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Archive for the ‘Lunch’ Category

After the kids went to bed tonight, I tossed together some almond flour berry muffins.  The recipe is from Elana Amsterdam’s (of Elana’s Pantry) wonderful paleo book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.  I doubled and modified her delicious Chocolate Chip Banana Cake recipe to omit the honey, and used frozen mixed berries instead of chocolate chips.

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Banana-Berry Muffins

INGREDIENTSMuffin Close up

  • 3 c. blanched almond flour
  • 1/2 t. sea salt
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 T. vanilla extract
  • 1 c. frozen mixed berries
  • 1/2 c. (about 1-2) ripe bananas, mashed

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Arrange silicone muffin liners on a baking sheet.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, sea salt, and baking soda.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the liquid coconut oil, eggs, bananas, and vanilla extract.
  4. Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
  5. Fold in the mixed berries and fill each muffin liner about 2/3 full.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

After I was done making the kids’ lunches, I made mine.  I had some leftover celery sticks that didn’t fit in their lunches, so I put them in a container to take to work.  I decided I wanted some ranch dressing to dip it in.  While humming Rubber Ducky, I pondered my day and set about gathering ingredients.

Mid-hum, I realized that I’d assembled these ingredients, mindlessly and effortlessly, within seconds:

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Without a recipe, without looking anything up in a book, just … experience, in my fingertips.  Holy cow.  I think I might be getting the hang of this real food thing.  Within another couple of minutes, I had this:

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A few whips later and I had my celery dip:

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So Monday started out being a full-on pain in the ass, but after leaving work and as the evening wore on, I had a pretty awesome Monday.

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These are one of my favorite lunch items. I make the tuna salad and pack my romaine leaves in a ziplock the night before, so I can just grab my lunch bag and head out the door in the morning. Enjoy!

Tuna Salad Boats

Makes 4 leafy green boats of happiness2013-01-20 14.07.54

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 romaine leaves, washed and dried, thicker stem ends cut off
  • 1 can of tuna, drained and flaked
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped finely
  • 1 T. dried currants
  • 8-10 crispy almonds, chopped (here’s a recipe for how and why to use soaked and dehydrated nuts)
  • 1/4 c. olive oil mayonnaise, plus or minus, depending on your tastes (here’s a great recipe, with video!)
  • salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all ingredients EXCEPT the romaine leaves and mix well.
  2. Fill the romaine leaves with the tuna filling, holding like a soft taco.  Proceed to “mmmmm” and “ahhhhhh” over the devastating, tiny hits of sweet from the currants, the crunch from the celery and almonds, and the silky, savory, and healthy olive oil mayonnaise tying it all together.

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You know, going grain-free/gluten-free has not been hard.  I suppose we were about 90% of the way there since we’d already cut out pastas, crackers, most breads, and all other processed products containing white flour and refined sugar.  The thing that I was leaning on pretty heavily for my kids’ lunches (and my own, as work started intruding on my evenings at home and cutting into making-lunches time the last few months) was sprouted 7-grain bread.  I felt ok about buying it not only because it contained sprouted grains, but also because it is a local company.  But something always niggled at me.  We had cut out so many other easy grab-and-go processed foods, but we still grabbed the sprouted bread on *every* grocery trip.  At the beginning of 2013, almost exactly a year into our whole foods/SOLE foods (Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethical) diet changes, I finally confronted the ingredients label without my rose-colored glasses.  Can you see the problem?

Ingredients:  Whole sprouted grains of red wheat berries, oat groats, rye berries, barley, corn, rice, millet, wheat flour, water, wildflower light amber honey, vital wheat gluten, yeast, molasses, salt.

If you’re a glammed-up over-processed nuritionally-deficient waist-expanding health-deteriorating junk food, please take one step forward.  Why, hello, “wheat flour”.  Yeah.  ”Wheat flour” or “enriched wheat flour” is plain old white flour, wearing spanky clean pre-frayed jeans and a reproduction vintage T and trying to blend in with the newly-hip crunchy crowd.

After confronting the poser, I sighed and decided to go gluten-free, and while I was at it, grain free.  We’ve been leaning more and more towards paleo anyways so it wasn’t a big leap.  Since cutting out lunch sandwiches, my cheese consumption has gone way down, too, which was about the only dairy product (besides butter) that I was eating with any regularity.  Not that I have anything against dairy.  I have no problem with the occasional glass of milk or dish of yogurt, or a few slices of cheese.  It’s just not part of my daily or even weekly diet right now.  This isn’t rigid adherence to paleo/GAPS/any other prescribed food guidelines.  I am just actively listening to my body’s responses to what I feed it, and gently, respectfully isolating food experiences in order to hear its response more clearly.  The more I do that, the more it tells me exactly how to feed it best.  Right now it’s telling me that dairy is not desired or needed, simple as that.  Maybe it’s a winter thing, or a hormonal thing, or – who knows?  As always, I guess I’ll know more tomorrow.

All that said, here’s the delicious recipe for Almond Flour Biscuits that I used (thank you PaleoinPDX!) and a few pics of our delicious sandwiches.

Almond Flour Biscuits

Makes 12 biscuits

Ingredients2013-01-19 12.56.27

  • 2-1/2 c. blanched almond flour
  • 2 T. coconut flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. sea salt
  • 1/4 c. melted ghee, butter or coconut oil (I used coconut oil)
  • 3 T. honey

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl.
  3. Add the eggs, melted ghee and honey. Mix well until all the ingredients are incorporated.
  4. Drop large tablespoons of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a greased baking sheet.
  5. Run a wet hand or spoon over each biscuit to smooth out and flatten a bit.  They get larger in diameter as they bake, but not much higher.
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until they’re nicely browned.  I like to bake them for about 12 minutes in a normal oven, then put them on convection for 2 more minutes, to brown them up nicely.  These are better overdone than underdone, so go with your instincts.

When the biscuits are done, make a delicious bacon, tomato, and avocado sandwich using two of the biscuits.  Enjoy!

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Have you heard?  People are buying up Twinkies like they’re going out of business… Because they ARE.  Hostess just announced that last night’s Hostess delivery trucks carried the last of their delicious and GMO-filled products.  Say goodbye to Twinkies, Ho-Ho’s, Ding-Dongs, and Wonder bread. 

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Well, say goodbye right AFTER lunch.  All terrible things in moderation, right?  And if a Zombieland Twinkies scenario coming to life right before your eyes does not give you license to indulge in one, then I weep for your soul.

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I went to a local grocery store over lunch to snag a few boxes to Ebay.  (Go ahead, check it out.  One box was already on Ebay for $1500, with the Buy It Now price at $2000.)  All that was left were a few boxes of Cupcakes and Donettes.  It’s like a post-apocalyptic experience. Who knew that a Hostess delivery truck would be one of the four horsemen?

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Here’s a rundown of the last few weeks of school lunches.  I hope you find some cute ideas here!

A double corn fritter sun with cheese rays, and apple and cucumber slices. Snack is grapes and a string cheese cut up, in the Wexy bag.

Little ham and cheese sandwiches cut into pumpkin shapes on a bed of romaine, pineapple and strawberries, cucumber slices, and cheese cubes with fresh raspberries for snack.

Chicken tortilla soup (kept hot in the blue Thermos), some sprouted Way Better blue corn chips, a few sticks of cheese, strawberries and kiwi, two mini banana muffins, and half a fruit leather cut into a pumpkin shape. For Jessica’s snack, I cut a string cheese in half and put those and two grapes in the piggy, then put the outside of the pumpkin fruit leather cutout on top of that.

A real-food version of pizza “Lunchables”. I cut rounds out of a whole wheat pita, shredded some cheddar, used a pastry cutter to cut Applegate ham slices into fun little wavy squares, chopped some fresh pineapple, and dropped a cube of frozen homemade marinara sauce in. Voila, Lunchables! For snack I put a string cheese and a few strawberries into a Wexy monster bag for Jess, and Abby got olives.

Garden veggie soup, half of a whole wheat pita, pineapple, and cucumber slices. Snack for Jess is a string cheese and a sectioned clementine in a Wexy monster bag. (Abby got black olives.)

Jessica’s is on top, with an Applegate salami and cheese sandwich on sprouted bread, cut into a heart with a little monkey skewer holding it together, atop romaine leaves. Abby’s is the bottom lunch, with the same sandwich parts but cut into bats and put on kabobs. Then both girls have apple slices, a few grapes, clementine wedges, celery, and sunbutter. For snack, Jess has a string cheese, some grapes, and 3 multigrain crackers in a monster Wexy bag. Abby has black olives and grapes in the froggy.

Ham, cheese, grapes, clementine wedges, carrots, and a paleo pumpkin muffin that Jess helped make. Snack is a string cheese and a handful of grapes.

A paleo pumpkin muffin, butter, clementine wedges, celery, and plain yogurt with a bit of honey mixed in and berries. For snack, Abby got bunny-shaped cheese cut-outs and grapes, and Jess got a smoothie freeze pop.

A little ham and cheese sandwich cut into an acorn shape, string cheese, celery with sunbutter and raisins, corn and peas, and homemade apple sauce. Snack is a smoothie freeze pop.

Beans, meat, and cheese in the hot Thermos, tortilla rounds, lettuce, carrots, red pepper slices, and fruit leather strips. Snack is a berry yogurt smoothie freeze pop.

Half a ham and cheese sandwich on sprouted bread with cute little critter sticks stuck in. Half a banana with pineapple smeared on the end to prevent browning. Since both of my chicklets are battling colds right now, I want to make sure I’m sending lots of vitamin C. Clementine slices and kiwi chunks. Plain yogurt with frozen berries. For snack I made two large sections of ants on a log and put them in a Wexy bag.

Sprouted bread toast with cream cheese and a dollop of fruit spread. I put wax paper between the two layers of toast. Celery, cucumber, and pineapple. Jess has clementine wedges and a string cheese in a monster Wexy bag, and Abby has olives in her froggy. She cannot get enough of the olives.

Soup is in the blue Thermos, toasted sprouted bread with butter and two cheese bees, apple slices, and corn and peas. Snack is a smoothie freeze pop.

Whole wheat pasta with julienned carrots and cheese sticks, cucumber and red pepper slices, and a clementine with a jack o’ lantern face drawn on. Snack was a monster Wexy bag with apple slices and a string cheese.

Leftover chicken fajita mixture is kept hot in the blue Thermos. A whole wheat tortilla is rolled up, and there’s also yogurt and fresh raspberries, with a berry smoothie freeze pop for snack.

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If you’ve been watching my Facebook page, you’ll have seen me posting these this week.  I DO plan on posting soon about a book I’m reading, Trick and Treat by Barry Groves.  It’s fascinating.  It’s an in-depth, evidence-based look at why what we’ve all been told about “healthy” nutrition is wrong.  I can’t wait to share about it.  What are you reading right now?

Monday’s lunch was chili with a little sour cream mixed in to cut the spiciness (kept hot in the thermos), cornbread cut into pumpkins and topped with butter, cheese moons, apple slices, and a chocolate foil-wrapped bee for a treat. We found the bees on vacation last weekend and they were a special treat for the girls. Snack was in the Wexy bag; cheddar pumpkin seed flat bread broken into cracker-sized pieces, and a few pieces of cheese leftover from the moon cut-outs.

Tuesday’s lunch was toasted, sprouted bread oak leaves on a bed of romaine and a cut-up string cheese, and some kiwi chunks on the side. The little compartment had hummus with a radish slice flower stuck into it. A little gummy worm was hiding in the leaves!

Wednesday’s lunch was bean dip, ham, and sprout roll-up kabobs on a few leaves of romaine and maple cheese leaves, with celery/sunbutter/organic dried cranberry logs and fresh pineapple chunks. Of course the gummy is hiding out in the “ants on a log” sticks – where else would a worm hang out? Snack was grapes and half a string cheese cut up into chunks in a Wexy bag.

Thursday’s lunch was two waffle hearts with cheese hearts, a few grapes, some celery sticks and apple slices, and strawberry cream cheese dip/spread. Snack was a smoothie freeze pop.

Friday’s lunch was garden veggie soup, an apple flower on romaine leaves, half of a ham and cheese sandwich, and some kiwi slices. Snack was a smoothie freeze pop.

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Monday’s lunch was leftover chicken tortilla soup (kept hot in a thermos), a couple of strawberries, string cheese, a banana muffin, some cucumber slices, and a gummy worm. Snack was raw cashew chia pudding with half a strawberry in it.

Tuesday’s lunch was whole wheat banana pancakes cut into leaves a and an acorn, strawberry cream cheese spread, an Applegate ham “rose”with baby romaine leaves and cheese hearts, and a clementine. Snack was a smoothie freeze pop from the smoothie batch Jess and I made on Sunday. They’re strawberry, pineapple, and plain yogurt. I used a food processor to make the strawberry cream cheese spread, and all it contains is cream cheese, strawberries, and about a tablespoon of agave.

Wednesday’s lunch was split pea soup (in the blue thermos to keep it hot), sprouted seven grain toast “oak leaves”, a pat of butter, a gummy worm, apple slices, strawberry cream cheese dip, and little “pumpkins” made out of carrot slices and frilly toothpicks.

Thursday’s lunch was a ham, cheese, and romaine lettuce wrap, watermelon, and a whole wheat chocolate chip cookie. Snack was apple slices in a Wexy bag.

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For dinner Monday night we had Applegate’s Organic Chicken and Apple sausages, so I took a leftover one and sliced it up. Along with sprouted seven-grain bread and cheese cut into hearts, they made for some very cute “Lunchable”-type kabobs! Sliced cucumber, baby carrots, apple slices, and 9-count-’em-9 jellybeans made this a fun, healthy Monday lunch. Snack was some raw cashew chia pudding with sliced strawberries on top.


Tuesday’s lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich in the shape of a star with a little panda bear pick. Jessica loves broccoli so there was some of that tucked around it. Heirloom cantaloupe and organic strawberries are on the kabobs, and a few carrot sticks are visited by a gummy worm. Snack is celery with my sunflower seed butter (recipe: http://wp.me/p2igon-fE) and dried currants. I put them on a toothpick to secure them together, then wrapped them in wax paper and into a Wexy bag for the lunch bag.

Wednesday’s lunch was cantaloupe and strawberry kabobs on a bed of romaine, a cheese oak leaf and acorn, whole wheat alphabet noodles and peas, raw chocolate pudding, and a yummy organic gummy for a treat. That’s right, the chocolate pudding was not a treat – made with only cashews, walnuts, bananas, and raw cacao, that pudding was a nutrition-packed protein, potassium, and antioxidant super-food! Snack was a frozen smoothie pop.

Thursday’s lunch was a farro hotdish (kept hot in a thermos) with a romaine side salad and cucumbers, cheese oak leaves, kiwi hearts, and a gummy worm. Snack was crispy sweet Jonagold apple slices dunked in a water and lemon juice mixture to keep from browning, in a Wexy bag.

Friday’s lunch was toasted sprouted seven-grain bread with tuna salad, cucumber slices, baby carrot, celery with sunbutter, and a sectioned clementine. Since I’ve declared Fridays to be “Fruit Leather Fridays”, I used a cookie cutter to make it into the shape of a unicorn. Snack was a banana muffin.

 

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Well… happy Sunday!  How the heck did that get here so fast?!  If you’ve been following my Facebook page, you’ll have seen me posting my daughter Jessica’s lunches this week.  She’s 10 now and apparently has outgrown Tinkerbell.  When I asked her at dinner tonight how she liked her Tinkerbell that I put in her lunch, she kind of shrugged and gave me this look I am quickly becoming to understand is on par with the look you give your grandma when she brings out her new atomic clock that she ordered through Publisher’s Clearing House.  I am the uncool parent that tries really hard, and gets sympathy points for that, but when push comes to shove, Tinkerbell’s shoved to the bottom of the lunchbag.  She saw my fallen face and quickly reassured me that “Don’t worry, Mom, nobody else saw it.  I took it out of there really fast.”  So.  Tinkerbell is on the D-list with the purple peace sign set these days.  Ah well.  The rules change hourly, at times.

Monday’s lunch is whole wheat waffle heart-shaped sandwiches with cherry cream cheese filling, cantaloupe/kiwi/pineapple salad, and turkey and string cheese cube kabobs on a bed of sprouts. Two organic gummy worms grace the heart compartment. Her snack is in the Wexy bag, and it’s a blend of dried unsweetened coconut flakes, dried cranberries, roasted pepitas and sunflower seeds, and a (very) few Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips.


Tuesday’s lunch is whole wheat wraps with my herbed bean spread, sprouts, and ham. Abby’s wrap has avocado but Jess doesn’t like avo. Odd child. There are also grape and cheese kabobs, and a blobby of the cherry cream cheese as a dip for
celery. A few kiwi hearts and some jellybeans are in there for color. I’m not sure why, but a lot of these lunches are coming out orange and green. They’re sorta monochromatic, but at least they’re not just different shades of brown like the processed food lunches available at school.

Wednesday’s lunch is two whole wheat banana pancakes cut into beehives and stacked on romaine leaves and a few sprouts; cheese bees and hearts; pineapple pieces rolled up in Applegate organic ham; a cherry cream cheese dollop surrounded by apple pieces; and two organic sour gummy worms. For snack there is a Wexy bag with some dried coconut flakes, raisins, and toasted seeds.


Thursday’s lunch is organic garden vegetable soup (in the blue Thermos), which I will heat up in the morning so it’s still hot at lunch. The sandwich is organic ham and cheese on sprouted 7-grain bread, with organic corn, peas, strawberries, and two sugary little gummy worms. Snack is a smoothie freeze pop. It is really important to us to only buy organic strawberries. The laundry list of pesticides used on conventional strawberries is criminal.

Friday’s lunch is leftovers from tonight’s dinner. In the blue Thermos there will be refried beans, taco meat, and melted cheese, all kept nice and hot til lunch. Then in the big compartment there is lettuce on the bottom with 4 mini-tortillas cut from one large tortilla. With the scraps from the big tortilla, I cut out hearts, brushed them with coconut oil (the only oil that’s ok to heat) and sprinkled a little sea salt on them, and baked them for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees F. Chips! Then there are also strawberries and carrots, and fruit leather.

So what do you pack in your kids’ lunches?  Do they help choose, or do you surprise them with little things?  Do you include a treat every day, or once a week?  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Sprouted seven-grain bread, lettuce, heirloom tomato, and tuna salad for the sandwich.  Tuna salad is sustainably-caught tuna, organic Spectrum brand mayo, celery, red onion, sea salt and pepper.  String cheese and strawberries on the side.  Yum!

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