Lunch on October 13, 2011 - showing some restraint!

I continue to love the Planet Box lunchbox I blogged about yesterday.  It's so sleek and really well designed.  There are a few kinks to work out, or just accept.  For example I have just resigned myself to the fact that the once beautiful carrying case is going to get gross.  I spot clean it each time it comes home but there are always stains on it.  Either food has leaked onto it, or Juju touched it with dirty hands, or she dropped food on it (she eats from the stainless steel container while it's still in the carrying case).  But I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this lunch container so I'm sticking with it.  I looked at one of Juju's other lunchboxes on the counter today and felt sorry for it; it's not going to see the light of day for a while.  My friend Lirona mentioned in the comments in yesterday's post that her daughter's preschool likes the Planet Box because it's only one container for them to help her daughter open.  That's a good point.  And Lirona likes that it's only one thing to clean.  I agree but I don't like that the magnets need to be removed to clean the lunchbox because I clean it every day which means I am removing and then replacing them each time.  It gets a little annoying.  I wish they were washable stickers instead.

After a whole lot of today's lunch came home in the Planet Box, I came to terms with the fact that I am sending too much food for lunch.  So, for tomorrow's meal I tried to show a little restraint.  One of Juju's classmates who was playing with Juju's Planet Box during pick-up time showed me that Juju's fork set can fit perfectly into one of the compartments in the unit.  Brilliant!  You never know how much you can learn from a 3-year old.

I took the friend's advice and filled one of the compartments with a fork for tomorrow's lunch which kept me from filling that area with food.  Along with the fork I am serving mac and cheese with veggies, edamame, and orange slices.  I really tried hard to leave the center section empty but I had some dark chocolate covered sunflower seeds in my pantry and I couldn't resist adding a little bit of color to the lunch!

I happened to be at Target today when I stumbled upon a great sale on Thermos brand stainless steel straw water bottles.  Ok fine, I didn't exactly stumble upon it, I often check out the kid's lunch section for fun (call it research for this blog).  Anyway, these water bottles usually cost around $18-$20 dollars each and today they were on sale for about $13.  Unfortunately none of them are plain, they all have characters on them but at this price, I don't really mind Juju shilling for Hello Kitty at the lunch table.  I can't find a link on the website but you can find them in person.  While I was there I checked out the variety of lunch bags, boxes, and containers available for sale.  They didn't have any interesting stainless steel options but some of the lunch bags themselves were really cute and well priced.  If I were in the market for a lunch bag (I'm not, I'm not, I'm really not!) my choice would be the Rambler lunch bag or a super cute one that isn't online but is in the shape of a frog and comes with a frog ice pack.

Lunch on September 13 - First day of school!

Yay the day finally came!  Nursery school started today and things went pretty well considering Juju was at a new school and instead of 2 days a week she is now going all 5 days.  I couldn't ask for much more on the lunch front; her nervous energy must have helped her work up quite an appetite because she ate everything I packed.

Today I served hummus and carrots for snack, and sushi with edamame and fruit for lunch.  I probably should have made something special for the first day of school but she loves sushi and had fun picking it out herself at the market so we went with that.

In addition to now packing a lunch every day, I also have to pack a snack.  At her old school snack was provided which I definitely appreciated.  This year we were given a special snack bag just for snack.  I've included a photo below.  This is probably one of the more boring photos I have posted here but hey, you are reading a blog about one kid's school lunch so what do you expect?

And here is the first day of lunch all ready to go.  I am still not sure why I am bringing two bags with food to school since they eat lunch and snack in the same place and both sit in her cubby all day but I guess this makes it easier when it's time to eat?

Here's hoping for another great year!

Lunch on August 17 - balsamic chicken pasta salad take 2

School is out for summer but I am still packing lunches.  My friend had the brilliant idea to hire one of Juju's teachers from her school to do a "camp" at our houses for our kids for a couple of days this week and next.  Because we are not returning to school next year, Juju's fabulous teachers are fair game which is very exciting for both me and Juju (she could hardly believe herself when her former teacher showed up on our doorstep this morning!).  It's kind of funny to pack a lunch that Juju will eat in her own house but it just makes things easier.

I tried a pasta salad I made several months ago inspired by my friend Amy.  It is grilled chicken (marinated in balsamic vinegar) with fusilli, yellow peppers, and baby heirloom tomatoes.  I drizzled olive oil and more balsamic vinegar along with some salt and pepper and tossed it all together.  I made a lot so I will be eating this for a few lunches this week as will the King of All Media.  I am also serving cantaloupe and cucumber.

Speaking of tomatoes, I was at the Silver Lake farmer's market on Saturday and was overwhelmed by the number of heirloom tomatoes to choose from.  On the same day I also read about 4 friends around the country (some are blogreaders!) in my Facebook newsfeed who were enjoying tomatoes harvested from their own backyards.  I am so jealous.  We tried to grow tomatoes one year but the animal neighbors we share this canyon with ate almost everything we grew.  I'm inspired to try again though.  We have a lemon tree in our backyard and I love the idea of going outside to pick my own "organic" fruit.

Despite the fact that the pasta salad I mentioned above includes chicken, we've actually been eating a lot of vegetarian or pescetarian meals at home.  On Monday night our dinner was almost vegan save for the parmesan cheese we threw in the salad.  I think I've mentioned before that we are thinking about going vegan for a week (though I won't insist that Juju participate) and we are kind of working up to it by eating less meat and making some vegan meals here and there.  In fact on Monday I wasn't even trying to go vegan, I realized halfway through dinner that almost nothing we ate came from an animal.  I don't have photos but we ate quinoa that I tossed with sauted spinach and onion, farm stand okra roasted with oil, oregano, salt and pepper, and a salad filled with goodies from our CSA box.  I had some leftover parmesan cheese in the fridge that delegitimized the meal but I was pretty impressed that we were all (Juju included) completely satisfied with the meat/fish-less dinner.  As far as pescetarian meals go, I continue to coat a lot of fish in egg and almond meal (as I've blogged about before) with delicious results.  

Lastly I wanted to let you all know that Gilt Groupe is doing a sale on lunch containers today.  There aren't a ton of stainless steel offerings but if you missed the Hautelook sale on Lunchbots there are a few options to still grab that aren't sold out.  If you are not a member of Gilt click here for an invite. 

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.