Wednesday, December 15, 2010

What's for Lunch


When it comes to lunch at our house, the thought is something simple to get us through till dinner, our big meal of the day.  As I considered our dinner menu plans, and learned that it is by far the most expensive meal in our day, I was no longer able to rationalize leftovers for lunch.  This would mean that lunch would be just as expensive as dinner, and I needed to get our lunches under our dinner costs of $5.00/meal in order to be able to purchase some snack items, and have a little leeway for company and special meals.  I will confess up front that our family does not eat enough vegetables, something I hope to remedy by raising our own garden again.  That said, Here is what I came up with for our fall/winter lunch menu:
Quinoa- (pronounced keen-wah) is called the golden grain of the Incas.  It is a high protein grain perfect for gluten free diets.  It is simple to prepare, similar to cooking rice, and can be flavored in a variety of ways.  Don't let the cost scare you @ $3.00/lb.... one pound feeds our family of 11.  Below is uncooked Quinoa.  It puffs up greatly when cooked.



Rice- just a bowl of rice.  Basmati, long grain brown, or white, I fix this on days when we have had an egg breakfast, likewise, I will  make a lunch of chili on a day when we had a cereal for breakfast alternating grains and proteins.

Canned Chili- 3 cans and some tortilla chips for around $3.00 per meal.

Peanut Butter and Jelly- a hit with the little ones, they like to smear jelly on everything.  I also keep a few cans of tuna around for the un-pb&j types.

Pasta- pasta cooked in chicken broth with a little Parmesan on top, simple, the children would eat it every day.  I am a little more picky.  :-)


Soup- especially on a bad weather day, nothing beats a bowl of soup.  Vegetable  beef is our standard.  In this situation for lunch, I use the open- cans- of- veggies- and- dump- it- all- in method, with beef stock and an onion, which makes a quick soup that is comforting and good.

This is all such plain fare I can hardly believe anyone would want to read about it, but there it is. We like to have a simple lunch and an afternoon snack.  For snacks we keep fresh fruit, baked items, and a giant bag of pretzels from Costco available.

 Now, after lunch, it is nap time for the little ones, and just to make you smile, here is our wee one napping.



2 comments:

  1. So precious. I can almost smell the new baby scent!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing your simple fare; it is encouraging to know how a more experienced mother feeds her family. It's a relief to hear that pasta can be a lunch staple, lol.

    ReplyDelete

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- Blessings!
Julianne

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