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Lunch Time!

I feel like this thought process goes through my head at around 11:30 every single morning:

"Ugh, is it lunch time already? Didn't we just have breakfast? Can't we just have more breakfast for lunch?"

 As a food allergy mom (milk, egg, peanut, treenut, fish, shellfish, and soy-sensitive) lunch is the toughest meal of the day for me. I feel like I can never quite come up with enough lunch-y things that are safe for the boys. So today, I really sat down and thought about it. And once I thought about it, I realized we had more lunch 'recipes' (if you can call them that) than I had realized.

Here are some of our go-to lunches:

I'll start with what we had today, because I am SO EXCITED I finally discovered a yummy way to make chicken nuggets!

*Baked chicken nuggets : I made a honey-mustard mixture, dipped cut up chicken breasts in it, then coated them with panko bread crumbs seasoned with Mrs. Dash (I love that woman...wherever she is.) Bake at 350 until they are done...about 15mins.

*Kale chips : If you haven't tried these yet, DO IT. My kids cannot get enough of these. Toss the kale in olive oil, season with salt and pepper (or-- Mrs. Dash) and put in the 350 for 10ish minutes? Until crispy.

*Veggie wraps: In order to actually make these, I have to pre-chop the veggies the night before for easy assembly. Otherwise, I will probably not feel like chopping a ton of veggies while the kids are up and crazy. I know most people use hummus as a spread on these kinds of things, but my kids hate hummus so I use mashed avocado. For the veggies I usually use romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. Sometimes I throw a little bit of leftover rice in there, too.

*Veggie pizza. Basically the same as the recipe above, except I use a tomato sauce instead of avocado. Pop it in the oven for 10 or 15 mins.

*Turkey and avocado paninis. My oldest does not like bread, but sometimes he will eat it if it is crunchy enough. We use avocado in place of mayo and I certainly don't miss the white stuff!

*Sunflower seed butter: A peanut butter alternative that is so delicious, I actually prefer it over peanut butter. (I cannot say the same about soybutter.Yuck! )My kids love sunflower seed butter on toast with fruit preserves. They would eat it all day if they could, but at almost 7 bucks for one jar... we buy it once a month tops.


That's all I have off of the top of my head. Some days though, we just have fruit and oatmeal. Some days, we have last night's leftovers. I am really trying to end the lunch time voice of desperation, and I think this is a good start!


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