Aside from writing on this blog, I rarely share information about food issues with coworkers and certainly not the parents of my students. Real-life friends and family know exactly what I think about everything, but at work I don’t get into people’s faces about this stuff. In public I’m a quiet observer, but in private I’m more feisty, opinionated, and blunt. Blogging gives me an outlet.
People at work have commented that I look good. I really do look better than I did last year. I say, “I am eating more whole foods and cooking from scratch more than I did before.” I think that’s a great way to describe being gluten-free without getting into everything. If they push, I tell them I’ve been gluten-free and dairy-free for a couple months. Most people respond with things like “wheat is my life” or “that sounds hard.”
If a coworker opens the door to a nutritional topic over lunch (food in the news, school food, dieting, etc), I might voice an opinion if I’m feeling bold. They initiate those conversations, not me. Likewise I would never tell the parents of my students how to feed their children or talk about topics I blog about. I don’t remember ever talking to a parent about nutrition or vice versa and as such I don’t tell parents to pack lunch or to stop eating school lunch. I don’t go there ever.
Additionally, I don’t talk about anything related to the blog with my students. Food comes up in discussions every now and then. We touch on healthy eating and we talk about what they eat at home and at school, but I don’t bring in my own opinions. I believe that it’s not appropriate for any teacher to force their own opinions on their students.
Just thought I’d share that little nugget of information with you. Lunches after the jump:
MY SON’S LUNCHES
MONDAY
Bacon omelet, passionfruit yogurt with blackberries, green beans,
mandarin orange, cupcake/muffin, apple butter for dipping pretzels (in bag)
Have I mentioned that my son drinks goat milk? He loves it and tolerates it well (oddly, I can’t drink it). We buy the Vitamin D fortified whole goat milk, which is at our local regular grocery store in quart containers and we send it to daycare. In a side-by-side comparison of whole goat milk and whole cow milk, goat milk is virtually identical to cow milk. Goat milk is about four times as expensive, but I don’t care at all — when he’s drinking goat milk he doesn’t suffer from chronic bathroom troubles. With reference to the lunch above, the daycare folks say he ate well! Apple butter sent in place of the cream cheese the other kids were eating with their pretzels. Daycare menu: cod nuggets and fettucine alfredo (weirdest combo ever), diced pears, diced carrots with yogurt and pretzels with cream cheese as snacks.
TUESDAY
Waffle, bacon, yogurt with blackberries, orange, syrup,
sunflower seeds, crunchy green beans, crackers (in bag), banana
They told me that he didn’t like the orange so I didn’t send any more this week. At least he’s not eating canned fruit and veggies every single day. Daycare menu: chicken patty (mechanically separated chicken, I’m sure) on whole wheat bread, bananas, peas with fruit and yogurt as snacks.
WEDNESDAY
Lamb burger, ketchup, rice pasta with daiya cheese,
avocado, applesauce, cupcake/muffin, bag with sliced apples
I wonder how the pasta I sent turned out…it looked funny to me, but they said that he liked his lunch. I was trying to imitate what the other kids were eating. Daycare menu: ground beef with buttered whole wheat pasta, applesauce, green beans with fruit and blueberry muffins (the little mini-junky ones)as snacks.
THURSDAY
Rice and peas, blueberry yogurt with blueberries, mashed sweet potatoes,
eggs and bacon, sliced apples in bag
Admittedly I packed the rice and peas to fill up the lunch – I didn’t know what else to put in there. He loves mashed potatoes normally and I figured everything else would fill him up. Of course I find out he only ate the eggs and bacon. Daycare menu: scrambled eggs, hash browns (formed round patty), pineapple, diced carrots with yogurt and fruit as snacks.
FRIDAY
Chicken crockpot meal with brown rice cous cous, green pepper,
beans, broccoli, carrots, applesauce, yogurt with blueberries,
crackers in bag to go with cheese (under yogurt container)
I made this crockpot meal and I thought it was great, but I’m biased: I love casseroles. Bland textures are ok with me. Well, even though my son ate it when we served it for dinner the night before, the daycare folks told me that he really didn’t want to eat his lunch. Boo. I just couldn’t do another ground beef equivalent to compare with the other kids’ food. Daycare menu: ground beef with mac and cheese, diced peaches, peas with fruit and cheese and crackers as snacks.
MY LUNCHES
MONDAY
I did something very exciting and I had a terrific lunch.
I’ll be blogging about it next week (with pictures)!
TUESDAY
Chicken sausage, cupcake/muffin, mini-spinach salad, blueberries, orange
The cupcake/muffin was my grain!
WEDNESDAY
Avocado, blueberries, peanut butter sandwich
(stacked so you can’t see the other half),
broccoli soup with microwaveable container below it.
Looking at this picture I think, “That’s a minuscule lunch!” It was actually just fine and quite comforting (I love soup).
THURSDAY
Tuna noodle casserole, blueberries, orange, bar
I used to love tuna noodle casserole and now I’ve tried to make two different gluten-free, dairy-free equivalents and I have failed. But it was edible and it satisfied my longing for one of my favorite casseroles, but my husband and our son were not crazy about it.
FRIDAY
Chicken crockpot meal, bag with crackers, blueberries and an orange
I’m not a talented cook. I’m getting by. This was a “getting by” crockpot meal. It took me under 15 minutes to throw it together. Reading
Make it Fast, Cook it Slow really inspired me; however, I now think I can throw anything into a crockpot and have it turn out. Whoa, there girl. I’m not that skilled.
I started with a package of frozen chicken breasts, dumped in a can of Amy’s gluten-free baked beans (one of my favorite foods of all time)…I know what you are thinking…then I chopped up celery and carrots, threw in one chopped up green pepper, more than half a container of chicken broth, and a large head of broccoli, chopped. Then I left and it cooked for roughly 8 hours. When I came home, I noticed that most of the broth had not disappeared and while I was chatting on the phone with my dad, I dumped in half a box of brown rice cous cous and switched it on to “high” for 30 minutes. After thirty minutes, the broth had been absorbed by the cous cous.
I thought it tasted good. My husband didn’t think it was bad and like I said already, my son ate some when I served it for dinner. I’m a casserole person and I don’t like spicy food, but my husband really dislikes uniform textures. He loves throwing nuts on various meals for “crunch” and of course he loves spicy food. So this meal was not as satisfying for him as it was for me. But he dutifully ate it. What a trooper!
