Back to School Lunches!

The Kid has just started middle school (gulp), and we've had all the bobbles and glitches you might expect when taking such a huge step. One thing that hasn't changed is that I'm still packing a daily lunchbox. Here's three lunches from the first couple weeks of school.

Homemade Hot Pockets

I finally have a recipe for the homemade hot pockets that I originally posted in one of my son's lunches. That one was made from a little left over pizza dough, but today's post will show you how to quickly make a batch of four that can either be eaten immediately or frozen for packed lunches.

Daily Bread: Honey Oat Loaves

Since last Fall my poor kiddo's food allergies have sent me from a feeling of relative balance and well controlled risk to an unpleasant roller coaster ride of vertigo and fear. After years of well identified allergens and gradually lowering IgE scores, he has had a series of mystery reactions and white knuckle oral challenges. Trying to figure out whether a reaction is caused by cross contamination from a previously known food allergy or if he has, heaven forbid, developed a new one, is stressful beyond words. Except for the occasional cry for help over on Facebook, I haven't really blogged about these changes.

What I Ate Wednesday: Going Bananas

It's What I Ate Wednesday again, so I can give you another glimpse into a fairly typical day's meals for our allergic kiddo and share a few recipes that don't merit their own post.  Lately he's been on a banana smoothie breakfast kick:  one large or two small bananas broken into chunks and dropped into a blender carafe, enough vanilla soy milk to cover them (about a cup) and a quick whiz with the stick blender to finish the job.  It's the perfect summer breakfast.

For lunch he had a Sunbutter and banana sandwich and some homemade mango lime sorbet.  The sorbet was made from two humongous mangoes, the juice of one lime and half a cup of agave syrup.  A trip through the food processor yielded about 4 cups of liquid and resulted in the same amount of sorbet after going through my ice cream maker.

Since my little boy loves Tex-Mex, which is tough to do while avoiding all dairy products, I decided to try making the Potato and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chile Sauce from Veganomicon.  (The photo is actually of my husbands plate.)  To make it kid friendlier, I toned the spiciness way down by roasting a huge green bell pepper instead of the chiles and substituted paprika for the chili powder.  I also used spinach, since I couldn't find kale, and sprinkled it with sunflower seeds, since it will be a few more months before I'm toasting pumpkin seeds again.  On the side was the usual glass of vanilla soy milk.

The adults, including my mom, all ate the enchiladas happily, but they got a big meh from my ungrateful child.  (I've started to notice a sort of inverse relationship of appreciation versus energy expended in the kitchen. The more effort a meal requires and the more pans it dirties, the less likely he is to actually enjoy it.)  I'd love any suggestions for other dairy free Southwestern type recipes!

Be sure to check out all the other submissions to WIAW at Peas and Crayons!

Feeding the Allergic Kid in Real Life

When I saw the blog event "What I Ate Wednesday" over at Peas and Crayons, I thought it would be great to do a post showing a typical day's meals for my son, since that's the inevitable question when someone learns the full extent of The Kid's food allergies, "What on Earth does he eat?"

For breakfast The Kid had banana pancakes with margarine, maple syrup and some more banana, plus a cup of vanilla soy milk.  While making pancakes is definitely a weekend activity, eating them can happen on any day of the week, since I usually make extras and freeze them.

For lunch my little boy had leftover chili rolled up in a tortilla to make a burrito, honey pretzel twists, grapes and apple juice.  He absolutely adores any kind of Tex-Mex food, so he actually asked to have the leftover chili, rather than a sandwich.

For dinner I made a turkey sausage and spinach soup, which The Kid ate with saltines and another glass of vanilla soy milk.  For dessert he had a cup of blueberry soy yogurt.  As you can tell, we lean pretty hard on soy to make up for the lack of dairy in his diet.

Be sure to check out all the other submissions at What I Ate Wednesday  If you're looking for some ideas to get out of a food rut, this is the place to go!

Sandwich Love

It was kind of a cold and crummy day, calling for something warm to put in a little tummy. Just what do you feed the dairy allergic child for lunch instead of a grilled cheese sandwich? Meet the Grilled Sunbutter and Banana Sammy.

So good and so simple: two slices of whole wheat bread, Earth Balance margarine on the outside, Sunbutter sunflower seed spread on the inside, and about half a banana in the middle, gently grilled to lightly browned perfection.

The Kid's response when he glimpsed the toasted warm and gooey goodness?

"Mommy, are you done taking pictures so I can eat my sandwich?"

Oops. Sometimes I get a little carried away.

I'm sharing this small labor of love with Alka of Sindhi Rasoi, who is hosting her first food event, "Just for You," a round up of recipes which have been made with care for someone the cook is especially fond of.