Lunch on 2/10/12 - Veggie delight!

I have to go out later so I made tomorrow's lunch this evening.  That means this is my third post in about 7 hours.  Can you tell I'm procrastinating today?

The falafel chips and edamame hummus were a hit today so I am repeating them tomorrow along with peas, strawberries, plums, cucumbers (shaped like hearts - I broke out the cookie cutters which means I am really avoiding doing work today!), edamame, and for dessert - chocolate cheese!!  Trader Joe's managed to combine two of my favorite things in this delicious blend of white cheddar and dark chocolate.  It is pretty amazing.

Save for the dessert, this is actually a vegan meal.  I know some of my readers are vegan or veg.  I hope this lunch inspires you.  I'm always looking for new ideas on how to make kids food vegan or veg friendly so please send me yours!

Have a great weekend.

Roasted eggplant spread

I promised the recipe for eggplant dip and I won't disappoint!  But, a few other things to get out of the way:

I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier but SnackTaxi, the reusable snack bag company is offering a "back to school" sale of 20% off their snack and sandwich bags until tomorrow.  Use code SCHOOL20 at checkout.

Also, there was a great article in the New York Times yesterday about schools cooking from scratch (as opposed to reheating food and other edible food-like substances that were created elsewhere).  It's a great trend that I hope continues.

Onto my veggie dip.  Inspired by the eggplant and red peppers that showed up on my door yesterday, I looked up Ina Garten's roasted eggplant spread (I'm not sure how a spread differs from a dip - if you know please let me know, I'm assuming it has to do with texture).  I've made it before, following the recipe precisely but this time I made a few changes.  No matter how I make it, it always comes out delicious.  And, for what it's worth, it's totally vegan.  Ina's recipe is below but in a nutshell, you roast the veggies, then blend them in a food processor with some wet ingredients.

Here is a photo of my veggies while roasting:

I actually forgot to add the garlic while roasting so I threw it in during the the food processor phase and I don't think you can tell the difference.  Here is the finished product served with veggies for dipping.  It would also taste great spread on toasted pita (it is a spread after all and not really a dip. . .)

The problem with eating vegan meals all the time (or even vegetarian) is that there is a LOT of chopping involved.  It's really time consuming.  I'm still thinking about vegan week; I'll have to factor in a lot of time for prep work.

Lastly I should share that I purchased a set of Lunchbot containers in the recent Hautelook sale (yes, their shipping rocks and they are here already.  You could learn a lesson from them, Zulily!).  As you know I am not 100% satisfied with my current Lunchbot container (nor their customer service) but I can't find too many other stainless steel options.  I wonder what delicious lunches these will hold for the new school year!

  

Ingredients

• 2 medium eggplants, peeled
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, plus extra for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, cayenne and salt and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking. Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the lemon juice and tahini, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and add the chopped parsley. Garnish with extra parsley.

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. 

July 13, 2011 - Snack for lunch

I was really at a loss for lunch ideas today so I took inspiration from what Juju had for snack: peanut butter.

We went to a meeting for her new nursery school (I absolutely love the school we are currently enrolled in but for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with our current school we are switching next fall) and learned that we can not send any peanut products whatsoever to school next year.  There is some debate about whether something like almond butter is allowed; I will get some more details in August.  I assume I will be free to send sunflower seed butter as it is not a peanut nor a tree nut.  If you haven't heard of it, it's terrific and a great substitute to peanut butter (try it with jelly on a sandwich and see if you can tell the difference).

So, when Juju insisted I open the refrigerator for her (thank goodness she didn't open it by herself, the other night she figured out how to do that and there were strawberries all over the kitchen. . .) she grabbed for the first thing she could reach which was the peanut butter and insisted on adding it to her snack plate.  Since I have a few more weeks of sending peanut butter to school/camp, I decided to make these cute peanut butter and whole grain cracker sammies paired with some cheese, strawberries, grapes, and cucumbers.  I decided that the lunch looked a little light so I also gave Juju some leftover frittata from tonight's dinner (using a heart shaped cookie cutter of course).  This frittata was made with onions, leeks, spinach, broccoli, eggs and cheese.  I don't know if I have done that combination before but it was great.  I used a similar recipe to the one I blogged about here only I cooked it in a Le Creuset dish instead of muffin tins.

Although it's not in this lunch, I did want to put in a plug for the okra I made with dinner tonight.  I saw it at the Hollywood Farmer's Market this weekend and realized the only times I had had okra in recent memory it was fried and I wanted to try to really taste its flavors when they are not forced to compete with cornmeal and oil.  I'm so glad I did; the result was fantastic.  I set the oven to 500 degrees and placed small whole okra on a cookie sheet with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of oregano (I got the idea from the Gourmet Magazine cookbook - RIP Gourmet).  I mixed everything together and cooked it for 10 minutes, occasionally shaking the cookie sheet during cooking.  It was SO GOOD and further proves our theory that if you roast any vegetable mixed with olive oil, salt, and pepper at a high heat it is going to knock your socks off.  Juju enjoyed the "white balls" inside the okra though she didn't eat much because it was really hot.

I realize I skipped the blogging of two lunches; I've been really busy with Milkstars work but I will try to catch on those lunches soon as I did manage to take pictures.

I should also reveal that I am toying with the idea of signing up for some hot lunches next year.  They made the program sound really great today and the prospect of making a lunch (and blogging it!) every single day next year is a little daunting.  

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 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.

Leftovers for lunch

I thought I would share some things we serve for lunch around here when Juju isn't at school.  I won't be sharing any photos because generally we eat a lot of leftovers and they aren't so pretty.

Here is what we made for dinner on Monday and Tuesday night that we will be calling lunch this week:

Monday night - homemade turkey meatloaf and brussels sprouts
The turkey meatloaf recipe comes via Ina Garten.  I always knew about it but it wasn't until my friend Missy made it a few months ago and I sampled some that I started making it on a fairly regular basis.  We've actually not been cooking much meat in our house lately but this was an exception.  And a delicious one at that.  The recipe is here.  Ina calls for 5 pounds of meat which is kind of crazy for a family of three like ours.  On Missy's recommendation we only used 3 pounds of meat (which still yields an enormous meatloaf) but did not cut back on any of the other ingredients.  The result is a very flavorful loaf.  Ina calls for all white meat turkey but I am sure the recipe will only be enhanced by using some dark meat as well.

The brussels sprouts came from the Hollywood Farmer's Market.  My recipe is really easy and something I learned by watching Ina Garten roast a dozen other vegetables.  It was also inspired by the amazing brussels sprouts I had at my friend Maggie's wedding last month.  YUM!  These sprouts were really big so I cut each of them in half and some in quarters (I also trimmed the ends).  I put them all in a big bowl with a chopped onion and several whole cloves of garlic (no Dorot this time, I actually had to peel the garlic myself!).  Then I drizzled a good amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper over the top and mixed everything with clean hands to make sure all of the sprouts were coated.  I turned the bowl over onto an ungreased cookie sheet and roasted the sprouts at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.  I know brussels sprouts get a bad rap but these were SO delicious.  Unlike the meatloaf, the sprouts really do taste much better the night they are made and aren't such a great idea for leftovers.


Tuesday night - homemade vegetarian moussaka and spanikopita 
We've been doing a lot of vegetarian cooking these days and have been using this Moosewood cookbook as our bible.  These recipes were actually prepared by my husband who all of a sudden decided he wanted to cook two extremely labor intensive meals at home.  He agreed to clean up the mess so I couldn't argue with that and he's actually a really great cook with more patience than I.  You'll have to buy the book for the official recipes but I did find this spanikopita recipe and this moussaka recipe online which are quite similar to the ones we used.  The spinach for the spanikopita came from the Hollywood Farmer's Market but save your time, money and energy and use the frozen kind, it will probably taste the same.  Both recipes are what my mother-in-law would call pichkarye (peetsch-kar-eye) which translates loosely into pain in the tush so save your time while you can.  But don't leave the cinnamon out of the moussaka if you do try it.  It gave the whole dish a really unique flavor and I never would have expected to use cinnamon in something like this.  Juju enjoyed this meal although truth be told if there are mushrooms in anything, she will eat it.

I grew up in a house where we rarely ate leftovers.  My mom usually made the right amount of food for dinner and my Dad hates leftovers so we didn't see too many.  But these days I am married to someone I like to call "Camp Cook."  My husband is very efficient and conscious of resources in so many aspects of his life (we live in LA and he rides the subway and buses, he find industrious ways to reuse almost anything nonrecyclable that enters our house, etc) and leftovers are no exception.  He finds a way to reinvent leftover foods (much the way the cook at my camp did if there were too many leftovers of one particular thing after a meal) and if he can't, he makes sure to take the leftovers to work for lunch the next day.  I appreciate his interest in not wanting to wasting food (and happy that Juju and I are rarely recruited to be a part of his efforts!)