Fried Rice

Wow, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I started this challenge! As I was making lunch this morning, I was thinking about how great it would be if more kids could have lunches like this, wholesome, satisfying meals that fill their bellies and keep them healthy.  It's a shame that our public schools have such terrible offerings in the cafeteria, when dishes such as vegetable fried rice can be made in so little time and with such little effort.

The fried rice that I made this morning turned out delicious, I walked out of the kitchen for a minute and came back to find the kids scraping the bits off of the bottom of the pan.  I know that they are really looking forward to lunch time today.  This was a great dish, because, with a little bit of planning  (making extra rice at dinner last night), it was quick to throw together.  It took less than twenty minutes to get the lunches packed!

To make the vegetable fried rice, I scrambled a couple of eggs, then set them aside.  In the same pan, I cooked some garlic, ginger and the white parts of a couple of green onions.  Then I threw in some shredded carrots, the tops of the green onions and some frozen peas. I let that cook for a few minutes, stirred in the rice, the scrambled egg and some soy sauce and it was done!  It couldn't have been easier! I topped their meals off with some peach slices and stuck in a pair of chopsticks for them to use.  I'm sure today's lunch will be one to beat!

This Week...So Far

I feel like I'm settling into a nice groove with this challenge.  When I plan and shop for my weeks dinners, I also now sit down and plan lunches so I know what's coming up each day.  I have also found that, with a little planning, this challenge has added surprising little to my grocery budget each week, since I am using ingredients or dishes that are leftover from dinners during the week.



Over the weekend we made a dish we call "Haystacks", it's kind of a cross between nachos and taco salad and it is wonderful!  I promise I will post our families recipe for Haystacks at a later time, it's a favorite Friday night treat.  Since I was planning ahead, I prepared extra taco meat and set it aside so that on Monday I could send taco salad for lunch.  They loved it! And once again, no one noticed that I replaced the sour cream with greek yogurt!

For Tuesday's lunch, I honored a request for a repeat.  The big winner of the challenge, so far, is the Italian pasta salad, I think we could all eat it for lunch every day and not get bored!  This time I changed it up just a tad (mostly because I'm forgetful and I forgot to get some olives) instead, I cut some mushrooms up and marinated them in some balsamic vinegar for about 15 minutes before draining them and adding them to the salad.  Delicious!

Today being Wednesday I felt like a sandwich was in order.  So, I set aside some of last night's meatloaf to make meatloaf sandwiches today,  I was so excited about making them that when I remembered that  I was out of mayonnaise, I could let that stop me.  Thankfully, I know how to make mayonnaise and have the freshest eggs available at any time, so I whipped up a batch of delicious homemade mayonnaise for the meatloaf sandwiches, topped them with some lettuce and our favorite Tillamook cheddar cheese, and the result was the best meatloaf sandwich ever!

Last Week's Lunches

The challenge continues and so far I am definitely winning!  The un-boring lunchbox has been a huge success with the kids. They've even asked if I will continue next year!  The farther into this endeavor I get, the easier it is to come up with lunches that are healthy, satisfying and more creative that a sandwich and a bag of chips, so I will definitely continue for the next school year!  Last week's meals were a huge success, in fact, all of them have been requested for repeat!

On Tuesday I packed chicken tacos/salad, it was a hands on meal with many possibilities, I packed the shredded chicken in a separate compartment from the rest of the toppings so that they could heat it in the microwave if they chose (two did, one didn't), then I included lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese and a stack of tortillas.  I packaged the salsa in a separate container so that it wouldn't make everything soggy and replaced the sour cream with greek yogurt (none of them even noticed!) I'm told it was delicious and can be packed anytime!

Wednesday has become sandwich day, but not just typical sandwiches. Last Wednesday, I packed them a sandwich of goat cheese, spinach, cucumber and ham on whole wheat.  They all told me they loved it (even the one who said that the pesto chicken the week before had way too much green in it).  I packed them a few kettle chips and some apple slices with peanut butter for dipping.  Another successful lunch!

On Thursday last week, I packed leftovers.  Not just any leftovers, however, but leftover calzones filled with my homemade pizza sauce, spinach, mushrooms, caramelized onions, italian sausage and mozzarella.  Along with the calzones I packed some apple slices, but that was it because I knew that they were going to be stuffed!