School has started and I am still in HOLIDAY mode… gawwwwww……

So no pics as I have been rushing out the door, and quite frankly I’ve been lazy. *sorry*

Lunch Idea #13 – Monday: Pork Floss on Sour dough sandwich, dried mangoes, dried apples and Vitawheats

Lunch Idea #14 – Tuesday: Tuna, avocado and tomato dip with rice crackers, Vegemite vitawheat biscuits, dried apple and cranberries

Lunch Idea #15 – Wednesday : Avocado and cream cheese on sourdough sandwich, dried mango and dried apple.

So, slight variations there, and a good use of an avocado. Still sticking with the varied texture which still makes things interesting….. and gives their jaws an exercise not that Missy A needs it OMG she won’t SHUT UP these days!

Apart form lunches, I’ve been busy slowly decorating our little humble home. Here’s one of our walls.

I have been wanting to do this for ages in terms of ’summarising’ our year up where each month has a photo to represent that month and then putting it into a book so we have a collection of every year we have as a family and for the rest of our lives. So if you have a closer look, each frame has a month to it, and i’ve finally printed out up until March. Will wait for the end of April to decide on which pic we will use. I love it! Um… that big BROWN one is well.. June I think. hehehe I ran out of frames and also Js. BARh.. so its special for this year. This is super easy, and cheap too. I bought the frames from Ikea and these were the odd ones from the ‘As Is’ bins so they were even cheaper. Missy A and I painted them up with shiny black paint bought from Bunnings, and then hot glued gun the wood letters that were bought from Riot. I think it all costed up like… $12 for frames, $4 for letters and $4 for paint. *shrug* something like that anyway.

AND here’s a pic to melt your hearts…….

…she thinks its funny when we sneeze!

Hahaha I think my title for this project keeps changing.

Anyway, I recently watched a little bit of an interview of Jamie Oliver when he was down in Oz, and everything he said… I SAID! Lol.. he’s stealing my stuff! hahaha… anyway what he said about School LUNCHes and kids these days went somewhere along the lines of that packing their lunches should have a variety.

He said: “Different textures”

I say: “Something crunchy, something mushy something soft, something hard?”

He said: ” Different colours”

I say:” Abit of green, abit of red, abit orange, abit of yellow…. anything blue??”

Anyway, this was last week’s school lunch box.

See all the colours!

School Lunch idea #6: Edamame, cherry tomatoes, Tasty Cheese, Wholemeal Vitawheats and peas and corn. IF you look closely, there’s also two gummy treats to balance out the healthy stuff as a surprise.

School Lunch idea #7: Banana bread, Carrot sticks, Grapes and a plum (COLOUR COLOUR! So exciting!) This time was a sweet one.

School Lunch Idea #8: Pork floss sandwich on 10 seeds bread, small seving of cherry tomatoes, Tasty cheese, Vitawheat, and cranberries.

School Lunch Idea #9: Homemade carrot, zucchini and bacon quiche, plums and fruit nuggets made from 99% fruits!

The QUICHE was really easy to make and could be made the night before, or atleast all the prep can be done the night before. All you need to do is shred the carrot,  zucchini and cheese. THen cut up frozen puff pastry into squares. As it defrosts place the pastry into a muffin tray with the bottom lined with a small piece of baking paper so that it comes out really easily when it is cooked. Press the pastry in lightly. In a mixing bowl, stir up eggs, a dash of milk, shredded vegies, and cheese (saving some later for the top). Scoop spoonfuls of mixture into the cases and top it off with the left over cheese. Bake in over until golden brown (approx 20mins).EASY.

So depending how many you want to make, will depend on the quantity. Sorry, I’m not very good at putting quatities for recipes, because… I’m asian?? I just… “agar agar”.

I only made 6 quiches, and I used 3 eggs, and my muffin tray was one of those mid size ones??

OK… Hope that helped or inspired. THinking about Jamie Oliver now, I hope that you are inspired to giving your kids healthy lunch boxes, because what we feed them now will make them what they will be tomorrow!

OK, so what are we up to now… #5??

Lunch Box Idea #5: Avocado sushi, mummy’s b’day cupcake, handful of grapes and Vegiemite Cruskits.

THe sushi was surprisingly easy to make. As I got out of bed, I put 1/2 cup of sushi rice into the rice cooker to cook, and by the time I got breakfast ready, got the girls dressed and organised, the rice was cooked. Then poured in about 1/2 teaspoon of sushi vinegar, mixed it up and spread it onto the skin. Squeezed a line of Japanese mayo in a line, line avocado… then ROLL and cut. FRESH AND REALLY EASY. OTherwise if you are pushed for time, just make the rice the night before and keep it in the fridge. Then in the morning, warm it up in the microwave and roll your sushi!

OKs so you see… I’m not a food photographer but you get the picture….

Lunch Box Idea #6: Chicken Avocado Wrap, croissants and grapes.

Again, so so simple. When you wake up, start up the oven. Bang in the chicken tender (you can find these in most supermarkets), set the timer 15 minutes. Brush teeth, get everyone else ready. When done, microwave the skin for about 15 seconds so that it is soft to work with, slab on mayo, line up avocado, and place the chicken in its place. WRAP and GO!

BTW, it was my b’day on Wednesday, and IT WAS THE BEST B’DAY EVER! Will write more about it over the weekend, but when that post comes up you will probably see that I’m one of the simplest person ever. Or atleast lucky for Dave… very Low Maintenance, and by LOW I mean like McDonalds for Anniversary LOW.

Ok, so every now and then, as a parent you get a few “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards, and today was one of them when it came to Missy A’s school lunch box.

I think that the less often I make sandwiches for her… the more often I could possibly make them during those times when I just… CBF don’t have enough time. Today’s lunch box menu consists of:

Lunch Box Idea #4:

Strawberry Jam sandwich on wholemeal bread, A custard bun (saved from yesterday’s Yum Cha), a few Ritz Crackers, and dried cranberries.

ANOTHER “Get Out of Jail Free” cards, in which I intend to use on those REALLY bad days are… LUNCH ORDERS! But then again, like the game Monopoly, there should really only be two of those cards in the game.

For the REST of the week’s School lunch box Menu:

Lunch Box Idea #5: Avocado sushi handroll and

Lunch Box Idea #6: Homemade quiches….. Hopefully….

Am I up to three?? I dunno, but I know that I’ve but last week was alittle on the slack side because Missy A had a day off school, my mother-in-law hosted a sleep-over (hence I didn’t have to bother), and well, our stove is stuffed! Damn you Whirlpool and Ikea!

So anyway, I only really managed to get together one pic of last weeks lunch.

With no usable stove, all my plans of steaming foods, and baking quiches went out the door, so maybe next week. Lucky for us and advancing technology, we had a wonderful microwave! So this school lunch idea is SUPER simple. Edamame! Missy A loves this. While we were in M’sia, she tried her first taste at a Japanese restaurant, and every since… loves loves this.

ANYWAY, so School Lunch Ideas #3?: Microwaved Edamame (Fresh green soya beans, that you can find in an asian grocery store in the frozen foods section – kinda like you would for frozen peas), cut carrots, slice of cheese, dried peas, cranberries and sultanas and for an extra treat, one of those fruit muesli bars.

Next week’s school lunch box idea may include baked mini quiches, some muffins, and possible that Orrechiates that we so loved – but this time with wholemeal flour! YUM!

I did say that I was going to take photos of the lunches I make for Missy A… but Um.. I’m not perfect and we tend to always be RUNNING out of the door on school mornings. LITERALLY.  So I have… two pics do far.

School Lunch Idea #1: Steamed broccoli, dried cranberries and sultanas, rice cakes and YUP you see right… a CUPCAKE! (How lucky is she huh??)

School Lunch Idea #2: Sourdough bread sandwich with chinese pork jerky (OMG.. yummiest ever, not so sure about healthy, but I could eat this EVERYDAY), cherry tomatoes, dried peas, and raspberry & blueberry jelly.

I like to give her a few different textures and in my head, its like something healthy, something not… it all balances out. So the last school lunch idea has something mushy, something crunchy, something chewy and then something… fresh.

My last post idea, I had Orechiate pasta which we planned to make for dinner and then for her school lunch… and WE DID! AND OMG.. it was so so yummy, so will put up that recipe for that and in the meantime here’s a pic of us making it…

We ate everything up and forgot to take pics.. hehehe… sorry but will defintely be making more this week, so yeh. Coming… Sooon…