What We Eat: Lunch Edition

+J.M.J.+

We talked all about breakfast in this last post found here – let’s move on to lunch!

A lot of people like to make enough of dinner for lunch the following day, but I would rather come up with simple lunches I can throw together and save those precious dinner leftovers for another night in the week when I’m tired and don’t want to cook! Here are typical things we throw together for lunch. 

Salami Bites and Salad

This is salami bites with cheese and hummus, and a salad loaded with tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, and our favorite dressing. 
Here is how I make the dressing:
1/2 ripe avocado
1 Tablespoon mayonnaise (I use Sir Kensington brand)
1/2 of a small lime or 1/4 of a lemon
Onion powder, garlic powder, salt, bagel seasoning to taste.

I mash the first three ingredients together and add the seasonings to taste. This makes the most delicious, thick dressing that we stir up our salads with. Ethan never turns down greens slathered with this!

Smorgasboard Lunch

This is a smorgasbord type lunch. I have salami, bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, cheese chunks, mashed avocado, and some Simple Mills grain-free almond flour crackers.

Grilled Chicken Thighs Salad

Here is another one of those salads with that dressing from above, this time with grilled chicken added. To make the grilled chicken I marinate organic chicken thighs (not breasts!) in barbecue sauce or coconut aminos for a few hours or overnight. I melt some butter or ghee in a saute pan and cook the thighs on medium-high heat for about 4-5 minutes each side. Let them cool at least 15 minutes before cutting, and this is the *moistest* chicken of your life!

Egg Salad

Here is a salad topped with egg salad – perfect for a Friday lunch! To make the egg salad I hard boil a few eggs and then toss with mayo, lime or lemon juice, chopped chives, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. This is “pretty plating” here, but I stir it all up when we eat it and it is so good!

Another Smorgasboard Option

This is another smorgasbord lunch with salami, Simple Mills almond flour crackers, mozzarella, bell peppers, cucumbers, hummus, and raw, fermented sauerkraut. We always try to eat a little raw sauerkraut with salami, sausage, hot dogs etc. as the probiotics really aid digestion!

Taco Bowl

This is a favorite quick lunch in our house – taco bowls! I heat up beans (and leftover taco meat if I have any), season with chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder, and serve over a bed of organic tortilla chips. I top with a bunch of greens, chopped bell peppers, diced tomatoes, some shredded cheese, and sour cream or hummus. We like to crush the chips and stir it all together. It’s really quick and delicious!

Wild-Caught Tuna Salad

Tuna salad was my nemesis growing up, but I’ve made it into something we love now. Here I’m serving it on Belgian endive leaves topped with avocado and tomatoes, but this also goes well mixed with greens as a salad, on properly prepared sourdough bread, or with Simple Mills crackers. Here is the recipe:

2 cans wild caught tuna from Aldi
1/4 cup sour cream or mayo (we make this one with sour cream because of Philomena’s egg allergy)
1/4 of a large bell pepper, diced
1/4 of an onion, diced finely
1/2 of a lime or a 1/4 of a lemon, squeezed
3 tablespoons chopped chives, green onion, or cilantro (use what is on hand!)
1-2 tablespoons yellow mustard
Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, bagel seasoning, and pepper to taste, I use about a teaspoon each.

Mix it all well and chill thoroughly if you would like to eat it cold. (I love making it the day before to let the flavors meld!)

Hot Tuna Salad Dip

The tuna salad from above is also great as a hot dip topped with some shredded cheese, baked in a dish for 20 minutes at 375.

We like to top it with diced tomatoes, avocado slices, and hot sauce. We dip with grain-free crackers or cassava tortilla chips.

Soup/Chili

I haven’t done this in a long while, but especially in winter we love to make a big pot of soup for the week’s lunches.  I love the black bean soup from the second 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook served with some sourdough bread and butter. 

Finally, there is the classic sandwich. There are lots of free sourdough resources out there (Farmhouse on Boone has some highly recommended ones). I was never able to figure out traditionally prepared sourdough until I took the Sourdough School House Sourdough 101 course. (Here is my affiliate link if you’d like to learn more about it! Code “TNCM25” gets your 25% off your order!) We use the milk bun recipe from that course and bake it in a loaf pan and it results in a delicious, moist sandwich bread. (We prefer this to crusty sourdough for most uses). I load up our sandwiches with greens, tomatoes, cheese, and meat. 

So there is a roundup of what we usually eat for lunch. I’d love if you’d share what you’re enjoying to give me some inspiration, too!