School Lunches!

A lot of you have been asking me about school lunches lately.  I wanted to get this post written sooner, but with a last minute beach trip, and the arrival of the peaches and green beans to can, I just haven't gotten to it.  Thankfully some of us still have a FEW blissful days of summer left!

I send a lunch with Sport every day for three reasons, mainly.  First and foremost, school food is just nasty.  Not only is it nasty, it's expensive.  At $2.25 a day, I can almost guarantee that he's going to eat the junkiest, most unhealthy thing on his tray, and dump the rest in the garbage can.  I don't know if I necessarily pack a lunch for cheaper than $11.25 a week - I'd like to think so, but even if I don't, I at least know I am packing things that he will eat.  Secondly, Sport has trouble digesting milk products (though he LOVES milk) and he has to have Lactaid tablets before drinking any milk.  If he were to have milk AND something like cheese pizza with nothing else, he would be miserable.  For those who may not have school kids yet, something as simple as a chewable Lactaid tablet is considered medication and if found on a student, it could cause major trouble.  I did not want to have to go through all of the medication paperwork, nor did I want him to have to stop at the school office every single day to get Lactaid before lunch.  I also did not want to constantly be running boxes of Lactaid to the school, so I just pack what I know won't bother him.  On top of the lactose issue, the third reason I pack Sport's lunch is because he has nut allergies.  While we are still lucky enough that he doesn't have to sit at the peanut-free table (I fear those days could come eventually), I still don't feel comfortable with him going through the school line for food and not knowing what is in there.  And, can you believe that our school actually SERVES PB&J Uncrustables every single day??  While I'm not one to get all bent out of shape over that kind of thing, and I would never try to control what other kids bring from home, I do have to say that I am shocked a school would provide, on a daily basis, a food that could easily kill a child in their care simply by breathing in the smell.  Thank heavens Sport is not *that* allergic at this point, but some kids truly are.

So, back to school lunches.  I'm kind of a "bento-y" lunch sort of girl.  I love cramming all of the food into one little container for several reasons.  I'm big on a waste-free lunch, for one.  I do not like the throwing away of 20 ziplock bags a week.  I also do not fancy washing numerous little containers on a daily basis.  Doing lunches bento-style eliminates both of those problems.  I started out getting my bento ideas from a couple of blogs.  One of my favorites is Wendolonia and another is Another Lunch.  I do not do cutesy cut-outs for Sport's lunch, because when I did try it, he never really noticed, so it totally wasn't worth my time.  Plus, I think he would kind think it wasn't cool now that he's first grader.  I do sometimes cut out Star Wars shapes in sandwiches with these Star Wars Cookie Cutters and he does think that is cool.  I mainly used those sites at first to get packing ideas, more than food ideas, but I did pick up a few things in that area as well.

I'll start with lunch containers, which a lot of people asked me about.  Last year, I dedicated an entire kitchen cabinet to my one thousand little containers.  After a year of packing lunches, I have narrowed it down and cleaned out.  I am down to two Japanese style bento boxes that came from this great little store in Nashville called Happy Japan, but sadly, it closed.  I don't have any cool, professional looking shots of my lunches, just some mobile uploads that I will add later in the post. Sport mainly uses THIS one (majorly awesome price on that, btw), and Digitt mainly uses the blue one in this picture.  This picture makes me somewhat sad because this was the little stash that my BFF and I bought at Happy Japan.  :(  The other most used set is our Laptop Lunches Bento Buddies.  We did not opt for the entire Laptop Lunches system, which is cool, but way too big for kids, in my opinion.  That is all I am keeping, container-wise.  I do have a few stainless steel round containers, and also some small rectangular Sistema containers that I might use on occasion, but for the most part, that is it.  On the blogs above, I think they each discuss containers and boxes, so look around on those sites.  And there's always google, which I won't do for you.  :)

There are some accessories that make packing lunches bento-style much easier.  The one thing that is essential for my lunch-packing is silicone baking cups.  These are key in keeping the foods separated.  I prefer the square ones because they happen to fit my boxes better, but round are nice too.  I can make the square ones do just about everything I want them to, but not so much with the round ones.  I found my square cups at Joann's Fabrics in the cake baking and decorating section.  I can stack them two or three high if I need them to meet the lid of the container in order to reduce spillage, and they will stretch out enough to *almost* make a nice seal.  Certainly not a seal that would keep something liquid from leaking out, but well enough to keep small foods from rolling around.  I also use the little Bento picks. My kids LOVE picks.  The feel gypped if they don't get a pick in their lunch.  Apparently, picks make other kids jealous.  Especially sword toothpicks.  To be honest, I really thought I would get a note home from Sport's cafeteria workers telling me to never, ever be so boneheaded and send plastic swords to school, and I did threaten Sport that he would never see them again if he did get in trouble, but surprisingly enough, he did fine and they were a hit.  Anything served on a pick is a whole lot more delectable that anything that's just in a ziploc bag.  If I just sent Sport a slap of pork tenderloin in a baggie, he would think I was nuts.  If I cut it up in cubed bites and slide it on a sword pick along with some cheese cubes, he thinks I'm a genius and that it was the most delicious lunch he has ever eaten.  I could probably slide chicken livers on a cute pick and they might get eaten.  Fun food = eaten food.   We have lost about half of our cool Japanese picks in the picture, but I just ordered some really fun ones from various websites.  Here are a few pics of things on picks.

What you see is mini pepperoni, cut up cheese stick, fruit, and rolled up spinach leaves.  Digitt went through a small stint of eating salad, but it didn't really last.  I was going to maximize on that for sure.

Now, onto the foods that I pack.  As you can see above, I try to make really colorful lunches (the healthiest way to eat!) and to have a big variety in food types.  Here are some of our standard items:

Protein:

Mini Pepperoni

Cheese Sticks

Lunch Meat

Pork Tenderloin

Grilled Chicken

Hamburger Meat (see below)

Cream Cheese

Hummus

Summer Sausage

Starches/Breads/Crackers:

Whole wheat bread

Slider buns (can't find those in whole wheat)

Crackers (usually wheat thins, just because they are nice and square and they fit well!)

Pretzels (either sticks or waffle shaped - same reason as above)

Croutons

Whole Wheat Bagel Thins

Veggie Straws

Pita Bread or Chips

Fruits and Veggies:

Blueberries

Blackberries

Strawberries

Grapes

Melon

Apples (dip these in pineapple juice so they don't turn brown - it tastes much better than lemon juice)

Carrot Sticks

Cucumber Sticks (though my kids don't like them)

Grape Tomatoes (no dice at our house on these either)

Salsa

You can make whatever your kids like, and fit it into a bento-style lunch.  The list is endless.  I only listed the things my kids eat and a couple more I thought of. My goal is to always "think outside the lunchbox" and incorporate things that wouldn't typically be in a lunch box. You can do the regulars too, but if you find they aren't being eaten, try a new twist.  Cut the PB&J into shapes with cookie cutters, or roll it up sushi-style and slice it in pieces.  Here are some of our favorite combos to give you a few ideas.

Tomato soup in a thermos, grilled cheese sandwich cut into strips for dipping, carrot sticks, and fruit

Bagel thin with plain cream cheese, ham or turkey rolls, fruits and veggies.

Pita chips, hummus, pepperoni, olives, carrots, and ranch for dipping.

Turkey burger or slider burgers with sides.

Homemade english muffin pizzas with sides.

Grilled chicken and shredded cheese rolled up in a tortilla and microwaved to melt and stick together.

Here are a couple of things I am going to try for this year.  Sport loves sliders, so I am going to make my slider burger patties and freeze them individually so that I have a stash in the freezer.  I also plan to make some shredded barbecue chicken and freeze it in individual portions to fit on slider burgers.  I am also going to freeze individual slices of pork tenderloin so that I can have those ready to cut up.  I usually buy the Tyson grilled chicken strips in the refrigerated meat section of the store for the grilled chicken.

In order to keep the variety going, I try to put the following things in his lunch as a main course once a week:  chicken, turkey, pork, ham, and a meat-free day.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't based on what we have in the kitchen, but for the most part, that keeps me from repeating too much.  

I hope this has helped the many of you who have asked!  I will post pics of our lunches as we get started this year.  Digitt will be eating hot lunch at his preschool a lot, thankfully, but he will get some lunches, too!

I have a school-morning breakfast post coming soon, but consignment stuff is calling my name and must get finished!

And the WINNERS are...

Sporticus and Digitt were the name-drawers in today's contest!  The winners of the six water bottles are:

Kristy Burrows
Kathleen Erickson
Erica Morris
Mary Catherine Landry
Karen White
Jenny Cook

Congrats, guys!  If you are far away, I'll ship on Monday.  If you are local, I will find you as soon as I can!

GIVEAWAY!! Look What Arrived!!

The bottles are here, and there are SIX!!!  There will be SIX lucky winners!  I have been in contact with Jill, who is the PR Director at Ello, and she has been so sweet.  While waiting for their stash to be replenished, she told me that she would love to hear from any of you who would also like to test new products.  I have an email in to her to be sure she wants me to share her email address publicly, so check back here if you are interested in doing that.

As for the DRAWING:  I will draw the names sometime this Friday, July 27.  If you win a bottle and you are local, I will meet up with you.  If you are not, I'll ship bottles to the winners on Monday.  I'm so excited that this turned out well!  Remember, if you have not entered the drawing, go HERE, and leave a comment to enter!

I am sorry that there have not been many blog posts, but I have a lot of things in mind for that I am going to blog about in a few weeks.  This is a hectic time of the year around here with birthdays, last-chance vacations, swim meets, banquets, doctor's appointments, and consignment sale preparation.  And the CANNING!  I have a bushel of peaches waiting on me right now, and the beans are on their way.  Because I planted my tomatoes so late, they are just now coming on, so I will be canning marinara sauce and pizza sauce in a few weeks too.

I have been doing some major organizing in this past week.  When I get overwhelmed with life, my perfectionism kicks in and I start organizing one little thing to the max while I let the rest of my life fall apart around me.  After spending a weekend with my BFF and seeing her new house with all new organizational stuff, I got the bug, and she and I headed off to The Container Store last Sunday.  I came home armed with ideas and lots of stuff, so I am looking forward to sharing all of that with you all when I get it complete and can get some pictures.  So, hang in there, I haven't given up, but life is currently getting in the way.  :)

Product Inconsistency: Irritating

There is nothing more annoying to me than product inconsistency.  When I find something I really like, I want to be able to go out and buy more of them, and have them be JUST like the one I bought that I liked.  Now, I do realize that (thankfully) we still (mostly) have humans making our products, wherever they live, and that humans in general create inconsistency.  I get that.  I expect small differences, but what I am talking about are vast differences between the same products.


I have come to expect it from clothing, just because there are a lot of variables in the manufacturing.  You have variation in everything from the threads that make the fabric, the dying process, the stitching, the machines used to piece the fabric together, and simply the fact that someone doesn't try on every garment of clothing to give an opinion on how it fit compared to the one before.  Who hasn't found a pair of perfect jeans and gone back for a second pair exactly like the first, only to find that they fit completely differently?  What is a little less excusable to me is complete and total product inconsistency in a "hardline" product, like in this case, my new stainless steel enameled plates.

Because I am a little cuh-razy sometimes and I like to plan my parties based on a theme no matter how small, I decided that Sporticus's (or Sporticus' based on which manual of the Harbrace you use since they have now changed the s' to s's because people are too dumb to be able to learn the difference anymore, but I digress) family birthday dinner would be centered around some specific cupcakes at our new fancy cupcakery. The Maple Bacon cupcakes with the dark chocolate cake, maple frosting, and teensy piece of applewood smoked bacon on top, and the Rocky Top cupcakes with their chocolate cake, salted caramel frosting, chocolate drizzle, and marshmallow on top just all of the sudden made me want to do a little "camping theme" for some reason.  To make this even more ridiculous (hey, I'm not shy) we are only having the grandparents over.  We're talking 10 people total.  But it is too hot for s'mores, and camping party stuff on Pinterest was too cute for me to stand, so I'm gonna just carry on with what this is actually about now.  There's a connection.  I promise.

When I started planning my theme, I decided that some enameled stainless steel dinner plates would be really cute .  While this may seem over the top, I have been looking for a couple of years for some plates for us to use when we eat on our patio. I just always feared that one of my good plates would get dropped and broken.  I had already decided that I wanted to avoid plastic, especially melamine, and that is what seems to be the easiest to find, so I had not found anything I liked up to this point.  The enameled stainless plates were going to be perfect for the party, the patio, and many years to come.  After looking online, I found that the ones I liked the best were from GSI Outdoors.  I found varying prices in various places, so I ended up ordering red and blue plates from a camping website and green plates from Amazon.  I love the color combo.

Yesterday, the plates arrived via two separate UPS trucks within 30 minutes of each other, because that's super-efficient.  The green plates came first, and they were exactly what I wanted.  They were well made and looked great.  When the next truck/box arrived, I opened it to find more perfect red plates, and also blue plates.  Not perfect, well-made, looked-great blue plates.  Just blue plates.  The difference was shocking.  I immediately pulled out my packing slip, sure that they had sent the wrong thing, but it was correct.  I noticed that the labels on the blue plates were different, but they still said "GSI Outdoors."  TriDad  is knowledgeable when it comes to product codes and what not, and when he started looking he noticed that the blue plate codes were completely different than the red and green plate codes.  And then, a shocker.  Red and Green plates (the GOOD plates) were made in........you guessed it.  China.  The crappy plates were made in......Mexico.

Now, let me tell you how majorly different they are.  The blue plates are about 1/4 inch smaller in diameter than the others, and the inside "hump" between the rim and the flat part of the plate is completely a different design. This keeps them from stacking neatly.  GAH!!!  The worst of all is the paint/finish.  The red and green plates have a super smooth finish with no flaws.  The blue plates have lumps where the paint has run and clumped up.  They look really cheap and, well, just plain crappy.


I  searched around online to see if I could find actual blue plates made in China since clearly they were the better-made plates.  Because that is not weird at all.  Every picture I could find, though, would visibly show the uneven finish.  I was baffled and a little bummed, to say the least.  I decided to call the company directly to inquire about this (they only sell wholesale).  Sure enough, all of their blue enamelware is made in Mexico, and red and green is made in China.  I asked if I could get Chinese blue plates.  The response, oddly, was "Unfortunately, no."  

If anything, I guess the phone call helped me to realize that any continuous searching would be fruitless.  The customer service representative was very, very friendly, nice, and helpful, so that was a bright spot in my morning.  I am still left with the dilemma of either choosing one color and just getting all plates in either red OR green so I can be happy with the product consistency, or choosing to live with crappy Mexican lumpy plates that make my colorful eye happy.  Either way, it messes with my chi.  It will depend on which issue I think I'll get over the quickest.  How about a vote??  If you have made it this far, what would you do?  Keep the three colors or pick just one?  

Product Review: Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

You will be mad, and I'm sorry.  I was on vacation.  You will have wanted this post to have happened two days ago, or maybe even three, so that you could have had this most-wonderful-dessert for your Independence Day festivities.  I apologize.  There is still so much summer left, though, and you still have plenty of time to enjoy the following things, so you will forgive me, right?

I'll start with the ice cream.  You may remember me saying in my cleaner eating post that I no longer bought ice cream from the store.  Last summer I bought an appliance that changed my ice cream habits for good.  Prior to owning my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, I almost always had a carton of ice cream in the freezer.  It was way too easy to just fill a small bowl every night.  I had seen this ice cream maker at Williams-Sonoma  and I really wanted it, especially for use during the summer months that bring so much wonderful fresh fruit.  I finally splurged (there was a deal going on and that helped) and had to get one.  I popped the freezer bowl into the freezer the very moment I unpackaged it.  I had picked up some Cruze Farm whole milk and I had frozen some fresh strawberry puree, so I was ready to try it out.  My favorite recipe is for an eggless homemade ice cream.  I can whip this up in just a couple of minutes, and I almost always have everything on hand.  Another really yummy recipe is, as weird as it sounds, Strawberry Basil Frozen Yogurt from Southern Living this spring.  It is more time consuming and I have only made it for a special occasion.  I can't wait to try more creative recipes!

I like to make all of my ice cream mixtures in my Pampered Chef Quick-Stir Pitcher, and I like to let them sit a couple of hours in the refrigerator before putting them in the ice cream maker.  I pick lots of fresh fruit in the summer, and I will automatically puree some as soon as I bring it home, measure it to 2 cups, and freeze it in freezer bags for this exact purpose.  I can just pull out a bag and thaw it, and have fresh, yummy ice cream all year long.  Blackberries, peaches, and strawberries are my three main fruits that I keep at the ready.  A note on the vanilla:  I have found that the flavor that 2 teaspoons of vanilla brings is very overpowering if you want to be able to taste the fruit.  I only use 2 teaspoons when I am making plain vanilla.  I just use a dash of vanilla (or even none) when I am using the fruit.  Thanks to my friend, Joanna, I have a wonderful brew of homemade vanilla extract.  It is unbelievable.

Back to the ice cream maker for a moment.  This ice cream maker sits right on your counter and it will have your ice cream ready in just 20 minutes!  It works best if you store your freezer bowl in the freezer at all times.  Ours goes right back in as soon as it's clean.  There are extra bowls available for purchase, and I would like to have one so that I can make two different kinds for the same dessert.  Once you have used the freezer bowl, it will not freeze a second batch of ice cream without returning it to the freezer.  It's just not cold enough at that point.  This maker does not make a very large batch of ice cream and this is good for two reasons.  1) Refrozen homemade ice cream is never *quite* as good as it is straight out of the ice cream maker and 2) I don't need a ready supply of ice cream.  From my experience, it makes enough for about 8 decent-sized servings.

I do NOT miss ice cream from the store at all.  I have NO issues, though, with say, Marble Slab, FroYoz or anything like that!  I'm happy to support those businesses with all my heart and some of my money.  For home, though, this is our one and only.  I even whip some up for a birthday party.  It's THAT easy.  You will not regret this purchase, I promise!

This is what we had last night.  It was heavenly!!  Go snag yourself some fresh blackberries if you can still find some.  If you aren't in a cobbler mood, puree the blackberries and make ice cream with them.  If you can't find blackberries, you can find peaches now, so go for those!  Peach ice cream is my favorite!  I can't wait to try peaches in this cobbler.

If you are also interested in the cobbler recipe, you can find it HERE.  

My Favorite Cobbler

I love to pick fresh fruit in the summertime!  This summer, we finally had a huge bounty from the blackberry bushes we planted a few years ago.  Thanks to the growing season this year - the early and excessive heat -  they weren't the tastiest berries to just eat straight off the bush, but they did make a delicious cobbler.  I have them already divided up into three-cup portions so I can thaw them and make them anytime.  I cannot wait to try it with the fresh peaches.

My mom always made the "cuppa cuppa cuppa" cobbler.  You may have heard of it - a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, a cuppa milk, a sticka butter, and a canna pie filling, or two cuppsa fruit.  This one is tasty, but I set out to find one that was less "bready" and had a crunchier crust, and one that also incorporated more fruit, since I always seem to have a ton.

I finally found a recipe somewhere that I thought would be a winner.  I would give props to the person/website if I could, but seeing that it's hastily written on a piece of paper and has been since last summer, I can't even begin to trace it's roots.  It was definitely a winner!  So, without further adieu, here you go!

SUMMER FRUIT COBBLER

3 cups fruit (whole berries or sliced/chunked peaches)

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

Place fruit in a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with 3/4 cup of sugar and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.  Put stick of butter in 8x8 dish and pop it into the oven to let the butter melt. You may consider slicing the butter into at least 3 pieces, as you don't want to leave it in there long enough to let it brown.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk thoroughly.

Remove pan with melted butter and pour the flour mixture into the melted butter.

Pour berry and sugar mixture on top.*

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, making sure it's nice and brown and crusty on the sides and at least lightly golden brown in the middle.  Serve warm or cool.

*It's very important that the fruit goes ON TOP of the flour mixture.  I had always thought that was a little weird and wondered about it, but I just always followed directions.  Last night, I found out why it goes that way.  For some reason, I chose a different baking dish than I usually use for my cobbler.  When I was putting the ingredients on my melted butter, I started worrying that the dish wasn't big enough.  I went ahead and dumped the berries on, and at that point, I realized that there was no way that dish was going to work.  I pulled out another one and just dumped the whole mixture into it, since I couldn't do much else at that point. This put the berries basically underneath the dough.  I popped it into the oven.  I checked on it after 30 minutes and found the dough was bubbling up over the sides and spilling out onto the bottom of my oven.  Yay.  It was still tasty, but it was missing some crust (my favorite part), so I was bummed.  Not quite as bummed as I was at the sight of my nasty oven, which I will not clean until it gets cold because it will heat up to my kitchen to hell-like temps.  

So, now you are a little smarter thanks to my mistake.  :)

Homemade Vanilla

My wonderful and super-knowledgeable friend, Joanna, told me how to make my own vanilla.  Yet one more item that has changed my pantry and my cooking for the better. Store bought vanilla often has added sweeteners or simply just added water, and the price you can end up paying for that tiny bottle is crazy.  The homemade kind is very thin, well, like vodka.  It's not that dark, syrupy look you expect from the little brown bottles from the store.  I love, love, love this stuff!  


To make your own, take about 8 vanilla beans and slice them open lengthwise.  Drop them down into a full bottle of vodka (a liter, I think) and shake the bottle every day for about two weeks.  Put in in a dark cabinet and shake every now and then, whenever you think about it.  When you do take it out and shake it, make sure you also take the lid off and inhale the aroma just for kicks.  After about 6 months you can start using it.  Top it off with vodka every now and then, and maybe add another bean or two after awhile and just keep your brew going.  I topped mine off for the first time yesterday (hence the lightness at the top of the bottle in the pic) and I have been using it for about 6 months.  It had just gotten right below the "S" in Smirnoff when I decided to top it off.  

I will let you in on a little secret, though.  I still buy the store brand kind, too, because I am stingy.  I don't often use the "good stuff" on things that I'm giving away (sorry, friends).  Sometimes I do, but mostly I save it for things I make for us to eat at home.  The one exception is sugar cookies.  I almost always use the good stuff for my sugar cookie recipe because I can really tell a difference in how they taste.  


A note on obtaining the vanilla beans:  Joanna was gracious enough to sell me some beans she ordered in bulk from the Arizona Vanilla Company (I hope I am right on this).  I looked for the beans at EarthFare the price for just one bean was astronomical.  This is a much more cost-effective way to do it.  I recall her separating the beans out and using her food-saver to vacuum seal the ones she was not using.  I am so glad she was willing to share some with me.

Try this - you will really love it!