Leap day lunch

Tomorrow is leap day.  I thought about coming up with some sort of fun leap-themed lunch but Juju is 3 and a half which means she doesn't even know tomorrow is a Wednesday, let alone a day that only happens once every four years.  I think I'll just include a cute drawing in her lunch and call it a day.

Leaping off an idea from one of Leemore's lunches, I made star avocado and muenster cheese sandwiches.  They are joined by Persian cucumbers from the Hollywood Farmer's market that are among the best cucumbers I've ever had, HFM fresh peas, strawberries, kiwis, heirloom tomato slices and pomegranate seeds for dessert.  I also packed some Greek yogurt (not shown) for snack.

Today's lunch was leftover chicken and rice (the KOAM made a roast chicken again on Monday, I'm starting to feel like the Jeffrey to his Ina Garten. . .and I like it!), plums, strawberries, avocado, clementines, cucumber teddy bears and a caramel wafer cookie for dessert.  The cookies came to me from my friend Lynn, and not Leemore as previously reported (I can not credit Leemore with everything here!  Thanks Marisa for the heads up!).

Happy leap day everyone!

Almost there

The lack of posting here hasn't been due to laziness; it's because we are probably the last people on the planet to start school.  We go back on Tuesday and I have no idea what I am going to pack.

The lunch program offered by the school doesn't start for the nursery school until October which means even if I wanted to sign up for it, I'm on my own for lunch this month.

I have mixed feelings about signing up for the program.  On the one hand, it would be nice to have a few days off from the burden of planning and packing a lunch.  On the other, it's kind of expensive and I don't love the options.  The menu for the nursery school isn't out yet but I did sneak a peak at what they are offering the kindergarteners and I have to say, I am not really impressed.  The program touts the fact that everything is really customizable, which basically means that almost everything comes "on the side."  I realize this is great for parents with picky kids who are afraid their kids would rather skip the meal entirely than eat something random served to them but I am concerned that this set-up will actually train Juju to become a picky eater.  For example, if I serve her a dish of pasta with a tomato-veggie sauce, she'll eat it.  But if I start serving her pasta with sauce on the side, she might skip the step of mixing everything together and just eat the straight pasta and ignore the sauce (this "on the side thing" isn't exclusive to pasta and applies to almost all of their offered dishes).  Since I haven't seen the nursery school menu I could be putting the cart before the horse, maybe they don't expect a 3 year old to mix up her own ingredients, but I just don't know yet.  I wish we could see photos of the actual lunches, maybe that would help?

My friend Lirona also pointed out that there is no way her daughter will eat $6.25 worth of food for lunch so she thinks it's a waste of money.  I realize some of that money goes toward the convenience of not having to pack a lunch but considering the program charges an additional $2 for sushi, I might as well run down the street to Gelson's to buy her sushi on days when I am lazy.  I can get her favorite rolls for less than $8.25 and they will be enough for at least two lunches.  But, I'm going to keep an open mind when the menu comes out and we'll see what happens.

I got some inspiration for what to make on Day One from the Wall Street Journal today in a small piece called "A Gourmet Lunchbox" where they interviewed 3 chefs about what they packed in their kids' school lunches.  Alex Young from Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan sends his son with a burger served cold (like a meatloaf sandwich).  It's so simple but I never thought to do it myself.

I can't promise daily updates of what I pack this year but I will try to document a whole bunch of them.  I do so love your comments about what I am making!

August 22 - Mom and daughter lunch

I want to start off with a correction.  I mentioned an Ina Garten roasted eggplant spread in my last post.  I realized later that I did not post the recipe I used but instead another recipe from her trove of instructions on delicious dips and spreads.  The one I like is very similar to the one I posted but it calls for a few extra things like lemon juice and tahini.  I added the correct recipe to the post; you can also see the correct recipe here.

A number of friends and acquaintances have sent me really cute lunch ideas for the coming school year which I promise post about soon.

Today's lunch includes leftovers from last night.  Whenever I haven't planned for dinner, I make an old standby from the Moosewood cookbook, Spinach-Rice Casserole.  I usually have all the ingredients at home (I use frozen spinach if we don't have fresh spinach on hand) so it's pretty easy to make last minute (though you do have to cook the rice first and then back the dish for about 35 minutes so you can decide too last minute).  We had fresh spinach from our CSA box so it made sense to make this dish.  Incidentally if you live in LA and you have a baby, this is likely the dish I will bring to your house.  It's vegetarian and kosher friendly and it's a really big portion which you can eat for a few meals.  It's great food for sleep-deprived new moms and dads.

In addition to the spinach-rice dish I served avocado, cucumbers, carrots, and green and champagne grapes.

Last week I went somewhere that required me to pack a lunch for both me and Juju.  Our mother/daughter meal included leftover almond crusted chicken, string beans and mini heirloom tomatoes for me, and an egg salad sandwich, grapes, cucumbers, strawberries, and carrots for Juju.  I also gave her some sunflower seed butter for dipping the veggies (not shown).

Lunch on July 18, 2010 - Cilantro Lime Shrimp

I thought things were supposed to slow down in the summer but I feel like I am busier than ever.  Juju is also going to school three days a week which means I have more lunches to pack.  I'm going to try to record them all here.  I apologize for my absence.

Today I served cilantro lime shrimp, half an avocado, a delicious California nectarine, sugar snap peas and pita chips:

I have never sent shrimp to school before (growing up eating lunches at a Jewish day school makes it feel a little weird) but Juju ate almost all of it so I'll consider sending it again in the future.  The pita chips aren't a usual thing I pack but I felt like this lunch was a little too Atkins if you know what I mean.  

Juju's birthday is on Friday and I am already trying to think of the perfect birthday lunch.  I'm thinking it might be sushi and a smoothie.  They are two of her favorite foods and a real treat at lunch time since I rarely pack them.  While they sound like a pretty gross combination to me I think Juju will like it.  I'm also open to any birthday lunch suggestions if you have them!

Lunch on June 20, 2011 - It's Bavarian pasta, it doesn't need any sauce

Lunch today was thrown together (yet again) out of things I had in the fridge.  You would think keeping a lunch blog would make me more diligent about meal planning but alas, it has not.

Today I am serving leftover pasta, cottage cheese with strawberries, and avocado.  The pasta is left over (we made veggie-meat sauce over the weekend and had more pasta than sauce). 

I didn't have anything to go on top of the pasta which reminded me of a line from Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You" delivered by the German maid/cook: "It's Bavarian pasta, it doesn't need any sauce.  Italian pasta needs sauce.  The Italians were weak!"  I still prefer pasta with sauce but in the effort of getting out the door quickly today, I settled for Bavarian style - I drizzled some olive oil on top and threw in some sugar plum tomatoes.

Lunch on June 16, 2011 - Shells and cheese and peas

The problem with keeping a lunch blog is that I open myself up to judgment every time I pack a lunch bag.  I'm not particularly proud of tomorrow's lunch but I think it would be disingenuous if I only blogged about the pretty or wholesome lunches I put together.  At the end of the day this is not a health food blog or a "nominate me for mom of the year award" blog so here goes.

For tomorrow's lunch I am serving mac and cheese. . .from a box (cue the audible gasp!).  Technically it's organic but who am I kidding, it is still dehydrated cheese and lots of sodium.  Our great babysitter had the idea once to mix peas in with the mac and cheese and Juju loves it so I threw in some fresh peas to make it "healthy."  The mac and cheese is in a new thermos I recently acquired.  I'm experimenting with it to see if it really will keep items particularly hot (or cold).  Tomorrow morning I will (try to remember to) transfer the mac and cheese to another bowl, heat it, and then put it back in the thermos.  This sounds like a lot of work which makes me think I won't be doing this often.  Maybe in the winter I'll send some soup like this though.

In addition to the mac and cheese I am serving cantaloupe and strawberries and leftover cous cous with cottage cheese.  Not a very appealing combination, I know, but it's what we had in the fridge and I'm too tired to make something else.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before a 3 week summer break.  I'll probably still be packing lunches though so I will try to blog about them when I do.  Happy Summer!!

Lunch on June 9 - Middle East meets Far East

Lunch tomorrow is a little unusual.  I'm not sure I would like the flavor combinations but Juju doesn't really seem to mind if things don't exactly "go" together provided she likes both things separately.  This mentality spills over into her fashion sense too.  Since she's comfortable mixing so many colors and prints that she likes I've taken her lead and mixed a few dishes as well.

 

Tomorrow's lunch includes sushi, celery, carrots and hummus, and a side of cantaloupe.  It just hit me that this may not be the most filling lunch.  Perhaps I'll throw in a fabric snack bag filled with edamame.  The dog-pick is for color and unintentionally matches the pink silverware set.  The matchey-ness of the two proves there are no accidents.

My friend Amy brought over some delicious cookies this evening (she claims they are made with whole wheat flour but they taste just as good as regular cookies so I don't believe her).  I want to send one to school with Juju but alas I am afraid it will be confiscated.  Juju asked for peanut butter today when I handed her a celery stick but I was afraid to pack it in tomorrow's lunch (hence the hummus substitute).  I don't recall being told we can't send peanut products to school but these days I'm pretty sure they are a no-no anywhere.  When did packing a lunch get so hard?  There are so many rules to remember!

Lunch on May 26, 2011 - Manamana doot doo doo doo doo

Today's lunch is a little uninspired because I had no time to plan it last night.  At the last minute our friends invited us to a Friends and Family screening of the new Muppets movie that will be released this coming winter.  As a lifelong Muppets fan, this was quite an offer, worth putting off lunch-packing for.  I'm not allowed to say anything about the movie but speaking generally, I hope they use the next few months of editing wisely. . .

Today's lunch is an egg salad sandwich, celery, half an avocado, and watermelon and cantaloupe:

 

I packed a lunch yesterday but I forgot to photograph it before I put everything in the lunchbox so I took this photo.  The lunch is striking similar to today's lunch.

 

As the days get warmer I think about keeping my packed lunches cold.  I noticed Pottery Barn Kids is having a sale on cute ice packs that are the perfect size for a child's lunch.  Pottery Barn Kids items are notoriously expensive so a sale isn't always that great of a deal but I have noticed that the lunchbox items we have from them (lunchbag and stainless steel utensils) have been holding up very well.  I saw these in person and picked up a green seashell and blue starfish.

Lunch on Friday, May 13 - Pressed for ideas, I made a sandwich

Friday's lunch included a sandwich.  You may remember that I don't do sandwiches largely because Juju still can't figure out what to do when one is handed to her. 

Then, I had the idea to make her a sandwich "pocket," kind of like those disgusting (though oddly appealing) Smucker's Crustable things.  I found a really cool contraption at the Japanese Tokyo Outlet to help me and I am really excited about it.  Well, as excited as one can be about a lunch accessory.  By the way, I know it sounds like I spend my days shopping and lunching at the Japanese Village Plaza downtown but sadly I don't.  One of my vendors for my business is right there so whenever I am in the area for a meeting I take a quick walk over to see what's new.  I don't think I've ever spent more than $2.49 on an item there so it's a great place to go for cheap lunch inspiration.  

 If only I read Japanese I could tell you the name of this sandwich press or where to get it (other than in downtown LA) but I am sure they exist anywhere.  In the case of this one, you place a piece of bread on the press, add your "filling" (in this case I used hummus), place another piece of bread on top, and press down.  You are left with a sealed rounded square sandwich with no crust and no place for your "filling" to spill out.  (See photo below for the resulting sandwich).

I was concerned that my whole grain sandwich bread would be too stiff for the press but it worked fine.   You can see what remains behind after removing the sandwich from the press in the photo at left.  I am not quite sure why there is a heart on the top of the sandwich press since it does not make any indentation on the sandwich.  I can only surmise it's there because the Japanese needed to find some way to make even something like this look cute.

Yes I am aware that the press is plastic and we don't tend to like a lot of plastic around here.  All I can say is that the food is in the press for less than 30 seconds and I hand wash it.

Along with the hummus sandwich today's lunch included cottage cheese and cantaloupe with grapes.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts, much of this lunch went uneaten due to far more exciting things than a sandwich, I'm sure.  She has however eaten other pressed sandwiches since then and the result has been great and mess-free!

Lunch on May 4, 2011 - I made a sandwich!!

I get teased by a few of you who chide me for never making anything basic for Juju's lunch.  While I do enjoy that her lunches are sui generis when compared to what most people pack, I have avoided sandwiches thus far only because Juju doesn't really know what to do with them.  She doesn't really get how to hold both pieces of bread plus the middle and take a bite out of everything at once.  So, she usually picks the sandwich apart, eats what she wants, and leaves a considerable mess.

Still, I realize that sandwiches are practical, convienent, and arguably as tasty as anything I've packed so far.  One of the ReSnackIt bags I ordered was sandwich size so here goes:

Lunch tomorrow includes a turkey sandwich on La Brea bakery whole grain bread, carrots and hummus, a container of cucumber stars, pomegranate seeds and crimini mushrooms all chopped together, and a bowl of trail mix made of peanuts, almonds, dried raspberries and semi sweet chocolate chips.  I wish someone would make me a lunch like this everyday. 

I think this is the first time I am sending meat in a lunch.  I am not opposed to Juju eating meat, I just don't always like the idea of meat served cold (plus Juju's lunches are only cooled by ice packs and I wouldn't want a luke-warm meat dish on a hot day either).  But a turkey sandwich seems ok.  Also, when I was younger I went to a Jewish day school for three years and we could only bring dairy lunches so I think I am conditioned to think of sack lunches are vegetarian (well, pescetarian really).  Perhaps I should broaden my horizons.

Lunch on May 3 - Panda power

Tomorrow's lunch reminds me a lot of lunch on March 31 which was the photo that launched this blog.  It will also be eaten on my sister's birthday so, happy birthday Jolie!

Today I am serving California rolls with imitation crab (not homemade, these came from Gelson's), cucumber stars with pomegranate seeds, chopped up cremini mushrooms, and mango.  There is also a ReSnackIt filled with edamame pods that is not shown.

I used the piece of fake grass that came with the sushi to separate the mushrooms and mango and added a cute Panda-pic to the sushi for some fun.

One of you asked how I do the cucumber stars.  It's very easy.  I peel a cucumber, then cut both ends so I can stand the whole cucumber up on one end on a cutting board.  Then, I place a small star shaped cookie cutter on the top of the cucumber and press down to the bottom.  Then I chop up the cucumber into pieces and voila, stars.  You are left with five strands of cucumber (the white space from the star shape) which I either chop up and throw in or just eat myself.

Lunch on April 29 - Go with what you know

Tomorrow's lunch was pulled together in the three minutes I had tonight to get it done.  I actually used one minute to make the lunch and am using the remaining two right now to blog it.  I have been doing a ton of cooking for an event tomorrow night and I haven't really had much time (or room in the fridge) to devote to lunchmaking.

All that combined with the fact that today's ravioli triangles were rejected (well, I think one was eaten but as I suspected, they were mostly pushed to the side in search of mushrooms) made me put together a very uninspired lunch of old favorites.

Cantaloupe and grapes are joined by TJ's Greek honey yogurt with pomegranate seeds, half an avocado, and the rest of the mushroom and leek saute from yesterday.  There are some edamame pods in the ReSnackIt bag (which I have grown to love a lot) and two more SnackTaxi sacks filled with other familiar snacks (English peas and pita chips) not shown.  Yes I realize that this lunch is almost identical to today's lunch and yes I realize most of you only read this space for cute lunch accessories etc.  I guess I'm in a lunch rut since I have no time.  Here's hoping I get a second wind next week and start getting creative again!

Lunch on April 14, 2011 - with love from the farmer's market

I'm writing today's post quickly.  I took the morning off to hang out with Juju and I have a bunch of work to catch up on.  I apologize in advance for any typos.

This morning we headed to Santa Monica to walk around the farmer's market. I haven't been to that one in years and somehow remember it much bigger (maybe it's bigger on the weekend?).  But it was certainly big enough for our needs today.  And although her first choice was to go to the zoo, I think Juju was happy we went because she had her first taste of one of my favorite snacks, peas in the pod (or English peas if you prefer) and she is hooked!

I have fond memories of eating fresh peas as a very young child.  I remember at our old house in NY we had a vegetable garden out back (I think my Grandpa Leo who had a green thumb planted it for us) and we grew peas.  I loved running out there and eating the peas right off the stalk.  This reminds me I want to figure out a way to grow vegetables in our backyard.  We tried once with tomatoes but we live in a canyon and some of our animal neighbors kept harvesting everything for us before we could get to them.  I also want to compost since peas in the pod leave a good amount of waste.  I'll work on both of those ideas when I have some more time.

Juju wasn't interested in the peas at first but once I showed her how to eat them she was obsessed.  She ate the entire bag in about a block and a half so I had to go back and buy some more for tomorrow's lunch.  It was actually a great way to move around the farmer's market.  Her eyes and hands were so focused on not dropping any peas on the ground that she moved slowly and stuck by me stand after stand.  We also bought some beautiful strawberries.  They are finally starting to taste as they should which means summer will be here before I know it.  Time really does fly.

I made lunch ahead of time again; our mornings are just too crazy to make a fresh lunch and I certainly wouldn't have time to blog about lunch if I made it in the morning!  Joining the peas in the pod are clementine segments, strawberries, and cream cheese hearts.  I made the hearts by slathering a bunch of cream cheese on two pieces of whole grain bread and using one of my handy dandy Tokyo Japanese Outlet heart-shaped cookie cutters.  I've never given Juju a cream cheese sandwich before but my guess is she is going to love it.  I am concerned that the lunch might not have enough protein so I might throw something else in the snailbox like yogurt or hummus and carrots. 

 

When I asked Juju today what she wanted for lunch tomorrow she replied "carrots and ice."  Let's hope this is a welcome substitute.

Inspired by reading this piece on artichokes I bought some beauties at the farmer's market today.  I once had a fantastic raw artichoke salad.  Maybe I'll try making it but I'm guessing the taste will be a little too sophisticated for a toddler's lunch.

Lunch on April 5, 2011 - Pasta Salad Plus

The idea of making lunches twice a week for my daughter is still fairly new and exciting considering we really like to cook (and eat) in this house and I usually pay a fair amount of attention to presentation.  Having this blog though has really thrown things into overdrive.  I will confess I actually thought about printing out the photo of the lunch above and taping it inside Juju's lunchbox so her teachers would know how to arrange the food in front of her and which container to open first.  Yes, I am aware that that is going overboard but if thoughts like that disturb you, you should probably stop reading this blog now; I imagine stressing over decisions like whether or not to print out lunch diagrams will be commonplace as I plan and execute more lunches and you need to be okay with that.

Today's lunch is actually tomorrow's lunch.  Although I like to pack food as fresh as possible, I simply have more time today than I will tomorrow morning so I've already made the lunch.  Also, the main dish is a pasta salad which I find tastes better the next day anyway.  Joining the pasta salad is a container of strawberries and grapes and a container of mini carrots to dip in hummus (while I loathe Costco, it's only redeeming values to me are cheap, quality kids pajamas and the fact that you can find individual servings of Sabra hummus there).

I have been thinking about making pasta salad since last week.  I know most kids gobble up any sort of noodle but I wanted to move beyond the prosaic mac and cheese.  Plus this lunch is served cold with no option to heat it up so I wanted a pasta dish that was best served at room temperature.  I made up the following recipe; the portions are totally up to you and I apologize that I am not actually a proper recipe writer. 

Pasta Salad Plus - this recipe will give you enough for 3-4 lunches
Cook 1/2 box of mini bow tie pasta. 
While it's cooking, place 1/3 package of frozen corn in a big bowl (don't worry about the moisture as it defrosts).  You can also use fresh or canned corn.
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and add 1/2 clove of chopped garlic.  Stir and cook the garlic long enough to flavor the oil but don't let it get brown (you don't want to burn it).  When the oil starts to bubble, turn it off and let the garlic hang out in the oil off of the heat.  You may leave out the garlic if you don't like it but I find it really adds a great flavor to the dish.
Cut in half sugar plum tomatoes, as many as you like.
Chop up some fresh basil (optional, I just do this for color) or better yet, to save time, buy the frozen kind made by a company called Dorot sold at Trader Joe's and elsewhere.  Get your chopped garlic from Dorot too - this company has changed my life!
Chop up fresh mozzarella cheese (I used one big hunk, about the size of a fist)
Chop in half black and green olives (optional, I did this because my kid is obsessed with olives)
Drain pasta when cooked al dente and add it to the bowl with the corn.  Add the tomatoes, basil, cheese, olives, and salt and pepper to taste.  Add the oil and mix thoroughly.  If the pasta salad is too dry add more oil to taste.
Put some in containers for your child and eat the rest yourself!
It's best if you can make this dish a day or two before, the flavors taste even better when they've marinated overnight.

Fingers crossed the pasta salad is a hit; I don't actually have any kid feedback yet but I quite enjoyed the sample I had.  And I had enough to send my husband a container for lunch as well which is always a plus.  Today's lunch was served in Kids Konserve stainless steel containers.  I promise a post on all the containers I use very soon.