Rainbow and Squirrel Sandwiches (not what you think)

We made it through September and October seems to be even busier!! Seriously is it me or do we get busier every year? What happened to the down time it must be somewhere, I am still looking!! The preparing dinners is tough enough, but making lunches can leave you at a loss too. Walking in to the kitchen groggy and trying to juggle breakfast, finding missing socks and making sure homework is in the backpack can be a real chore. The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of lunches, am I wrong? Well I can't help with that because the kids have to eat!! At our school we have to bring lunch everyday we do not have a lunch program (yet).  Over one hundred and twenty or more lunches in a school year can seem daunting, and if you have more than one child...well you get my drift!  

          When winter comes I immediately get out the Thermos and go for soups and stews, warmth during the day can give a child that little boost they need. But until then I like to make sandwiches, the problem is that my daughter has never been a fan of the sandwich. She much prefers a warm lunch, something homemade of course but that can't always happen. Recently I remembered I had some edible markers I usually use to draw on hard boiled eggs with. My discovery that they work on bread was a gold mine!!! I can write notes like "I miss you" or "drink more water" on her bread!! 

The best part is that she likes make her own lunches (with some persuading) because the markers are fun to use. We make the sandwich the night before so we are not rushed in the morning. We only do this once a week to keep it special but it sure is fun!!  We add, fruit, cheese and crackers, and a veggie like cucumbers or carrots. I very rarely add any sugary treats unless it is home baked like banana bread.   This gives me a break the next morning so I can gear up my creative brain for the next day's lunch.

Try going to a thrift shop for cookie cutters, Ikea has some fun ones too!  I have a large collection and find that I almost never make cookies with them. They work so well for "sandies" as we call them in our house!

Cookie cutters and edible markers make a great lunch.

Granny's Drawers

When I was a kid I just loved going to my Bubbi's house. (Bubbi is a word for a Jewish Grandma) The minute we got there I would run over to her bottom drawer in the dinning room because I knew that is where she kept the Hershey Bars. She also kept a host of other chocolates and goodies in there, those sugary fruit gel slices that we only got on Passover.

My Bubbi also always had her famous chocolate chip cookies in the freezer; she was never without a batch.

My point is is that back in the day when people moved slower it seemed like they were prepared. If someone dropped by, or if the whole family was coming for a holiday they were ready. It always made us feel special, like she cared and thought about is when we weren't there.

Now we just run out and grab something prepared at a store because there is one everywhere you turn. I live between a Trader Joe's and Whole foods, with a peppering of other stores all around. It's fine for company and when it comes to your children's lunches it may be easy to just grab a pre made sandwich. If you are like me you want fast and easy, and there is nothing wrong with that, but adding personalization can make a big impact on your child and is is not too much extra effort.

My solution is to start by making your child's lunch very special. Some parents add a note, some draw hearts or smiles on the brown bag. Our kids are away from us all day and as much as they may resist hugs or kisses they really do need and want to be with us and know we care.

A really nice way to make them feel warm and loved is by adding a very small quick note, a drawing or stickers. Many schools are now requiring no waste lunches and in that case you may want to keep reading.

Now back to Grandma...a few years ago my husbands Nana died and she has an amazing collection of linens. She was a real collector, anything you can imagine, and she had a jar or drawer full of it. Lucky for us she had a whole collection of beautiful linen napkins. I don't mean a few of them I mean hundreds. I sorted through to find the ones I thought my daughter would love and I took about fifty of them home. They are from the 1940's, 50's, and 60’s so cute and and brightly colored. Every day I choose two to go in her lunch, one for snack and one for lunchtime. She uses them as a place mat or a napkin. She never knows which ones she will get; it’s always a surprise. Sometimes I try to match the colors of her clothing, if it’s a grey day I add a floral pattern. Are you getting my drift? They wash up beautifully; I just toss them in with the laundry, no ironing for me!

She knows that I pick them for her and she knows that they were her great grandma's, and that I put an extra bit of thought into her lunch. Getting away from paper napkins can make you, your child and the landfill feel good, and this is an easy way to get started. I was resistant because of the extra laundry but it is very easy to wash them.

So look in the drawers or ask your parents or grand parents if they have old linens or cloth napkins you could have. Any thrift shop should have a stack somewhere. So that is what you can gain from looking in Grandma’s drawers!

Competition to Improve School Meals

Secretary Vilsack Launches Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge

Competition to Improve School Meals and the Health of Children Across the Nation

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge to improve school meals and the health of children across the nation through the creation of exciting new recipes for inclusion on school lunch menus. The competition - part of the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative - will draw on the talents of chefs, students, food service professionals, and parents or other community members working together to develop tasty, nutritious, kid-approved foods.

"The Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge is an important contribution to our overall efforts to combat childhood obesity," the First Lady said. "It's vital that we provide our children with healthy and nutritious food in school and help them learn healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime."

Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge teams will have the opportunity to submit original recipes that meet nutritional requirements in three categories: whole grain foods, dark green and/or orange vegetables, and dry beans and peas (legumes). Submissions must be taste tested by at least 30 students who participate in the National School Lunch Program.

"Improving the nutrition and health of kids across the nation is a national priority and the Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge is a great way to engage the creativity of talents of chefs, students, food service professionals, and parents or other community members," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Through the challenge website, families can vote with their forks and help introduce exciting new recipes into the National School Lunch Program and beyond."

There will be a grand prize chosen by the judging panel as well as a Popular Choice winner based on public voting. The judges will also choose award winners for the top two recipes in each category. Winning teams will be invited to prepare their nutrition-packed meals alongside White House chefs. To recognize and share the culinary creativity nationwide the top ten recipes in each category will be published in a Recipes for Healthy Kids Cookbook to share with students and families.

Improving USDA's child nutrition programs on behalf of 32 million kids across the nation is a top priority of the Obama Administration. Strengthening the Child Nutrition Act, which authorizes USDA's child nutrition programs including the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, is the legislative centerpiece of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign. This legislation will serve as a down payment in battling hunger and food insecurity while providing critical resources to raise a generation of healthy children. To learn more about the First Lady's Let's Move! campaign, visit www.LetsMove.gov.

FNS oversees the administration of 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the child nutrition programs, which touch the lives of one in four Americans over the course of a year. More information about FNS and its nutrition assistance programs is available at www.fns.usda.gov.

The deadline for recipe submissions is Dec. 30, 2010. For further information about the Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge, please visit the contest Web site at http://recipesforkidschallenge.com/.

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Orange You Excited for this Bento?

A while back I wrote a post about the fun items you can use to make bento lunches.  Many of you asked me to post some of my bentos, well here we go.....

I pack lunch very fast, I am not one of those bento artists, although I do aspire to be someday!

My bentos usually take a total of 15 minutes and I do have some more detailed ones but the photos were not up to par,  in the future I will have more for to show. The reason I am showing this one is because it is simple and made from ingredients you probably have on hand.

Making bento lunches inspire me to fit in healthier food, because in bento making it is all about making the food fit in the box. I love bentos because I get to use up all those pesky scraps, like one lone strawberry that I just had to save, or some cheese chunks that my frugal side can't part with.  Bentos are great for using up leftovers too like a few beans or half a hot dog.  If you were to put a few beans or half a hot dog in a zip top baggie it would probably not be received well, but in a bento it just looks cute and on purpose.  Maybe I love bentos because my lunches as a kid were so dreadful (sorry mom) I want my daughter to have like lunch-y goodness at school.

I remember the crinkled brown bag with the half stale peanut butter sandwich, I hated jelly so that was my poor luck!  Back then we used wax bags that didn't seal so half the sandwich was always stale. It usually contained an apple, although I loved apples, one a day got a bit boring....plus no one ever wanted to trade for an apple.  The best part were the chocolate chip cookies on occasion they went well with the school milk. My lunches ended up being pretty unhealthy too, if a trade was discussed it was for chocolate milk or a Ho Ho.

I decided that I would not put my kid through the embarrassment of being the kid with the lame and lunch.  So I may have gone overboard but at least the box comes home empty!!

So I bento....

We went to Japan Town and I let her pick her own box out, I would not have chosen that particular one, but then again I am not the one eating out of it every day.

We discussed the size, and how easy it was to open, then we went to get some of the fun stuff like tiny soy sauce containers, bandanna's to tie it up with and those cute little divider papers. You can see some of those things in my previous post.  This bento I am showing is made for eating quickly, the kids lunch is short so I try to make everything easy to eat. Instead of peeling an orange, which takes time I slice them up.  
So there you have it, easy creative and quick and affordable. If you do not have an authentic bento you can use plastic containers or recycled margarine containers. As your child grows the bento will too, this is a good amount of food for a 5 year old but as they grow they need more.
Just try it and see for yourself if bentos are for you.

In the first layer of this bento we have:

blood oranges

one strawberry

chick peas in a silicone cup

In layer two we have:

Sliced turkey rolls with - Sesame Sprinkles (Gomashio) pinned with small character picks

A few leaves of crisp lettuce

Bread cut into shapes (you can add spread or make tiny sandwiches)

A few cubes of jack/cheddar cheese to take up space

Good Things Come in Small Tightly Packed Lunches

I don't know why but I have become slightly obsessed with making cute Bento lunches for my daughter. Maybe it is my fascination with "cute" food, maybe my love for Asian cuisine? Maybe it gives me a reason to go to Japan Town and buy the cutest little lunch time items. Or maybe I think if I make cute food, she will eat it? Either way now that we are in Kindergarten my lunch making had gotten a bit out of hand!  I mean not totally out of hand but I do try to get creative with the same old ingredients.  A peanut butter and jelly is so 7o's, I mean really a sandwich can be so much more. A flower shape or cut into tiny little blocks all stacked up in Bento box. 

There a are cutters for Nori that are fun to use, and cute little silicone cups to put food into.

If we make rice then she gets a tiny soy sauce dispenser to season the rice with. There are countless ways to decorate Bento lunches, like thin egg omelets, as a base and sliced veggies as eyes and whiskers.  You can write a cute rhyme to go with your bento too, like; carrots are orange, kitties are fuzzy, hope lunch time is great and you are real cozy! (OK, maybe poetry is not my strong point but you get the idea, right?) 

I like Bento boxes because you can put an array of foods. We waste so much food in our culture, so I have been trying to use up small amounts that otherwise would go in the trash.  Bento is designed to control portion size, It is a great way to use up small amounts of food, and are designed to pack tightly so the food stays put. I know that there are amazing Bento lunch makers out there and I hold you in great esteem. I don't aspire to ever be a Bento wiz but I sure do try.  

I thought I'd  put all my lunch time goodies out for you to see in these photos.

Here are many ways to spice up lunch with a some of the gadgets shown. 

Ingredients:

• Nori cut outs, crispy healthy seaweed cut using a paper punch style cutter.
  
• Rice molded into cute shapes using rice molds.
  
• Hard boiled eggs molded into shapes like squares, bunnies, cars. 
  
• Rice rolls (sushi want to be) using sushi molds.
  
• Veggies cut in shapes, slice veggies in wide strips, use tiny cookie cutters to make shapes.
  
• Sandwiches cut in shapes.
  
• Use silicone cupcake cups to pack bits of snack food in.
  
• Use wood or biodegradable spoons.
  
• Use small containers for sprinkles, seeds or seasonings, soy sauce or ketchup
  
• Use reusable food separators, like the fake grass you get at a Sushi bar.
  
• Send fabric napkins with cute patterns.
• Themed lunches, like round, or one color only are fun too.
• Add a note from home.
• Pack it all in a great Bento box!!

Other foods that fit in a Bento box:

Dates

Figs

Nuts

Beets

Stuffed Pasta

Dried fruit

Sliced fruit

Thin no cheese omelet, rolled up and sliced

Cubed cheese 

Romaine leaves

Plain water chestnuts

French toast

Noodles

Mini drumsticks

Rolled cold cuts 

Mini pickles

Tiny tuna sandwiches

Cheese and crackers

Pancakes

Bento Lunch #2

Here is a quick nut free camp lunch for a hot summer day. 

The sandwich: Biscoff spread and cream cheese. Biscoff or Speculoos spread looks like peanut butter but is nut free, unfortunately it is not available in the U.S. yet. I was working on a photo shoot and was lucky enough to get a hold of a jar!

Veggies: baby carrots and cooked sliced purple potatoes

Fruit: blackberries and banana

snack: Goldfish crackers and a frozen thawed filo cup with avocado and shredded cheese.

yogurt, frozen to add chill to the box.

Munchlers - Lunch Bags

I just have to tell you about these adorable lunch bags called Munchlers. I saw them while shopping yesterday and thought they were cute but I really want a bento box for daughter so I didn't stop to look at them. Tonight I was bouncing around on line and there they were again. I saw that they unfold to make a place mat, I love that. I don't know about your kids but mine ends up putting her food on the not so clean tables. With this lunch mat she would have a destination for that half eaten sandwich free of creepy crawleys. Most lunch bags have dark corners for crumbs and goop to collect in but because these flaten out cleaning them is a snap.
At around 10 dollars a pop you can't beat the design or functionality.

From Built
In our quest for a lunchbox that would captivate every kid, or kid at heart, we developed a concept that incorporates whimsical fun with practicality. We collaborated with the award-winning children’s book illustrator, Stephen Savage, to take on the project of creating zoo animals for the design of the lunchboxes. After all, what good is a lunchbox that doesn't look good?

MADE FROM POLYPROPYLENE
TESTED LEAD AND FOOD SAFE
INSULATES FOOD AND BEVERAGE
SMALL HANDLES FOR SMALL HANDS
SAVES HUNDREDS OF BAGS OVER THE
COURSE OF A YEAR
UNZIP TO A PLACE MAT (STORES FLAT)

School is over...but camp is starting, that means MORE lunches

I recently started experimenting with Bento style lunches, the only problem is that after about 5 of them school ended! I guess I was a little late with this whole concept, but camp is starting so I am happy to say I will get to make more bentos this summer.I recently saw a cute post on Coffee and Vanilla 

She inspired me to start posting these lunches.

I started using my laptop lunch box, it works but we are planning a trip to Japan Town Mall to get a new cute little Bento box.
My daughter's preschool was nut free and meat free so lunches are tough, creativity had to be key.

Next year she will be in a public school so watch out for our new and improved lunches.
This box is really simple here is what is in it.

Thin egg omelet with cinnamon (tomago) on a skewer

Rice with nori strips and peas

2 kinds of beans

fruit

a date for dessert.