The Lunch Box

It’s cold outside, but there is a pale sun shining through the bare branches, the Christmas tree is glowing with blingy baubles and the fire is lit.
This really is the time of year to think of friends, family and food and we have some ideas which may make your yule a bit easier and add a blush of international colour to the table. First off, let us share a simple recipe for glittery play dough - Jack and I made some today and he was happy for hours, making green glitter spaghetti with the garlic press etc. It is simple and fun to make, and it’s a great present to give little friends. Give it a go!
Simple Glittery Christmas Play Dough
Mix together 2 cups of plain flour
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar (keeps it fresh - buy it from expat shop
2 tablespoons of cooking oil - sunflower will do
1 cup plain salt
2 cups of boiling water
glitter, food colouring, peppermint flavouring, vanilla, rosewater etc
Mix. At first it looks like it might not mix in but keep on at it and it will soon become very pliable. You child can mix it and then divide into different bowls, adding food colouring, glitter and smelly stuff! It will keep fresh for weeks as long as it keep in an air tight container after play.
Mezze Dips
Make a Mezze Platter of dips, fresh vegetables, lavash bread and crackers
We often suggest using dips to tempt people to try something new or to dip veggie sticks into. Here are three of our favourites,we tried out the Moroccan style carrot dip at Connecting Women’s Christmas Bazaar recently and it was absolutely delicious. That and the hummus dip were made by Bintou Keita, originally from the Ivory Coast, a wonderful and inspiring cook who will be giving a course featuring 6 different dishes inspired by Africa on January 31 (phone 015 2130555).
Add this to a beetroot dip and tatziki, with lashings of carrots, cucumber, crostini, strips of lavash bread (from Maxima bakery) and you will have a festive palate of warm rainbow colours!
Moroccan carrot dip (makes 1 kilo - can make half portions)
1.2 kilos of medium size carrots
5 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger root
3 teaspoons of tumeric powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
80 mls of natural yoghurt
80 mls tahini
2 tablespoons of finely chopped coriander leaves
Peel the carrots, chop roughly and simmer in water until just cooked but still firm to the bite. Drain and set aside.
Heat the oil and fry the ginger and garlic paste, tumeric and cinnamon until fragrant - a few minutes at the most. Add the carrots with lemon juice  to the spices, stir together and keep them on a very low heat lid on for five minutes. Turn off the fire  and cool for ten minutes.
Place the spiced carrots in a mixer, add yoghurt and tahini, then puree it together, adding more yoghurt to taste. Throw in the chopped coriander at the last minute, transfer the puree in a air tight container and keep it in the refrigerator.

Make it a day in advance for the wonderful tastes to come through. Will keep for a few days - our favourite dip!
Hummus (makes approx 700 grams)
Soak  150g chick peas overnight, drain water and cook in fresh water for 45 muinutes or until tender - or canned, drained chick peas. Add in
80ml tahini, 1 garlic clove crushed, 1tsp salt, 60ml lemon juice, 5tbls olive oil, chopped parsley and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Blend with 100 mls of the cooking liquid and more lemon juice to taste. Add more salt if needed. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, cayenne pepper and a drizzle of olive oil before serving.

Beetroot dip (makes at least 2 cups)
Take 2 medium sized cooked beetroots. Blend with 1 cup of greek yoghurt, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon or lime juice, freshly ground salt and pepper, flat leafed parsley and/or fresh mint. Fry half a teaspoon of ground cumin, ground coriander seed, some black mustard seeds in a little oil until fragrant and add. Taste and add seasonings. Serve all the dips with lavash breads, lashings of fresh herbs, semi sun-dried tomatoes, radish flowers, pizza garlic bread etc.

We are planning our Christmas menu, tossing up between a sea food platter, a French inspired deep potato, tarragon and cream pie,  with a wild rice salad, chestnut stuffing, butternut pumpkin tempura, followed by pavlova, a classic chocolate yule log, profiteroles, dark chocolate mousse - as you can tell, this reflects  our very diverse multi-cultural tastes and the fact that we are lucky enough to live in a land of plenty! Whatever you are having, we wish you a grand, relaxing and thoughtful holiday,
 all the best from Kathy, Lisa, Bintou, and the wonderful members of the Food Forum!

Perfect sushi rice for Perfect Parents and Perfect Kids!
Actually, we have to admit we are not all that perfect all the time (no, really!). But the mere fact that we are cooking lunch for our kids is a wonderful thing in this day and age!!!
Our first Love Your Lunch Box workshop went way too fast and although we had high hopes of sharing many more ideas, recipes and products with the wonderful parents who attended, we ran out of time!
Thanks to all those who attended.
Emi and I had lots of fun planning the course and talking about food. I am now off to do a festive cooking course in Amsterdam at the Kushi Institute. Yes, the holiday season is looming. December’s blog will feature some festive food ideas and a good cause of two for present ideas. Favouritd.s from last year are the Smile Train (operating on cleft palates) and Oxfam’s scheme for buying livestock and toilets for people in need etc.
And while we prepare for the holiday season in our land of plenty, it is worth mentioning that 1 billion people in the world still go to bed hungry (see Economist’s leader last week) ….. What a hideous statistic!!!

 
Here is Emi’s Sushi Recipe - I learned a lot from her and hope this is useful to others as well! Thanks Emi, delicious sushi!
Sushi Dressing
First make your sushi dressing. For each cup of uncooked rice mix 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar with a half a teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix every now and then until sugar is dissolved while rice cooks and rests.
Rice
1. This is the method for those who don’t use a rice cooker! Wash and rinse 2 cups of sushi rice in a heavy bottomed cooking pot. Really squeeze the rice and wash until the water runs clear. Keep changing the water until the water is clear.
2. Cook the rice in fresh cold water. The depth of the water above the rice should be up to the first joint of your finger.
3. Put on full heat with  lid until there is a rolling boil and mix with a wooden spoon.
4. Place lid on pot and let simmer for 15 minutes at the lowest heat.
5. Turn off heat and remove from stove top. Allow to rest in pot with LID ON for 10 minutes - DO NOT REMOVE LID!
6. Mix again turning from bottom to top. Place rice in a pile on a large tray. Poor the dressing over and mix well - better to use your hands.
Now prepare your sushi fillings and seaweed on the rolling mat. Keep a cup of water nearby to use while putting rice on the mat. Use strips of cucumber, omlette, cooked carrot, salmon, tuna or avocado for the middle of the sushi roll. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with pickled ginger and soy sauce. Lovely

Our next evening workshop will be on January 18th, 2010. The all new My Kids Will Eat That! workshop will feature live demos, tastings and suggestions for healthy breakfasts, yummy lunches and a speedy suppers. We have put it together for Passionate Parenting - reserve via www.passionateparenting.nl

Veggie Balls with a light shower of Roasted Tomato Soup
We love Judi and Ron Baretts’ Book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It ranks equally with I will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child  in our Foodie book case. And it has inspired us to make an easy soup/sauce recipe for our lunch box emergency kit. You will need some fresh tomatoes, garlic and onions but the rest is out of the store cupboard. Needless to say fresh basil, rosemary and oregano would go well in this mixture too. Best made the night before to save getting up too early!
Roasted Tomato Soup (or Pasta Sauce)
5-6 large tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves garlic at least
olive oil
balsmico vinegar
herbs and seasonings
OXO veggie stock cubes or similar
1 can of V8 veggie juice
1 tin of good Italalian tomatoes
Preheat oven to 180 fan. Sprinkle a good dollop of olive oil into a roasting pan. Halve tomatoes and place cut side downwards into pan. Throw in some slices of onion, cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary or bay leaves, thyme etc. Sprinkle with some freshly ground black pepper, salt and a dash of balsamico vinegar. Roast madly for up to 35 minutes or until tomatoes are slightly blackened at the edge. Discard bay leaf and rosemary and remove  tomato and garlic skins when they have cooled. They should slip off easily.
Pour into a large soup pot, add in at least 2 cups of veggie stock (crumble stock cube into mug of hot water), the V8 juice, a can of good tomatoes and blend. Taste to season, add fresh basil. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or a cheese crostini or toast.
Or make some whole wheat spagetti, fry an onion, add in the tomato soup and some veggie or meat balls and hey presto - pasta for the lunch box or for dinner!

We were hit by the flu this week. It felt as if we would never rise from our beds again, taste again or stop coughing. We also had no choice but to cancel our Love Your Lunch Box Workshop for the BSN in The Hague. Many apologies to all those who registered, we promise to reschedule asap and make it better and even more informative as we continue to learn more and more each day.
One thing we realized as we attempted to eat and cook while suffering from “taste bud numbness”, was that TASTING and being able to titivate flavours is what preparing food is all about. It’s hard to get sickies to eat when they can’t taste but our old favourite “Friday Night Soup” came to the rescue. This recipe requires no fuss, is flavoursome and wholesome and was just what the doctor ordered. Plus, we made loads of lemon and honey drinks, ice tea made with Twinnings Echinacea & Raspberry and kept our fluids high. Now we are in recovery and it is wonderful to have taste buds again! Presentation is all important to tempt jaded palates but do keep at it. We need healing foods to help our system fight back and to keep energy levels when we are sick.

Friday Night Soup
1 large onion chopped finely
1 tsp channa masala spice mix or a blend of your favourite spices (we like Shan’s mix or to make our own)
1 can of Italian Passata or whole tomatoes
2 cans V8 veggie juice
chilli powder (to suit taste)
2 veggie stock cubes in 2 large cups hot water approx
1 cup red lentils
Fry onion in large soup pan, add in spices and fry until fragrant.
Pour in tomatoes, V8, veggie stock and water plus lentils. Simmer until lentils are done, adjust liquid levels with water, V8 or stock, adjust seasonings to suit household tastes. Serve with warm fried tortilla strips, soured cream, fresh herbs, diced chilli peppers, grated cheese as desired. Enjoy and warm up the next day for the lunch box!

Dipolicious
We find that kids like to dip and that dipping is a great way to introduce flavours and textures to untried palates. One dip that my kids love is a simple, herby, olive tapenade - yes, that’s olives and yes, quite a few kids have tried this particular dip and come back for seconds, thirds and more. Give it a go - you may be surprised how easy and yummy it is. Serve it with The Hairy Biker’s delicious homemade bagels which we have been having fun making of late. We are experimenting with adding various flours and flavourings. If there are any left over for the lunch box, fill them with boursin and smoked salmon for a really special lunch. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/dinkychristmasbagels_90632.shtml

Olive Dip

Do play around with these ingredients. They are merely a guide to assist you to formulate your own favourite tapenade. And do be careful that your pitted olives, black or green are not too salty.
1 cup pitted olives, drained
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice
good handful of your favourite fresh herbs - we used oregano, basil and flat-leafed parsely
1 large clove glaric
1 teaspooon capers, drained and rinsed
3 tbsps boursin, or cream cheese
freshly ground black pepper
some tomato puree or V8 juice or a fresh chopped tomato to add
Blend and adjust according to taste
Serve with veggie sticks, crostini or bagels
This doesn’t last long in our house, but should keep in the fridge sealed for up to a week.

Very, very Simple Blueberry muffins
Anna (aged 10) and I made these in 5 minutes flat and they were snapped up before you could “Blueberry”. We managed to save one for the lunchbox the next day!
      
      1 egg
      1/4 cup vegetable oil
      1/2 cup milk/butter milk
      1 1/2 cups flour – I used half plain and half wholemeal flour
      1/2 cup brown sugar (can use less)
      2 tsp baking powder
      1/2 tsp salt
      1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
      a scant tsp of your favourite spices
Preparation:
Spray bottoms of 12 muffin forms Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C – 190 may be better for a fan oven.
 
It’s easiest to use paper muffin cases.
 
Beat egg until foamy in a small mixing bowl. Beat in oil and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
 
Stir in blueberries. Make a well in the center and pour in liquid ingredients.
 
Mix together with a spatula until dry ingredients are moistened; no more than 25 to 30 strokes. Do expect your mixture to be lumpy! 
Fill each muffin cup slightly more than half full.
 
Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from tin at once to prevent further cooking! Best to eat then and there, or hide them for a snack the next day!
Makes 12 muffins

Autumn has landed and it’s raining sushi restaurants in The Hague. This is quite a delight to my family who are experts at ordering Kappa Maki and Vegetable Tempura. For me it’s the Sea weed salad and the Udon Noodles everytime. The Lunch box will be reviewing these soon!

It is also harvest time in our small city garden which was  groaning under the weight of James Grieve Cooking Apples. Those sweet sour apples have now been cleverly denuded by a group of enthusiastic and creative kids using fishing nets and brooms!  We then started peeling ( not as easy as it looks kids! ) and made a fab wholemeal hazel-nutty encrusted crumble with lashings of cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. It was delicious served with vanilla ice-cream. I have been trying out new recipes and came up with these individual filo pastry tartlets - great for school lunches and coffee time.

I have been researching various healthy eating books all holidays and have written a talk for Power Talk International (Clingendael chapter) which I will deliver next Tuesday called “Falling in Love Again (with food). I will talk about how what we eat and how our way of eating has changed so significantly within generations and cultures and how complex everything has become. Essentially the message will be “Don’t buy your food where you buy your gas”  and eat “real” food, not too much at one time and eat lots more vegetables and fruit. Simple really, but realistic and quite divinely delicious.

Our favourite cooking website - 101cookbooks.com has just alerted us to another great blog/campaign The Great Big Vegetable Challenge in which one gallant parent seeks to change her son Freddie’s attitude to eating veggies! - see it at http://greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com

Filo Apple Pies

Filo pastry
2-3 medium cooking apples
a mix of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg or use maple syrup/jam to sprinkle and sweeten
1 table spoon of butter melted to brush filo squares
left over blue berries or strawberries

Preheat the oven to 175 fan oven or slightly higher for a conventional oven.

Peel, core and slice apples thinly
Line muffin lines with cup- cake papers
melt some butter or use a very light oil
Cut filo into squares to fit into muffin pans - use three overlapping squares to create a star effect. Place apples slices to create a petal like appearance. If you like you can place a slice of strawberry or a blueberry in the centre. Sprinkle with the sugar or syrup mixture and brush petals and apples with butter or oil.

Bake for approx 8- 12 minutes - enjoy. We did!