GF, veg, cheap SCHOOL LUNCHES!
Long story short, after much lobbying my daughter's elementary school cafeteria will soon be featuring a gluten-free, vegan option for lunch a few days a week! The cafeteria manager needs major help as she has never consciously cooked vegan, GF food before. According to federal guidelines, the meals must include a protein, a starch and a veggie. Due to budget constraints, these must be very inexpensive and simple to prepare and, of course, kid-friendly. Ideas? Recipes? I know there's lots of you guys who do the GF thing soooo much better than I do!
(For those of you who don't know, the school lunch system in the U.S. routinely serves highly processed, refined, nutritionally lacking options like chicken nuggets, cheese pizza, hamburgers, etc each and every day. The issue was discussed at length on Jamie Oliver's TV show last year. This is especially problematic because economically disadvantaged kids who are on a free or supplemented payment system are the greatest consumers of these meals. The goal is to get these kids eating more whole plant foods and less white flour/processed meat and dairy/sugar.)
Thank you guys! Mwah.
I'm not an expert in GF recipes or kid-friendly recipes, but I'll try....
Bean tacos/burritos/nachos/whatever. Beans are the protein (and SO cheap). Corn tortillas/taco shells are gluten free as far as I know, and if that's not enough to count as a starch, they could make some Mexican rice. Then load it up with veggies and salsa.
Stir fry with tofu and veggies and rice (with a kid-friendly sauce like sweet & sour or this "orange chicken" recipe http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=15978.0, or a mild Thai curry sauce would work as well)
Peanut noodles, using rice noodles (GF), with lots of veggies (are peanuts allowed? Can peanut sauce count as a protein? If not, add tofu).
GF pasta with lentil sauce and side salad
Bean/lentil loaf or patty with side dishes of starch and veggies (rice pilaf, mashed potatoes, steamed or roasted veggies, etc)
Baked potatoes loaded with bean chili and sauteed veggies, or with veggies/salad on the side
I think all of these things should be fairly cheap and easy to mass-produce. Dried beans are cheaper than canned but would require either overnight soaking or long, slow cooking, so it'd take a bit of preparation. Also, I don't know exactly how the guidelines work...like, is a potato a starch or a veggie? Is it ok to have the protein, veggie, and starch all in one dish (like a stir fry with veggies, tofu, and noodles), or do they need to be separate, etc. But hopefully I helped a little. :)
cheap things like a potatoe, 1 vegie and bean cassorole ?
chilli with rice
soup with beans purreed or a peanut based soup wth noodles
vegie pies with mash potatoe topping (sheperds pis)
Millet or buckwheat dishes with small vegies and a good sauce
Seeds or nuts can be used for protien if allowed
Oatmeal burgers -oats are gluten free but in different counties they are likely to be processed with wheat
Maybe they can list some common things used in the kitchen e.g regular meals they make.
I would think tofu is not gonig to be likely. but black beans, kidney beans or lentils are probably quite easy to use.
Millet Burgers: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=10828.0
Really, really good and very "burgery."
Here is the website for the NY Coalition for healthy school lunches. They have a yearly recipe contest and this is the link for the recipes.
http://www.healthylunches.org/recipes.htm
All of the recipes are designed to meet school lunch standards and to be made at the cost of school lunches (I think it's like $0.60 a serving or something). Also, they're all tested by parents, chefs, and especially kids.
;D Vegan WIN! You might try pointing them in Jennifer McCann's direction http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ she is the Queen of vegan lunch!
I don't really have anything really helpful to add but I just wanted to say that it's a great thing what you did and I wish more people would stand up and fight like you!