Breakfast and Lunch for Baby and Me

GF crackers, Colby Jack cheese, Chick-Pz, Babybell, Chobani Bite, GF "garlic toast," clementine, leftover apple slices

Wednesday, 2/27/13 - Tuesday nights put a little more pressure on me, since I not only have to have Z's  lunch all packed and ready, but breakfast/lunches for Baby and me too, to take to our nut-free co-op preschool class. Plus another lunch for me for later, since I'm at preschool in the morning and don't have that time to make our meals.

Mama's Breakfast

I have to pack my preschool breakfast with at least a few things I can throw to the wolves to keep them at bay. They can hear the "pok!" of an EasyLunchbox lid popping off from all the way across the room! And everything has to be nut-free - so no tree nut or peanut ingredients. "May contain traces of" or "Made on shared equipment with" warnings are okay though, as we have no actual allergies in the room.
This was our first week going gluten-free, so even more stuff to watch out for at preschool, since we all tend to share our baby snacks with the other kids.

The Chobani Bite (Raspberry with Dark Chocolate - YUM!) doesn't really fit in an EasyLunchbox, but it looked prettier for the pictures! The mozzarella Babybel was in that spot for transport.

The crackers are Van's "Lots of Everything!" gluten-free crackers. This is our favorite gluten-free cracker so far!

The weird lumpy things are Sesame Crunch Chick-Pz snack - made with chick peas (aka: garbanzo beans!) I've been seeing roasted chickpea recipes floating around on Pinterest lately, and these were definitely tasty enough to try making various flavors on my own. And by "try making" I of course mean "fail abysmally."

The "garlic toast" is some Udi's gluten-free bread, buttered then toasted (I don't recommend doing it in that order, unless you're using a conventional or toaster oven. Halfway through I had visions of the butter dripping  off and bursting into flames in my toaster!) I sprinkled on a bit of salt and some garlic powder, then shook off any excess. Vurry tasty!

Baby's Breakfast/Lunch

Halved organic grapes, organic peas and corn, GF bread w/PB,
leftover vegetarian curry, turkey scraps, Daiya cheese shreds

I put peanut butter (creamy) on a piece of Udi's gluten-free bread in an attempt to get her to eat more grains. So far she'd rejected all of the gluten-free breads. And I'm trying out some dairy-free cheeses, but so far I think I'll stick with my lactose intolerance symptoms! Blech! Maybe cooked they'd be okay, but both the Almond "cheddar" that I tried and these Daiya "mozzarella" shreds felt creepy and tasted weird. Baby liked them just fine though.

Since she loves it and will eat it cold, I also packed some leftover vegetarian curry. I'm not actually sure what to call it. Basically I chop up whatever veggies have been sitting around in my fridge too long (including any bento scraps that never made it into salads!) toss in a few cups of grains (rice and quinoa mostly now, but I've used wheat berries in the past too,) a can of beans or cup of lentils and/or cubed tofu (however much I have left in the open packet from whatever I used it for initially,) an onion, 5-ish cloves of minced garlic, 2-3 cans of coconut milk (depending how high the veggies are piling in my big soup pot,) some salt, and several Tablespoons (usually around 5 for a large batch) of curry powder (I found a blend without Fenugreek - it makes the girls and I sick. I also use some orange-y Masala curry blend,) and enough water or veggie stock to hit just below the top level of veggies. I stir it all up best as I can to get the spices in there, then bring it all to a boil. Then I turn it to low and cover, and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent stuff from burning on the bottom. Doh!

Baby's lunch isn't as attractive looking, and I proved to myself once again why EasyLunchboxes are the way to go at this age. Blarg. I got this box from a Tuesday Morning store (and a matching purple one for Z.) It was a nightmare keeping it open for Baby to graze from, while protecting it from the other food zombies. Tray back in, lid back on, snap shut. Oh, she wants more. Un-snap, lid off, tray back out. Repeat 167 times. With the EasyLunchbox, I can just pop the lid on and off one-handed!*

*The Classics anyway. The new Brights seem to have a tighter fit. Or it may just be that any new ones have a tighter fit.

Mama's Lunch

Organic baby tomatoes, GF home-made "croutons;" organic salad w/mixed greens and blueberries;
beet, golden beet, and carrot scraps; sunflower seeds, raisins, hemp hearts, raspberry vinaigrette

You can see here that I've used some veggie scraps from other lunches. Some carrot coins that I used flower veggie cutters to pop flowers out for Z, plus chopped up scraps of beet, golden beet, and carrot mixed into the greens. (Usually the coins aren't large enough to leave a nice "frame," or they're funky-shaped because I'm crap at cutting even slices.)

My "croutons" were made the same way as my garlic toast for breakfast. Except I cut it into little bits. These weren't as crunchy as "real" croutons, but I kept them from getting too soggy overnight by waiting until they'd cooled to put them in a separate sealable container, and then left them on the counter while the rest of my lunch went into the fridge. Then I popped them in the lunch box in the morning before we left.
I pre-pack a mini fork in my EasyLunchbox, my "dry" salad ingredients (any nuts or seeds, raisins, etc) in a Mini Dipper, and my dressing in a Smidget. That way I can just grab and go. Because, you know. It's not like I'm ever running late or anything...

Tools of the Trade