School Lunch Boxes – Week #2

Well… happy Sunday!  How the heck did that get here so fast?!  If you’ve been following my Facebook page, you’ll have seen me posting my daughter Jessica’s lunches this week.  She’s 10 now and apparently has outgrown Tinkerbell.  When I asked her at dinner tonight how she liked her Tinkerbell that I put in her lunch, she kind of shrugged and gave me this look I am quickly becoming to understand is on par with the look you give your grandma when she brings out her new atomic clock that she ordered through Publisher’s Clearing House.  I am the uncool parent that tries really hard, and gets sympathy points for that, but when push comes to shove, Tinkerbell’s shoved to the bottom of the lunchbag.  She saw my fallen face and quickly reassured me that “Don’t worry, Mom, nobody else saw it.  I took it out of there really fast.”  So.  Tinkerbell is on the D-list with the purple peace sign set these days.  Ah well.  The rules change hourly, at times.

Monday’s lunch is whole wheat waffle heart-shaped sandwiches with cherry cream cheese filling, cantaloupe/kiwi/pineapple salad, and turkey and string cheese cube kabobs on a bed of sprouts. Two organic gummy worms grace the heart compartment. Her snack is in the Wexy bag, and it’s a blend of dried unsweetened coconut flakes, dried cranberries, roasted pepitas and sunflower seeds, and a (very) few Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips.

Tuesday’s lunch is whole wheat wraps with my herbed bean spread, sprouts, and ham. Abby’s wrap has avocado but Jess doesn’t like avo. Odd child. There are also grape and cheese kabobs, and a blobby of the cherry cream cheese as a dip for
celery. A few kiwi hearts and some jellybeans are in there for color. I’m not sure why, but a lot of these lunches are coming out orange and green. They’re sorta monochromatic, but at least they’re not just different shades of brown like the processed food lunches available at school.

Wednesday’s lunch is two whole wheat banana pancakes cut into beehives and stacked on romaine leaves and a few sprouts; cheese bees and hearts; pineapple pieces rolled up in Applegate organic ham; a cherry cream cheese dollop surrounded by apple pieces; and two organic sour gummy worms. For snack there is a Wexy bag with some dried coconut flakes, raisins, and toasted seeds.

Thursday’s lunch is organic garden vegetable soup (in the blue Thermos), which I will heat up in the morning so it’s still hot at lunch. The sandwich is organic ham and cheese on sprouted 7-grain bread, with organic corn, peas, strawberries, and two sugary little gummy worms. Snack is a smoothie freeze pop. It is really important to us to only buy organic strawberries. The laundry list of pesticides used on conventional strawberries is criminal.

Friday’s lunch is leftovers from tonight’s dinner. In the blue Thermos there will be refried beans, taco meat, and melted cheese, all kept nice and hot til lunch. Then in the big compartment there is lettuce on the bottom with 4 mini-tortillas cut from one large tortilla. With the scraps from the big tortilla, I cut out hearts, brushed them with coconut oil (the only oil that’s ok to heat) and sprinkled a little sea salt on them, and baked them for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees F. Chips! Then there are also strawberries and carrots, and fruit leather.

So what do you pack in your kids’ lunches?  Do they help choose, or do you surprise them with little things?  Do you include a treat every day, or once a week?  I look forward to hearing from you!

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First lunch of the new school year!

I am SO excited to share this with you.  I am starting a blog series on real food lunch boxes that I’m making for Abby and Jessica this year.  Tomorrow is Jessica’s first day of school and I made this lunch extra-special with lots of hearts.  The kabobs are cheese, Applegate turkey, and whole-grain tortillas, on top of a serving of spring greens and three more tortilla hearts.  There is a banana muffin (that we made together) and cut-out apples dipped in fresh lemon juice to keep from browning.  Three small organic sour gummy worms are tucked in around the muffin for a treat.  There is Organic Valley whole milk (from pastured Wisconsin cows) in her Thermos where it should stay nice and cold until lunchtime.

For a snack, I put a smoothie freezie pop into a Wexy bag.  I did this so as it thaws, the silicone top is kept on better, and also so it doesn’t go all over if it leaks.  I haven’t used these silicone freezie pop molds before so I didn’t want to take any chances.

Now, this may not seem like a lot of food, but it’s real food so it’s a lot more filling than chicken nuggets or whatever they’re serving in the hot lunch line.  Jessica also only has 20 minutes to eat, starting from when they get into the lunchroom to when they line up to leave.  I asked her to let me know how it goes.

I think it’s going to go pretty darned well.  What do you think?

I started making Jessica’s and Abby’s lunches at 8:02 pm, and it was 9:02 pm by the time I had cleaned everything up and put my lunch tote back up in the cupboard.  My goal is to get lunch preparations down to 20 minutes, but the first day of school is kind of a big deal and I wanted it to be special.)

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Caprese Salad with a Balsamic Reduction

I’ll admit up front that before I made this I’d never eaten caprese salad before, much less made it.  When I found these aquaponic tomatoes at Nelson and Pade Aquaponics in Montello, Wisconsin this weekend, I just had to use them in a starring role.  I vaguely remembered reading about reducing the balsamic vinegar, which makes it sweeter and a bit syrupy.  Well, I may have reduced it a bit much because it was as thick as cold honey.  I’d do it again in a second though because the flavor was outstanding.  You can also make pretty designs with it on a white plate and it’ll stay put.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for this recipe to find or make a great fresh mozzarella.  It’s imperative.  I was lucky to find a weak and watery ball of Belgioioso up in Montello, but if I was home I’d have gone straight for the Crave Brothers mozzarella, which is much creamier, firmer, and flavorful.  And can you imagine how pretty this would be made with heirloom tomatoes?  However you make it, the results will be stunning; a feast for both the eye and the palate.  Enjoy!

Caprese Salad with a Balsamic Reduction

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. fresh mozzarella
• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 oz. fresh basil leaves
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 12 oz. balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. For the reduction:  Bring vinegar to a gentle boil over medium heat and simmer without a cover for 15-20 minutes, until it becomes thicker and more syrupy.  Keep in mind it will thicken up even more as it cools.
2. While the balsamic vinegar is reducing, slice the mozzarella and tomatoes.  Layer the cheese, tomatoes, and destemmed basil leaves as pictured.
3. Drizzle olive oil over the layered tomatoes, followed by the cooled balsamic reduction.  Sprinkle a few additional basil leaves for effect.  Sprinkle sea salt and grind a little black pepper over it all.

 

This post shared on a recipe swap over here at Whole Lifestyle Nutrition.  Also shared on Foodie Friday over at Simple Living with Diane Balch.

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Tomato Basil Risotto with Fresh Mozzarella

Before this dish, I’d never made risotto before.  Somewhere rattling around in the back of my brain I vaguely remembered hearing it was difficult to make, but I didn’t really focus on that.  I just put a bunch of water in a pot, got it boiling, threw the risotto in by handfuls, and let it simmer for about 16 minutes with the cover on.  I tried it and it was just a bit chewy, so I let it go another 2 minutes.  Then I stirred it around a bit before dumping it in a colander and shaking it.

I did pretty much everything you could do WRONG to this dish and it still turned out amazingly flavorful.

I’ve since read recipes that say to add broth a little at a time until it’s done and that just sounds fiddly to me.  I don’t know.  Maybe this could have turned out better, but the creaminess of the risotto with the fresh mozzarella cubes was delicious.  But the real proof?  Our 3 year old ate two bowls of it!

Tomato Basil Risotto with Fresh Mozzarella

Source:  Fresh Meals from the editors of Organic Style

INGREDIENTS

• 2 c. uncooked Arborio rice
• 2 T. EVOO
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. lightly packed fresh basil leaves, stemmed and torn in half
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1/8 t. black pepper
• 1 T. balsalmic vinegar
• 3 – 4 Roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 2 egg-size pieces fresh mozzarella, cubed

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot.  Sprinkle in the rice by the fistful.  When the water returns to a boil, stir once, lower the heat, and simmer until the rice is al dente, 15 – 18 minutes.
2. While the rice cooks, heat the EVOO in a large skillet over a low flame.  Stir in the garlic; then sprinkle in the basil.  After a couple of minutes (when the garlic is translucent), mix in the salt, pepper, vinegar, and tomatoes.  Gently turn the tomatoes once or twice to coat them with the flavored oil, warming them through but not cooking them down into a sauce.
3. Drain the rice in a sieve or colander, but don’t shake it dry.  Turn it into a warmed serving bowl.  Immediately sprinkle in the mozzarella cubes, a few at a time, stirring with each addition so that they don’t clump together.  Then gently mix in the contents of the skillet, and serve.

Enjoy!

(Also posted on a recipe swap here over at This Chick Cooks.)

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Fresh Tomato Tostadas. Real food in 15 minutes!

These are seriously quick and seriously tasty.  We didn’t use a lot of cheese, just enough to give it the right bite-feel on the whole wheat tortillas.  We had a big green salad before these as well, because they’d be seriously easy to eat too many of!  You could use any other veggies you wanted to throw on these, but they were great with just the diced green chilies.  I admit, we did used canned chiles for these.  If you’re a thinker-aheader and have your own chilies cooked or canned, even better!

Fresh Tomato Tostadas

Suggestion:  Make one tortilla per person and serve with a green salad

INGREDIENTS

• Whole Wheat Tortillas
• 3 organic roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1  4 oz. can chopped mild green chilies, drained
• 6 oz freshly grated mild cheese blend

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place tortillas flat on a large baking sheet. Arrange tomatoes over tortillas. Sprinkle with chilies and cheese.
2. Bake until tortillas are lightly golden and crisp and cheese has melted, about 10 minutes. Alternatively, cook them on a nonstick griddle. Cut each tostada into wedges, and serve hot.

Sour cream, fresh tomatoes, corn, and avocado are all delicious as toppings when the tostadas are hot.  They are also great cold when taken the next day for lunch.  Trust me.  Enjoy!

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