If I grow it, I will eat it

Kids love to watch things grow. In the summer months, planting vegetables and taking care of them as they grow is a great way to get kids interested in a variety of fruits and veggies. In the winter however, this is a little difficult. But we have discovered something simple to grow indoors that be both love to eat - sprouts! (There are some things to consider when deciding to grow and eat sprouts that I won't get into in this post - but you can read more about it here.)

It only takes a few days to grow fresh sprouts, after that they can be stored in your fridge for up to a week. We like to use the mixes so that we can see a variety of seeds sprouting, and it tastes great. We use them in stir-frys, sandwiches, wraps, fresh spring rolls, sushi rolls, and just as they are. Often I will tuck a small handful in among Munch's other fruits and veggies in her lunch - she loves them plain!


What you need:

- sprout seeds (can be picked up a your local health food store)
- mason jars
- screen/mesh cover for the jars
- elastics
- a stand to keep the jars at a tilt (I used an old wooden wine rack)

Directions:

1. Add 1 - 2 tablespoons seeds to a mason jar
2. Fill jar half way with water and let soak 2 - 6 hours
3. Cover jar with screen/mesh cover
4. Drain soaking water
5. Rinse a few times with fresh water, then drain completely
6. Invert jar at an angle and keep it this way as seeds sprout
7. Repeat rinsing morning and night until sprouts are grown, 3 - 5 days

Happy sprout munching!

Operation Snowman

Christmas rice crispies, bottle of milk, pear & kiwi & green beans & raspberries,
pepernoten, Mr. Snowman!

I never thought about making a theme lunch, until I started to make Munch's lunch today. For a change, I decided to give her cereal with milk - her idea. The cereal is the Christmas colored rice crispies and for fun I thought I would try to match the colors with the fruits and veggies. I then added some more pepernoten as these are the little cookies given out to children in Holland during the Christmas season.




But to make this lunch come together, I thought it could use a little Christmas treat. I gave Munch three marshmallows, some black licorice lace, and some other black candies. She put them together with a shish kabob skewer and created a beautiful little snowman! Way to go Munch... I love this little guy!

Munch loves to get involved with the preparation of her meals and snacks - she is much more likely to eat those things that she has helped making. Even if this particular one is a treat - she thought the theme was so fun and likes to show her friends at school. This poor little snowman ended up being split into three for three hungry grade 5'ers! No wonder he looks a little down - anticipating his fate?

A Local Bakery - A Local Baker

Top half: Julienne carrots, green beans, honeycrisp apple slices, raspberries.
Bottom half: Raisins, pepernoten, cheesy bread, spinach and feta Borek.

Today's lunch is pretty simple - one of the quick ones. Munch rarely gets sandwiches anymore... too many years of sandwich lunches has gotten her a little bored of them. I am always looking for new things that she enjoys eating that are for the days I don't feel like making much. I have gotten into the habit of buying cheesy bread sticks that are fresh baked in a local bakery and storing them in the freezer for one of these days.

Another of Munch's favorite is something called Borek. It is a type of pastry with a savory filling. The fillings can be various different things like spinach, cheese, potato, red pepper, onion, parsley, etc. My personal favorite is a combo of spinach with parsley. Munch's favorite is spinach with feta cheese. We are extremely lucky to have someone in town who makes these fresh weekly and sells them at the farmers market. Whenever we have a chance to go visit the market and scoop some up - we go. Going before 10 is important - they disappear fast! The wonderful lady (and my friend!) who makes these is Meral - look for her - she will always greet you with a smile.

Borek can be kept easily in the freezer - just like the bread sticks. For both of these (when I am ready to make Munch's lunch), I defrost them in the microwave for a few seconds, then cut them into easy to eat pieces. Takes only a few seconds! I hope one day I can learn how to make these both. What is locally made and delicious in your area?

Gimme Something Good to Eat!

I should have maybe posted this closer to Halloween, but I have a feeling that those treats may still be hanging around in some of our houses - they sure are in mine! Looking back on my posts I have realized that it may appear that Munch gets few treats in her lunch, but let me assure you - she does.

Being a student in a Nutrition program, I have always been concerned about treats - to give or not to give? Through my schooling I have learned that treats in moderation are ok, and have become much more relaxed about the whole issue.

With Munch, I try to add one thing each day for her treat. I should it was important to mention this because often it cannot be seen in my photo's - I tend to slip it into her lunch bag as we are running out the door. I am ok with her eating treats if she is also eating her regular lunch - which she almost always does.

One of our favorite yearly traditions is to sort, count and pile collected Halloween candy - very fun! Then we look at it all and "ooo" and "aah" at our beautiful stash. These will serve as little lunch treats for a long time to come - well at least until the Christmas treats start showing up.

Snacking on Fruits and Vegetables...

In the beginning of this school year, I decided to challenge myself with Munch's snacks. Since she started full time school, I had always found it easier to throw some store bought prepackaged snacks in her lunch. I tried to include fresh fruit and vegetables whenever possible, but found it took much more time to clean, cut, chop and organize. But this year I wanted to try harder and change it, and so I did. After a week or two I got faster and much more organized - I am happy to say that it has now become second nature! I have also become much more creative and Munch rarely comes home from school with uneaten fruits and vegetables. Here are a few ideas I have used that work quite well.

1. Keeping it colorful! I don't know about anyone else, but I love eating from a dish with a variety of color - so fun. Kids love it too. Munch will sometimes arrange her snack into the colors of a rainbow.

2. Making shapes. Auntie sent over these very cool cutters. They are smaller than average cookie cutters and work great with fruits and vegetables. It does take a bit of time to cut these out, but once in awhile it is a fun surprise. I believe these are intended for bento box style lunches and Auntie found them at an Asian market.

3. Variety. I have now gotten into the habit of shopping for a variety of fruits and vegetables. I get a little bit of a large variety so that nothing goes to waste, and I can give her different things daily. This is also good if you are not quite sure what your little one likes, they will be able to pick and choose what they feel like eating that day. For those of you wondering what the dark purple vegetable is - they are purple colored heirloom carrots (which I don't suggest to be used on the shish kabobs, they apparently were too hard to get off).

4. Making it fun. For a few lunches I have made fruit and veggie shish kabobs. These were a huge hit! Munch came back from school after the first time having them telling me her friends were bugging her to try the different fruits and veggies on the kabobs! It is almost like they expected them to taste differently!

5. Dipping. Dips, I have heard, are a favorite for some kids. Munch for some reason or another, has never really liked them, she likes her fruits and veggies plain - she also rarely uses salad dressing. But for some kids it is a must - so I thought I should include it. Some ideas... yogurt dips, ranch, hummus, and salad dressings.

What works for kids you know?

Something Chili on a Chilly Day...

As the days become a little colder, a warm lunch becomes very appealing. Recently Munch went on a field trip to something called "Earthkeepers" which is a program that teaches grade 5 students about the environment and the preservation of it. The program is typically three days long and is taught by trained high school students who are under the supervision of the program directors. I went along as a parent supervisor one of the days and had a good time watching the kids have fun learning - and took a few pictures.

They spend almost all of their time outside walking through a foresty area stopping at various learning areas along the way. The week that they went, the mornings had already become quite cold with frost on the ground. I thought that this was a good time to give a thermos of warm chili along. I planned ahead and made it for dinner the night before with enough for both our lunches the next day.
Seen here is her chili in a stainless steel thermos, some bread and butter (who doesn't like to dip bread and butter in warm chili?!?), a container with specialty Halloween popcorn and a treat, and a container full of carrots, radishes, pear and kiwi. I have stopped using a recipe for chili and lately have just tried to "wing" it - with great results. I will post under recipes what I did to make this particular one. Does anyone else have warm lunch idea's?

'Tis the Season to be Pumpkin!

Pumpkin pie! Pumpkin latte! Pumpkin scones! Pumpkin cheesecake! Pumpkin Loaf! Pumpkin muffin! Pumpkin pancakes! Pumpkin everything!

If any of you know me well, you will know this is my my favorite time of the year and pumpkin is my favorite flavor of everything! I cannot get enough pumpkin in my diet if I tried - and it's healthy to boot! Ok - well, with the exception of the flavored syrup a certain coffee shop likes to fill my latte cup half way full with... but still. Pumpkin is rich in anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals, low in calories,  a good source of fiber, very tasty and so fun to carve!

I like to use pumpkin year round and it usually ends up in pancakes or muffins. Muffins are mine and Munch's favorite thing to make and also one of our top snacks to munch on. They are also very good for lunches and often I will make around 24 of them, freeze them, and take them out as needed. This works very well on those mornings you find you don't have enough time to make a sandwich - sometimes a few good muffins will do the trick! Especially if you make them with whole wheat flour and a healthy fruit or vegetable - like pumpkin. These here are pumpkin cranberry muffins that we like to make and the recipe can be found here. I usually substitute half the all purpose flour for whole wheat and I like to add more spices.

Recently we have discovered the wonder of pumpkin pancakes - absolutely delicious! These are a "must try at least once" recipe - really, they are that good. Again, for this recipe I substitute half the all purpose flour with whole wheat and about double the spices (this recipe can be found here).

A few weeks ago, I tried the cold pancake left overs as part of Munch's lunch, and she loved it! So this is our new idea for the week - pancakes for lunch! She eats them cold with just a bit of powder sugar sprinkled on them and seems to love them that way. With the whole wheat and pumpkin, they fill her up well. Here her lunch container is seen with a handful of raspberries and a small container of powder sugar on the side. This is now one of her favorite lunches!




Happy Pumpkin Season! (that is over too soon - lucky Americans get it for longer!)

Avery's pretty posh kitty carved pumpkin - so cute!

Pack it up! Pack it in!

I was not sure if I should make a post or not about what containers to use for kid's lunches, but after some thought - I decided to go ahead with it. I realized how important presentation and organization is with food.... not only for adults, but for kids too.

There is so much choice for containers when it comes to packing a kids lunch. Different colors, sizes, designs, and materials - it's so hard to decide! Do you want to go plastic baggies and plastic wrap? Or do you want to use reusable containers and take the "garbage free" route?

Lately, Munch and I both have decided to take a more active role in being "green" with everything - and this means the garbage free lunch way. I went to my local environment friendly store and picked up a few containers. The first one is made of stainless steel and is sort of a bento box style (this is traditionally a container that holds everything all in one, snacks lunch and all). It has two layers, a lid, and clasps. This container is not leak proof but we have come up with a way to keep it from leaking - lining the bottom with a cloth or paper towel to absorb the extra fluid. In an effort to help with our "garbage free" initiative, my sister sewed us some absolutely adorable liners and napkins. This is a good example of a way to add special little touches to your kids lunch that make them more intriguing. Munch LOVES her Auntie's handmade things. You can see more of her handmade things here.

Here are some of the things Auntie made for Munch's lunch...

When I first came across the idea of the bento box, I thought that Munch wouldn't really go for it because I thought she would find it cumbersome to haul out her whole lunch for every single snack time as well as lunch. I assumed that when it was snack time she simply went to her backpack and pulled out her snack containers. But what I didn't realize is that all the kids grab their whole lunch box when it is snack time - so it didn't really matter. In fact, it worked to our benefit because now she finishes more of the food. If one snack is not enough, she will nibble on her lunch - and if the lunch isn't enough she will finish off her snack! It works great!

And to make it even more fun? I stuck some magnets on the stainless steel lid! I bought some magnetic words that are specifically for kids to make rhyming phrases or poems - Munch loves them and looks forward to discovering if her Mama can come up with something new and funny!
   
There are days though, that Munch needs a little more to eat so we bought a few more smaller containers to add in case she likes to have something extra. Munch likes to have things like yogurt and cottage cheese in these which works - because they are REALLY leak proof with their pp made lids. All of these containers are available in Guelph at the Footprints Eco Store - which is located downtown. Let me know how you pack it up!

Meet Munch - The tween eating machine!

I am mother to an active, fast growing, 10 year old daughter - this is she. She is just beginning to hit that "tween" stage and is currently in the middle of a growth spurt. I have never bought so many pairs of jeans and shoes for her as I have in the past year! And it feels like her appetite has nearly doubled in the past 6 months - no more sharing a restaurant dinner with her. I remember always being confused when I heard people complain about the ridiculous cost of raising kids when she was small. I thought, "A pack of diapers, some formula, and bites from my plate - That's not too bad!". Nobody told me it would all come at once... when you don't expect it... when you have gotten so used to their "smallness" that you have forgotten that they are on their way to becoming adults. One day you wake up to find your fridge empty, your pantry scarce - and you swear that you did groceries just 4 days ago!
     I am now the proud owner of an eating machine. For the purpose of this blog, we will call her Munch. This is for real the nickname she has had since her toddler years when I was just too busy to call her the full "munchkin" and it got shortened to this, and in my opinion is sweet and incredibly suitable - especially considering her current eating habits! Because her caloric needs have increased, so has her school lunch size and lately I have been thinking of new, colorful and healthy ideas to fulfill those needs. Hence the name of the blog, "Lunch For Munch". This blog is intended to be a place to share ideas, tips and the occasional recipe for kids lunches (and eating habits in general) and it is my hope that my readers will also share their knowledge so I too, can learn more. So, happy reading and welcome!