Keeping the house, the kids and the hubby without breaking the bank, the earth, the people I love, or myself.

Lunch-meat Free Lunch Ideas

With the recent Listeria outbreak here in cold luncheon meats, we're all trying to come up with lunch meat free lunch ideas. Even though all the offending products have been removed from store shelves, my confidence has certainly been shaken and I do not want to use lunch meats anytime soon. I think it will be a long, long while before I purchase any again (even though our usual brand isn't manufactured by the company that made the contaminated meat.)

I pack my kids' and husband's lunches every day. Lunchmeat always made things easy, but I never depended solely on them. Now I simply won't use them.

Lunch Entrées :

  • Egg salad sandwiches
  • Tuna Salad sandwiches (For either of these I use a food processor to make them and it makes it so quick and easy. They're also of a more spreadable consistency which makes them last longer and makes them easier to use.)
  • Cream cheese (and jam if wanted) sandwiches, my son prefers plain cream cheese.
  • Bagels with cream cheese
  • Homemade ham cut in cubes along with some cubed cheese
  • Salad
  • Leftover chicken or turkey sandwiches
  • Pita pockets filled with salad fixings and topped with leftover meat (chicken, turkey, ham). I pack salad dressing in a small container and they can add it at lunch time.
  • Tatziki spread on whole grain bread with cucumbers and sliced tomatoes. My daughter adds the sliced tomatoes at lunchtime. I pack them in a bowl separate from the sandwich.
  • Cereal and milk (though they don't get this for breakfast if they have it for lunch.)
  • Pasta salad with everything in it (meat, veggies, cheese, the works)
  • Hard-boiled eggs
Snacks (I always pack two of the following):
  • Single-serve yogurts
  • Single-serve puddings
  • Jello (sometimes with fruit)
  • crackers of any kind
  • carrot sticks (or celery sticks, cucumber slices, etc) with ranch dressing in a small container
  • baby carrots
  • fruit
  • string cheese cheese
  • the occasional cookies (maybe once a month)
  • pretzels
  • the occasional single size bag of chips (less than once a month)
  • pasta salad that's just pasta and dressing

What alternatives have you come up with for lunchmeat free lunches?

5 comments:

Gill - That British Woman 3:03 PM  

dh is on bagels and cream cheese at the moment, because of the meat scare. Do you make soup and put it in a thermos? I have a couple of good recipes on my blog for soup.

Gill

Unknown 6:46 AM  

I'm having a real hard time with this. My DS just started grade 1 and is a very picky and slow eater. Since school has started he's had a cheese sandwich just about every day. I need to buy a thermos so I can try and broaden his food choices.

Unknown 1:05 PM  

We eat leftovers for lunch. I have never been a big fan of sandwiches or lunch meat.

Bonny 10:46 PM  

I just found your blog from the frugal forum, and I love it! I recently moved to Toronto from the States, and have had a grocery shock! Thanks for all the tips!

CannedAm 12:42 AM  

Bonny, when I moved here four years ago it was a horrid shock. Had no idea there would be such a huge jump in grocery costs from there to here. You want any tips, feel free to ask anytime :) Email me: cannedam gmail -- make it into an email address :) It took me about 2 years to get our grocery budget down to where it had been in the states. Disgusting that steak is often cheaper than chicken breasts, hmmm? *eyeroll*

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About This Blog

Saving money. Saving graces. Raising children, husbands and, sometimes, cats. Laughing. Living. Thinking. Doing. Life in the Niagara Region of Ontario.

About Me

I am a happily married woman with four children and various cats and kittens (fosters). I love to read and my favourite authors are George RR Martin, Thomas Hardy, Raymond Carver, PD James, Kurt Vonnegut, J. K. Rowling, and Margaret Atwood. I know there are only three women in that list (and none of them American), so if you'd like to suggest some I'm willing to give them a shot! And yes, I am an American living in Canada. (Hence the nick -- CannedAm.) I like it here. There are things about the states that I miss, but my love is here and this country has things to offer that my own does not. Things that make my quality of life much better than it ever was in Ohio. Guess I'm stuck here. Though there's a nice spot in the Appalachian hills where I'd love to spend my retirement.

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