I'm a working mom with 9 years experience raising a celiac kid. I have to eat dairy and gluten free, but my daughter only has to eat GF. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm happy to share a few of my cooking tips, school lunchbox ideas, and recipes with you. I'll be posting something new once a month.

If you're curious about me, visit my other sites (shown at the bottom of this page), where I have contact forms and About-the-Author pages.



Thursday, July 24, 2014

Ideas for Gluten-Free Lunch Boxes for Back-to-School

School is about to get underway again. We parents of kids with celiac disease struggle, every year, brainstorming new things to put in our kids' lunchboxes. There's only so many times a kid can eat a PB & J with Fritos before they lose their minds!

So this is my list of the many great things you can put in your kid's lunchbox. They're all GF, and many of them are things a working mom can just purchase at a grocery store, so you're not spending a half hour every morning, rushing to get that lunch made:

  • cold gluten-free pizza
  • stuff for making mini-pizzas on a GF cracker (Lunchables style)
  • home-made GF lunchables (my daughter's favorite)
  • GF stick day (GF pretzel sticks, cheese sticks, and pepperoni sticks)
  • GF chips and salsa with bean dip
  • cookie-cutter mini sandwiches
  • bag of GF cereal
  • Udi's muffins
  • Udi's cinnamon rolls
  • Yoplait yogurts (read labels) or Go-Gurts 
  • Del Monte fruit cups/jello fruit cups
  • plain Jell-o cups
  • pudding cups (read labels)
  • carrot sticks
  • celery sticks
  • peanut butter celery sticks
  • cream cheese celery sticks (read labels on the cream cheese)
  • thermos of soup (see my "soups" recipes for ideas)
  • S'moreables graham crackers

  • Quaker GF rice cakes
  • Glutino breadsticks
  • Glutino bagel chips (YUM!)
  • GF fruit chew snacks (read labels)
  • fresh fruit
  • Easy Cheese (but the bacon one has gluten)
  • Fritos
  • Lays Stax
  • cottage cheese
  • cheese sticks
  • Old Wisconsin beef sticks
  • Old Wisconsin summer sausage (check for GF label)
  • Hormel Canadian bacon
  • Hormel pepperoni slices
  • K-Toos (Oreo-style cookies)
  • boiled eggs
  • deviled eggs
  • egg salad with GF crackers to spread it on
  • Cheetos
  • Juicy-Juice
  • Shasta sodas
  • raisins
  • yogurt-covered raisins
  • home-made trail mix (find my recipe on this site under "lunches")
  • EnviroKids rice "granola" bars
  • Fruity Pebble/Cocoa Pebble Treats (now available in stores, always check labels)
  • Popcorn
  • Popcorn balls made with Kraft marshmallows
  • Kraft colored mini-marshmallows
  • PB&J made on Glutino crackers
  • Jell-o Knox blocks 
  • apple slices
  • Glutino pretzels or EnerG pretzels
  • California roll (sushi nori) home-made with tuna instead of raw meat (for safety)
  • beef strips cut from leftover pot roast (send them some BBQ sauce for dipping
  • cold quesadilla on GF tortillas 


I post recipes for some of this stuff on this site, so follow me, and you'll get a new recipe once a month. My specialty is the lunchbox-stuffer, but I sometimes offer recipes for other meals and desserts as well.

Happy lunch-boxing!