Grainiac

As I have said before, I am far from being plastic-free.  On the contrary, we have a ton of plastic in the house.  I do however try to minimize, to the extent I can, the amount of plastic I use in food storage.  (If you haven't figured out the pun already, that is why I'm blogging on something called Steel My Lunch).

I was organizing my pantry the other night (I know, it's really rude of me to brag about the exciting life I lead here) and it reminded me that I've never shared how I store food when it's not destined for the lunch table.  I try to put a lot of food in glass.  It helps me avoid the plastic-y taste you get when you put things like cheese in things like Saran Wrap and I'm pretty sure grains keep longer when you seal them in an air tight glass jar.

To show you just how dorky I am, I took some pictures of how I store grains in glass.  If you are reading this and are still interested enough to continue, you probably lead a life about as exciting as mine.

I have a few fancy candy-jar-looking containers I got at Ikea and I think they are so nice I leave them out on the counter:

I don't have enough of these containers for everything I want to store so I keep everything else in the pantry in old pasta sauce jars.  I'm a little embarrassed at how unpretty these are but here goes:

You can see that some of the original labels are still on the old jars.  Throw "12 pack of Ikea glass jars" on the list for the lunchbox fairy.

This is probably the most boring post I have ever written.  Don't worry, camp will start soon and I'll go back to blogging lunches!

Containerization - stoneware edition

There are so many more food containers, plates, and flatware I want to blog about.  In this post I will focus on some non-plastic, non-glass, non-stainless steel options.  What's left you ask?  Basically wood and ceramic or porcelain stoneware.

I don't use a lot of wood or bamboo around here.  When Juju was small I had a few forks and spoons made from bamboo but now that she is older, she finds them dissatisfying.  They are mostly handcarved and are pretty to look at but don't work so well to stab a strawberry or hold a reasonable amount of yogurt.

Wood bowls and plates are really expensive and annoying to clean as I don't know if they are all dishwasher safe.  We have a few wooden bowls from salad sets but since I only bring those out on special occasions with adults, I never think to use them on a daily basis with Juju.

Instead, we have been using a great dishware set I got at Ikea.  I think it's technically a "play" dish set but it's food safe and is the perfect size for Juju so why not?  I got the idea from a friend after Juju ate off of the plates at her house.  The set is called Duktig and includes 4 plates, 4 mini plates, and 4 bowls in pink, blue, yellow, and green for $9.99.  Here is a special dessert Juju had in one of the green dishes (it's moosetracks ice cream with chocolate covered sunflower seeds topping for those interested).

 

I started serving Juju on the Duktig plates at around 20 months when she was more responsible with her tableware and was no longer throwing things on the floor.  Well, she was probably still throwing some food on the floor but she was not bothering the dishes by that point.  I love how pretty the dishes are; they really dress up her table and make the food look appealing.  I also like that they bring some refinement to otherwise very unrefined meals.  The size of the plates are perfect for toddler-sized portions.   I am hoping using stoneware now will help with the transition to adult plates at some point.  The photo below is of the whole set but it doesn't really do them justice, the plates are pretty adorable.  You can see one of the larger blue plates in the breakfast I made here.  They are also dishwasher safe which is a huge plus (I try not to put plastic plates or bowls in the dishwasher but it's just too tempting. . .).

When Juju was older, I started serving her beverages in very small Ikea glass cups.  I can't find the exact set we have but here is another set of 6 for $2.99 (I actually think ours were 6 for $1.99 if you can believe it).  It's hard to trust a young toddler with glass so make sure yours is really ready before trying it out.  We also use the play flatware set (also called Duktig) which gives you 16 pieces of stainless steel flatware for $6.99 and comes with it's own drawer organizer (yes, I realize the organizer is plastic).  The pieces in the set are 4 forks, 4 knives, 4 large spoons and 4 tea spoons.  We only really use the spoons but they are worth buying the whole set for.  The larger spoons fit perfectly with creamy things served in the Duktig bowls and I like that they don't overwhelm Juju.  When she gets a little bigger, she can use her old dishes and flatware for her dolls.

While we're on the subject of porcelain, I should mention that our friends Dave and Michelle got us the cutest 3-piece Peter Rabbit Wedgwood dishware set when Juju was born.  We used it at Thanksgiving this year along with fancy china for everyone else and it was an adorable complement.  I am afraid to use the set regularly (it's not as easy to replace as the Ikea Duktig set) but I suppose it's not as much fun sitting on a shelf.  Wouldn't you like your morning Cheerios and coffee served in these?

Lunch on April 22 - Passover Provisions and a Pink Puppy

As I mentioned it's Spring Break so I only had to pack a lunch one day this week but in addition to Juju's lunch, I had to pack food for three adults as well.  And it's Passover so I had some extra limitations.  But, I think I made out pretty well.

I mentioned my friend Annie H. gave me a great baby frittata recipe perfect for kiddos.  I didn't follow her recipe exactly, I mostly used my own (this one features leeks, mushrooms, and spinach), but I did use her idea of baking in mini muffin tins.  I also baked some of the frittata in large muffin tins for the adults. 

I wanted to find a nice complement to the eggs, something that could easily take the place of bread.  I settled on a new Passover favorite: quinoa.  I realize some very observant people don't consider quinoa kosher for Passover but I am not one of those people; abstaining from bread and grains and a whole bunch of legumes and peanuts is plenty deprivation for me.

I haven't had time to shop for groceries for a few days since we've eaten out the last three nights so I made up a quinoa recipe with things I had around the house.  I'd give it a B, maybe a B+.  I was trying to replicate a sweeter quinoa salad that was served at my second seder but fell short.  This is good, just not exactly what I was going for.

Here's how I made it: I toasted 1 cup quinoa with 1 tablespoon of oil in a small pot on the stove. When the quinoa was toasted (but not burnt!) I added 2 cups of water, let it come to a boil, then simmered it  covered for about 15 minutes.  I usually cook quinoa with a clove of chopped garlic but since I was going for a sweeter taste, I left it out (but I did add some salt).  Once the quinoa was cooked and cooled, I threw it into a bowl and started mixing things into it.  I cut up some scallions and threw in a pack of dried raisins and cherries my friend Marla brought me from Seattle.  I also threw in some chopped walnuts since I wanted more of a crunch.  For the wet stuff I added some oil and vinegar.  With quinoa you can really add any oil: vegetable, sesame, olive, etc.  Then I squeezed the juice of a lemon Juju picked at a friend's house the other day and voila, quinoa salad!  I am hoping the flavors blend a bit more tonight so the salad is even more flavorful tomorrow.

Here is how the adults' lunches came out - everyone got two regular size muffin tin frittatas and the quinoa salad.  I like presenting things on lettuce for the color and it helps to keep the two dishes separate which I think makes them more appealing.  Since these lunches are for adults I packed them in glass, my favorite way to store food (but sadly not very kid friendly).  These are Snapware Glasslock containers that used to be really hard to find but are now everywhere like at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond.  I think the best prices for them are still at Costco which used to be the only place I could find them.

 

I gave Juju a small cup of the quinoa salad (not shown), four baby frittatas, mango, cantaloupe, and clementine segments, and three Passover macaroons.  The pink puppy is yet another Japanese style lunch "fascinator."

 

Only 4 more days of this holiday to go.  Then I'll focus on another eating challenge: we are considering going vegan for a week sometime in the near future.  Can you believe it?  I can not.  More on that later as I work up the courage to plan it out. . .