Daughter with a wheat allergy
Hello moms, I am looking for new and fun ideas for dinner and lunchbox friendly lunches for my daughter. We have been dealing with an allergy to wheat for a few months, but she is quickly getting tired of the same things. Any ideas that you have would be awesome. I have tired other sites and gotten no responses. I am looking for new ways to serve foods, and my daughter is not a picky eater. She likes most fruits and veggies and will try anything. We have been doing a lot of meat roll up and have bought some of the special gluten free foods, but like I said I think she is getting bored. Hope you all are more creative than I am.
tell us more!
I am uneducated on the specifics of food allergies. Can you tell us what thinks she can't have, or better yet, what she CAN have? Maybe that would help us come up with ideas for you. :)
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
wheat allergy
She basically can't have anything with wheat in it. Which in some foods it is also labeled as modified food starch. So no breads, cookies, pasta, etc. unless we buy the special kinds that are wheat free. She eats things like ham and cream cheese roll ups for lunch but I hate to have her eating that everyday at school. Right now at daycare she eats special chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and mac and cheese along with sandwhiches but no bread, so basically meat and cheese. She also can eat rice cakes and we will but pb on those, but I feel like she eats the same thing over and over again. Hope this helps a little, and any ideas would be great.
Ideas
My sister in law is gluten intolerant, so she's in a similar boat. Have you tried finding anything that's made with rice flour? I know there is bread out there that is made with rice flour. You can also substitute rice flour in a lot of different recipes. You can also use cornmeal for a lot of things too. My mother in law made a pineapple upside down cake with cornmeal and it was pretty good. Rice flour and cornmeal obviously change the texture of things, but they're not bad.
Corn based foods
I know there are corn tortillas that are made free of wheat, but you definitely have to check the label to see which ones are. They would make a great wrap though. If you are packing her lunch, I would probably warm it slightly in the microwave and even warm it after putting all the meat/cheese, veggies on because the cheese tends to help "glue" it together and warming it makes it easier to roll up the tortilla w/o cracking. I do that with my son's lunch and just wait a few minutes for it to cool off before wrapping it up to put in his lunchbox.
Another idea is cornbread/corn muffins, you can definitely make it at home using cornmeal and no flour. That could also be a good side item or base for a sandwich.
Barley is a good wheat free option for a side dish at home too. I have made Barley Pilaf, which is similar to Rice Pilaf and my kids love it. It doesn't take many ingredients, just some beef broth and a few seasonings. I just searched online for a recipe and there are lots of varieties depending on your taste.