The Full Plate Blog: the first batch of this year's lunchboxes

Monday, September 24, 2012

the first batch of this year's lunchboxes

If you saw my post over on the full plate blog's Facebook page, you know that I pulled a total dingbat move last night, starting to make lentil soup at 6:00pm... even though dinner should have been ready by 6:30 at the latest for the (hopeful) 7:00pm bedtime. Or maybe it was subliminal, and I really wanted grilled cheeses for dinner, and to not have to make dinner tonight? Either way, we had grilled cheese last night... and the lentil soup finished cooking mid-evening, and I packaged it up so we could enjoy it tonight. But first, I popped a small portion into today's lunchbox.

apple cider as a (super special, he picked it himself) treat + a small portion of lentil soup in the thermos + half a grilled Applegate ham and cheese (which he'd be enjoying cold, good thing he's not picky) + organic strawberries + English cucumber slices

As you guys know, I try to keep our meals colorful. That's the easiest way for me to know our meal is healthful, and to ensure that my children are getting a bunch of fruits and/or veggies throughout the day. No matter what I am planning for dinner/the next day's lunchbox, I try to stay ahead of the curve by having some prepped (washed + cut) fruits and veggies at the ready. This makes assembling my children's meals super easy. Here are a few more lunch boxes from last week to provide some packing inspiration.... and remind you to set aside some of tonight's dinner if you can, so your packing is simple!

organic raspberries + "rainbow" tomatoes and cucumber slices + organic strawberries + baby carrots + cream cheese and jam sandwich + Greek yogurt (don't forget to include a spoon!)

organic dried cranberries + a slice of pumpkin bread + some of the homemade "mac and cheese" (remember the re-purposing post from last week!) + steam broccoli (again, from dinner the night before) + chicken-apple sausages (yes, you guessed it-- from dinner the night before)

turkey-vegetable Bolognese (again from that week when I was re-purposing the extra cheese from the Feta-Fig appetizers... this sauce was studded with lots of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots so I didn't include an additional veggie in his lunch today) + a bit of fruit salad + a fruit smoothie

3 comments:

Cristie Ritz King, M. EdSeptember 25, 2012
These are great. What actual lunchbox do you use that fits all this stuff? Yum.
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The Full Plate BlogSeptember 25, 2012
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The Full Plate BlogSeptember 25, 2012
Hey Cristie,
We have a Crocodile Creek zippered lunchbox like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Crocodile-Creek-Classic-Lunchbox-Robots/dp/B004N2XHO2/ref=lh_ni_t

I like it b/c it fits lots of small containers, one big Lunchbots container or a thermos, depending upon the day's contents....
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About Founder/Editor Eila DeBard Johnson

This blog has not been updated since 2015, but you are welcome to bookmark the recipes, so you can enjoy "bonus hours" with friends and family.

When I wrote this blog, I described myself as a happy, healthy mom of two young children, who has a knack for being able to whip up family-friendly, healthy meals with whatever I find in our fridge, freezer and pantry. In these years of motherhood, I have come to appreciate that there is so much intertwined in "being healthy" and feeling good as a mother, wife and friend. As a super busy mom who raising young children, juggled part-time work, volunteering, keeping the house in order, writing this blog and the elusive goal of “me” time, I understand the need for recipes to be simple.

While I’d love to claim that I cook everything from scratch, with only local ingredients, I don’t. One of my children is a vegetarian, the other is a self-proclaimed "meatatarian", so mealtimes are a constant juggling act around here. But, I do a swell job of getting healthful meals made quickly…that everyone around here enjoys. And if you open my freezer, chances are you'll find a bevy of homemade meals at the ready.

My love of cooking comes from an entire childhood spent in Southern California, where phenomenal produce was available (and offered up) year round... memories of homemade meals and family dinners throughout my upbringing... my incredible exchange student experience living on a farm in Austria in high school... and years of fine-tuning my cooking skills through numerous classes at The Institute for Culinary Education (then called Peter Kump's), private cooking lessons at night after my day job at an investment bank, and a Professional Certificate in Techniques of Healthy Cooking from The Culinary Institute of America. I have a BA from Colgate University and an MBA from Northwestern.

Before writing this blog, I ran a (wildly popular) Fairfield County, CT-based personal chef service; consulted on private label food products; and worked in new product development and brand management for a really big food company.

As my children got older, and I had the dinner gig down pat, I shifted my focus and expertise. You can find out more about what I am up to here.