Adding Foods to Your LaLa Lunchbox Food Library

The LaLa Lunchbox Food Library has loads of fruits, veggies, proteins and snacks already loaded from the start. That said, if your hungry little monsters have favorites that aren't on the app already or if you'd like to make other changes, we've made it really simple for you. 

Here's how: 

Press the Settings button (circled in red below) on the home screen. Click on "Add Food" to reveal the screen on the right below. Use a photo from your iPhone library or take a photo with your iPhone camera. Type in the name of the new food and select a category. That's it! 

Adding new foods is easy!  

We followed these easy steps to add the Weelicious Lunches recipes to our LaLa Lunchbox Food Library. It's a great way to keep ideas fresh and fun for your kiddos. If you have ideas for recipes or foods that you think are a MUST have for the Food Library, we'd love to hear about it! Email your thoughts to: info@lalalunchbox.com

Oatmeal-Carrot Griddle Cakes

We eat a ton of oats and oatmeal in my house (literally, my infant eats oatmeal *every* morning. I kind of wonder if she's able to differentiate between day and night solely because oatmeal comes reliably at 7:15 every morning.) Last night I made braised chicken with steel cut oats and chard from Mark Bittman's Food Matters cookbook, which I absolutely love. I've made it before but not for a while and as expected, it was gobbled up. 

Well, actually, my 3 year old requested that the "green parts get taken out." And my 7 year old hand-picked out the onions somehow. But they ate the rest with pleasure. My infant? She devoured it! Extra thumbs up for a dish that everyone eats!

While I had the book open I flipped to another one of my faves: oatmeal griddle cakes. I've been on a carrot kick lately so I made a batch of these pancakes and added shredded carrots. I made them egg free and dairy free by using soy milk instead of cow's milk and cooked them in Earth's Balance instead of butter so that my infant could taste them as well. I want my kids to know what's in their food and develop confidence around their own taste preferences, so I don't want to hide the fact that I added carrots to their morning pancakes. Frankly, while I see the merit in adding vegetables to certain recipes (like this one or this one) or other dishes where healthful ingredients might not otherwise be expected (like this one), I am never okay with not being truthful about it.  

So today when my babysitter arrived and my son happily declared that he got oatmeal carrot pancakes for breakfast today, well, I felt proud as a peacock. 

Here's the adapted recipe for Mark Bittman's Oatmeal Griddle Cakes:  

Oatmeal-Carrot Griddle Cakes

1 teaspoon flax meal
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soy milk
1 1/4 cups cooked oatmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill rolled oats)
2 carrots, finely shredded
Earth Balance for frying

In a small bowl, mix the flax meal with water and set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. 
Gently incorporate the soy milk and cooked oatmeal into the dry mixture. 
Add the flax/water to the bowl. 
Mix in the carrot. Batter should be a bit pasty. 
Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add Earth Balance (I used 1/2 tablespoon for each set of fist-sized pancakes)
Flip the pancakes when small holes or bubbles appear on the top (approximately 2-3 minutes per side).

** These griddle cakes are great for breakfast and can also be used as mini sandwich bread substitutes for a fun change of pace. 

Back to School!

Tomorrow is the day.  

My son's Monday breakfast plate: pancakes, blueberries and apple.

My big gal starts second grade and my son starts a new preschool. Though I've been yearning to get back into a routine and gearing up for the new school year in some ways, it's always sad to say goodbye to summer. I find it challenging to find the balance between carrying on familiar family routines while managing new kid schedules and all of the logistics and feelings that go along with them. 

yogurt oatmeal pancakes - requested for the first day of school

I've still got unanswered questions - will we make it out of the house on time? How long will the new commute to two separate schools on opposite sides of town take? Have I forgotten anything? Meanwhile, my son has made a breakfast request for yogurt oatmeal pancakes for tomorrow and today, while we've had some lovely one on one time, we're whipping up a batch together that I can cook in just minutes tomorrow morning. The great news? I can also serve these to my 11 month old. 

Here's a round up of my five favorite quick breakfasts for hectic mornings -- seriously, they all take just minutes. 

So best of luck to all of you who are busily figuring out new routines and managing an elaborate juggling act. And good luck for the upcoming school year!

French Toast Kebabs

We're back from vacation and thinking about getting back into the swing of things before the back to school mayhem begins. This morning my kids slept past 7:00 am. We have just over a week until the new school year begins and they *finally* slept late. Ugh.   

Getting back into a routine can be a challenge. I'm procrastinating the whole thing and holding onto summer as long as possible. Let 'em sleep late! Let 'em have the extra books before bedtime. Let 'em discover the constellations with the Sky View app (translation: let 'em stay up late). 

This morning, as a celebration of the fact that it's a weekday but the kiddos are in no hurry to get anywhere, we had these french toast - banana kebabs: 

French toast banana kebabs

This breakfast is a family affair. My eldest cracked the eggs and helped cut the bread. My three year old cut the bananas and placed the bread in the egg-milk mixture. These are fun to eat and filling too. I realized that with a little advance prep (cutting the bread and slicing the bananas ahead of time) these might be feasible for a school morning (well, if the stars align properly on all other fronts). 

Here's the recipe:  

3 slices of whole grain bread
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) 
2 bananas
butter for frying the french toast
kebab sticks

Cut the bread into squares (approximately 1-2 inches). Scramble the eggs in a shallow dish and add vanilla extract, milk and cinnamon (if using). Add bread and let it sit for several minutes. Turn to coat the other side of the bread with egg mixture. Heat the butter in a pan on medium heat.  Add the bread pieces and flip after a few minutes. When french toast squares are done, place on kebab stick alternating with banana slices. Enjoy!

Carrot and Plum Salad with Dates

Here's the theory I'm testing: are carrots the world's best vegetable? 

Here's why they just may be: they work well with savory and sweet dishes and they're lovely with any meal of the day. They're perfect inside of a breakfast frittata, they're a wonderful accompaniment to sandwiches when shredded, they're magical healers in soup, and they are a delightful addition to dinner salads like this one or this one or part of hearty main dishes. On top of that, they're a great source for beta carotene, Vitamin A, Vitamin K and fiber. Here's one summary of the many health benefits of carrots including an interesting history, nutrition summary and tips.

Is there any place the humble carrot *can't* go? I don't think so!  

I decided to test this theory and create a non-savory dish using carrots to serve with breakfast. The kids were a little suspect when they saw me chopping up carrots at breakfast time. I steamed a big old batch of carrots recently and had them ready to go in my fridge. I pulled some plums and a lemon from my fruit basket and some Peeled Snacks pitted dates and ground cinnamon. The kids, no longer wary, started snacking on the dates and plum chunks. 

Carrots in a breakfast fruit salad! 

Voila! The flavors were great together. I added 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt to balance the sweetness and tossed well. Great flavor but it was missing something: crunch. I made some quick croutons using a couple of slices of Citrus Rye bread that I have in my house from Eric Kayser bakery (best.bread.ever.) and added them to the top of this dish and it made all the difference in the world.

Carrot and Plum Salad with Dates and Croutons

This dish flew out of the bowls. My son wanted more dates in his. My daughter wanted more croutons. With recipes this simple, it's easy to make accommodations! 

Carrot and Plum Salad with Dates

Ingredients
1 pound carrots, peeled, steamed and chopped
1 cup pitted Peeled Snacks dates, chopped (taken from the Go Figure - Fig, Date and Apricot bag)
2 cups plums, cut into chunks
Juice of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Homemade croutons (recipe here, at the bottom) 

Toss all ingredients together until the flavors are nicely combined. Enjoy at any time of the day!