Meal Plan Week 39

Welcome to the meal plan week 39. This is a BIG week! For some it is Hanukkah, for us it is Chritsmas. This meal plan is our Christmas one.

There will be lots of family and friends over for dinners for many all over the world this week. The holidays are pretty much food centred and with allergies that can be trying. Any parties we will be eating beforehand and we will bring our own food to gatherings, to be safe. We are having a quiet Christmas this year at home, just the 6 of us which means all of our food will be top 8 free on our holiday table.

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Meal Plan Week 39

Meal Plan Week 39 In-Depth and Top Tips

Monday

Meal Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken and Festive Spinach Salad

This is one of our favourite posh looking meals. It is super easy and great with guests as it tastes and looks like it was a ton of work but it really isn’t.

The recipe is a Jamie Oliver one that we adapted over time. Basically, trim the boneless skinless chicken breasts. Then you line a cutting board with plastic wrap and place a breast on it. Put another piece of plastic wrap on top and pound the breast thin. About ¼ inch thick all the way through. Peel back the top layer of wrap sprinkle on salt and pepper, dairy free parmesan, lemon zest and thyme. Put 2 large pieces of prosciutto on top so they cover the parmesan coated breast. Cover back up with the plastic wrap, pound a bit to kind of press the chicken and prosciutto together. If making ahead, put the wrapped chicken breast keeping it in the plastic wrap in a large ziploc bag and chill in the fridge. 

Then when all the breasts are made use a large flat bottomed pan and heat a bit of olive oil over medium high heat. Unwrap the chicken from the plastic.  Put the chicken in the pan to cook, it should cook up to a nice golden brown for 5-7 minutes a side. Flipping it to cook on both sides. We use a meat thermometer to make sure it is cooked through ( a really great gift idea for those learning to cook). Poultry should be a minimum of 165F in the thickest part of the centre of the breast. When it is up to temperature, remove it from the pan and serve it with our Festive Spinach Salad.

Brands We Have Found:

Prosciutto

San Daniele

Citterio

Top Tip:

You can pound out the chicken and layer on the dairy free parm, thyme, and salt and pepper the night before. Then pan fry it. Alternatively you can make it then crisp it in the air fryer for a couple of minutes to reheat it right before serving. People think it takes ages to make but it really doesn’t.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

We slice the chicken breast up and serve it cold in lunches as it is or with the rest of the festive spinach salad. The chicken would be cut up and mixed into the salad or on the side, depending on the child. When the kids were really little I would put the dressing on the salad and send it. It would wilt a bit but was easier for them to eat in a short lunch period.

Now the kids are a bit older I put the dressing in a well sealing container that fits inside the salad container so that if it leaks it only leaks on the salad and not in their lunch bag. Make sure you send a fork, I have been known to forget it more than once. 

This lunch also works really well as a sandwich. Two pieces of Little Northern Bakehouse bread with a bit of Cranberry Pineapple sauce on the bread and sliced chicken with prosciutto.

Tuesday

Meal One Pot Vegetable Soup

One Pot Vegetable Soup is a simple soup recipe perfect for midweek dinners. It is a quick clean up and easy to make with canned or frozen veggies. We will be making it as the weather here is in an Artic freeze and this soup is perfect warm us all up.

Brands We Have Found:

365 - Whole Foods Vegetable Broth

Top Tip:

Freeze leftovers in family or individual sized portion containers for even easier no think  midweek dinners.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

Warm up a thermos by filling it with hot water. 

In a pot on the stove over medium-high heat bring the desired amount of French onion soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Dump the warm water out of the thermos and pour the hot soup into it instead. Seal the thermos and send it with a gluten free roll and a spoon for lunch.

It is important to make sure the kids can open the thermos themselves and that the French onion soup isn’t too hot when they open the thermos, for safety.

Wednesday

Meal Reuben Sandwiches and Fries

A Ruben Sandwich is usually made with rye bread but we use our fave gluten free bread instead as rye is not gluten free. Then a sauce, sometimes a thousand island dressing which is not safe or mustard. We mix vegan mayo, turmeric and horseradish to make a mustard like sauce safe for us. Then sauerkraut, which is fermented cabbage, corned beef, and a dairy free swiss cheese. We cannot always get safe corned beef so we use sliced roast beef instead.

The bread is toasted and cheese is melted. We spread dairy free margarine on the bread, then toast both pieces. Pile the fillings on one piece of bread and then put the cheese on top. Broil until the dairy free cheese gets as melty as dairy free cheese can, which isn’t always a lot depending on the cheese. Remove it from the oven and put on the second piece of bread.

To make excellent air fryer fries we use a really starchy potato like a russet. We peel it and cut it into fry sized strips. The potatoes go into lightly salted water and are soaked for 30 minutes. Lay out a couple of clean kitchen dish towels. Drain the potatoes really well and lay them on the towels and roll them to let them dry completely. Pre-heat the air fryer to 400F. Toss the potatoes in a bit of neutral oil (not vegetable as it may contain soy). Put them in the fryer basket and air fry for 28 mins at 380F. Shake the basket often to move the potatoes around. Don’t overfill the basket, or they will steam rather than fry. They may need to be cooked in more than one batch.

Brands We Have Found:

Top Tip:

Toast both sides of the bread so the sauerkraut doesn't make the bread soggy. We also heat our sauerkraut to help our sandwiches stay crispy.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

This sandwich doesn’t pack well with sauerkraut on it. Send it on the side, if your likes like it. Ours prefer the sandwich as a glorified grilled cheese with a cliche of meat. This can be made and put in the fridge overnight or made in the morning and served cold for lunch.

We don’t usually send fries for lunch and will send plain top 8 free potato chips as a treat or cut up veggies with ranch dip.

Thursday

Meal Breakfast for Dinner

We will make our pumpkin pancakes for dinner but instead of pumpkin we will use apple sauce or pear puree and spices to match. If we use the unsweetened applesauce it will be apple pie spices like ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon allspice, a pinch of ground cardamom.

For pear puree we will use ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves, pinch of ground star anise. Both will have a bit of vanilla extract in the mix.

We will serve the pancakes with the sausage rounds from Applegate, Johnsonville, or Greenfield. Our favourite produce discounter has blackberries and tangerines on sale so we will have a small fruit salad with these two mixed together.

Brands We Have Found:

Top Tip:

You can also make the pancakes ahead and freeze them. Popping them in a dedicated allergen free toaster (only used for allergen free cooking) and reheating. This is a perfect way to have easy breakfasts on busy mornings.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

When eating for the next day as a lunch we will reheat the pancakes in the toaster and cut them into bite sized pieces. Put them in a pre-warmed thermos and dried thermos. The thermos is warmed by letting it sit with hot water in it for 5-10 mins. Syrup is sent on the side to dip in with a fork.

We also have had the kids ask to send the pancakes as a sandwich. In a microwave safe container we send a pancake, then a sausage patty, and another pancake. The kids pop the container with the lid open but laid on top in the microwave at school for 30-45 seconds depending on the microwave and heat 1-2 times as needed. 

We are not super happy with using shared microwave ovens as they pose a huge cross contact risk so we make sure the kids use a container from home for heating in. If considering using a shared microwave talk to your medical team first to determine the risk and safety for you.

Friday

Meal Leftovers

Everything from the past 3 days that is leftover will be put out as a mini buffet and heated up on the stove. The kids can choose their favs and we will cook them up in a couple of pans at once. Each meal is reheated in one pan, other than soup.

Top Tip:

This is an important meal for use. We need all the fridge room to defrost the ham and will need the fridge cleaned out for our food prep for Christmas day dinner so it all needs to be eaten or frozen for leftovers tonight. This way we aren’t relying on putting food in the garage where it is -14F at the moment and it will freeze rather than stay cold.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

We don’t reheat leftovers. If we want to use them we only reheat what we will eat tonight, normally. For the best food safety practices food should only be reheated once.

Saturday

Meal Spaghetti

This is a meal that my family grew up having on Christmas Eve. My Grandma would make a huge pot of spaghetti and the whole extended family would come over and have dinner together. Whenever we do this meal with the house all decorated up it makes me think of those dinners as a kid. 

If you cannot have a classic tomato based sauce check out our Tomato-free Pasta Sauce.

We are keeping it easy. The noodles will be boxed gluten and wheat free pasta. Always check that gluten free also means wheat free as there are some brands that use de-glutened wheat which is not safe for wheat allergies. The sauce will be a couple of jars of marinara sauce. When we want to make it more fancy we will chop up onions, mushrooms, garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Fry them up in a bit of olive oil until translucent and then add the jarred sauce. We also have our ground beef all cooked and portioned in the freezer in pound and half pound bags to add in to meals like this, if we want a meat sauce. 

We could make it all from scratch but this is a busy week and an easy way to save time and energy for us.

Brands We Have Found:

Top Tip:

The sauce can be made ahead and frozen or the veggies and meat can be cooked ahead, frozen. When ready to cook add to jarred sauce in a pot and cook until thawed and hot. All is heated through. This can be done while boiling the water for the noodles and boiling them. Under cook the gluten free pasta slightly by 1 minute to keep it from going mushy.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

Rob is the king of frying up spaghetti. We put it in a frying pan with a very little bit of water (a couple of tablespoons a portion). Cover it with a lid for 4-5 mins. Then remove the lid and let the water cook off. Add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and fry the spaghetti. It will start to crisp up a bit and is ready when this starts to happen. 

This goes in a thermos that has been prewarmed with hot water. The thermos water is dumped out and wiped dry, then filled with spaghetti. We send it with a for and spoon to school.

Sunday 

Meal Christmas Dinner - Ham and the Trimmings

We had a huge turkey at Thanksgiving so the kids have asked for ham. We shopped around and found a smoked ham that was safe for us. This can be tough as some have soy and wheat used in their glazes and others make the glazes with milk products or mustard. 

We bake the ham in the oven and make our own glaze out of real maple syrup, honey can also be used. 

We will be serving the ham with mashed potatoes, homemade apple butter, German red cabbage, and air fried Brussel Sprouts. The salad will be a kale salad with cranberries to round out the meal. Dessert will be a decadent Mint Chocolate Pudding Pie made with a Crushed Cookie Pie Crust from our homemade cookies (or Partake ginger snap cookies depending on how much energy we have)

We do the big dinner on Christmas evening which is a bit different to how it was Celebrated for Rob growing up. His big dinner was on Christmas Eve as is common in most parts of continental Europe. I grew up celebrating on various days as we would go to different family’s homes and often worked Christmas when I worked. Sometimes we have the big meal earlier in the day as is custom in the UK, it all depends when we get ourselves organised with cooking.

Top Tip:    

Save the ham bone and the leftover ham for making Eintopf soup, ham sandwiches, and split pea and ham soup. We use the bone to make a quick bone broth in the instant pot. The broth is really rich and makes a beautifully flavoured soup, if you can have pork. You can do the same with lamb or beef bones as well. The bones can be put straight in or roasted then put in the instant pot with water.

How to pack it for lunch the next day:

Reheat the Christmas dinner meal parts together in a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover the pan with a well fitting lid and heat over medium heat for 4-5 mins. Remove the lid and let any remaining water cook off, about 2 -3 mins. Layer the food in a thermos that has been warmed by hot water and drained. Start with the potatoes, then the cooked veggies and to top it off the meat and gravy if it was made.

To heat this meal up if a microwave is available, send the meal in a microwave safe container. When heating, open the container or place it loosely over the dish to vent. Microwave for 1 minute 20 seconds, check it is all heated through and heat by 25 seconds longer, as needed.

We Love Feedback!

Did you make any of the meals from the meal plan week 39? 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.

• Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes
• Budget Friendly Chicken Stock
• Cold Asparagus Salad with Dill
• Lemon Garlic Roasted Potatoes
• Allergen Friendly Lebanese Chicken Shawarma Recipe

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 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.