It’s about that time again! School is starting, or has started for a lot of you. Sending healthy gluten free school lunches with your child is COMPLETELY possible. Let me show you 40 photos of my kid’s healthy gluten free school lunches that I have collected! I guess I should disclose that my family is not 100% Paleo…you will see a few things that fall in our 20% non-Paleo, like dairy, Nut Thins, and some rice. However we do try to stay completely gluten-free. I hope you get some ideas and enjoy packing healthy gluten-free school lunches for your kids!
Like the lunchbox? Get it here!
Foods and Items I frequently used:
- Like the lunchbox I use? You can get it here.
- Can’t afford the PlanetBox, try these instead.
On days you want to send HOT leftovers, I recommend this Thermos to keep it hot till lunchtime!
Shared on: Tasty Traditions, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Thank Your Body, Natural Family Today, Old Fashioned Friday, Girl Meets Nourishment, and Holistic Squid
Love, love, love this! I’m always thankful for healthy, gf lunch ideas. Do you find that the PlanetBox keeps everything in its place? I’d like to save up and buy some for my kids asap. I have not tried Lunch Bots, either, but have a few knockoffs and it did not go well…at all. Also, best advice for keeping it all cold without sending a back pack sized lunch bag? I’ve been using insulated lunch bags with ice pack and countless reusable containers. My kids don’t even take much food but space is a big issue. Thanks for this wonderful post and helpful info 🙂
Glad you like them! The PlanetBox comes with an icepack that slides in next to the box. The case is insulated and keeps it nice and cold! The set is awesome…we have 3 of them now! One of each kind that they sell. I’m in love with them. They keep me creative! And yes, everything stays in it’s place!
I noticed the lunch box you use has more compartments then the one you have linked at the bottom of the page. I tried searching amazon for one with the additional compartments, but couldn’t find one. Do you know if they don’t sell that one anymore or maybe there is a different link I can check out?
never mind! I found it by searching planet box!
Hi, i love your web site! My son is almost 9, the school lunch options you share, might be not enough for the school day. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you! 🙂
I’ve been putting my son’s Planetbox in the refrigerator overnight to get the stainless steel nice and cold per a suggestion on their Facebook page. Doing that along with an ice pack in the insulated bag seems to work really well.
Great idea!!!
Thank you so much for sharing! My son just entered Kindergarten and I pack his Planetbox everyday. Sometimes it is hard to come up with new ideas, so I appreciate this post! One question though….I don’t put as much food in my son’s lunch as what is shown in your pictures. Does your child eat everything you pack or are their leftovers? It’s making me wonder if I should pack my son more to eat!
Most the time she eats most of it. Sometimes there is some leftover…which becomes her afternoon snack.
I was just thinking that I would have the opposite problem. My 14-year old has recently volunteered to go GF because I have had a positive experience with it, and we hope it helps control his acne and ADD. This *might* be enough food for a snack for him, but he’d need about three times this much food for a meal. Aw, the miracle of growing!
I saw your link at KellytheKitchenKop. This is brilliant. Thank you so much.
Thank you!!!
Thank you 🙂 I’ll be checking out the product and following their page for tips. I’m excited to try them out!
I’ve been looking for lunch ideas for me since I am wanting to go Paleo. There are a couple of things that I cannot have, such as tree nuts (which eliminates Nut Thins) but by using a recipe for Paleo crackers and subbing sunflower seeds, I’ll have plenty of great lunches and won’t feel deprived! Thank you so much for these awesome ideas! I’ve pinned this as well!
Love these lunches…except for the cold steak. 😉
Wish our school allowed nuts though, it’s hard to come up with protein sources when he doesn’t like cold eggs. Speaking of – to avoid the blue ring around the yolk – bring eggs in cold water to the boil, take off the heat source and set the timer for 10 minutes. Perfect hard boiled eggs every time, creamy yolks, no rubbery texture or blue ring!
Thank you! I am terrible at peeling farm fresh eggs. They look butchered after I have my hands on them!
It won’t make them easier to peel. I have that problem too and usually just end up breaking them in half and scooping the halves out with a spoon. Not so handy for lunch boxes though.
Just came across this and had to come back and share!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/140948663309926734/
For easier peeling of my farm fresh eggs I steam them. I set them over boiling water for 16 min (high altitude). After taking them off the heat, let them set for about 5 min. Cool them in cold water right away. Notice I said easier… You’ll always have one rebellious one!
As soon as your 10 minutes are up, pull the eggs out and submerge them in ice water, to stop them from cooking.
Hi, these are very helpful ideas, but I do have one question. Are the hot dogs and other meats are sent cold?
Yes, I do send them cold. Who says meats have to be eaten hot?! haha, my kid doesn’t seem to care!
This is wonderful, I drive all day for work and pack my lunches. This is the hardest part of sticking to my diet restrictions. Using school lunch ideas for me!
Great ideas! How do you keep the apple slices from turning brown?
Toss them in some lemon juice!
How do you get your kids to eat so healthy? Mine (ages 2, 4, and 6) choose not eating over eating the healthy foods I give them. I have always cooked healthy and I eat Paleo ~90+% of the time. Yet my kids don’t eat!! I followed all the “rules” – made my own baby food from organic, introduced vegetables and fruits first, offered a wide, colorful variety, got the kids involved in planning and selecting, etc. I keep “treats” to a minimum at special occasions rather than avoiding completely and in every situation. But healthy foods always are a prerequisite in those situations. I’m so frustrated!
WOW! Such awesome ideas! I think my kids would also eat most of that stuff too. Thanks for posting this! I’m always at a loss as to what to feed my 7 yr. old gf boy for school lunches and I tend to get in the ‘same-old, same-old’ rut. He looked at these with me and seemed pretty excited about a lot of them. Now I just have to save some pennies to get those PlanetBox’s! I really love them over a plain lunchbox/bag, but they’re pricey.
If you google planet box coupons. I have found a $5 & $10 coupons, not a huge savings but it helps.
What’s your grain free chicken nugget recipe??
I don’t have a chicken nugget recipe. I use a recipe from http://www.health-bent.com
I need to do something like this for MY lunches. Also, I really love the container. These are fantastic!
Awesome, thanks. Maybe I am blind, but you have this in list form for quick reference and grocery list making?
Thank you so much for this diet! My son is Autistic & due to sensory issues they put him on a glucose free diet!!! I LOVE THESE OPTIONS!!!
OMG! I am sooooooo glad I found your post! With a 2 yr old that has just started wanting to try new foods (not the SAME old toddler fodder) I am always scouting new lunch ideas for her. This is soooo helpful I bookmarked this post for times I am in need of ideas.
Thanks again for the fab pictures!
needed some inspiration to keep my kids lunches gluten free. Thanks for these creative ideas.
I love this post. It is absolutely amazing to see how creative you are and there are some wonderful ideas that I will be using for myself.
Some really great suggestions. However, most schools do not permit any peanuts nor treenuts in lunches or snacks.
As a mom of a peanut/treenut allergic child, I would strongly encourage everyone to please leave these items out of your lunch plans.
I love this! Thank you for all of the ideas. I especially love the Easter lunch.
Wish you had this in a PDF that we could download. I try to save it to print and it gives me 60 pages with only one lunch per page.
Thank you so much for all your ideas and your photos! We just moved my 4yo over to gluten free a few weeks ago and I’ve been struggling with ideas! This helped so much!
Nutthins and a little dairy save the day at my house. We are getting back on the paleo wagon after a two year hiatus…it’s rough! But mostly just for my husband, lol!
I find it hard to believe that the lunch would still look so nice after being carried vertical in a backpack. Cottage cheese would slide to one side of the bowl and the blueberry face would be gone. Wouldn’t it? Tell me I’m wrong!
I would love to be able to use some of these ideas but I am so stumped with what to send to school. Our list of what not to send includes citrus, all nuts, eggs, dairy, gluten, legumes, fish and shellfish. Working on what to send, if anyone has ideas I would love some help…thanks!
Fruits are veggies are nutritious, I seem to see quite a bit of processed food, especially meat.
Hi ,
Great post, thank you for sharing. Where did you get the sectioned metal lunch box?
Thanks again,
Robert
it’s from http://www.planetbox.com
Loved this post! Thanks so much, I have a little one going to grade 1 and I really want her to benefit from good nutrition at school as well.
I never have a big enough variety of lunch stuff in the house but with your ideas I can compile a shopping list and meal plan and start having fun with it!
same here. my kids lunch boxes stay in their bags all day
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Thanks for finally talking about >40 Days of Gluten Free School Lunches – The Paleo Mama <Loved it!
These are amazing! Love the special Easter lunch! Thank you for giving me some great ideas!
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Thank you for this. I can see you have put a lot of work into it and it is really beneficial. I would love one of those boxes for my son but they are so costly and we are in the Uk. We do love the lunchbots boxes though. We have loads.
You’re welcome!
I couldn’t find a shopping list so I had to take 15 min. copy/pasting to notepad then putting on my iPhone notes app. Did a miss seeing a shopping list of the yummy food ideas, ya’ll?
Was looking for different ideas for my lunches and thought great for me. Awesome.
THANKYOUUU soo soo much for making this. My mother is gluten free and has decided to ban wheat from the house. I cant take sandwiches anymore for school lunch, and her gluten free crackers and snacks are off the menue. Ive been searching for lunches not needing to keep warm or be heated up that involve nuts and such, and this is perfect! Gluten free, and still filling, plus cheaper than buying lunches.
Greetings! This is my 1st comment here so I
just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your posts.
Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects?
Appreciate it!
Thank you so much for this!
You’re very welcome!