Lots of Lunchbox Loveliness... and all Gluten Free!

The other day, Sous Chef J was asking about what food he'd be having for lunch.  We came up with so many options that we started to make a list... and it kept getting longer!  In fact, it contains so many ideas that it's going to take more than one post, but this is a starting point.

As a fast sandwich option, when we can source it, we use Genius Gluten Free Seeded Bread to make sandwiches - Sous Chef J likes grated cheese and homemade chutney (or if he's making them he chooses jam) as fillings.  To follow he may have an individual, home made, gluten free Lemon Drizzle Cake (sliced) or mini muffin. 

In warmer weather, a firm favourite is dip and dippers.  Avocado dip is an easy one to make, is full of 'goodness' and the range of dippers that can be used is wide - (Burt's) crisps, vegetable crisps, sticks of cheese, vegetable sticks, sliced peppers, gluten free mini breadsticks, slices of apple and so on.  Parmesan crisps are also good for dipping...

If we've made pizza, we try to freeze some slices for use in lunchboxes.  It's ready to be grabbed, put in the bag and will be defrosted by lunchtime.  Sous Chef J likes it with gluten free mayo.

When there's time, and we are planning days out, then some nut crackers will be made.  These go well with cheddar cheese, coleslaw and apple to make our own version of a gluten free ploughman's lunch.

Slices of our pastryless quiche are also good for lunchboxes.  Served with some coleslaw and a packet of Burt's chips and Sous Chef J is very happy indeed.

We have ventured into the realms of purpose made savoury lunch/brunch muffins and they were a hearty option.  Although Sous Chef J preferred them warm, they were eaten speedily with an accompanying sachet of tomato ketchup.

Recently Sous Chef J has been experimenting with lunchtime toast... a big success was grated cheese on Genius Seeded Toast with mango chutney.  So long as the toast was presented cut into 'soldiers' he was delighted with his concoction.  If making them for a lunchbox, he will "just do the cheese on toast and take a small pot of the mango chutney for dipping purposes".

Sweet things to take out and about with us are a little easier to sort out when we've had a batch baking weekend... like the one we've just had.  We made lemon drizzle loaf and two mini lemon drizzle loaves (see the top pic to see what these look like sliced!) as well as a whole tray of mini chocolate muffins (using our quick mix chocolate cake recipe and chocolate fudge icing).  Half of all we baked were cooled, bagged, labelled and frozen for easy lunchbox fixes over the coming days.

We hope the things that work for us provide ideas and inspiration to you - we have more to cover in a later post so watch this space!