Food Rebellion

With the conclusion of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC friday night, I thought a little food rebellion was in order! I just picked up a new Star Wars Thermos at Target this week, along with a new lunchbox and sneakers for both boys (their shoes literally fell apart within days of each other over the spring break).
Ryan's lunch: small pbj sandwich on 12 grain bread embellished with the Jedi order symbol on soy cheese; mini corn muffin; a strawberry; 2 gherkin pickles; Thermos of vegetable black bean
soup
with 8
veggies
(onion,
shallot,
carrot,
celery,
purple
topped
turnip,
parsnip,
butter-
nut
squash,
kale)...
and a
base of
vege-
table
broth
and
tomato
(which is
most definitely a fruit folks! Though technically speaking so is the butternut squash!).

If you haven't already done so, please consider signing the Food Revolution Petition to improve public school lunches in the U.S. and the support the training of cafeteria staff.

Also consider contacting Congress to urge them to support the Healthy School Meals Act. To Learn more about it you can visit the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine's Healthy School Lunches website.

In case you haven't watched Food Revolution yet, here is a YouTube link to one of the highlights! You gotta watch! It's the Jungle Flames flash mob from episode 4.

I have noticed a lot of new beginner bento bloggers popping up lately, and a resurgence of posting on other older blogs. Yay!

And just last week I received
a new award from Heather
of Don't Forget Your Lunch.
She makes lots of cute lunches
for her 3 boys using the
Laptop Lunches system.
Thanks Heather!

I love the variety of lunch
blogs out there. If you're
not feeling inspired to make
lunch some days, just get online and browse what others are doing and you're sure to come up with something healthy and delicious!

a hot meal

Ryan gets so excited over foods he can have in his Thermos. Lentil soup has got to be his favourite. He feigns falling down dead when I ask him if he'd like it for lunch.

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of lentil
soup;
"cheddar"
dill roll
(made
with
Vegan-
rella
cheeze);
Tofurky
"flower";
green
bell
pepper
strips;
celery
sticks;
ginger
miso
dressing
for dipping.

Agh! Emergency!
Ryan took the last
frozen cupcake to
a birthday party
over the weekend!
I'd better get baking...
like I need an excuse.

AJ got himself into
some trouble this
weekend by sur-
rounding the tv with
stickers. He was not
happy when I made
him remove them all
before Dada returned
from his trip.

He recovered well enough
to enjoy a hike around the
reservoir. There are many
reservoirs in our area,
though the big reservoir
that supplies Boston with
most of its water is farther
west.

Late this afternoon
I was met by this
disconcerting sight on
the trail. Hmmm, I
think I'll be moving
along home now...

no bento

Yesterday was 9/11. I thought since I didn't even make a proper bento, a day of blog silence was in order. Nate's preschool teacher was coming in the morning for the home visit, so I was more preoccupied with getting the house somewhat presentable than making a nice lunch!
Ryan's lunch: Tofurky mini bagel sandwich in the Wrap-N-Mat; bottle of chocolate almond milk; Thermos of potato leek soup; Badtz Maru side container of homemade strawberry nectarine applesauce (wish I'd taken a picture of the inside!).

And here's a picture of
cute Maia for good
measure. She's 14 months
old today.

I've got nothing else
to share as I just got
back from a friend's
wedding this evening!

cookbook challenge, week 2

So last week I started a personal cookbook challenge. During the past week I've made 3 more recipes from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings.

First was the Garbanzo
Bean Stew with Spinach
and Saffron. Not so good.
It was not stew-like at all,
but more like a soup made
with water. My soup-adoring
oldest son couldn't even
choke this down. I didn't mind
it, but I won't be making it
again. I could tell from the ingredients that this wasn't going to be a hit, but I didn't want to go changing a recipe I'd never made before. Ironically, AJ loved it, and Maia enjoyed it too.

As a side dish I made the
White Bean Salad with Olives
and Zucchini. The kids weren't
fans, except Maia who loved
it, but my husband and I
thought it was excellent. With
zucchini about to arrive en
masse any day, this is a good
one to remember.

I was skeptical about this Lentil
Soup with Cumin, Coriander and
Lemon. I'm so stuck in my ways
about lentil soup needing a leafy
green. I was very pleasantly
surprised. This was a really tasty
lentil soup. Everyone liked it.
Hooray!

Can't wait to try something new
again this week! What cookbook
are you using right now?