Impress Your People: How Can This Be Vegan and Gluten-Free?

Sometimes you want food that doesn't taste like health food. For your enjoyment, here are some dinner recipes that have been hits around here. They're best planned for weekends--especially the first time you try them, because they take some time--but none are actually difficult. Perhaps you'll even find one to use for a holiday gathering.

First up, here's my variation on the Cheeseburger Sheet Pan Dinner originally from Vegan Richa. If you think of a recipe in terms of its elements, they'd be nutrition, substance, color, shape, texture, and flavor. This recipe gets the first five from vegetables and tofu, but the a lot of the flavor is from other ingredients we associate with burgers: ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire (heads up that most in stores either contain wheat or fish, so if you want neither, make your own), even some barbecue sauce and vegan mayonnaise. The result is a meal that tastes like its name, not like the chickpeas and other visible components of its substance. 

From the Game Changers, enjoy Herb Crusted Butternut Squash. Yes, it's a main dish. (Peas are the side.) The most time-consuming part can be done that day before if you like. Serve piping hot.

Of course we need a lasagna occasionally in cold weather, don't we? This one uses Miyoko's mozzarella, a cashew ricotta, and brown rice noodles. By all means, add any more vegetables you want. I know some of you are mushroom people, and who among us doesn't sometimes have a zucchini at risk of going to waste?

Here's one we make at least once or twice a month now: Roasted Pineapple Black-Bean Bowls. The original recipe, which I tweaked a little (surprise!) is in a cookbook I found at my library: The No-Meat Athlete. It's less time-consuming than the aforementioned, with available shortcuts like using canned beans, store-bought salsa, etc. Roasting the pineapple and sweet potatoes is the important part.

Speaking of bowls, Barbecue Bowls are a little different each time we make them. The essentials, in my opinion, are chickpeas in barbecue sauce and some form of corn. This one is easy enough to sometimes get made on weeknights, although I only like the cornbread hot and have to ensure time for that to bake.

So here we have it, five hot meals, vegan and gf--and not only do they not taste like We Are Eating Clean Today, but we are eager to eat leftovers the next day for lunch or even breakfast, if there are any. Enjoy.

What's for Dinner

Are you looking for a new dish to try? By request, the sort of things we've been eating lately:

• Creamy French Lentils with Mushrooms and Kale by The First Mess 
• Vegan Baked French Toast, modified from The Daily Meal (I use a couple of mashed bananas as an egg replacement and some almond milk with a splash of almond creamer instead of nog.)
• Naoko Yashioka's Butter Chicken and Rice recipe, with most of the chicken typically replaced with extra mushrooms, the sake omitted, tamari instead of regular soy sauce, and the dairy butter replaced with Miyoko's.
• Cranberry Pecan Salad from Peas and Crayons, usually replacing the green onions with a dash of onion powder or a minced shallot, and skipping the sunflower seeds because I've yet to see any that aren't "processed in a facility that also processes wheat." Sir Kensington's Fabanaise has become my mayo of choice.
• Black Bean Soup from Good Housekeeping
• West African Peanut Stew, loosely based on the one in A Good Soup Attracts Chairs and the one in C is for Cooking... something along the lines of this, but with more veggies (and often featuring the veggie broth from the River Cottage Family Cookbook, sans parsley).
• Jamie Oliver's white beans and tomatoes (fagioli all'italiana) from Jamie's Italy-- DO NOT discard the potato. I serve red wine vinegar on the side, because my people have anti-vinegar biases I don't understand.
• Veggie frittata -- beat several eggs, add whatever veggies you want and some spices, and bake half an hour (at 325) in a greased pie plate. I most often use grated zucchini and carrots for veggies, and then slice a Roma tomato or two for the top.
• "Bacon Soup" (It's just as good with a bit less bacon.)
• Salade Niçoise (roughly based on Mark Bittman's recipe in Food Matters-- I never use tuna, only beans.)
• Butternut Squash Salad with Tahini Dressing (I omit the cilantro, because why is that even a thing?)
• Honey Lime Sesame Wings (except I don't bother with the sesame seeds).

I know what you're thinking, and you're right: I can't leave anything alone. You know what, though? I get something I like for dinner pretty much every night. It's worth a little tinkering.

Happy cooking!

Salad for breakfast

Wait, wait, hear me out!

Okay, here's the thing. Breakfast has to take place; it needs to be quick and easy; it should be healthy. And I've quit eating dairy (bye, yogurt). And if you're new around these parts, we've been gluten-free for a year now, so a lot of easy breakfast (and lunch and dinner and snack) foods are No Longer a Thing, or at least not so easy.

I present to you this solution: Make a salad the night before and put it in a jar in the fridge.

You can't eat a salad while driving, true, but eating while driving is probably not as good for you as eating either before you leave or after you arrive. I've found I can eat a half-pint jar of salad while the coffee's brewing. It's healthier than a muffin. And look, you've already had a vegetable!

The best one I've found for breakfast tastes sunny and cheerful:

In a glass salad bowl, mix together the juice of one orange, juice of one lemon (or lime), and a bit of agave (maybe two tablespoons for a large bowl of salad; the original recipe said to use honey, but that has kind of a strong taste).
Shred an apple or two, and mix in.
Shred a couple of carrots, and mix in.
Chop some red cabbage, and mix that in.
Now stir in some raisins and a dash of salt.
Put some unsalted peanuts aside. You'll want to put those in just before eating so they don't get soggy.

You could add anything else you like, of course. Cut-up orange sections, or pineapple? Some pomegranate seeds?

Other salads definitely work for breakfast, too--another one I like has chickpeas with quartered red grapes, celery, pecans, dried cranberries, and a little Fabanaise (you have found this amazing stuff by now, haven't you? with the Carolina blue lid?) and Dijon. Sometimes I add cucumber.

Even it's leftovers from a salad you ate at dinner, you can just spoon some into a jar, pop a lid on, and you're all set.

For me, the trick is making sure I do it before I leave the kitchen after dinner. If breakfast is already made and sitting there in the fridge for me when I get up, I'll definitely eat it (at that point it's free food, right?). I feel so much better when I eat a breakfast like this than I did when I'd eat something like a bagel with cream cheese.

T is not so keen on the salads and usually has coconut yogurt over fruit, such as berries or mango, and some gluten-free cereal on the side.

I'm not so into coconut and at nevermindety-one years old, should probably skip the sweetened cereal anyway. Beyond salads, another alternative I like is leftover cooked quinoa warmed up with some almond milk, pecans, raisins, and a dash of cinnamon, with a tiny bit of maple syrup drizzled on top. Quick, delicious, and comforting.

My latest cookbook recommendation for you is Vegan Reset by Kim-Julie Hansen. I always prefer to check cookbooks out of the library before buying, and I think I'm going to buy this one. Like nearly all cookbooks nowadays, it has gorgeous pictures, but more importantly, this one has food I actually want to eat! Each week's menu plan includes some make-ahead items to make nightly dinner preparation faster.



As always, no affiliate links here except Plan to Eat (which I happily am paying to use, but could theoretically get some money back from if anybody ever joins after clicking my recipe links). This is simply what's working for me. Happy eating!

In which soccer is at the wrong time

And now we come to August. The old back-to-school routine. (For other people. We've been doing this year-round since 2012.) We finally got the soccer practice schedule, and the word is.... 5:30 on Wednesdays, right when I should be cooking.
In hopes of not having weeks that look like Monday - errands; Tuesday - scouts or church meeting; Wednesday - soccer (and archery when soccer runs out); Thursday - piano; Friday - scouts or whatever... that is, driving nearly every afternoon/night--I'm going to put piano on Wednesdays also and pack dinner. Piano and soccer are both 20-25 minutes away in the same general direction, and archery (which is the same time as soccer) is literally around the corner from piano.
So.
All meals gluten-free. And until I make that allergist appointment, free of coconut and cherries. (Currently sitting at #2 of the seven different medical-related appointments I need to make with seven different providers for T or myself. Why can't we do this online, y'all??) And we never do food coloring or alcohol. And we might be dropping even gf oats: oats are complicated and I prefer not to have to do mail-order to get purity protocol stuff. For now, I think they're okay in small quantities, such as to hold a meatball or veggie burger together. (A dietitian is #3 on the list, I promise.)
Most meals plant-based. This is the requirement with the most room for flexibility. We need calories, T (who does not like avocado or any dips) especially.
Three Tuesday nights a month quick and easy, so we can finish eating by 6 PM.
Friday night meals simple enough for T to make, with light supervision, starting in September (and finished eating by 6 at least one time a month). This kid is going to need at least mid-level meal-planning and cooking skills as a survival strategy. (My dear spousie left home able to make burger patties, scrambled eggs, French toast, and possibly adequate pancakes--nothing else from scratch at all. And is about at the same level a couple of decades later, courtesy of having married Yours Truly rather young. Given the the typical age range for getting married nowadays, I think T needs to be able to hit the ground running.)
AND
Wednesday night meals portable, with enough calories to get a kid through soccer practice, but not heavy.

Sure.
Meal plan to follow.

Gluten-Free July Menu

This should be considered a very, very general approximation, as July is turning out to be quite busy. Weeks are separated to start on Mondays:

1   Paleo breakfast casserole, fruit salad. I overdid it on the bacon this time. Next time I'll put more emphasis on the sweet potatoes, which really make this casserole. Note to produce managers: Small watermelons are best! Please offer watermelons that are not 50 servings.

2   Mac and cheese with broccoli, cherry pie (gf crust from a King Arthur mix).
3  Salade Nicoise and possibly America's Test Kitchen gf bagels (we haven't tried them before).
4  Just smoothies and popcorn, because we'll have eaten lunch at an event.
5  Maple Dijon chicken, carrot apple salad, possibly rice.
6  Potatoes with mustard cream, fruit salad, corn on the cob if I get to the farmers' market.
7   Lasagna.
8   Leftover lasagna plus leftover cheesy bread from the freezer, possibly buckeye candy.

9  Smoked apple veggie burgers, likely with homemade gf buns (either America's Test Kitchen or Stephanie Sain's), salad or crudites, maybe a can of cranberry sauce because we like it year-round.
10  Butter chicken/mushrooms with rice, maybe carrots added, likely with a dessert.
11  Mexican stuff. I do have some ground meat in the freezer if we don't want just beans.
12  Sticky sesame cauliflower, rice, possibly fruit salad again.
13  Maybe just gf pasta and tomato sauce and smoothies.
14  Maybe "bacon soup" with gf flatbread.
15  Crock-pot sweet potatoes, eggs, salad. I don't know yet what I'm making for lunch, but it will be for 10 to 12 people, and then I'm attending an afternoon event; my spouse may have to make dinner.

16  Creamy mushrooms, zoodles, pumpkin pie rice pudding.
17  Turkey meatballs, salad.
18  Broccoli cheddar quesadillas.
19  If I have time: eggplant "bacon," Brussels sprouts and apples, gf English muffins.
20  Crock-pot stuffed tomatoes, corn on the cob.
21  Rice and lentil pilaf, Waldorf salad dessert.
22  Maple Dijon chicken, Crock-pot sweet potatoes, peanut butter chocolate pie.
   
23  Peanut soup, either with rice in it or some kind of bread on the side.
24  Mac and cheese, salad.
25  Blueberry pancakes.
26  Homemade pizza.
27 {Leaving open for now}
28  Yellow split peas (new-to-me recipe) and gf flatbread.
29  Stuffed tomatoes (not the same kind as the 20th) and cheesy bread.

30  Vegan mini quiches or kale souffles.
31   Roasted mushrooms and a salad.

Veggie broth challenge results

Tired of resorting to store-bought vegetable broth (which I never do with chicken broth), I made up my mind to find one good recipe and use it henceforward.

If only it were that easy.

I started with three recipes: Mark Bittman's recipe in Food Matters, taking his suggestion to saute the veggies before adding water; the one from The River Cottage Family Cookbook; and the one from The Everything Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Cookbook.

I went to the farmer's market and a grocery store, and in 90 minutes spent a small fortune on vegetables (and peppercorns). Then I spent the next four hours cooking.

I'll tell you right off, the last recipe was a complete fail. Six hours in my Crock-Pot--I left it until after dinner, long after the others were finished, as instructed--and it tasted, simply, of wet onion. My husband didn't like it, either. I actually dumped this, cringing at the waste. So much for saving time in front of the stove.

The other two cook on the stovetop, as you'd expect of broth. Bittman calls for 4 carrots, 2 medium onions, 2 potatoes (I used organic Yukon gold), 3 stalks of celery, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, 20 stems of parsley, and salt and pepper. He also claims that the recipe takes 20 to 40 minutes; this is, to put it in friendly terms, fiction. Allow an hour at least.
After 30 minutes, the suggested simmering time, it was effectively a light parsley broth. I moved the parsley to the compost bin, added a chopped Roma tomato, and set it back to cooking another half an hour. Finally, it was fairly good, though maybe just one notch better than what you get from Pacific Organic's shelf-stable cartons. Next time I make this, I'll omit the parsley entirely and pile in the tomatoes. Maybe, as he suggests in the notes, add some sauteed mushrooms. Verdict: Requires modification, and is by no means as quick as the author suggests, but workable.

The River Cottage broth was interesting--the only broth recipe I've seen that calls for lettuce. A head of lettuce (I used Boston Bibb), 3 large carrots, 2 onions, 4 stalks of celery, leeks (they say 3; I only used 1), 3 sprigs of parsley, a handful of fresh thyme springs, plus 2 bay leaves and 5 or 6 peppercorns. As you'd expect from a family cookbook, it was straightforward and accurate. The broth had more depth of flavor to it than Bittman's recipe and was likewise about an hour's work, but it still wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I wound up mixing the two mostly successful broths. I used some of the mixture as a base for Bittman's chickpea stew, which also requires heavy modification to suit me but turned out rather nice, and put the rest away in canning jars. Tomorrow I'll freeze them.

After spending most of my day on it, I wouldn't say I have a winner nailed down. Next time I need to make broth, perhaps I'll throw some lettuce into Bittman's, in addition to the other changes.
Or maybe I'll see if America's Test Kitchen has a recipe.

Gluten-Free June Menu and Pros and Cons of a GF Kitchen

First, now that we're three months in, here are some thoughts on pros and cons of making the whole house gluten-free when only one person is proven to need it:

 Pro:

• I am making ONE meal.
• I don't have to answer, eleven times a day, "Is this gluten-free? Can I have this? Is this okay to eat?"
• No cross-contact issues because somebody used the wrong bread/knife/toaster/jam/dishcloth/cutting board/whatever. I know us--that would be an issue every single day and twice on Sunday.
• T doesn't need to be jealous of what anyone else is eating. If it comes in the house, anybody can have some.
• Non-GF people can eat what they choose when they're away from home anyway.
• When something is genetic and doesn't cause obvious symptoms in one person, there's a possibility that somebody else in the family has the same issue and doesn't know it.

Con:

• It's more expensive.

It's also more trouble to cook from scratch gf, and a number of store-bought gf items have ingredients I'd rather not buy (palm oil in cookies!?), but that's going to be an issue in feeding T no matter what I do for the rest of us. Overall, I'm really glad I did it in one fell swoop and no longer have to worry about making mistakes and feeding T something wrong. Any time I can get something on autopilot around here, it goes much better!

Here's my family's tentative dinner menu for the month of June. It's free of gluten, palm oil, alcohol (except the occasional vanilla extract, which could be replaced), food coloring, and coconut. You may notice that it's vegetarian roughly three nights out of four, vegan only about a third of those. I know that eating plants is better for our arteries and the environment. I'm working on it, but...

• T and I need to make sure to get enough calories, with T needing to gain 1.5 lbs. a month and me to hold steady--preferably without living on potato chips--and T doesn't like dips or sauces;
• my spouse is a firmly entrenched and enthusiastic carnivore whose arrival time home from work is somewhat unpredictable; and
• the restrictions above, plus keeping an eye toward limiting our trash output, are enough of a challenge for me right now.

I'm using the free trial of Plan to Eat, and I think I'm going to subscribe next week when the trial is up: I hate it when I forget to put something on the grocery list and have to run back out, make a meal without it (if that's even possible) or come up with something else. Spontaneous I am decidedly not, and "Screw it, fast food is two minutes away" is no longer an option because T can't eat it. So the way PTE pulls a shopping list right from the recipes on the calendar for the dates I pick, then lets me cross out anything I already have, is saving me trouble and probably money. Plus I've customized all the recipes to just the way I like them; I don't have to remember that I like to add this or omit that from the way it's written in a cookbook or on a website. (Update: I did decide to subscribe for a year. Disclosure: If you visit one of my recipes on PTE or click my referral link, then sign up for a trial and eventually decide to pay for a subscription, I could in theory get a little money back, maybe even enough to pay for my subscription in the future.)

I'll probably post lunches for the week of June 11, since T is going to a day camp. I'll also be trying out some veggie broth recipes and announcing the winner here. (What? You do something else when you have five hours kid-free?) It's been bugging me for a couple of years that chicken broth is my only decent option--I've never found store-bought vegetable broth I love, nor a recipe that's worthwhile.

A * means a recipe I've never tried before. A dozen new recipes a month is about how things go at my house right now. Don't worry: If anything's a dud, I'll tell you.

ATK Brazilian Cheese Rolls, AKA cheesy bread, which is definitely not a dud.

June 2018 meal plan
1 Veggie frittata: stir together 4 to 6 eggs, kernels of an ear of corn (I had it left over), a minced raw new potato, sprinkle of shredded cheese, twist of black pepper. Pour into a pie plate sprayed with nonstick spray. Top with one sliced Roma tomato and bake 25 minutes at 350F, or a little longer if you added more eggs. Works with virtually any vegetable--shredded zucchini or carrot is nice. This is a great recipe to use up odds and ends.

2 Zoodles* and homemade tomato sauce, America's Test Kitchen Brazilian cheese rolls, homemade ice cream, lemonade. The cheesy bread, as we've come to call it, is so good it's worth picking up a bag of tapioca flour even if you don't normally cook gluten-free.

3 Out to local gluten-free restaurant for a special occasion. Oops, both of the restaurants we had in mind were closed. Home for ice cream.

4 Japanese butter chicken and rice--I used one skinless boneless chicken thigh and a good little pile of mushrooms for the three of us--and sweet potatoes in the Crock-Pot.

5 GF pasta with clam sauce and frozen peas. A plan for us has to have the occasional meal from non-perishable stuff so I have some margin to use up leftovers, or scary things happen in my fridge.

6 Baked jicama fries* (Y'all, that was a dud, so I de-linked the recipe: we didn't like the flavor or the texture.), chickpea salad* on these quick tapioca-based buns from Stephanie Sain*, smoothies.
I usually make smoothies with strawberries, raw baby spinach, a frozen banana or half an avocado, a splash of orange juice, a little almond milk or yogurt, and cold water. This time instead of OJ, I used some of that new Ripple chocolate pea milk I decided to buy a few days ago--big hit with T.

7 A veggie frittata. This one was shredded potato and carrot and a sliced Roma tomato. I put in about a tablespoon of shredded cheese I had left over.

8 Salad, with kidney beans added to make it a main course, and I'm going to try making gf soft pretzels*. King Arthur, don't fail me now! Update: The dough didn't stick together well enough to roll--not necessarily Art's fault, as I used the ATK flour blend since that's what I had. I pressed it flat and used a cookie cutter, continued the recipe except baked them for only ~9 minutes, and marketed them as "pretzel bites." Very good.

9 Roasted chicken, this amazing chocolate mousse from Hurry the Food Up, red potatoes baked in the Crock-Pot, and leftover salad.

10 Leftovers?

11 Chickpea stew* and Brazilian cheese rolls (I saved some in a quart canning jar in the freezer last time I made them).

12 Mark Bittman's gluten-free flatbread* used as pizza crust.

13 Eggplant "bacon"* (always looking for a way to make eggplant that's worthwhile) and eggs, and some tomatoes or watermelon or something.

14 Salad, creamy mushroom skillet* from veahero.com

15 Veggie paella*, smoothies.

16 Vegan Mexican stuff: black beans (simmered with onion for a few hours, with spices on my husband's), lettuce or baby spinach, tomato, guacamole, jalapeños (again, for my husband), store-bought salsa, and probably the Siete brand of almond flour tortillas and/or Late July tortilla chips.
I miss homemade flour tortillas but haven't yet found a substitute I like, either store-bought or homemade. We don't really enjoy corn tortillas.

17 Sticky sesame cauliflower (our favorite way to eat cauliflower by far), brown rice, maybe some sweet tea.

18 Broccoli cheddar quesadillas* and a Waldorf salad dessert*. (Yes, more stuff I've never made before. It's an adventure.)

19 GF pasta or zoodles and tomato sauce, raw veggies.

20 Veggie stir-fry with peanuts, rice, smoothies.

21 Turkey burgers and zucchini fries. I didn't love the ATK buns the first time I tried them, so I'll either buy Udi's from the freezer section or make the Stephanie Sain ones linked above again. Those are pretty good.

22 Salad, and I'm going to try beef stroganoff in the slow cooker*. Once in the month is consistent with my view of beef as a "sometimes food."

23 Zen crunch bowl* and the aforementioned mousse.

24 Leftovers or whatever I come up with.

25 Mexican again, and lemonade.

26 GF pancakes. I am not ashamed of breakfast for dinner.

27 Sweet potatoes, salad, bacon-wrapped pineapple (Wrap bacon around pineapple chunks and secure with toothpick, and bake 30 minutes at 325F.).

28 GF mac and cheese with a vegetable thrown in and yes, again with the mousse, or something else interesting.

29 Roasted mushrooms with garlic and thyme, probably some arborio rice, canned cranberry sauce.

30 GF pasta and sauce and cheesy bread? or maybe scrambled eggs, and I'll try making these rocky road cupcakes*.

I'll update as I see how the schedule plays out.

Hey, y'all.

It's been a while! We've continued to eat every day :) but not usually from a lunch box. I do have kitchen news, though, and something I hope will help others.

For years I resisted the gluten-free diet trend, preferring instead to explore the wonders of sourdough baking and push our diet in a more plant-centered direction. With T recently diagnosed with celiac disease, however, I've cleared gluten out of our kitchen. Here's my checklist (PDF, print double-sided), in case you're needing to do the same. It was expensive and a lot of work, so I don't recommend it if it isn't medically necessary for you; gradual changes are easier as long as you keep working toward your desired diet.

T needs to gain about a pound and a half a month right now, so there's also a lot more meat and dessert going on around here. And especially without PB & J as the basis for lunch, a lot more cooking and dish-washing. I've bought some celery, so at least now we can do ants on a log.

If you're in the same boat, here are some simple gluten-free meal ideas:

• A veggie frittata - I like to sauté some mushrooms first, beat about 6 eggs, and mix the eggs and mushrooms along with some spices (salt, pepper, maybe sage, whatever). I pour it into a buttered glass pie plate. Top with Roma tomato slices, and a little grated cheese or nutritional yeast. Throw on a little zucchini or finely grated carrot if you like. Cook in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes.
• Japanese butter chicken (I omit the sake) and brown rice with an easy vegetable, such as microwaved frozen peas - I freeze the extra rice in a canning jar. Make sure to use tamari rather than a soy sauce that contains wheat!
• Salad and popcorn are easy sides for something like tofu, bacon (check ingredients) or shrimp.
• I liked these slow cooker turkey meatballs. T liked them without the sauce. To isolate some in the slow cooker and keep them plain, use a pint canning jar. 
• This sticky sesame cauliflower recipe is really good. It's vegan as written, but I replace the agave with honey for convenience.
• Baked potatoes are naturally gluten-free and go great with broccoli and cheese. White or sweet potatoes do very well in a slow cooker: Wash, put them in whole, and cook on low 6 to 12 hours. Small ones cook a bit faster. They come out amazing. Covington sweet potatoes are my favorite vegetable to eat plain.
• Most stuffed tomato or pepper recipes are gluten-free, or can easily be made that way. Here's an example: brown some beef, with minced onion and garlic as desired. Mix with cooked rice, the tomato bits scooped with a melon baller after slicing off the top, some oregano and other Italian seasonings, a little grated cheese, and a beaten egg. Fill the tomatoes and bake 25-30 minutes in a 325 or 350F oven. Bell peppers do better if steamed a few minutes before filling and baked a little longer.
• Many soups can be made gluten-free. I plan to make peanut soup tomorrow--something along the lines of this one.

And now to the important issue, as far as T is concerned: What about dessert?

• Ice cream is GF unless it has add-ins like cookie dough. GF cones are an expensive specialty item; it might be worthwhile to make a banana split or sundae instead.
• I tried a buckeye recipe (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate). They're a bit messy to make, but good.
• King Arthur Flour (no affiliation) has some GF recipes and products. Today we made the caramel corn with peanuts. Unfortunately, Boy Scout popcorn has malt flavoring, so we won't be able to buy it this fall unless they make changes. Homemade it is.
• There's always fruit salad, or a parfait with gf granola. (Yeah, oat products are presumably contaminated unless marked otherwise.)

Spring adventure lunches

For the six-year-old:

-- Peanut butter on crackers; raisins; extra PB for the celery in the little red container;
-- Fruit "pudding";
-- Tomatoes, broccoli, celery, and carrots;
-- Bee-shaped cake;


For the parent:

-- Carrots and broccoli with ranch dip;
-- Butterfly-shaped cake;
-- Crackers with roasted chicken and cheese;
-- Almonds.
I wish I had some grapes to add this time.

The cakes are from a modified recipe from My Halal Kitchen: I replaced the blueberries with mini chocolate chips, reduced the sugar slightly, and baked for about 25 minutes in silicone molds.

Laptop Lunch

-- Salad;
-- BBQ chicken;
-- Sweet potato chips;
-- Rice car; strawberries.

Stay safe this week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.

May already!

Here are some new lunches:

-- Strawberries sliced into homemade vanilla yogurt;
-- Crackers;
-- Colby Jack cheese star;
-- Cucumber and Roma tomato.

-- Celery (Carrots would've been more colorful but are not allowed at preschool); peas;
-- Raisins;
-- Cucumber;
-- Half a PB & J on wheat.

-- Ham, cheese and tomato on multigrain bread;
-- Almonds;
-- Cucumber.

Basic Breakfast

So normally this is all about lunch, but a friend was asking what we do about breakfast, and I thought I'd share with the class. Frankly, 4+ years of parenting has eroded my tendencies to be a morning person, and I grew up on Froot Loops and whatnot for breakfast anyway--so you are not going to see my weekday breakfast table piled high. Yet especially if you are going five or more hours from breakfast to lunch, cereal doesn't really cut it... and even without considering the sugar overload, T's unpleasant reaction to food coloring eliminates the cereals I ate as a kid and a fair number I'd otherwise eat now (Et tu, Basic 4?!).

Skipping breakfast is literally never an option for me, as I will be a wreck by 10 AM at the latest. I can only imagine how T would be without food in the morning--this kid eats breakfasts, plural. Just as with lunch or dinner, nutrition starts at the grocery store. Here are my suggestions. We have at least a few of these available every day to choose from.

Yogurt. Growing kids can have whole-milk yogurt; grown-ups should choose low-fat or nonfat. I'm so tired of reading labels nowadays to screen for artificial ingredients that I grab something certified organic or make my own. (Not hard! Really!) One little cup is not enough for a full breakfast, so choose something else, too. Sprinkle a little granola or wheat germ on the top if you like.

Fresh fruit. Worst case scenario is a banana grabbed on the way out the door, but with only ~70 calories, that's not a full meal. Oranges are fine for those with the patience to peel and de-seed at sunrise, but again, that's a side dish. Better is to make some fruit salad the night before and have it in the fridge, ready to entice your newly wakened family. (What to put in it? Well, what fruits do you like? Watermelon, blueberries, and green grapes would be a nice start.) Fruit salad is nice with some vanilla yogurt, too.

Homemade muffins in the freezer. Make a batch on the weekend and freeze in freezer bags. Defrost one on a plate in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. My secret for making muffins with a texture I like is to use a recipe for a quick bread instead (pumpkin bread rather than pumpkin muffins, banana bread rather than banana muffins, etc.). Allrecipes.com has a zillion of them.

Quick oats, not instant. Instant comes in the little packets with flavoring, but then 1) You have to eat two, because one is not enough; 2) You are stuck with whatever flavor is in the box; 3) Instant costs more; AND 4) Instant is not actually faster unless you have boiling water on tap. So I buy the quick oats. I microwave (in a glass bowl) 1/2 cup quick oats mixed with about 3/4 cup of water, and it's done in about 45 seconds. Stir in whatever you want--I put in 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some raisins and crumbled pecans.

Trail mix. Cheerios (original kind) + almonds or peanuts + small dried fruit + just a couple of chocolate chips or yogurt-covered raisins. Maybe some other cereal, too, if you like. Trail mix is far more portable than a bowl of cereal, and never soggy. Make up a big container full if you like.

Leftovers. If it was a healthy dinner, it can be a healthy breakfast. There is nothing wrong with some leftover veggie pizza or anything else that was good enough to eat twelve hours ago (assuming you refrigerated it promptly, of course).

Beverages. For a growing child, offer a side of milk or slightly diluted 100% fruit juice to add more calories. Or consider a smoothie! T likes rice milk + strawberries + a banana + baby spinach. (No, you don't taste the spinach.) Pumpkin + vanilla yogurt + nutmeg and cinnamon + milk is also nice. You can even make a smoothie the night before, though you'll have to shake it or stir it before drinking. Large mason jars are handy for that. A smoothie is great with a muffin.


One I haven't done myself, but looks clever: eggs baked in a muffin tin or ramekins. Mini veggie quiches would be especially nutritious. Again, do it on the weekend and warm it up when you want to eat. Might be nice with an English muffin (look for whole wheat).

What other great breakfast ideas have you discovered for busy mornings?

Bunny love

An Easter/garden bento for preschool:

-- Apple flowers and broccoli grass;
-- Bunny crackers;
-- Bunny-shaped hard-boiled egg half;
-- Sushi rice bunnies, also made with the egg mold.
T ate everything but the egg: even making it bunny-shaped is not enough to make an egg appealing for this child. I can't complain, though, because the kid ate the broccoli.

I made bunny- and basket-shaped banana cakes for the class (using a recipe from My Halal Kitchen, omitting the blueberries and including homemade vanilla yogurt and a bit of cinnamon) using a silicone baking mold. Adding some vanilla cream cheese frosting was delicious if a bit messy.

My husband's lunch was quick:

-- Stir-fried chicken and vegetables over rice, left over from dinner last night;
-- Hard-boiled egg;
-- Banana cake. His was shaped like a bee. (There were also some ladybugs and butterflies. Note my use of the past tense--they're all gone now!)

Spring = Strawberries! :)

Grownup lunch:

-- Salad;
-- Honey barbecue chicken;
-- Strawberries;
-- Wheat crackers and cheese in the little bag.


And a Toddlebug lunch:

-- Homemade vanilla yogurt with strawberries;
-- Graham crackers;
-- Cucumber;
-- Peanut butter & chocolate almond butter sandwich.

Peanut butter bento

Three vegetarian lunches for you today. First up is T's preschool lunch:

-- Yellow pear;
-- Cereal;
-- Celery;
-- Peanut butter and jelly on a tortilla.


Here's my husband's lunch for today.

-- Almonds; PB&J on "daddy bread";
-- Celery and carrots (underneath) with hummus;
-- Roma tomato.


And here's his lunch from yesterday, using glass containers inside the Laptop Lunches bag.

-- Cheese sandwich with heart imprints; almonds;
-- Grapes;
-- Lemon (knife is to the right, with the blade wrapped in a paper napkin);
-- Yogurt-covered raisins in the little red box.

Going Green

St. Patrick's Day and the equinox are coming! Kiddo's snack today was green grapes and a green smoothie (banana, a little pineapple, rice milk, vanilla yogurt, a splash of coconut milk and a large handful of baby spinach). Fortunately, I'd been forewarned about the class's special snack (shamrock cookie and green Jello, both with food coloring), so I was able to give T something equivalent but tartrazine-free.

Lunch also had a bit of green to it:

-- Broccoli;
-- Kiwi;
-- Honeydew, cut into little leaf and clover shapes;
-- Granola (substitute spinach pasta or whole-wheat pasta with pesto if your kiddo will eat it).

Space!

T has been very into space and astronauts lately. Today's preschool lunch includes a star-shaped sandwich and a star, moon and planet salad.

And here's my husband's lunch, which he will have to eat tomorrow because he forgot to grab it from the fridge on his way out this morning:

-- Veggie chips;
-- Broccoli;
-- Roma tomato;
-- Ham; hummus.

Truck bento

Kiddo's lunch today features a truck-shaped sandwich and stoplight-colored foods and containers:

-- Fruit puree (because we got THREE pears yesterday and Mommy's Little Fruitbat ate the last one while I was in the shower this morning!);
-- Token broccoli (Don't laugh: the child ate it all!);
-- Grape tomatoes;
-- Sandwich made with a cookie cutter + x-acto knife.

And here's my husband's basic lunch:

-- Cucumbers and tomatoes;
-- Broccoli and carrots;
-- Hummus; almonds;
-- Ham on wheat, halved to fit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

For my little Valentine:

-- Watermelon hearts;
-- Pumpkin mini muffin with heart imprint;
-- Cauliflower; grape tomato slices;
-- Heart-shaped sandwich.


And for my big Valentine:

-- Sandwich with heart cutout;
-- Cauliflower and grape tomato slices;
-- Watermelon;
-- Trail mix;
-- Red pepper slices;
-- Center: roasted red jalapeño.
You can kind of see the strawberry fruit twist under the fork.

Oh, Tuesday.

-- Kiwi and blueberry;
-- Cookie;
-- Broccoli and tomato;
-- Peanut butter and jelly on a wheat tortilla.

-- Broccoli;
-- Hummus; pecans;
-- Apple;
-- Ham sandwich on wheat.

Lately I haven't been planning lunches before the morning I pack them, and they're starting to look it. (I've been concentrating on dinner and re-accumulating things we lost when the fridge failed. Those are pretty well under control now.) I'm going to have to go back to doing more for lunches the night before.

Go over and see

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