5 Days of Gluten-Free Nut-Free School Lunches

This was a week of favorite hits! With lunch ideas from MOMables paired with popular dinner leftovers, both my girls were fans of these school (and home) lunches!

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DIY Ham and Cheese Cracker Stackers

Z's lunch: Organic plum and carrots, GF crackers, uncured ham, goat cheese

Monday, 9/15/14 - Build-your-own MOMables Cracker Stackers are always popular with my 1st grader. Ham and cheese are two of her favorite foods, and any lunch designed to let her choose how to eat it is always a surefire hit!

Toddler Basics

E's lunch: GF crackers, hard-boiled egg; organic carrots, tomatoes, plum

My little one wasn't eating ham or cheese very often back then, and never stacked them on the crackers anyway, so she got a hard-boiled egg instead.

Simple Leftovers

Z's lunch: leftover GF noodles with goat cheddar, organic grapes, organic roasted potatoes

Tuesday, 9/16/14 - Dinner the night before was something with noodles, and they usually choose to eat theirs plain or with cheese. So I tossed some goat cheddar and salt on the leftover noodles for lunch. Yum!  

(No packed lunch for E. She and I went out to eat...)

Leftover Pulled Pork

Z's lunch: leftover brown rice and pulled pork, organic carrots and grapes

 

Wednesday, 9/17/14 - Both my girls love the Kahlua Pork from a nearby Hawaiian place where E and I went to lunch once a week or so after her Little Gym class. So if I managed to hide the leftovers well enough from Dadda, the girls would get some for lunch!

E's lunch: leftover brown rice and pulled pork, organic tomatoes and grapes

 

Same thing, but in a smaller serving for Little Sis!

Leftover Sausage Cracker Stackers

Z's lunch: leftover pineapple-bacon sausage, GF crackers, organic carrots and grapes

 

Thursday, 9/18/14 - Both girls love these bacon-pineapple sausages we discovered at Costco a while ago. They could eat these all day long! So when Hubby cooks up a batch for dinner, I have him make an extra for the girls to share for lunch!

E's lunch: leftover pineapple-bacon sausage and brown rice, organic grapes and carrots

 

I still had some rice left from the pulled pork, so my little one got that instead of the crackers, which she hadn't eaten in Monday's lunch.

Gluten-Free Bagel Pizzable

Z's lunch: toasted GF everything bagel thin, pizza sauce, olives, goat cheddar, organic grapes and carrots

 

Friday, 9/19/14 -  A MOMables Pizzable is always a hit. Having more control over how they eat their lunch is very empowering for any child! Plus "making a pizza" is fun!
I found these everything-flavor bagel thins at a gluten-free grocery nearby-ish, and they are soooo goooood! Definitely a good call for a DIY Pizzable lunch, especially when toasted up a bit first!

E's lunch: toasted GF everything bagel thin with pizza sauce, GF crackers, goat cheddar, olives, organic carrots and grapes

I didn't trust my toddler with loose pizza sauce, so I pre-spread some on her bagel-thin piece (I ate the other quarter of the bagel! Nom nom!) She had fun decorating her own pizza and crackers.

Tools of the Trade

     

Since you get to see the lunches she BRINGS to school each day, I figured I'd give you a peek at Z's actual school!

Z goes to a Montessori private school that does preschool through middle school. They have a variety of pets in the different classrooms and some farm animals out in the field to help the students learn compassion and awareness for the needs of something other than themselves, and to use practical life skills to care for the animals.
Z loves to feed the goats, who are quite greedy social when people come to the fence. We save our carrot greens and wilting lettuces and such to feed them after school when we can. Chrissy here is Z's favorite. Z loves the animals (and E loves getting to see them when we pick her sister up in the afternoons,) but she is disappointed that she isn't in the other 1st-3rd classroom with the kitties. Her class pets are a turtle and some beetles (which she is nonetheless delighted by, and makes me come and meet them every time I'm in there!)

A Week of Fun and Easy Gluten-Free Lunches!

These lunches were packed last August when Z tried a week of the all-day Summer program at her new school, to see if they'd be a good fit for each other before I enrolled her for the school year. Some days I packed ahead for Little Sis too, if we had places to be.
*spoiler alert* Clearly the school turned out to be a great fit! I am so glad we opted to pull her out of public school. It's great for most kids - I thrived in public schools growing up. But my child needed something different, and I will forever be grateful that they still had a space open so late in the Summer!

Heart-y Cracker Stackers

Z's lunch: Organic carrots and blackberries, salumi, sliced goat cheese, Van's GF Perfect 10 Crackers

Monday, 8/4/14 - My spice-sensitive kiddo loves gourmet salami! Anything else would be "too spicy" for her, as it is for me. But for some reason, she can tolerate these, as long as we don't buy a peppery variety.
Since I had cut her carrot coins into hearts (freehand,) I went ahead and used silicone heart cupcake molds to separate all the ingredients, and a mini heart cutter to make the goat cheese shapes for the Cracker Stackers. And I threw in a cloth napkin with a heart print as well, to complete the theme.

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E's lunch: Organic applies, raspberries, carrots, and tomatoes; Van's GF Perfect 10 Crackers, salumi, goat cheese

Little Sis doesn't yet get the concept of combining foods for a party in your mouth, so she eats all her bits separately. She isn't a big fan of the salami or cheese, but will sometimes eat them. This day was not one of those times.

Peanut Butter Jellyfly

Z's lunch: Organic carrots and blueberries, Lovely Candy chocolate chew, Udi's GF PBJ

Tuesday, 8/5/14 - I chose to cut her sandwich with a butterfly sandwich cutter to go with the fancy butterfly veggie cutter carrots. The silicone coaster under the sandwich helps fill the space and adds color, plus it helps prevent the sandwich halves from sliding around in the EasyLunchbox!

E's lunch: Udi's PBJ bites, organic blueberries and carrots

Little Sis got the scraps from Z's sandwich cut up into little sandwich bites. I skewered them on Starbucks drink stoppers, since they aren't sharp, they're flexible (so small bits are unlikely to break off,) and they're free!

Packing Pizza

Z's lunch: Organic snap peas and blackberries, goat cheddar, olives, organic marinara, GF tortilla 

Wednesday, 8/6/14 - DIY Pizzables are popular with kids, despite being served and eaten cold (*shudder*) and my 1st Grader is no exception! She likes being empowered to make her own decisions as to how much of each topping to add, as well as how to eat it. Dip, spread, sprinkle, pile... it's all up to her! I sent the wet toppings in leak-proof Mini Dippers so the lightly-toasted tortillas wouldn't get soggy.

E's lunch: Leftover GF goat cheese and olive pizza; organic carrots, snap peas, champagne grapes, blackberries

My sister isn't afraid to bake, so she often makes a gluten-free pizza crust for us when we visit. We had just been down for my nephew's birthday party, so I had some leftovers for the toddler. Omnomnom!

Disposable Field Trip Birdie

Z's lunch: Organic blackberries and snap peas, Glutino preztel chips, Sunbutter Squeeze Pack

Thursday, 8/7/14 - As part of the Summer program, they'd go on a different field trip each weekly session. This week was a bike ride (or a car ride, for those who weren't skilled enough on two wheels yet) to a field day at a nearby park. Since she'd be riding in the car with the lunches and some other kids, I didn't technically need a disposable lunch, but I sent one anyway. Z doesn't have the best track record of keeping track of all her things.

I found these flimsy polystyrene bento boxes with lids at Daiso a few years ago and grabbed a pack to use for something like this! I used a disposable bento cup to keep her berries separate, and a disposable oval bento cup for her pretzel chips. These cups are disposable like paper muffin liners, but the pattern is on the INSIDE to be seen better in lunches, and there's a thin lining of plastic to help prevent moisture transfer. Wasteful, but fun when you're supposed to throw everything away!

See the birdie details on the lid? So cute!

The lid doesn't stay on well, so I used some colorful washi tape to secure it until lunchtime.

Super Simple Friday

Z's lunch: Lovely Chocolate Swirl Caramels, Udi's GF PBJ sandwich; organic carrots, grapes, and apples

Friday, 8/8/14 - By Friday I was burnt out and out of ideas! So a quickie PBJ cut into triangles was all the creativity I could muster! I did manage to bang out a few carrot flowers using a small flower veggie cutter though.

Since I always try to include a treat on Fridays, I sent a few all-natural chocolate caramel chews. They have dairy in them, so I can't eat them. But a small enough amount I can let the girls have them once in a while without ill effects.

Tools of the Trade

         

Bonus: Here's a pic of Little E feeding one of the goats at Z's new school. We started saving our wilted greens and carrot tops and such to bring after school each day, since both girls enjoy feeding the goats and sheep and llama and alpaca! And when we run out, the girls start pulling weeds! Lol!