Nugget's Lunch - September 05, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) Blue corn tortilla strips. Pinto beans tossed with black beans and two orange bell pepper stars. Steamed broccoli with Sysco ranch for dipping. Chicken and cheese quesadillas with more bell pepper stars.

Blue corn chips: When I bought these chips at TJ's, I didn't notice they were unsalted, but believe it or not they still taste good (I'm eating a few right now!). I wanted to point out that I actually placed these in a plastic sandwich bag which I then placed in the red container, but left them out of the bag just for the picture. They need to be in a bag because if left out with moist food such as the beans, broccoli and bell pepper, the chips absorb some moisture and are not nearly as fun to eat. I learned this when I packed salsa and chips one day and the chips were really not that crunchy.

Beans: The beans are just plain, out of the can and rinsed.

Bell pepper: I used a cookie cutter for these, and found the trick is to place the bell pepper upside-down, so the inner skin is the first thing the cookie cutter goes through, rather than the outer skin which is much more firm. It is better to have the outer firm side against the cutting board.

Broccoli, Sysco ranch: All of these are leftovers from dinner at one of my personal favorite family restaurants, Red Robin. The ranch dressing is the best in the world, and (shhhh! don't tell because they will never admit that it is just from Sysco! I know this because I do not like most ranch dressings but this one I can drink from a bucket) it is the same exact ranch dressing served at a little tavern in Kingstree, SC where they happily told me it was Sysco. Besides, who would be so naive to think that RR actually made their ranch from scratch? And why would they want to make it from scratch if they can just buy it this good?

Quesadillas: Lastly, the quesadillas which are also leftovers from last night will not be heated up for lunch, so we will have to see what Nugget thinks of them cold. He eats other cheese cold, and tortillas cold, and cooked chicken cold, but never all together cold in a quesadilla. Stay tuned!

(After-school Edit) The quesadillas fared just fine, and only one bite came back in the lunch box. He said they were pretty good. I also must retract my statement about needing to bag the chips! I am now wondering if the need to bag just depends on the particular chip. During lunch hour, Nugget dumped the blue corn chips into the red container (so it looks exactly like in the picture above). The chips he didn't eat, maybe seven or eight, came home that way - unbagged. His lunch is at 11:30am, and I opened the lunchbox to clean it at 4:30pm, which was five hours later and the same amount of time they would have spent unbagged from morning until his lunch hour. And they were still crispy. Hmmmm. More research needed into why the other chips of a previous lunch became un-crisp. I am wondering if it's because the chips that didn't stay crisp were not 100% corn chips; they had a veggie component.

Nugget's Lunch - September 03, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) Jarred halved peaches, cut into chunks. Cubed beets with American Flag picks. Sliced Gala apples. Jelly beans. TJ's spinach flour tortillas wrapped up with ham and muenster.

Peaches: Trader Joe's has different types of jars of fruit (peaches, pears, mangos), and they are delicious and easy, plus you can pour out the liquid in a cup, add some water, and drink it as juice.

Beets/Flags: The beets were in a pre-cooked, pre-peeled package so they are ready to eat right away with no prep. Perfect for salads or as little bites seen here. And they taste really good. I used the American Flag picks, which I had been saving as my "big guns" for enticing Nugget to try something he hasn't been keen to try in the past. I say big guns because he loves, loves, loves the American Flag. He has begged us to install a flagpole in our front yard so we can fly the Flag. His 4th birthday cake was - yes - the American Flag. So when I came across a package of these picks at Pier 1 (25 picks for 50 cents on clearance), I bought two packs, and saved them for when I really wanted him to try something out of his comfort zone. The only problem is it backfired! He ate one beet and became so enamored of the flags he took all the flags out of the beets and left the beets behind. He even told me later that he liked the flags so much he almost forgot to eat his jelly beans so when he was getting ready to leave the cafeteria he put all the jelly beans in his mouth at once. Ugh. But, I do plan to try the beets with him again. This was only the second or third time he's ever been offered them in his life.

Mini-wraps: I made one big wrap, then cut it into pieces sized such that they reached the top of the container so they wouldn't tumble around. That is also why I included the mini-muffin liners, to keep them from unwrapping. Nugget said they were still wrapped when he opened his lunchbox. They were quite a surprise hit, since I've never done wraps with him before. Apparently, part of the appeal was their ability to be unrolled and rolled back together, which Nugget and his friend who came over after school both reported was "so cool..."

Nugget's Lunch - September 02, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) Trader Joe's calcium enriched applesauce. Chocolate chip cookie, devilishly dipped in yet more chocolate. Fresh green beans with TJ's Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter for dipping. Caprese kabobs.

Details: The green beans were Wegman's pre-cleaned, pre-packaged ones, and looked gorgeous - more so than the open bins of fresh beans I normally find in grocery stores. I simply cut them smaller. The Caprese kabobs I am quite proud of because after my mistakes last time, I finely diced the basil (from a cool little plant I keep next to my sink and pick off what I need - goodbye to my former ways of paying $2 a bundle!) and sprinkled the kabobs with fresh ground pepper and a touch of sea salt. I truly expected at least two or three kabobs to return untouched, but Nugget somehow found room for all eleven kabobs. And I know what you're thinking - we all know he ate that cookie first! Maybe eating a sandwich for breakfast actually made him hungrier for lunch, who knows...

Sandwich Appeal with the Cut-N-Seal

My friend Tricia Wilson makes these really cute sandwiches for her children, and my own kids have since come to know them as "Mrs. Wilson Sandwiches." Just looking at these sandwiches makes me feel like a kid again! They are made with the help of a Pampered Chef product called a Cut-N-Seal, which seals the outer edges and eliminates the crust (think Sm*ckers Untouchables - so called by me because of this ridiculous claim of theirs, only these homemade ones are healthier!). The Cut-N-Seal is 3.5" diameter, but I used an older model on the sandwich you see here, so it is slightly smaller. The Cut-N-Seal costs $9, but if you think that a pack of the frozen "name brand" sandwiches cost nearly $3 for a 4-pack, the product pays for itself after 12 sandwiches. 12 better tasting, better for you sandwiches, I might add. Heck even better looking sandwiches, what with the soft whole grain and all. ;-)

Nugget's original lunch today was going to include a Mrs. Wilson Sandwich, but Nugget and Rooni both decided they wanted to eat them for breakfast. Nugget is not normally a breakfast eater, so I say "Yes!" to every breakfast opportunity that presents itself.

In talking to Tricia, it turns out we prepare our Mrs. Wilson Sandwiches very differently. She rolls out her bread, spreads on the fillings in a thin layer, then does the cutting and sealing in one heavy-palmed push/turn motion. Very efficient! I make mine a little differently, but remain pleased with the aesthetic result. Either way, they taste mmmmmmm good.

Step 1. Use the Cut-N-Seal only as a bread cutter, just as you would a biscuit cutter, without pressing down on the center knob. Spread the fillings of choice (here we have pictured Trader Joe's Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter and strawberry jam), taking care to leave a small border around the edges. Note: Concerned about wasted bread? Then my method is the one for you! Since you are cutting the bread prior to putting any filling on it, your "scraps" are easily salvaged, cut into smaller pieces, placed in a freezer bag and kept for future use in bread pudding, dressing or stuffing. Waste-free!

Step 2. Place the two slices one above the other, and replace the Cut-N-Seal atop. Press down very firmly, putting some weight into it, but taking care not to twist while pressing. When you remove the Cut-N-Seal, the sandwich might stick inside but you simply press on the knob to help release it. It's that easy!

Step 3. Enjoy!

One more thing: If you didn't click through to read the article about how the jelly company is trying to patent the PB&J, I'll sumarize it. They want to patent the idea of putting the peanut butter on both sides of bread, with jelly in the middle to prevent soggy bread.

Nugget's Lunch - August 29, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) White nectarines, peeled and sliced. Three shortbread cookies with apricot and raspberry filling. Raisins. A fork for the nectarines, and spoon for the corn. Canned corn. Grape tomatoes. Cinnamon-raisin mini-bagel, sliced and spread with Neufchâtel. Special surprise: a plastic snake (not pictured) that I nestled in with the tomatoes. Drink: 60/40 water/applejuice.

A couple notes about some of the items...

I love the look of the white nectarines! The reddish pink on the white flesh is just beautiful. Nugget has not tried white nectarines in a long, long time, so I gave him a small bite this morning and explained what it was. He said they tasted just like peaches. But of course they do! Poking around a bit on various agricultural Extension websites and then Wikicanthisbetrustedapedia, I learned that peaches and nectarines are the exact same genus and species, Prunus persica. The nectarine simply does not have fuzz. Maybe you knew that, but did you know that, according to this excerpt, nectarines are the result of recessive genes and peaches from dominant genes?

Vegetables are a food item I find a little harder to incorporate into lunches, even though I still manage to do it. It seems like I resort to the same couple vegetables (corn, sweet potatoes, lots of bell peppers, carrots, green beans and peas). I am not a big fan of broccoli and cauliflower even though I do use them sometimes; it's not that I don't like them, it's that I don't feel like I can ever really get the raw ones clean. Other veggies, you can scrub and feel good about reaching the nooks and crannies. But broccoli and cauliflower - and particularly Romenesco - you have a seemingly never-ending food fractal showcase for bacteria. And mind you, I have a friendly relationship with bacteria in the "keep your friends close but your enemies closer" kind of way, meaning the only anti-bacterial anything in our home is the soap we reserve for use only after touching raw meat. Other than that, it's plain old soap for the hands, the hair, the toilet, the tub. But the bacteria (e.coli, salmonella) on food, organic or not, that can put my children straight into the hospital for days? No thanks. Talk about the heebie-jeebies. And wash the outsides of those watermelons prior to slicing them, folks!

Hmmm. Seemed to have veered off topic there. Anyway, one more thing I wanted to add is that it did not occur to me until after I sent the lunch that I probably should not have nestled the plastic toy snake in with the grape tomatoes. With all the talk of things that can leech out of plastic, it made me think twice, albeit too late to do anything about it. Then again, none of the food or plastic is hot. I guess I'm undecided on that one, but suspect it is okay and also suspect that I will keep occassionally putting small toys in his lunchbox, maybe just not nestled into the food.

Nugget's Lunch - August 28, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) Yellow bell pepper. Fresh ripe tomatoes from our neighbor's garden, mixed with carrot bits and a tiny sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper and sea salt. A hard-boiled, pre-peeled (can you believe they are sold that way? hello, time saver!) egg from Trader Joe's (TJ's), Neufchâtel, shortbread cookies - one with apricot filling, one with raspberry filling, a cinnamon raisin mini-bagel, and two 3-D illusion dinosaur stickers. Drink: 60/40 water/applejuice.

I included a tiny IKEA metal spoon, which you can hardly see underneath the frog-fork, to spread the Neufchâtel since I didn't think the school would want me sending a knife (even in the form of a dull spreader).

As I mentioned in my last post, which was written just minutes before this one, the school nurse checked on Nugget at lunch today and said he did much better and did not try to keep himself isolated during the cafeteria time.

First Day of Kindergarten Lunch! - August 27, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) Yellow watermelon, which I didn't even know existed until we tried it at Trader Joe's (TJ's) and Irena (the best-est demo lady ever!) explained it's been around for years. TJ's honeyed sesame sticks, TJ's triple ginger cookies. A spiderman fork, which is sitting on top of four little bite-sized pieces of mint flavored Zone Perfect bar. I added the almost half Zone Perfect bar because I knew he would eat it first, and I wasn't sure how he would manage his time allotment during lunch. Pineapple mixed with cubes of Niman Ranch's cured ham steak (it is $9.98/lb on their website, but $5.49/lb at TJ's, which is cheaper than the deli meat I usually buy at the grocery store). Full-size carrots, which I now take the two minutes to peel and cut after reading this article in May - and yes, I do notice a difference now compared to the baby carrots! Red seedless grapes. Drink: 60/40 water/applejuice.

Lastly, a note to Nugget, letting him know I was thinking about him on his first day ( I was limited to what I could write - there are very few words he can read), and a spiderman napkin lovingly hemmed by his Oma (dutch for grandmother).

Wow - my son's first real day of Kindergarten! Lunch Nugget is back up and running. Some folks have wondered in the past about "trading lunches", sharing, or other methods school children use to get rid of their own food and obtain the food of others. Something that has changed, at least in Kindergarten, is the ongoing emphasis that NO ONE shares food - ever - and you only eat the food that is yours. The nurse even visits every class on the first day before lunch to talk about food allergies to the class.

At home, we have been talking to Nugget about managing his tree-nut allergy while at school, and how important it is never to eat anyone else's food. Since he had a scary and severe reaction last year, and he vividly remembers it, he took our words to heart both at home and at school. The only thing is, he was so concerned the first day in the cafeteria (also his first experience in a cafeteria setting), that he sadly isolated himself from the other students, telling a teacher he "didn't want to get allergic." The teacher reported he told her that very kindly when she suggested he move closer to classmates, but he was too concerned to be comfortable next to a classmate. Keep in mind, his allergy is not airborne and we have emphasized he can sit next to others - I think it was all just a little overwhelming for him. When I learned about his first lunch experience, it just tugged at my heart.

I am so grateful the teacher, school nurse, and cafeteria manager work so closely together, and seem to communicate openly and regularly with each other and with the parents. I had no idea what to expect prior to actually experiencing firsthand being a parent of a Kindergartner. Unprompted, the school nurse told me she checked on Nugget during lunch today, encouraged him to sit closer to classmates, and he seemed to be a little more comfortable than the day before.

I'll add as a side note that for all the parents of allergic children, depending on your school policy, there are a number of extra forms you will need to have filled out in addition to pharmacy-labeled medications and a number of extra snacks/desserts/treats for the school nurse to keep in her freezer for celebrations. One of the reasons this entry has taken me longer to post is that I was unprepared for the hours trekking back and forth between doctors, allergists, pharmacy and school to have everything in order "just in case." Thankfully, it is done and hopefully entirely unneccesary!

Nugget's Lunch - May 19, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) navel orange segments, pink lady apple slices that I forgot to prevent from browning, orange and black M&Ms*, spiderman napkin, baby carrots**, more cucumber chain link rings since they were such a hit last week (and this time I used an Oxo serrated peeler, which I highly recommend because it peeled the cucumber like a hot knife through cold butter), ham that I stacked then used a cookie cutter to shape into the number 4 (since Nugget is 4 years old). A grilled cheese bunny made from Trader Joe's 100% whole wheat bread and Trader Joe's Lite Cheddar. I used a bunny cookie cutter, then did the face with Wilton's decorating icing. The scraps of cucumber, ham and cheese I saved to use in a salad later. Drink: water.

* Nugget's class had a day called Orioles Day, where they wore black and orange, and made little Orioles pendants. What is funny is that the little guy currently has no idea what the Orioles are beyond just being called "our hometown team", since (thankfully) my husband is not a fan or follower of organized team sports. Anyway, the grocery store sells M&Ms by the color, so there was no color-mining involved. I am a notorious color-miner. And for that matter, an even more notorious food-miner (gorp, chex-mix, Cobb salad...)

** For an interesting read on some legitimate reasons why not to eat baby carrots, click here.

Well, today is the last day of Nugget's afterschool program. I forgot it was his last day for a packed lunch, or I would have packed with a bang! I'm not sure what that means, since sparklers that ignite upon opening the box would be imprudent on so many levels. I guess I would have put more thought into the planning of it to make it extra special. Like a fun theme, or something more elaborate. Or an origami that unfolded and opened upon lifting the lid. (Just kidding.)

I'm not complaining about the outcome of this lunch; it's still cute. Yet this lunch (as is the case with 80% of my lunches) is purely a product of what was in the fridge and cupboard that was usable at the time. In fact, a more accurate statement would go so far as to say that all the food used in this lunch required use because it was quickly losing it's shelf life span! I guess that is how life (and lunch) is as a parent, much of our decisions dictated by necessity.

Summertime break: My posts will taper off for the summer, being mostly a quiet site with only the occassional punctuation of creative impulse or picnic impetus. I prefer the Blogging Without Obligation philosophy. So check-in at your leisure, or simply stay subscribed to the feed, and any new posts will find their merry way to you. Cheers to all and Happy Summer!

Nugget's Lunch - May 16, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) steamed corn, surrounded by grape tomatoes and red/orange bell pepper. Mini-toasts spread with Trader Joe's sunflower seed butter and Trader Joe's pumpkin butter. (And I remembered to tell the after-school teacher that it is not peanut butter!) The hard mini-toasts become, en route, pleasingly soft when left to sit in the lunchbox with other food as pictured. Homemade chocolate and butterscotch fudge (lovingly made nut-free for Nugget by our friend Morgan). TJ's "Ultimate Vanilla Wafers", which are butter cookies made with flecks of Madagascar vanilla beans. Red grapes. And a chain-link of peeled cucumber rings (an ingenious idea included in the Laptop Lunch User's Guide). Drink: TJ's organic enriched rice milk.

HushGuppies

Yes, okay, I thought I was clever with the name for these little puppies. We were at the grocery store yesterday afternoon, and in addition to having fresh corn (which I remember two years ago was selling for 8/$1, but is now 4/$1), there was quite a selection of fresh fish. Nugget has been asking me for weeks to buy a whole fish, head and tail and all. I always explained I had no idea what to do with a whole fish. I decided to throw caution (and potential financial prudence) to the wind and use it as an opportunity for Nugget, Rooni and I to learn together how to fillet fish. The fishmongers there are truly wonderful, and always take the time to show the children various fish or lobster, and are often filleting large fish where we can watch up close. We bought a whole red snapper, wrapped it up and took it home to fillet according to their directions.

It was an interesting exercise, because I want to continually expose the children to learning and knowing where their food comes from (Rooni has been with me while I was working on a local sustainable farm "processing" chickens by hand, and Nugget had previously helped feed those same chicken) while still maintaining the boundary between what is healthy interest and childlike fascination on their part, versus encouraging unwanted behaviors. For example, we discussed and examined how the fish use their gills, how they don't have eyelids, and how the tail fin spans wide and small. I allowed Nugget to expand the tail, touch the eyes, feel the teeth and tongue, but no matter how much he begged I insisted he not poke the eye with a toothpick. It seemed too disrespectful, though that seems hard to reconcile with the fact that we were eating the fish.

Anyway, it was much easier to fillet the fish than I anticipated, but I was equally dismayed to see that a full half the weight of the fish that I bought was bones, head and tail. And therefore thrown out, basically doubling the per pound cost of edible fish. Since I am the geeky food type, I used a digital food scale and scraped out as much extra meat as I could from between the bones and inside the head. It yielded over an ounce more meat, which I decided could be mixed with some mashed black beans, splash of water, some bread crumbs and an egg yolk then dipped in panko and pan-fried. Viola! HushGuppies. The ounce of meat and extra ingredients made four.

Meanwhile, the two fillets were simply pan-seared and topped with salt and pepper. The corn was steamed for ten minutes, with half an ear reserved for the next day's lunch.

The 5PsL

Familiar with the 6Ps? Well, here it applies as Prior Planning Prevents a Piss Poor Lunch.

I'll begin begging off that I haven't (aghast!) packed a lunch in a week. One day Nugget's friend came over for lunch, and the other two days the after school program was cancelled.

On Wednesday, Nugget, Rooni and I went to the fantastic new National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. The building is basically a huge aviation hangar with aircraft of all sorts on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. The pièce de résistance is the Space Shuttle Enterprise, visible upon entry directly behind the linearly stunning Blackbird. Nugget loves space shuttles, and had been asking to go and visit again, so we did.

What I didn't do was think to plan for food, beyond two bottles of water and the couple Zone bars I keep in Rooni's diaper bag. Not that it would have helped, since no outside food or drink are allowed in (I saw one mom running out to her car with a full bag of cut apples, though I didn't think to ask her if she was required to remove them from the premises), and there are guards that search every bag prior to admitting any visitor into the museum; presumably, it is for weapons not necessarily contraband food. However, they do have picnic tables outside, where schools and tour buses can eat any packed food. But like I said, I hadn't planned.

Inside, there is only ONE option: the burger place we parents love to hate. And so it goes that Nugget and Rooni had a kid sized burger with ketchup, water, and split a medium fry and muffin. To the cashier's credit, she gave me two complimentary toys. What pains me even beyond admitting feeding this to my kids is that, in all likelihood, it probably cost (in the short term) less than packing them a healthy, responsible and waste-free lunch. I'll preemptively add that yes, I know sliced apples are available. I didn't think of it at the time - maybe a result of the grease induced mind haze?

So my lesson learned here is I need to plan ahead for these full-day adventures by checking what food is available and where we are able to eat any packed food once we are there - if it is raining, we might be stuck in the car. If we timed the visit between meals, or don't mind the occassional mindless Mcmeal, it is definitely a museum trip worth taking!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that when you visit the museum, be sure to take the trip up to the Observation Tower - the kids will enjoy watching the planes take-off and land, as well as occassionally glimpse a nearby helicopter.

Nugget's Lunch - May 7, 2008

(clockwise from upperleft) all natural pasta tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt, low-sodium turkey breast cut into strips and rolled up into bite sized bundles, Trader Joe's organic black beans, red and orange and yellow bell pepper, and Enjoy Life allergen-free soft baked snickerdoodle cookies. Drink: water.

Thinking Outside the Blue Box of Pasta

I was so excited to find these gorgeous Torino Italian artisinal pasta, in the shape of farfallines, at the grocery store. They are all natural, made from 100% durum wheat, and the beautiful color comes from red bell pepper and tomato for red, spinach for green, and curcuma (most likely turmeric, but that is just my guess) for yellow. When cooked, the reds turn a more orange hue. They are almost more beautiful uncooked, but still quite a sight when cooked ("candy cane stripes!" as Nugget said).

The pasta is apparently "extremely labor intensive" and therefore has a limited production, translating to a higher cost than basic bowties. So I only cooked exactly what I needed for Nugget today. This way, we can save it for special occassions - like lunch!