Let's do Lunch! Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Soya Free

When I'm home:

If I'm at home, I might be tempted to be lazy, if there's no left overs to reheat, then some of the following might be an option:


Jacket potato and...

• Prawn mayo (if lazy get a pot from Waitrose)

• Tinned tuna and mayo

• Spaghetti Bolognese (leftovers or a 'Look what we've found!' sachet from Waitrose)

• Dairy Free Cheese - although that said, actual dairy cheese is far more nutritious than dairy free cheese, so I wouldn't normally choose this option, unless I was balancing it out with some other form of protein.

Sandwich/Baguette with...

• Cold chicken and Marmite (make mine Meridien gluten free alternative)

• Ham and salad with mayo and ketchup

• Prawn in rose marie sauce

• Scrambled egg

• Avocado and bacon with lettuce 

• Left-over bolognese

• Dairy free cheese and pickled beetroot (but if gluten free you may need to be careful with the vinegar)

Toast and...

I have to be careful with bread, even bread that appears to tick all my boxes doesn't agree with me, for some reason, but occasionally I still have:

• Ham and toasted dairy free cheese

• Scrambled/fried/poached/boiled egg

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Salad...

My favourite 'at home' salad (if I can be faffed), is Chicken and Aocado with cherry tomatoes and a mix of salad leaves. Add in some boiled new potatoes to warm it up.


Frittata

A great way to use up left over boiled potatoes! Mix up a couple of eggs, heat up some oil in a small frying pan, throw in the eggs, a handful of dairy free cheese and maybe some left over veg. Cook through and on both sides.


Pizza

You can make these from scratch, using a decent dairy free cheese alternative, or even these days buy them from the chiller in Sainsburys, Waitrose or Tesco. Dress them up or down by adding all your favourite toppings!


Ready meal...

If I'm really lazy, I'll heat up a Kirsties's ready meal, or an Amy's kitchen macaroni cheese, or perhaps one of Tesco's chilled Free From ready meals - I love the paella, and the lasagna.




Out and About??

If in busy cities or in London there's s many options, but in smaller towns/cities I might choose from the following:

• Marks and Spencer - sandwiches - depends on the season, but I've enjoyed their BLT, prawn mayonnaise. I have also enjoyed some of their 'Made without Wheat' products, such as pork pies and scotch eggs, but some of these options seem to have disappeared.

• Waitrose - sandwiches - depends on the season again but I think it's currently and egg and cress

• Costa - Chicken, Chorizo and Rice - can be heated.

• McDonalds - Chicken and bacon salad with the option of fries on the side

• Pret - Pret make a range of gluten and dairy free soups. My fave is Chicken, Rice and Broccoli, but sometimes I'll go for one of their salads (always check ingredients).

• Leon (mainly London, but branching out more) do a range of dairy and gluten free options. It's fast food, but not as you know it!

• Yo Sushi! - not much of the menu is suitable, but there's enough to keep me going. I love the Salmon Selection, the Ebi Nigiri, the Salmon Maki, the Kimchi Squid (it's hot) or the Salmon Avocado Temaki (has to be ordered).

• Five Guys - Naked burger (wrapped in lettuce) with fries

• Ask Italian - can do pizza with dairy free cheese and gluten free pasta options.

Linguine (minus the linguine but plus the gluten free pasta)  Con Frutti di Mare - Ask Italian

• Zizzi - Similar options to Ask Italian (they're owned by the same company.

• Pizza Express - Can now do gluten free bases and dairy free, soya free cheese, so befriend your server, find a basic pizza you like on the menu and they can amend it for you!

• Cote - Tuna Nicoise Salad - fries are safe too!

• Pub - the Wadsworth chain, is worth looking at, or St Austell breweries (in Cornwall). You can usually be sure of a safe Ham, Egg and Chips (separate gluten free fryer).

It's also worth checking out independent cafes, as they often include gluten free options, these days too!

HOWEVER, if you eat out, you might not always get a great range of puds - mainly just fruit sorbets, just saying!! That said, Zizzi also do some kind of chocolate praline torte - no good for me because of some other ingredient - looks tasty, though! They serve it with coconut ice cream!

Please note: 

This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. Any products listed in this post are here purely because they genuinely are the products we have used and enjoy consuming. They are included here merely to point people who are new to suitable products that they too may enjoy. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's). I try to tell is 'as-it-is'.

Related Posts:

Oh my Daiya - dairy free and soya free cheese

Eating Out - Mission Possible

Left-over Lunch - Salmon and Carrot Fishcakes

The other day I had some steamed salmon. The salmon came in packs of two, of which  I bought two. I cooked them all together, but this meant that we had one left over. I hate wasting good food, so I determined to do something about it.

We've often made salmon fish cakes for Baby before, for dinner. Well I say me, it's more often been The Hub, as Baby has been quite clingy. However, she's got a bit better about this recently so I thought that, on this occasion, I'd make them for lunch. It does help if you have left-over veggies and mashed potato too, but on this occasion I hadn't, so it all took a bit longer.

First I peeled and chopped some potatoes (about three or four) and a carrot. The carrot had to be chopped into very small pieces, so that Baby wouldn't notice it too much! Of course you don't have to use carrot - a few frozen peas or sweetcorn might have been nice - but I used carrot because Baby won't eat anything else at the moment. The carrot was steamed over the  boiling potatoes, to soften it up a bit.

Whilst the potato and carrot were cooking, I took the skin off the salmon and checked for bones, as I broke it up, with a fork. Then I used our mini food processor to make breadcrumbs of a bread crust. The bread was The Hub's own, so completely dairy and gluten free - he made it with coconut milk, which has given it a slight sweetness. I have to say his bread made the best breadcrumbs ever! 

The mini food processor was a bit of a mistake - even for my gadget-loving husband. We didn't ever intend to have one. We added it to our online wedding list, thinking it was a full size one, and didn't check the dimensions - doh! However, I have to say it has come in very handy for little jobs like making biscuit and breadcrumbs. Then, it really comes into its own. 

If, however, you really can't be hassled to make bread crumbs, Hale & Hearty make some, which you can buy in places like Tesco and Sainsbury's. I've not used them, but it looks (from their information online) as though they are completely dairy and egg, as well as gluten free. Watch out for labels like 'vegetable oil' though - if you have a problem with soya, this may indicate a hidden unwelcome presence. That said, I enquired about their flapjacks the other day, and the oil which they used in them was palm oil - happy days!! I love their flapjacks!!

Once the potato was cooked, I strained and mashed it, with a bit of dairy free margarine and a little of the water in which the potato had been boiled. It is important at this stage not to let the potato get too soft - you need it to be a fairly stiff, in order to keep shape, when you mould it into fish cakes. At this stage you could add a little bit of pepper, salt and juice from a lime, but these fish cakes being mainly for Baby, I didn't dare! Her palate is so sensitive that she refuses fish fingers, if you get the wrong brand!

Next, I put a good load of oil (fish cakes require quite a bit) in the bottom of the frying pan and put it on a medium heat, to heat up the oil, whilst I assembled all the ingredients in a bowl and mixed them together thoroughly. 

The breadcrumbs were emptied into a shallow dish. Then I moulded the mixture into two smallish fish cakes (for Baby) and two slightly bigger (for me). These were carefully rolled in the breadcrumbs. I believe you would normally dip them into a little bit of beaten egg, first, but I didn't. I have before and it all goes a bit wrong for me - like trying to hold a slippery bar of soap in the bath! If the fish cakes look a little bit bald, when they go into the pan, I just sprinkle a few more on top and press it down a bit. That usually seems to do the trick!

Cooking is fairly quick and simple - just cook either side until the fish cakes are lightly browned, by which time, the fish cake is piping hot inside and out. It's a matter of minutes really. Then you're good to go! 

Just in case you're wondering, Baby ate just about everything I gave her - carrots and all! She was so full at the end, but just wanted to keep going! I ate all mine too, but I did think that they could definitely do with a bit of lime!

Related Post

Weaning the Dairy Free Baby - Let's do Lunch

Weaning the Dairy Free Baby - Let's do Lunch

I have a Baby who knows her own mind and that can make things rather tricky. This morning, at Dinky Dancers, it was  at its most evident - whilst all the other little 'uns did their best to join in with all the different activities, she only joined in if she felt like it.  When she got bored she stopped. She is like this also, with food. She made it easy, today though, when I asked her what she wanted for lunch. 'Sandwich with Tuna,' she replied. 'Huzzah!' I thought, 'that will be nice and easy!'

First Steps

To begin with, lunch was easy peasy (once we'd sorted out a few feeding issues) it was boob juice all the way (breast milk if you're in polite company). When I held out on weaning, until she was six months, it was partly to buy myself time to get my head round the whole dairy free business and partly to put off the evil day.

For me, lunch is somehow mostly a savoury affair, with maybe something sweet to follow - something which probably stems from my upbringing. Which is why, once we had got mastered Baby rice/cereal, lunch for Baby consisted of puréed veg. I soon, I'm sad to say, gave up on puréeing the veg myself, as it was a bit of a disaster. 

I don't think I will ever forget the way that having lovingly puréed organic carrots for her, Baby eagerly lapped up the first few spoonfuls before her face rumpled and she began to cry - big sad tears. Perplexed, and increasingly frustrated, I kept trying to present her with the spoon, but all to no avail. The distress just grew and grew until I was forced to admit defeat. I was left with the uncomfortable feeling that she had been looking forward to a good nosh from her lovely mummy and instead had been incredibly let down by my vile offering. When I tried the purée for myself it did taste vile. No wonder she had objected.

After that I ditched the whole yummy mummy thing (making my own baby food from scratch) Baby was ultra clingy anyway, so The Hub was doing most of the cooking in the evening and at lunch time, I had to wait for her to sleep before I could eat. So I bought what I considered the next best thing - organic ready made Baby food. 

At that stage it was easy enough to find Baby food that didn't contain milk. However, a lot of these early foods are just fruit and vegetable based and pretty soon (as mentioned previously) the Health Visitor made me realise that, particularly because she was breastfed, Baby was also going to need more iron in her diet.

Adding in the iron

Eggs are a good source of iron and vitamin D

We did try a few ready made baby meals, but Baby wasn't always all that keen on them. I've tried a few and they're really not that tasty. To be honest, when you examine the labels on the jars, they have remarkably small percentages of meat (and therefore iron) in them (the early ones) anyway.

Casting around for alternatives, for myself, I had already hit on the idea of lentils, but was not keen to faff around with soaking them overnight and what not. Fortunately, for me, there were ready made fresh soups available in the supermarkets and for Baby, there was a purée in a pouch made with lentils (by Ella's Kitchen), that suited her down to the ground - for a short while. 

Anything with egg

Another good source of iron (as well as the all-important Vitamin D) turned out to be egg - omelette, scrambled or eggy bread to begin with, until she was older and could have a fried egg with a runnier yolk. And this kept her going for a long time. 

In fact, at one stage, all she would eat for lunch was fried egg and toast, unless she was offered fries - no one has to teach a small child to like fries, do they? Then she went through a stage of eating only a frittata-style omelette (made with chunks of par-boiled potato). The only problem was, that going out for lunch became a little more tricky. Not many places make omelette without dairy - for a start, it's often topped with cheese! 

We did find a way round it - we bought a Thermos snack jar, made up an omelette before we went and put it in the jar, to take with us. The only thing is, none of these lunches were exactly instant and small hungry babies are not exactly known for their patience. The Hub found me a solution, though, in Tapas style omelettes (bought from Tesco). As they could keep quite a while in the fridge (as long as they were unopened) we kept a few for emergencies!

There came a day however, when egg lost its charm! That's when fish finger and hash brown suddenly became the order of the day. Not so great nutritionally, Baby being a creature of habit, it soon became her favourite and so pretty much all she would eat. That was until one day when we ran out of hash browns! I solved the problem by reheating some Spaghetti Bolognese that we had left over from the night before and mixing it with freshly cooked pasta. 

Anything with Pasta!
Now, suddenly, all Baby will eat is pasta (and not just any pasta - it currently has to be Bob the Builder gluten free pasta) and there's only so many ways I can do it! Not always having left over Spag. Bol. to hand, I would have tried it with salmon and peas a la Intolerant Gourmet, but Baby has gone off salmon and has never yet liked peas!! 

So far, I've tried mixing her pasta with a tomato based sauce and tuna or sausage (she loves sausage) and I can't help wondering where I will go next. All I really want (apart from her being able to tolerate and enjoy dairy) is for Baby to like sandwiches - they're so much easier to make and there'd be less washing up! 

Sandwiches - exploring the options
Regarding sandwiches, we have tried different fillings: ham, chicken, however, you need to watch out for luncheon meats - you'd be surprised at what they might contain. Duchy Originals Organic (from Waitrose) are OK, but pricey. We've also tried tuna and mayonnaise (Hellman's Original is dairy free). Nut butters might be an option to explore in the future, but we've been advised to avoid those for now. 

We've also tried different bread: hers, mine, tortilla wrap and pitta. I've even cut  her sandwiches into a variety of shapes and sizes! Unfortunately, though, if her mind is set against them, then they'll just go to waste.

Baby loves burgers
One lunch that has never gone to waste yet, is burgers. Mind you, these aren't just any old burgers - they're one of the little treats that The Hub orders from Ocado (also available in Waitrose) from time to time. These particular burgers are made by Laverstock Park Farm, which is owned by Jody Schekter, an ex-Formula One Driver (which probably explains The Hub's interest). They're organic, dairy and gluten free and made of... buffalo. 

Buffalo for lunch

Buffalo is a very meaty meat - quite dense and a hit with Baby (she also likes their meatballs). In fact, I only offer her a little bit of mine (I try to offer her lunch first) but if I'm not careful, she'll scoff the lot! And so they've become an occasional Saturday lunch treat. 

Not your cheapest burger on the shelf (£2.99 for a pack of two burgers) they are, as The Hub has pointed out, still cheaper than eating at MacDonald's and hopefully they're better for us too!

Unfortunately, Baby can't have burgers everyday, so I keep racking my brains for new options to try, that are hopefully fairly quick, easy and involve as little washing up as possible, so we can get outside and do other things instead - although this summer, what with all the rain, that could be easier said than done!

However, I'm liking the look of these little pizzas, as suggested by Nicola Neal. I've steered clear of pizza so far, not being able to cope with the thought of pizza without cheese. However, Baby of course, will  not know otherwise, so knowing her love of tomatoey sauces on pasta, I might just give this one a try!


Found this post useful? You might also like:

Weaning the Dairy Free Baby - First Steps

Weaning the Dairy Free Baby - The Battle of Baby's Brekkie

Simple Sausage Casserole


Helpful Publications:

Neocate Weaning Guide
Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook
Feeding Tips for Toddlers: from One Year (Nutramigen)