Allergy-Friendly "Fall Feast" School Party

Every year at Z's private preschool, each class has a "Fall Feast" the last class before Thanksgiving, where the parents are invited to watch a mini musical pageant and enjoy an assigned potluck meal with Thanksgiving-style dishes.

I figured the turkey and veggie trays would be safe (without dip for Mama, natch,) but stuffing, rolls, and pies would be a no-go. And I didn't really want to eat any turkey. So I just packed myself a whole gluten-dairy-meat-free meal, and brought some extras for Z.

Mama's Feast

Meatless Meatloaf Muffin, GF ciabatta roll, GF MOMeos, wild rice w/sweet potato

 

I sliced and toasted two gluten-free Schaar ciabatta rolls (one in my lunch and a separately-packed one for Z) and added a little dairy-free butter (Earth Balance organic buttery spread) and garlic salt to help them taste less blah.

I packed a left-over lentil "meatloaf" muffin to eat instead of turkey. I sliced it in half horizontally, so that I could make little open-faced sandwiches, and added a little ketchup in between the slices.

For a side, I packed some leftover wild rice with sweet potato. Yummy and seasonal!

For dessert, I'd signed up to bring a pie, and I packed some whole-grain gluten-dairy-egg-nut-free "Oreos" (recipe on the MOMables blog) in case the store-bought frozen gluten-free marionberry pie wasn't to our liking.

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Half the kids made paper Indian costumes, and half made paper pilgrim costumes. Adorable!

Lunch for the Toddler, Back at Home

GF DF toasted "cheese" sandwich; organic sugar snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, apples

 

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, my mom came down to babysit the little one, since siblings aren't invited to Fall Feast. Waaah! I packed a lunch for Gramma to have ready to appease the savage beast.

While toasting the buns for Z and myself, I made a mini gluten-free grilled (dairy-free) cheese sandwich for E, and then after it cooled a bit, cut it into little nibbles with a FunBites cutter.

Z was a huge fan of the gluten-free rolls, and used some turkey to turn hers into a sandwich. She loved them so much I ended up giving her half of mine as well. And she had some pie AND my cookies! Snake! But she loved them both, and raved about them all through the holiday season.

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Gluten-Dairy-Dye-Free Vegetarian Holiday Menu!

 

Thanks to a little planning and a plethora of saved bento bread scraps (cutting the bread before adding the fillings pays off!) the girls and I were able to have a nice gluten-dye-dairy-free Thanksgiving and Christmas! And Mama was able to go vegetarian too!

Gluten-Free Lentil "Meat Loaf"

Bento Bread Scrap Gluten-Free Vegetarian "Meat Loaf" Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups lentils, cooked (a mix of colors works best and gives a wide range of nutrients, otherwise yellow or black/brown lentils give the most "realistic" color)
• 1/2 cup diced onion, leek, or shallot
• 5 slices gluten-free bread -OR- 4 cups torn bread scraps, crusts, and heels
• 3 Tbsp ketchup
• 5 cherry tomatoes or 1/2 large tomato
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder or 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup water (approx)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare lentils as you normally would. (I microwave them.) 

Whizz bread into crumbs in a blender or food processor. Set aside.

Put onions, ketchup, and seasonings in a food processor and blend until they are a paste. (You CAN use a blender, but I don't recommend it. It's verrrrry hard to get everything blended, since it tends to gum up at the bottom.)

Slowly add in cooked lentils, 1/2 cup at a time, blending until smooth. If you prefer more texture, save last 1/2 cup and just pulse a few times to combine without pureeing.

Add bread crumbs and pulse a few times to mix. (You don't want to puree them too much, otherwise it will feel like you're eating bean dip cakes...)

Spoon mixture into mini loaf pans or muffin pans. It still sticks a little either way, but if you're going for novelty shaped muffins, spray the muffin pan first, and try to use silicone. You can line mini loaf pans with parchment paper, if desired. I chose an Autumn shapes muffin pan and heart muffin pan.

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Bake at 400 F for 35-40 minutes. Optional: add a ketchup glaze on top for the last 10 minutes of cooking. (Mix some ketchup with a little water. I eyeballed it.) It will be on the top of the muffins in the pan, so on the bottom when you flip them to show off the smooth side. But it bakes in fairly well, so isn't too messy, unless you go crazy with it.

Important: Let cool before removing from pan. They will fall apart otherwise. (I made some "boring" ones to eat right away, so didn't care that they fell apart, but I let the shaped ones cool several hours before c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y removing from the muffin pans using a butter knife and a lot of patience to loosen the sides and peel them out of the silicone pans.

Makes 3-4 mini loaves or 12-14 "muffins." Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week, or longer in the freezer. The muffins fit nicely in a lunch, and even taste good cold!

adapted from this recipe

Bento Bread Scrap Gluten-Free Stuffing

 

Ingredients
6-7 cups torn bread scraps, crusts, and heels
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
(optional) 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
4 tsp dried herbs (Any combo of sage, rosemary, thyme and even some Italian seasoning, in a pinch. Hubby prefers sage-heavy, so I do at least half sage.)
6 Tbsp melted non-dairy butter, shortening, or olive oil
1-2 cups vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place torn bread onto baking sheets in a single layer and bake for 5-7 minutes, until toasted.

Fry the onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms (if using,) and herbs in 1-2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions start turning translucent, roughly 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine the toasted bread bits with the cooked vegetables. Pour 6 Tbsp melted non-dairy butter over the top and mix well.

Add 1 cup of broth and mix. You want bread mixture to be moist but not soggy. If needed, add more broth, 1/4 cup at a time.

Transfer mixture to a baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes.

inspired by this recipe

Sweet Potato Fries with Marshmallow Dip

 

Kid-Friendly Sweet Potato Casserole Alternative - 

Sweet Potato Fries with Marshmallow Dip!

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potato or yams
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil or melted coconut oil
• 4 Tbsp almond meal
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar or brown sugar

• 1/2 bag marshmallows (5 oz) (Dandies brand are dye-free and gelatin-free!)
• 1/2 cup cream from 1 can coconut milk (refrigerated overnight, read instructions) or 1/2 c heavy cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 or 475, depending on what else you need to cook and how much time you have. Coat 1-2 baking sheets in aluminum foil.

Peel and cut sweet potatoes into fries, trying to keep them roughly the same thickness. Combine almond meal, cinnamon, garlic powder, salt, and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Toss fries in olive or melted coconut oil and coat evenly with almond meal mixture. Lay evenly across prepared baking sheets.

Bake 45 minutes at 350 F, or 25-30 minutes at 475 F.

Meanwhile, line a pie tin with aluminum foil and arrange marshmallows in a single layer. (I made a double batch so used a whole bag. Only I forgot to double the coconut cream, which is my my sauce looks so thick and lumpy. Doh!)

Put the pan of marshmallows in the oven with the sweet potatoes and bake until puffed and toasty. The darker you go, the toastier the flavor.

Scrape as much marshmallow as you can into a blender and add 1/2 cup of the cream from the can of coconut milk (when chilled, it separates from the coconut water. Feel free to save the water to add to smoothies or just to drink... people pay good money for that stuff! You can add any extra coconut cream to smoothies as well.) Blend well. Add more cream or a little coconut water if needed to thin out the sauce.

Serve while hot. Yum! These got gobbled down by the adults before the kids even had a chance to really try them! Ha!

inspired by this recipe and this recipe

Gluten-free Vegan Pumpkin Pie

For dessert, I followed this recipe for "Silky Tofu" Pumpkin Pie. But instead of canned, I used homemade organic pumpkin puree from sugar pumpkins that came in our weekly farm share!

I didn't have the mental energy to make puree AND pie filling AND a crust, so I just bought a frozen gluten-free vegan crust. Thank goodness for the gluten-free grocery near Nana's house! Although you could use Pillsbury's new gluten-free pie crust dough, found in the refrigerated dough section of the grocery store!

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Turkey Leftover Turkeys

For our first day back to school after the Thanksgiving break, what better theme than a Turkey Leftovers lunch! (In our EasyLunchboxes, of course!)

Pomegranate arils, turkey and cheese pockets, apples, carrots and cauliflower

Ain't No Jive Turkey: I got the idea for these from Bento for Kidlet. But Hubby was so impressed with their creativity, I had really wanted to take credit for the idea. *sigh*

I used a circle cutter to make two bread circles (the scraps went into a freezer bag to save for making something with them later.) I flattened the middles a little with my fingers, then put some turkey and grated cheese on each one. (Turkey and cranberry relish would be a good combo too! Yum!) 

I set them in a dumpling press and sealed them each into a little pocket. They didn't stay sealed fantastically well, so I added a bit of cream cheese to glue them shut. 

I cut some finger shapes from a bread scrap and a heel (Hubby and I couldn't decide which we liked better, so I did one of each.) I used cream cheese to glue them on, and bits of uncooked spaghetti noodle to pin them in place. More cream cheese to glue on the eyes (currants cut in half) and beaks (bits of carrot.)

Since she refused cranberry sauce for dipping, I put some pomegranate arils into a Wilton Silly Critter cup (they fit almost flush against the lid in an EasyLunchbox! Sweet!)

The rest of the fruits and veggies have nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but cold mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes aren't as tasty. You can pretend the carrots are sweet potatoes, and the cauliflower is mashed. Whee! And apples for apple pie (I like it better than pumpkin pie. Especially MY pumpkin pie. How was I supposed to know you should taste it to see if there was enough sugar? Bleah.)

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Give Thanks - Happy Thanksgiving!

Let me first apologize for the photo. Because this lunch was for the last day of school before Thanksgiving break, Z's afternoon preschool had a "Fall Feast" pageant and potluck, so Hubby worked from home that day so he could come watch.
Which meant Mama got to sleep in an extra hour while he got her up and ready for her morning preschool. The only problem was I had totally forgotten to finish packing her lunch and taking my photos! I had literally stepped out of the shower when Hubby came to ask me what she needed to take to school. Doh! I seriously considered going outside in the freezing cold while I was dripping wet wearing just my thin towel robe, so I could get a photo with the good light, but we just didn't have time. I asked him to add her dessert and take a photo.
He forgot to add the dessert before the picture, and blocked half the light with his arm. And didn't think to take a picture from an angle that would show the words on the sandwich. But he meant well. He even placed it on our wooden kitchen chair so there would be a nicer backdrop. *sigh*

PBJ sandwich, [missing TJ's Candy Cane Joe Joes,] apples, carrots, green beans, broccoli

The empty silicone heart cup was for some Candy Cane Joe Joes cookies (like Oreos) from Trader Joe's. He remembered to add them in for me before packing the EasyLunchbox into her lunch bag (no ice pack, since I forgot to pack any dairy. Doh!)

I [Heart} Carrots: I used a mini heart cutter (mine came from a set that is discontinued, but it's roughly 1" tall) on some orange and yellow carrot coins, then a micro heart cutter to make smaller hearts in the middle, which I then swapped around.

Thankful For Sandwiches: I used a heart sandwich press (mine came from Williams-Sonoma a few years ago and doesn't appear to be available any more) to cut hearts out of two slices of bread, and a small heart cutter to cut a hole out of the top layer. Then a 3/4" heart cutter to cut a heart from that scrap to go in the middle.
Luckily I was able to spell GIVE THANKS without any duplicate letters, since I only have the one set of alphabet picks... so far... Not that you can tell from the photo. But trust me. It looked really cute. *sigh*

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