Thursday, September 24, 2009
After putting out a call to friends and Facebookers for peanut- and tree nut-free school lunch ideas, I was rewarded with several good lunch options. After reading one too many message board posters who claimed that peanut butter is the pretty much the only school lunch food that they will consider--non-perishable and all of that--I figured it would help to have a few more choices. And guess what? You guys made some suggestions that I never even thought of, so I'm going to shake up my own kids' lunch boxes from now on. I know that some of you have multiple food allergies to consider, so while these choices are nut-free they are not all dairy or egg free. However, I'd love to hear what moms with multiple food allergies are sending to school lunch! Let me know.
One more thing: you will need an insulated thermos and/or sandwich keeper with small freezer packs to keep these non-PB&J lunches cold and safe to eat. I found all of this stuff at Target--one sandwich container even had a freezer pack built in! Cool indeed. You can also find lunch accessories at www.litterfreelunch.com. This company is run by a fellow allergy mom so check it out!
Keep in mind: every one of the following options was from a mom with kids who do not have food allergies. So much for "all I can send is peanut butter, that's all they'll eat." Well, what if they had some more options?
OK, here goes: First some nice vegetarian options from Krysty in New York. She had several great ideas that her non-allergic kids enjoy. She sends them rice cakes with apple butter, veggie dogs in a thermos with a little veggie broth or water to keep them moist, tofu cubes to dip in ketchup (she said her kids will eat pretty much anything dipped in ketchup) bean dip with baked tortilla chips, cheese cubes, fruit and olives. She also suggested hummus in a tortilla or other filling like tuna. These are so creative and easy. Thank you Krysty!!
Genie from Chicago suggested pasta in a thermos, said her son loves it.
Leah from North Dakota says she sends hard-boiled eggs and also tofu cubes with dips. I love all these kids who like tofu. So do my kids!! I don't think I liked tofu until my 20s, but there you go.
I do a lot of turkey sandwiches with veg and fruit slices so I'm so glad to get these ideas. Anybody want to share some others? Thanks again to everybody who contributed!