Despite the name, lunch meats are not only for lunch. These thin-sliced meats are ready to use in dishes that can be served for any meal, from breakfast and brunch to dinner and, of course, lunch. Organic lunch meat is a particularly suitable choice for people concerned about the environmental and health effects of the meat they eat. Protect yourself and your family from bacterial illness by observing food safety precautions. Once opened, most lunch meats will keep for three to five days if refrigerated, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Types
With the market growth and increasing name recognition of organic products, you can now get virtually any kind of lunch meat in an organic variety. Types of lunch meats include turkey, smoked turkey, honey turkey, ham, honey-roasted Black Forest ham, bologna, roast beef and corned beef. Lean organic lunch meats are healthier. FamilyDoctor.org recommends choosing chicken or turkey over fattier lunch meats such as salami and and bologna.
Sandwich Options
Expand your repertoire of tasty lunch-meat-based sandwiches by starting with a type of organic lunch meat you don't normally use and adding out-of-the-ordinary sandwich ingredients such as basil pesto, artichoke hearts or bell peppers. For example, if you usually buy plain ham, try nestling five slices of organic honey turkey on a piece of whole-grain bread from a bakery. Add a thick slice of heirloom tomato, four thin-sliced spears of red pepper, and a crisp piece of lettuce. Spread stone-ground mustard on another slice of bread and press it on top.
Appetizer Options
Use organic lunch meat as the basis for simple yet yummy school-lunch dishes or cocktail party appetizers. Smear organic cream cheese on a few slices of organic roast beef, lay a spicy pickle from a local farm on one end, roll the pickle up in the meat, and slice the resulting spear into bite-size rounds. Or cut Black Forest ham into small pieces and stir into the base mixture for mini-quiches.
Breakfast Options
Mix up a savory breakfast scramble using organic lunch meat to easily add protein and flavor. One advantage of using lunch meat rather than, say, raw bacon is that lunch meat is fully cooked, eliminating the need to worry about whether the meat is safely cooked through when the rest of the dish is done. Saute a diced organic onion in a slug of olive oil until soft, then toss in other veggies, such as peppers, broccoli, or boiled potatoes. Cook to taste. Stir in a generous handful of chopped organic ham or turkey and cook a minute longer or until slightly browned. Pour farm-fresh eggs whipped with milk over the vegetable mixture and stir until eggs are fully cooked. Serve hot.
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