School Lunch Day 19 - Tuna Salad and Homemade Buttermilk Quick Bread

I'm experimenting with some bread recipes, so you'll be seeing a lot of bread this week.  Today it's a buttermilk quick bread - basically like a biscuit dough, but in a loaf.  Or similar to an Irish soda bread, but no soda (I use baking powder). I'll be posting it soon. 

The Lunch Idea:

This is a simple lunch, but it's one I think they will like.  Most of my kids like tuna, and they are happier to just eat it out of a bowl than if I put it in a sandwich.  I don't do it too often, but it is an easy protein to add to a lunch, and especially great when your fridge might be a little bare of other protein options - you've always got a can of tuna in the pantry.

If you are struggling with what to pack for lunch - just fall back on the basics: protein + vegetable + fruit + carb.  If all you do is remember that, then you're covered.  It really doesn't have to even be things that you think should go together, honestly I don't think kids care nearly as much about 'correct' food pairings as we do.  Just start with a protein, and protein, and then get through it, one item at a time, until the lunch box full.  

What's in the Lunch: 

• Protein: Three have tuna salad.  Just tuna, mayo, salt, pepper, and a little shredded cheese.  For the fourth child, who I know just isn't going to touch the tuna, I packed a container of peanut butter. 
• Bread: They might put the tuna on the bread and make a little sandwich.  Or they might just eat the bread. 
• Veggies: Carrots, three have tomatoes, one also has celery. 
• Fruit: strawberries, and one has some homemade applesauce. 
• Extra: a couple of little cinnamon biscuit cookies. I like to dip these in coffee, but my kids don't seem to understand that. 

Tips and Questions:

• About the tuna: I use a wild caught albacore, packed in water with no added salt. (I have nothing against salt, I love the stuff, I just prefer to add my own.) I try to buy a brand that comes in BPA free cans, and is a chunk tuna, instead of that stuff that's all mushed up and not recognizable as flakes of fish. 
• For tuna salad - as with most things made with fish, I think simpler is better.  I like to taste the fish, so I don't add a bunch of extra veggies, or pickles, or stuff that just gets in the way.  Mayo, salt and pepper do it for me.  When I'm making it for the kids I add a little cheese, because I think it just gives them a bit more familiar flavor, and they like it that way.