need help planning 'kid' lunches (dairy, soy, egg, some nut -free)

[brenda-sw]

So just found out my four yr old is IgG sensitive to dairy, soy, egg, sesame, cashew, pistachio and ginger.  We are eliminating all of these for a bit.  I am having trouble w/ lunches.  She is generally a good eater, lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains.  I need more ideas to incorporate fat into her diet.  She was a big cheese, yogurt, hummus (tahini) eater and now cannot have those.

So here is what she will eat....loving turkey sandwiches right now (not my favorite, but I buy Applegate Farms turkey), we are trying the Daiya (sp) cheese for homemade pizza- but it is not going well.  I tried white bean hummus (homemade, beans, almond butter, lemon, garlic) today and she refused.  I can get her to eat nuts, seeds, avocado...but she gets sick of things quickly so I need more stuff to rotate in so I am not asking her to eat avo every single day!  She is OK w/ coconut milk yogurt- but again not her fav.  She is in a sandwich mood- but what else can I do.  She will eat chicken and fish but I do those 1x per week for dinner so trying to not do 'meat' at lunchtime.  We also do alot of pasta w/ veggies/beans and soups w/ the same.

I also have a two year old w/ gastro disorder and have to be very cognicent of adding lots of fiber to his diet..so TRYING to feed them the same things if possible at lunch.

Ideas???  Quick, easy and kid friendly???

Thanks,

Brenda

[Alyantavid]

It's so hard in the beginning!  It does get easier though, on both of you.  I'd probably skip the cheese subs for now, they don't really taste like cheese.

smoothies - fruits, avocadoes, whatever you have that she can eat

quesadillas - I make them with just beans and nutritional yeast

hot pockets - I make mine with a pizza crust, sauce and pepperoni, then wrap up and bake

pizza - we just leave the cheese off or I'll add nutritional yeast to the sauce

[philomom]

I don't have a lot of specific advice but I've had to try these elimination diets with both kids for different reasons. I always feel like we get down to eating steak and spinach leaves. My kids are so picky they won't try hummus, fruit smoothies or fake breads.

I see rice wasn't on your list. Have you tried doing some little rice/bean or rice/meat lunch?

[Aeress]

How about chicken over salad or some variation of salad? My girls love salad.If you make your own dressing, you can avoid the allergens.

For cheese lovers, it is really hard to give up cheese. I found I wanted more dressing, hot sauce or some such on things to replace cheese. If she like spicy things, maybe some taco meat, or buffalo style chicken or steak. We also make taters buffalo style and the girls love them.

How about a stuffed tater with hot sauce?

[Biscuits & Gravy]

As far as pizza goes, until the daiya became available we just made pizza without cheese. My kids have never had real cheese, but as someone who has I will say that I prefer only a tiny bit of daiya not the amount that I'd put on if it were real cheese. There is no need to load a pizza up with it, a little goes a long way, and it is really best when it is good and melted.

Can you make hummus with chickpeas but leave out the tahini? Maybe add more lemon or some roasted peppers to add flavor?

[zacharysmom]

i make hummas using peanut butter. to us it tastes almost exactly  the same  might that work ??

[Summer7]

For some a great library of lunch options, check out: http://www.laptoplunches.com/bento-menus/. My child has allergies and this company's bento boxes and great menu ideas have been wonderful. Although we have to pick and choose what we can use off of each lunch, it's great to keep his lunches as exciting as possible. 

[beckington]

Originally Posted by Biscuits & Gravy 

Can you make hummus with chickpeas but leave out the tahini? Maybe add more lemon or some roasted peppers to add flavor?

My ds1 will only eat hummus without tahini - so I just leave it out and don't add in anything extra. I just recently had some store-bought hummus that used sunflower oil instead of olive oil. I was skeptical, but it tasted really, really good - and quite different from normal hummus so maybe she might like that and not compare it to the hummus she is used to?