Other stay at home mamas will feel me on this one. It’s 11:45 AM, you’re going about your morning doing all your usual mama stuff (folding laundry, wiping butts, splitting up fights, picking up toys, making appointments, feeding the baby, washing dishes, answering your 100th “why” question of the day, possibly even getting ready yourself). Suddenly you’re bombarded with urgent cries of I’m hungry! When are we going to eat??
Yep, it’s lunch time. How does it always sneak up on me like that? I never have anything planned. Shoot…. BUT, the beauty of going through all the work of creating a dye-free kitchen, is that anything I dig out and throw on a plate for the kids is going to be safe for them to eat. Saves a lot of time and worry if you don’t want your kids to have food dyes.
If you’re new to dye-free living, hopefully this will give you some ideas. You might notice that some of the things we eat for lunch overlap with my list of dye-free snack foods. That’s because I’m literally just grabbing whatever we have on hand and putting it on a plate. We have lots of snacky foods on hand. 🙂
Here’s a sample of what my kids have been eating the last couple weeks.
Turkey (Simply Nature uncured turkey from Aldi’s) and provolone with mayo, carrots and strawberries, Annie’s Chocolate Bunny Grahams, and almonds.
Turkey and salami (Hormel’s uncured hard salami), carrots, cherry tomatoes, a strawberry, ranch dressing (Marzetti organic ranch veggie dip from Hy-Vee – no MSG like most ranch), mixed nuts, and Simply Cheetos white cheddar puffs. We also had some Greek yogurt on the side. If you manage to arrange their food into a weird face or picture, even better. My older boys are 5 and 3, and they think this is hilarious. So if you want to impress your young ones…. 🙂
Hebrew National hot dog with ketchup (we use the Hunt’s brand without high fructose corn syrup), cherry tomatoes, a clementine, some pecans, and a handful of Parmesan Goldfish. Again, we had Greek yogurt on the side as well. (We go through a lot of yogurt!)
Turkey, Ritz crackers, almonds, carrots, blueberries, and some cottage cheese.
Peanut butter and jelly, salami (because they LOVE it and always ask for “just one piece!”), a clementine, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, and some Stauffer’s animal crackers.
Alright this lunch was from the weekend, which is why it’s a little (but not much) more time intensive than our other lunches. 🙂 Van de Kamp’s fish sticks, cantaloupe, mixed nuts, and a Nature Valley Oats N’ Dark Chocolate granola bar.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (yes, again…it’s easy!), a mozzarella cheese stick, a clementine, and a bunch of mixed nuts.
By now you’re probably getting the general pattern of what I throw on a plate for the boys. Nuts, fruit/vegetables, a sandwich or some meat, usually something from the dairy group as well for protein. They may not be fully balanced meals, but I think overall they’re healthy. My kids also have a mid-morning snack with fruits and nuts and proteins, so their lunches aren’t usually huge.
This was our Valentine’s Day lunch. A heart shaped Nutella and raspberry jelly sandwich, heart shaped bananas, strawberries, mozzarella cheese stick, almonds, a Fit & Active fruit strip (from Aldi’s), and some Brookside dark chocolate candies.
I don’t have a picture of it, but my kids really like having scrambled eggs for lunch. It doesn’t take too long to cook some up. So if you’ve had PB&J a few days in a row, you can always give eggs a try. 🙂
I know it’s nothing revolutionary, but I see that as a good thing. Just more proof that going dye-free doesn’t have to be complicated. Anyone can do it.
Becoming Hippies 