catching up

it has been more a case of procrastinating in terms of posting rather than not putting lunchboxes together. after a full 14 months of “lunchboxing” (that almost sounds dangerous), papajon and i could do put a lunchbox together with our eyes closed (well, almost), taking pictures is fairly straight forward… but posting is a lot more complex… wordpress has made posting an easy process… but it is still a long process to routinely post once a week… some people post daily and twice daily. kudos!

monday

box 1: lentil stew: potatoes, lentils, onions, garlic, tomato concentrate, red pesto, a touch of chili and sprinkled with a bit of fresh parmesan box 2: cashew nuts  box 3: cucumber box 4: tomatoes

tuesday

box 1: a brand new adventure into mexican cooking: peppers stuffed with beans (an independance day dish – i did not serve with the traditional walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds…) – it was served with rice instead. it was delicious but time consuming… box 2: cucumber sticks box 3: skinned grapefruit box 4: caswhews

wednesday

box 1: freshly cut fresh papaya! box 2: boiled egg box 3: cozido à portuguesa (boiled potatoes, carrots, green cabbage and drizzled with pure and virgin olive oil box 4: cherry tomatoes

thursday

box 1: boiled broccoli box 2: cucumber sticks box 3: rice with spinach and salmon (rather pale picture…) box 4: cherry tomatoes

friday

box 1: cucumber sticks box 2: eggplant (aubergine) pakoras (a real hit in this house!) box 3: veg mix (red and green peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, onions, garlic and olive oil) with mashed potatoes box 4: sweet dried apricots

2 in 1

posting madness – 2 posts in 1 day or maybe i am just too keen…

monday

tuesday

wednesday

thursday

friday

the rat race continues

back from the dead winter hybernation… with the packing, the relocation, the unpacking (still a great deal of boxes to unpack, but we can function, so we are getting lazy to unpack the remaining ones…), hubby starting a new job, jon starting at a new pre-school, getting used and enjoying our new surroundings, quick trip to zimbabwe, all of these factors limited my blogging time. but we continue to put together lunchbox on a weekly basis. same procedure as last year

monday

box 1: greek yoghurt with sugar free jam from norway (thanks to SIL+BIL) box 2: physallis (some of us are addicted) box 3: walnut bread from our local bakery with slices of gouda cheese and cucumber box 4: boiled egg (you can never go wrong with boiled eggs)

tuesday

box 1: portuguese rice (i call it portuguese rice, because i grew up on this stuff) – rice boiled with peas, onions, carrots box 2: cucumber slices box 3: soya sausages (from nutana) box 4: yellow pepper slices on the side: physallis

wednesday

box 1: tri-colour fusili pasta with aubergine tomato sauce and mozzarella box 2: red pepper slices box 3: tomato wedges with gouda cheese with sprinkled oregano box 4: organic raisins

thursday

box 1: spinach omelette box 2: red pepper sticks box 3: rye bread buns with organic beef salami (free of colourings and similar nasty stuff) box 4: physallis

friday

box 1: boiled broccoli with sweetcorn (seasoned with fresh raw garlic, olive oil and lemon juice) box 2: goat cheese with sugar free apricot jam box 3: potatos sautéed with zucchini (courgettes) and carrots box 4: organic raisins

week 43: relocating

we are relocating to western denmark within 3 weeks, so the house is beginning to look like a war zone. moving is a good way to de-junk:) we are getting rid of our PC tomorrow. our fujitsu-siemens laptop from 2005 is too slow, so i will not be uploading any lunchbox pictures until 2009… need to preserve my sanity!!

want to thank all of you that stop by we will be back to welcome the new year!

meanwhile, i leave you with a challenge: think of the top 10 foods you would want to eat before you die.

monday

left box: thin crisp pizza (as it should be ) with sundried tomatoes, tomato sauce, mozzarella and drizzled with fresh pesto box 2: salad with lettuce, tomatoes, sweetcorn and cucumber box 3: cucumber

tuesday

box 1: sliced yellow peppers with cucumber slice box 2: cucumber sticks box 3: cawliflower and green peas gratin box 4: mashed potatoes

wednesday

box 1: pumpkin curry with chick peas and green peas box 2: boiled potatoes with olive oil and oregano right box: veggie samosa on the side: tangerine

thursday: jon was properly fed at kindergarten at their monthly get-together-lunch

friday: no picture available…

week 42: glorious plantain

mamajon discovered a shop that sells plantain! bliss! rapture! mamajon grew up in ivory coast, and papajon and jon have been duly introduced to the great taste of aloko.

mamajon bought a bag full of ripe plantain, a few packs of foutou and a few bags of plantain crips… couldn’t help it…

monday

box 1: fresh tagliatelle with tomato sauce and black olives + parmesan box 2: sliced cucumber box 3: apple and cinnamon struddel with almonds and raisins (entirely and completely sugarfree!) box 4: radishes mini-box: fresh tagliatelle post scriptum: jon packed his own lunchbox and he felt he needed 2 boxes with tagliatelle.

tuesday

box 1: tomato slices box 2: plantain crips box 3: fresh salmon baked with potatoes and thyme box 4: fresh spinach sautéed with onions and olive oil

wednesday

box 1: tomatoes box 2: plantain crips (fabulous snack!) box 3: pasta with fresh spinach and oven baked feta cheese box 4: sweetcorn

thursday

box 1: spanish tortilla (the flip failed me… or i failed to flip and the egg/potato tortilla crumbled…) box 2: mexican tortilla grilled with cheddar cheese box 3: sweetcorn and green olives with olive oil and lemon juice box 4: grapes from portugal (grown in grandparent’s vineyard! )

friday

box 1: oven baked potatoes box 2: aloko box 3: tomato sauce with onions and grated parsnips box 4: roasted chicken breast

week 41: farfar & farmor

week 40: post surgery

monday

jon stayed at home with mamajon for some post-surgery rest. we walked through the forrest in the afternoon, kicked some yellow and red leaves, collected some to take home and glued them to a nice white paper to show papajon when he got home from work.

tuesday

stayed home with papajon. they went for a walk by the marina, checked out the posh yachts and the fishermen.

wednesday

thursday

friday

week 39: travel & hospital & recovery

quite the agitated week and we are now enjoying a quiet weekend at home.

it started off with mamajon travelling to brussels for 2 days. jon and papajon had fun making calzones for the lunchbox which got a lot of praise at kindergarten jon had a surgery scheduled for friday, which had both his parents more anxious than necessary (but how can one ask a parent to be relaxed when their precious little one is going to have full anesthesia and go under the knife?) but it all went quite well and we were in hospital for a total of 6 hours: from 9am to 3pm. he has been running about the house today as though nothing happened, full of energy.

monday

box 1: pumpkin soup (pumpkin, potatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil and fresh parsley) box 2: lettuce, tomato, cucumber and greek yoghurt box 3: cornbread, from annie’s recipe blog (jon and papajon have now requested cornbread on a weekly basis) box 4: cucumber

tuesday

calzones made by jon and his papa (mamajon was in brussels… missing all action back home)

wednesday

no pictures taken of wednesday’s lunchbox either, but papajon assures me jon did not starve!

thursday

box 1: yellow peppers and tomatoes box 2: tangerine box 3: sunflower bun/roll with philadelphia cream cheese, red pesto and cucumber slices box 4: boiled egg comment: notice the colour of the boxes?? different from our usual ones… well, while in brussels, mamajon got invited over for dinner, and the hostess gabriella had a laptop lunchbox lying around that she was no longer using and donated it to jon. grazie gabi!

friday

hospital food consumed.

week 38: cooking together

jon is helping a great deal in the kitchen. he helped mamajon make the pumpkin pie and papajon in making the lasagna. he also layed his toppings on top of pita bread to make some mini-pizzas. we have a great time together and jon enjoys being/feeling helpful around the kitchen.

we watched fast food nation last weekend (jon was already sleeping), and we were completely grossed out. the docu-film reinforced our commitment to homemade food. at least i know what i am eating…

monday

box 1: vegetarian lasagna made with fresh pasta sheets box 2: cucumber box 3: pumpkin pie (made with freshly cut pumpkin – we would not be able to find canned pumpkin in denmark anyways…) box 4: red peppers

tuesday

mamajon had to attend a meeting in brussels and was not able to take a picture of jon’s lunchbox. papajon put vegetable toppings with cheese on top of pita breads and created mini-pizzas

wednesday

box 1: honeydew melon box 2: red peppers box 3: oat bun with philadelphia cheese and økologisk spegepølse from hanegal box 4: cocktail tomatoes

thursday

box 1: potato salad with peas, carrots, olive oil and lemon juice box 2: raisins box 3: baked potatoes with baked salmon and onions box 4: tomatoes

friday

box 1: greek yoghurt with sugarfree pomegranate jam box 2 + 4: corn on the cob boiled decorated with tomatoes box 3: rye bread with sunflower seeds and philadelphia cheese

week 37: pumpkin time!

we bought a huge pumpkin last weekend and it has been sitting in our backyard waiting to be cooked and eaten. am looking forward to pumpkin pie later this coming weekend. but 1/4 of the pumpkin was used by papajon to make something sumptuously delicious!

jon and mamajon made banana pie sunday afternoon. jon is so good at helping in the kitchen. he plastered the pie crust inside the mould and cut 2 bananas with his child-safe knife then he was certain he wanted cinnamon on top of the banana!

i have to say a big thank you to heather for her suggestions last week! we tried the risotto with peas, white beans with herbes de provence and the zucchini pancakes. we had tried variations of the risotto and white beans before, but the zucchini pancakes was pure innovation!! it was loved by all in the house!! should have asked for a recipe though…

monday

papajon went to croatia on a project monitoring visit. he took the camera with him, so i could not take pictures of his monday lunchbox…

tuesday

box 1: banana pie – crust: blend oats, honey, almonds and coconut oil; slice banana on top of crust, sprinkle cinnamon and bake until crust is cooked box 2: cherry tomato box 3: risotto rice with peas and sprinkled with parmesan box 4: white beans seasoned with herbes de provence and a spoonfull of green pesto outcome: box came back CLEAN!

wednesday

left side of box: zucchini pancakes: what an excellent idea (thanks to heather) i used 4 eggs, whole meal flour, lots of ginger, a pinch of nutmeg, 1 large raw grated zucchini, pinch of salt, baking powder+soda box 2: boiled broccoli and olive oil box 3: cherry tomato outcome: when i picked him up in the afternoon, he left kindergarten chanting: i ate 3 pancakes, i ate 3 pancakes!!

thursday

kindergarten served lunch today. no lunchbox needed. they served pita bread, falafel and lots of crunchy vegetables like carrots and peppers.

friday

box 1: rice cooked with cinnamon, cardemom and cloves box 2: pumpkin curry: cooked pumpkin with chick peas, onions, salt + olive oil and curry spices (papajon’s twist) right side of box: 1 peach and a couple of whole meal crostini outcome: kindergarten was closed today, as all teachers had to attend a 6 hours training session. i took the day off to go for a picnic with my son