What's for Dinner & School Lunch Week of: 4/6/2026
Happy Sunday!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend and Easter or Passover if you celebrate! After two glorious weeks of no meal planning, and very little cooking, ( thanks mom for hosting and cooking for us!!) it’s back to school and the routine... so here goes.
As always, these recipes are mostly gluten-free ( 2 of us are gluten-free at home, if any changes have to be made to make the recipe gluten-free, I do specify in the recipe.) and designed for two adults and three kids ages 15,12 and 4.
Scroll down and you will find what I send for lunch for two of my three kids. School lunch is yet another source of harmful chemicals for most kids so, while it can be a pain to prep lunch in the morning, it is an important way to reduce overall toxic burden in kiddos, especially the youngest ones! I often send leftovers to make my life easier.
DINNER
Monday: Barbq chicken rice bowl
( you can make it a salad by substituting any greens for the rice )
Grill chicken marinated in Primal Kitchen barbq sauce ( I like this one because it comes in glass and has no added sugar ) and then add: avocado, diced tomatoes, corn ( I usually buy frozen organic corn and just use that but if I can find fresh organic corn on the cobb I LOVE grilling and slicing that tastes so much better) and black beans ( you can make these fresh which I often do, but since I’m making this on Monday, I’m going to use Jovial black beans that come in glass jars and I will add some olive oil and garlic and a tiny bit of diced onions to a hot pan and then add the black beans to heat up. This will give the beans more taste.)
Tuesday: Beef Carnitas in a Crock Pot
Slow cooker tacos... yum! you can add anything to your tacos. We will make some guacamole and keep it simple with a little side salad.
This is a child friendly vegetarian meal. Will serve with naan for those of us who are not gluten-free.
Thursday: Gluten free chicken picatta served with spaghetti or on a bed of greens (for me!)
I like jovial gluten-free pasta
Friday: Steak avocado mango cucumber rice bowl
I am taking inspiration from a recipe I saw online ( which you could totally make instead it’s just more work that I want this week!) . For this recipe, I will simply grill some flank steak, serve with avocado and the cucumber mango salsa from the above mentioned recipe you can find here.
SCHOOL LUNCH
We use bento style school lunch containers for my preschooler and larger containers made out of stainless steel for my sixth grader. For the preschooler, items I usually send her with include: berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, kiwi, grapes, carrots and hummus, edamame, organic corn, green bean ( with some butter)... These are usually snack foods that we find travel well.
pasta with green peas
rice crackers, tomato and mozzarella capresa, prosciutto “skewers”
leftover carnitas meat with quinoa
hard boiled egg, avocado, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato salad ( for my toddler. I put everything separate and don’t add the lettuce because she won’t eat it.)
quesadillas
Here is to a great week! xx Aida
Delicious and healthy!