Grown-up "Work" Lunches for Mama!

Whenever a telemarketer asks me about my job, I always say that I'm a full-time mom. I don't care if you work at home or outside the home full-time or part-time, or are a stay-at-home parent, or what. You might just be "on-call" for some of it, but being a parent is a full-time job! Without pay, vacation, or sick days!

So here are some of my "work" lunches, enjoyed in the car after ferrying one boss around from one school to another while my newer boss took an afternoon snooze...

Organic apples, pumpkinseed butter, Cosmos Creations puffs, leftover McD Side Salad
(plus raisins, hemp hearts, and sunflower and chia seeds) w/balsamic vinaigrette

 

Tuesday, 3/4/14 - I had a Side Salad left over from a trip through the McDrive-thru that never got eaten, so I rolled it into a lunch! (The Side Salad (with balsamic vinaigrette only) and sweet tea are pretty much the only "safe" items for us. Everything else has petroleum additives, gluten, more gluten, or dairy. Sprite is also safe, and sometimes I cheat and fill up on fries if the toddler is sleeping, even though they have a petroleum-derived preservative in the fryer oil. They also contain some dairy, but not enough to make me any sicker than the petroleum does... Totally gluten-free though, and cooked in a dedicated fryer.)

Leftover brown rice w/furikake, leftover fried tempeh; organic apples,
red pepper, and snap peas; pumpkinseed butter, vegan Ranch dressing

 

Tuesday, 3/11/14 - I only had a little bit of rice and a few strips of tempeh left over from dinner, so rolled them into a finger-food lunch. I'm not a fan of peppers of any kind, but I'd gotten some from my weekly farm share and Hubby wasn't stepping up. So I had to eat them.

Leftover GF veggie potstickers, leftover potsticker sauce, 1/2 organic banana,
organic red peppers and broccoli, vegan Ranch, HB egg

 

Wednesday, 3/12/14 - I found some gluten-free vegetarian potstickers in the freezer section of a gluten-free market up near Nana's house. And apparently I'm inept at cooking them. My first batch was a jumbled mash of bits. These ones turned out mostly okay, so I saved them for lunch the next day. Nom!

The banana is in there as a last-minute addition salvaged from my toddler's rejects. And I don't usually eat animal products, but I had a plethora of hard-boiled eggs and wasn't in the mood for seeds and nuts.

Salad (spinach, lettuce, carrots, red pepper, camelina gold and sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, raisins, dried berries, vinaigrette,) kiwi berries, Naturebox Cinnamon Spice Almonds w/coconut chips and Good Bean cinnamon chickpeas

 

Friday, 3/21/14 - A messy but tasty salad quickly tossed into a Snapware container, since all my EasyLunchboxes were dirty or occupied that morning.

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Dye-free marshmallow ends, organic grapes, Fresh Express Veggie Lovers salad mix w/organic tomatoes,
coconut "bacon," sunflower and chia seeds, hemp hearts, raisins, rosemary vinaigrette

Friday, 3/28/14 - I made this salad with a Fresh Express Veggie Lovers mix from my Fresh Express Salad Swap event. Just for fun, I added some flower picks to my grapes.

The Plush Puffs marshmallows aren't vegetarian, because of the gelatin. But it's hard enough finding gourmet marshmallows without gluten, dyes, or artificial flavors in them. So I mentally plug my ears and squinch my eyes shut and go "Lalalalala" and ignore that ingredient.

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