Back to School Snacking

So my two sons, 9 & 11, went back to school... I'm trying to be the good mom and follow the guidelines of what I can send in their lunches. Yes.. I said lunches as in plural... the new school system where I live has two "nutrition' breaks .. or two opportunities to eat instead of one. So in between packing healthy snacks that won't get sent back home or worse, traded away for a peak of little Eleanor's new booblets she developed over the summer, I'm left scratching my head as what to give them when they get home. I'm not always home when they bound in the door and if I'm not they quickly get their hands around the school lunch taboos.. namely anything that contains peanut butter, chocolate or resembles a bag of chips. Fruit.. veggies.. applesauce, basically anything I've rammed into their lunchbags so teachers can see what a fabulous mother they have, are overlooked for more junky and, lets face it, yummy gooey goodness.

SO ... I found this today. I'm not going to tell my boys what it is.. just make it (sight unseen) and toss it in a bowl for them to munch on. The recipe says its crunchy and the spices sound something my kids would gravitate to, so I'll give it a whirl. But yeah.. its healthy and my kids seem to have a built in radar for that. But we'll see.. I'll let you know tomorrow. If they like it? my boys will have more fibre, iron and folate.. if they don't? I'll have more fibre, iron and folate... and be searching for the next recipe.

Roasted Chickpeas in 3 Varieties

*makes 2 cups*

1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbs olive oil

Variety 1: Pizza Crunch Spices:
2 tsp parmesean cheese
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder

Variety 2: Sweet Cinnamon:
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp sugar

Variety 3: Southwestern Spice:
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
dash cayenne pepper (or several dashes if you need to mute them for a bit)

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350
2 Drain and rinse chickpeas and dry them REALLY well in paper towel. Place in large bowl, toss 'em up with olive oil. Set aside.
3. Mix the spices of your chosen variety together. .. toss that in with teh chickpeas. Place them on an ungreased baking sheet
4 Bake for 50 minutes until crunchy (seriously.. crunchy is the deal breaker for kids to like 'em).. Store in an airtight container for 3 days.

**recipe from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario*.. I so did NOT make this crap up.

Happy Crunching.... thank god the bastards are back in classs, non?

Sharon

We're baaaaaaaack!

First I have to give a shout out to Anthony Bourdain...after the rant I posted he did something commendable  (no doubtingly because I believe he is a secret fan of The Accidental Cooks and he took my words to heart...). A restaurant that he used to own in New York City had plans on selling a wine made for the 9-11 anniversary. The sale price per bottle would be $19.11 and less than 10% of the sales would be donated to the memorial...Okay...I have to give props to Anthony for calling up the restaurant and going WTF??? He actually said "That's vomit inducing. What kind of piece of sh*t would create such a product?" Shrugs, he said she said...whatever. The point is he came through and stopped the sale from that restaurant and that I applaud him for.

That said....if 100% of the profits went towards the memorial? I would be slightly better with it. No, I am not an idiot and I see the entire thing was created with hope to cash in on the grief of others, and to line the pockets of the winery as well as the merchants selling the bottles, however there needs to be a line people and Anthony? Today you are good in my book (again I know he was waiting for my approval...pins and needles!)

Now onto our regularly scheduled programming....

Now that school is back in session and I am being forced to get up at 5:30am...five days a week I can assure you that I will be posting a lot of breakfast and lunch type recipes. If I am awake for dinners then you might just get some of those thrown in for good measure. My hints and tricks might be jibberish depending on what time of the day I decide to post, I know though that if your child has to be out the door by 6:40am you will most likely will be able to understand....

Topic of today...set your cooking goals.
I have decided to make my life a little easier I will do as much in advance for one week as I can. This includes making menus. Following the menus...unless I claim the alarm did not go off and a banana handed out at the door will be acceptable.

My goal is to make the kids a hot breakfast 3 times a week. Also I have to be able to make breakfast and pack lunch within a 40 minute span as I refuse to get up any earlier than 5:30am no matter how much I love the little buggers.

An easy morning breakfast that you can actually squeeze two days out of is banana pancakes. I confess that during the week I use a mix for the pancake batter...Don't judge its before 6am! Before I mix the batter I mash up one banana for every 1 cup of mix you use. RANDOM TIP***if your bananas are not on the overly ripe side slice them up into a bowl and sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over them. The sugar helps break the banana down and make it easier to mash. It works with all types of fruit.

Make double what you are going to need. Why? Because the next morning you can microwave them in no time. The good thing about banana pancakes is that the bananas give the pancakes a good texture even after microwaving. My kids love them and I have witness them...eating them straight out of the fridge! It takes a little longer to continue to flip the cakes but I promise the next morning that is extra time you get to sit in your Eeyore pajamas in the recliner.

20 minutes is all you need to make crispy oven bacon. Line a cookie sheet with foil to make clean up much easier and put the bacon slices in the oven at 400. Do not preheat. Let the oven and bacon come up to temperature together. It might take a little longer than 20 minutes. I average about 24 minutes to get it as crispy as I want it to be. I flip the slices about half way through and I am tellin ya, there is not that all day lingering fried bacon smell in the house and the bacon cooks perfectly. And? I don't sit there saying bad words while I get splattered. Another tip....make extra bacon too. Not only can you warm it up the next breakfast but for their lunches that you are about to make......

For lunch! I am getting excited about wraps. Lunches are not all about sandwiches anymore and there are so many recipes out there for different fillings. My kids love BLTA sandwiches/wraps/salads...you name it. The 'A' is for avocado and I use it in place of mayo, mashing it up and spreading it. If you go the sandwich route I encourage you to toast the bread to help against the sandwich mushies and put the tomatoes in the middle. Layer the lettuce and bacon as barriers. I promise if your kids like BLTs they are going to love them in their school lunches. And with a little breakfast preplanning the day before you won't be cussing at 6am over bacon splatter.

I like those little cheap Ziploc containers, the smallest set. I make jello and put fruit in it and then use those little containers to put into their lunches as a dessert. Yes I know you can get them premade but at added expense. I can make an entire week worth of jello for a fraction of the cost of a four pack of the premade stuff. It takes about 10 minutes to make and the rest of the time it is setting in the fridge already in the containers. I will do make it Sunday night and I am good to go the entire week.

Okay folks...coming up this week...I am going to make crunchy fish taco wraps. And I am going to try homemade graham cracker cookie thingies with chocolate on the bottom. I will let ya know how it goes.

Also we are going to have a ~TT~ this week!

Cheers to school being back in session!
~Charity