Lunch — by Guest Mom Zanne Blair
Bonjour! Bonjour!
Meals are a big deal at our house. We have every breakfast and dinner together as a family, then lunch where ever we may be (work, school, out and about). Now that we live in a remote "hood", lunches must be packed. Running to the deli for a sandwich could consume at least 45 minutes of the day (that's just the commute, not allowing time to relax and enjoy), and well, that's just no fun.
I usually make a sandwich for Rob, an eggplant or roasted tomato spread with yummy cheese, lettuce and any veggies in season, and put them on a piece of lavash bread, then roll them up and place them in a reusable container. I'll make a little salad (or have some left from the night before), and pop that into another container. Crackers or pretzels go in another container, and then 2 pieces of fruit. With winter coming, I'll start making big batches of soups to freeze in single servings for lunches. The soup will go in a handy, super dandy thermos to stay warm.
For Izzy's lunch at school, I usually make her an avocado or garbanzo bean pita (small pitas with either item mashed inside - it's a HUGE hit!), and I have a bunch of these AWESOME containers from The Container Store:
in which will go beans and avocado or cheese and crackers, applesauce, yogurt, fresh raw veggies and fresh fruit. Sometimes an extra snack goes in for the trip home, she is so busy during her day, she doesn't know she's hungry until she gets in the car. (and that's no fun — driving with a hungry child...) She also has a thermos, for her warm soups and other lunches (tortellinis, wild rice and veggies, couscous and roasted tomatoes...yummmm)
Do you know about the Bento Lunchbox Craze (It's not crazy....)?
It appeals to me for a couple of reasons:
1. The containers call out my inner collector. I WANT THEM ALL. Ok not quite all of them...
2. The serving size is appropriate! Not massive, but wonderful bites of healthy food (if that's what you put in them:-)
3. They are small to carry! The don't take up a lot of room in your bag, back pack.
4. You can be super creative:
This one is to celebrate today, September 19th, Talk Like A Pirate Day (how come this wasn't on my calendar?)
Here's another Pirate themed lunch.
The boxes can be fun, like these from JBOX.com:
Bento Links:
Kitchen Cow
Were Rabbits
Adventures in Bento Making
Bento Yum
Then there is Laptop Lunches.
If eating PB&J is your thing and not cute rice and seaweed, here's another option for Bento boxes. The program is pretty cool. They have sets you can buy, or just the components, and a book to get you started. I love organized things like this.
Ok, last, but not least. The lunch box.
available at HapaCulture.com
available at LunchBoxes.com
available at LunchBoxes.com
available at LunchBoxes.com where they also have a horses, farm and dinosaur versions!
Have a great lunch! I am now so inspired and hungry, we are making a trip to the grocery store for some lunch goodies. Enjoy!
Meals are a big deal at our house. We have every breakfast and dinner together as a family, then lunch where ever we may be (work, school, out and about). Now that we live in a remote "hood", lunches must be packed. Running to the deli for a sandwich could consume at least 45 minutes of the day (that's just the commute, not allowing time to relax and enjoy), and well, that's just no fun.
I usually make a sandwich for Rob, an eggplant or roasted tomato spread with yummy cheese, lettuce and any veggies in season, and put them on a piece of lavash bread, then roll them up and place them in a reusable container. I'll make a little salad (or have some left from the night before), and pop that into another container. Crackers or pretzels go in another container, and then 2 pieces of fruit. With winter coming, I'll start making big batches of soups to freeze in single servings for lunches. The soup will go in a handy, super dandy thermos to stay warm.
For Izzy's lunch at school, I usually make her an avocado or garbanzo bean pita (small pitas with either item mashed inside - it's a HUGE hit!), and I have a bunch of these AWESOME containers from The Container Store:
in which will go beans and avocado or cheese and crackers, applesauce, yogurt, fresh raw veggies and fresh fruit. Sometimes an extra snack goes in for the trip home, she is so busy during her day, she doesn't know she's hungry until she gets in the car. (and that's no fun — driving with a hungry child...) She also has a thermos, for her warm soups and other lunches (tortellinis, wild rice and veggies, couscous and roasted tomatoes...yummmm)
Do you know about the Bento Lunchbox Craze (It's not crazy....)?
It appeals to me for a couple of reasons:
1. The containers call out my inner collector. I WANT THEM ALL. Ok not quite all of them...
2. The serving size is appropriate! Not massive, but wonderful bites of healthy food (if that's what you put in them:-)
3. They are small to carry! The don't take up a lot of room in your bag, back pack.
4. You can be super creative:
This one is to celebrate today, September 19th, Talk Like A Pirate Day (how come this wasn't on my calendar?)
Here's another Pirate themed lunch.
The boxes can be fun, like these from JBOX.com:
Bento Links:
Kitchen Cow
Were Rabbits
Adventures in Bento Making
Bento Yum
Then there is Laptop Lunches.
If eating PB&J is your thing and not cute rice and seaweed, here's another option for Bento boxes. The program is pretty cool. They have sets you can buy, or just the components, and a book to get you started. I love organized things like this.
Ok, last, but not least. The lunch box.
available at HapaCulture.com
available at LunchBoxes.com
available at LunchBoxes.com
available at LunchBoxes.com where they also have a horses, farm and dinosaur versions!
Have a great lunch! I am now so inspired and hungry, we are making a trip to the grocery store for some lunch goodies. Enjoy!
Labels: guest mom
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Wednesday, September 19, 2007
6 Comments:
These are all beautiful, but seriously...who has this kind of time??
Maybe if I didn't blog.
This bit stirred a deep memory in me of an article I read years ago about the pressure on Japanese moms to create perfect bento boxes. I went looking for it and found it here: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1999/01/19feature.html.
Basically, what mamma said - who has this kind of time? Not me.
The pirate one with carrot bones is so awesome. I love that there are people who take the time to make stuff like that.
I'm usually only up for extra-specially-prepared foods if a party is involved — and the bento box photos give great inspiration for party food.
Love it.
What great lunch ideas! I'd love the recipe for that roasted tomato spread! If you want even more info about bento boxes, check out my recent post about them on my Mindful Momma blog! http://mindfulmomma.typepad.com/mindful_momma/2007/09/the-bento-box-l.html
Here's my recipe for roasted tomato spread:
It's not exact, I eye my recipes a lot, so you might have to play with it. Have fun and add your own things, I don't add salt or other spices, we like the flavor of the veggies.
If you don't like the skin on your tomatoes, peel them by blanching for a minute, then pulling them out and slipping the skin off. I leave the skin on.
Slice your tomatoes. I use the ripest ones I can find. Off season I buy cans of organic fire roasted tomatoes (I can't remember the brand). Scoop out the seeds.
Cover a jelly roll pan with foil, then spray lightly with olive oil. Careful not to use too much oil, or it won't spread...you'll get saucy.
I add whole garlic cloves and put in the oven to bake at 425 degrees until they get almost crispy. The edges might burn a little, but they are still juicy on the inside.
Sometimes I add a red pepper or eggplant, sliced. I like to roast the veggies separately to keep their flavor.
After I turn off the oven I let them sit for a while and get a bit thicker.
The roasted tomatoes and garlic (and pepper and eggplant), go into a big bowl and I mash by hand. If it's too juicy for a spread, I pour as much of it off as I can (save it for a sauce or something).
I put it all in the fridge in an airtight container. It would probably keep for a few days. I haven't tried freezing it yet, never have that much around!
enjoy!
This goes along with the lunch ideas I was posting--will have to go back and link to this.
Post a Comment
<< Home