Lunch Made Easy: Chebe Gluten Free Mix - One Box, Five Lunches

When it comes to buying allergy friendly or gluten free foods, it can get expensive. I'm always trying to find new ways to share uses for products that can be budget friendly and also add fun to you or your child's school lunch box. 
We have packed gluten & allergy free lunches with Chebe mixes before (click here to see previous posts including a pizza muffin recipe), but this time I wanted to show what you can do for a week with just one box! 

At my health food store, a box of Chebe All-Purpose Bread mix costs $3.59. Not bad! Considering most gluten free loaves of bread cost $5 and up.  
By taking a a bit of my afternoon Sunday evening, I prepped the dough and made my fillings for each item. I prepared ours per the directions on the box. The mix itself lactose/ casein free, but adding cheese to it is optional. I went ahead and added cheddar to our mix, but you can omit or sub for non-dairy rice or soy depending on your needs. 

Photo before going into the oven

Here's the breakdown of what I made (clockwise from left to right):  1 Pizza Crust with added garlic and Italian seasonings on top, 1 turkey & cheese sandwich pocket, 2 breadsticks with added garlic & Italian seasonings on top, 2 chicken cream cheese & spinach stuffed balls, 2 pigs in a blanket.
Obviously, the possibilities are endless - these are just examples of how to use one box five different ways. You could make Pizza Muffins, Sandwich Bread or Buns, Calzones, etc.

All done baking!

After about 20 minutes in the oven they were complete. I let them cool then went ahead and packed them in their EasyLunchboxes for the week. That way, all I had to do each day was grab one, add the sides and BOOM! Done. You could even prepack those too, if you wanted. 

 

So let's break this down by day so you can see what we packed:

Monday Little Miss chose the turkey & cheese sandwich pocket. She's fortunate to have a microwave in her classroom she can warm items in, if she chooses, but she told me this was perfect at room temperature.

I packed with it some watermelon, snap peas, carrots, & cauliflower.

Tuesday it was pizza all the way! How I handled the crust was I had packed it plain on Sunday night. Then Tuesday morning, I added topping and quick popped it into the toaster oven to melt while I was getting breakfast together. That way it had time to cool off before putting it back in for school.

Little Miss also had a side salad, watermelon, & blueberries.

Wednesday were the Cream Cheese, Chicken, & Spinach Balls. I was going to take photos in more detail about these, but my Sous Chef ate the remainder of the filling we made after I had these done. lol, at least we knew it was good! 

We also packed up two Cybele's Free-to-Eat Top 8 Free, Vegan, & Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, carrots, and apple slices.

Again, simple to make but something different. We added diced cooked chicken breast, fresh spinach leaves I had chopped up, and cream cheese. I made a flat pancake of chebe dough and added a tablespoon or so (maybe closer to two) of filling. Sealed it shut by pinching and smoothing out the seams and giving it a gentle roll to make the "ball form". Kind of like a stuffed meatball. For my dairy free friends, try Daiya's new non-dairy cream cheese! 

Thursday we packed up a yummy salad to go with her cheesy breadsticks. We could have done pepperoni breadsticks or packed them with marinara, but since we already had pizza I wanted to show another option. 

She also has a Mini Dipper with gluten free, all-natural yogurt dressing, turkey roll-ups, blueberries, and banana slices. In case you're wondering, I dip the slices in lemon juice to keep them from browning.

Lunch was completed with a sweet Lunchbox Love Note!  

And finally, Friday Little Miss had "Pigs in a Blanket". You can make these with your preferred "dog" - nitrate free, turkey dogs, tofu dogs, etc. Super simple and a kid favorite, for sure. 

We packed them along with veggie chips, apple slices, and carrots.

What's your favorite thing to make with chebe mix? 

Tempted to try any of these ideas? ENJOY!