Just a little lunch

Yesterday only Pumpkin required a packed lunch.  Since she wasn't able to finish Monday's lunch, she asked for less this time.

I thought the ham and tortilla wrap with broccoli and grapes looked a little sad, but Pumpkin said it was perfect.  It looks like smaller lunches will be in order for a bit.  Until the next growth spurt, anyway.

Yes, healthy snacks still get sent along too.

added to What's For Lunch Wednesday

Weather Forecast: More Rain

It's been a couple of cold, rainy days.  We had a nice weekend, which made going to the pumpkin patch a delightful experience.  But today?  Rain.  Yesterday?  Rain.  Tomorrow?  Also rain.

Rainy, grey fall days make me want to bake.

And what better than pumpkin scones!

Today the girls have Sesame Ginger Baked Chicken (leftover from last night), with brown rice.  Can you see it?  It's under there.  Cucumber slices help hold the rice in place,  red pepper slices add colour.  Steamed broccoli provides extra veg and fits in well between the cucumber and the red grapes.  The special treat Mini Pumpkin Scone with cinnamon glaze sits in a purple flower shaped cup.

It's cute, and the girls ate all of it over the course of the day.  But the biggest hit wasn't the scone.
The biggest hit (for Pumpkin, anyway) was this guy:

I wrapped the spoon and fork in a napkin and secured it with this festive little guy.


Added to What's For Lunch Wednesday

Black Cat Pasta

Fall is here.  October.  A nifty month, full of rain and falling leaves and fog.  Towards the end there will be costumes and pumpkins.

I found this pasta on the weekend.  Black Cat pasta.  Little kitty faces and kitty paws, coloured with spinach.  I thought it would be fantastic for a Halloween themed lunch, especially since I had a few cute Halloween picks.  I suspected the vibrant colour would not hold through the cooking process.  I was right.  They are still pretty cute though, aren't they?

The pasta is not black.  It's a pale green.  Le sigh.  I've been spoiled by squid ink pasta.  And by other spinach pastas.  They've usually held their colour quite nicely.

The garlic and parmigiano-reggiano kitty pasta is sitting in a purple cabbage leaf and decorated with a little tomato.  (Both from our garden!  Yes, even still! ) 
Steamed carrots sit in a silicone cup.  The cucumber was unfortunately peeled before I could stop my kitchen helper, but  keeps the pasta separate from the grapes just the same.

I couldn't resist

This is Friday's lunch.  We were running behind schedule, so there was some dashing about in the kitchen.  I did have a much fancier looking lunch in mind, but when everyone overslept, that just wasn't going to happen.

The girls took the same lunch contents, but they were arranged differently.  Peanut's was more plain, as she is too old now for cutsey lunches.  Below is Pumpkin's lunch.  She's fine with the cutesy.

It started with just ham on tortillas, with grapes and blueberries in the silicone cups.  Then I thought, hey, the broccoli kinda looks like hair!  

So I added grapes for eyes and a blueberry nose.  I could not find the toothpicks anywhere, so they are held in place with short bits of whole-wheat spaghetti.  The face was taking shape, and screamed out for a mouth.   Pumpkin also got a yellow pepper ring cut in half for a smile. 

Braaaaaaains

Today the girls took something a little.....different.

Saturday is World Zombie Day.  Many cities are having celebrations, lots of them involving food drives to support local food banks.

The girls' school is having a food drive, but it is the annual Thanksgiving drive.  It has nothing to do with Zombies, but will have some links to Oktoberfest, which kicks off Friday.

What is the favourite food of zombies?  

Brains!

Of course I couldn't send real brains to school!  These are maccaroni elbows with a little garlic and grana padana, shaped roughly into a brain (see the cleft?), with tomato paste dabbed on for blood.
The brains are held in place with cucumber slices. A silicone muffin cup holds the grapes.  Broccoli, red pepper slices and carrot slices  fill in gaps.

Today I did something new.

Technically, I did two new things.  I went to a music shop with Evening Goose and Evening Goose's Sister, and I made a bento lunch for myself!

Gasp!

I know! 

The music shop was fantastic!  I bought ukulele music!  And a metronome!

The lunch was pretty darned good, too.

I packed it in my new LunchBot Uno.

(Which makes 3 new things.)

I had a ham and cheese tortilla, which was heated and cooled before packing.  Cucumber slices and baby carrots helped wedge the wrap in place, and separate it from the grapes and white fleshed plum.  That may not really have been necessary, since the grapes and plum slices were in red silicone cups.  Some snap peas were stuffed in to hold it all in place, and provide some more green. 

It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Ahoy mateys!

D'ye know what day this be?  

Why, 'tis September the 19th!  If ye be wishin' to grow yer knowledge a bit, ye best click on this.

To celebrate the day, the girls took something with a bit o'flair:

Ham and lettuce in tortillas, sliced into rounds, and decked out with a pirate flag.  Some yellow pepper slices are contained in a silicone cup to prevent sogginess and to suggest a treasure chest.  Green seedless grapes and orange cherry tomatoes (from the garden!) are separated from the sandwich by pirate themed cupcake liners, folded to show the map and treasure.

 And what better to accompany than a pirate hat napkin!

(photographed on the table for better contrast)

School's Back!

It is the second week, in fact.  Yay!  So, why no posts last week?  Because it was the first week of school. Yes, the children took lunches. I just didn't post any pictures.  Until now....

This was Friday's lunch. Some lovely green seedless grapes and red pepper slices, and curried chicken (left over from supper) decorated with thin red pepper slices approximating birds.  The brown rice (also from supper) is separated from the chicken by romaine lettuce, and decorated with a fresh-from-the-garden purple carrot.  

Delicious Dumplings

One week left!  School resumes next week!  Where did the time go?

The weather was lovely today, so we intended to have an outdoor lunch.  Then the bees showed up.  Wasps, mostly.  We do not like them.  We ate inside.

It was delicious.  All three lunches were identical; only one is shown.

Today we had seafood dumplings (kinda steamed, kinda pan fried) in our favourite, romaine lettuce.  The cherry tomatoes and purple carrots are fresh from the garden.  I steamed the broccoli today.  It seems to have made the colour more vibrant.  The orange bell pepper is not from the garden, but is local, and so are the free-stone peach slices.

Purple Carrots!

The days are getting cooler, the golden rod is getting more yellow.  This means school is approaching.

We still have about two weeks of summer vacation, though!
The girls are in a science and engineering camp this week.  They are learning new things, building and making stuff, and having a great time so far.

The girls' lunches today are meatballs in a lettuce nest with mini pitas, cucumber slices and green seedless grapes.  The grape tomatoes from Stella, and purple carrots from the raised bed were harvested by the girls this morning.

Here the purple carrots are sliced, showing their orange cores.

Pumpkin preferred her carrot whole:

She also requested fewer tomatoes, and more grapes.

Beach Umbrellas

I have no idea what to call this.  Pumpkin suggested Beach Umbrella Lunch.  Can you see it?  The sand?  The water?  People?

The girls really liked the little paper parasols last week, so they are back!
Hummus is stuffed into mini red bell peppers.  Grapes and blueberries are in silicone cups to prevent the mini pitas getting soggy.  The baby carrots were sliced to make biting easier, since some front teeth are still missing.

Rainy Day Smile

Today's lunch post was packed by Peanut.  After weeks of heat, we are getting rain!
So what better to brighten up a drab day than a cheerful umbrella?

Peanut made roast chicken and tortilla "rollie sandwiches", separated from the blueberries and mini red pepper by some parchment paper.  The blueberries are decorated (and skewered ) with a yellow paper parasol.  Peanut left the stem on the pepper because she liked the look and colour.

Summer Camp Lunch

It's still summer camp season!

Today's lunch has cold BBQ Chicken Thighs (boneless, left over from last night), green and yellow beans (fresh from the garden bed), local cherries, pita and grapes.
The pita was toasted, cooled and torn to bits.  Peanut reported that it did stay not soggy the last time we did this, so here's hoping it works again.  You can see the condensation that started forming on the grapes in the brief time they were out of the fridge.  Frozen juice boxes will hopefully help keep the lunch nice and cool.

Whew, it's hot out there!

By the looks of the weather map, it's hot pretty much everywhere.  The news last night described a heat dome, and listed the cities under a heat advisory.

This week, Peanut is at a camp where there is forrest, and creeks, and swamp.  In fact, it's the one from last year, the one that started the whole litterless lunch quest!  Since it's (on average) 3 degrees cooler out there, plus there's water activities and lots more shade, I think this was a good week for her to go.  It can be hard to guess when you book these things in March.

Here is today's lunch:

Peanut has a mini yellow bell-pepper, stuffed with hummus.  I saved the 'lid', but things are packed so tightly there is very little chance of tipping or spilling anyway.  The pita was toasted and ripped into smallish pieces after it cooled.  Hopefully this will help prevent sogginess as the day goes on.  Lettuce (from the garden!) acts as a barrier between the pita and the veggies.  Green snap peas, some lovely grapes and local cherries round out today's lunch.

Day Camp Lunch

Today's lunch was packed by Peanut and Pumpkin!

They wanted a lunch that would be easy to eat while at their day camp.  The girls like to eat part of their lunch at the designated lunch period, and save some for after swimming, when they are absolutely starving.

The lunches have mini pitas, ham, and red pepper from the grocery store.  They also have cherry tomatoes, peas and lettuce from our garden.  All picked this morning, by the girls.  OK, Mommy helped. ;-)

Peanut decided to make a sandwich with two red pepper slices, ham and lettuce.  She decorated her lunch with a message written in snap peas.  Pumpkin arranged her lunch components in a manner she found pleasing.

Added to What's For Lunch Wednesday

Bunwich

No, it's not made with bunnies!  George is fine, thank you.  See?  Here he is with a friend the girls have named Dandelion:

The bunwich was the girls' lunch on Friday.  I was feeling very, very guilty last week.  The girls are at a day camp, also attended by friend-of-the-blog Evening Goose's son, Name-to-follow.  He's chosen a cool alias, but alas I can't remember it right now.

Anyway, Darling Husband had been preparing the lunches last week.  Friday came and we realized he'd done all of them!  This was not fair!  Plus, I had no new food content for the blog...

It's a sandwich.  Yes, for the girls who don't like sandwiches.  But it's on a bun!  Yes, a sesame seed topped bun.  It may even have come out of a bag with the word "Hamburger" on it. 

The bunwich is made with ham and garden fresh lettuce, and accompanied by a garden-fresh tomato. (From Stella! Yay!)  The girls also have green seedless grapes and slices of yellow bell pepper.  While we do have wild grape vines in the yard, we won't be getting grapes from them ever.  I may be able to harvest some leaves from them next year, when the vines are a little larger.

Update - July 13, 2011
Evening Goose's son goes by Sneopack.

Last Lunch of the School Year

[imaginary trumpet fanfare]

It's the last day of school!  Yippee!  The girls were up, dressed and ready to leave by 7:05 am.  This is astonishing.  They were ready a whole hour early!

Today's lunch is "Rollie Bread Sandwiches", otherwise known as ham and lettuce (from the garden) in a tortilla.  This time sliced and placed on end, separated from the fruit and veg by some parchment paper.  The cucumbers, peppers, grapes and blueberries developed a little condensation when they were taken from the fridge, so hopefully the parchment will prevent tortilla sogginess.

Edit July 6 - Added to What's For Lunch Wednesday.  The thumbnail title should read School's Out, but I didn't put quotes around the ' (like " ' ", or the whole phrase, for that matter), so it's truncated.  Sorry about that. 

Lunch - Packed by Peanut

School is almost over.  Just a two more days!  Then a long weekend!

Today's lunches were packed by.....Peanut!

Both girls have ham, rolled up deli-plate style, and held with grapes and blueberries on skewers, played here by toothpicks.  The mix of grapes and blueberries are kept away from the ham and from the pita wedges by lettuce, picked fresh from the containers moments before packing!  

BBQ Chicken

One of the girls' favourites.  And since it's summer, finished on the actual BBQ!  Using a grill-buddy, since no one is a fan of char.

Each girl's lunch has two chicken legs, resting in lettuce fresh from the planter.  A row of cucumber slices separates the chicken from the grapes and cherries.  This time the blueberries are threaded on toothpicks.  For (I think) the first time, everything is packed in nice and tight, with no silicone to assist in separation. Yippee!

Shan't do that again

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Today's lunches were looking a little plain.  Two "rolly-bread" sandwiches, sitting on fresh picked lettuce.  Blueberries in a red silicone cup, some green seedless grapes and two cherries added colour and fruit, but there seemed to be something...missing.  The sandwiches looked too plain. 

I had some little fondant flowers left over from a cupcake experiment.  I decided to put them on the sandwiches.  It would be a little surprise.  A little something from the not-healthy group.  A little pretty thing.

It was a surprise all right.

The girls were not fans.

The flowers didn't hold up well.  They got soft and gooey, and ruined part of the bread.  Plus, the girls thought it was weird.  They would rather have more fruit or berries, please and thank you.

So I've learned my lesson.  No more sugary things on lunches to add cuteness.