REAL Food Lunchbox

This school year is gearing up to start in a few weeks, which means I am getting my recipes in order and meal preferences straight.

My 10 year-old doesn’t like strawberries, tomatoes, pineapple, bananas, or anything squishy. A staunch vegan – doesn’t like meat at all, cheese is his weakness and will be the last thing he gives up, so he says.

The 8 year-old likes sandwiches, any food that calls for salsa, sour cream and cheese, green apples and corn on the cob. Loves meat, especially chicken – fried. (Sigh)

The 4 year-old will eat anything her brothers say is good, and anything sweet. She has an amazing palate for a Kindergarten kid; she loves Sushi, onions, leeks, orzo, salmon and spinach among other things.

Me – I love it all. All the colors and flavors, all the gross and weird looking stuff and all of the things I’ve never tried. I am determined to travel every one of the seven Continents AND to taste the food of every culture on the planet. A girl MUST dream, you know.

Packing lunch usually means dinner’s leftovers – this can be tricky because it means that dinner has to be so good, that the kids will actually want to eat it again the next day. On the days that dinner is so good that there are no leftovers, or dinner wasn’t that great of a success – I cook lunch from scratch (these are the super-quick’s).

Most of the recipes I use are not recipes at all, but cut and paste projects of web browsing, cookbook reads, what I or the kids have a taste for, what’s in season and what I can afford. A little of this, a little of that – substitutions are King. Flexibility is one of the most important ingredients in cooking for me. I use measuring spoons only when I’m baking (learned that the hard way) and when I’m trying to write a recipe. ha.

The only principle I will not compromise is the use of REAL food ingredients. It is possible to prepare a meal, a lunch, with REAL ingredients with whatever resources you have on hand. REAL = not fake. Not artificial, chemical or manufactured. Not powdered, in a kit or in a pop top, not hermetically sealed or preserved, and no colors that only occur in a lab. No food that pops or crackles as a result of scientific experimentation or engineering. I’m not a food purist, just someone who thinks that the Earth pretty much has the growing, creating thing down pat. If we use what is given to us in the form of plants (and sometimes animals), we can live just like the Herbivores and Omnivores do, in harmony, in the natural kingdom.

In today’s new ‘green’ world – we are made to believe that ‘all-natural’, ‘organic’, ‘free-range’, ‘local’ and ‘pastured’ are reserved only for the gourmet and the affluent. Not true.

Within 15 minutes of where I live, in the heart of the city, is Waverly Farmer’s Market – here you can buy fresh produce, bread, cheese, flowers, sauces, juice, coffee and more for at least 50% or more less than what you spend at a chain grocer. Some of the farmer’s accept SNAP (food vouchers) and EBT cards.

Within 45 minutes of where I live, in the beauty of the countryside, you can pick your own potatoes right out of the ground, blueberries off the bush, eggs and chicken straight from the hen house, apples from the tree and tomatoes from the vine. Using the pick-your-own strategy, you score even more goods and produce for even less money — and the taste, don’t forget the taste!

If you want to see what a month’s worth of dinner-lunch recipes would look like, using local ingredients when possible and REAL food ingredients always, time-saavy, budget friendly – kid approved. Wait until you get your hands on what I’m working at…

Keep eating, REAL Food Changes People!

Nira

Late Summer Days, Retrospect.

This Saturday past LBN hosted a food/wine pairing at Vineyard’s Elite Wine Boutique (Vineyards Elite – Pikesville, MD 21208 – 410-415-5550). Virendra Patel and his family are some of the nicest people I have met since I started the company – but, Saturday was probably one of the toughest days in recent memory.

Saturday was one of those Murphy’s Law days, where everything that could – did. Hmph. Funny thing about plans and perceptions though, they’re never what you think they are at first glance.

Yes, we missed the crowd that had gathered to sample the Fresh Blueberries we had picked earlier in the day at Larriland Farm – the lucky few people that remained did get to devour thick slices of juicy just-picked tomatoes..still warm from the August sun (we served them along side the Vegan Duck, which was wheat gluten simmered in shredded Ginger and Coconut Milk, um yum).

After about an hour, I realized that the people we DID meet, seemed like the only people we were SUPPOSED to have met that day. When you surrender yourself to the proverbial ‘bigger picture’, pieces that originally didn’t fit almost seamlessly bring themselves together.

There was a couple who came to sample some of the wines and didn’t realize there was a food pairing – by their fourth serving (each) of Leek and Artichoke Strata, I was convinced that the recipe for this dish had to be written. I definitely threw this one together, blinded by a time crunch, I ended up tasting my way through to a fantastic finished product – I know there was bread, cream, eggs, leeks, artichokes and a 500 degree oven for 35 minutes! Do NOT try that, I promise a recipe is forthcoming. LOL!

A woman who is regular customer of Vineyard’s Elite, was also (apparently) a big Lunch By Nature fan since having met us and sampled our food at Artscape 2009, after looking at the tasting spread she leaned over and says to me “I thought you were going to have grilled corn here – I’m following that corn!” I laughed and talked about how the logistics of having a grill at a wine boutique – she agreed it probably would’ve been the easiest thing to do…I talked to her about what I had prepared for the day, she told me about her grilling corn at her own house for her friends and family and how it hadn’t come out “just the same”, we talked about my new haircut, the Almond Sweet and Salty Cookie Bars I made for the tasting (she wanted to know if she could order by the tray!) and where Lunch By Nature would be next. She asked the question everyone wanted to know, “Where are you opening and when?”

Robert Hobbs, Jr. and Ann Renee Hobbs who own a personal training studio (“The Body Shaper” 9006 Liberty Road, TKO Training Studios, Randallstown, MD 2113 | 443-257-7623) talked to us about wine tasting parties they host in their home, how child diets and general lifestyle habits have declined so rapidly in recent years, child rearing and more. We also talked about how delicious the Chilled Blueberry Cheesecake was with the Weemala Riesling! Holy summer dessert Batman! After what seemed like an hour or more – they left, but James was lucky enough to snag a business card on the back of which said this:

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison

An inventor comes back through time to tell me it’s time to re-invent MYSELF realize how close I am to everything in my dreams and more. I take good advice when it comes to me. Period.

So I was thinking:

Kid’s Lunch Cookbook

Kid’s Lunch Tasting and Recipe giveaway – Sample what lunch SHOULD taste like for you and the ‘team’. I will have a week’s worth of lunch recipes for you to take home and try yourself.
The panel of experts I consult with are 10, 8 and 4 years old and I am convinced they are the best tasting panel out. They’ve tried everything from Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (YES vote) to Chipotle Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Not so good).

While we won’t be setting sail with a brick and mortar flagship location just yet, there remains much to be said and done to make sure that Everyone has access to REAL and wholesome food – regardless of their socio-economic position. Agricultural education, Farm-to-School, Planting and Gardening, Clean Water, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables — I have my work cut out for me.

Stay tuned,