Menu Planning, Lunch

  Lunch is an awkward beast for me.  My son is pretty simple, but my husband and I try to eat lunch together, so that's a whole different animal.  Weekend lunches are absolutely leftovers or whatever you can scrounge up without going into the food for meals.  Weekdays Kiddo gets bean, cheese, and spinach quesadilla; pbj, rice balls, and pizza bites.  His go with veggies are carrots, celery, and spinach (the boy can chow down on some spinach!).  A few things we need to talk about before we go further, let's start with cheese.  He gets 2 days with cheese (each of these are once a week meals, the rice balls he gets twice), I do not get pre shredded as it generally has cellulose in it.  I am working up the courage to make my own since we almost always use mozzarella and with frequency.  The goal is organic milk and simply using that in the quesadillas as well.  So now rice balls, brown rice doesn't stick as well so I kinda just fake the funk and hope it stays together.  Haven't had any complaints yet.  Finally those pizza bites.  I *know,* pepperoni.  Guess what - I just omit that.  If we have some sort of organic meat, I'll throw that in instead.  Otherwise, they're just cheese.  The spray oil I just substitute with evoo.  Easy peasy.  Don't throw out a well loved recipe just because it has nasty things in it, see what you can do to fix it.  I have also found I can easily do 1:1 with whole wheat flour and white flour in this recipe.
  I'm going to tell you one dinner right now - Wednesdays are our leftovers night.  Which means Thursday and Friday are leftovers for lunch.  We love Indian food, you know what can really easy to whip up?  The very same.  Some basmati rice, tomato sauce, curry, evoo, peas, carrots, and if I'm pushing it chickpeas.  I may use coconut milk in the sauce as well depending on what I feel like - and since Boyo is out of the equation, bird's eye peppers.  Up until recently I used S&B curry - no, this is not a good choice.  While MSG is questionable, I'd rather just avoid it altogether (though it's not a stressing factor for me).  I am looking forward to trying Jamie Oliver's recipes and will let you know what I think - also their keeping/freezability factors.  Pasta is pretty quick to cook up, throw in some veggies and butter or evoo and you're good.  Lastly, adults still like pbj's and we're not exception.  Though I have long since graduated from strawberry jelly to sour cherry (Smucker's is healthy but not moral [GMO labeling], I'm lucky enough to get German brands at the Commissary).
  Groceries:
2 loaves bread (or 1 home made for DH and myself)
Tortillas
Organic Spinach
Cheese
Jelly
Celery
Carrots
Tomato Sauce (15oz can)
Tomato Paste (6oz can)
Fruit Snacks
Organic Chocolate Milk (Kirkland again, individual sizes)
100% juice boxes
Garlic
  Pantry:
Pinto beans
Salt
Brown Rice
Basmati Rice
Ginger (freezes great in whole root form)
Misc. Spices
  That's about $52.78 in lunches, drinks are expensive accounting for about $21.  Yes, we eat a lot of grains and I know the research on grains.  I do my best to stick with whole grains and trying to make sure the ratio is about 1:1 grains to veggies/proteins.  I've tried to cut out and cut down on grains, in fact - we've successfully cut down on grains.  Everything is a process!  I'm no where near perfect.  My long term goal is to get to only 1 lunch a week with a grain - because grains come up at dinner again.  Tortillas are a hard find for healthy as most have hydrogenated oils in them, and making them has proven difficult.  Generally they are not soft and pliable.  Check ingredients on this one, you may luck out and find some that don't have hydrogenated oils.  In the mean time, I keep looking for a recipe that works (sans lard, but that was obvious, right?).  Canned tomato products are a very hard one for me.  Unless I'm at Sprouts, I can either get organic and against my food morals or both not organic and against my food morals.  Obviously I try to get this at Sprouts.  Muir Glenn is organic, and they often have coupons and if I'm hitting the end of my budget I may fudge and just buy Muir Glenn (or if I forgot and need it for dinner that night, Sprouts is on the other side of town).  Muir Glenn contributed money against GMO food labeling more than once, their parent company is General Mills.  Fruit snacks may make you wonder, but there are a number of different better ones out there.  Based on ingredients alone Fruit Roll Ups does Simply Fruit (natural flavor should raise some red flags though), Cliff Kids does an organic fruit twist (which has carnauba wax and a few other questionable things), and Annie's does ones as well (carnauba wax and natural ingredients) - all of which are better than most, but still not perfect.  There are all kinds of ways to make your own, but I do like to have some premade back ups in case I slack.  Also, watch your gelatin if you go that route - no Knox, Great Lakes always gets rave reviews for health benefits.  I'm not knowledgeable on it myself, but one of my personally trusted sources recommends the green over the orange or red.  Juice boxes you can actually save some money on because not only is Juicy Juice 100%, but they don't show up on my Buycott list.  Of course, my important morals may be different from yours so check it out yourself.  It's a great app.  Finally spices.  Spices can often be a source for concern especially if made in China.  Kirkland spices (at least the ones I buy) are made in the USA.  Always check to see where they are made - not just packaged!  Is it always better to make your own?  Yes, but the reality is not everyone has time for that.  I'm all for doing the best you can.  Everyone has their own limitations.  Spice blends are a whole different story for me though, I always blend my own.  It's far less expensive and it takes out any worry of "natural flavors" or the addition of milk products (really taco seasoning, why?).
  I am looking at $47.78 this month with purchasing 2 more loaves of bread and one more box of yogurt (always check expiration dates before buying for the month!). I'm going to add another $5 for surcharges/tax on lunch because I'm terrible at guessing this now after Germany who included it all in the price before the register, so $52.78. Because I came in so under budget for lunches, I picked up 3 Buddy Fruits last minute.  They were $.79 each at the commissary.  I was honestly expecting to have to tell you why you don't make last minute choices like that without consulting your Buycott app, but I lucked out.  Which makes me think I'd checked them before because it's not the first time buying.  We always get banana smoothie - the milk is rBST and hormone free.  Not organic, but it gets another fruit in the boy.  My boy will tear up spinach, celery, and carrots like nobody's business; but it's pulling teeth for fruits.  I knew I would be lazy and not make fruit leather, so I bought 2 boxes.  Sometimes it's about knowing yourself and your limitations.  Things have been crazy, and if I do happen to make some, these will still be fine next month or when at least for a while.