Feeding My Teens

[jeanne-]

We have been gluten free for about 4 weeks now. Meals are generally going well. My teens however are looking for quick and easy meals to eat at the end of their days. Naturally, they don't want leftovers from dinner, but more like homemade convenience foods. We are also allergic to dairy. Any suggestions?

[bbuster]

We have been gluten free for about 4 weeks now. Meals are generally going well. My teens however are looking for quick and easy meals to eat at the end of their days. Naturally, they don't want leftovers from dinner, but more like homemade convenience foods. We are also allergic to dairy. Any suggestions?

We make tacos at home for dinner once a week - that is pretty easy. You could cook the meat in advance and refrigerate or freeze it. Also, I buy frozen taquitos that just need to be heated - microwave or oven.

My kids also like breakfast for dinner once in awhile - scrambled eggs, bacon (I buy the Hormel precooked so it's quick and easy), gluten-free pancakes or waffles.

[kareng]

I have 2 teen boys with thier own schedules & lives.

Cook extra burgers & chicken on the weekend when grilling. Put BBQ sauce on the chicken or not. They microwave well. One kid puts the plain chicken in taco shells with hot sauce.

Make chili. Microwave some and eat with corn chips. Ore-Ida frozen fries are good. I find that I have to cook them 5-10 minutes extra to get them crispy.

[missy'smom]

canned soups

bunless buger patties w cheese-I taught my now 12 year old how to do it and he just takes a frozen pre-formed one straight from the freezer to the pan

kiddo can also handle making a ham and cheese toast under the broiler

he knows how to make mac and cheese himself-Trader Joe's gluten-free

tortilla casseroles: take individual oven-freezer safe casseroles and layer enchilada sauce, tortillas, beans, rice, veg(like corn), vegan gourmet cheese, black olives etc.

[jeanne-]

Thank you ladies. I will plan a menu and stock the fridge up on the weekend. Next week should be much easier. They will like your suggestions. I like this place.

[missy'smom]

canned soups

bunless buger patties w cheese-I taught my now 12 year old how to do it and he just takes a frozen pre-formed one straight from the freezer to the pan

kiddo can also handle making a ham and cheese toast under the broiler

he knows how to make mac and cheese himself-Trader Joe's gluten-free

tortilla casseroles: take individual oven-freezer safe casseroles and layer enchilada sauce, tortillas, beans, rice, veg(like corn), vegan gourmet cheese, black olives etc.

OOPs. Boy I was tired today. I totally get dairy-free as I am DF, but gave you so many suggestions with dairy! Sorry. I was going to mention that the burger patties are preformed-either turkey or beef, well without cheese to dress them up, they can be dipped in mayo, mustard, catsup, BBQ sauce or wrapped in a lettuce leaf with the fixins

the ham and cheese/tuna salad/pizza toast melt under the broiler can still be done with dairy-free cheese

[Marilyn R]

You could buy a pack of celery hearts, wash and chop the top and bottoms of them off, slice into crudit

[jeanne-]

Hi Marilyn and Miss'ysmom,

I like your suggestions. It is amazing how entrenched wheat is in our diet. It is hard to think around it sometimes. Thank you for your help. The kids appreciate it a lot.

[Juliebove]

I buy the individual cups of hummus from Costco. If I can't get to Costo or they are out, I just get a tub or two of hummus from the grocery store. Daughter likes to eat it with baby carrots, potato chips or Fritos or oddly, apple slices.

She also likes bean tacos. Canned refried beans put into corn tortillas, maybe with a drizzle of salsa and microwaved. The hard taco shells can also be used but she is picky about these because they can come out too hard in the microwave.

A quick meal she can make for herself (she's 12) is a package of Uncle Ben's pre-cooked rice (she likes the roasted chicken flavor) with a small can of chicken mixed in and put in the microwave.

She likes microwaved hot dogs. No bun. She mixes together ketchup, mustard and pickle relish and dips slices of hot dog in it and eats it with a fork.

She likes huge potatoes, pricked with a fork and microwaked until soft, then spilt open and served with Nucoa or Benecol (dairy free) and some salt.

I buy precooked bacon and she can reheat that in the microwave herself.

She likes Hormel Tamales. They are kind of messy because they are wrapped in paper and then put in sauce in the can. I unwrap them and put them in a casserole, layering them with slice onion and green peppers. Heat through in the oven or microwave and then top with black olives.

She likes deviled eggs. She had those tonight as a snack.

She also likes tuna, chicken or egg salad. She can make these herself and she eats it with a fork.

She likes Sunshine Burgers. They are meatless and come frozen. She heats in the microwave and eats as is.

I buy some single serve things that are gluten-free from Minimus.biz. She likes the apple bars and little packs of salami. They also sell shelf stable hummus.

She likes some kinds of fruit snacks. Like Fruit By The Foot. I think the other one is Welches. We get a big box at Costco.

She likes little cans of Vienna sausages.

She likes little cups of canned pears or applesauce. We can get some applesauce at a store near here that comes in a pouch and has like...a little spout on it. That's her favorite but it is a tad expensive. No sugar in it though and it is organic.

During the warmer months she likes a wedge of watermelon or half a canteloupe or other melon. I realize it is more expensive to buy them this way, but I hate cutting up melons with all their sticky juice and in some cases, seeds to deal with.

Microwave popcorn! We found some at Costco that is dairy free, but prior, we just got the organic kind with no oil. It has no dairy in it at all.

She has recently become an instant mashed potato addict. I always made them from scratch for her, keeping some organic flakes from the health food store just in case they came out too runny. I would also add the flakes to soups to thicken them. But recently after promising her hamburger gravy over mashed potaotes, I realized that all of my potatoes were rotten! I wasn't sure that the instant would work with no milk. My normal way to make mashed potatoes was to boil the chunks then drain off most of the water, then season and add some Nucoa and mash. Prior to that I would drain off all the water and then use broth but sometimes that seemed to give them too strong of a flavor.

So I tried the instant potatoes with just water, a little extra salt, lots of black pepper and some Nucoa. She loved them! Now she just makes them herself in the microwave. She just sort of mixes the stuff up in a paper bowl, allowing them to be a little runny because they will firm up as they cook. Then nuking them for a couple of minutes. The reason for the paper bowl? We tried them in my Corelle or stoneware bowls and while this does work, the bowl gets extremely hot! You have to use potholders to take it out. We found that the edges of the paper bowl do not get hot so you can pick it up and carry it that way.

Husband does eggs in paper bowls in the microwave. He just scrambles the egg and nukes.

Sometimes she just eats vegetables out of the can. She used to like green beans but went off of them for some reason. Probably because she had them daily since about 6 months of age. Now she likes corn and kidney beans just drained and eaten with a fork.

[buffettbride]

Costco has individual hummus cups? OMG. Yummmm. MUST find them!!!

[Juliebove]

Costco has individual hummus cups? OMG. Yummmm. MUST find them!!!

I could not find them at one Costco. We ended up going to another one in a different city. The one we used to go to is in a really high crime area. After we were approached by a seedy guy for money and then a purse snatching at about the same time, that clenched it for us.

What we discovered at the other store is that the indivual cups are not with the other hummus. In fact they are always in a different spot. Sometimes they are near the raw chicken. Other times near the salmon. Other times with prepared foods. You just have to hunt for them.