Lunch: 2.3.11

Tuesday, the Girl was sick.  Yesterday was a snow day.  So, back to school today!

Snack is four mini oatmeal jammy bit muffins and a juice.

Lunch is some grapes, a clementine, a cheese sandwich on fresh pain de mie, a prune filled pocket poptart, and a couple homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Lunch: 1.31.11

Snack is a couple pocket pop tarts (prune filling), some raisins, and a juice.

Lunch is a clementine, some skillet bread with cheese, grapes, homemade Greek style yogurt with honey and vanilla stirred in, and a couple oatmeal jammy bit mini muffins.

Recipe: Crockpot365's Baked Bean Soup

Stephanie over at Crockpot365 blogged this better than I ever could - and it's delicious.

Baked Bean Soup.  It has a little zip, and is super healthy.  I used canned white kidney beans and some canned diced tomatoes with diced chilis.  Mmmmmm.

Give it a try. I think it's a winner.

Recipe: Spiced Apricot Oatmeal Bars

These are lovely!  I have had similar bars with raspberry jam, but I had some apricot jam, and couldn't resist throwing in some spices to make them even more scrumptious.  I want to try it with some other kinds of jams, too.  Mmmm.

Spiced Apricot Oatmeal Bars

1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c rolled oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c butter
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 c apricot jam

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Combine all ingredients except for jam in a food processor (or mix by hand).  Line an 8"x8" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Press about 2 c of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan. 

Spread jam evenly over the crumbs, to about 1/4" from the edges.

Cover with the remaining crumbs and press down evenly.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe: Southwestern Tomato Soup

The Girl wasn't feeling well tonight, so I decided to make grilled cheese and soup.  I had some condensed tomato soup on hand, but wanted to make it a little more interesting. 

It turned out really yummy!  I can highly recommend this quick and easy dinner.


Southwestern Tomato Soup

2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 soup cans skim milk
1/2 c salsa
1 Tbsp taco seasoning

Combine condensed soup and milk.  Stir well.

I used special edition orange colored tomato soup, but you can use regular

Add in salsa and taco seasoning. Allow to simmer for several minutes for flavors to combine.  Serve with grilled cheese or corn chips.

Lunch: 1.27,11

The Girl has a new lunch box!  This one is from Crocodile Creek, and the Easy LunchBox containers fit beautifully inside.  I'm really excited for this lunch box - it is more easily cleaned than her old lunch box, which was getting seriously grimy on the cloth. Hooray for new lunch boxes!

Snack is a fruit cup, some pocket poptarts, and a juice.  (A note - the juice does not fit in the snack pouch of the new lunch box... instead, it goes in the big container with the lunch.  She may drink it at lunch.  That's up to her).

Lunch is some tie dyed stuffed pizza bread, a hard boiled egg, some pistachio pudding (from a box mix... cleaned out my pantry the other day and found that I have about 10 boxes of pudding!), and a couple oatmeal jammy bit mini muffins.

Recipe: Mushroom Curry

I love Indian food.  I had mushrooms that needed using.  Mushroom curry needed to happen.

A note.  The kiddos did not really eat this.  Mushrooms are a challenge.  Still, I keep trying.  The Girl took a couple bites at least.

Me?  I love mushrooms.  Adore them. 

Mushroom curry with basmati rice and carrot & beet raita

Give it a try!

Mushroom Curry

5 Tbsp olive oil

2 lb mushrooms
2 onions, finely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp fennel seeds
2 inch cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp ground cloves (or 3 whole cloves)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger (or 1/2 inch chopped fresh ginger)

2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric

1/2 c water
salt to taste

Cut mushrooms into thin slices (I use my egg slicer).

Grind cinnamon, cloves, fennel, garlic, and ginger into a fine powder in a spice grinder (I use a dedicated coffee grinder - if you are using fresh ginger do not put it in the coffee grinder).

Heat oil in a large pan and add the powdered spices (and fresh ginger if using).  Cook the spices, stirring, over medium heat for about a minute.

Add onions and saute until golden brown.

Stir in tomatoes, and saute for about 5 more minutes.  Add chili powder and turmeric.

Add the mushrooms to the pan with the water and salt to taste.  Stir well, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until mushrooms are well cooked.

Uncover and stir for a few more minutes, until water evaporates.  Serve with basmati rice.