Lunch
I love every meal, because I love food, but lunch is my least favorite meal to plan for. Maybe it's because we homeschool and therefore eat all lunches at home, maybe I'm making it too hard.
I do find the best lunches are leftovers from the night before. If we don't have leftovers, it's usually a fend for yourself meal of anything from eggs, a batch of rice in the instant pot, a quesadilla, chicken nuggets, to boxed GF mac and cheese.
My oldest daughter and hubby do not have Celiac's Disease, and yes, they do consume gluten in the house in a very clean, safe and respectable way, and almost always at lunch time.
Pigs in a blanket: Gluten Free Pigs in a Blanket (glutenfreeonashoestring.com
​
Instant Pot Jasmine Rice: 2 cups rice rinsed in a colander and dumped into the Instant Pot/Pressure cooker. Add to that 2 cups of water, a drizzle of olive oil, or coconut oil, or avocado oil, it all works here; and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. Pressure cook the rice for 5 minutes. I'm a big fan of the natural release on the IP, but you can release the pressure manually and then serve up the rice when it's safe to open the pot.
*Tip: put any leftover rice in a storage container while it's still warm otherwise you'll be scrubbing your instant pot the rest of the afternoon. No fun.
​
Quesadillas: Gluten Free tortillas (some good brands are Mission and Siete). Tortillas, especially Mission corn tortillas (still look for that GF logo) are very affordable and you can add anything from whatever cheese, veggies, lunch meat, leftover proteins are in the fridge. Keeping tortillas on hand simply expands your options with one humble product. Fill them, bake them, pan fry them - sky's the limit here.
​
Pizza Baguettes: Grab a pack of Schar Gluten Free Baguettes, slice them open lengthwise, and get to topping! Pictured here I actually used cranberry sauce as the base and topped it with sharp cheddar, bacon, and green onions (it's amazing!) Top your baguette with the sauce and pizza toppings you like and bake them till crispy and melty (425 for 15 minutes or so).
​
Macaroni and Cheese:
"Paul's" Macaroni and Cheese (tara595.wixsite.com)
​
Bowls: If you do a Pinterest or Google search for gluten free rice bowls, paleo bowls, etc. you'll get tons of ideas for great nourishing lunches. I love using shredded chicken, taco meat, put it on top of rice, slice up an avocado, or add a spoonful of sauerkraut, slice up a cucumber and add Greek yogurt, and half a can of black beans. Obviously don't put all this together, well, maybe everything but the sauerkraut, but you get the idea: a protein, a carb, a crunchy veggie, a sauce and so on. Have fun with it, some of my most delicious lunches have been from raiding the fridge and making up random lunch bowls. If you don't want to scour for the ingredients, make a plan and a list and prep a few bowls over the weekend for the weekdays. These don't have to be costly and filled with superfoods, buy on-sale meat or beans (always on the cheap), a rice or GF pasta, a veggie or two(don't forget that frozen veggies are a gift for the time and energy crunched and are delicious when roasted). Add a tub of yogurt, your favorite GF hot sauce or dressing to the shopping list and done.
