Photo from LaptopLunches.comI was looking for lunch ideas for my weekly menu to make life easier during the school season. I was so excited to have found Laptop Lunches because they have tons of pictures a.k.a. "eye candy", and the lunches look really easy to modify for less expensive or available ingredients. Today, we had the lunch above, but substituted the papaya for diced nectarines because that is what we had. I don't have a panini press, (but would love to have one!), so I did with what I had there as well. I sliced the ciabatta and spread mayonnaise on each side, then sprinkled a little garlic on them. Meanwhile I had some slices of zucchini, red onion, red bell pepper, and chopped parsley with a little bit of salt, sauteing in olive oil. I placed mozzarella cheese on the ciabatta slices and made a sandwich with the veggies. I placed the sandwich on a griddle, then placed a large pan on top and then a kettle full of water on top of that! I then pressed down and voila! I had delicious "panini" sandwiches! (panini grill is going on my wish list!)
I'm going to try my best to pre-make each days lunches with the ideas from Laptop Lunches, so that lunch break is actually a break and not hectic for us. The nice thing about lunch this way is that the children can help. Tonight, my 7 year old cut fresh green beans for us and placed them in a Rubbermaid container for easy lunch assembly later. For Montessori lunch making, you could even layout all of the pre-cut ingredients for a lot of these lunches and have the children assemble their own lunches by looking at a printed picture from the website. For correct nutritional portions, you could have 1 cup, 1/2 cup, etc.. measuring scoops in each ingredients container. I found correct portion sizes listed on the Laptop Lunches website and printed them out so I could start learning what they are.
I noticed that most, (if not all) of the Laptop Lunches pictured were meatless. As Catholics, we keep the custom of not eating meat on Fridays and of course there are days throughout the Liturgical year that call for fast and abstinence. I found this to be a great added bonus!
I'm going to try my best to pre-make each days lunches with the ideas from Laptop Lunches, so that lunch break is actually a break and not hectic for us. The nice thing about lunch this way is that the children can help. Tonight, my 7 year old cut fresh green beans for us and placed them in a Rubbermaid container for easy lunch assembly later. For Montessori lunch making, you could even layout all of the pre-cut ingredients for a lot of these lunches and have the children assemble their own lunches by looking at a printed picture from the website. For correct nutritional portions, you could have 1 cup, 1/2 cup, etc.. measuring scoops in each ingredients container. I found correct portion sizes listed on the Laptop Lunches website and printed them out so I could start learning what they are.
I noticed that most, (if not all) of the Laptop Lunches pictured were meatless. As Catholics, we keep the custom of not eating meat on Fridays and of course there are days throughout the Liturgical year that call for fast and abstinence. I found this to be a great added bonus!
Please feel free to leave comments and share if you've got any other great easy meal making systems or ideas!
We have one of these lunch boxes and I'm always drawing a blank in the morning when I'm trying to pack it for my daughter. What a great resource for ideas, thank you so much for sharing this, I had no idea it was out there! : )
ReplyDeleteBTW the photos of your kids in their costumes for all saints day last year are adorable! : )
fondly, pink and green mama marylea
I bought the pink laptop lunchbox for my older (8) year old daughter. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! No wasteful baggies/cling wrap/foil. I also find that it is easier to make a more well balanced lunch...a box for each food group! Only wish I had found this lunchbox a few years earlier. -Colleen
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