Savory Muffins: Mexican

 

The kids, finally, talked me into letting them take sandwiches to school for their lunches.  At the beginning of the school year, I relented ... instead of leftovers, they could make sandwiches.  I guess they grew tired of them real quick because now we are looking for other options!! (just not leftovers!) I have been thinking that savory muffins might be a good bet.  Jono is home sick today and has taste tested these and given his thumbs up.  We will see what Alia thinks when she gets home in a bit. 

I tried to make these a bit 'mexican' ... will play around with different flavors and ingredients in subsequent batches.  I think the options will be endless!

what i used.

'dry' ingredients

4 cups self raising flour

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup grated cheese (I used half mozzarella and half tasty (white cheddar))
1 spring onion, chopped

1 cup canned corn, drained

1 (4oz) can green chiles

1/2 cup sliced green olives

a hand full of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

salt

pepper

 'wet' ingredients

3/4 cup olive oil

2 cups milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

what to do.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/375F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake papers ... or grease.  Whichever is your preference.  I use the papers. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Then add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Gently stir until just combined.   Don't over mix or your muffins will be tough.  (but make sure you get all the flour down at the bottom ... no one likes a bite of unmixed flour in their muffin!)  Bake in oven until golden.  Mine took 25 minutes.  In hindsight, I'd probably leave them another 5 minutes next time ... they are cooked but only just! 

I'm going to freeze these in individual ziplocks so they are easy for the kids to grab when they pack their lunches!

Creamy Parmesan Mustard Chicken Pasta

Ok, so you all know that we are eating no preservatives, no additives, no white flour, sugar etc this year. Well, when I don't have leftovers, and I've run out of bread, I have to cook something for lunches the next day. I could probably MAKE more bread but I'd rather cook ! I whipped this little beauty up at the beginning of the week and it lasted the four of us 3 lunches ! I'll tell you ... whole wheat pasta fills you up quicker and therefore stretches a lot longer than regular pasta !

Here's what I used ...
1 chicken breast
2 big handfuls of baby spinach
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, I think I slivered them
1.5 tablespoons whole grain seed mustard
3/4 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1 bag of whole wheat penne pasta

Here's what I did ...

Boil the pasta.

While that's boiling, sautee your onion and garlic, til onion is not raw and the garlic smells yum. Add chicken (and salt/pepper to taste) and cook til no longer pink. Add flour. Stir to coat chicken. Add cream, mustard, parmesan cheese and spinach. Stir to mix it up and cook for a few minutes while the cream thickens, cheese melts and spinach wilts.

Drain pasta and add to fry pan ... or if your frying pan isn't a really cool, really big, electric one that your brother in law gave you for Christmas, add your chicken sauce to your pasta !

I'm submitting this to Cooking Thursday ... hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. For more great recipes, check her Cooking Thursday posts each week !!

Rice Balls

Sent these in the lunches the other day.
Want to know how to make 'em ?
I've posted the 'how to'
before ... here.

I love gadgets ...

My mother in law gave me these cute little soy sauce holders years ago. They are perfect for sending with sushi lunches. However ... I've always had difficultly getting the soy sauce into them. When I was last in the States, I found a tiny little funnel at The Container Store. I bought it, brought it home, unpacked it and haven't seen it since. I think it must have gotten thrown away by accident. It was really tiny.

Anyway ... one morning, after pouring soy sauce all over my counter yet again, I had a flash of brilliance !! You know those little syringes that come with kids medicine ? Well ... I've got a bunch of them and they are perfect !! You just suck the soy sauce up into the syringe ...

and then squeeze it down into the bottle !!



Works wonders and now, these are not only handy, they are easy too ...

{lunches}

Lunches ...

But first ... dinner dishes.
I've always hated doing the dishes after dinner.
Ok, ok ... I always hate the dishes.
But especially after cooking dinner.
I cook dinners that take a bit of effort ... sometimes a lot of effort.
I do it because I love it.
But to have to do the dishes after has always been so discouraging.

A couple of months ago, Rory started doing the dishes after dinner !
Just out of the blue, he suggested that I have the dishwasher emptied before dinner
and he'd take care of the cleanup after dinner.

I'll tell you what ... it is wonderful !
I wake up every morning to a shiny clean kitchen and I didn't have to clean it !!

One thing that Rory has always hated doing is packing his lunch.
We've tried different things but really ... he just wanted me to do it ! :)
I don't mind doing it but the problem always was that I would be too tired after cooking
and then cleaning up to even think about packing lunches at night
and he leaves WAY TOO EARLY for me to do his
in the morning.

So ... this week, I started doing all of our lunches, at night.
And it works wonderfully !!

There's no scurrying around in the mornings anymore !!

And I pack much healthier lunches this way !

Here's the whole lot so you can see ...



I made a big fruit salad at the beginning of the week. It lasted three days.
This is the first time I've done that, I'll definitely be doing it again.
It was so easy to just grab the big container and scoop it into each of our boxes !

I also try to incorporate as many leftovers as possible.

Here's the kids lunches for tomorrow ...
The spaghetti is leftover from earlier in the week.
The foccacia from last night's dinner.
They have fruit salad,
"greek" salad ... it's just tomato, kalamata olives, feta cheese and yellow bell pepper chunks,
a hard boiled egg, and a yogurt.



My lunch is similar to the kids, except I'm having leftover spaghetti with the leftover sauce.
And I'm having crackers instead of foccacia. And no yoghurt.

Rory needs a much bigger lunch.
He works loooooooooooooong hours.
He has lasagna that I pulled out of the freezer.
A ham sandwich.
The tomato/lettuce are to put on the sandwich at work.
(I keep 'em separate ... who likes a soggy sandwich ?!)
Fruit salad, hard boiled egg, crackers, and a bar.



And here we are ... all stacked up in the fridge, ready to go in lunchboxes in the morning !

What's for Lunch ?

A yummy snack ...

Cheese slices, tomato slices, Vita Wheats and Annie's Honey Muesli Slice.

See how perfectly these fit in the kids lunch boxes ??
And there's room for other stuff on the top !

What's for Lunch ?

Leftover sushi rice, inari-zushi pockets, Annie's Honey Muesli Slice and some grapes.

Kids loved this one.

What's for Lunch ?

I just love my new bento lunch boxes ! They are so handy ! And just perfect for leftovers ! And look how well it fits in my fancy beer world bag ! You know, the green bags you get to put a six pack in ? I saw it in the grocery store and thought it looked handy ... and what do you know ? It was $1.50 well spent !!

And it's classy...

Oh.

Really ?

Not classy ?

Ok ... we'll stick with handy !

And in my classy handy beer world bag, I can fit other things. Like cutlery, a drink, fruit, etc ...

I love how the bits and pieces come out. So, if I want to heat a bit up, I can just pull it out and heat it up ...

In this bento we've got Lamb Skewers and Mango Chutney leftovers.
Dried Apricots.
and
Annie's Honey Muesli Slice

Have you tried the Lamb Skewers yet ?
Come on people !
What are you waiting for ?

I've already made it again !!

Budget Success, Health and Bento Boxes !!

I am so excited about my grocery budget ...
read why at my Simple Beauty blog ... go on, I'll wait 'til you get back.

Isn't that cool ??

Another one of our goals for this year is to eat healthy.
We do pretty well already but we want to do better.

I read this book a couple of years ago and found it to be full of lots of really good info. I also subscribe to Dr. Furhman's blog ... it is packed full of lots of good stuff. Recipes too. His website is good too although I think you have to become a member to see some things ... I haven't done that. This section gives you a good synopsis of the book, if you are interested.

So ... the food pyramid below is from his book ... or site ... I don't remember now where I found it. But ... it's how we are trying to eat this year. Lots of fruits, veggies, legumes ... well, look at the pyramid, you'll see.

It makes sense ... eating the food that gives you the most nutrition per calorie ... You don't fill up as fast so you eat more which gives you more nutrition. As opposed to eating the high calorie, low nutritional value foods that fill you up quick and don't give you the nutrients you need ...

As you would have read in my other post that you went to and read before ... right ? You went there, didn't you ? Alright ... go there now. I'll wait. AGAIN.

You back ?

So, you read about how we want to reduce waste. Reduce it to none at all.

One of our strategies is to eat dinner leftovers for lunches. All of us. Kids too. For ages, I've been wanting to get some bento lunch boxes. To make lunches like these or these or these ... But, the boxes are not cheap, so I've not bought them.

Well ...

LOOK . WHAT . I . FOUND !!

At the grocery store !! 50% off ! For $3.25 each. The perfect little bento boxes !! I bought one for each of us and we've used them almost every day since !!

I just love them. Watch for them as I continue my "What's For Lunch ?" series ...

What's for Lunch ?

My kids like a bit of Spaghetti with their Parmesan Cheese for lunch ...

What's for Lunch ?

Jono and Alia love it when I put sushi in their lunches.

I usually just make them kappamaki ... cucumber rolls.

What's for Lunch ?

My kiddos love Equadorian Quinoa Vegetable Soup !!

I top it with a bit of cheese, add some corn chips and a spoon. Easy, yummy, healthy lunch !

I think next winter I will get them thermoses that can go in their lunch boxes so they can have their soups warm !

A new series ...

Does anyone else get tired of putting the same old things in their kid's lunch boxes ?? I'm so on the lookout for new things to give the kids ... homemade things that travel/keep well !!

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to post a series of lunch box ideas ... would you like to join me ?? Go ahead, grab the "what's for lunch...?" above, post to your blog and then link back here, or post right here if you are an author ! I'd love to see what you put in your kid's lunch boxes ! Or your husband's lunch box .... or your own lunch box ... or your neighbor's lunch box ... I'm not really picky about who the lunch box is for ... I just want to see what is in it !!

Here's a different sandwich idea that my kids love. I don't often keep cream cheese in the house, but when I do have it, they love this simple, refreshing sandwich. Cream cheese and sliced cucumber. Try it, you'll like it !!

Ps ... how do you like the lunch box drawing ?? Yep ... it was me ! Hidden talents, I tell ya !!