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...