In desperate need for inspiration!

[SashaBreeze]

We made the switch to gluten free, which has worked miracles in the bathroom for us, sorry if TMI, but seriously gluten free has been amazing for our family.  At the same time we cut out all refined sugars and limit our natural sugars (like honey) to as small amount as possible. 

It has been going great but I have ran into a problem.  I am running out of ideas of food to cook and feed my family.  Especially lunch, oh my I get stuck thinking of things to serve for lunch.  A snack platter of cut fruit, nuts and other assorted finger foods can only be fun for the kids so many days in a row!

Please hook me up with your suggestions, ideas and recipe links/blogs.

[BetsyS]

My children love very simple quesadillas.  Corn tortilla, heated, then put cheese and any leftover meat or beans (they prefer beans) on half, fold over, and toast in the skillet.  I like them with spinach added, also onions and peppers if I have them. 

Fried rice.  Especially nice if there is leftover rice from the night before.

My kids are little, so they still like snacky sorts of lunches.  One of their favorites is ants on a log--celery, peanut butter, and raisins.  You can also do cream cheese with craisins for fireants on a log. 

We also like tortilla soup.  Basically chicken soup, with added tomatoes, corn, onions and peppers (saute first), zuchinni in season, leftover beans if I've got them.  Top with a few tortilla chips, a squeeze of lime, cilantro for me (my kids aren't fond of it), and sour cream and/or cheese. 

[SpuglyRoo]

Some of these are still snackier foods but here are my suggestions off the top of my head:

-cottage cheese & veggies    

-ants on a log    

-veggies & hummus    

-Apples & Cheese    

-Yogurt & Fruit    

-Cottage Cheese & Fruit    

-Almond Butter on Bananas

-Yogurt & Trail Mix   

-Cheese & Turkey Breast chunks

-Rice and Beans

-Rice Salad w/chunks of meat/fish or beans

-Leftovers from dinner

-Stuffed baked potato (stuffed with beans, cheeses, veggies, meats, etc.)

-Pan fried slices of eggplant/zucchini topped with some marinara and mozzarella

-Tossed Salad with protein (beans, meat, fish, cheese)

-Veggie Burger patties (no bun) with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and any other toppings and eaten with a fork

-Soup

We recently started trying the same thing and it is very hard to think outside the sandwich box after having grown up in it.  We still have various foodstuffs that don't fall under our new eating plan that we are gradually phasing out and using up.  We may never go totally gluten/refined sugar free (since for us it is not due to allergies, etc.) but we will definitely not eat it nearly as much.

My DS (2.5) use to eat a PBJ sandwich every day and now that he can't have that he requests instead bananas and almond butter.  Slice the banana length wise and place the two halves flat side down and following the same curve

   like this: )) not like this: )(

spread a bunch of almond butter on top and cut it into bite sized chunks to eat with a fork.  If we don't have bananas then he gets it with celery instead. 

What are you already doing?

[SashaBreeze]

Thanks you two.  I have taken note and am listening.

It seems a lot of the gluten free resources I have found a pretty heavy on the sweets and desserts.  Can not figure that one out. 

The first couple of weeks were great.  I went online and found recipes and planned accordingly because I really really wanted the kids to enjoy the transition.  I can not keep that up though.  I need some new staples.  Other than stir-fry and soup.  Those two things are what I keep falling back on almost every day.  Sure you can mix it up as far as what kind you are making, but it is still basically the same thing.  I had forgotten about taco soup though... might make that tonight.

Thank you for the great lunch ideas.  I especially love the idea of the peanutbutter/banana in place of the peanut butter sandwich.  I have a couple of kids that were totally addicted to pb sandwiches for lunch so this is going straight to the top of my list.

[SpuglyRoo]

I also recently came across this blog that has a variety of gluten free recipes.  Some are baked goods and sweets or snacks (like homemade crackers) but others are real foods like her Mediterranean Chicken and Spinach Rice Bake.  So far I have browsed for ideas there but I haven't tried any of the recipes as written yet.  She has a crockpot category, there might be some ideas there for convenient lunches.

[Arianwen1174]