unplug + recharge

Time for me to unplug. For. A. Whole. Week. (Always a challenge...) Back in a week, or so, hopefully refreshed, recharged and full of new, simple recipe ideas. Hope your week is full of delicious food, fresh air, and summer fun too.

p.s. There was no Friday lunchbox this week. The kids cut out of camp early!

thursday's lunchbox

This is what was going on yesterday

while I was packing lunches.

So, today I suggested they get in on the action. I'm not really in the mood for any broken bones this week. My little one was thrilled with the idea that he could not only choose-- but make-- his lunch. Why didn't I think of this sooner?! I laid out an assortment of sandwich fillings...stuff to make cream cheese & jam or a ham sandwich. Or so I thought.

First went the jam. Then plain cream cheese.

Then the little bit of leftover strawberry cream cheese I'd made for the roll-ups on Tuesday. And then ham. Ham?! "Torn into little bitty pieces!" "Wow." I bit my tongue. "It's going to be the best sandwich ever!" he proudly announced. Mmm, I bet. "Now, all it needs is cheese!" he said inspecting his creation. And on went a slice of sharp cheddar. Never mind the quarter inch thick layer of both regular and strawberry cream cheese, which apparently don't count as "cheese"....

"But then I need to cut it into shapes like you do..."

"because a plain old sandwich is boring." "Mmm hmm, I'll say."

Here is his self-made feast as we enter the home stretch of lunch packing:

his cream cheese-jam-strawberry cream cheese-ham sandwich + sweet potato chips + lemonade + strawberries + carrots (hidden under the chips)

wednesday's lunchbox

I'm packing the final few lunchboxes of the summer (woo hoo!), so I let the kids choose their lunch today. (Truth be told, I had my mind on my last tennis match of the season and my long to-do list, not the lunchboxes this morning...) They were excited to be in charge. I reminded them they just had to have a fruit, a veggie and some texture/color present then let them go nuts. Miraculously, this is what went into the lunchbox today:

Annie's Mac & Cheese (with added mozzarella to make it exceptionally gooey) + orange pepper slices + lemonade AND Sha Sha Gingersnaps for treats + applesauce.

tuesday's lunchbox

The final stretch of day camp lunchboxes! Today's includes: strawberry wraps (whole wheat tortilla + cream cheese whipped with strawberries (or you can just buy strawberry cream cheese and save yourself that step) and fresh strawberries rolled up and then sliced) + jicama and tomatoes + applesauce + 2 of last night's homemade cookies and lemonade for treats.

wild berries

not enough for a pie, so we're baking a batch of our go-to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

versatile meatless meal idea: walnut sauce

A week ago, I winged a walnut sauce. In an effort to detoxify a bit from too many rounds of snack bar food and too many fruity, summer cocktails I vowed to spend my week eating only "whole foods". (My definition: I had to know the ingredients in what I was popping down the hatch, and recognize all of them). The base for that week's meals was this walnut sauce I whipped up and then stored in the fridge. I didn't want to feel deprived, since it is summer vacation after all. This versatile sauce hit the spot.

Walnut Sauce

walnuts
walnut oil
your choice of vinegar
water (optional)
herbs (optional)

In a blender, combine walnuts, walnut oil and a splash of your favorite vinegar. Pulse until thick and creamy. Taste, and add more vinegar or oil to get to your desired level of tanginess or creaminess. Add water if you'd like to thin the sauce to make a dressing. Add fresh or frozen herbs, if you'd like, and blend until smooth.

I divided the sauce in half, leaving the first half as is (walnuts + walnut oil + a splash of both champagne vinegar and sherry vinegar). Then I added a fresh batch of cilantro to the second half. I just stored them in their thick glory in the fridge. Then during the week, I used them a bunch of different ways, in addition to thinning them and using them as salad dressings:

The plain walnut one was the dressing in a batch of roasted beet & barley salad...

The walnut-cilantro one was smothered over a piece of sea bass for dinner one night...

and I popped a dollop of the walnut one in the center of portabello mushrooms + diced tomatoes + a sprinkling of Parmesan and roasted them at 350, alongside some zucchini from the farmer's market

for a meatless feast. Delicious.

monday's lunchbox

I stayed up way too late reading and am moving blurry eyed through the off-to-camp routine this morning. Breakfast (Saturday's reheated French toast + fresh berries) and lunchboxes were made in minutes (clearly). But the kids will probably be thrilled with the contents of today's lunchbox after several weeks of cream cheese and jam sandwiches...

Pizza (theirs-- plain cheese-- from last night's dinner outside after staying at the pool well past dinnertime and bedtime) + cucumber "coins" + apple sauce (don't forget the spoon) + lemonade as a treat

pink punch

Last week, I made watermelon-cucumber juice, in an effort to cool us all down after camp, tennis and swimming lessons.

It was delicious, but I'll admit that the weird color (from leaving the cucumber skins on) wasn't too appealing.

My little one told me, "that if he made the juice around here, he would have made it pretty and pink, not yucky color". And so, today I laid out a variety of fruits, and let him create his own juice concoction...

His watermelon-strawberry-apple-blueberry juice was delicious. And pink. Very pink.

last week's lunchboxes

I'm gearing up for one more week of day camp lunches. Most of our little reusable containers have migrated out to the yard to become vessels for "science projects", but we're kind of in a groove now.

Above: whole wheat bagel with cream cheese + Clif Kids Twisted Fruit roll as a treat + squeeze apple sauce + milk + carrots + cheese crackers as a snack (that was the only thing that got the thumbs down in this lunchbox).

Chicken-apple sausages (grilled extra at dinner the night before) + lemonade as a treat + "ladybugs on a log" (celery/cream cheese/dried cranberries) + Cascadian multi-grain squares cereal for a snack + cantaloupe and strawberries.

food for thought: motherhood

Here's a blog post on motherhood that is certainly worth sharing. I encourage you to both read Ryan's blog post and to watch the TED video. Great food for thought.

chard & scallion scrambled eggs on toast

My neighbor shared half of her CSA bounty this week. Lucky me. The big bunch of chard and dainty scallions became our brunch: sauteed in a bit of olive oil, and scrambled with a few eggs then served over a toasted slice of Alvarado Street California Protein bread. I added cheese to my husband's and kid's. Mine was delicious as is.

snack platter idea

a healthful, simple snack platter for an afternoon spent outside:

grapes + peppers & cucumbers + carrots + apples +
hummus (homemade or store bought) + tzatziki (homemade or store bought)

homemade granola bars

This has been a whirlwind summer. It's been social and fun, but between too many snack bar lunches and end of the day drinks with friends, my hard-earned journey to health has taken a nose dive. And so, before we embark on the second half of our summer adventures, I am making a concerted effort to at least keep healthful, delicious foods around the house. My kids will (thankfully) eat most anything I put on the plate, so really it's up to me to make healthful choices. In addition to reminding myself of my own little prep ahead mantra, I made a batch of these granola bars to have on hand as a quick afternoon snack before running out to play. They are energy packed, so easy, and satiate our cravings for a sweet treat.

Ruth's Granola Bars
(recipe by Ruth Fehr of The Palette Fund - from the Food Solutions event at Urban Zen in May) makes 14-16 large bars*

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup sliced raw almonds

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1 cup dried raisins, cranberries or cherries

3/4 cup agave

1/4 cup neutral oil (expeller pressed canola or safflower)

3/4 cup almond butter or peanut butter

1 cup brown rice puff cereal

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine oats, almonds and coconut. Pour onto rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. As soon as this comes out of the oven, add your dried fruit and mix well, placing the mixture into a large bowl. Place the agave, oil and nut butter into a small pot, stir to mix and bring just to a boil. Pour warm mixture over the granola. Mix well. Add the puffed rice and mix well, until the granola is coated. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and press the granola mixture onto it. Press firmly until an even layer covers the baking sheet. Cover with another piece of parchment paper and place in fridge until cool. Cut into 2x4 rectangles or 2x2 squares and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

* I cut the bars much smaller (2"x2"), as they're really sweet, and yielded about 40 bars. Here's the recipe in photos for those who like a visual the first time they're whipping something up!

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine oats, almonds and coconut.

Pour onto rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes.

While the oat mixture was baking I placed the agave, oil and nut butter into a small pot, stirring to mix and brought it just to a boil.

As soon as this comes out of the oven, add your dried fruit and mix well, placing the mixture into a large bowl.

Once the nut butter mixture was combined and just about to boil, I poured the warm mixture over the granola.

Mix well.

Then, add the puffed rice cereal, and mix well once again, until the granola is coated.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and press the granola mixture onto it.

Press firmly until an even layer covers the baking sheet.

Cover with another piece of parchment paper and place in fridge until cool.

Cut into 2x4 rectangles or 2x2 squares and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

summer lunchboxes

So, not having packed lunches all school year, I'm finding this summer task a bit of a, well, task. Anyway, I've got a few more weeks of this, so I thought I would pop a few photos of what's made the lunchboxes recently...it's definitely not my most creative culinary adventure, but the lunchboxes come home relatively empty, and the kids are happy, so it's all good.

Above: squeeze applesauce + crispy wheat crackers + grapes + salami + yogurt pretzels for a treat (and I hadn't taken the milk box out of the freezer yet)

cream cheese & jam sandwich + juice + a banana + pepper swords + a hard boiled egg

lemonade + applesauce + apples + alphabet cookies + a cream cheese & jam sandwich

ham & cheese sandwich + pasta & peas + (soy) pudding for a treat (which came back home in the lunchbox....) + pepper & carrot swords + chunks of cantaloupe

frozen tube of yogurt + water + cream cheese & jam sandwich + pepper swords + animal crackers for a treat