The meal plan week 32 brings us to a Happy Halloween! On Monday we will be doing a quick and easy breakfast for dinner on Monday for Halloween. We know the kids will be too excited to eat and it is our way to get protein and fruit into the kids before they get a bit of candy. How we do this holiday is we switch out what they cannot have with candies that are safe for them. You can find more info on the candies in our Allergen Friendly Halloween Guide.
Meal Plan Week 32
Monday - Breakfast for Dinner
Tuesday - Beef Bits and Rice
Wednesday - Chicken Drumsticks and Salad
Thursday - Daiya Mac and Cheese and Peas
Friday - Chicken Noodle Soup
Saturday - Free From Charcuterie
Sunday - Leftovers
Meal Plan Week 32 In-Depth and Top Tips
Monday (Halloween)
Meal Breakfast for dinner
We will be making an easy dinner as we will be splitting the duties this night. The kids will be trick or treating and will need a fast, yummy dinner that is not candy. We will be making our Pumpkin Pancakes with a fruit salad and sausages. The pancakes are slightly orange and will be made in the shape of pumpkins to make it fun for the kids. If we decide to do green stems we will colour a bit of the batter with spinach powder. To get the best colour make a separate small bowl of pancake batter but with applesauce instead of pumpkin puree.
The fruit salad will be what is in season. We cannot do cantaloupe or some other melons as one of the kids is anaphylactic to it. Our fruit salad will most likely be made with apples, grapes, bananas, and oranges.
The sausages can be either rounds or links. We have found a few brands that work for our family and our allergies.
Brand We Have Found:
Bacon
Top Tip:
You can make the pancakes ahead and reheat them to save time and divert the energy to getting costumes on and wrangling excited children.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
We will send the pancakes cut up with a piece of cold bacon for lunch the next day. There won’t be any syrup this time as the kids will still be riding the sugar wave from the night before. To send syrup make sure the container is well sealing as it leaks out easily. We will send the pancakes with a bit of vanilla dairy free yoghurt.
Tuesday
Meal Beef Bits and Rice
We are looking for an easy air fryer meal this night. We will make the recipe as per our recipe and serve it with rice and coconut aminos and steamed broccoli. It is a busy night. We are looking for little work and to not use the oven, if possible. We may change it up and do a plain quinoa instead of the rice and cook it in broth and mix the steamed broccoli into it with a bit of coconut aminos.
Top Tip:
Let the meat marinade overnight in the fridge in the marinade for the best flavour.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
The rice won’t be used as a leftover without a way to heat it really hot right before eating, for food safety. Instead we will send cold broccoli, beef bits, and crackers for the kids. If your kids struggle with swallowing meat due to EoE this is a meal best consumed at home with close supervision rather than at school.
Wednesday
Meal Chicken Drumsticks and Salad
This is our homemade version of shake and bake chicken. It can be done in the oven or in the air fryer. We chose drumsticks as they were cheap and on sale at the grocer’s last week so we picked them up and froze them to cook later.
We use 1 cup office flour based bread crumbs in a large Ziploc baggie, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon each of paprika, dried thyme, dried sage, dried oregano, and dried ground rosemary. Mix it all up in the baggie and toss int he chicken drumsticks, seal the bag well and shake up the mix and chicken. Coat all the chicken well. Take each drumstick out, spritz with high smoke point neutral oil, like canola, and place in the air fryer. Cook in a preheated air fryer on the chicken setting, flipping halfway through.
The salad will be a basic garden salad with homemade dairy free ranch dressing that we make at home.
Brand We Have Found:
Breadcrumbs
Top Tip:
We don’t use the prepacked oil sprays. Instead we use spray bottles like these and fill it with oils that are safe for us.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
The chicken is best off the drumstick in the lunch box so we make a sandwich out of it on gluten free top 8 free bread. Another way we would send this is as a chicken salad.
Thursday
Meal Daiya Mac and Cheese and Peas
I am not going to lie, we get tired of making dinner all the time so we pick up the Daiya Mac and cheese for the nights that we know will be an issue making a big labour intensive dinner. We get home from collecting kids at school, have to help with homework and then tonight we have 4 kids with activities all back to back. So we will make the Mac and cheese and frozen peas and not feel bad about it. We are okay with spending on this once in a while and choosing convenience over homemade for our sanity and ease. It is okay! We get overwhelmed sometimes and that is okay to work around.
Brand We Have Found:
Top Tip:
Cook up the mac and cheese and put how much each person wants on their macaroni noodles. We usually only use ½ of the cheesy sauce packet on all of ours as we find it overwhelming to have the whole packet on the pasta.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
The best way to send mac and cheese as a lunch is to preheat a thermos container with hot water. Reheat the mac and cheese on the stove, it may need a bit of water in the pot. No more than 2-3 tablespoons of water and reheat it whilst stirring over medium heat. Don’t forget to send a spork.
Friday
Meal Chicken Noodle Soup
Last time we made this meal it was with Turkey from the leftovers of Canadian Thanksgiving. This time we will make it with the leftover chicken drumsticks.
Brand We Have Found:
Noodles
Stock
Top Tip:
Cook 2-3 extra drumsticks for the meat for this recipe. It will save time to make it here.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
Like most of the soups they are best sent in a preheated thermos after having been warmed over medium heat on the stove. Don’t forget to send a spoon. Be careful to ensure the soup will not be too hot so it doesn’t burn anyone opening the thermos.
Saturday
Meal Free From Charcuterie
We love to make charcuterie or Abendbrot which is a scaled back version of evening meal with meats and cheeses. A light grazing dinner with the kids.
What do we serve? There are so many options. There is always a small raw veggie plate of their favs. This time we are adding marinated cherry tomatoes as we got a huge deal on them. We have pickles and olives bowls. The olives are store bought but we make our own pickles in the late summer so we make sure we have mustard free ones. We also add pickled beans and asparagus or onions that we made, depending on how we feel. We sometimes add carrot lox.
There will be a jam. We have a nice orange marmalade for this week we made this spring. Crackers that are top 8 free. There aren’t a ton of these so we also toast bagels that we cut up in bite sized pieces.
The meats will all be free from and two kinds will be put out for the kids to choose from.
The cheeses will be the dairy free Applewood smoked cheeses, dairy free Boursin, and a lovely dairy free Wensleydale with cranberries we found recently. A few dates, grapes, orange or apple slices may round out the plate.
We don’t need a ton of everything. We put one apple, one orange, a handful of everything or 1-2 options in each area with a bit more of each if we have less variety. There is no need to be fancy or expensive.
It is really deconstructed sandwiches that our kids think are fancy. This meal is no different than any lunch they would get, only they choose what they eat so they think it is fun.
Brand We Have Found:
Bagels
Carbonaut
Little Northern Bakehouse
Meats
Maple Leaf Naturals
Applegate
Cheeses
Boursin
Applewood
Crackers
From the Ground Up
Made Good
Laiki
Jams
Crofters
Bonne Maman
Top Tip:
Make items that don’t require loads of prep or heating. This is perfect for a movie or game night as it can be a grazing board for the family.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
The leftovers can be sent as a sandwich or as a homemade Lunchable or mini charcuterie.
Sunday
Meal Leftovers
Top Tip:
We let the kids choose what they loved most this week for their dinner. That means it may be a mix and match for them. We do have some rules- they have to have a veggie and a meat or protein on their plate. They are great about this and we find they eat more when they have a say in their dinner.
How to pack it for lunch the next day:
We do not reheat Leftovers more than once. Our kids have enough issues with food we worry about food poisoning and making eating tougher for them in the future with food aversions so we limit it.
We Love Feedback!
Did you make any of the meals from the meal plan week 32? Please let us know! What is on your meal plan this week? Drop a comment on this post or tag us on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.
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We have to remind everyone that we are not medical professionals or dietitians, so these meal plans are not balanced for nutrition, they are for information purposes only. Please discuss any dietary concerns, changes, or proper meal plans with your medical team.
Always check the labels and with the brands for any products to make sure they are right for you. We also encourage you to contact the manufacturers in addition to checking that the process of manufacturing is also safe for you, and that there aren’t shared lines. One product or ingredients may be safe for one person but not another. Always check the products and ingredients before purchasing.
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