At this point I have no idea. The little Filly is starting first grade in August and we’ve got to get this gluten-free lunch thing figured out. She had half-day kindergarten last year, so all that was needed was a snack. Usually a juice box and some fruit snacks was fine with her.
I’ve also got to admit that I’m not the best mom when it comes to food. If two of the four food groups are included in the food my kids are eating, I call it a meal. I usually get three in there because Doritos are made from corn, and as we all know, corn is a vegetable. Ahem….
So yea… I’ve got a lot of room for improvement in this area. We pretty much eat like we live in a dorm. Even though we’re gluten-free. If anyone tells you that the gluten-free diet has made them cut junk food out of their diet, they aren’t trying hard enough.
Anyway, back to my growing girl’s nutritional needs and her first year of all day at school school. She’ll be going from around 8:30 to 2:30. So that’s six hours of time away from home and food. That is, if I can get her to eat breakfast that early in the morning. And if I can get myself to roll out of bed early enough to give her a breakfast that didn’t come out of a box. We’re all late sleepers. I’ll have to figure out some good, nutritious, fast and easy breakfasts too, but that will have to be another post for another day.
Back to lunches. I’ve got a few things going for me when planning this all out, but the biggest one is that the little Filly could give a rat’s patootie about what everyone else is eating. So that’s going to make things a whole lot easier. She’s not a terribly adventurous eater, but once she does (finally) try something she usually likes it. She already knows that this summer she will be trying new foods because she won’t be eating lunch at home anymore.
My plan is to find some good lunch containers. Maybe something like a bento box. Maybe an insulated box with an ice pack. I’m not sure yet. I just know that they have to be:
- Big enough to hold a nice amount of food. The little Filly has a good appetite.
- Easy for her to open and close. Or else I’ll end up with a pile of mush in a box because she has no patience with that stuff.
- Easy for me to clean and fill. I’ve got no patience either.
- Snazzy. A big part of the battle in helping kids not feel left out with the GF diet is to give them something that the other kids just might be a little jealous of. I’m not above doing a wide-ranging internet search or going on ebay to make sure she has the cutest lunch box in class.
I had the idea of having her try different sandwiches over the summer for lunch. She doesn’t have much experience with sandwiches because the GOOD gluten-free bread ain’t cheap. You’ve also got to factor in time in the breadmaker. But then again, that’s a good reason not to make sandwiches. They may end up not getting eaten because she’d usually rather play than eat. That’s a lot of money, time and effort gone to waste over the course of a week. Since she doesn’t like peanut butter (?) we’re talking a meat and cheese sandwich. Which needs some sort of quickly spoiling condiment like mayo or butter. That makes me nervous. Especially in the summertime, which is very, very hot and lasts until late October here. So some sort of bento box or similar divided container is probably going to be the best option, at least for a while.
Now I’m off to search for some cute lunch containers.
