TF lunch ideas help

[mommy2xander]

I would love some lunch ideas. Especially simple and budget friendly ones.
I'm sure this has already been touched on...if so, I am happy fo a thread link too!
Thanks!

[Laniemama]

We do homemade bread with raw milk cheese grilled cheese, soups made with bone broths, nitrate-free hotdogs with homemade buns, oven fries, salads with homemade dressing. Sometimes we do snacky foods, like carrot/celery sticks with homemade dip, guacamole with organic corn chips (I need to make my own sometime!), boiled eggs, raw milk cheese chunks, fruit with a homemade dip. We also do leftovers a lot with a fruit or veggie added. HTH!

[MamaMamaMama!]

I send my kids to school every day with:

1. brown rice
2. some kind of meat (small hamburger, chicken leg, fried chicken breast, turkey burger, lamb, steak, etc.)
3. whatever vegetable I can be sure they will eat without me hounding them (broccoli, raw cabbage, and carrots for us)
4. a homemade cookie (1 c soaked nut butter, 1 c sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp baking soda)

They have bento boxes with ceramic containers for the warm foods; they have lunch within 3 hours of getting to school and it stays fairly warm by the time they eat it.

I separate out the meats in the freezer when I go shopping so it's easy to defrost small amounts the night before school and cook it up fast in the morning. We always have rice on hand to warm up, too, so it doesn't take me more than about 15-20 minutes to fix their lunches in the morning.

This leaves me with a little more flexibility in the evenings so that if I don't have time for a cooked meal we can get by with just grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade bean dip for dinner if we need to (again, frozen in small containers so it's easy to defrost as needed).

[mommy2xander]

Thank you for the ideas!

[BetsyPage]

Originally Posted by MamaMamaMama!

I send my kids to school every day with:

1. brown rice
2. some kind of meat (small hamburger, chicken leg, fried chicken breast, turkey burger, lamb, steak, etc.)
3. whatever vegetable I can be sure they will eat without me hounding them (broccoli, raw cabbage, and carrots for us)
4. a homemade cookie (1 c soaked nut butter, 1 c sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp baking soda)

They have bento boxes with ceramic containers for the warm foods; they have lunch within 3 hours of getting to school and it stays fairly warm by the time they eat it.

I separate out the meats in the freezer when I go shopping so it's easy to defrost small amounts the night before school and cook it up fast in the morning. We always have rice on hand to warm up, too, so it doesn't take me more than about 15-20 minutes to fix their lunches in the morning.

This leaves me with a little more flexibility in the evenings so that if I don't have time for a cooked meal we can get by with just grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade bean dip for dinner if we need to (again, frozen in small containers so it's easy to defrost as needed).

You are a good mama! I am so impressed by this!

For me, I like to get the sourdough crackers and make a spread out of cultured cream cheese with herbs, add fruit or salad... I intend to add something fermented to make that even better. I also do leftover bits of meat in my salad with one of the dressings from NT or EFLF. Oh, and I collect salad ideas all the time, just any salad combo that you make yourself is pretty NT friendly I think (bean, veg, avocado based... prepare ingredients in the right way.)

if you can find or make sprouted/soaked tortillas that is a good base for a lunch, do wraps, etc.

Make pasta or soup with bone broth...

There is a good blog called "Heavenly Homemaker" (yes, she's a Christian blogger) but she has lots of recipes and posts her menu each week, you might want to google for her, too lazy to link atm.

[MamaMamaMama!]

Thanks! I got the ideas for all of that off of this site. MDC rocks!!

[Jimibell]

I'd like to know where you got those ceramic containers! We have a wooden bento box. My dd doesn't want anything cold that is supposed to be warm. It's very limiting because she always has to have "cold" things. And for her that meant pb&j (with homemade pb and next school year j too will be homemade). And she won't eat anything at school that is deemed "weird". Like she loves sardines but will only eat them on the weekend at home.

[MamaMamaMama!]

The ceramic containers I found were actually meant to carry sugar, coffee, etc., and just happen to fit our bento box (actually they don't fit perfectly, but I wrap a small towel around them and that way they fit snugly in the metal bento that's meant to hold a plastic container). The best thing about them was that they have plastic lids that fit snugly, so that food stays warm. I'm in Europe so I'm not sure I could point you to a place that would be useful to you (I found them at the Veropolous supermarket, which is a Greek chain) but I suspect if you kept your eye out in kitchen stores for the right size then you'd find something eventually.

[mommy2xander]

I will definitely check out that Blog.

I made the NT chicken and rice soup last night, so figure that will breakfast and/or soup for me and the kids for the next few days

[Breastisbest2008]

Originally Posted by Laniemama

We do homemade bread with raw milk cheese grilled cheese, soups made with bone broths, nitrate-free hotdogs with homemade buns, oven fries, salads with homemade dressing. Sometimes we do snacky foods, like carrot/celery sticks with homemade dip, guacamole with organic corn chips (I need to make my own sometime!), boiled eggs, raw milk cheese chunks, fruit with a homemade dip. We also do leftovers a lot with a fruit or veggie added. HTH!

I'd love to have a recipe for homemade hotdog buns!!!!

[Cristiaz]

I send my 2 3/4 year old to school with these foods:

wild rice with peas and green beans or steamed yams
brown rice and assorted veggies, I still lightly steam most veggies cuz she won't eat them if they are too crunchy, seaweed
boiled eggs
home made sun flower seed butter and sugar free jelly sandwich on gluten free bread (millet/flax bread)
brown rice crackers with avocado
lentils, adzuki, or black eyed peas, all made fresh (no canned, ever) I add a strip of Kombu to them while they cook for added minerals and digestablity
home made hummus or other home made dip
cucumber slices

Can't think of anything else at the moment. She doesn't do well with raw cheese but I try it every so often too see if it changes. She doesn't like meat very much with the exception of salmon (loves salmon) and sometimes she'll eat a little grass fed steak. So her lunches are mainly vegetarian and we eat meat as a family at least twice a week.

[gilamama]

great ideas! next year i will be going from sending lunch with no one (we all eat lunch together at home) to sending snack with my 3 y.o and snack and lunch with my 6 y.o. My 6 y.o. will be on a 7 am school bus for the first time as well. I am nervous but this was my plan.

Smoothies for b-fast (i hope they dont tire of them, they go down fast.) Send an egg and butter sandwich for snack. ANd for my 6 y.o. I was gonna make and freeze a bunch of chicken legs for her lunch, Sausages would be good too but she doesnt like any of the ways that i make them. with brown rice and veggies.

subbing for sure!

[lil_earthmomma]

I don't have school age dc yet, but I send my dh with these:

Soups with bone broth are so great because you can make huge batches at a time and portion them out and freeze.

hand held chicken pot pies (beef stew pies too) I just make a pie crust and fold the ingredients into it and bake and freeze.

calzones, stuffed sourdough buns with meat and cheese.

Giant salads with meat, cheese, nuts and seeds. Dressed with kefir herb dressing.

[Magelet]

subbing. I'll read and maybe add some later.

[naturemama1]

I like to throw a bunch of random stuff into a muffin tin and call it good. I shoot for some fruits, some veggies, and some protein. If my little ones are helping make lunch, they like to arrange the foods into big rainbows across the plate, LOL.

Today's lunch: Strawberries, raspberries, cherries (from our trees! : ), red pepper slices, carrot sticks, chickpeas, yellow pepper slices, pineapple chunks, raw cheddar cheese, raw jack cheese, broccoli, snap peas, blueberries, grapes. Also a bowl of cashews, almonds, and brazil nuts. And a bowl of salad with raw bleu cheese/yogurt dressing that was supposed to be for me but is now half gone. And the baby is suspiciously covered in salad dressing... hmmm.

I have two LOs who will eat anything and everything, and one who has always been picky -- the picky eater is delicately selecting out the berries, the cheese, and the cashews, and she'll open up the peapods to get the peas. She may come back around to the carrots and the peppers later on.

When we're packing lunches, I do the same thing into these little garden basket insert thingies I made, but I totally want to get some bento boxes as well.

[cristeen]

Lately I've been eating lentil salad for lunches. Just cooked (cold) lentils with whatever raw veggies/herbs I have lying around and a vinaigrette. I stir in some olives and some feta when I have them for the salt. The lentils need plenty of vinegar and salt or they're fairly bland - but I find it to be a fairly filling meal. Let it sit overnight before eating it.

[Kelsa]

:Lunch Ideas:

Pb (or almond butter, apple butter, cream cheese - whichever your child prefers) and slices of fruit (bananas, strawberries, or apples) rolled up in a whole wheat tortilla

quesadilla made of whole wheat tortilla filled with melted cheese and grated carrots

string cheese wrapped in a slice of turkey breast

meat, cheese, and fruit kabobs

shredded baked chicken breast (by itself or mixed with a sauce)

tuna steak topped with sunflower seeds

organic/whole wheat mac & cheese w/ tuna and sweet peas mixed in

tofu cubes and soy sauce for dipping

soup made from chicken or veggie broth (homemade or from bouillon) and veggies (I use veggies that are still good but will go bad if they are not used up soon)

homemade English muffin pizzas

sushi

stirfry

tomato sandwiches


Snack Ideas:

celery and pb or cream cheese for dipping

apple slices coated in a small dash of cinnamon and sugar (the brown cinnamon helps disguise the browning of the apples shortly after they are cut)

apple slices covered in lime or lemon juice and then sprinkled with shredded coconut (the juice of the citrus fruit will keep the apple slices from turning brown once cut)

pear slices and yogurt for dipping

grape halves (halved for young children to prevent choking)

yogurt topped with granola

trail mix

pretzel sticks stuck into cheese cubes

hard boiled egg

chickpeas

edamame sprinkled with sea salt

whole grain cereal (dry)

dried fruit

carrot sticks and hummus for dipping

applesauce

yogurt and fruit smoothie

string cheese with marinara for dipping

cottage cheese

baked apples

grilled fruit (cantaloupe is especially good when grilled and then drizzled with a touch of honey - a light sprinkle of cayenne pepper is also a nice addition for the grown-ups)

homemade fruit smoothie popsicles

pita bread and hummus for dipping

[organicmidwestmama]

wow, lots of great ideas. subbing.: