Morning Tea - Fresh mango cheeks, homemade trail mix of sultanas, raisins, popcorn, croutons and oven roasted pumpkin seeds.
Lunch - Chicken and vegetable risotto arancini with cheddar cheese centres, salad of cos lettuce, mini tomatoes and carrot stars.
Drink: Water
If you make risotto, then you can make arancini with the leftovers! Wear a pair of disposable gloves to ball the risotto up (do a half ball and add a cheese cube to the centre, if you wish, before adding more risotto to make the other half) , roll your arancini in plain flour, dip in egg, roll in breadcrumbs and fry in a little hot oil. Fun and a bit messy but very easy and they are delicious hot or cold!
Have an awesome weekend, everyone!!
What a great idea for leftover risotto. I'm going to try that next time.
ReplyDeleteARANCINI BALLS IS MY FAVOURITE!! i really should make some up this weekend! :) Have a good weekend over there! :)
ReplyDeleteHow did you make the carrot stars? My arancini always fall apart. :(
ReplyDeleteZigsma - I have a nifty little vegetable peeler called the Borner Veg'Art Prep Tool (if you Google that you should get a few results). My mum bought it for me after watching one of those shopping centre demo's, (I think it was a two for the price of one or some such thing as she has one too), it has a metal loop at the side which you can use to strip grooves from the sides of carrots, cucumbers and the like before you slice them - I also like using it for zucchini in stirfry. It does a whole bunch of other stuff for garnishes too and also has a normal vegetable peeler which (according to the packaging) is made of " the finest German Surgical Stainless Steel". I've had mine for at least ten years and the blades are still super sharp. Also, some may argue that it's wasteful, but our pet guinea-pigs get the scraps, so no waste here!
ReplyDeleteI DO love looking at your lunchboxes, although they make me hungry! Given that you are a devotee of the packed lunch you might be just the person to ask - do you have any tips for how to stop your plastic lunch box smelling plasticky? I wonder if it's just me, but I find that by lunchtime the smell/taste of the plastic has transferred to the food - particularly with things like cheese and bread (and that can't be healthy?). I use a metal box for my daughter for this reason. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteThe arancini is a great lunch box idea - my teens would love these! Everything always looks great - your daughter must be the envy of her classmates.
ReplyDeleteI bought some of the tape at Kikki K - very cute:)
In answer to your query about the stamps - you can soak the adhesive stamps to remove the backing.
ReplyDeleteOh, hey, thanks, Spoonful, I will be giving that a try.
ReplyDeleteSarah - After I read your comment, I freaked out, ran straight to the kitchen, stuck my nose in the containers I use and took a really deep whiff. None of them smelt plasticky - but I thought I had better take it further and packed myself a sandwich, cheese cubes and some fruit and yoghurt which I then left for several hours stored in my daughters lunchbox with the icepacks she would normally have in there. I timed it so the food was left about the same amount of time it would normally be before she ate it. I did another sniff test and careful taste testing but still had no problems. Do you think it could be the type of containers you have tried in the past? I use the Nude Food Movers http://www.nudefoodmovers.com.au/
which do not contain any nasties that plastics can sometimes have in them and I've been really happy with them so far. Perhaps keeping the items cold makes a difference too? I'm totally with you on not wanting anything to taste plasticky - it certainly doesn't sound healthy in the least! I guess if you can't get a hold of Nude Food Movers or a similar product or didn't want to use any plastics whatsoever, then metal is a great alternative! There are some funky metal lunchboxes around - I would definately have one for my little girl for the "cute factor" but I know with her it would last about two minutes before getting dropped, dinged and dented - oh dear!! Her insulated one works pretty well, I wipe it out with a hot damp cloth and a few drops of lemon essential oil and leave it out in the sun for a short time on weekends to ensure it doesn't smell. I've also seen cloth "lunch sacks" (Etsy has heaps for sale or you can make your own if you're handy) which are washable and reusable - these would be great for sandwiches, fruits like grapes or berries, cookies and the like and could be stored within your metal lunchbox to keep all the lunch ingredients seperate. I really hope this helps out, let me know how you go!!
Lillabilly, thank you so much for that amazing reply - you did an experiment and everything! I have seen the nude food brand in the supermarket so I will give them ago. In the past I've had Decor containers which started out ok but soon became plasticky. I've wondered if it is the dishwashing detergent I'm smelling, so I will try just wiping it out like you suggest. And your tips about chilling and cloth lunch sacks are great too. The metal box is quite scratched and dented, but still does the job (for now!) Thanks again!
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