HELP! Nut-free lunch ideas?! HELP!

[carmel23]

My son's school just adopted a nut-free policy. We eat a ton of nuts...

I'm at a loss as to what to make my son for lunch. We don't really eat lunchmeat, and he is kind of picky.

He will eat cheese.

But, ??? Are there any things like nut butter, that aren't nut butter? I've read about pumpkin seed butter.... is it good? Sunflower seeds? Cashews?

HELP! school start in a week, and I don't know what to feed him.

[Magella]

My dd likes sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds), she says it tastes like peanut butter to her.

Peanut-free and nut-free things my kids like to bring for lunch include: leftovers from dinner the night before (soup, chili, pasta, meat, miscellaneous casseroles, mac and cheese, meatloaf, stew, pizza, rice and beans, chicken nuggets/fingers, etc.), cottage cheese and fruit, yogurt & fruit, bagel with cream cheese and fruit, carrot sticks with something to dip them, hummus, chicken salad, egg salad, hard-boiled eggs, cheese sticks. Warm food just gets heated in the morning before school and put in a thermos. All else gets packed with an icepack to keep it cold until lunch. We try to get one thing that contains protein (whether from dairy, beans or meat) plus a fruit or veggie.

[alllyssa]

Bagels and cream cheese. I second the leftovers in a thermos - mine especially like spaghetti and chili w/ brown rice.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by alllyssa

Bagels and cream cheese. I second the leftovers in a thermos - mine especially like spaghetti and chili w/ brown rice.

My guy doesn't like cream cheese... he likes bagels with peanut butter.

So, I'll check out the sunbutter-- hopefully he'll like it. I hope it works at the school... they say "nut free" and well, peanuts *aren't* a nut... so do they mean seeds, too? Gosh, I hope not! I've asked for more clarification...

We can pack pasta, pasta with white beans, bean and rice burritos, pizza, egg sandwich, tofurkey sandwich.... we make our own bread so I can make him little cheese rolls, or bread with extra almond flour, pancakes...

He is just really picky with lunch, and it makes it hard. I'm hoping the hot lunch at school is okay, and he might actually eat it on some days.

Please keep the ideas coming! Thank you for your help!

[Magella]

Usually sunflower seeds and other seeds are okay with nut bans. But it is wise to check.

Originally Posted by carmel23

bread with extra almond flour, pancakes...

I would think almonds and almond flour fall under the nut ban. You should check before you send bread with almond flour.

French toast? If he likes the sunbutter or jelly (or something else), you could make sandwiches out of pancakes or french toast (mine love this).

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

In a nut ban you are supposed to check all labels and if there are nuts in the ingredients list it falls under the ban.

Now if they just have a peanut ban without all nuts included then that is a different story.

[carmel23]

Ugh, I didn't think about the almond flour.

I guess I need to figure out what they are banning... Peanuts, despite their name, aren't nuts. They're legumes. seeds? cashews are seeds.

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

My DD is in a nut-free and peanut-free classroom. The child in her class is extremely allergic to peanuts and more mildly to tree nuts. Sunbutter is acceptible and she like that, so I use it where I would use peanut butter. Almond flour, almond butter and related would definitely not be OK. I do not know about cashews -- I always thought they were nuts.

Lunches around here tend to be ham or turkey sandwich, soup or pasta in a thermos, sunbutter & jelly, or hummus or cheese or salami with crackers.

Be sure to read labels for chips, granola bars (almost all have nuts), cereals, bread, purchased cookies and related products. Lots of them have nuts or were processed in plants that also process nuts.

If you have peanut butter for breakfast, be sure your child washes his hands and face and brushes his teeth before leaving the house. We also don't get dressed until after breakfast to avoid nut particles on clothing.

If you cook a lot (sounds like you do), be sure you have thoroughly cleaned things that touched nuts before using them for something you might send to school.

[GuildJenn]

I'd ask them for clarification but here are some ideas:

Sandwiches: Cheese + cucumber, cucumber and tomato, hummus and red pepper, hummus and cucumber, roasted vegetable and mozzarella, tuna salad, salmon salad, egg salad, roast beef salad, sliced chicken (not deli meat but leftovers sort of chicken), mozzarella and a bit of pasta sauce or tomato ("pizza sandwich"), rollups in tortillas with most or all of the above.
Quesadillas (made before and cold in the lunch). There are also a variety of dips & spreads you can make with potato and/or beans - white bean and rosemary, and so on.

Make-ahead sort of things: individual pot pies, burritos, calzones (pizza baked inside the dough folded over like a turnover), savoury turnovers, biscuits with cheese and ham in them, fish sticks, nuggets, meatballs, mini-quiche, macaroni salad, etc.

Nibbly-type lunches: hummus and pita, hummus or any other dip/spread with baked tortilla wedges, nachos, potato wedges and sour cream, cheese cubes with other cube-cut veggies.

You might want to check out the vegan lunch box for inspiration: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ (I have a first edition and it's great). Bento boxes seem to be pretty 'in' in my area too.

ETA: Also if you can keep milk cold, granola with milk or yoghurt might go over well too.

[Tigerchild]

*Veggie sticks with yogurt dip or hummus
*Bean and cheese burritos
*Cheese-and-lunchmeat rollups (put a piece of lunchmeat on a cutting board. Roll a string cheese stick up in the lunchmeat. Cut it into bite sized pieces and secure them on a skewer/toothpick so they look pretty and won't fall apart. plus...TOOTHPICK! Very cool.)
*Nachos (perhaps not if there is no microwave to zap the container in so that the cheese melts)
*onigiri/rice balls
*kabobs (veggies and leftover meat, fruits, cheese and veggies, we've done "breakfast" ones with bacon/biscuitbites/scrambled egg chunks too)
*hard boiled egg (peeled or not)
*leftover pizza
*mini quiches
*pasta (tortellini seems to work best for us)


My daughter likes sunbutter, the boys and I think it's gross. I tried soynut butter, but...ew, from everyone (including my soy lovin' DD and DS2).

IF you have time and are so inclined, I've found that my kids will wolf down a themed bento/"pretty"/"cool" lunch even if there are some 'stretch' items in there. Not every kid is so easily swayed though.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

My daughter likes sunbutter, the boys and I think it's gross. I tried soynut butter, but...ew, from everyone (including my soy lovin' DD and DS2).

IF you have time and are so inclined, I've found that my kids will wolf down a themed bento/"pretty"/"cool" lunch even if there are some 'stretch' items in there. Not every kid is so easily swayed though.

I'm inclined, but with our 4th child being born in December, I was counting on some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches being slapped together a certain days .

Thanks for all the responses! I guess I just have to rethink 'easy' lunch. Plus, we don't eat a lot of meat--and nuts are such a good protein for the investment.

I think bean and rice burritos will have to be our "easy".... we usually always have beans and rice.

[WC_hapamama]

Sunbutter is pretty good, definitely MUCH closer to PB texture wise than Soy Nut butter. The Sunflower Seed butter at Trader Joes is peanut and tree nut free. Sunbutter comes in Natural (transfat free) and Organic varieties.

I'm not sure how you feel about chocolate or sweets, but if you melt together equal parts of sunbutter and semi-sweet chocolate chips, you get a reasonable substitute for Nutella. Yum.

They may be calling it a nut ban in general because a lot of people don't realize that peanut is not a nut, so the OP need not be so snarky about it.

I've got two tree nut and peanut allergic children myself, so throwing together a peanut and tree nut free lunch is no big deal to me. Heck, I even manage dairy free for one child.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by WC_hapamama

They may be calling it a nut ban in general because a lot of people don't realize that peanut is not a nut, so the OP need not be so snarky about it.

I've got two tree nut and peanut allergic children myself, so throwing together a peanut and tree nut free lunch is no big deal to me. Heck, I even manage dairy free for one child.

Why is asking a school to be specific about something that is so important "snarky"?
If it is important, I think clarity is essential.

In our circumstance, peanutbutter happens to be an essential food. I wasn't asking how good are you at making a peanut free lunch, good for you. Clap Clap Clap.

I was asking for ideas. The school also bans chocolate and sweets, but thank you for the suggestion.

[karne]

I would definitely ask the school for clarification. However, what actually helped us the most was to get clarification from the moms of the children who had the allergies. I don't know if this is possible for you? It turned out that there was an additional seed allergy that one of the moms clarified for us. I think that the parents appreciated our asking because they were so clearly worried about their kids.

[RufusBeans]

my dd is 5 and I checked last night and she can't open a thermos. which mean she wouldn't close it either, so if she didn't eat all her lunch and it went back into her bag.........

so I'd check to see if he can open one first...he's 8 so he probably can.

my list includes:

cold noodles
cold chicken
string cheese
cheese sandwich
cottage cheese

toast

apple sauce
banana chips
carrots
cucumbers


that all she's really eat that is not peanut butter

[tbone_kneegrabber]

If you can do sunflowerseed butter than that's an easy "seed butter and jelly sandwich"
hummus (if you can do sesame seeds, although you can make it/ get it without tahini, we have to b/c ds is allergic to sesame)
yogurt (we do plain whole milk yogurt with a small swirl of honey or maple syrup in a container, ds loves it!)
pasta
last nights leftovers (that's my favorite "easy" lunch)

[Pinoikoi]

lumpia!

omelettes and pancakes.

chicken salad

potato salad

bagels and cream cheese