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