Packed lunches for coeliac child

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My DD has coeliac disease and I need to make her packed lunches. If she has sandwiches she will eat the filling, nibble a bit of bread and leave the rest. Absolutely won't eat school meals.

So far she has had a combination of mini crustless quiches, cold roast potatoes, chopped cucumber/tomato, grated cheese, houmous.

What else can I give her? I'm running out of ideas. She's 4.

Pasta? Wraps? Savoury muffins. Obvs all gluten free.

A thermos with rice and some roast chicken
Rice cakes, sausages, carrot sticks

We make mini tortilla - potatoes, onion (if you like) and egg cooked in cup cake tray in oven. Gf pasta another popular item. Gf cheese scones.

Savoury muffins sound great. Do you have any recipes that work GF?

Thermos with rice is good but I was paranoid about warm rice. Does the thermos keep it hot enough?

She likes sausages and why did I not think of rice cakes? Perfect. Thanks!

We use corn thins instead of bread for open sandwiches. Also cold pizza, cold rice salad or pasta salad. Sometimes soup in a flask or leftovers eg chilli or curry.

Tortilla! Great. I'll put that on my list.

I could try pasta again cold. I have tried putting that in a thermos but it gave it a strange texture.

@handmademitlove what are the corn thins? This sounds like something she would like.

Snap. I got a small thermos for soup but she is hardly getting time fo eat at lunchtime so that’s no good. I was also adding crackers and spreads cheese, but no time to eat. So she’s having Nairn’s cheese oat crackers as well.

Yes time is an issue. Mine is quite a slow eater. The oatcakes are a good idea though, I'll get some of those.

www.faithfullyglutenfree.com/gluten-free-pizza-muffins/
Op, yes I’ve made these before and they work well and taste delicious.

Warm gluten free pasta is bad enough, but cold gluten free pasta is grim.

Corn thins and oat cakes are good, but I find they're soggy if made in advance. If i'm taking them to work i assemble them when I'm ready to eat which might not work so well for a 4 year old.

Gluten free sandwich thins are the only bread i'll eat untoasted - have you tried them? My go to for a packed lunch is BeFree sweet potato wraps

I'm coeliac too, I find the wraps and pittas a lot more like "normal" bread

My gluten free DD likes Paul Hollywood’s gluten free pita. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gluten-free_pitta_bread_09625/amp
It is a great recipe I make lots then freeze them to use one at a time. Also leave out the nigella seeds to make dough balls. Use them to make pizza. Even the gluten eating rest of the family like them which is amazing for gluten free bread.

The Warburton's gluten free tiger bread loaf was a complete game changer for me - it's so nice to have bread that's not dry crumbly.

Becky Excell has some good recipes on her blog.

I use the warburtons thins, they taste OK. I also noticed Asda had GF wraps in I was going to try too.
I'm going to try and make mini torillas I love tortillas anyway so never thought to make them for my packed lunch. Thank you

Thanks for all these ideas, I feel much better about it now. I was feeling sorry for DD having the same things all the time. I'll try making the pizza muffins today as I think she would like them.

I wouldn’t risk rice in a thermos, food poisoning risk.
Pasta with pesto and parmesan in a thermos though is fine.
Tortilla or frittata with mixed vegetables.
Felafel to eat in a pitta with the hummus ? You can get a GF felafel mix, they are very easy to make.
Mozzarella and tomato salad.

I had banana sandwiches for packed lunch every day for about two years as a child, as they were the only sandwiches I liked, so don’t worry too much about variety as long as she is eating something !

Why won't she eat school dinners?

Haha I ate tuna sandwiches every day all the way through school so I don't know why I'm worrying either

I don't know why she won't eat them but we tried it for the first week and she wouldn't even try a bite and got very upset about it. We plan to try again in future but for now taking her own food is helping her settle.

Is she scared about reacting to school dinners ? I would worry about cross contamination tbh, that is my main problem when eating out. Even after explaining I can’t eat gluten I have had soup arrive with bread on the side, a cup of coffee with a biscuit in the saucer, cake cut with the same knife as normal cake, or picked up with the tongs used for all the other cakes. Even cafes can be totally clueless about coeliacs.

I think that is part of it @SirVixofVixHall and also the fact that they rush them and constantly badger them to eat. She gets quite extreme reactions when she is glutened so it is completely understandable.

It's a nightmare eating out for her. We have had places that simply don't understand or have refused to cater for her altogether. I just want the poor child to have a decent lunch at school.

Rice in a thermos is fine if you preheat the thermos properly with boiling water and microwave the rice to very hot first, then empty the water and put the rice in. The food poisoning risk with rice, is only if it is more than 48 hours old. So I just cook it the night before when making dinner, chill it properly overnight and then use it the next morning

www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/mediterranean-keto-flatbread?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-diet_doctor&utm_content=later-9969178&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram
These flat breads are easy to make amd take great. I make my DD a mini cheeseboard some days. Also cheese amd ham wraps using a lettuce leaf rather than tortilla are surprisingly good.

That's nonsense about the rice having to be 48hrs old

Here's a link from nhs with correct information www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/#:~:text=Uncooked%20rice%20can%20contain%20spores,that%20cause%20vomiting%20or%20diarrhoea.