Lunch: 9.13.10

A new week, and more lunches, and a couple days left to enter my King Arthur Flour giftcard giveaway!

For snack, she has half a kiwi (she eats them out with a spoon), some homemade cheese crackers, and a couple dried plums, along with a juice.

In an Easy Lunchbox for lunch, she has a chewy granola bar, some raspberries, a string cheese, and a ham sandwich on a pain de mie I attempted to make a flower in.  Can you see it?  If you squint hard?  It could have turned out better... but it also could have been worse.

This lunch is shared on What's For Lunch at Our House.

Recipe: Chai Spiced Shortbread

I knew I wanted to make some shortbread with cardamom in them (because I love cardamom in baked goods.  It's the Swede in me) and I decided to add a couple other spices to give the shortbread the flavor of chai.  Mmmmm.  You could add some ginger in, too. 

Chai Spiced Shortbread

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened to room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 c all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Cream the butter with sugar using a handheld mixer. Mix in the spices, and then the flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Gather the dough into a ball.  If the dough begins to soften or feel greasy, chill the dough for 15 minutes.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle of 1/2-inch thickness and cut with small cookie cutters, or into small rectangles. Place the dough on a cold ungreased baking sheet. 

Bake the shortbread for 25 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn a golden color. Remove the shortbread from the baking sheet and let cool completely on a rack.

 

I used one of my cute pastry presses, like the one I used on my Rosemary Chocolate Chip shortbread.  I can't find them online.  If I find them, I will link to them for you, because they are wonderful.  I got them at a local kitchen store here.

Want Easy Lunchboxes? It's going to take a while...

So, I think it is obvious by now that I am a fan of Easy Lunchboxes.  Apparently, so are a lot of other people!

The container sets are currently completely sold out!

Kelly from Easy Lunchboxes is anticipating the container sets to become available around mid-October.  To thank customers for their patience, Easy Lunchboxes is offering a FREE cooler bag (you can't pick the color, but they are all pretty cool) with every order for a container set.


I don't know how long this deal will last, but if you have patience, you could get a slick cooler bag for free.  And, these containers are worth the wait.

Lunch: 9.10.10

Happy Friday!

Snack is a crepe with raisins and a juice (not shown).

Lunch is a cheese sandwich with a frog cutout on rainbow pain de mie, a granola bar, grapes, a cherry almond princess cake, and a cut up hot dog (we ran out of lunch meat) in an Easy Lunchbox.

Lunch: 9.9.10

Don't forget to enter my King Arthur Flour gift card giveaway!

These crepes are a little too thick... she doesn't complain

For a snack, the girl has rolled up crepes with lemon and confectioner's sugar (just a bit of both), sliced apple, and a juice.

For lunch, she has some blue corn Food Should Taste Good chips, grapes, a chewy granola bar, raisins, a heart ham sandwich made on rainbow pain de mie, and a couple little cheese flowers in her Easy Lunchbox.

Recipe: Basic Crepes

Basic crepes.  Really fun, easy, and quick.

I have seen recipes where the batter sits overnight, but I haven't tried them.  This is my quick and easy recipe, and it never fails.

The real trick is to spread the crepe really thinly on the pan, and to use a really good nonstick pan.  I use Berndes Signocast or Scanpan.  The quality of the pan really makes a difference.

The Girl likes them brushed with lemon juice and sprinkled with a little confectioner's sugar.  They would be phenomenal with nutella and strawberries.  Or maple syrup.  Or jelly.  Or with ham and cheese.  Don't be afraid to go savory!


Basic Crepes

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 c skim milk
1/2 c water
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.

Heat a good nonstick pan over medium high heat and brush with a thin coat of melted butter.

This is a little too thick.

Spread a thin coating of the batter over the entire surface of the pan, including a little up the sides (I pick the pan up and swirl it).  Cook until it is no longer wet on top, and then flip carefully and cook briefly on the other side. 

Pretty much ready to flip

Slide out of pan and fill as desired.

Hello, beautiful

All rolled up and ready to go.

Recipe: BBQ Chicken Stuffed Biscuits

This past weekend, I made some shredded bbq chicken in my crockpot.  I made a lot.  I threw some in the freezer tonight, but before I did that, I decided to make some stuffed biscuits with some.  You could also use pulled pork or the like for the stuffing.  Or taco meat.  Lots of possibilities. 

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Biscuits

Dough
1 c all purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 c milled flax seed
1/2 c butter, shredded
2/3 c skim milk

Shredded bbq chicken for stuffing

Preheat oven to 450 F.  In a food processor, pulse all ingredients together until they form a dough.  (You could also use a pastry cutter or two forks)

Roll out between two sheets of parchment paper until about 1/4" thick.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, and then cut circles in the biscuit dough larger than the muffin cups, large enough to press down into the cups and press up the sides.

Fill cups with shredded bbq chicken.  Top with another piece of biscuit dough and press to seal the bottom and the top doughs together.  Cut a slit (or a fun shape) into the top to allow air to escape.

Bake for ~15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Allow to cool slightly and then remove carefully from the pans and cool completely.