week 5: marmite fan

as i write, jon is having his afternoon siesta. we have been home for the past 3 days because he was diagnosed with hand-foot-and-mouth disease (viral infection that generally affects pre-schoolers) and his fever has been up to 39.7 C with no clear signs of it coming down. at least his appetite is not altogether gone, he still eats very well, and has been more active today than he was yesterday. hope it will all clear over the weekend.

we still packed his lunchbox every night, hoping that the following day he would feel better. but we ended up eating its contents at home.

we discovered this week that jon is absolutely mad about marmite. after his cereal/oatmeal breakfast, he will usually have a toast with marmite. and if i forget he will quickly remind me to get him one.

monday

box 1 & 3: little rustic buns with home made burgers (papajon’s skills), box 2: left-over pasta from the previous night – tasting even better box 4: tomato, cucumber and a few lettuce leaves. outcome: gone with the wind. empty box.

tuesday

box 1: marmite rectangles: butter and marmite spread on økologisk bread box 2: tartelettes aux champignons (pastry bottoms filled with fresh mozzarella and portobello mushrooms with a drizzle of pesto oil) box 3: mango and rasperries (again… frozen) box 4: carrot + cucumber + tomato salad (lemon and olive oil dressing) outcome: half of the fruit box was left… defrosted fruit is never as exciting as fresh fruit.

wednesday:

box 1: potato salad (boiled potatoes, a whole lot of crème fraîche, sliced radishes, dill) box 2: fresh radishes box 3: 2 chicken sausages and 1 sojapølse (soya sausage) with remoulade and ketchup box 4: baby carrots outcome: he only ate the sausages – the night before he feasted on radishes. you can tell papajon put the lunchbox together, because that is the only time jon enjoys treats like remoulade and ketchup…

thursday

box 1: quorn fillet with roasted green beans and sliced tomatoes with herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano) box 2: fresh papaya swirls (emphasis on the word “fresh”) box 3: risotto with herbs box 4: champignons farcis (portobello mushroom roasted upside down with  fresh mozzarella and a spoon full of parmesan) outcome: another meal eaten at home, despite the fever, he still ate a great deal of the risotto and all the green beans and half of the quorn fillet.

friday

box 1: whole wheat pasta with spinach sauce (spinach, leeks, onions, garlic, fresh salmon and cream) sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan box 2: rye bread in winnie the pooh shapes box 3: fresh papaya strips box 4: cheese and økologisk bread “stars” outcome: ate most of the pasta and 3 strips of papaya but did not eat the bread. thought it was cute and kept saying peter plys (winnie the pooh in danish) but did not touch them.

week 4: quiches and all

so far november has not been an easy month. a great deal of sick children at the vuggestue (daycare) and this week was no exception. jon had diarrhea last night but he was fine by the following morning and ready to play.

this week was different in terms of packing lunchboxes – we got a break on thursday because the vuggestue usually cooks for all the kids once a month. they had spaghetti and sauce.

monday

box 1: egg salad with rye bread box 2: spicy oatmeal muffin (oatmeal, flour, nutmeg, cardemom, cinnamon -no sugar nor sweetners) box 3 + mini box: carrot sticks and crème fraîche with dill box 4: banana halves outcome: box licked clean (assuming he did not eat the banana peel though….)

tuesday

box 1: mixed salad (cucumber, lettuce, sweet corn and tomatoes) box 2: natural yoghurt (non sweetened) and strawberry sauce/purée) lower half of lunchbox: spinach quiche (spinach, cream, eggs, nutmeg, garlic and domyati feta) outcome: a quarter of the quiche was left. they had cake for freja’s birthday, so…

wednesday

box 1: spinach ravioli with a veg tomato sauce (containing aubergines, green peppers, onions, garlic, and tomatoes) box 2: halloumi cheese sticks box 3: cucumber binoculars with mini carrots box 4: strawberries (not the season but still pretty good when defrosted!) outcome: 2 halloumi sticks left…

thursday

— all 12 kids from jon’s daycare room had spaghetti and sauce today, prepared by the sweet ladies of the vuggestue —–

friday

box 1 & 3: calzones (papajon made the pizza dough – he is the expert – and the filling is made out of aubergines, sundried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, black olives, and onions – the recipe was  roughly based on something mad jamie whipped up once on tv. click here for the real recipe) box 2: oranges box 4: carrots outcome: all 4 boxes came back empty. considering he had diarrhea the previous night… we are impressed. unless his little friends at daycare are helping him with scuff it down at lunch… we will have to investigate.

week 3: introducing quorn

we were not able to do too much shopping last sunday (we try to stock up for the whole week). that meant going to the supermarket every other evening to get vegetables or fruit. we managed to get hold of some  quorn (which comes in different shapes and tastes) at Brugsen - which is pretty exciting considering we eat mostly meat-free at home.

monday

box 1: lasagna (fresh lasagna sheets with a minced quorn tomato sauce + white sauce + peas + sliced aubergine. box 2: sesame wasa runda (crisp bread) box 3: tomato and corn salad (dressing: olive oil + lemon + oregano) box 4: raisins + apple sauce outcome: the lunchbox came back completely empty. licked clean…

tuesday

box 1: rice with green pesto and peas box 2: juicy orange box 3: “mexican” salad (tomatoes, boiled green beans, green olives + drizzled with olive oil and lemon) box 4: cucumber sticks + corn outcome: some corn and a couple of green beans were left alone in the box…

wednesday

box 1: pita bread box 2: roasted quorn bites box 3: salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber and corn) + spiced up crème frâiche box 4: home made humus (chicks peas, olive oil, 1 garlic, juice of 1 lemon blended) outcome: empty lunchbox!!

thursday

box 1: wasa runda - sesame box 2: cucumber box 3: spinach cannelloni (made with spinach + peas + garlic rolled into fresh lasagna sheets covered with a tomato sauce) box 4: cottage cheese outcome: the runda crispbread did not go down as usual today, and he did not touch the cottage cheese. but there was no trace of the cannellonis…

friday

box 1: sliced yellow peppers mini-box: home made mayo (got the recipe from a spanish friend of mine: blend at high speed 1/2 cup of sunflower oil with 1/2 cup of soy milk + 1 clove of garlic, if you can stomach it, salt to taste – creamy and tasty semi-healthy mayo!!) box 2: penne pasta with spinach and tomato + grated cheese box 3: potato grossly mashed + oeufs farcis (yolk of egg mixed with mayo) box 4: greek yoghurt with swirls of jorbær grød (strawberry sauce) outcome: we are coming to the conclusion that jon no longer likes mash. a month ago, he was wild about mashed potatoes, in fact his favourite food… but his tastes must be changing. he left the mash behind. a few pennne were also left behind.

week 2: more on left-overs

on sunday we sat down and drafted the menu for the week, so as to try and use some of the left-overs from the dinners in the lunchbox. in denmark it is most common to eat smørbrød (open sandwiches) for lunch – but we try to provide at least one box within the lunchbox that can be warmed up for jon’s lunch. at daycare (vuggestue), they give free fruit and milk to the children half way through the morning and after their afternoon nap, so we are never worried that he does not eat enough fruit.

Monday

box 1: Nuttolene (made out of peanuts, water and salt) cut in strips box 2: boiled Samsø potatoes with boiled carrots and peas and white dressing (yoghurt, 2 garlic cloves, fresh basil, salt and a dash of olive oil), box 3: greek yoghurt (100% natural, no sugar added) and some æblemos (cooked apple purée) box 4: mixed nuts (no added salt) Outcome: just a few peas left at the bottom of box 2….

Tuesday

box 1: red peppers and cucumbers in strips – ready to be dipped in the mini-red box which has humus box 2: peanuts box 3: rice with curry (made with coconut milk) and peas box 4: greek yoghurt and strawberries (it is not the season… so we ended up using frozen – not my first choice…) outcome: jon did not eat much because he was quite sick with a 24 hour bug… he spent the rest of the day at home eating apples and drinking water.

Wednesday

box 1: greek yoghurt, æblemos (apple sauce) and rosiner (raisins) box 2:  nutana sojapølser (vegetarian sausages) + slices of cucumber box 3: veg mash (potatoes, parsnips, carrots cooked and mashed with 3.5% fat milk and butter box 4: pieces of rugbrød (rye bread) with cheese outcome: considering the previous day he had vomited 4 times, we decided to make some comfort food for his lunchbox today. mash and something to settle his stomach like yoghurt and apple sauce. he ate well, just left the mash box half full.

Thursday

box 1: sliced fresh mozzarella with red and green pesto (a poor attempt at the portuguese flag….) box 2: rosiner (raisins – jon can never get enough raisins! he can most certainly overdose on raisins if he could) box 3: penne pasta with grated carrots and sweet corn with dressing (lemon, olive oil, salt, a spoon of crème fraîche) box 4: smoothie (10% fat greek yoghurt, frozen strawberries – no sugar added) outcome: the lunchbox came back empty aside from one slice of mozzarella…

Friday

box 1: sweet salad (grated apples and grated carrots topped with raisins and a lime and olive oil dressing box 2: rugbrød cubes (rye bread) with chicken pålæg box 3: sushi (sushi rice with cucumber and smoked salmon wrapped in nori ) mini-box (not in picture): soy sauce box 4: økologisk ablesiner (oranges) outcome: 1 sushi roll left and half of the sweet salad. one of the supervisors commented on the lunchbox today. she was not sure jon would know how to go about eating the sushi – but apparently he opened the mini-box with the soy sauce and started dipping the sushi rolls in the soy sauce and was completely unphased by the whole process!

week 1: getting started

it was jon’s first week in vuggestue (daycare) and it was my first attempt at a madpakke (lunchbox). luckily it was a short week, which means we will have the weekend to come up with a creative menu for next week’s lunchboxes!

thusday

box 1: fusili pasta with tomato sauce (with garlic, onion, a tad bit of chili, oregano), aubergine/eggplant andcourgette/zucchini. box 2: seedless grapes box 3: carrot and cucumber sticks. box 4: cheese sticks (spanish sheep cheese). Outcome: successful, the lunchbox came out empty!

friday

box 1: spanish tortilla (boiled potatoes, eggs, red peppers, onions) box 2: spanish cheese + half a rugbrød (rye bread), box 3: tangerine, box 4: cucumber sticks and tomato. Outcome: we were impressed, he left 4 carrot sticks and 2 pieces of tangerine.