Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Lunch Box fun




Making lunch fun and interesting will help your child, or hubby, or even you own day a little bit better. My kids are homeschooled, but when they did go to school 8 years ago, they always had fun lunches packed. My friends would ask how i got my kids to eat veggies...they just always did...as toddlers, fresh broccoli was little trees. We would bite the top off of the tree, pretending to be a dinosaur. lol....silly but simple things to make eating healthy, fun.





My kids love sushi, yes even the sashimi, raw fish...but of course, taking fish in a lunchbox is not very safe unless you have early enough lunch and/or you have a place to keep it VERY cool,. but making sushi is fun, and really rather easy...and you can make it with just veggies or have tofu in it also. You can get a book on it at the library or just watch on you tube...my family loves to make it, 15.00 worth of sushi grade fish stuffs us all, and a restaurant it would cost that to tease one person. I am sure you could make sushi with fish and keep it cold enough, just be certain not to rely on an ice pack that is too small. It must be kept very cold...I recall the scene in the Breakfast Club where Molly Ringwald takes sushi and Jud Nelson comments on it.

Another alternative is to make basic wraps (lunch meat, even pb and jelly) and cut them into spirals and arrange them to "look like sushi" in a container. I made wraps like that for a picnic and everyone that walked up to the table asked if it was sushi...Its best to make the wrap, and put it in the frige a few hours before you slice it into spirals. It will keep its shape better. I like to flavor cream cheese and use that as the base before I add meats or chicken salad or even just veggies...green pepper, cucumber, spinach, whatever floats your boat. And of course they have tomato and spinach wraps to make it even more interesting. Blt spirals are so yummy and refreshing.








You could put the Sushi or the Spirals in a sandwich container or better yet, a cool bento box. They come in all shapes, sizes and materials they are made with. You can even get stacking stainless steel ones if you do not use plastic...I try not to use alot of plastic, but I pick my battles, sometimes ya just gotta use it!




Also you can put juice or some type of drink in a small canning jar with a lid. I use small canning jars in my cabinets for juice glasses to save space. We dont' use plastic cups or plastic storage containers in our house. Canning jars are my only food storage containers and I have all sizes for big and small storing jobs. The wide mouth small are cute for drinks and you could cushion it in a can huggy in the lunch box or even wrapt it in a cloth napkin, using it as the lunch napkin can help save the planet just a little more.

Another thing my kids love is a twist on the cream cheese sweet bologna spirals. Spread cream cheese (and if you flavor it with spices, even better) on a piece of sweet bologna, put a whole or even spear dill pickle on it and wrap it. Put in frige for about an hour and then slice them into spirals. I am telling you, this is sooo good.



And why not a little treat in the lunchbox. SUSHI CANDY!


Here are some fun sushi pics I found.


And this gives me a brilliant idea!!!!! (the sushi cake)...that is another post!












I totally had this lunch box when I was a kid!



2 comments:

Ellen said...

Wraps are great for lunches. My 15 year old daughter is packing lunches this year after a hiatus and we're having fun. Just made turkey wraps with cream cheese, spinach, and olives for her. I made one for me and added some chutney to give it a kick. Mmmm.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, at least for now. said...

I never had chutney, I have to try it. I will add your blog to my fav blogs.