Welcome to Week 12 at Lunch Matters

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NEWS

This week brings with it the happy news that the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook is safely in our hands and has been sent out to all those eagerly awaiting the opportunity to put Jennifer's meal ideas into practise. It also brings with it exciting news in that we shall be visiting a school in Melbourne that has been hard at work planning healthy meals to pack in a Laptop Lunchbox. On Wednesday, I shall be out working with some committed Year 9 students and their teacher to help them put their plans into action. The best meal plans will be featured on the Lunch Matters website very soon, and some of their suggestions will be great additions to your own lunch packing ideas pool and proof that even teens can be actively involved in healthy lunchtime solutions! I have been so impressed with the work that I have seen to date. You may like to think about asking your own children to take photos of the lunches that they design to send in to us, we'd love to post their ideas on the site!

RECIPES

Arancini

Arancini are a great way to use up left over risotto in your lunchbox. They are a snap to make and a delicious addition to your lunchbox. They can be eaten warm (if you have a microwave at work) or cold.

Method

Use any risotto that you have left over. If you have a rice mold you can fill it with the left over rice and if not, you simply make small balls with the left over risotto and then poke a small piece of gruyere cheese into the center of the ball. Then, depending on how sticky your rice is, you can simply breadcrumb them and lightly pan fry the balls until they are golden brown or if the rice isn't very sticky you can dip them in a beaten egg and then breadcrumb and fry. The cheese will melt in the center while they are cooking and then there's a delicious cheesy surprise ready for lunchtime.

AVOCADO MASH

INGREDIENTS

Avocado

Lemon juice

Cream cheese

A pinch of salt

METHOD

This recipe has been much requested and given how easy it is (the truth be told it's adapted from one I saw on Playschool many years ago) I thought I'd post it.

It is a great recipe to make with young children as they love to mash the ingredients and as there's no cooking involved it can be done with relatively little supervision.

Scoop the contents of a ripe avocado into a bowl, add a generous tablespoon of cream cheese, squeeze the juice of half a lemon and add the pinch of salt and then mash with a fork until it's the desired consistency. It is important to be generous with the lemon juice as this will stop the avocado dip from browning.

Packing dip in you lunchbox is a great way of encouraging you or your children to eat veggies, vegetable sticks are great fun to dip! You can also pack wholemeal pita wedges featured in an earlier blog or if you haven't much time, grissini are always a big hit here.

WEEKLY SHOPPING LIST: Remember for optimum health the aim is to have 3 fruit and 5 veg a day...
Fruit:

strawberries

cherries

apricots

plums

grapes

watermelon

lemon

passionfruit

Vegetables:

Broccoli

Mushrooms

Asparagus

Cherry tomatoes

Pumpkin

Red pepper, yellow pepper and green pepper

snow peas

avocado

carrots

leeks

parsley

In the pantry:

Turkish bread

Organic eggs

Aborio rice

Stock

Spelt flour

Baking soda

Baking powder

self raising flour

dried figs

sultanas

sugar

grissini

wholemeal pasta

soy

honey

tomato chutney

breadcrumbs

organic eggs

icing tubes (I justified the colouring in these as a rare addition - the biscuits that they topped were sugar free, so the fun factor got the colouring over the line)

In the fridge:

Milk

Cheddar cheese

Yoghurt

Cream Cheese

Feta cheese

Organic chicken drumsticks

Lamb (cold meat left over from a roast dinner)

Hokkien noodles