I am coming up short in the lunch department here at Chambleeville. Trying to cook from scratch and dealing with allergy problems with Aaron makes lunch time a little tricky. I usually try to have some leftovers, but my leftovers haven't been very appealing to my picky children. I am working on the pickiness....I'm thinking serving rice and beans for a while may alleviate some of the complaints over the broccoli/chicken casserole and turkey pot pie leftovers that were offered this week. I think they would rather starve.
I have tried to eliminate sandwiches as I don't want to buy packaged sandwich meat with all its preservatives and we are making a move to go gluten free. Do you know how much a (small) loaf of gluten-free bread is? Why don't you make your own? Is that what you said? Well most gluten-free recipes need egg because there is no gluten to bind the ingredients together, but Aaron is allergic to egg, so that won't work either.
I don't like to buy canned soups or instant foods like frozen pizzas etc, too often. Not much good in them and lots of bad, plus too much money for too little food.
This week I served bean tacos one day with tomatoes, peppers, and sour cream. They went over OK. Today I served tacos with ground beef that I had already precooked and found in the freezer. I added some cayenne pepper powder and chopped up a cowhorn pepper from the garden to give it some spice. I purchase corn tortillas and I just put the meat on the tortilla, folded it up and browned them in a little canola oil in my iron skillet. I also made some homemade salsa using tomatoes and peppers from my garden and some garlic from the fridge. Just put it in the blender, added a little salt and gave it a whirl and it was good to go.
What are some of your choices for lunch? Do you have some ideas that I t could use? I need some inspiration before I grocery shop tomorrow and make out a menu for next week.
8 comments:
We eat sliced turkey meat with cheese and either crackers or flour tortillas. no need to heat at my house - they eat it cold. We eat lots of tuna - not on sandwiches, the kids just fix it like they like it and eat it with a fork. Also I have frozen the leftovers in small servings and have a section in the freezer where if the kids want something different for lunch, they can pick something from that shelf and heat it up themselves. I read aloud during lunch, so if they can't fix it in the 10 minute break before I read, it has to be something they can fix quietly while I read. Pretty plain, but it works for us!
I'll keep you in mind when I run across gluten free recipes without eggs. I had forgotten about Aaron's allergy to eggs.
Anita, we're trying to do GF, as well. Corn tortillas are my friend, lol! My kids like them as quesidillias w/ beans on the side.
We also do lots of soups. Homemade tomato, chicken enchilada, and broccoli & cheese are some of our favorites.
One day a week, I try to use GF flour and do a homemade pizza...no egg, and they love it.
HTH!
Em
Oh, and fried rice (sans the egg in your case) using leftover meat and/or veggies w/ brown rice.
I hear you on the lunch meat and bread. We don't have allergies, but I try to keep the processed stuff down. I serve alot of fruit, along side pbj, but I'm sure the pbj is an obstacle too. I use the natural stuff but the bread is not pure. It looks wholesome to the white bread eater, but not the purist. My recent favorite snack is grapes & yogurt. Can he eat yogurt? I don't make mine, but...
Also does he have nut allergies? The fruit hasn't been a big success in the past, but that's because I caved in. I'll be on the lookout for reciepes/ideas too.
We sometimes do a snack type lunch.....leftover chicken, dip or sauce of some sort, cheese, grapes, strawberries, crackers (not sure about GF), raw broccoli, raw carrots.
Mostly we do leftovers, or any kind of leftover meat on soft tortillas with cheese. What about baked potatoes? And if the weather ever cools off here, soups!
Anita,
We do a lot of the same of the other posters. Logan and M.C. are old enough to make their own lunch now, but they do generally ask what the choices are. Like you, we eat a lot of leftovers for lunch. I don't buy a lot of loaf bread, either. We eat crackers with peanut butter and cheese. Logan loves a can of tuna with crackers. M.C. is really big on cheese quesadillas and omelettes. I guess that doesn't help with egg allergies, though! Logan loves Sloppy Joes, so sometimes I just make him us a batch to have for lunch that week. In the winter, I make lots of soups.
It's funny about the frozen pizzas! I bought several while they were on sale, and I had coupons, too. This was before school was out for the summer. The majority of them are still in the freezer!
I know it is difficult dealing with dietary restrictions. Best wishes finding some good ideas!
When we have fruit on hand I like to serve tortillas w/peanut butter and sliced fruit instead of PB&J's.
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