The Anti PB&J - Kids Lunch 1 (recipes included)

In our house there is a nightly question that we generally know the answer to.

Me: "What do you want for lunch tomorrow?"
The boys: "Peanut butter and jelly!"

Despite their love for the classic kid favorite, when I reach for the peanut butter jar I feel guilty for not being more clever.  Granted, we do mix it up a bit by adding fruit, veggie and dip, trail mix, etc. to their BPA free Easy Lunchbox container.  Tonight after seeing what a favorite whole foods blogger put together I got a little crazy and broke us out of the PB&J rut.  Here is tomorrows lunch that the boys are super excited for:

Patrick: grapes, sliced red pepper, a whole wheat banana
muffin (recipe below) and a hard boiled egg (recipe below).

Wyatt: Hormel Natural Choice Oven Roasted Turkey, whole
wheat banana muffin (recipe below), mandarin oranges sprinkled
 withcinnamon and sliced red peppers.

Typically I don't make two different lunches for the boys but Wyatt is not a fan of eggs or (recently) grapes.  Since I was feeling like an overachiever I didn't mind working around their favorites tonight but tomorrow may be a different story.  ;-)


Banana Muffins

• 3 bananas (ripe to overripe)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or less to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel bananas and place in a large mixing bowl.  Mash the bananas with a hand held potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl.  Stir to combine.
4. Grease 12 muffin cups and pour the batter in evenly. 
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

• Eggs
• Large saucepan with lid
• Water to cover

1. Place cold eggs in the bottom of a large saucepan.
2. Cover eggs with water by about an inch.
3. Cook on high heat until the water comes to a boil.
4. Cover and remove from heat.
5. Set timer for 16 minutes.
6. Once timer goes off drain water (careful, it's hot!).  Add new cold water and lots of ice to cool the eggs quickly. 
7. Store either peeled or in shell in a zip top bag in the fridge.

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of Anti PB&J of lunch box posts.  Looking forward to having you along for the ride and would love to hear your comments and suggestions!  Perhaps the next post will contain these ice pop containers that I ordered today to hold frozen smoothies and yogurt pops.  YUM!

I'm a Little Italian: Grammie Teresa's Meatballs

Our next door neighbor's growing up, Aunt Rose and her daughter Lori, likely hosted more of my waking hours than my own family.  Aunt Rose was the best next door Grandmother ever!   There wasn't a single day that we wouldn't draw, sing songs (in Italian too), play cards and enjoy juice and cookies at her kitchen table.

Aunt Rose introduced me to red gravy and all of the pasta dishes that go along with it, pastina with butter, and zeppole's at the Italian carnival.  (The current tradition of fried dough doesn't hold a candle to confectioner sugar covered zeppole in a greasy paper bag!)  She once bought me a t-shirt that said, "I'm a little Italian" that was even more tongue and cheek than the author could have possibly intended. 

Imagine Aunt Rose's joy when I fell in love with and married an Italian!  Having her, Lori and her husband Ron at our wedding almost 10 years ago was such an honor.

The matriarch of my husband's family was Grammie Teresa, my father-in-laws mother.  Sadly, I only met her once before she had a severe stroke.  Imagine all of the food we could have made together! 

The recipe that follows in an homage to Aunt Rose and Grammie Teresa.  Since the best family recipes contain a little of this and a little of that, this is my brother-in-law's delicious adaptation.  It is a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with homemade garlic bread and a salad followed by Christmas cookies!  Perhaps Santa will have a couple of meatballs in addition to his cookies.  That is, if there are any left.

Grammie Teresa's Meatballs and Sauce (Red Gravy)

Sauce (Red Gravy)

• 2 26oz jars of tomato sauce
• 3 26oz boxes of crushed tomatoes
• 1 t. pepper
• 1 t. onion powder
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 1 T. Italian seasoning
• salt to taste
• 1 T sugar

Mix all ingredients in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Simmer for several hours with the meatballs to combine flavors. 

Note: I substitute 28oz canned tomatoes with 26oz boxed tomatoes (such as Pomi) to reduce BPA exposure.  The acidic tomatoes causes a high rate of absorption of BPA from the cans.  Yes, there is BPA in jar lids however I believe this is the lesser of two evils.  My brother-in-law's recipe also calls for 1 can of tomato puree.  Since I have yet to find this boxed, I substitute with a third box of crushed tomatoes.

Meatballs:

• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2/3 cup breadcrumbs
• 2lb ground beef
• 1 t. pepper
• salt to taste
• 2 t minced garlic
• 1 T Italian seasoning
• 2 large eggs

Mix the above ingredients and form into 1 inch balls.  Add the meatballs to the cold sauce to simmer.  (This method may require skimming fat from the top of the sauce as the meatballs cook.)

Alternatively, bake the meatballs at 350 for about 20 minutes to render some of the fat from the meat.  Then add the hot meatballs to the simmering sauce.