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Adventures in Nature Camp Food-a-Go-Go
Friday, July 11, 2008
First let me say that, yes... we're still homeschooling. 1.) I just haven't been blogging about it and 2.) we've been on a minimal schooling schedule this summer due to camps and trips. So those that visit this blog specifically for homeschooling related posts, stay tuned--- more are to come in the not-so-far-off future.
What HAS been going on this week is Adventures in Nature Camp! A full day (9am-3pm) week-long camp at a local forest preserve. Kiddo has been fishing and swimming in the man-made lake (formerly a rock quarry), canoeing (even having to be capsized so the kids could learn how to right a canoe, get to shore, etc), bicycling trails (10 miles that day!), hiking a local bog, and today is horseback riding. Each day had an activity as well as a lesson in nature... from sustainable fishing, snakes of the county, fish habitats, bog ecology & animal adaptation/survival, animal camouflage and predators, and more. Kiddo has REALLY, REALLY enjoyed the camp.
For lunches and snacks this week I had to pack stuff that could be kept cold with our little ice packs since they were kept in her backpack and activities were all outside.
Here's what i made this week:
--MONDAY--
 Lunch: Chickpea Cutlet strips w/ ketchup & mustard, cauliflower and green pepper mini-skewers,
and cucumber flowers, sticky rice w/ a soy sauce fish, red grapes, a grape gel,
vanilla yogurt w/ granola to sprinkle on (tiny yellow container), string cheese,
and a fun "toy soldier" breadstick thing from my sister in Japan.
 Snack: Apple wedges (preserved for the day in lemon juice)
w/ peanut butter to spread on (in the little red and blue elephants),
banana bread cubes, and a Japanese candy. (I put some tomato
pretzel sticks in the lid where the plasticware is, too,
but did that after I'd take this photo.)
And, just because it is cute, here's a photo of the snack box
wrapped up in a cloth ( furoshiki) from a different bento box.
I wrapped al lthe snack boxes this week.
--TUESDAY--
 Lunch: Japanese egg noodles w/ a quick stir-fry I made that
morning (carrots, zucchini, bean sprouts, & broccoli) w/a little
bottle of noodle sauce (Kikkoman Memmi sauce),
fresh broccoli and dip, deli chicken meat rolls and string cheese,
and vanilla yogurt w/ pineapple tidbits, granola and raw peanuts on top.
 Snack: kiwi, goldfish crackers and 4 gummie butterflies.
--WEDNESDAY--
 Lunch: Roast Beef, mustard and baby spinach tortilla roll-ups
(she had no idea that was spinach in there, not till I picked her up from camp.
She LOVED it and was glad I didn't tell her beforehand), pickle bites (in the saran wrap),
vanilla yogurt w/ granola to sprinkle on, a fruit gel, rice ball w/ soy sauce fish,
fresh cucumber slices, green pepper and baby carrots, Koala Cookies.
 Snack: Nectarine wedges (ice pack underneath),
homemade granola bar, raisins and raw peanuts.
--THURSDAY--
 Lunch: Pizza "tacos" (spaghetti sauce, mozz. cheese, turkey pepperoni,
and crush pineapple on a tortilla, green pepper, baby carrots, cucumber slices,
and cauliflower w/ ranch dip (pink lidded container), goldfish crackers, mandarin
oranges (frozen and used as the cold pack today, were thawed enough by
lunch time), and a White Rabbit candy.
 Snack: Tomato pretzels, raisins, raw peanuts, pineapple gel,
homemade granola bar, and nectarine slices (on a cold pack)
--FRIDAY--
 Lunch: (by request) Pizza tacos again, celery w/ peanut butter, kiwi,
green peppers and baby carrots, goldfish crackers, and fruit leather.
 Snack: Tomato pretzel stticks, raisins and raw peanuts,
homemade granola bar, 3 prunes, and 3 grape butterfly gummies.
Now, lest you think this is a lot of food... my daughter turns 11 next week and is over 5 feet tall. (5'2" I think.) The kids expend a LOT of energy at camp. She usually has saved back one thing from her snack box each day to eat on the way home (about a 10 minute trip.) It all gets eaten. Drink each day is one small (laptop lunchbox size) bottle of fruit juice w/ lunch, all other drink is plain water carried in her backpack. We freeze her water bottles each night half-full of water and top off the bottle with cold water in the morning. It's worked pretty well at supplying her with cold water all day. Her backpack gets heavy to carry (thus even more energy expended. LOL) but it's worth it to have cold water all day.
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A Treat for DH
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
So my dear hubby will be home in a couple hours or less (I think his plane lands in about 30 minutes.) I decided to whip him up a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies, from the Veganomicon cookbook (I have it out from the library again!) I did, however, find the same recipe online, in case any of ya'll would like to try it, too!
My dough only yielded 28 cookies, as apparently my "heaping tablespoon" heaps more than most. LOL I just tried one and they're DELISH! The recipe makes a VERY stiff cookie dough, but takes shape very well.
 Here they are, in their last minutes of cooling.
Changes I made were (because that's what I had on hand today):
- skim milk instead of rice/soy milk
- I used 1/2 and 1/2 of whole wheat pastry and whole wheat white
- I was out of raisins, but had a bucket of dried chopped mixed fruits (raisins, apples, apricots, pears--I think that's what in it) and used that instead.
- I subbed 1/2 c. of sucanat (turbinado sugar) instead of the brown sugar, too.
**And, to pass on the bit of news from my pal, Kay... the Veganomicon book's price at Amazon has dropped drastically! It was nearly $30 last time we looked, right now it is less than $19! |
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Traditional made Untraditionally
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
My lunch for today (still eating it, in fact, as I type):
 Eggless Egg Salad with romaine lettuce on whole wheat toast,
cucumber wedges, edamame, & a white peach
I was totally amazed by the tasty results this morning when I made Vegan Dad's Eggless Salad. The only thing it is missing (because I am currently out) is the beloved crunch of celery. Granted, as we're not vegans I used Miracle Whip Light instead of veganaise. Wow, I was really floored when I tasted it. Why? I shouldn't have been. I KNOW tofu is a "non-taste" so this would taste like mustard/mayo combo. But, I was. Happily surprised. |
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At it again...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Well after taking the guinea pigs to the vet for a pedicure  , picking up our dry goods from the food co-op (across town, aack!) and bopping by the grocery for a few things, I finally got around to making dinner. Hubby will be back tomorrow so tonight it was just kiddo and me.
Though I've not blogged a whole lot about it yet, I've been taking 4-5 days worth of meat out of our dinner meals. I've seen this type of eating called "flexitarian" around the internet. We're not anywhere close to being vegans and have a long way to go (though we're not even trying to head down that path) to even be vegetarians. Instead, DH and I just want to continue to eat healthier and healthier. I've been loving trying all sorts of new recipes. My poor ol' dear buddy, Kay, probably grimaces each time I message her about some new recipe I'm trying for the day. LOL
Well anyway, one of the items I got this month (they were out of it last month) was 10# of whole wheat elbow pasta. Of course, that meant that some good ol' Macaroni and Cheese was in order! And with DH away, what a perfect time to experiment with a new recipe! (Though, he's my BIGGEST fan-- he always seems to really love whatever it is I make. It's FUN to cook for happy tastebuds!)
So earlier this morning I'd come across this recipe for Easy Macaroni and Cheeze from the Fat Free Vegan blog. Now, I have to admit I've always been a MAJOR fan of Velveeta Shells and Cheese. When I became a mac and cheese snob, I've no idea... but the little blue box with the powder cheese hasn't been appealing for years. But I love me some creamy, dreamy velveety shells and cheese. So, having read all sorts of raves about this recipe, I decided to try it... and try it with an open mind. Plus, I'd gotten 3# of nutritional yeast flakes in the co-op order today, too... so I was ready to go!
WOOHOO! I'm sooooo glad I did! It was REALLY tasty! No, it doesn't really taste like Velveeta Shells and Cheese but it had a yummy flavor all its own. Granted, we're already used to eating whole wheat pasta, so that wasn't an issue for us. (Folks who've not yet made the switch to ww pasta, might find it too much to try TWO new flavors together at once. maybe.) In any case, while the pasta was boiling I whipped up the other ingredients in the blender. Tasted the results... hmmmm interesting, thought I. But boy, was it sure runny. I was NOT quite seeing how this super liquidy orange-ish concoction was going to turn into something creamy on the pasta. But, as fate would have it the recipe says, once the sauce was poured onto the drained noodles and stirred altogether over the heat, it worked! It really did! I was totally amazed and delighted.
I did make a few changes, based on ingredients on hand...
- I used wet (prepared/regular) yellow mustard instead of dry mustard. I didn't measure it, just used a couple squirts.
- I did add extra turmeric. Truth be told I was trying to get it that crazy, day-glow orange color we're so fond of.
- I used skim milk... as I said, we're not vegetarians.
- I added a touch more garlic (in the form of garlic pepper).
- I did need to use quite a bit of that "saved pasta water" merely because I was slow to get the rest of dinner made and the mac and cheeze was thickening too much. No fear though. Each and every time I added some of the pasta water, the cheeze sucked it right in and the consistency continued on its lovely creamy fashion.
Here's a picture of kidd's dinner plate tonight, sporting the scrumptious new food.
 The bowl contains cantelope.
Plate has cucumber slices, mac and cheeze,
BBQ seitan bites, and steamed broccoli.
Cup of skim milk on the side.
Here's my bowl of dinner.
 (Yes, I'd started to eat it before I remembered to take the photo!LOL)
Mac and Cheeze with albacore tuna and steamed, chopped broccoli.
(I'd already eaten my cucumber wedges while cooking dinner!)
And here's a close up of it, in case you want to try to smell it. 
So, DH will be having some of this sometime in the future, too. I'm on the phone with him right now (yes, NOW) as a matter of fact. LOL I've told him all about it already.
Well off to vacuum the living room! |
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Christian Youth Theatre Camp bentos-a-go-go
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Since our homeschool group season is over we've not had many opportunities for using our bento gear. However, summer camps have started and things will be picking up again.
This week kiddo (turning 11 in July!) has been going daily from 9a-3p to CYT camp. I pack her lunch in a Laptop Lunch Box and a snack in one of the bento boxes on hand. Campers were given the opportunity to buy a "snack card" for a week's worth of snacks but DD and I thought it would be better to have her bring her own snacks. Anyway, here is what her meals were for the week (Friday is a Pizza party so no lunch/snack packing required.)
-MONDAY LUNCH-
 Brown rice balls with soy sauce fish,
string cheese, ham roll-ups, and Goldfish crackers, and ham/lettuce/mustard roll-up
apple chunks, cauliflower, cucumber flowers, and ranch dip
-MONDAY SNACK-
 Butter-flavored pretzel sticks (from my sister, stationed in Japan! Thanks seester!)
Two tiiny tubs of sunflower seeds, jell-o, homemade granola bar, piece of Japanese candy.
-Tuesday Lunch and Snack-
 LUNCH-- (New pink, multi-piece bento box set, again from my wonderful seester!)
Ham roll-ups, shaker of paramesan cheese, vegetable spiral pasta w/ garlic blend on it
Cucumber flowers, carrots, and green peppers, apple wedges, mini green grapes, string cheese, and tiny tub of sunflower seeds
SNACK-- Fruit leather, Japanese gel cup, homemade granola bar
-Wednesday Lunch-
 Fresh veggies, jell-o
Brown rice ball w/ soy sauce fish
Apple wedges
Ham, lettuce, mustard tortilla roll-ups
100 calorie brownie
-Wednesday Snack-
 In our newest bento box (thanks seester!)...
Yogurt raisins, blueberry oatmeal square, mini green grapes
Homemade granola/dried fruit mix with Koala cookies
and cute little orange carrot scoop to scoop up the granola!
-Thursday Lunch-
 Fresh veggies and grapes, string cheese, chicken roll-ups
Vanilla yogurt with rainbow butterfly sprinkles
Vegetable spiral pasta with garlic blend and parmesan shaker
-Thursday Snack-
 Dried fruit, jell-o and Koala cookies with buttery-pretzels.
As you can see, nothing fancy. She truly is one for more simple lunches. I made up the pasta and rice balls early so they were both handy to include in the lunches. They're both favorites of hers. She really liked the tortilla roll-ups this week. Heck, she liked it all she said. (I had no doubt she would.) In case you're wondering, when we're at home many of our lunches are from previous nights' leftovers, but for camp this week I needed something that could be eaten cold (kept cold with freezer "blue ice" in the lunch pack. The jell-o cups I made kept fine at room temperature since I made them "jiggler quality" instead of normal jell-o quality so it wouldn't turn watery.
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Catch-up on lunches-a-go-go
Friday, February 15, 2008
Here are a few photos of recent-ish lunches I've not yet shared. For those wondering, we attend a homeschool co-op on most Mondays from 12-4pm. We take our lunches to eat before classes start.
Click images to see them larger and with "note boxes" to mouse over.
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Recent Bento lunches
Monday, December 10, 2007
Those that have asked me here ya go, more of our recent bento lunches. I'm still loving using the Laptop Lunch Boxes but am looking forward to a box my seester's sending us that she says contains some Japanese bento items she's found locally. Click images for a larger view and for content notes.
Homeschool co-op is off till the first week of January so I don't think we'll be making to-go lunches until then! |
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