten-free muffin mix and add mashed northern beans for protein (I sneak in baby food squash or other veggie b/c I have a little veggie hater). You could do grilled "cheese" on Udi's bread with Tofutti cream cheese. I'm going to try a lunchable type thing this week - make some crackers and send some cheese (although you could do peanut butter). I've never made crackers before so this might be a total disaster. I've also sent rice cakes and bean dip, although the rice cake got soggy and fell apart so now I know to send them separately.

[Cara in Boston]

My 6 year old loves taking things in a thermos so I make up batches of "lunch food" (gluten-free mac and cheese, beans and franks, leftover dinners, etc.) and freeze them in single serving sizes. In the morning, I just microwave them until hot and put them in the thermos. He also likes corn tortillas with refried beans and cheese (I melt it all together in the toaster oven and he eats them cold). I cut them into wedges and he dips them in salsa. Sometimes greek yogurt is his protein and I send in snacky stuff to go with it like fruit, popcorn, etc.

My 9 year old refuses to take a thermos (says he doesn't have time?) so he gets sandwiches on Udi's, bean and cheese tortillas, etc.

Their favorite after-school snack is a Teff tortilla (La Tortilla Factory) spread with peanutbutter (and sometimes nutella or jam) rolled up. They can't bring this to school because the school is nut free.

Invest in a good thermos. You will likely be packing lunch from now on. We also bought a fantastic thermal food kit to pack dinners (for travel or when you eat at someone's house). Younger son is very, very sensitive and cannot have any food prepared in a non-gluten-free kitchen (even if the ingredients are gluten-free) so I bring his food everywhere. The "Ms. Bento" kit from Zojirushi is great. It holds enough for dinner (more than enough, I use one too) and keeps food hot or cold for hours.

Cara

[bbuster]

My son was diagnosed at age 10 (he is now 17). Most days for lunch he packs a ZonePerfect bar. Not all the versions are gluten-free, but several are, including Double Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Almond Raisin, and Fudge Graham (despite the name). Supplements with chips, snack pack pudding, applesauce, and fresh veggies or fruit.

[Marilyn R]

I made 11 stuffed peppers today after work. I'll freeze nine of them for lunches. My partner loves them because they taste like pizza to him, and they work out to about .60 to .75 per serving depending on your stuffing choice. (If you have any Latin markets in your town, peppers cost so much less there than the grocery stores!

I take the frozen peppers out the night before to defrost and stick them in a lunch box, then microwave at lunch, but the lunch box systems described in the other posts sounds like they'd stay warm enough.

I also mass produce double stuffed baked potatos and freeze them. They are delicious. I think all of the other kids would be jealous.

Today I packed a roasted sweet potato, gluten-free apple chicken brat and some cottage cheese. I usually have gluten-free nuts or string cheese for a snack, or a piece of fruit.

Good luck!

[researchmomma]

Great post.

My almost 13 year old is a thermos girl. We put taquitos (Delimax) cut in half, healthy choice chicken rice soup (I add some salt), chili (Stags leap it says gluten free on can), fried rice with chicken and mushrooms, chicken shredded with bbq sauce, chicken soup with gluten-free noodles, etc.

Fruit or cucumber or edamame

gluten-free pretzels, ranch doritos, tortilla chips, etc.

cocoa pebbles bar or mini hershey bar for snack

And I always pack her a gluten-free Tiger's Milk bar (the Peanut Crunch is NOT gluten-free but the others are) so she can have that if she isn't full.

Love all the other ideas. Keep them coming!

[researchmomma]

Oh and baked potato

[researchmomma]

My son was diagnosed at age 10 (he is now 17). Most days for lunch he packs a ZonePerfect bar. Not all the versions are gluten-free, but several are, including Double Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Almond Raisin, and Fudge Graham (despite the name). Supplements with chips, snack pack pudding, applesauce, and fresh veggies or fruit.

Zone perfect are gluten-free??? wow, that makes me smile!

[bbuster]

Zone perfect are gluten-free??? wow, that makes me smile!

I have posted on this a few times. I swear I don't get kickbacks or anything!

Their labels say: manufactured in a facility that processes ...... and wheat. I have called them directly and their customer service rep was very knowledgeable. They have to make this disclaimer, but also said about how they clean thoroughly when changing products. We had a long conversation where she answered every question to my satisfaction and gave me a good feeling that they understood gluten (and other allergens) and knew what they were doing.

Some of their flavors do contain wheat (and maybe barley) but those are clearly labelled as such.

That being said, my son (Celiac) is now 17, and a box of 5 bars will not last him a week! They are his breakfast/lunch/snack of choice - to him almost as good as a candy bar and conveniently portable and always ready to eat. To me, more filling, high protein and generally nutritious.

I think when he goes away to college I am going to have to buy part of the factory that makes them!

[domesticactivist]

Allergy Free Vintage Cookery has a Open Original Shared Link that has lots of ideas. I linked to the most recent one but there's a new one every week to check out.

We typically send:

a thermos with homemade soup

homemade beef jerky (just seasoned ground beef rolled out and put in the dehydrator)

carrots/celery/other fresh veg

homemade ranch or blue cheese dressing

apple or other fruit

homemade nut butter

Our kids are 11 and 12. The important thing with the soup is to make sure it's not too hot going into the thermos if lunch time is limited.