school lunches

I've been inspired by the vegan lunchbox blog. We are starting to get the gluten free thing down at home. Where I am struggling is with my children's lunches. My challenge now is to come up with interesting and healthy dairy free, gluten free, artificial color and flavor free, vegetarian lunches which also has to be peanut free for my oldest son and youngest daughter due to other children's allergies at their school. My oldest daughter has access to a microwave for lunch, but she doesn't have refrigeration for her lunchbox. My other two children who are in school have their lunches refrigerated, but do not have access to a microwave - they're too young to use it on their own anyway. I have solved the refrigeration issue with my oldest daughter by freezing small water bottles and putting them in her lunchbox. Unfortunately, that makes it so there is not a lot of room.

I am making oatmeal/walnut patties today. My son LOVES them, and he practically begs for me to put them in his lunch when I've made them. He likes them cold, so that is helpful! My oldest daughter doesn't like them though. I bought her this handy salad contraption. It has a place for the salad and a place for the dressing, and all you have to do is push the button for the salad dressing to pour onto the salad. She loves salad. I'm spending today brain storming about lunches. My kids love baked, crispy tofu sticks with dipping sauce. I'm going to make some tonight and see how they are as cold leftovers. Everytime I've ever made them, there have been no leftovers! I have a recipe for satay sauce made with tahini which I am also going to try.

My kids have been getting a lot of the same thing in their lunches, and I know they are getting bored. They tend to get a lot of fruit cups, applesauce, and Whole Soy yogurt. I want to make their lunches interesting.

Organic Sunshine Burgers

I saw this yummy looking veggie burgers at Vitamin Cottage - Organic Sunshine Burgers, Southwest style. Unfortunately, they were not any good. It's too bad, too, because they are organic, vegan, soy free, and gluten free. Blech. I also have the BBQ style. I'm going to try them, but my hopes are not high. Why is it that Vitamin Cottage carries this crap, but not something yummy like Whole Soy or Tofutti ice cream! Oh well. I like homemade oat/pecan patties better anyway!

Outside the Breadbox

There is a gluten free bakery in Colorado Springs called Outside the Breadbox. They make several kinds of crackers, pies, pizza crusts, breads, and graham crackers. They're graham crackers are fabulous! They are larger and denser than regular graham crackers, but they taste really good. I sent a package to my mom and dad in Arkansas, and they love them, too. We've also tried the pizza crusts. They're about the size of personal pizzas. They're okay - very chewy. We tried the garfava bread, and I could do without it. It wasn't bad. Toasted with a little margarine it was okay. It reminded me of crumbly, white bread. Basically, it was a waste. There really wasn't any nutritional value to it, and it wasn't that good. The graham crackers are great though!

Mary's Gone Crackers

Well, I have to say, this gluten free thing can be a real pain in the butt! I bought some powdered probiotics, and when I got home and read the label closer, I found out one of the ingredients was barley grass. I searched the Internet, and apparently barley grass doesn't contain gluten like barley does, so that is good.

We tried Mary's Gone Crackers brand gluten free crackers, and they were so gross. We threw the box away we were eating, and I'm giving the other box I bought away.

We had a hit this morning though. We tried Lifestream, gluten free, buckwheat, wildberry, frozen waffles. They were really good. Dh even liked them, and he tends to get a little pissy with gluten free stuff. They kids loved them, too, even the baby. They are also vegan. We try not to rely on a lot of processed food, but it will be nice to have a box of these in the freezer for those morning when we're running late! Plus, I have not even begun to come close to mastering making gf waffles, and my family loves waffles. It's nice to have this option.

Well, it's been a while since I posted, but I am back to trying to eat healthy and gluten free! Summer is over and it's time to get back to it. We tried another product from gluten free pantry. We made their trufle brownies and they were good! Dh made them, and he didn't quite let them get done, so they were pretty gooey in the middle. BUT - they were definitely good! I made a gf stroganoff recipe from Vegetarian Times that were pretty yucky. Usually, VT recipes are pretty good. The last few I've tried were kind of gross though, so I bought a new recipe book - Vegan Planet. It's not gluten-free, but the majority of the recipes are gf or can be made gf very easily. Last night we had fruit with potato-vegetable soup. I chopped up vegetables and cooked them with Imagine's potato-leek soup. Their soup is vegan and gluten free. I'm trying my first recipe from VP tonight - Chipotle Mashed Potatoes. I'm going to make it with BBQ oat balls, grilled asparagus, and sauteed greens.

This weekend I had a Partylite candle party. I served wine, Italian sodas, chocolate truffles, chocolate covered strawberries, and Flourless Chocolate Cake. The cake went over well, and two people actually asked for the recipe. They were surprised when I said that it had black beans in it. On Sunday, I made beans, fried potatoes, and Bob's Red Mill cornbread for lunch. My family really liked the cornbread. I thought it was okay. It was really fluffy and not gritty. Last night I tried another mix. It is by Authentic Foods. I made their Vanilla Cake Mix. I mixed together orange juice and powdered sugar for a glaze and everyone loved it. I thought it was pretty darn good, too. Sunday night I made oat-walnut patties, super healthy spinach salad with tofu croutons (I think that was the name), capered roasted potatoes, and grilled pineapple. It was a great dinner. Last night my son and I made a lentil vegetable soup that we had for lunch today, and it was pretty good, too. It was very thick - almost like a stew. We're having it for dinner tonight, and I am going to make gf blueberry muffins with it. It's been very interesting to find all these gluten-free meals. I am also trying to get our grocery shopping bills under control, by shopping sales, shopping the pantry, frugal meal planning, etc. So, it's been a challenge, but a fun challenge.

We tried two new products that I wanted to mention. The first were Gluten Free vanilla cookies with chocolate cream by Glutino. My kiddos really liked them, my husband thought they were pretty good. I liked them. I'd really like to get away from processed stuff, so we probably won't buy them often, but they were pretty good. Yesterday I made Ancient Harvest quinoa-corn blend pasta. My family really liked it. I thought it had a good taste. The noodles fell apart though, so it wouldn't be good for a pasta salad. It would be good for a goulash though. I'll probably use that product again.