Can I have your Gluten free lunch ideas please

[RainbowSparkles]

Just found out that DD(12) has an intolerance to gluten so I need some ideas for her packed lunch.
She doesn’t like salad and isn’t keen on gluten free bread or pasta.
I’m a bit stuck so would appreciate your ideas.

Soup in a flask. You can get various gluten free flavours or make your own.
Jacket potatoes wrapped in foil in a flask keep warm for quite a long time.
Most gluten free bread is vile, but Juvela do a fresh loaf that is palatable.
Ham and cheese with tomatoes and cucumber and baby potatoes.

I’m GF. I try to keep it varied, I’m lucky that I can heat stuff up at work but if I’m taking cold stuff I like GF bagels (taste different to the bread, GF bread makes awful sarnies!) which I toast before add stuff to. I also like B Free wraps which again are better pre-cooked. Warburtons do GF sandwich thins which are nicer than bread. Also dips with carrot and cucumber and GF bread sticks (Schär are by far my favourite bread sticks). I’m sure other people will be along with other clever ideas though!

Has she been checked for ceoliac disease? This needs to be done while still ingesting gluten or the tests don't work

I make my Dd a gluten free ciabatta.
I cut it open and toast it in a George Forman grill, then fill with cheese, ham & tomato.
GF bread products are only ok if toasted imo

Sometimes she will have a GF sausage roll

I suggest persevering with the pasta. It cooks differently to normal pasta.

I almost forgot! M&S do a GF sour dough and it’s quite nice.

Bfree sweet potato wraps are quite nice and schars vitality loaf.
But I have red lentil pasta with sauce for lunch sometimes. Soup in a thermos. I like a mixture of cold new potatoes, all sorts of vegetables, boiled egg and a spicy sauce. Embrace (gluten free obv) leftovers, I live a leftover curry for lunch.

I've been GF for a while now and tbh GF bread makes terrible sandwiches and GF pasta isn't usually nice cold. GF bread is good for toast!!

Falafels & / or pakora made without wheat (I buy them - not home made!)

Proper corn tortilla wraps with chicken and avocado and cheese

Cold rice with veg and other bits.

Those vine leaves wrapped around rice (Lidl has the tinned ones a while ago)

Soup or stew or pasta in a flask. gF pasta needs to be cooked in twice as much water as normal AND. It needs to be on a fast bubbling boil and you need needto stir regularly to make sure it doesn't stick.

Cheese with biscuits and mini sausages. With tomatoes and cucumber.

The best GF pasta is made by Garafo

Schar do a brioche roll that I give the kids with choc spread in it for breakfast sometimes.
Or use it for GF sausage hot dogs.

If she is happy to use a thermos you can heat her some beans or I bake a potato for my son and scoop it out into the thermos (layering with cheese as in making a baked potato with cheese). I have ceoliacs and while my children don't they are not used to sandwiches so rarely want to eat them. ie I give them slices of ham, sausages, bits of chicken plus other things. If she doesn't like any salad (my son doesn't but will eat carrot), you can give her different fruit like apple, berries etc. Crisps are usually gluten-free. Rice cakes are easy too - I keep them seperate to the ham etc so they don't go soggy and the children can put the ham on top if they want during lunch. My children love the salt and vinegar rice cakes too plus those with chocolate on top.

Thank you, I think I will be trying many, many things to start with.
She is upset as her favourite thing to eat it ham sandwiches.
She hasn’t been checked for coeliac, do you think I should be asking for her to be checked for this as well? Sorry this has come as a bit of a shock and I don’t know a great deal about it yet.

All gluten free breads are not created equal. Some you wouldn’t even notice the difference. I know this because I have a gluten free daughter and a son who automatically thinks her food is gross. Many times I haven’t had normal bread in and have swapped it for her gluten free and he hasn’t noticed...

Whereas if I’d have told him in advance he would have told me it tasted horrible without gluten and not eaten it.

My son much prefers gluten free wraps to gf bread.
Good luck, it's a bit of a learning curve at the beginning.

sushi?

My daughter likes the gf pita bread from M&S. I also bake a gf ciabatta with dove farm bread mix, adding rosemary and olives and savoury scones with their SR flour. It takes some thought but there are lots of options.

Genius outta breads are nice. Also tortilla chips and hummus but you have to check the labels to make sure the brand you buy is gluten free some are and some aren’t.

Pitta not outta!

Thank you, I didn't realise how many foods can have gluten in, I will have to remember to check everything.

How do you know she’s gluten intolerant if she’s not been tested for coeliac?
If she’s coeliac you need to avoid cross contamination too.
Can the school reheat leftovers? You can pack anything then, curry/chilli/pie etc

Potato salad - new potatoes tossed in sour cream or olive oil with chopped cucumber, gherkins, spring onions or whatever she likes then a frittata, easily made in a bun tin and frozen. Rice eg sushi is another option.

BUT remember soy sauce usually has wheat in it but you can buy wheat free soy sauce at Asda. Rice noodles is another idea, tasty cold

Cold boiled eggs, cold meats, cheese, potato salad, rice salad, houmous, corn tortilla chips, rice cakes, GF pitta and sandwich thins are ok, falafel.

Though you aren't specifically low carbing, it would be wroth looking at the low carb / bootcamp threads as they'd give you some ideas for bread free lunches.

GF soy sauce is usually called tamari (which is actually a thing in its own right, but is basically GF soy sauce).

Rice noodles with sesame oil are delicious, hot or cold.

You might find it useful to look at the lunch recipes from the low carb threads on here. They’re likely to be largely GF.

DS2 has coeliac disease. He prefers the warburton GF bread, the basic white loaf, the tiger bread, the thins (only the white ones because apparently seeds are unacceptable to him 🙄) and the beetroot wraps. The white schar loaf is ok too (it’s a bit sour doughy but the slices are truly tiny), as are the frozen schar rolls (albeit they are better warm).

Fritta and crustless quiche. I'm currently eating crustless quiche Lorraine, it's gorgeous. I make it with both a sliced potato base and without. It can be made in advance and can even be frozen. I'm put mine with salad but could just have it in place of sandwich and with rest of her normal lunch.