I'm back. I'm inspired.

  

Ever since I've started this new job at Christopher's school last December, I needed to take a break from the blog to settle in.  Summer has come and gone and another school year has started.
A great time to resume blogging.

First, let me tell what how great it is to work at my kid's school.  

Some days, I stop in right after class ends and bring him a warm 

ham and cheese croissant from Cafe Tartine Francais.  It's right on the corner of the school and it's owned by a CAIS teacher.  

We share a tasty snack before his piano lesson then I got back to my office and finish up the day.

Other days, I see him in class and at recess where he is just so happy and surrounded by happy little friends chattering away.

Just watching him doing his Chinese morning excercises or practicing his Chinese characters brings a smile to my face and reminds me how lucky I am to be there.



Then, the kids notice me lurking behind the door -- their giggles becoming contagious and a distraction to their classroom activities.  The teachers say a few choice words in Chinese (I don't speak Chinese but I get what they're saying).  They shoo me away...again.

Our duties vary in many forms at the school.
For instance, our Communications Director shares the added duty of "snake-sitter" for the summer break -- having been bestowed the Middle School Science Lab's two snakes who had no teacher to care for them this summer.  After school, I brought Christopher to meet Strider and Marmalade, thinking he'd enjoy the encounter. I got my answer when I noticed the books he checked out from the school library included, How to Make Paper Airplanes, Origami Animals, and How to Care For Your Snake, Iguana, or Turtle.
 < < gulp > >

Christopher's new friend, Marmalade

Other administrative staff help with yard duty and as monitors during after-school pick-up when automobile traffic is heavy.  What duty did I get assigned? Lunch duty.

Yes, lunch duty serving as an "adult" monitor for middle school lunch. There was no half hour longer than to my day than middle school lunch duty! What a reminder of those awkward middle school years, not to mention a reminder of how old I am!  Those minutes seemed like days.  Those kids eat pretty well though.

I was fascinated with the lunches those kids bring to school. I do not remember bringing a flat of rasberries or sesame noodles to school when I was in middle school.  I do not remember those microwavable burritos looking so tasty when I had them as a kid.  And, this IS a Chinese school so there's nothing unique about kids eating with chop sticks, chinese food, or pork buns here.  But that one kid who pulled out the dumplings, noodles and veggies in separate baggies from the soup broth so he could pour them all in during lunch time -- ingenious.

 I want his mom to make my lunch. She's ingenious. 

And I am inspired to pack our kids lunch tomorrow!

Even the baby likes seaweed!

It's been a while since our last post. I've started a new job in December and am finally settling in.

So - I've been holding on to this post for a few weeks and now is a good time to share.

My kids love seaweed. In fact many more kids seem to be enjoying snacking on seaweed "nori" as it seems to be more known as these days. "Nori" is the Japanese name for it. My mother and father, who are of a different generation of Korean's, won't call it "nori."  So, for their sake, I'll call it "kimbob" (with a hard "K" sound).

Once when we had some kids over, they all sat around the table eating strips of roasted salted seaweed like they were potato chips!

So now, for both Christophe and Cory, I pack them kimbob (nori rolls).  This is Christopher's lunch. The little packet on the side is Furikake. He loves to eat it with his training chopsticks. I had an earful one day when I forgot to pack his chopsticks! Our Japanese friend absolutely hates it when we pronounce furkiake wrong. I think when I pronounce it wrong, I must be somehow saying something insulting about her mother or something...

For Cory, I roll them flatter, like a tri-folded omelet and cut them into bite size pieces. The teachers at the day care say he loves it. Who wouldn't?

cookie cutter sandwiches

Over the holidays, we had lots of fun baking and decorating holiday cookies.  When it was time for lunch, it was ham sandwiches, chicken soup and one of the pretty over-frosted over-candied cookies Christopher and his friends decorated.

Christopher had been craving a ham sandwich ever since he had to have lunch with his teacher. (Let's not get into the reason WHY he had to have lunch with Ms. Bethany...) He said she had a ham sandwich for lunch and he wanted to have a ham sandwich too.

My issue with sandwiches is the bread. Two slices just seems like too much bread for a kid. After I toasted the bread and cut the crusts off (following the mandatory "no crust" rule of my little dictator), I noticed how soft the inside of the bread still was.  So, I split the bread into 2 by slicing it through the middle -- like a pita pocket, to make lovely thin toast for his sandwich. They made for easy cutting with the cookie cutters and Christopher was a great little helper making the sandwiches too! I think I owe Ms. Bethany a thank you for this one!

   

Here are a few of the cookies the kids made. I like the angel that looks like Mr. Bill from SNL.

You Say "OCD," I Say "Organized"

Once when I opened the kitchen cabinet and a guest saw this list taped to the inside of the door, she stopped talking mid-sentence, looked at me sympathetically and said in a very understandingly way, "Oh, I understand you now...."  

   

So first, let me say if I did have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), why...oh...WHY...would I have put the canned corn, anchovies, jar of peaches and quinoa on the same shelf? They're not the same size, shape, color, texture, food group, nutritional value, or even share a similar expiration date?

I created this list when we were preparing for the birth of Cory and we needed to plan for someone to take care of Christopher at any moment -- day or night, on a weekend day or on a school day. Our dear friend (and Christopher's god-mother) Johanna Silva and her mother (Abuelita) were "on call" with plans to stay through the night with Christopher during my stay in the hospital. 

Considering Johanna does not have kids (she has a dog), and might have to pack Christopher's lunch for school, I thought I'd try to make it easier for her to prepare Christopher's meals and pack his lunch. Thus -- THE LIST was created!! 

The list itemizes all the food Christopher enjoys for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I admit the detail on HOW he likes his toast buttered was a little overboard (cold pat of butter - must be visible to the eye). The thing is, I knew whenever it was time for Lisa to take me to the hospital and all attention would be on the new baby, Christopher would need a sense of familiarity, comfort, and security.  With both parents gone and a new life of big-brotherhood on the way, why mess with the man's food, right?

I still use this list today.  Whenever I'm in a time-crunch in the morning or just don't have the mental space to think (People--you know what I'm talking about), I review this list and quickly see what I can prepare in a hurry. It's been a life saver!

Resolve to Bento in 2010!

Anyone interested in starting Bento lunches for their kids should know that every day is not a winner, necessarily. Especially with multiple lunches to pack, sometimes you've got it, and sometimes, you just don't! Too much mommy time at night - whatev. The point to keep in mind I think is that OVERALL the kids are eating much better than they would with a traditional american-sandwich lunch system. More balanced. Always fresh fruit & veg, and efficient in not only using leftovers, but no waste. So, I hope a lot of you choose to give this kind of lunching a try in 2010 & here are a couple of winners from the end of 2009. (It's a "winner" if my kids clean plate it.)

Bento #1 -- (pictured above) - has a couple of good tricks to it. I use those thin sandwich flats in a whole grain to make the peanut butter & honey sandwich cut in triangles. The foil wrapped wedge of cheese is low fat laughing cow - my kids love the do-it-themselves spreading of this. Then with the Tortillas is an individual pack of Wholly Guacamole. So there is non-green waste with the foil & the guacamole wrapper, but if it's the difference between Bento-ing and not Bento-ing on a rushed morning, it may be the best I can do!

Next up - Bento #2 -

So here is a good example of using leftovers. It isn't too hard to get in the habit of making a bit of extra food at night to have morning be a lot easier. Here is leftover pasta & the cheese wedge again, but this time with butterfly shaped crackers. Seriously, what's not to love about a butterfly!? Red peppers & carrots. Cheese is soft enough to dip veg in too. An organic sweet & salty bar for desert & a great fresh trailish mix - just fresh blackberries, grapes & almonds. Yum! I wish I treated my own lunches with such care & concern. Maybe in the New Year! :)

Something Smells. Therefore, I Clean.

You must have about as many thermoses, insulated bottles, commuter cups, baby bottles, water bottles, and other vessels used to keep and consume some sort of food or beverage hot or cold as we do. Like these:

I CAN'T STAND CLEANING THEM!! 

Everyday, in our household we use:

1 insulated thermos for Christopher's milk

1 insulated thermos container for Christopher's lunch. (It has to match the milk thermos.)

3 baby bottles for Cory's milk

2 commuter cup for coffee on the go for the adults

1 Klean Kanteen for my water

That's 8 containers that need to be cleaned every night! Whew. Do I need to say again....

I CAN'T STAND CLEANING THEM!! 

I know these two can't help it...

...Someone has to clean their daily lunch time containers....and it's better to reuse them than to throw out plastic containers or buy a cup of coffee every day. 

At the end of the day, I just can't let them sit dirty. Otherwise, the food sticks to the container, they start to smell really bad -- especially the thermos that hold milk.  Have you ever forgotten to wash a thermos that had milk in it -- just to open it up and find a yogurt-like substance?

So, now, i got it down....I've gotten into this routine now of dumping all the remaining food/liquid out of the containers, washing them out and filling them with water with just a little bit of dish soap to soak overnight. I pop all the little straws and baby bottle nipples in the thermoses to let them soak too.

By morning time, they are clean! They don't smell and they're ready to to be used again that day. 

Any one else have tips on keeping these lunch containers clean?

 

Grilled Bagel, Cinnamon Bread for Breakfast

I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy a good bagel. It's the best quick breakfast. While most of the people I know toast them and spread cream cheese, I enjoy grilling them up in butter and serving them up -- just the bagel!

When I was in college, I worked at the school student center where we cooked most things on the grill...burgers, hot dogs, chicken breast sandwiches, eggs, bacon, cooked pasta, etc. When it came to breakfast, we even popped the bagels on the grill, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, even grilled muffins and croissants.  It's become "my" thing now at home.

Below is a slice of Semifreddi's Cinnamon Twist Bread grilled in butter I made for Christopher (and Cory).

If you get a chance to visit Semifreddi's website, the description states that this is a great bread for French toast. True true true. (I love the way Semifreddi's web page uses a cinnamon role to scroll up and down to see their products.) Add a little flour to the french toast egg mixture and the batter becomes more flaky!

I would love to pack a grilled cheese sandwich in the kids' lunch but, it's just not the same packing something for lunch that I know will be soggy by lunch time.  It's got to be served warm and crunchy right off the pan! That's why these options will always remain a breakfast food in our household.

Anyone have ideas how to serve hot food for lunch that stays hot by lunchtime?
Please share...

Variation On A Leftover Theme

Monday mornings are the hardest, you know what I mean. The weekend is over and if I didn't go grocery shopping (which I didn't) to prepare for this week's lunches, I'm just crying the Monday morning blues.

That's when some sort of Variation On A Leftover comes in to play.

In our household, this is tricky as some leftovers don't heat up so well. Luckily, we hit Pasta Pomodoro so often for dinner, even Aja, the General Manager of the Noe Valley location know us by name... and by our order.  Christopher and I share the Penne Portobello, under the House Specials Section. Then, I order a Kids Meal that I think would be a good Variation On A Leftover for later that week.

Today, it was spaghetti in a cream sauce, side of broccoli and an extra side parmesan cheese! For our kid- it's all about the extra cheese.

Christopher approves.

Then, there's all the other lunches that need packing. I've now gotten into the habit of packing the lunch bags, sliding the lunch bags down the floor towards the door and everyone grabs theirs on the way out! Whoever is dropping off Cory picks up his cooler of milk and food too.

PS - Pasta Pomodoro is a favorite of ours. Some locations, like the Noe Valley one, offer some great deals right now:

     Monday nights: 30% off all take out orders

     Tuesday nights: kids eat for free (I think this means kids meals are free)

     Wednesday nights: half off a bottle of wine. (they'll even wrap up the bottle so you can take the rest home)

Another clean-plater & granola bar recipe

Hi friends. Kristin Thomas here - a college friend of Esther's. We've been sharing bento-esque ideas, and we thought you'd like to see the kinds of lunches we've got going out here in Mass. I just started packing my kids lunches in a box this school year. I highly recommend it - they eat better, and the teachers even like me a little more. Without bento, I'm always the mom who forgets the field trip money, or the permission slip, or the brownie patches.... but I digress.

Currently need to do a "big shop" but posted today because I thought the granola bar recipe was worth passing along. I bought this book - Family Feasts for $75 a Week, and I really have not been too impressed. No new ideas about saving $$ for me - sadly, so now I just need to save $13 using the book's ideas in order not to be annoyed! Cannot be a bigger fan of making kids snacks myself so I know what's in there.

The granola bar recipe is adapted from Family Feasts:

Honey Granola Bars

1 1/2 cups granola cereal (I used Quaker Oats)

1 1/2 cups oats

1 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 - 3/4 cup honey

1 cup packed brown sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup raisins, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, cranberries, cherries, almonds - whatever you prefer

1) Preheat oven to 350; grease 9x13 pan

2) combine granola, oats, flour & cinnamon in bowl; in 2nd bowl beat together everything else, except last ingredient - then fold butter mixture into flour mixture until combined, stir in chips/raisins

3) bake until browned & relatively firm. I had to bake mine about 40 mins.

4) when pretty much cooled, slice into bars - once they are in the fridge they get pretty firm.

I'll make these again, but I am going to try another recipe next time, just to be my usual neurotic self.

Christmas cake!

Thanksgiving was a great weekend in our household. Not only did we do the traditional turkey dinner (three times), we had great fun at Christopher's school for the Thanksgiving feast. I wish I took pictures of those kids chowing down on their turkey!

It was also time to get ready for Christmas! We picked up our Christmas tree, put decorations up throughout the house, put together our little Christmas village and I made a cake!

I recently finished reading Ruth Reichel's food memoirs and have tried a few of her recipes. Reichel's "Nicky's Vanilla Cake" from Garlic and Sapphires was the inspiration for my "Christmas cake" below.  We originally called it "Christopher's cake" but after this weekend when Christopher helped decorate the tree with ornaments and fun little candy canes, he said, "my favorite part is putting the toppings on the tree."

"Toppings on the tree" -- it was just another one of those moments when I wanted to call Bill Cosby and tell him how my kid says the darndest things. It's true - the toppings on the cake are the same as the toppings on the tree.

This  is a vanilla cake made with soy butter with a simple powdered sugar icing. The "toppings" are crushed candy.  Christopher "donated" his broken carnival-style lollipop --one of his Halloween scores from last month. I made the same cake for Linda Zolotrow's birthday a few weeks ago and, seeing how it was so festive, I made it again.

A classic - mac and cheese, tube steaks, and broccoli!

Ah! I don't know many kids who don't love mac and cheese with hot dogs!
Our little foodie has a preference for Annie's mac and cheese or as he calls it, "mommies mac and cheese" --as opposed to other mac and cheese served in restaurants.  It's such a simple lunch to pack the next day!

We have a tradition in our home.  Every couple of weeks when Lisa decide to fry up some pretty tasty steaks for dinner, she always makes Christopher mac and cheese with hot dogs! It's become so common in our household -- whenever we have steaks, Christopher knows he's having mac and cheese, hot dogs and broccoli.

I love hot dogs too and with kids, we ALWAYS seem to have hot dogs in the house. And, me, being the cheapest person I know, I don't like seeing food go to waste and would rather save it, eat it, make something out of it or take it for my lunch. But, who really wants to be eating hot dogs all the time?

When Lisa started storing the hot dogs individually, I thought it was pretty darn smart.  When we'd open a new package of dogs, she storing the rest, a couple of dogs at a time, in little snack zip lock bags in the freezer!  So when we get that primitive call for bloody rare red meat, she grabs a set of dogs out of the freezer for Christopher's "tube steak" dinner and next day lunch. And, to save yet another pot from being used (and cleaned), she tosses the dogs in with the pasta water.  As the pasta cooks up, the dogs warm up and are ready to serve with the man and cheese!

Back to the snack bags --> We used to think those little snack bags were such a waste. But now, we use them all the time. We even toss them in the dish washer and reuse them to keep together games that have lots of little pieces, legos, or crayons.

We have an addiction in our household

I will take the first step and admit it...we had an addiction in our household.  I love chips. Lisa loves chips. Our close friend loves chips and even once referred to it as the "food of the gods." 

And, this is how bad it's gotten -- Christopher loves chips too! Christopher has his recommended favorites based on taste, texture, crispyness and color. His teachers know of his love of "spicy chips." THIS IS NOT GOOD. WE KNOW THIS.

It's just that we all have our favorites!!

Pardon all the "product placement."  This is no joke - this is how many chips we have in our house today. This does not even include "crackers" or other snacks like animal crackers.  On the weekend, we're so happy to be home having lunch together, we grab a bag of chips to have with our chicken soup or grilled cheese sandwich or tuna melt. It's just so perfect.

Do we need help?

Fallback Fried Rice

Some mornings, I give Christopher a choice of what he'd like for lunch. It's usually a choice between fried rice and a pb&j -- the quick and easy food to prepare. He always picks fried rice!

One week, he asked for fried rice every day! That's when I altering my recipe for Christopher's fried rice.

Now, my fall back fried rice has: 2 shrimp, 1 1/2 eggs (I use one whole egg and the whites of another), steamed broccoli (usually left over from the night before), about 2 spoons of rice, a spoonful of soysauce and about 1/2 spoonful of sesame oil.  Take me less than 5 minutes to prepare!

Once, I added some carrots. He likes carrots with ranch dressing so I thought he might enjoy a little variety of color and veggies. He came home and said to me, "Don't put carrots in my fried rice anymore." When I asked why, he said he likes it just shrimp, egg and broccoli. And then he added, "You don't have to put broccoli either." Yeah, right.  That's almost the whole point!

Anyways, in schools now, all the kids have these thermoses that keep the food warm. I think part of his enjoyment of fried rice is opening the thermos up at lunchtime and smelling the yummy food that's still warm. It does smell pretty darn good.

Pretty fruits and hidden veggies

Some morning, we just have to start off the day with fruit!

I usually put fruit in Christopher's lunch every day. But, some days, it's just better to have it for breakfast! And, once in a while, when he awakes up a little cranky and has an "opposite" day -- claiming he hates fruit, I try to do a little something to remind what he could be missing.

That fruit salad in the orange peel is really all about eating  with a toothpick! I like those 2-pronged ones since they're not as sharp.

Those muffins are my zucchini carrot mini muffins. All the kids on our block are familiar with these hidden veggie delights. I think it helps that these little treats look like cupcakes.

The fruit plate here is a mango, bananas, strawberry and grapes.

In my next posts, I plan to cover "the No-Thank You Bite," our shared love of spicy chips, and the vegan cupcakes described to me as "the most delicious cupcakes in the whole life world!"

"Some Mommy" for Lunch

When Christopher was 2 years old, he and Lisa had this fun weekend picnic lunch they'd pack when they'd go to the playground together:

bread, cheese, crackers, fruit and salami.

He was so little, he couldn't pronounce salami and it would come out as "some-mommy."
We thought it was so cute, we didn't correct him.

So, this morning when Christopher had a request for "some-mommy" in his lunch, I indulged.

After asking "what kind of cheese is that?" he gave me his smile of approval.
(It was Provolone but I told him it was Monterey Jack cheese. He claims to love Monterey Jack cheese ever since we went to Monterey one weekend and had Monterey Jack cheese.)

The 4-sectioned container makes all the difference. He likes to have all the food in one box but not have them touch each other.

SF Kids Are Such Foodies!

Growing up in San Francisco, I never realized just what great food options we have -- until we had kids. I used to blindly eat just about anything. Now, I examine every single ingredient listed on packages and search near and far for the most organic, natural, unprocessed foods I can find that will be consumed by our kids.

I'll bake a cake or cookies and substitute soy butter.
I'll try vegan recipes and add veggies into all meals (to add a little color).
(chocolate chip cookies with soy butter)

At the market, I'll squeeze every piece of fruit to find the perfect one for them! In restaurants, I've
become Sally Albright (When Harry Met Sally) with my picky request as to how to present the kids' food. I believe kids will eat what they're served -- if it looks appetizing to them.

(fruit trio)

So now, I get requests and feedback from a 4 year old for his lunch.

• "Can I have the pasta with the cheese that looks like paper." (shaved Parmesan cheese, not the grated kind)
• "I liked the sandwich but next time, I don't want the leaves." (leaved=lettuce)
• "This hot dog doesn't taste good" (It truly didn't taste good either. I took a bite and could tell it was a generic dog, not a kosher all-beef like what we buy in our home.)
• And my favorite at a restaurant..."this isn't what I ordered..." (he was right too. It wasn't what we ordered him!)

Growing up in the Bay Area, my kid has become such a young foodie!
So, when it comes to packing my kids' lunch every day -- a chore I love to do!! -- I tend to be a little OCD about it. It has to taste good, it has to meet our cultural standards (my kids are Chinese/Korean San Franciscans), the food has to look pretty...and now...it has to pass the young foodie standard!
And, because I'm the cheapest person I know, it's gotta be affordable.

(mini bagel and hard boiled egg and my very popular all-beef hot dog musubi)

I often post pictures of my kids lunch on my Facebook page. My friends enjoyed them so much, I thought it's time I started blogging about it because, my oldest is only in preschool and that leaves 13 more years of lunches to pack every day!

Enjoy!