School lunches beyond PB&J

It's hard enough to come up with good tasting and convenient school lunch ideas.

So when a child's school goes peanut-free, parents face a major challenge: What can replace that staple of the lunch box, peanut butter sandwiches?

Peanuts are one of the most common food allergens. Children with peanut allergies can have reactions that range from mild -- itching and minor skin irritations, for example -- to severe, including nausea, vomiting and life-threatening anaphylaxis.

More schools are becoming peanut-free zones to protect kids at risk of accidental exposure. It's forcing parents to get creative about finding alternatives.

Plenty of good alternatives exist. They share many of the characteristics that made peanut butter so popular in the first place.

We like peanut butter because it tastes good. It's sticky, spreadable, nutritious and convenient. It doesn't need refrigeration, so it's highly portable.

Most nuts can be ground like peanuts into a spreadable butter. Good examples include cashew butter and almond butter, which you can pick up at nearly any natural foods store and many supermarkets. (But watch out: Nutella, a popular hazelnut spread, contains peanut oil).

Like peanut butter, these alternative nut butters are delicious and rich sources of protein, vitamins and minerals. The oils these nuts contain are mostly health-supporting monounsaturated fats, so they fit into nearly everyone's diets.

Use nut butters in every way that peanut butter is used -- on sandwiches, piled onto a celery stick, dipped with apple slices or in recipes for peanut butter cookies.

But there's a catch.

Many children who are allergic to peanuts are also allergic to other tree nuts such as cashews and almonds. If your child has a peanut allergy, check with his or her health care provider to make sure other tree nuts are OK to eat.

And consider other options. For example:

• Experiment with soy nut butter. Whole, roasted soybeans are ground to make soy nut butter, which is sold in jars like peanut butter and has a similar consistency and a pleasing flavor. Find it in natural foods stores. Spread soy nut butter on whole grain bread, add jelly, and it can pass just fine for a PBJ. Like peanut butter, soy nut butter is rich in protein and low in saturated fat.
• Consider seed butters. Check natural foods stores for jars of sunflower seed butter. It's delicious and a rich source of protein, vitamin E, B vitamins and several minerals. Another option is tahini, a Middle Eastern spread or paste made from ground sesame seeds. Tahini has a mild flavor and is rich in protein, healthy fats and calcium. It's often mixed with mashed garbanzo beans to make hummus, a versatile Middle Eastern bean dip.

Speaking of bean dips, they make good alternatives to peanut butter, too.

Find hummus in the refrigerated section of supermarkets, natural foods stores and warehouse stores. Black bean dip is typically sold in jars or cans as a dip to go with tortilla chips and vegetable sticks.

Bean dips are highly nutritious, rich in protein, dietary fiber, calcium and iron. They make good fillings for wrap sandwiches, in pita pockets or rolled inside a flour tortilla. Add grated carrots, a handful of chopped lettuce and tomatoes, or a scoop of salsa.

Seed and nut butters don't need refrigeration, but bean dip and other vegetable spreads, like guacamole, should be kept chilled if they're not eaten within a couple of hours. That's especially true in warmer weather.

If in doubt, place an ice pack inside lunch boxes to keep the contents cool until your child gets to eat.

Don't let new peanut-free rules get you down. Turn the limitation into an opportunity to add some new staples to your lunchtime routine.