This week I am sharing tips for back to school. As I was thinking about what to share this week, it dawned on me that typically this would be the time I would start talking about school lunches and what I’m packing. We’d also be sharing all kinds of ideas in our group. 

Because this year is going to be different for so many people I thought I could still share some ideas for both those that are doing virtual learning and those that are not. 

Some best practices I have adopted in the past include creating a menu. Just like meal planning for dinner, I create a meal plan for breakfast and lunch. This way, I am not scrambling for ideas at the last minute. 

This passed spring when schools shut down and my kids were home, our lunches changed. My kids didn’t want sandwiches anymore, they wanted more. They wanted meals. So this is what I began to serve them on a weekly basis and it has really worked great. 

As you take a look at these ideas tho, I want you to keep in mind 2 things. Cooking the beef and chicken at the beginning of the week makes things so much easier and I’m Italian and I think this played into a lot of my pasta selections. 

Here are some ideas if you are serving lunch at home:

• Applegate hot dogs in the skillet on Udi’s hot dog buns that have been warmed in the oven at 350 for 5-7 minutes. 
• Caulipower frozen pizza crust topped with sauce, cheese (or daiya cutting board dairy free cheese) and beef or toppings of choice. I cook these pizzas at 425 for about 12 minutes. I almost always have sauce and pre-cooked beef in my fridge. 
• A grilled Applegate turkey and cheese of choice (we use Daiya dairy free cheddar slices) sandwich. Since we are dairy free I usually spread a tiny bit of palm shortening on both outsides of Canyon Bakehouse sandwich bread and grill it as a panini on my counter top grill. You can also use a skillet. 
• Pasta and beef using the sauce and precooked beef from the fridge. Just boil some gluten free spaghetti or capellini (we love Jovial brand) and voila!
• Chicken macaroni using precooked diced chicken and Daiya cheezy mac. I boil the noodles, drain the water, add the chicken and cheese and cook it together over low/med heat until the chicken and sauce are warmed up. It’s so quick and my kids absolutely love it. 

Here are some additional ideas if your kids are attending school in person or if you need more ideas for lunch at home. 

Here are some lunches I have packed in the past for school. I used to use Lunch Bots containers but after discovering the Yumbox I have switched. The Yumbox lids are attached to the container making it easy to eat the lunch entirely within the box and not loose track of the lid. They fit very well in most all lunch boxes with a little bottle of water, napkin and wet wipe. 

One trick I used to remind my son to use his wet wipe is to tape it to the wrapper of his sandwich. Even though I use the Yumbox, I still would wrap his sandwich in foil so it was easy to tape the wipe to the outside. If you do not have individual wipes, you can fold one into a snack size Ziploc bag. 

This is a turkey and cheese roll up made using my homemade tortillas, blueberries, Home Free lemon cookies and Quinn pretzel sticks. 

This is an Applegate salami and Daiya cheddar cheese sandwich on Canyon Bakehouse White Mountain bread, Maple Bacon Kettle Chips, Strawberries and Enjoy Life mini Snickerdooodles.

This is a pizza bagel made on Canyon Bakehouse plain bagels with Applegate pepperoni, sauce, and Daiya cutting board mozzarella cheese. Raspberries and Lucy’s Snickerdoodle cookies. 

This is the grilled turkey and cheese sandwich mentioned above with blueberries, an Annie’s fruit roll up and Enjoy Life Lentil chips. 

As you can see there are plenty of options for back to school lunch no matter what your school year looks like. My goal is to make things seem as normal as possible. I have always believed that giving my kids food they will actually eat instead of things I know they won’t makes for a better day for them. I want them to have a full belly to get through the day. 

At dinner I can incorporate more of the foods/vegetables I know might be a stretch to get into their tummies. I am always still looking for creative ways to do this but during this quarantine we have a come a very long way. I call vegetables our “armor” against getting sick and my kids have really taken to it. 

I sincerely want to wish each and every one of you mamas of school aged children out there a good year despite the circumstances. We are in this together!! As always I’ll see you in my Stay Gluten Free Community (it’s FREE to join, click here). 

If you have a lunch idea, please share it in the comments below.