School lunches

Probably the thing I am most apprehensive about with school starting is the whole school-lunch thing.  The schools my kids go to (I am very sorry to say, but being honest here) have TERRIBLE food.  I mean, really bad.  My kids BEG me not to have to eat it.  Well, actually that's just the elementary school.  The Jr. High/High school doesn't have a cafeteria per se, but you can buy food like Little Caesar's pizza, etc.  Which tastes good, but is expensive and not good for you.  This leaves me with the option to make their lunches.  Every day.  5 lunches.  Dad also takes a lunch, so that makes 6 lunches.
I don't know why, but this frequently stumps me and I get in a rut.  They don't like sandwiches every day; I know I don't either!
So I am on a quest this year, to make and send my family off with healthy, diverse lunches that don't break the bank.  Here are some ideas I have found:

Homemade Lunchables using healthy ingredients
Mini muffins and fruit
Sandwich roll-ups
Wraps
Quesadillas
Pita Pizzas
Hummus and pita slices
Pasta salad
Salad
Chips and salsa
Chicken Ceasar Salad Wrap
Cream cheese and jam sandwich or bagel
Sandwich on a stick
Leftovers
Meatloaf
Pancake sandwich
Waffles and syrup or applesauce to dip  Add a boiled egg, too
Homemade pizza pockets or ham and cheese pockets
Yogurt and fruit
crackers and cheese
Soup in a thermos
Hummus and veggie wrap

Sides:
veggie sticks and dip
fruit
make sweet potato chips
popcorn
trail mix
homemade chex or snack mix
freeze dried fruit and/or veggies
granola bars
yum balls
taco munch

Here are some great websites where I grabbed a lot of these ideas:

www.school-lunch-ideas.com
www.familyfun.go.com
www.laptoplunches.com
http://www.laptoplunches.com/healthy-lunches-bored.php

Does this give you some good ideas?  I feel a little more prepared with some new options under my belt.  I have also decided to try "theme days".  For example, Monday is sandwich day.  Tuesday is leftover day (with all these people, I am going to have to make sure I make a lot of dinner on Monday nights so we have enough leftovers on Tuesday).  Wednesday is wrap day.  Thursday is finger food day.  Friday is make your own or buy it day.  The older kids don' t have school on Fridays, and I am going to take a break on this day.  Sounds fair to me, yes?  

What good ideas do you have for packing lunches?

Roasted broccoli

We had some family over the other night, and I wanted to cook some broccoli quickly.  I decided to put it on a sheet pan and roast it in the oven, just like I do asparagus.  Well...it worked!!  It was so tasty and good for us because it didn't have any heavy sauce on it or anything.  

Just cut the broccoli into florets.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt.  Roast until done.  SO easy, quick and delicious!

Note:  I made this again yesterday.  Turns out the broccoli is still good even if you forget about it and it gets VERY toasty in the oven.  :)  Yum!  

Pots and lids

I have a problem in my pot and pan cupboard.  It looks like this:

In my current house, my cabinet space is limited.  So except for my really big stock pots, this is all my pots and pans.  The lids are everywhere, just tossed in which makes for a very messy cupboard.  I could just buy one of those lid holder things and fix this problem.  But with a budget of zero for this project, that wasn't an option.
Here is my solution:

(sorry-I didn't realize ALL my pics came out so blurry!!)
I saw this idea on Miller's Grain House and knew I could use it!  I had some wide elastic, some thumbtacks and a hammer.  That's all you need!  You just nail a strip (or as many as you need, I did two) of elastic across the door of your cabinet, hang the lids in there, and voila!

Now my cabinet looks much better and it's so much easier to work with.  Do you have a good solution for your lids?

Recipe: A Couple of Summer Salads

When was the last time you went to your local farmers market? Do you know if there's one in your area?

Sally and I took a little trip down to our local farmers market and came home with some fabulous ingredients for the perfect summer lunch!

As previously mentioned, we live in the sweltering desert.  Summer meals are a little different, generally lighter, and often cold. Our farmers market trip inspired two salads that became part of a delicious lunch. Add to them a batch of Sally's delicious homemade chipotle baba ganoush (pronounced "ga-noosh"; recipe to come in a future post) with pitas or chips and you have a FABULOUS meal!

We decided to share our summer salad variations, and would love to hear about your great summer variations and meal ideas!

Ok, this salad is a version of caprese, and for those purists out there perhaps we shouldn't even call it caprese! However,  in my mind the basics of a caprese can be altered to suit your needs at the moment.

If you are looking for the wonderful traditional style caprese I suggest following Pioneer Woman's recipe.

We came up with this take on caprese as we stood in front of a table of the most beautiful array of heirloom tomatoes! We had already decided to get some cheese curd, and the tomatoes seemed like the perfect pairing.  A word to the wise - don't go to the farmers market hungry, you will spend much, much more...

Don't you just LOVE fresh local ingredients?!

We sure do!

Sally and I were smitten with a gorgeous array of fresh picked tomatoes.

Just look at those colors!

I don't know if this picture adequately reflects the beauty of this colorful bowl of deliciousness!

The little yellow pear tomatoes came from Sally's backyard.

The other ingredients:

Ok, this is where we left the traditional - fresh local cheese curd. Yes, I know it's not mozzarella, but trust me on this one - it is delicious and goes perfectly with the other ingredients! We also used some great basalmic vinegar from Trader Joe's, organic olive oil from Costco, and fresh basil from Sally's kitchen window herb garden (I definitely need to get one of those!!!). Not pictured - salt & pepper (VERY important), we used fresh ground pink himalayan salt and fresh ground black pepper. YUM!

We decided to cut the tomatoes into chunks because of the various sizes and combine everything in the bowl, then drizzle on the basalmic, and olive oil. The salt & pepper were added to our liking and that's it! Enjoy!

Tips: 1. Use LOTS of fresh basil.  2. If you don't like this salad "juicy" remove the seeds and lightly squeeze the tomatoes before chopping.  3. Try this with jalapeno cheese curd (definitely not traditional, but so tasty!)  4. This is excellent with fresh bread - you can go with a crusty loaf, or stick with homemade whole wheat.

YUM!

Salad 2: Sally's masterpiece of culinary delight:

The farmers market also has a line of fresh pestos and sauces that Sally has been telling me about for weeks. Her favorite? Sun dried tomato pesto.  She wasn't kidding - this stuff is divine!  She boiled up some multi-colored veggie pasta, stirred in some of the sun dried tomato pesto, added diced cucumber, red bell pepper, tomatoes, some of the jalapeno cheese curd (yes, we are definitely cheese people!), and a bit of her homemade asian dressing. Delicious! I want some right now!!  :)

Book Review

I can't get my nose out of my newest cookbook.  Yes, I am a cookbook reader.  But this one is an especially good read.  It was less than $10 on Amazon, and I highly recommend it.  It's called "The Diet Rebel's Cookbook".  This baby is CHOCK FULL of great info, and goes very well with one of my other very favorite cookbooks "The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook For Family & Kids".

These are both super books, with delicious and healthy recipes that families will love.  And they are so user friendly and fun to read.  Are YOU a cookbook reader??

Easy Dinner Recipe

This isn't really a recipe, but more an idea.  One of our favorite easy dinners is a Mexican French Bread Pizza.
Just take a loaf of French bread (homemade or store bought, up to you).

Slice it open lengthwise.

Spread with refried beans and top with grated cheese.
Broil or bake until the cheese is melted.

Cut into pieces, we usually go with about 3 inch pieces.

Top with your favorite toppings!  Here is mine topped with salsa, avocado, tomato, sour cream, and hot sauce.  SOoooOOO good!  Fast and easy to boot!

Super Easy Decoupage Frame

I am trying to add some cute things into my kitchen.  When I was going through my monster file box, I came across a $1 wooden frame Shauna and I picked up at Michael's a while back.  It got buried and forgotten.  Well, as soon as I found it I grabbed a piece of scrapbook paper and went to town!
Here it is before, with my supplies: 

I painted the frame's back and sides with acrylic craft paint.  I mixed some blue and green to get the color I wanted.  When that was dry, I laid the frame upside down on the scrapbook paper and traced around it.  Then I cut out the paper and used Mod Podge to adhere it to the frame.  I then took a sanding block and sanded the edges so none of the paper was hanging over the edges of the frame.  To give it a little more "oomph", I took a blue ink pad and inked the edges of the frame.  I love distressing, whether it is with ink, paint, sanding, etc.
Here it is, all ready for a cute picture: