Lunch feast and a GF hamburger bun hack

Today lunch was a feast! At least, I thought so.

Leftover hamburgers with pancake buns, bananas, olives, leftover apple pie. Everything is gluten, dairy, egg free.

Of course as soon as the kids were done, they were asking what else they could have. I don't know what I am going to do with them when the apples from the end of our csa. They are my go-to snack/ add on to meals right now.

I started making pancakes when we have burgers because it is so much easier than making GF buns. It works great! I would not reccomend oat flour, however. They were dense and chewy and never dried out really. But leave the batter on the thicker side so they fluff up and stay thick. Then you can easily slice them in half to use as a bun.

Allergy friendly lunch

You're gluten and dairy free? What DO you eat?

Yes, we are gluten and dairy free, and, in fact, the baby is also egg and nut free right now too. And you know what? There are still (some) things to eat.

Today for lunch, john is having: half a banana, some asian pear, broccoli, a few chips, a date, sauerkraut, and cranberry relish.

For the other kids, I didn't give them banana, but I was prepared to offer eggs to anyone who was still hungry. Ellie also had some oatmeal because she didn't have any at breakfast. No one complained of being still hungry, so I didn't have to make eggs. And I forgot to add walnuts to the cranberry relish when I served it.

I was even planning to make crackers but ran out of time. And as I type this I remember I even have crackers in my cabinet!

In conclusion, there ARE things to eat when you are dealing with allergies. It may just require thinking outside the box. And more fruits and vegetables. :-)

Simple lunch

Some yummy warm stewed apples with cornbread for lunch. Simple and delicious! very nice for this fall day.

It was the first time this year it has really felt like fall. Last night there was a frost advisory and Chris and I tucked or pepper plants in safe and warm. Of course I don't think it frosted last night, but better safe than sorry! Hopefully this weekend, we will get some plastic to cover them. Chris is hoping they last into december. We shall see.

YOU should see the amount of peppers we have already picked! We've got peter piper beat, that's all I have to say.

Happy fall!

Lunch

This lunch brought to you by the color orange. And Sam.

(Cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potato, and a leftover piece of peanut butter banana pizza)

Recipe for the above pizza coming soon!

Paleo "snack lunch"

For our midmorning snack today, which I didn't serve until 11:10 for various crying child reasons,

A banana, a coconut flour muffin, a handful of penuts that I haven't soaked yet but at least I finally made it to Miller's to buy, and homemade coconut oil peppermint patties.

Fruit and veggie lunch

We have no leftovers in the fridge today, but lots of fruits and veggies!
Sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, strawberries, banana, papaya.

Summer salad with ranch beans

Awhile ago, I think I mentioned how my awesome husband got me a menu planner for Christmas. :-) 

As it worked out today, I made ranch beans from my menu planner for lunch in my crock pot.  It was super easy-- I cooked the beans in my crock pot overnight, and then added the rest of the ingredients and turned on low while we were at church.  It made the whole house smell great, so much so that when we got home, Ellie declared, "It smells like dinner!" 

I also bought the ingredients for salad at the store last week. I go through phases of this, but I am hoping to make it a habit-- to have salad with our meals twice or more a week.  I like chunky salads.  With lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, etc.  I don't like to have to search out the extras in a sea of lettuce.  :-)  Also, I dislike making salads because of the time it takes to chop everything up. I know this sounds crazy coming from a girl who sprouts, dehydrates and then grinds wheat berries into flour. but really, I find it a drag.  :-P I have been trying to make an abundance of salad and then eat it over the course of a few days.  This gets tricky, though, because if I leave it too long in the fridge and it goes bad, then I get this kind of avoidance where I tend to leave it in the fridge for entirely too long-- until it is totally gross-- before I just deal with the fact that I didn't eat all the salad I made. I should just get over it all ready! 

Anyway, back to lunch. When we have salad, I have been getting out these adorable balsamics and olive oils I got from my SIL for Christmas.  We have such fun flavors as 'ripe peach white balsamic' and 'blood orange infused olive oil.'  This is fun for me to try different pairings, and also caused an unexpected bonus-- children who want seconds and thirds of salad, so that they can try different flavors! Ben seriously had three helpings of salad at lunch. I chose to put my beans on my salad and I used the maple syrup flavored balsamic also.  It gave them a nice baked bean flavor. 

Steak and eggs for lunch

Sometimes I just need a hearty lunch.

Today was one of those days- my body was craving protein. Luckily, we had some leftover venison tenderloin, eggs, and even an unopened box of baby kale greens. For the finish: the very last piece of banana molases bread.

Even though I had to give the baby 1/3 of my egg (he had already eaten the whole of his), I still feel satisfied and energized to take on the rest of the day!

Pancake Lunch

Hey!

I've been thinking of you, just haven't had time/ made time to sit down and type.

Today I made this puffy oven pancake recipe for lunch. I have been struggling with lunches recently in particular because now that it is chilly, I want something hot for lunch.  And also, there's the whole wheat conundrum about which I still haven't come to a conclusion.  Oh, and I ran out of yeast!  You read that correctly.  For awhile, I was out of yeast so I could not make bread.  Wow, was THAT a bummer!  I still haven't made bread, actually, despite having acquired yeast.

Today we had no bread and no leftovers.  We had already had oatmeal for breakfast, and I made the kids eggs yesterday for lunch.  I also didn't want to stuff them full of sugar!

This recipe was really simple, didn't have any sugar aside from what was in the asian pear that I used, had eggs and cheese in it that would provide some protein to keep those little tummies full, and it was warm, so it made my cold self happy.

I enjoyed it.  The kids, for the most part, enjoyed it too, in their own ways-- Ellie, eating each part separately; Sam, rolling his up like a taco; and Ben ate his begrudgingly, despite not liking asian pear and also voiced some dislike of the cheese with this recipe.

Anyway, if you are looking for a quick, nourishing, low/ no sugar option for lunch that doesn't involve bread, try this recipe!  It's also a good breakfast.  It came together quickly-- I made the batter before the oven was even finished preheating, and the pears were quick to cut up and about 3 min in the pan.

Have a great day!

Hummus Sandwich

I have been trying to replace peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my house.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE peanut butter and jelly, but we have really been trying to reduce the amount of sugar we eat, and one place I know we have a lot is in sandwiches. 

Also, there is a new problem which my MIL stumbled upon and had to share with me.  I don't know what I am going to do about it yet.  This video is all about wheat and how bad it is for you and how if you eat two pieces of bread it affects your blood sugar as much as 6 TEASPOONS of sugar and how if you go off wheat it will cure all your problems. Still thinking on it, and it will have to be another post, another day when I have come to a decision as to what in the world to do about it.

ANYway, back to the sandwiches.  I want to come up with new ideas. 

One day in June, my mom and I stopped at this cafe in Baltimore for a quick snack for the kids.  We didn't want to get them a cookie or a brownie, but what else? We asked the guy behind the counter what they had that was kid friendly, and he started listing off PB&J, cookies, blah, blah, hummus on toast... My mom and I looked at each other and we nearly shouted at him, YES! Hummus on toast.  I didn't get much of that sandwich (it was supposed to be for the kids), but I have been dreaming about it ever since. Until this week. :-)

I give you my newest sandwich obsession:
Homemade hummus on toast with cucumber and tomato slices. Delish.

Tomato sandwich.

My favorite summertime lunch. A big slab of tomato on a sandwich with a generous helping of mayo.  Yum.  Please notice that the above tomato fills my bread entirely. And look at all the wrinkles!  It is a really great heirloom variety that we got this year.  And did I mention that tomato slice FILLS MY SANDWICH?  amazing.  :-)

Liquid Lunch

Today is so hot!  I wasn't particularly hungry at lunch, and we ate breakfast somewhat later than usual.  So, I took a tip that I got sometime last summer at Life In A Shoe, and I made us a smoothie for lunch.  I added things that I knew were healthy and would fill us up.

Yesterday we picked up our first CSA of the season, and I have lots of veggies to use now!

Our smoothie started with some beet greens (about a cup).  I have never used beet greens before, but I read someone's post on facebook who said she had sauteed them, so I thought, 'why not use them any way that I use spinach?' So, they went in our smoothie.  I saved some to saute too, because I want to try them. :-)

Next, I added ice cubes so when I buzzed it up, it would be cool and refreshing. Then I added two bananas.  They are filling and sweet, so I didn't add any sweetener!  For some staying protein, I added about 2TBS of peanut butter.  For deliciousness, I added a scant 2 TBS of cocoa powder, and I finished it off with about 2 cups of raw milk.

I swirled it all around, and it made about 4 cups of delicious smoothie.  I was worried the beet greens would make it unappetizing-- that they would have a very strong taste and the kids wouldn't go for it, but that didn't happen.

This was a great smoothie for a hot day.  I know my kids got some healthy things in them, and that they will not be hungry for awhile. I feel great after having greens for lunch-- not tired and ready for a nap-- at least not as much as I usually do!

What do you eat for lunch on a hot day?  Or do you just skip it all together?

Colorful food

What colorful food do you eat? 

One of my favorite funky colored food that we have is homemade sauerkraut.  It's super easy to make, and if you use a purple cabbage in the mix, you get purple sauerkraut. 

We have been trying to add more fermented foods to our diet.  So far, sauerkraut and kombucha are about all we do regularly.  I have made fermented carrots, which I like to eat with meat, but only one of the kids likes it (forgetting now who)...

Anyway, I took this picture of our lunch one day to share:

• orange slices
• homemade sauerkraut
• quesadillas with raw cheddar and homemade tortillas

On an unrelated note, I love the picture in this post.

Applesauce Pie

A few weeks ago, I had no idea what was for lunch, and it was already lunch time!  I was in the mood for something different, and I thought of apple pie.  But, to make a whole apple pie and then bake it would not work for eating at lunch.  I tried a recipe I just thought up while we were making it, using things from the fridge, cabinets and fruit basket.  It turned out too sweet.  But we enjoyed it nonetheless.  I would definitely make this again, but it would have to be about half as sweet for me. 

First assemble three crazy helpers

First, we started with the crust.  This is where most of the over-sweetness was.  I will have to think of something other than dates to hold this crust together.  Or maybe see if less dates would work.  We used 1 cup of nuts, about 3/4 cup of dates, about a tablespoon of coconut oil and 1/2 cup of oats for the crust.  Just whiz it up in the food processor. 

Make sure to cover your ears while the food processor is on!

Next for the filling, we cut up three apples (I would do four or five next time!) and chopped them in the food processor also.  Then I added 2 TBS chia seeds, 1/2 cup of water and about 1 cup applesauce to a bowl and let it sit for a bit.  When you put chia seeds in water they kind of make a gel, which is what I was going for.  This is where the other extra sweetness came in-- we had sweetened applesauce that someone had given us leftover from Thanksgiving.  I put the apples into the pie crust and then the applesauce mix, but next time I would stir them all together before dumping it in the crust. 

The chia seed mixture

Finally, we let it chill in the refrigerator until it was time to eat.

As I said before, this was good, but it was too sweet.  I would try this again with less dates in the crust (and more nuts to replace them) and unsweetened applesauce. 

I am really interested in using chia seeds as a thickener, especially to make pudding like foods.  I hope to have more experimenting on this soon!

Crust:
1/2 cup dates
1- 1 1/2 cups nuts
3/4 cups oats
1 TBS coconut oil

blend together in the food processor.  press into pie pan.

Filling:
4-5 apples chopped in food processor
1+ tsp cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
2 TBS chia seeds
1/2 cup water

mix all ingredients in a bowl. dump into pie crust.  let the pie set up and/or chill before you eat it.  mmmm. 

ps.  now that I'm looking at this last picture it could really use some crumbly oat topping!

Quick Lunch

The other day, I had NO IDEA what we were going to eat for lunch.  I could not fall back on the good 'ole peanut(almond)-butter-and-jelly because we didn't have any bread.  I had not been to the store in who-knows-how-long because I have just been avoiding it because I have not had a menu plan in place for weeks and I am in denial that my kitchen spirals out of control with no direction when I do not have a menu plan which I do not have and the kitchen is spiraling even at this moment.

but i digress.

Anyway, as I was bathing the kids (we spent the morning in the garden-- pulling out brussels sprouts!) I was scouring my brain to think of something to have.  In the end, I was just pulling things from the fridge and the cabinets, hoping it would come together into some semblance of food my children might like.  Here's what happened:

Garlic-Butter Spaghetti with Lemon-Tuna Salad
The spaghetti was easy: 
1/2 lb spaghetti
2 cloves garlic
4 TBS butter

Melt the butter, press in and saute the garlic, toss with spaghetti. 

The Salad:
1 can tuna
Small can sliced black olives
1/2 green pepper, diced to desired size
1 tomato, seeded and diced to desired size
Lemon juice

Mix the first four ingredients.  Toss with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.  I probably used about 2 TBS lemon juice, but I can't be sure.

I think it turned out pretty well.  I served the spaghetti with a spoon of the salad on top, but just mixed it all together as I was eating it.  Ben had two helpings, Sam had to be forced to eat (this is not unusual at our house), and Ellie-- well I think this picture sums up what she thought: