Okay, so I completed the six week 100 days of real food menu for school lunches. One of my issues with the six week plan that I tried, was sometimes I was cooking all the time because it wasn't tied to what we were eating at home, so I tried to correct for that a bit here. But, I learned that planning what we were going to eat for the week really did work! So, here is my son's meal plan for the week tied to what we are eating at home.
Weekend before: Cut up carrots/celery; make (or buy) hummus; make granola bar (I didn't actually get around to this until Tuesday, otherwise it would have been earlier in the menu); make lentil soup (For whole family's lunches not just Oliver). Buy fruit choices for the week -this week, Oliver chose grapes, apples, and we always buy bananas. We also always keep applesauce on hand, either homemade or store bought (Oliver prefers the squeezies, no surprise there) so I didn't actually include that in the things to be prepared category. It's not a perfect plan, -- but hopefully they will get better as time goes on!
Monday:
Lentil Soup
Carrots/Celery and hummus
Grapes
Dinner: Salad and as Oliver calls it "the good bread" -- a baguette from the grocery store.
Tuesday:
Hummus and Vegetable Wrap (Whole wheat tortilla with lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumber)
Grapes
Applesauce
Dinner: Free for all. Oliver had leftover bread, cheese and grapes, I had a bowl of Lentil Soup.
Wednesday:
Lentil Soup
Carrots/Celery/Cucumbers
Grapes
Granola Bar
Dinner: Falafel, with cucumber, hummus, and pita.
Thursday:
Bean and Cheese Burrito
Apple
Granola Bar
Dinner: The plan is to break out the grill, -- Oliver and Justin will be having "hotdogs" (ie; chicken and apple sausages) and I will be having a veggie burger (I don't make my own), with baked squash fries (we had frozen some squash a while ago that we need to use) and green beans.
Friday:
Falafel (these are what we are having for dinner Wednesday -- I have to wait a day to send in his lunch b/c he won't eat leftovers).
Hummus and veggies
Grapes
Granola Bar
Dinner: Veggie Enchilada Casserole.
Here are the recipes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lentil-soup-recipe.html -- I leave out the grains of paradise.
http://loramore.com/homemade-falafel-vegan.html - I bake mine instead of frying them.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-hummus/ - I taste mine a lot -- this is more inspiration than recipe
My First Granola Recipe -- okay, so I haven't like any of the granola bar recipes I've tried that much so far. So, I tried to come up with my own. And, I really wanted something without peanut butter because I feel like it was what was drying some of the ones I tried out. This is WAY too sweet for me. Oliver loves it. So, I will be modifying it, but I thought I would pass it along anyway. I think you could probably decrease the honey by at least a fourth, maybe a half a cup to decrease the sweetness. You could also add in rice crispies for more crunch. You could also leave out the chocolate chips. I've found that knowing there is chocolate in the granola is the only way to get him to eat it. You could also substitute carob -- I just had chocolate chips at home.
3 Cups Rolled Oats
2 Tablespoons Butter
1/8 cup coconut oil
1 cup honey
1/8 cup apple juice
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flaxseed
1/4 cup pecans (generous)- chopped
1/4 cup almonds - chopped
1/4 cup chocolate chips.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and coconut oil and toss in oats. Spread over a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes tossing occasionally. (Thank you to Pioneer woman for this idea - which is genius).
Combine nuts and flax seed and chocolate chips (optional).
On stove top, combine honey, apple juice and vanilla over low heat.
When oats are done add to the oat mixture and decrease oven to 325 degrees. The chocolate chips will melt unless you allow the oats to cool. -- I like them melty so it is more like a chocolate granola bar than a chocolate chip bar, but you can wait to add them until right before you bake. Add the wet ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Then press into a baking pan. (I line mine with parchment paper first, so that I can easily lift out the bars when they are done baking. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove, remove parchment from pan, and cool for 20 minutes or so. Cut, and eat and store in an airtight container.
Again this is a REALLY sweet recipe so I cut mine very small. Just enough for a after lunch treat. I will continue to experiment with granola bars - so I will keep you posted.
Happy Cooking.
