From scratch lunchbox ideas

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Following on from the other thread (y'all know which one I'm talking about!), what stuff do you send your kids/spouses/self off with, that you've made from scratch? Please include recipes!

[onthefly]

Spouse - last night's dinner leftovers
Kid - gluten-free bread rolls, muffin, vegie sticks

[2CheekyMonkeys]

yep, I'm in!! I have word open and ready to copy and paste!

[Rouge]

Do you want healthy options or just any options?

[Tinks]

My DH makes his lunch at work. He takes enough salad for the week to work and buys fresh bread every day on his way to work. Sometimes (If I'm feeling nice) I make DH some chicken schnitzels, he puts them in rolls or wraps at work.

He also takes:

cup a soups
small tins of tuna
tinned fruit, fresh fruit
leftovers from tea
in winter I make soup and freeze it in portions for him.
tinned spaghetti or baked beans

He also has a jaffle maker at work so he can use most of those things to make toasties too.

Oh sorry, I misread teh title, none of that is made from scratch - except the soup and chicken schnitzels.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I think I'm pretty up with the unhealthy options Rouse, I might take a squiz at some healthy ones for a change

[chody47]

Oooh, looking forward to good ideas here.

I sometime cook up a zucchini slice on the weekend and cut and freeze in portions for lunch.

3 zucchinis
2 carrots
1 onion
1 cup SR flour
1 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup veg oil (recipe says 1/3 cup but 1/4 cup is plenty)
5 or 6 eggs beaten
Parsley
Salt and pepper

Grate veggies (I tend to cut the onion or it goes mushy), mix all the ingredients together, chuck in quiche dish and cook at 180 for 30-40ish (I often find it takes longer as I tend to use huge zucchinis lol). The last few times I've made it ive spread it over two quiche dishes.

Yummy!!!!!

[Rouge]

DH takes leftovers. And fruit. Occasionally something baked but not often.

Healthy options would be:

Baked chickpeas (I love these!)
Nuts (or pepitas/sunflower seeds if nutfree)
Dried Fruit
Homemade granola
Vegetable patties or slices
Hommus and veggie sticks
Wholegrain crackers
Yoghurt with stewed fruit
There are heaps of recipes for those raw food energy balls

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

How do you do the baked chickpeas Rouge? I once bought them, and was told somewhere I needed to soak them and then stick them in the oven, but it was a huge fail

[Novella]

We make big batches of different soups in Autumn, Winter and Spring

I make a yummy pumpkin soup and another that is healthy and filling is a Lamb and Veg Ill try and dig out the recipie I sent it to a friend via email...

ETA Cant find it but roughly its

2 trimmed lamb shanks (cut the fat off)
2 potatoes peeled and diced
3 carrots peeled and diced
3 pieces celery diced
1 onion diced
1 turnip diced
1-2 parsnips diced
1/2 cup pearly barley
chicken/beef or veg stock
herbs to falvour if wanted

Basically I spray a pan and brown the meat then throw the lamb shanks in a pot with enough stock to cover them and simmer for an hour, then add the veg and simmer for another 1-2hrs until everythings nice and soft. Pull the shanks out the emat should fall of the bone, thow it back in the pot and its done. I use whatever other veg I have that needs using up.

I often make two or three different soups in one arvo and freeze them

[Rouge]

I use tinned ones. I dry them before coating in whatever seasoning I have on hand and a little olive oil. Then I bake them at 230 for about 40 mins. I shake the tin every 10-15 mins as the first time I did it I burnt them.

HTH's!

Also cold roasted veg salads are great with a balsamic dressing, or even cold roast root veg with some hommus. I love cold roasted brocolli. We had some for dinner tonight. And because I'm off potato ATM I had more. But normally there is some leftover and I snack on it the next day.

[Phteven]

Spinach and cheese polenta muffins
Ingredients

1 cup reduced-fat milk
¼ cup olive oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 cup plain flour
½ cup polenta (cornmeal)
1 teaspoon baking powder
60g reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1 roasted red capsicum, skin and membrane removed, sliced (or not - I hate the stuff)
50g baby spinach leaves, washed and chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method

Whisk together the milk, oil, egg and chives.
Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in milk mixture and stir until just combined.
Spoon between 12 x ½ cup capacity lightly oiled muffin pans and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes or until golden.
Remove from pan and serve warm. Makes 12

Nutrional Information

(per serve)
Energy 587 kj Protein 5g Total Fat 6.9g Saturated Fat 1.7g Carbohydrate 14g
Sugars 1g Dietary Fibre 1g Sodium 110mg Calcium 85mg Iron 1mg

Soup in a thermos - not packet stuff. If you make a soup on Sunday night you can eat it for lunch all week.

Salad - if you do the lettuce and store it in an airtight box it keeps well then just throw in cherry tomatoes and chop a cucumber. You can add sprouts, avocado, a tin of tuna, chicken breast, whatever. Mix it up a bit each day so you don't get bored. For dressing you can just squeeze over a lemon, crack some pepper and a bit of salt and drizzle on some really strong olive oil. Or use a jar to shake it all up. Sub soem posh vinegar for the lemon juice, add some mustard....

Hard boiled eggs are simple yet yummy. I like them on my salad with tuna. I have a bit of a protein fetish.

Mountain bread rolled around last night's left overs.

Popped corn (but don't add butter and lashings of salt).

I enjoy raw corn on the cob.

Those free magazines at coles are actually pretty good. They tend to have recipes for what is in season and therefor cheap. The woolies one is hopeless - it's just pour a jar of woolies brand crap in a jar over woolies crap in a bag.

[Novella]

Left overs are always popular in our house
In summer when I lived with a friend I made a fresh salad each day and would grill meat for 3 days for the two of us. Normally a small chicken breast and a small steak then we had some variety
Yiros meat grilled in one container and a greek salad with reduced fat feta in another. Heat the meat at work and throw into the salad. Delicious!

Lefrover burritos. Sometimes I make them just for lunch. Not super healthy but not terrible, my recipie is
1 jar salsa (tinend tomatoes work ok if I dont have salsa)
1 chicken breast
1 tin chickpeas draied
1 tin kidney beans drained
taco seasoning (or make your own with spices if you want a low sodium version)
Tortilla ( or mountain bread if you want a healthier version)


Spray the pan and grill diced chicken breast until brown, throw in drained chickpeas and kidney beans, taco seasoning (or own spice mix), and salsa. heat until simmering then turn off. Fill tortilla (or mountain bread) and grill till tortilla goes golden. They do go a buit soggy the next day but thats how I like them also if you are using mountain bread it falls apart if you leave it too long so take the mix seperate to the bread and heat and fill just before eating.

[Butterfly Dawn]

I'm sooooooo hungry now lol midnight snack time

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Mini-quiches: I like pepper, spinach and cheese. Use bun trays to make quiches in, basically (pastry with savory topping).

Carrot sticks/cucumber sticks and hummous.

Fruit.

Oven-roasted veggies (tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, courgette) with rice and kidney beans.

Rice with peas, sweetcorn, grilled chicken and herbs.

Pasta with salad/home-made sauce.

[BrightSparkles]

My girls tend to like smaller things.
So
- piklets (with vegemite or peanut butter or magic spread from the Fed Up book)
- I have just made a batch of lemonade scones
- Dip with cut up vege (sour cream with corn relish, or sour cream french onion soup or home made hommus)
- Jaffles with various fillings
- leftovers
- Pasta with sauce - can throw through some left over meat if you have it from the night before.
- Burritos with melted cheese and tomato
- Lasagne - make up a big batch and freeze it.
- Vegie muffines
- Tuna patties