SparkPoints: (5,434)
Fitness Minutes: (732)
Posts: 648
3/31/07 11:14 P

My 10 year old is sooo picky. He does love gf turkey breast on Pamelas wheat bread. I add mustard, mayo and cheddar cheese. He'll have cashews, a fruit, and fruit snacks or potato chips/tortilla chips as well. If we're out of bread, I roll the deli meat up w/cheese inside and secure it w/a frilly toothpick.
Another idea for school age kids is to keep a box of gf treats in the class for those times when another kid brings cupcakes, etc for everyone....well, most everyone.

Posts: 42
3/23/07 5:22 P

My kids & I have fun preparing lunches together… and they especially enjoy creating lunch for our days out. Our biggest “trick” is a matched set of divided tupperware containers (where the divisions actually keep the foods separate) that can be microwaved OR left in a cooler. Other than salads, some of our more popular lunches have been:

* A GF pasta dish with fresh seasonal fruit and veggie sticks with salad-dressing “dip”
* Soy-crisp crackers with cheese sticks, veggie sticks & seasonal fruit
* (the kids like) Tuna salad on shoestring potatoes with fresh berries & 2 small cookies
* Healthy (zucchini, carrot or pumpkin) mini-muffins with yogurt & fresh fruit
* Asian noodle-bowls with edamame & canned pears
* Homemade soup with soy-crisp crackers & cheese wedges (this is a favorite rainy-day lunch)
* Layered bean-dip with nacho chips & applesauce

If you can find a divided container, it makes creating a balanced meal so much easier… and it can be FUN to come up with different combinations to fill them up.

SparkPoints: (30,369)
Fitness Minutes: (13,120)
Posts: 1,764
3/20/07 2:41 P

I always make enough for leftovers at dinner... that usually becomes the main entree for lunch the next day. Resealable containers are my friends =)

For example, a spicy chicken and rice will be shredded on top of a few gf corn chips for lunch the next day. Curried vegetables are great wrapped in romain leaves as "burritos". Add a piece of fruit and I'm good to go.

current weight: 172.0

180 166 152 138

124

Posts: 364
3/20/07 12:26 A

Cottage cheese? Oh wow. Good to know. I'm pretty label obsessed but my husband is a little lax. I'll give him the heads up!

Pounds lost: 5.0

0 2.75 5.5 8.25

11

Posts: 10,003
3/19/07 11:26 P

That's the second time I've seen tuna mentioned. First one was on that celiaccentral.org site. I probably checked at the beginning, but not since. Thanks for the reminder PsychMD.

2,666 Days since:  gluten

0 675 1350 2025

2700

SparkPoints: (0)
Fitness Minutes: (0)
Posts: 11
3/19/07 9:31 P

make sure you all read the labels - several years ago I discovered that most brands of canned tuna were canned in broth which contained gluten and read the cottage cheese labels - fat free cottasge cheese was loaded with gluten -

Posts: 364
3/18/07 2:29 P

I really like the Thai Kitchen soups (most are GF). I usually get that from Whole Foods or get the Trader Joe's version which is a bit cheaper.

I also eat a lot of Tasty Bite meals. :D They are really good about labeling and are oh so yummy! I recommend the Peas Paneer or the Sprouts Curry.

Pounds lost: 5.0

0 2.75 5.5 8.25

11

SparkPoints: (29,308)
Fitness Minutes: (20,994)
Posts: 1,846
3/14/07 4:24 P

I usually keep a stash of Amy’s GF frozen dinners in the freezer at work for my lunch.

current weight: 192.0

220 203.75 187.5 171.25

155

Posts: 10,003
3/5/07 11:54 A

Quaker rice cakes (plain or cheese) with any nut butter. Tuna packets with rice crackers.

Carrots/celery and hummus.

Kozy Shack rice pudding. Handfuls of almonds/walnuts/pecans. Plain yogurt with berries and slivered almonds. (DD prefers Yoplait chocolate whips, but they fizzle/unpoof by lunch).

I just found KIND bars at a little nutrition/health store: they're very good. I see they're also at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gro/102-5638037-0980934?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=KIND+bars

or: http://tinyurl.com/yqk4rq

(Not all of them are gf, so check label!) I always have one in my purse.

There's also Larabars (probably on amazon, too) - but I'm sick of chocolate, that's why I liked the KIND bars.

There are gluten-free Asian soups from Simply Asia. They'll send you a gf list. (Can't find mine or I'd list.)

These are some of the things I try to pack for my daughter's lunch (except the soups).

Turkey/cranberry/creamcheese wrapped in lettuce.

BTW: DD is tired of my lunches too! Thanks for posting!

2,666 Days since:  gluten

0 675 1350 2025

2700

SparkPoints: (14,484)
Fitness Minutes: (5,295)
Posts: 2,637
3/4/07 3:12 P

Ooh! Good info GFNomad - thanks!

Posts: 131
3/4/07 12:03 P

I find simple items the easiest since I am usually rushing out the door and trying to figure out what to pack at the same time: I try to keep things like yogurt cups, applesauce cups, string cheese, fruit & nut bars around. Usually have a box of rice crackers at work or a baggie of puffed rice cereal ...Im still new at this, too.

Posts: 1,441
3/4/07 11:58 A

The first question is Do you have access to a microwave. That will determine what kind of lunches you can carry. Soups and stews leftover from dinner can be carried in a wide mouth thermos.

Google Search www.google.ca - I put in the words gf lunch ideas in Google and got pages and pages of links from Celiac sites, manufacturers, support groups, individuals blogs etc. Watch out for out of date lists. (paste link together if SP breaks it up)
For some of the search results I got are:

50 things to eat Right Now - http://www.kidceliac.com/top50.htm

Manufacturers 1-800 phone numbers -
http://www.penny.ca/1800.htm

GF/CF School Lunch Ideas, a particularly helpful list
http://newdiets.com/index/School_Lunch_Menus.shtml

GF lists by major brands that can be found in mainstream grocery stores :
GF Produt Information page from Celiac Canada - be careful - always read labels - this site may not always be current.
http://www.penny.ca/Products.htm

Manufacturers lists:
Hormel - http://www.hormel.com/faq/faqList.asp?catitemid=41

current weight: 144.5

151 144.5 138 131.5

125

Posts: 31
3/4/07 10:45 A

yogart is always good and fruit and nut bars

Posts: 29
3/4/07 10:09 A

I'm fairly new to the SparkPeople also, but last week I made the Spicy Southern Barbacue Chicken (cooked in the oven). When it was cooled, I put each piece in it's own ziplock sandwich bag. While the chicken was cooking, I cooked brown rice. I then put 1/2 cup of that in separate sandwich bags. Then each morning I would grab a bag of chicken, a bag of rice and a piece of fruit, and I would have my lunch to pack for work. Now for people that don't like the same thing each day, this wouldn't work, but living alone, when I make a recipe (usually on the weekend), I wind up taking that for lunch most, or all, of the next week.
Bill

Posts: 118
3/4/07 9:35 A

Besides salad of course...I need ideas to pack for work