Lunch Matters

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Welcome to Week 18 at Lunch Matters



Got a favorite photo or recipe to share?

Email it to us at lunchmatters@lunchmatters.com.au and we'll publish it here!

Click here to see this week's menu suggestions

NEWS

Welcome to Week 18 and the second week back of the Australian school year.
Here at Lunch Matters we've gone Moomin mad! This week some fantastic Moomin cookie cutters arrived from far flung corners of the globe and they've made a big impact on my son's lunches.
I've had yet another "The www. is an amazing place" experience with my Moomin cutters being sourced by a young German student on a study course in Finland. Yes, that's right through the wonders of ebay, a wonderful fellow trawled the streets of Finland to source the remaining Christmas stock of Moomin cutters for me. It's amazing how small the world can feel with the internet :o) For those of you thinking "Moomins? What on earth are they?" you may have yet to discover the joys of reading the Tove Jansson books to your little ones or you may have just missed out on them yourselves as little ones.
As an X-Gener - there is something incredibly nostalgic about these little creatures. I remember finding them in the library a long time ago and delighting in their adventures and now I am reliving it all with my 5 year old who seems to be equally enchanted. "Comet in Moominland" was the first Chapter book that I have read to him and he hung on every word. So if you've a spare moment and can forgive Lunch Matters for sounding more like Literacy Matters, I can't recommend heading down to find these books in your local library highly enough.
If you are already a Moomin fan (and I know that there are plenty of you out there) and you'd like some of these cutters, I've just listed the remaining stock in the store. They are as rare as hen's teeth now with Christmas being over, so we only have very limited stock to offer. You'll see that the Groke is there above looking out at you with her creepy, cold stare.
On the lunch packing front, the every day packing is certainly a new challenge for this mum, however, the rewards have been great. My son appears to be needing lots of fuel to keep him going throughout the day and the supportive environment where he finds himself seems to appreciate the importance of sitting down to enjoy a good lunch.
I had the interesting experience this week of trying out the egg rolls that you can see above. Another lesson in never anticipating what you think your child will or won't eat. I made him a couple of the egg rolls the day before and popped them in his lunchbox, really thinking that they looked a little fancy for a cricket bat weilding 5 year old. To my delight however, he came home with rave reviews. "Mum those egg things were delicious - can I have more of them tomorrow?" and so you'll see they were offered as the main for the following day. He would have had them every day that week if I'd given him the option - but for the Flickr viewing public I thought that the repetition may be a bit hard to take!
The other thing that you'll notice in that snap above is those amazing dragons! A trip to the local asian store revealed an entire range of amazing metal cutters - they're the best for cutting through veggies. I was amazed to hear that there was an even more elaborate dragon on offer but the budget dictated that this dragon would suffice for now. Melissa C's comment on the mandating of dragon cookie cutters in every household to entice the reluctant veggie eater seemed apt. How could anyone turn their nose up at a carrot that looked like that?
It's all about generating a little enthusiasm for food. When I picked my son up that day a little girl in his class bailed me up to ask how I'd made those dragons. Seemed like she would have liked to hop into them too :o)
You can see from my other shots that novelty foods don't make it into every lunch, but every now it really does help to present healthy food in fun ways. We all know what amazing things the processed food companies do to lure children towards their products - so the odd fancy cutter is just my way of keeping up with the Jones' so to speak. And when you look at how much you are saving by not buying the prepackaged processed foods on offer, there's often a kitty left over to spend on the odd cookie cutter here and there.
Now without futher ado let's get to this week's recipes.

RECIPES

Egg rolls - such a hit, so simple and a great way to up the protein level of your lunch.

One organic egg beaten (I still can't believe the number of different things that are being added to eggs - I don't want my eggs stuffed with any extras - just a plain old egg from a happy farm is all I need)
A splash of milk
Organic ham

Heat a non-stick pan and spray lightly with some canola oil. Pour the egg mixed with the splash of milk very, very thinly onto the pan. It will cook in about 30 seconds and because it's so thin you don't need to flip it.
Invert the pan and turn the omlette onto a wire cooling rack to cool - again because the omlette is so thin it will cool in no time.
When cool, place some thinly sliced ham on the first thirds of the omlette and roll it up.
Cut the omlette into pin wheels and there you have it egg rolls!
If you aren't interested in adding the ham these are equally appetising as straight egg rolls.

Half an apple cucumber

Again not rocket science here - but apple cucumbers that used to be everyhwere when I was little are now really a seasonal vegetable and now's the time.
I found some at the Farmers' Market last week and if you can, look for those that have a little green stripey action on the skin.
Half an apple cucumber scooped out and cut up then returned to its shell is a fun way to introduce your children to a veggie that they may not have had before.
A little olive oil and lemon or balsamic vinegar dressing and that veggie serve is good to go.

Links of interest:
An interesting article that reflects on the dietry requirements of a school child.
The Vegan Lunchbox blog - I know I keep coming back to this, but Jennifer's Valentine's lunch is too good to miss.

Well on that note - I'd better head off and think about the Valentine's lunch that I'll be packing for tomorrow. We'll see what the cricket bat weilding 5 year old has to say about that!

Until next week, happy lunch packing and happy days.






Monday, February 05, 2007

Welcome to Week 17 at Lunch Matters


First Day, originally uploaded by Lunch Matters.

Got a favorite photo or recipe to share?

Email it to us at lunchmatters@lunchmatters.com.au and we'll publish it here!

Click here to see this week's menu suggestions

NEWS

Well today was the day, my son started school.
We had a great day, I am so thrilled that he was happy and that his little eyes were twinkling when I picked him up. It's the twinkly eyes that I look for every time. When I was teaching - it was the thing that I really noticed. Some kids had that look like it was all out there and they couldn't wait to get at it and some had a look like their fire had been extinguished (think I'm mixing some serious metaphors there!).

So Day 1 was an unmitigated success, twinkly eyes and an "It was better than kinder mum!".
School lunchpacking 101 was also passed with flying colours - I asked him what he would like for lunch Vegan Lunchbox mum style and packed the lunch he ordered. It was all packed this morning and it only took a moment. Homemade huumus - it's so easy and so yummy and so quick, it will be a school day favorite.
On the Lunch Matters' front we are pleased to let you know that the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook will be shipped express mail from the States on Friday - hot off the second run press so we expect the books to be here very soon for those of you already waiting on orders. The book will be reviewed in a number of publications this month which will be very exciting for us and for Jennifer.

For those of you who have been waiting on the egg molds from Japan - they are back in stock now. This month we also welcome the BuiltNY Gourmet totes to the store for those adults out there looking for some lunchpacking pizazz. They are gorgeous, but stock is limited. As far as I know we have the only stripey bags in the country!
Finally, before I get to the recipes of the week, a note that BentoTV is back upadating regularly. For those of you wanting to know how to make the most of your sushi molds and various Japanese lunchpacking goodies - this is the place to visit. The video tutorials are excellent and they are entertaining too :o)



Recipes

This was an absolute winner for a day out lunch last week - the details (such as they are) are in this link from Playschool

I always feel that cooking with kids, especially young ones, is really quite difficult due to the relative complexity of even fairly basic 'kid friendly' tasks, but this one is a winner. Even my two year old assembled what he believed to be a face with gusto! We picked up some wholemeal, organic, homemade bases at the farmer's market. Lots of people that I know make their own bases, I should give it a try but the whole bread area is something that I have yet to embark on.

Hummus

Ingredients

1 tin organic chick peas
A couple of lugs of olive oil
Lemon juice
Fresh parsley (continental or regular)
Garlic (optional - for kids)

Method

Blend to a smoothish consistency and add taste - add more lemon juice if it needs more zing. Enjoy.
Will last for 2-3 days in the fridge.

Can be packed with fresh veggies, grissini, corn chips or used as a spread in a sandwich or wrap. Yummo and sooooo good for you.

Links of interest:

Whilst this Breakfast Blog doesn't quite come under the Lunch Matters blogs of interest umbrella - it's an interesting read and if you are a Melburnian or Sydney sider looking for a breakfast out, you may too.

And continuing on from last week's recommendation for those of you looking for a visual feast: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mrbento/pool/ is definately worth a look.