Sloppy Bombay Joes

We made a new recipe last night that was a huge hit with the family. It's an Indian twist on sloppy joes from Aarti Party, the new show on Food Network. The recipe (Sloppy Bombay Joes) sounds a bit odd (raisins, pistachios, garam masala) but the end result was phenomenal. Everyone devoured their dinner and both the big chic and the hubs asked me pack up leftovers for their lunch. We served ours on whole wheat sandwich rolls and topped them with sliced mango. DELISH!

Sloppy Bombay Joe with sliced mango on top of saffron rice, Half of a cowgirl cookie, Cucumber slices, Greek yogurt with strawberries.

Salad and Ricotta Stuffed Peppers

It seems like sometime around Winter Break the big chic's lunch turned away from the "cute" and towards the leftovers. Even when I try to send a decorated lunch, she ends up asking if she can take "some of this" while we're sitting at the dinner table. We are very lucky that she is able to heat things in the microwave in the dining hall. Otherwise, we'd probably be a lot more limited with the leftovers. Tonight's dinner was Italian salad with ricotta stuffed mini peppers.

Italian salad, red grapes, ricotta stuffed mini peppers

The mini peppers recipe came from my new Giada cookbook (it's also on Food Network) and the salad is the Olive Garden copycat salad dressing with banana peppers, Parmesan, and black olives. (Big chic LOVES banana peppers!)

Orange Beef

My love for Weight Watchers recipes is no secret. I did Weight Watchers for a while after the little chic was born and found that the hubs and I really enjoyed many of the recipes. One of their books, Take Out Tonight, has a ton of great recipes and, although I'm not on Weight Watchers anymore, I still make many of the recipes. This orange beef recipe is from that book. I serve it with quinoa instead of rice.

Orange beef on quinoa, Blackberries, Sesame crunch

Sandwich Rolls

These little sandwich rolls are always popular! Just roll out a piece of bread, top with fillings, roll up and cut. Easy and cute. Love it!

Sandwich rolls with turkey, spinach, and nectarines, Green beans, Cheese flowers, Strawberries and cream topped with chocolate disk.

My Lunchroom Revolutionary

The chic bought her lunch earlier this week and said it was gross and "not very healthy". So, as she was describing the horror that she had to endure in the hot lunch line, she also tells me that a few of her friends buy hot lunch a lot and she informed them that they are not eating healthy. One of the boys buys every day and it seems that she has made it her personal goal to improve his lunch habits. She told him that he needs to have his mom make his lunch because the hot lunch is bad for you. I'm sure his mom will call me at some point and ask what the heck my kid is saying to her son, but for now, I'm gonna enjoy the fact that she's a little lunchroom revolutionary!

Tomorrow is pizza day and normally she would want to buy lunch. BUT after the trauma of the unhealthy and gross lunch, she wants to bring her lunch from home. I made her a little pizza on a whole wheat bagel with Canadian bacon and mushrooms. This way she can enjoy pizza day AND bring her own lunch.

Banana, Cucumber carrot star cut-outs, Sugar free black cherry jello, Bagel pizza

The instant oatmeal worked out really well, btw. She came home with only a bit of it left and she said that it was really good. I'm sure we won't be taking instant oatmeal often but it's good to know that it's another option!

Back from Thanksgiving Break!

Thanksgiving Break was certainly fun, but went way way too fast. Because of the holiday, everyone has been home from work and school and we've been eating out and at relatives all week. The only grocery shopping I've done has been for Thanksgiving so we have hardly any food in the house. I have to get to the store this week! Packing today's lunch felt like I was on an episode of Survivor:Lunchbox Edition or something.


I was also trying to make it in a hurry cause we were supposed to have some relatives visiting today and I wanted to get lunch packed early. I'm glad that I stowed away a few slices of spiral sliced ham from Thanksgiving. We discovered that the chic really liked it so I grabbed some thinking that she would like it in her lunchbox this week. The rest of the lunch is a modge podge of things in our pantry.

Heirloom cherry tomatoes, Celery stuffed with cream cheese, cranberries and dried peas, Red grapes, Spiral sliced ham, Whole wheat and Havarti cheese Christmas trees with carrots and peas.

And finally, thanks to Sheri, Astrid, and Arkonite_Babe for the Kreativ Blogger award!

According to the award, I have to list seven random things about me and pass it on to seven other bloggers. I will list my blog choices later this week, but for now, here are my seven things:

1. I'm claustrophobic.

2. I have a weird photographic memory for phone numbers.

3. I bake when I'm stressed.

4. I am a night owl.

5. I prefer winter vacations to the beach vacations.

6. I live next door to my parents.

7. I love board games.

Gobble Gobble

A "Turkey" Sandwich is the chic's lunch tomorrow...

Oatmeal Raisin cookie, Fruit Bites, Carrot Chips, Flaxseed Cranberry and Pecan Crackers, Wallaby Organic Berry Yogurt, "Turkey" Sandwich

I say "Turkey" sandwich cause it's actually peanut butter and raspberry jam. The eye is a dry roasted pea, the beak is a carrot and the gobbler is red pepper. The feathers are strips of red pepper, carrot, celery, cucumber, and cheese.
I discovered that the Hello Kitty bento fits perfectly in the Laptop Lunchbox with a yogurt and the Laptop Lunchbox water. I've been really impressed with the Laptop Lunchbox insulated bag. I put a slim ice pack in the mesh pocket and her lunch stays cold WAY past lunchtime. The water bottle was surprising also. It doesn't look very impressive. Kinda flimsy actually. The first time I pulled it out of the box, I rolled my eyes. Here I spent all this money on a lunchbox, and THAT was the bottle included? But the thing is awesome! It hasn't leaked one time all year! Not once!

Fruit Leather!

I'm going to try to make Thanksgiving/Fall themed lunches this week unless the chic REALLY complains about the lack of flowers and frou frou. I'm really looking forward to moving past Thanksgiving, though, so I can make some Christmas lunches. THOSE will be fun!

Cheese curds, Cucumbers, Flaxseed Cranberry and Pecan Crackers, Homemade Fruit Leather over pecans and dried Cranberries, Turkey leaf sandwich.

I've been wanting to try making fruit leather for a long time. But, it seemed like such a time consuming process that I've kinda put it off and put it off. Well, I'm tired of trying to find all fruit fruit leather and I'm tired of paying so much for it. And really, I just love to make anything I can so that I know EXACTLY what is in it. So, after doing some Internet searching, I came up with a plan of attack and went to it. Here's how it went...

I used frozen strawberries this time. Two bags. Unsweetened. They aren't in season right now, or I would have bought fresh. So, I went with four cups of fruit and a half cup of water. I simmered these, covered, for 15 minutes.

(Everything gettin ready to simmer)

I mashed them with a potato masher and continued to cook, uncovered, until they got a bit thicker. This was only supposed to take 15 minutes or so, but I let it cook for a total of about 30 minutes. Next time I will only do 15 minutes, though. I think I let a bit too much water evaporate. You'll understand why in a minute.

(I don't know why my dad's camera keeps doing this, but this is the best one I have of it after I mashed it)

Then I stuck it in the blender and pureed the whole thing. It thickens up quite a bit when pureed. And as a warning...boiling hot strawberry puree WILL fly out of the top of the blender spout, burn your hand, and make a mess out of your kitchen when you hit the "on" button. Just sayin...I ended up putting a pot holder over the spout (after I treated my scalded hand, that is!)

(You shoulda seen the floor around the blender!)

(The Puree)

Everything I read says that you should line a baking sheet with "oven safe" plastic wrap. My plastic wrap is just store brand plastic wrap and it didn't say anywhere on the box that it was "oven safe". I stuck a piece in the microwave to test it and it didn't melt. That was good enough for me, so I used it. Four cups of fruit will make one baking sheet worth of fruit leather. I must warn you, however, that after being in the oven for a while, the edged do shrink up a bit, but the plastic under the fruit was just fine. After lining your baking sheet with plastic wrap, you pour the puree and level it out. This is important because otherwise it won't cook evenly (I know because MINE didn't cook evenly.)

(Ready for the oven)

Turn the oven to "warm" and wait...

and wait...(you can start seeing where it was thicker and not drying as fast)



and wait...


(This is right out of the oven. I tore off the bottom left corner. You know I'm an impatient cook! The bright spot is the sticky spot where it was too thick.)

I left mine in the oven for about 7 hours before pulling it out. It is supposed to be done when there are no sticky spots left, but since I didn't level mine well, I still had a thick spot that was sticky. I decided to pull it out, though, cause I didn't want the rest to get too dry.

Once out of the oven, the plastic wrap just peels off the back.


I tore it into strips and put it in a plastic baggie. At first I thought that it wasn't such a success. I cooked it too long in the initial thickening stage and when I took it out of the oven, parts of it were more crunchy than dried. And I had the sticky spot in the middle because I did a bad leveling job...okay NO leveling job, whatever. BUT I cut out the sticky spot and after being in the plastic baggie, the crunchy bit softened a bunch.


The last thing to do was test it out on the chics. And as luck would have it, we had one of our friend's kids over that day. So, I gave them all a piece and stood back to watch. It's hard to act like you don't care what they think of it. I was standing there trying to act aloof about it, all the while trying to read their facial expressions without outright staring at them. Anyway, a few minutes later, they came back for another piece, and then another. Pretty soon, they had eaten almost the entire baggie! It was a success!

Next time I make it, I will change a few things...I won't cook it for 30 minutes and stick to the 15 minutes in the thickening stage, I will put a pot holder on the blender BEFORE turning the switch on, I will level the puree, and I will make two pans! Oh, and I think I'm gonna try raspberry!

How We Handle Halloween Candy and a Star Lunch...

Halloween - there's candy everywhere! Grocery stores, restaurants, even at the doctor's office! And although I'd like to think that I could keep my kids (and myself) away from all the candy, it's just not realistic. We live in a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating. It reminds me of Halloween when I was little and kids were everywhere, people sat out on their porches, and it was relatively safe. But, there are pros and cons to living in a Halloween friendly neighborhood. The pros - everyone passes out candy and the girls LOVE trick-or-treating. The cons - everyone passes out candy and the girls LOVE trick-or-treating. We do something, a little bit different, though, that allows the kids to trick-or-treat and makes me feel better about the candy - The Pumpkin Fairy.

Here's how our Pumpkin Fairy works...when we get home from trick-or-treating, we dump out all of the candy on the table. The chics are able to keep any toys, stickers, and Play-doh, but the candy they must sort through. They are allowed to choose a certain amount of candy depending on their age. This year we said twenty pieces but after all the negotiation and grandparent persuasion, it was more like thirty. Then, they put the remaining candy in a bag and leave it out on the table (I weighed it this year - it was over 5 lbs!). While they are sleeping, the Pumpkin Fairy comes and takes the candy and replaces it with a toy. We usually don't spend a ton on the toy. This year it was Tinkerbell and High School Musical make-up sets.

The girls love it and don't have a problem giving up their candy at all. We've done it from the very first Halloween so now they just expect it. We told them that the Halloween Fairy must be invited to visit your house and that not everyone asks her to come. This was really just a way to explain that their friends would probably have no idea what a Pumpkin Fairy was. Honestly, I have no idea where this idea came from. Maybe I read about it in a magazine or on a website somewhere...I really don't remember. But, it's worked really well for us and thought I'd share. If your family does something like this, I would LOVE to hear about it. I've never met anyone else that does a fairy for Halloween, but I know we can't be the only ones.

So after all the Halloween festivities, I decided to clean out the Halloween bento supplies and the chic walks in and asks if I would make her a "star" lunch for Monday. She wasn't crazy about all the Halloween stuff, so I think she's ready to go back to the "pretty" lunches. What can I say? She's a girly girl!

Almond butter and raspberry jam star sandwiches, Carrot star cutouts, Havarti and cheddar star, Banana with red pepper stars

A Lame Lunch and an Awesome Butternut Squash Lasagna

Today's lunch was not very exciting or pretty. More functional than fancy. It was field trip day AGAIN and it got cancelled due to rain AGAIN. But, I got the cancellation e-mail on my Blackberry while I was driving to the school this morning, so it was obviously too late to change things up. So, field trip lunch part four...

Fruit Bites, Sugar Snap Peas, Carrot Chips, Baby Banana, Pirate Booty, Hot Dog Wrap

Although it was kinda lame, there were a few yummy things.

-First, carrot chips - YUM! They are crunchy and sweet and a little salty. They are obviously not as healthy as fresh carrots, but are great for a bit of variety.

-Then, I found out that a HOT hot dog will stay warm until lunch when wrapped in several pieces of aluminum foil. One of the dance teachers at the chic's dance studio suggested this when I was complaining about field trip lunches and it worked wonderfully! I just wrapped it in the tortilla and heated it in the microwave. Then I wrapped it in a couple sheets of aluminum foil and stuck it in the bag as far from the banana as possible. I'll remember that little trick for future field trips!

-I have to share an awesome recipe that I found a few days ago - Baking and Books' Butternut Squash Lasagne. Everyone in my family loves butternut squash so I try to keep it around in the fall. I love the combination of butternut squash and pasta. Butternut squash lasagna is always awesome BUT what made this one different, and in my opinion far superior, were sage and thyme. Sage is such a great fall flavor and it made the lasagna stand out from the others. Here it is fresh out of the oven:

and a slice (one day I'll have a good camera!):

This one will be in my permanent fall recipe collection. It was scrumptious!

-There's no lunch for tomorrow (student council pizza day) so this is my last post of the week. Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween with your little trick or treaters!

Field Trip Lunch

Tomorrow is another field trip. This time they will be eating at their destination so lunch has gotta be disposable and not require refrigeration.

Peanut butter, honey, and sunflower seed monster sandwich, Celery sticks, Jack-o-Lantern tangerine, Pirate's booty, Granola bar, Baby carrots, Fruit bites

Sometimes the chic has a hard time peeling tangerines. I cut the tangerine like a jack-o-lantern and then used the orange peeler tool (that orange thing from Tupperware) to cut through the skin. This made it look more like a pumpkin AND she will have an easy time peeling it tomorrow.

I have to admit that I am hopelessly unmotivated by the plastic baggie lunch. It seems that the chic will have a lot of field trips this year so I would LOVE suggestions for more creative field trip lunches!!

Turkey Meatloaf Muffin

The chics always like it when we make food in a miniature version. Meatloaf is a great food to make in all sorts of shapes and sizes and by using turkey and adding a buncha veggies, you can make a pretty nutritious meal. Fortunately, the oldest chic has a microwave in the dining hall, so she's able to take meatloaf for lunch.

Cucumber slices with sesame seeds and rice wine viniagrette, Powerball, kiwi stars with pomegranate seeds, turkey meatloaf muffin

Any meatloaf recipe can become meatloaf muffins. For turkey, spray your tins, fill and bake at 400 for about 25 minutes. A 1.3 lb package of turkey makes about 12 muffins. I use The Joy of Cooking's Classic Meatloaf recipe and substitute turkey for the beef and add shredded carrots, red bell peppers, and mushrooms.

Powerballs are kinda like a no-bake cookie but a bit healthier. This is a great kitchen project to get the kids involved in! There are tons of versions of these little guys, but here's the one I use:

Powerballs

1 cup honey

1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter

3 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup ground flaxseeds

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup raisins

Mix the honey and peanut butter together in a large bowl. Add oatmeal and flaxseeds and stir until well incorporated. Mix in remaining ingredients. With slightly damp hands, roll into a 1 1/2" balls. The mixture is very sticky. I also like to use a cookie scoop for this! Place balls in mini muffin tins and refrigerate overnight. I then freeze them in a large ziploc bag. Makes 48.

Almuerzo Rojo (Red Lunch)

When I was in school, we didn't even think about foreign language until high school. Now almost every Kindergarten curriculum has a foreign language incorporated in it somehow. At the chic's school, they start Spanish in Kindergarten. She has the class a few times a week and so far she really likes it. She likes to make-up words sometimes and pretend that she is teaching us Spanish (we haven't told her that mommy took four semesters of Spanish in college ;)) but sometimes the words actually are words she learned in class. Her favorite word so far has been "rojo" which means "red". It was one of the first Spanish words they learned and for some reason it really stuck with her. I thought it would be fun to incorporate her favorite Spanish word into her lunch, so here is her "almuerzo rojo" (red lunch):

Apple shaped peanut butter filled apple, Honey oat flax bread with homemade red raspberry jam, Babybel cheese, Red mini peppers, Red raspberries with provolone "rojo"

And an apple tip-o-the-day for ya...I used to always run a lemon over my cut apples to keep them from browning, but I read somewhere that Pink Lady and Honeycrisp apples hardly brown if exposed to the air. I had to test it out (cause I'm a freaky foodie like that) and I'm pleased to report that they are correct. My apple was just fine even after being left uncovered and untreated overnight. Lucky for us, these are our two favorite apples varieties!

Baby Bento

My little one has been feeling a little left out with all the attention focused on her sister's lunches. During our shopping trip yesterday, I let her pick out a bento box. Today she insisted that I make her lunch in it AND take pictures. SO, although this is not technically a school lunch (she ate it while sitting on the couch), I'm posting it. Hey, it's my blog...I can break the rules!

Quail egg, pb&j butterfly sandwich (homemade peach jam and natural peanut butter), cucumber chain, dinosaur egg pluot.

The butterfly was a total fluke. I was cleaning out the cabinets today and had the cookie cutters on the counter. I just grabbed one and that was it. I really liked it though and think that my big girl will be getting one in her lunch next week...with more decoration, of course!

I don't have any cute bento dividers so I used a celery stick that I wedged in the container.

My little one was so proud. She ate everything and then carried it around all day!