Spring rolls

It's been hot here. My 5 year old loves munching on salads. We had a big salad for dinner last night. She suggested spring rolls for lunch because of the heat. It's basically a salad in a rice paper wrap. Actually, we put anything in them from rice and lentils, to cut up fruit and yogurt. They are fun to eat too. 

Today I made rice paper wraps with black beans, tofu, arugula with a homemade vinaigrette. You can get the rice paper from any asian market. I go to an Asian market called Ranch 99. They come in square or circle and many different sizes. I find the small square size is easiest to wrap. 

Black beans, tofu, arugula and vinaigrette on a soaked rice paper.

First, you wet one sheet of the dried rice paper by soaking in a big bowl of water for about 10 seconds. Remove and put on a plate. It will start to soften by itself. Add your ingredients to one corner. Try not to over fill or you won't be able to wrap it. Next, you fold the bottom corner onto the ingredients. Then fold over the 2 side corners to the center of the ingredients. Roll until you get to the top corner and voila, a spring roll! 

my 3 year old couldn't wait until lunch to eat her spring rolls!

Once you make them, they have a tendency to stick together so make sure you add something to prevent them from sticking to each other or it will break when you try to separate them. I used some celery sticks to keep them from sticking. In the top tier, I added strawberries and peaches. In her cloth baggie she has some gluten free cheese crunchies. 

Her lunch is not completely zero-waste because she has a mango gel cup and a yogurt stick. I went to volunteer at her school for snack time and she already ate one! :-)

Half Day = A Big Snack!

Today my 5 year old has a half day. This means no lunch. I thought I could try and increase her snack and see how she does. My friend Denise, mentioned that this is what she usually does too. 


Since my daughter decided on breakfast and lunch for her first day of school, I thought I'd let her pick what we ate for dinner. She picked pizza. Gluten-free pizza and a salad with balsamic dressing. I really love Bob's Redmill Homemade Wonderful Bread mix. I use it instead of the GF Pizza Crust mix because it tastes better in my opinion. We put onions, spinach and olives. I don't eat dairy so I made the other half without cheese. 


For her snack today, I popped in a slice of the left-over pizza, sans onions (notice the circles in the pizza?). Cut it into small bite size squares.

Added some celery sticks, a clementine and a cloth fold-over baggie filled with dried mango and trail mix. Today I used the medium container from the nesting food container set. The lid works really well as a plate so she can pour her trail mix into it and search out all the chocolate chips. :-D

Her cloth napkin is used to tie Furoshiki. I'll put it into her backpack with her Kleen Kanteen water bottle and she is ready to go! This would have worked as a lunch for her too!

*I added a little note in there to let her know how much I love her!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Today I dropped my 5 1/2 year old daughter to her first day of kindergarten. I'm excited and melancholy at the same time. Being a natural foods chef and holistic health counselor, I wanted to make something fun and different for her. Alas, she insisted on a sandwich, boring for me but exciting for her. She has gluten sensitivity so we rarely make sandwiches. Luckily there are a lot of gluten free breads on the market. We like the Trader Joe's brand multi-grain, gluten free bread but it is a little firmer/dryer than regular bread.

The school instructed us to pack a snack that is separate from her lunch and easy for her to get to. Snack time is at 10 am.

For her snack, she wanted yogurt and fruit. So I used the smallest container from the nesting food containers. The night before, I put some plain yogurt in the container and popped it in the freezer. In the morning I put chopped strawberries and  drizzled grade b maple syrup on top. I'm assuming it will be nicely chilled but thawed when she is ready to eat it. I really love these bamboo sporks!

You can see the frozen yogurt below the maple syrup:

For lunch (11:30 am) she requested 1/2 a cheese sandwich and 1/2 a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. In her cheese sandwich, I used shredded raw cheddar cheese, grapeseed veganaise and arugula on gluten-free bread. I used a two-tier tiffin. 

I packed the other half sandwiches in my 3 year old's tiffin while we are out and about today. 

On the lower container, I put white peaches, celery sticks, red grapes and half of a cheese string. Again, this was all her idea. 

I made these cloth baggies, similar to the fold over sandwich baggies in the 70's, remember them? I put some some cashews and rice crackers it it. Something a little more crunchy and savory for her. 

I froze 1/2 cup of water in her kleen kanteen overnight and filled up the rest with water so it stays cold when she's ready to drink. One of her (too small for her) pink socks work really well to absorb condensation on the water bottle.


Here is her lunch with snack before I packed it in her tiffin bag. Her nesting container fits perfectly on top of her tiffin and I'm still able to tighten the drawstrings. 

Hopefully she'll let me get more creative with her lunches as she gets used to going to school! 

*not shown is the weelife lunch note I added to her tiffin bag that says: Have a good day! I <3 U!

Gluten free lunch!

I've been gluten free and vegan for about a year now and loving it! My daughter's digestion has improved and no longer complains of tummy issues.

Here is a gluten free lunch that we had at the zoo.

My 3 year old is carrying her pink OM Goods bag with a 2 tier tiffin, utensils, cloth napkin and drink!

Shown below is the 2 tier tiffin with: 1st tier: hummus, apple slices, rice crackers and guacamole. I used the apple slices and to keep the rice crackers from getting soggy from the hummus and guac. I must say it held up nicely! 2nd tier: a clementine and almond butter and fruit preserve roll ups using blue corn tortillas. Really nice combo. The girls loved it! 

Mineral rich salad!

My family's favorite mineral rich salad. Baby greens, chopped kale, dulse flakes,  sprouts, tomatoes, avocado, toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and a homemade dressing with braggs apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a dash of maple syrup (try grade B, it's got a high mineral content) and a pinch of celtic sea salt.

Perfect meal on the go in an OM Goods tiffin or food container too!

Cute lunch ideas for Kids

 Jackie at Weelife just posted two adorable lunch ideas for the tiffin.

See her blog post for more pictures!
Wee Life - 2 Tiered Tiffin

OM Goods Photoshoot - by Julie Prichard

Some beautiful pictures of our OM Goods tiffins and bags done by artist and professional photographer, Julie Prichard of the Land of Lost Luggage. Thanks again Julie!

Here are the 3 sizes we carry, 2 tier, 3 tier and 4 tier tiffins

A shot of my 2 year old with her almond butter and raw honey sandwich, crusted of course!

My 4 year old, loves her fruits and veggies!

 

 The tulips remind me of spring!

The 2 sizes we carry, Small for the 2 and 3 tier and Large for the 3 and 4 tier. Not shown is the large tiffin bag in Parrot Green

 A 3 tier tiffin with a small Parrot Green tiffin bag

 3 tier tiffin closed with the small tiffin bag in Parrot Green

Veggie Spring Rolls

Inspired by my good friend, I made these veggie spring rolls. They are perfect for tiffin lunches and just as easy as making a sandwich and delicious! Shown is OM Goods small tiffin bag with our 2-tier tiffin.

How to make veggie spring rolls.

Rice paper (you can pick them up in a Thai Asian food market)
Any vegetables you want!
I used:
Anoki mushrooms as is, they are long and thin
Carrots shredded
Cucumbers shredded
Daikon shredded
Tofu thinly sliced
Avocado thinly sliced
Spring onions chopped
Any nut/seed butter you like.
I used Sunflower seed butter

I used a food processor to shred the carrots, cucumbers and diakon. I shredded them each separately.

Dip the rice paper in warm water for 2-3 seconds and lay out on a flat surface. Arrange veggies and tofu on one side of the rice paper. Drizzle nut/seed butter. Roll like a burrito tucking in both sides. Voila spring rolls! If you make these let me know what you think!

OM Cloth Napkins are Here!

Everyone needs a fresh cloth napkin to put in their lunchboxes everyday. Now OM Goods has them available to you! They come in a set of 4 for only $10. They are smaller so they are more portable than traditional sized cloth napkins. 100% cotton and 13"x13" square. An OM symbol is embroidered on each one. Available in "OM White" or "Parrot Green".

OM White Cloth Napkins:

 

Parrot Green Cloth Napkins:

Want more ideas on how to create less waste when eating lunch? Check out my "Zero-Waste Lunch Pledge" Get tips on how you can help the earth one meal at a time!

Get Ready for Back to School!

They have been selling like hot cakes at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market. Introducing our newest addition, 100% cotton quilted tiffin bags. Shown is the tiffin bag that fits the 2-tier or 3-tier tiffin. Using the 2-tier in the bag leaves enough room on the top for a whole apple, orange, pear, nectarine etc. The pocket is perfect for you child's Klean Kanteen or Sigg waterbottle. They all come with a matching cloth napkin to lessen the use of paper napkins! The bag colors come in Parrot Green or Hot Pink. We also have shoulder strap bags for our 3 or 4 tier tiffins...more to come!

The lunch shown below has rajma and chawal (kidney beans and rice), an apple and my daughter's klean kanteen.

Sharing is caring...

sharing with friends...our favorite way to eat lunch. Here I used the 4 tier tiffin and 2 stainless steel food storage containers. The storage containers have almond crackers, almond butter sandwiches and hard boiled eggs. The 4 tier tiffin has hummus, carrots, strawberries, and alphabet cookies with chocolate raisins.

Aloo Matar

Leftovers from the night before, I heated aloo muttar, a simple Indian dish of potatoes (aloo) and peas (muttar) with some rice for lunch. Also packed, free-range hard boiled eggs, strawberries, kalamata olives, fresh mozzarella, and tofurky & vegenaise roll-ups. A lunch that left us full for a while!

Victoria's Garden

If you are ever in the San Diego area, you must make a trip to Victoria's Garden. We had went with some good friends for some strawberry picking and petting farm animals. The kids loved it! My girlfriend, Marla, used the strawberries her kids picked to make a vegan strawberry pie with a graham cracker crust and soy whipped cream!

We packed a lunch using OM Goods stainless steel food storage containers. PB&J sandwiches hummus, carrots, pasta salad, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and clementines.

Shredded Carrot Salad

My carrot salad is all the rage with my friends lately, I can't stop making it since I bought my new Cuisinart Food Processor. Takes salad making to a whole new level for me! It also make incorporating raw food into my diet much easier!

Here are the ingredients:

- shredded carrots
- frozen peas
- rice vinegar
- agave nectar
- grapeseed oil
- sea salt/pepper

Toss it all together and voila! Shredded Carrot Salad! I usually don't measure when I make this, I just add to taste. I've made variations of this salad with carrots/daikon, carrots/zucchini and carrots/beets...all of them pretty tasty.

Here is the 3 tier tiffin with organic berries, spinach and lentil daal and my famous carrot salad.

Mission Trails

I took the girls to Mission Trails park for class on opossums. We had made homemade pinto beans with a pressure cooker for dinner the night before, for the first time. I decided to pack everything to make-your-own burrito for our lunch. We used corn tortillas instead of flour. I made Spanish rice using a Trader Joe's rice box with seasoning included. Everyone including our friends ate it all up!


I used the 4 tier tiffin, one tier had beans, one tier had torillas, one tier had rice, and one tier had tomatos and lettuce.

Winner of the Zero Waste Lunch Contest!

We finally have a winner for the Zero Waste Lunch Contest that was held on Facebook last month!

With 21 votes, the winner is:

Deborah Murphy Doughty!!

Here are all the pictures she had posted to the Zero Waste Lunch Pledge Group:


Comment from Deborah: "I take leftovers to work as often as possible and have some cut up veggies or fruit to go with it. Here I have rice in one container and an easy bean chili (a can of beans, tomatoes with hot peppers, corn, garlic, onions, cumin and chili) in another container. Carrots and a sliced avocado round out the meal. I also take snacks with me - an egg with spices for morning snack and an apple and walnuts (in the little woven container in the picture) for the afternoon. My Sigg water bottle goes everywhere with me, and I like to bring a cloth napkin as well. Metal forks and spoons are available at work. The water bottle and Tiffin are clipped together and the napkin holds the apple and walnuts tied to the top of the Tiffin. I put everything together the night before and refrigerate so I can grab it and go when I rush out of the house in the morning."


Congratulations Deborah!

Zero-Waste Lunch Pledge Contest!

We had a contest on the Zero-Waste Lunch Pledge Group on Facebook. Member's were encouraged to post their best zero-waste lunch photo for a free tiffin. The contest in now closed for additional entries but we want you to vote!!

Here are the entries:



Entry #1


Entry #2

Entry #3


Entry #4

Entry #5

Entry #6

Entry #7
Entry #8