Lunch Ideas

[CT Mommy]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to tf and I am at a HUGE loss for lunch ideas, especially for lunch boxes, on-the-go lunches, picnic ideas. Most of our friends slap bread down and smother w/pbj and are out the door. I usually take stonyfield yogurt (I don't make my own...yet), fruit, carrots, cheese and maybe some popcorn if I have time to make it in the morning....I see alot of carbs here. One of my tf friends takes cut-up brats virtually everyday in the lunchbox, but my kids aren't big fans. HELP! What are some good ideas for lunch!

THANKS!

[lindsayjean]

Hello local friend!
Our picnic lunches get sort of boring, but I try to mix it up when I can. I mostly do a lot of things by themselves in tupperware/baggies. It's sort of like a bunch of snacks, but it all works out to be a good lunch. At home we normally have leftovers and things for lunch, so it's sort of a 'treat' to my DD (3) when we have a picnic with a bunch of things she considers to be snack food.

Let's see...

~we always do cut up veggies with hummus or babaganoush or some sort of dip
~some sort of meat like liverwurst, good hot dogs (locally: we LOVE thousand hills, but they're kinda pricey), tunafish in a tupperware, something like that
~some kind of fruit is usually in there
~Not super TF but we usually do some sort of crackery thing like marys gone crackers or these GF crackers we get made from almonds
~I bring hard boiled eggs sometimes
~I might bring us green smoothies if I'm actually on top of things for once.

Honestly, that is usually it for the child, maybe I'll make myself a salad or something, lately I've been getting some good lunch meat from TJs and wrapping a few slices of it around a bunch of sliced avocados.... HEAVEN!!!! My daughter is more into all the separate stuff for picnics though.

I'm lazy, but I look forward to watching this thread for ideas since we always do the same thing (but DD eats it all so I guess it works....)

[Magelet]

No kids yet, but I doubt I'd do lunch differently.

Lunch is very very often leftovers (leftover stir fry, lentil salad, curry and rice, etc).

If we have chicken, and sandwhich bread, it's usually chicken sandwhiches with drippings.

If we have cheese and bread it's often cheese sandwhiches or grilled cheese sandwhiches.

For picnics, our favorite is usually a loaf of bread (often not sandwhich bread but a sourdough loaf that can be torn by hand), a jar of kraut, sometimes some mustard, and some kind of meat or cheese. A block of cheddar and a knife (or not, just chunking peices off), a bunch of all beef salami, leftover chicken or beef cut up. We also like to take certain kinds of leftovers: stir fried heart and stir fried cabbage are great cold, though I can't really eat rice cold now that we use brown rice. it used to be great with white but it's too hard cold. same with curries, love the curry, the rice is hard to eat cold.

Sometimes soup or stew, but usually only if it's leftover from dinner. (this could be in a thermos for kid's lunch boxes).

I don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional pb&j on good bread though I think sandwhiches based of good meat and cheese are healthier.

I love hummus and pita and veggies, but it's hard to make in the blender (ahhh to have a food processor or food mill someday), so it's usually dinner not lunch. but if you can make it easier. hummus is a great... compilation of things lunch. with Roasted veggies, roasted zuchini is delicious cold, carrots or broccoli, pita, some cheese and pickles, and maybe some cold grain salad or something (yum quinoa).

[CT Mommy]

Thanks ladies. Keep the ideas coming!

When we are at home, we too have dinner leftovers, but when we go out, I always feel guilty that while the other moms have a "real" picnic, I've got a basket full of "snacks."

I have a VERY picky four year old, which makes it even more difficult. We went to the science museum yesterday and I made him a peanut butter sandwich (spelt bread), cheese stix (from our co-op), strawberry fruit leather (that I made), apple slices (this is the ONLY fruit he will eat) and carrot sticks (I lucked out b/c beautiful green topped carrots were in my CSA box this week). I brought Stonyfield yogurt squeezer for a special treat. The other kids had Applegate turkey sandwiches (spelt bread).

But, usually, I try not to have the sandwiches b/c my kids do not like gf bread (even if I make it--and I make a delicious gf bread). So I buy the spelt bread at the co-op, at almost $4/loaf!!

Thanks for the ideas--I hope we get even more!!

[LoMaH]

Here are some more ideas for you from the WAPF site:

http://www.westonaprice.org/children...lunch-box.html

Other child-friendly snack ideas from Nourishing Connections (scroll down to "school age kids" ):

http://wss.nourishingconnections.org...%20Recipes.pdf

[MamaLea]

New to tf but when we go out for picnics I often bring egg tortillas. Scrambled eggs wrapped up in a tortilla. For now I'm using a whole grain one we like and the kids will eat but if you can get a sprouted that would be more true to tf. In the burrito you can add anything you'd add to scrambled eggs, veggies, cheese, etc. Then I wrap each one individually with a paper towel so everyone has their own. We are coming off of a major over a year long fast food binge (ew I know) and it helps the transition for the kids, and dh too I thin, when i wrap things like that.

Then I'll usually bring some cheese and fruit and organic baby carrots to round it out.