Gluten Free Menu Swap – Lunches! September 1 – 5, 2008
In honor of the first week of students, I not posting my dinner menu but rather my lunch menu. This is, after all, the menus that are the most difficult to manage after a summer of coasting in/out of my kitchen at my own leisure. (Not to mention the freedom of using the bathroom when biology tells me too rather than responding Pavlovian-style to a bell like at school.)
Here are a few teacher secrets for those of you have not ventured in to a classroom since your own school days or who have only ventured through the halls of school in parent-mode:
- Most of us teachers have night-terrors and mini-freak outs in the days before school starts because we could swear that we’ve forgotten EVERYTHING about how to teach, etc.
- If you hear heavy-breathing in the hallway on the first day of school, it’s more than likely NOT a couple kids sneaky around for a brief “snog” (love that word) but rather a teacher racing for the copier in the last minute or freaking out about the onslaught of the teenage masses/hormones that we haven’t been surrounded by in a few weeks. It’s quite an energy change and rather exhausting to readjust to it all.
- Parent Night, Open House, Meet the Teacher Night or whatever it is called where you live calls forth fear and anxiety in even the most veteran of teachers. Even though teachers are, basically, public speakers for 6 or more hours of the day…. we do not spend that time talking to our peers. And no matter how often Parent Night comes around, my knees still shake and I have no conscience memory of what is coming out of my mouth. <Scary, huh?>
- It will take us several days/weeks (depends on the teachers) to master the names of the 150 kids that fly through our classroom doors, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see their personalities and enjoy their humor.
- Sometimes it’s the quiet classes that freak us out the most. At least when they are talking, you know what they are thinking <usually>.
- The end of August and the beginning of September are the times of year when we both relish our love of teaching and yet somehow we oft forget that we are competent.
Just to prove my point… as soon as I’m done with this post, I’m off to type up course syllabi and plan my first few days of school. Despite the fact that I have been slowly stewing ideas in my brain all summer, I’m almost at a white-knuckle panic about it all. The kids don’t arrive for classes until Wednesday <INSERT MONSTER-LARGE SIGH HERE>. This gives me time to compare my ideas with colleagues and to set up my classroom a bit longer.
All of this made me want to ask you all about your first days of high school. What do you remember about them? What did you do in classes? (I’m willing to bet that most of you remember picking out your first day of school outfit and checking out class schedules with buddies….but that you maybe don’t remember much about the actual class. Am I right? LOL)
So here is my snack and lunch plan for the school week. Forgive me, Gluten-Free Menu Swappers and Meal Plan Monday (OrgJunkie.com) for switching it up a bit. I usually post our dinner menu, but I thought I would stick to my panic theme. It seems to be working for me at the moment. Thank you, Gluten-Free Goodness for hosting the swap this week and to OrgJunkie for hosting Meal Plan Monday as well.
Monday: (No School. Lunch @ home) Ham & Egg roll up sandwiches, white peaches and lemonade.
Tuesday: Leftover Sausage & Zuchini lasagna, quinoa tabouleh, 2 plums and water
Wednesday: Ham & clover roll up sandwich, cherries, strawberry yogurt and lemonade.
Thursday: Ham & white bean soup, white peaches, hummus with veggies sticks and lemonade
Friday: Shrimp-Caesar salad, apple crisp (have to use those apples up!), pumpkin seeds and walnuts, and lemonade.
And for the roll-up sandwiches, I use this recipe. If I want really thin bread, I use one recipe but divide the dough in half and smooth it out as far as possible. It makes an almost paper thin bread which works well if your sandwich fillings are light and not wet.
Happy Gluten Free Lunches, All!
-Kate
PS. If you are looking for more GF Lunch ideas then check out these two posts:
- Packing up your Gluten Free Lunch (how to pack it up, what I use to pack my lunches)
- Gluten Free Lunch To Go: Ideas for what to pack (a list of general lunch ideas that I have used)