Gluten-free Lunch Ideas

Hi,
I have the same problem. Here are some of the things that I put in my sos's lunch...
Applewood maple and chicken sausages, banana, little container of applesauce, rice, gluten free rice crispie treat, mashed potato, peas, and chicken, peeled and sliced up apple, ocassionally I will put in one little square of gf/cf chocolate, chicken ;nuggets g/f ones, lettuce, dried cranberries. These are what Icould think of just now, but I have done this for a while. The potatoa and peas I take in hot just before his lunchtime. Good luck, it is a daily battle. Also there are Oscar Mayer foods that are gf.
W.

I buy gf bread and peanut butter and my 3 yr old son LOVES peanut butter/jelly sandwiches. We also do gf hot dogs and turkey rolls (boar's head turkey). With every lunch he gets fruit and chips (on the border tortilla chips and Kettle bbq chips are both gf and my 3yr old loves them). For snacks we do anything from fruit, fruit w/ peanut butter on them (apples and bananas), I make gf brownies/cookies. I just bought a new chocolate chip cookie mix that's gf (the choc chips are included in box) all you need is gf vanilla extract which was easy to find. We also spaghetti with Quinoa...spaghetti and peanut butter are great ways to hide quinoa since my lil guy won't eat it plain and he needs protein since he won't eat meat! Good luck with Gluten Free ideas...it can be challenging, especially when they get burned out on stuff.

I'm sure you have already done these, but my son loves turkey roll-ups. We just roll up the turkey and cheese and sometimes we cut them so they look like sushi. You can add cut up slices of carrots inside and use a little cream cheese so they stayed rolled up.

I struggle also.. it is very hard especially when you live in a small town withought the great health food stores. I DO though want to share with you a gluten free shake that we have at Arbonne. It is one of the reasons i sale Arbonne becuase the products are gluten free.. i would love to mail you a sample and they are also sugar free no added preserviatives or colors... we have a great also gluten free fiber powder that is tasteless.. let me know if your interested in trying it... just shoot me your address ____@____.com .... also let me know what you find out from all these other smart moms... L.

The following websites may have some useful recipes and suggestions:

www.livingwithout.com
www.befreeforme.com
http://www.tacanow.org/tag/gfcf/
www.allrecipes.com

On the All Recipes site, put the cursor on the "more" link and click on "advanced search" to pull up a page that will allow you to search for gluten free recipes.

Hope this helps.

You could make "lunchables" by cutting up gf deli meats & cheese (I buy Boars Head) plus gluten free crackers. Or make quesadillas with gf corn tortillas.

Personally I like rice cakes sandwiched with peanut butter or nutella.

GF yogurt with fruit or gf cereal topping.

Hope this helps!

Check out Food for Life gluten free store in Cedar Park near the Goddard School. A number of our parents are very pleased w selections it offers for their child. Here's their website:

http://www.gfcfcuisine.com/

It's easier and cheaper to go naturally gluten-free than hitting the health food stores. My DS is also GF (and CF), and we use bento boxes (laptop lunch), which makes it a ton easier. I've packed: rice cakes with peanut butter and honey, hard boiled eggs, tons of fruit, popcorn, pretzels, hot dogs, banana dogs (like a hot dog on a bun, but I use PB&J and Rudi's cinnamon raisin bread), PB&J sandwiches (with the same bread), cut up chicken with cheese shreds, tortilla chips and cut up carrots and tomatoes so he can make his own nachos, leftovers from the previous night's dinner, deli ham rolled up around a carrot stick with ranch dip, ham or turkey and cheese sandwiches (on Rudi's whole grain GF), Roberts American Gourmet Tings, raisins or craisins.