Ideal School Lunch

Update [2010 March 08]: This lunch menu won! Check out all five winners at GOOD magazine’s post here.

GOOD magazine asked readers to submit a healthy, delicious school lunch. Having just put together a grown-ups playground lunch for my sister-in-law’s baby shower, I took inspiration from a recipe my mother-in-law found.

My rendition of the ideal school lunch plays on the classic favorite – PB&J.

The sandwich is made of: whole grain bread, crunchy peanut butter, honey, jumbo raisin medley, sunflower seeds, shredded carrots and broccoli sprouts. The raisins and broccoli sprouts could be replaced with dried blueberries or cranberries and alfalfa sprouts or microgreens, respectively.

This is a great way to “hide” vegetables into a school lunch because the sprouts and shredded carrots easily get lost in the flavors of the peanut butter and honey. The honey and raisin medley together give a “jelly” flavor without all of the artificial sugars. I like the sunflower seeds for the bit of extra crunch.

To follow, is a parfait made of Fage greek yogurt, sliced local strawberries, and cranberry maple nut gluten-free granola. I like to think that if a meal looks visually appealing, it tastes that much better… so, I combined the dairy, fruit and grains into the parfait.

I chose an organic 100% grape juice to finish off the lunch. I think it would be nice for kids to have a choice of drinks including various fruit juices and a variety of milks (chocolate, soy, etc.).

Bon appetit!

I’ll be sure to share the contest’s winning lunch menu here.

Pasta alla’Amatriciana

@Padrepablo tweeted about my rendition of Amatriciana yesterday, so I thought I’d share the recipe here.

We had this pasta several places around Italy.  We like it because it was simple and light for a pasta dish.  I prefer using bucatini, but since regular marts don’t carry the hollow noodles, we usually make it with spaghetti or farfalle (bowtie).

Ingredients

• Choice pasta
• 5 slices pancetta (or 5 strips bacon), chopped
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes

And really simple directions:

1. Cook pasta in lightly salted water.
2. Cook bacon, drain.
3. In a sauce pan, sautée onion in olive oil
4. Add tomatoes, red pepper flake, bacon.  Reduce sauce until it coats a wooden spoon.
5. Toss with pasta.  Garnish with shaved Parmesan.

Simple. Quick. And we always have these ingredients on hands.

Salade Niçoise

One of my favorite meals to enjoy out on the patio is the niçoise salad. I like it best with a few slices of seared ahi, but grilled salmon is just as great. The warm of the Santa Ana’s of last week left me craving a cold niçoise.

This recipe yields 4 servings:

• Mixed Greens
• 8 oz. Sushi-Grade Ahi Steak
• 4 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
• 4 Red Potatoes
• 20 French Green Beans
• 8 Deviled eggs (4 whole eggs)
• 12 Greek Olives
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsp. Chopped Parsley (or 2 tsp. dried parsley)
• Champagne Vinaigrette

Salads are pretty self-explanatory, but here are some tips:

1. Boil red potatoes in lightly salted water until fork tender.  Mash roughly with a dash of salt, pepper and parsley.
2. Wash greens and dry thoroughly. Toss lightly with vinaigrette.
3. Season ahi with salt and white pepper on both sides. Sear on high heat for one minute on each side. Depending on the thickness of the steak, you will have to adjust searing time. Be careful not to cook completely through.
4. Cut Ahi into slices. If using salmon, I lay it whole.
5. Serve immediately after plating.

Note: If you use salmon, be sure to cook it completely through. I’ve had salmon a bit undercooked and suffered scromboid poisoning!

Deviled Eggs

There are many thousands of deviled egg recipes out there. Here’s how I do it, and the way @Padrepablo likes it:

• 8 eggs
• ¼ c. mayonnaise
• 2 Tnsp. Whole-grain mustard
• 1/8 c. Pickle relish
• Salt and white pepper, to taste
• Paprika

The filling is pretty self-explanatory given the list of ingredients, but here’s some egg-boiling tips too:

1. Place eggs in pan until just covered with cold water.
2. Let water come to a gentle boil on medium heat and leave for 15 minutes.
3. After boiling for 15 minutes, transfer eggs to a cold ice bath to cool.
4. When egss are cool enough to the touch, peel and cut in half.
5. Mix cooked yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, relish, salt and peper.
6. Scoop deviled mixture into a plastic sandwich bag and cut a small tip on one corner. Squeeze into egg whites.
7. Sprinkle with paprika for a little kick and color.

I also like to garnish the tops with a little cut chives or parsley… whatever happens to look good in the herb garden.

Cranberry Hootenanny

This cookie seemed to be a hit at the holidays this year, from the number of times I’ve been asked to share this recipe.  This is modified from the UC Davis CoHo oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.  I loved rainy days in there when the entire CoHo would fog up and squeaky rainboots echoed through the Memorial Union.

When I make these for just ourselves, I skip the chocolate chips. (I’m allergic to chocolate!)  But when I recently made them as favors at our holiday party, I included the choco chips and they were a big hit.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 c. flour
• 1tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. butter
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2-1/2 c. oats
• 1-1/3 c. dried cranberries
• 1-1/3 c. chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar.
3. Beat in eggs and vanilla into butter-sugar mixture until fluffy.
4. Mix in flour mixture until blended.
5. Fold in oats, cranberries and chocolate chips.
6. Scoop dough into ~1 inch balls onto a greased (I prefer silpat) cookie sheet
7. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.