Day 17 - Whole Wheat Pasta with Zucchine, Squash, Chard & Tomato

By now you are getting a pretty good indication of what my family eats for dinner, too, as many of my lunches are leftovers from a recent dinner.  Today is no different:

- Whole Wheat Pasta with Zucchini, Squash, Swiss Chard and Tomato
- Whole Wheat Bun
- Raw Chocolate Pie

A bit much on the gluten side, but can't let the wonderful homemade buns go to waste (without all the additives and preservatives, REAL bread will last only a couple to a few days).

Whole Wheat Pasta with Zucchini, Squash & Chard

Whole Wheat Buns

Raw Chocolate Pie

The chocolate pie I made over a week ago, but it stays fresh in the freezer for a couple of weeks.  It is so packed full of good things - nuts, coconut, avocado and raw chocolate - next time I'm going to try a raw key lime pie!

Day 16 - Cottage Cheese & Veggies

I wonder what it would be like to be organized and plan ahead?   i just don't think it is in my realm of possibilities...

Today's Lunch
- Fresh, Home-Made, Buttered Whole Wheat Buns
- Organic Cottage Cheese
- Organic Carrots
- NJ Farm-Picked Apple

- Water (which they always get, by the way)

Thanks to a good friend (Hazel) who came over last night, we have incredibly yummy, fresh whole wheat buns for lunch.  As I don't believe in eating deli meats and didn't have much time this morning, I figured the kids would be OK with cottage cheese.  I just put it in a separate container so the bun wouldn't get mushy. This way they also get to put together their lunch by spreading the cottage cheese on the bun at school - thankfully they enjoy this type of activity!  Carrots - well, have to get the veggie component in somewhere and the apples are from a farm about 45 minutes away where we picked them right off the tree a couple of weeks ago (they keep well in the fridge).

Home-Baked Whole Wheat Buns

Organic Cottage Cheese

Carrots in a Sack

The Quintessential Apple

So, nothing glamorous, but I think I worry a bit too much about that.  Kids do enjoy simple foods, in fact, often more than our adult palates would warrant.  Simple, fresh, wholesome.  Nothing wrong about that.

Day 15 - Veggies & Sunflower Hummus

Today I took advantage of some of the great squash and carrots from our CSA (community supported agriculture) share.   I chopped them all up to make them easy to dip into my homemade hummus.  With my Vitamix, I can blend just about anything in a few seconds.  So, I made my own hummus, including the tahini.  The sunflower seeds blended perfectly in seconds.  And, the hummus was delicious.  Except, now it was a mutant hummus - there are no sunflower seeds in hummus. In my haste to make the hummus, I meant to put in SESAME seeds for the tahini portion of the hummus, not SUNFLOWER seeds.  Oops.  But, it still makes a yummy spread.  So, through my mistake, I found an alternate way to make hummus.

Lunch:
- Veggies and Sunflower Hummus
- Whole Grain Crackers (to dip, too)
- Melon

Squash, Corrots & Zucchini

Sunflower Hummus

Whole Grain Crackers

Melon

Lunch Outside the Bag!

All reusable materials that'll keep the food fresh.  The melon is in the ECO stainless lunchbox, the veggies in the cotton sac, the hummus and crackers in the circular stainless containers, water in a stainless bottle and all put into a cotton lunch bag. Sure it is a little extra to clean up at the end of the day, but less garbage - especially of the plastic kind.

Day 14 - Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad with cantaloupe for dessert.

Monday morning.  Not quite organized (as per usual), but gave my head a shake and set to work.  I was making oatmeal on the stove top for the kids' breakfast, so figured I might as well make a fast-cooking grain for lunch.  Quinoa.  Pronounced Keen-wah, this amazing grain is a complete protein, making it a very good choice for vegetarians. It also is very versatile.

It only took 15 minutes to cook.  As it cooked, I cut up some squash, carrots and parsley.  When the quinoa was done, I chilled it in the fridge, then added the veggies and tossed it all with some olive oil.  Then I threw in some chickpeas.  Finally garnished with Feta cheese.  Voila - Quinoa Salad.  You can really add any veggie you have in your fridge, and of course, if you are vegan omit the Feta.

Quick, easy, healthy and tasty.  Quinoa is also a great side dish served warm.

Cooked Quinoa with Chopped Veggies

Chick Peas (or Garbanzo Beans)

Quinoa Salad

Start to finish, 20 minutes!

Day 13 - Zucchini Omelet on French Toast

Had to get a bit creative this morning. Fridge is not really full - so - made french toast for the kids for breakfast and was inspired to create a gourmet sandwich! Used the extra french toast, then fried up a zucchini omelet. Voila - gourmet sandwich.

Rounded it out with carrots and an apple. Kids didn't complain!

Zucchini Omelet

Zucchini Omelet on French Toast

Carrots in Cotton Sacks

Friday's Lunch

Day 12 - Eco-Friendly Lunch Kits

I finally got the kids' new eco-friendly, safe lunch bags! If you are looking for great products - this is a fabulous site where I found them:

 

Here are the bags, along with all the lunch packing materials:

The Butterfly & Caterpillar Lunch Kits

Recycled Cotton Bag

Stainless Water Canteen

Two Stainless, Spill Proof Containers

Matching Cotton Napkin

Food Cosy

The kids were very excited to get their new lunch bags!

Oh right, lunch.

- Jicama  Spicy Fries (a little left over from yesterday - kids really like them - first time I made them)
- Whole Wheat Wrap with Cream Cheese, Red Pepper, Carrots and Mixed Greens
- Melon

Whole Wheat Veggie & Cream Cheese Wrap

Jicama Spicy Fries

Day 11 - Jicama Spicy Fries

Today's Menu
. Appetizer: Jicama Spicy Fries
- Main Event:  Farm Fresh Baby Carrots, Orange Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes & Hummus
- Dessert:  Grapes

The Jicama Spicy Fries are fabulous, and nutritious!  Made from Jicama (pronounced Hih-ka-ma), they are a raw foodies' junk food delicacy. Jicama is nutrient-dense, low calorie and very tasty raw.  Very easy to make.  Peel & cut the Jicama into sticks, toss with chili powder, olive oil, fresh lime juice and a bit of sea salt.  Let stand for at least an hour.  Yum.  Surprisingly not to hot/spicy, just tasty.  Well, let's see if they pass the kids test.  I went to a great Raw Food Class held by a good friend of mine who gave me this recipe - Thanks Dianne!

Jicama

Jicama is nutrient-dense, low calorie and very tasty raw.

Jicama Spicy Fries

Spicy Fries Ready for Lunch Bag

Veggies and Hummus

Here are the grapes - don't think I've highlighted the wax paper bags in use yet...

No mess, grapes stay fresh and I can typically use the bags another day.  I've put the melon in this too - works well.

Day 10 - Roasted Chicken Salad

OK, Day 10 I'm still jogging along without sandwiches!  By the way, I'm not against sandwiches - they will show up in the kids' lunch boxes eventually, but I'm trying to use less refined carbs.  The more you process the original food (in bread's case, the grain) into flour, the more they work in the body like simple table sugar (not great for all sorts of health reasons).  Even using whole grain and/or sprouted grain bread products, they still contain a lot of additives and preservatives that I'd rather the kids not have on a regular basis.  Now, if I finally got my act together and made my own bread, well - that would be a different story.  Hopefully that will happen sometime this school year.

So today I took advantage of the celery, carrots, red pepper and left over roast chicken and made a chicken salad.  I bound it together with plain Greek organic yogurt.  Greek yogurt is much thicker than regular yogurt, more closely resembling mayonnaise, the traditional binding agent for chicken salad.  I feel this is a better, more nutritious option.  Still tastes great!

Chicken Salad Ingredients

We also had a large quantity of tomatillos from our CSA share last week.  My husband threw them in the food processor together with a bit of cilantro and lime - presto, tomatillo salsa that the kids eat by the spoonful!  Today, they are having them with organic tortilla chips.  I chose organic when it comes to tortilla chips as they are made from corn.  Most corn in the US is GMO (genetically modified) which I'm not too keen about.  If you buy organic in the US, it is certified non-GMO.

Tomatillo Salsa and Tortilla Chips

See how handy these stainless lunch boxes are with the divider?

For dessert - melon.

Say goodbye soon to these lunch bags (with the vinyl liner - see my second blog to understand why I don't like vinyl):

Old Lunch Bags

I should receive my eco-friendly lunch bags today or tomorrow!

Day 9 - Roasted Veggies

Menu du jour
- Roasted Veggies
- Brown Rice
- Red Grapes

We used up a lot of our CSA veggies last night - roasted on the BBQ, so lots of leftovers.  I got up in enough time to cook some brown rice this morning; I used chicken stock instead of water to give a bit more flavor, especially since i was just added roasted veggies to the brown rice.

Roasted Eggplant, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Red Onion & Garlic

Put the brown rice and veggies into the thermos, threw the grapes into the cotton 'sandwich' bags.

Also added in some apples with peanut butter for snack; the kids get snack provided at school, but it is often crackers which, depending on what they are made of, I typically don't like to give to them (and they actually ask for fruit - YEAH!).  Most crackers are so processed that they react in your body just as sugar does.  Gives you a rush of insulin, stores the glucose as excess fat, thereby robbing the body of sustained energy  (ok, a very abbreviated discussion on how sugar wrecks havoc on your body - if you are intrigued and want to find out more, contact me...but have a good amount of time ready).  Typically the ingredients start with stripped down flour (not whole wheat) and have far too many additives and preservatives - many with trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils).  These are also very bad for you (again, way too much to talk about in this blog). Unfortunately, the best-meaning parents and care-givers don't know how nutrient-devoid and artificial our food system has become.  And, there is very little education out there on the topic.  So, if you can stick with me, I'll throw in some of my nutrition tips here and there and try not to be too preachy (a trait my husband tells me I have when I start writing about nutrition)!

Day 8 - Raw Chocolate Pie

Friday - last day of the week - time to clean out the refrigerator!  STIR FRY.

Le Menu Complete
- Chicken & Brown Rice Stir Fry
- Baby Cukes
- Chocolate Pie

So, I took the remaining brown rice I made earlier this week.  Whenever I make a grain, I double the amount I expect to use just so I can use it later in the week.  To reconstitute it prior to throwing it in the stir fry, I warmed it in some chicken stock.  Adds flavor and revives the rice to a nice, plumb consistency (vs. dried).

Leftover Brown Rice with Chicken Stock

Meanwhile, I cut up a shallot, carmelized it in some olive oil over medium heat, then chopped up some carrots, zucchini and spinach, adding the veggies in that order so that the harder ones were cooked longer.  At the last minute, I chopped up some leftover chicken and put it in.

Leftover Stir fry

Then combined the rice with the stir fry - voila, a hot lunch in 10 minutes, total time to prep and cook.  Then into the Thermos for transport to school.

The baby cukes are still a hit.  For perspective, here is a photo of them next to a medium-sized banana:

 Baby Cukes and a Banana

And the treat (yes, the odd time I do add a treat):  CHOCOLATE PIE!

Heh-heh - you might think I'm being decadent - main ingredient?  Avocados.  No sugar, no flour, no added fat (except for what is found naturally in the walnut & coconut crust and avocados).  The sweetnesss?  100% pure maple syrup.  The chocolate?  Organic raw cacao powder.  Chalk full of antioxidants.  But, of course, the kids don't care about all of that.  It is super delicious and velvety!  I did make it at couple of nights ago and put it in the freezer. By the time it gets eaten at school, it will be chilled chocolate pie.

 
Bon Appetite and Bon Fin De Semaine!

Day 7 - Tacos

Today - TACOs!

Trying an experiment.  The kids do a lot of cooking at home with me, and we often have fun meals like pizza and tacos where we can put together our meals by ourselves.  This will be the first time they are doing it without my direct supervision; I did warn, however, one of the teachers at school...

So, turkey chili (yep, reusing the original chili dinner, again), baby spinach (chopped), tomatoes (chopped) and feta cheese in whole wheat tortilla wraps (2 each):

The Taco Kit

This is how it looks at packaged up:

Let me show you how these handy cotton wraps worked to put the tortillas in.  It will work for wraps, sandwiches - even chicken legs if you wish!

Nifty, eh?

And, for dessert, grapes.

Yesterday they still had a few leftovers from lunch even though I'm putting less in their bags, but, they were also very hungry after school.  So, I'm thinking they are just getting too distracted during lunch to eat everything.  After all, this is their first year at school with lunch and friends.  My strategy - finish off lunch after school, then you may have something else if you are still hungry.  I get quite the look when I do this; perhaps it will encourage them to finish their lunches?!  We'll see.

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