Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Yes, I do comfort myself with food

Mah babies are at school! I miss them so. Time to distract myself with cooking, especially foods for them to enjoy in their lunchboxes.

Money Saving Mom is starting a lunchbox freezer cooking session, and Milk Allergy Mom is following along with some dairy-free versions of the recipes.

Alisa posted a great-looking curry chicken nuggets recipe at Attune Foods. I especially like the curry sauce.

Our friends just dropped off 5 pounds of Concord grapes, which means it's jelly time! I use the cooked jelly recipe from the Sure-Jell pectin recipe insert, but I freeze the jelly instead of canning it. I prep the grapes this way because I have a Foley food mill, and I follow the advice of this recipe that says I don't have to strain the grape juice.

On vacation one day we had eggplant Parmesan that contained dairy, so for Katherine's lunch, I made this:

Easy Eggplant Parmesan

2-3 small, thin eggplants
salt
1 garlic clove
olive oil
Progresso Italian Panko Style Breadcrumbs

Slice the eggplants into 1/4 inch circles, salt lightly. Chop or press the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant and saute until slightly browned. Add the garlic, turn the heat to medium, and cook until eggplant is tender. Toss in a handful of breadcrumbs with a little more oil if needed and stir to combine. Serve with red sauce.

What do your kids like in their lunches?

6 comments:

  1. Peanut butter sandwiches. Almost every single day, with additions of apples, grapes, carrot sticks, cheese sticks, yogurt, granola bars, etc. Very boring, but easy. Occasionally she'll request a turkey sandwich or cheese and crackers instead of peanut butter, but not too often!

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  2. I am so jealous of the concord grapes. I had a friend drop some off a few years ago and the smell of the grapes while I was making the jam was heavenly. I keep secretly hoping she'll drop off more this year :)

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  3. My kids come home for lunch. The plus side is that I don't have to pack lunch, the minus is that I go back and forth to the school three times a day.

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  4. I've gotta try eggplant...isn't that sad?! And grapes?! You are set for the sushi PBJ's! Thanks for the shout-out.

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  5. Z is fairly simple with his lunches. PB&J (I've been using Trader Joe's PB with flax + my strawberry freezer jam = delicious combo!), or wraps (sometimes lunchmeat w/cheese & veggies; a fav is peanut butter & a whole banana wrapped up), and the latest is sub sandwiches. Turkey, salami, cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayo on a small sub bun. And I always throw in fresh fruit and veg. Fruit leather type thing for snack (love the Archer Farm varieties from Target). And sometimes goldfish crackers. Seems to work & it's all pretty simple to throw together in the mornings.

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  6. Ooh, lots of delicious comfort food.

    Salt really is the main parmesan replacer :) Your daughter is so lucky - I didn't even know what eggplant was until I left home!

    thanks for the link!!

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