Friday, November 12

Friday! That's all I have to say!

• PB&J on whole wheat
• home fries
• grapes
• sugar snap peas
• a pickle
• water
• morning snack: water, somefruit-sweetened fruit chews (yes, against my better judgment)

Tuesday, November 9

An easy lunch today. Still can't get myself inspired to cut out cute shapes and turn sandwiches into monster heads. Where do people find the time? I know I've blogged about this before, but I'm still in awe.

Last night, E asked why some kids get to have Twix bars and Doritos for morning snack. How to answer that? I miss his awesome preschool, which provided the same snack to all of the kids and it was something healthy, or fairly healthy: fruit, rice cakes with cream cheese, etc.

• hummus
• broccoli with soy butter
• chickpeas
• cucumbers
• blueberries
• water
• morning snack: water, an apple

Monday, November8

A little slow today. Must have been the crazy rain and wind this morning. (Luckily it has died down. The sun even made a brief debut.) A big thank you to Ms. Irene Pak for her daily interest in the blog!

NOTE: I was going to add a little piece of brownie to the lunch, but...well, looks like the Trader Joes chewy brownie mix CANNOT be veganized. I substituted soy butter for regular butter and Ener-G "egg" mix for the regular eggs. This works great for most recipes, but in this case, not so much. According to the box, the brownies were supposed to cook for 20 minutes. After about 10 minutes they looked like hot, scolding tar. Seriously, it looked like the surface of Venus. I took the pan out of the oven and the mixture sizzled and bubbled for another 5 minutes before cooling down to a hard rock formation. The middle part of the pan was slightly soft so I tried some. It actually tasted OK, but I didn't want to break any teeth, so the rest of the pan went into the trash. Oh well.

• whole wheat pasta with shakey cheese
• wheat bread with soy butter
• lima beans
• grapes
• water
• morning snack: water, crackers (multi-grain crackers and these gorgonzola cheese things from Trader Joes -- both new to us. We'll have to see how E likes them. LOVE Trader Joes!)

Friday, November 5

E is liking radishes again, as you'll see in today's lunch. It's one of those foods that he sometimes likes, sometimes says is "too spicy." Are there foods that your kids go back and forth with? The only food I can think of for me is bananas. Sometimes they just seem so gross, other times, super yummy. Weird.

• pesto tortellini with soy butter
• radishes
• kidney beans
• tiny apple
• water
• morning snack: water, a mix of crackers

Thursday, November 4

What a drag is was walking to the train this morning in near darkness! That is just not right. Ok, so today's lunch was chosen by E, except the blueberries. He likes blueberries, but we're low on fresh fruit right now, and I think he's had blueberries every day this week for lunch, so he's getting a little less than enthused about them.   :-)

• PB&J on whole wheat
• brown rice/bulgur wheat with spices and peas
• carrot sticks
• blueberries
• cheese crackers
• water
• morning snack: water, apple

Friday, October 28-Tuesday, November 2

Playing catch-up here with a few photos. These lunches are from last Friday (I was out for the day, busy with my little guy's classroom Halloween party), plus yesterday (forgot the camera at home), and today! Remember U.S.-based friends: GO VOTE TODAY!!!

friday

• Hummus with stuff to dip: carrots, snap peas, celery, wheat bread
• watermelon
• baby tomatoes
• water
• morning snack: I forgot

monday

• wheat gnocchi with soy butter
• purple tomatoes (I forgot the name of these... Ko...?)
• cheese stick
• blueberries
• water
• morning snack: water, pretzels

 

today

• roasted veggie lasagna from trader joes
• broccoli and peas with soy butter
• garlic bread
• blueberries
• water
• morning snack: water, apricot granola bar

Thursday, October 28

Normally I try not to put sweets in E's bento box too often, but since it's his favorite time of the year, and since we just made Halloween cookies, and because he's just an awesome, awesome kid, I put a bat cookie in today, plus a second one for his friend Jack, a fifth grader who is his"lunch buddy" and whom he adores!

• wheat pasta with broccoli and shredded carrots
• celery
• grapes
• homemade bat sugar cookie
• water
• morning snack: water, pita chips (which he forgot to eat yesterday)

Tuesday, October 26

Finally, an apple small enough to include in the bento box! E loves apples and so I often include them whole as his morning snack, but have also wanted the option to have them in the bento box. Unfortunately, regular-sized apples don't fit. I've tried cutting and drizzling with lemon juice (which he likes), but he's not crazy about the two things together for some reason. Anyhow, this morning I remembered that he brought home a few tiny apples from the apple picking field trip his class took to Smolak Farm. The apples are tiny and perfect. But what happens when they run out?!?

• grilled cheese on whole wheat (E wanted to eat this for breakfast this morning, but there was only one piece of cheese left....)
• veggie potstickers
• raw sugarsnap peas
• apple
• water
• morning snack: water and watermelon/strawberries

Monday, October 25

E had a play date yesterday with his best friend and so we made sugar cookies. It was a non-vegan recipe because the vegan recipe we usually use for sugar cookies doesn't roll out very well. It's super tasty, but not easy to work with. So this recipe has an egg, although we still used soy butter (that's all we have). I, obviously, didn't eat any, but I'm told they're good. Very easy to use this dough and they stay soft. The recipe, from a book called Ghoulish Goodies by Sharon Bowers, is posted below.

• home fries! (A fan favorite!)
• cannellini beans
• little tomatoes
• homemade tombstone sugar cookie
• water
• morning snack: water and an apple

Perfect Sugar Cookies (from Ghoulish Ghosts)

• 1 cup butter, room temp (I used Earth Balance soy butter)
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg **
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, beat until fluffy, add vanilla.

Add flour and baking powder in another bowl. Add, in batches, to the wet mixture until well combined. Divide dough in half. Form into balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the 'fridge for at least 30-40 minutes. (Apparently you can skip this part but the dough won't be as easy to use.)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease your baking sheets or use parchment paper (which I do). On lightly floured surface, roll dough. Cut into desired shapes and decorate. Bake 4-8 minutes, depending on your oven (I only had to do 4 minutes, believe it or not.) and how thick you roll the dough.

Let cool before moving them to a plate/container. Continue decorating (frosting, icing, etc.)

** Next time I make these, I'll substitute vegan "eggs" to see how it affects the recipe. I'll let you know!

Friday, October 22

It's Friday!

• black bean and tofu rollups on wheat tortilla
• celery logs (peanut butter and nutella "ants")
• pineapple
• peanuts
• water
• morning snack: water and pita chips