Figuring Out What to Put in My Gluten-Free Kid's Lunchbox Is a Real Devil!

So why fight against the flow of things? Make deviled eggs!

We all know that deviled eggs are a delicacy on Easter Sunday. So why wait for Easter? Eggs are cheap. Mayo is too. Three eggs makes half a dozen deviled halves. They're nutritional and high in protein. And YUM! You won't hear kids complaining about that. Here's the recipe I use:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp. mayo (I sort of just eyeball it)
• paprika (if you like)

Directions:
1. Boil eggs in a pot of water for 12 minutes, to ensure they are hard-boiled. It's a good idea to put the eggs in the water before it begins to boil, but don't start counting the minutes until you've got the water boiling. If you put the eggs into the water while it boils, then they're more likely to crack while cooking.
2. Once cooked, remove the pot of eggs from the stove. Drain out the hot water, but leave the eggs in the pan. Place ice cubes over the hot eggs and re-fill the pan with cold water. Soaking the eggs in ice water helps make it easier to peel the shells off the eggs without damaging them.
3. Once cool, remove the eggs, one at a time, from the ice water and peel the shells off of them. Slice them in half with a sharp knife. If you own a deviled egg display tray, put the halves in that while you work.
4. Carefully pop the hard yolk out of the center of each egg half, and place the yolks in a small mixing bowl.
5. Use a fork to mash the yolks with the salt and mayo. (My mom once gave me advice to avoid mustard in my deviled eggs, but a lot of people like the flavor of a touch of mustard in theirs. Go with whatever you like.)
6. Using a spatula, plop the mashed up yolks back inside the "bowl" portions of the eggs (i.e. the white part). If you won't be transporting your eggs to school, then you can use a pastry press to make the yolk centers look flowery, then sprinkle the tops with paprika. But this is optional.
7. If you're going to send the deviled eggs to school with your kids, try this: now that you've got the yolk mix inside the eggs, put the two halves of each egg back together and wrap the whole egg in plastic wrap. Twist the ends like a peppermint candy and tie them off with those paper-covered wires that are sometimes used to seal bread bags. Now they can easily be sent off to school in your kid's lunchbox without making too much mess.

Quick and Easy Gluten-Free Tater Tot Casserole Recipe

This one of my favorite dishes to make, because it's so quick and easy to throw together. It's a good one for that day when nothing has gone right at work, and you wish you could just do the pre-gluten-free "Hamburger Helper" thing, but of course, that's not even a consideration these days.

So here's my recipe for...

Gluten-Free Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
Pacific Natural Foods' condensed GF cream of mushroom soup (12 oz. container)
1/4 cup finely diced onions
2 lb. bag of gluten-free tater tots*
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
GF cooking spray (read labels to verify)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Brown the hamburger in a skillet and drain off excess fat.
2. Add onions and cook a little longer, just to warm up the onions.
3. Place meet and onions in a mixing bowl. Add cheese and cream of mushroom soup.
4. Mix well.
5. Spray a 9x11-inch casserole dish.
6. Pour meat-and-cheesy mix into prepared casserole dish. Top with tater tots,* making sure you cover all of the meat mixture's surface with tots.
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Let it cool for a couple of minutes before you serve it to kids, as their mouths can easily be burned by oven-hot food!

*Note that not all tater tots are gluten-free. Read labels carefully. Barley can be disguised as "maltodextrin" and some tater tot companies actually coat tots in wheat to keep them from sticking together. If the label is unclear, call the company or contact them via the Internet, to make sure the product you're serving/eating is, in fact, gluten-free.

Lunchbox Surprises: A Gluten-Free School Lunch that Sticks With You

I like to offer a number of different surprises in my gluten-free kid's lunchbox. One is what we call...

Stick Day!
2 mazarella cheese sticks
2 cheddar cheese sticks
2 Old Wisconsin pepperoni sticks
2 celery sticks
2 carrot sticks
a small container of Glutino gluten-free breadsticks
2 Yoplait Go-Gurts

Yes! These items are all gluten-free, and they make eating lunch fun, when they all show up in my kid's lunchbox on the same day, for Stick Day.

Last time I checked, Otter Pops were also gluten-free, and they make a nice substitute for juice in a lunchbox. I haven't looked into that in quite a while though, so read labels before you add that stick to your stick collection.

A New Shape for Peanut Butter and Jelly--The Old Lunchbox Standby

I hear it all the time. "My gluten-free kid won't eat sandwiches. She hates them."

For all kids, whether they're gluten-free or gluteniverous, they're drawn to food that's pretty to look at. Want to punish your kids? Try applying green food coloring to everything they eat! Want to make them whine about tasting something because they want it so bad? Make it gorgeous!

When I send my daughter a PB&J in her school lunch box, I dress it up. There are two ways to do this:

1. You've heard of the cookie cutter sandwich, right? Make an ordinary peanut butter and jelly sandwich on gluten-free bread. Then use a cookie cutter to cut the sandwich into a fun shape, like a bear, a star, a Christmas tree, whatever you like.

2. Try PB&J "Lunchables". A lot of celiacs just don't like bread. But our celiac kids still have to have their daily grains/starches from the required food groups. So put peanut butter in a mini-Tupperware and different flavors of jelly in another mini-Tupperware; send different kinds of crackers and a plastic knife in their lunchbox too. Now they can make their own do-it-yourself PB&J "Lunchables". It's important, once again, to make the whole thing PRETTY. We own, for example, Tinkerbell snap-tite containers for our crackers. I also sometimes include sliced pickles for peanut-butter-and-pickle and/or honey, because let's face it, kids love to get sticky! Be sure and pack your gluten-free wipes with that lunch!

GF Pesto Pasta with Chicken

Ingredients:

·        1 (16 ounce) package gluten-free spiral pasta

·        1 teaspoon olive oil

·        2 cloves garlic, minced

·        2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

·        crushed red pepper flakes to taste

·        1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and cut into strips (always check labels to make sure it’s GF)

·        1/2 cup pesto sauce

Directions:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté garlic until tender, then stir in chicken. Season with red pepper flakes. Cook until chicken is golden, and cooked through. In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. Toss to coat evenly.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies--Dip 'em in Milk for an After-School Treat

A lot of celiacs still haven't heard that Bob's Red Mill now offers gluten-free oats. As long as your child's stomach can tolerate them, these oats are raised and processed away from contaminates. You see, it's not the oats themselves that contain the offending gluten, as I understand it. The problem has always been in the processing of oats. They're typically stored in the same bins and silos as wheat, rye, and barley, so they've always been a big no-no for celiacs.

But now you can buy certified oats. As long as your stomach isn't too sensitive, these oats don't contain the usual glutens. So here's the recipe I've used with my kiddo:

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (I use a mix of rice flour, potato starch flour, corn starch, and tapioca starch, with more rice flour than the others)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. xanthan gum

Other Ingredients
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla (I use Rodelle)
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup raisins (optional)
3 cups gluten-free oats from Bob's Red Mill

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Use stand mixer to blend butter and sugars together.

3. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well.

4. In a separate bowl, blend the items listed as "dry ingredients" above.

5. Mix dry ingredients with all other ingredients, including the raisins and oats.

6. Drop rounded spoonfuls of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes, until golden brown. Cool for a bit before you transfer them to a wire rack (if you don't they fall apart).

Makes 4 dozen cookies or so.

Gluten-Free Ham and Bean Soup--A Warm-You-Up Solution to Cold September Days

I first made this recipe after we'd had a horde of family over for Easter dinner. We had leftover ham in abundance, and I couldn't think of what to do with all of it. Here's the solution:

Gluten-Free Ham and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups mixed dried beans
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ham hock
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 whole chopped leek (don’t chop the grassy tip up though, only the bulb end)
• 1 fat clove of garlic, minced or two medium cloves, minced
• ½ teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chopped ham (in addition to the hock)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions:

1.     Add all ingredients to a crock pot except carrots and celery.

2.     Cook 6 to 8 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally to keep it from burning at the bottom.

3.     Remove some of the beans and mash them or puree them in a food processor, then return them to the stock. Blend. (This thickens the soup.)

4.     Add celery and carrots.

5.     Cook for another 30-45 minutes on a low setting, until carrots are al dente.

6.     Serve warm with crackers, cornbread, garlic bread, or muffins.