This week's lunch round-up

Again, following with the idea of doing a small amount of cooking over the weekend, I made some pbj sandwiches, a container of carrot sticks, and a large batch of pumpkin muffins on Sunday, leaving me with less to make on Monday. For the week, this is what we're having for lunch:

• pbj sandwiches
• carrot sticks
• pumpkin muffins with cream cheese
• fresh apples
• turkey-noodle-vegetable soup (made a large pot of soup for dinner on Monday, with enough leftovers for a couple of days of soup this week)
• Greek yogurt parfaits (Greek yogurt, chopped nuts, granola, jam)
• toasted cheese sandwiches (will make later in the week, as we run out of the above list of items)
• tomato-basil soup (made from pureed, canned tomatoes, minced onions, basil, oregano, pepper, salt and thickened with a faux beurre manie (a paste of flour and oil instead of butter, to thicken at the last moment -- also, I'll make this later in the week, to round out the last bits for lunches)

Even when I don't make up all the lunch fixins' on one day, I find that if I plan it out for the week, ahead of time, that I know what to do and when, so that lunch-making is a simple task for all.

Gaining weight on a tight budget: Power-packed oatmeal

(For a re-cap, one of my daughters is recovering from an eating disorder and is in the process of weight restoration. She requires a great deal of calories every day. However, this kind of meal could also meet the nutritional needs of someone needing to gain weight for other reasons.)

This morning, we made another power-packed shake for breakfast, with whole milk, oats, peanut butter, canned pumpkin, cocoa powder, sugar and oil. It topped 650 calories.

But yesterday, we did another weekend, power-packed favorite -- the meal-in-a-bowl bowl of oatmeal.

I make this in the microwave, for ease.

In a microwaveable casserole dish:

• bring 1 cup of whole milk, and a pinch of salt just below boiling (about 2-3 minutes in the microwave).
• stir in, 1/2 cup rolled oats, and any of the following:

• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, applesauce, or mashed, cooked yams
• 2 to 3 tablespoons finely shredded carrots or zucchini
• 1 tablespoon butter or oil
• 2 teaspoons or so of sweetener (honey, sugar, agave, jam, jelly, maple syrup, molasses)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons peanut butter (or other nuts butters)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped nuts or seeds
• 1/4 to 1/2  cup chopped apple, pear, sliced bananas
• cocoa powder
• pinch spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg)
• ground flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
• extracts (vanilla, maple)
• minced, cooked ham, or, crumbled, cooked bacon, or, diced, cooked breakfast sausage

• Microwave for an additional minute or two, until the oatmeal is porridge-y consistency. Top with 1/2 cup of additional milk, if desired. 
• This is 1 serving.

The first two items, the whole milk and 1/2 cup of rolled oats, contain about 300 calories. As I'm creating a bowl of oatmeal, I add up the additional calories in my head. My daughter is now taking in 650 calories for breakfasts, which means I need to add 350 more calories from the remaining list. It would be easy to just add fats and sugars, but we're going for complete nutrition in 1 meal, so I like to add some fruit and/or vegetables, nuts and/or seeds and/or some cooked breakfast meat.

For the rest of the family, I make a second, larger casserole dish of oatmeal in the microwave, using water in place of milk, and omitting the addition of oils, butter, whipping cream. I still add fruit/veg, nuts/seeds, crumbled bacon, ham or sausage, and flavors/spices, for interest, variety and nutrition.