green is the new brown.

Green may very well be my favorite shade of brown.

Green is a special word, by itself touting all things healthy, farmed and critical to our fate. Walking through a farmer's market or produce section in a grocery store, you will be welcomed with long, green arms. Green is an important part of our diet, offsetting brown and offering essential contrast to all the other colors.

Green should probably be the color of our blood.

So, insert some healthy goodness, some greenified godliness into the lunch of your little ones. Their bodies will thank you. And don't make green out to be the bad guy, green can be just as playful and fun and tasty as the next color:

• celery
• snap peas
• broccoli
• cucumbers
• sliced green bell peppers
• sliced zucchini rounds
• asparagus, steamed
• pesto tortellini pasta salad
• lime yogurt
  
• green figs
  
• pesto ranch or green goddess dressing (for salad or veggie dipping)
• dehydrated peas (at whole foods or just tomatoes)
• green chips (I love the Snapea Crisps variety from Trader Joes; aren't there guacamole chips?)
• green olives (my son adores these!)
• dried green apples
• dried edamame
  
• green jello
• pears
• kiwi
• green grapes
• granny smith apples
• honeydew melon
• spinach tortilla with green salsa and cheese (pre-melted)
• guacamole with tortilla chips
• dill pickles
• pirate booty (the kale version is green; find in organic section of store)
• green salad
• green apple juice
• limeade
• green tea

Happy go Green!

mini-muffins for my muffins.

I don't actually call my sons my little muffins; though when they were quite a bit smaller, I did occasionally call one of them peanut and perhaps even 'my little pumpkin.'

Now that they are a bit bigger I call them sweetheart, doll and darling. No more 'how is my cutey-cute?' Or my 'sweet little munchkin.'

Name-calling aside, even bigger kids like mini muffins; it just takes fewer bites to inhale a mini muffin than it used to.

I am a big fan of mini muffins; they are easy to eat when in a hurry, less messy than a large muffin and a nice way to tuck in some fruits, nuts, bran, oat, etc., into lunch. Sometimes I use muffins as a replacement for sandwiches---just to keep the whole brown bag experience interesting. After all, the goal here is to keep the brown bag blues at bay.

These mini muffins were from a mix, so use your favorite recipe or mix and pull out the mini muffin tin to bake off a lunch time treat.

clever combos for brown bags.

...Or I can just put it together myself. I actually don' t mind all the marketing by grocers, companies and coffee shops that cater to parents who pack or plan for brown bag lunches.

I am amused by all the packaging of lunchable, easy-to-grab, pre-sliced and diced items. The carrots come in small packs with ranch dip, microwave popcorn comes in single servings, craisins are packaged in tiny boxes and apples are pre-sliced and sealed in small bags: all ready to drop into a nearby lunch.

In some instances, I don't mind the quick grabs, especially when I am out of time to cut, slice or sandwich things myself. I especially applaud when these prepared snacks serve to increase the number of healthy options for brown bags.

Coffee shops are even getting into the groove, offering non-pastry options for the mid-morning snack or quick lunch. One such coffee shop offers a small container of fruit, cheese and bread. More precisely fruit/nut bread, with a few slices of apple, some red grapes, a wedge of brie, and small 1/2 inch squares of cheddar and dill havarti. I confess to grabbing this snack, and now my 12 year old asks for it as well.

Sometimes, instead of grabbing the quick fix at the coffee shop, I DO take the time to assemble this healthy snack combination. Into my son's lunch I will put this exact fruit, fruit/nut bread and cheese chunk snack. The flavors together pack a punch, the dill havarti with the fruit/nut bread is our favorite pairing in the pack.

...In fact I sometimes serve dill havarti and fruit and nut studded bread toasts as an appetizer for guests! The good news is this: there are more healthy snack options appearing everywhere, all the time. AND even if you don' t grab them on the go, the snackable packs can simply serve as a bagful of ideas for brown bag lunch making!

orange is the new brown.

One of my favorite ideas for curing the brown bag blues is to introduce a color of another kind. This particular brown bag is loaded with the color orange.

A good idea for adding a layer of interest and drama to your child's school lunch its to go monochrome. It helps me 'think outside the bag' when it comes to filling their bags with varied, healthy foods.

Orange is just one idea, I also have bagable ideas for red, purple, yellow and white lunches! The possibilities are endless; the goal is to get your brain flowing with ideas while increasing lunchtime variety and interest for your child.

So, have at it: start brainstorming all the possibilities for orange.

In this photo I help you get started:

• Cheese Crackers
• Carrots
• Dried Apricots
• Kumquats
• Baby Orange Bell Peppers (sliced in strips with a cheesy dip?)

A bagful of orange ideas:

• Sweet potato chips
• Oranges/tangerines
• Thinly sliced orange beets
• Cheddar cheese sandwich
• Any orange cheese
• orange pear tomatoes
• Pumpkin Muffins
• golden raisins
• Sesame crackers
• Madarines/tangerines
• Smoked Salmon
• Salmon sandwich
• macaroni and cheese
• baked cheese puffs
• Orange juice
• Peach/mango juice
• Peaches
• orange-colored fruit leather (peach, apricot)o
• orange/peach/apricot yogurt
• Dried mangoes
• golden raisins
  
• papaya
• mango
• cantaloupe
• carrot muffins, bread or cookies
• pumpkin muffins, bread or cookies
• cheddar cheese crackers with peanut butter
• cheese dip
• tomato tortilla with melted cheddar
• orange juice
• orange vitawater
  

Orange you glad to have brown bag ideas?

pink is the new brown.

Spring brings thoughts of pink: pink flowers, pink clothes and in this case, pink lunches. Ask your child to help you make an all-pink lunch and see what they come up with; my boys loved coming up with a list---they even wrote up a list with pink felt pens!

What fun to show off a pink lunch to friends. If you have some pink ideas, put them in the comments section so we can all add to our list of pink. Here are some pink food ideas to get you started:

• Salami
• Ham
• Tuna
• Salmon
• strawberry yogurt
• strawberry cream cheese
• radishes
• watermelon
• grapefruit
• pink yogurt raisins
  
• pink yogurt pretzels
• Strawberry or watermelon juice
  

You could even soak jicima or hard boiled eggs in a little beet juice for a pink effect---have fun!

If you get a kick out of 'colored lunches' you can click on red, purple, yellow or white for more ideas!

black is the new brown.

Don't for a second think that there isn't a pile of black foods to go into your brown lunch. There are, and it is a fun challenge to try and find them! Beyond Halloween and someone's 40th birthday, black lunches need not be spooky nor tacky. And who wouldn't get a chuckle out of an all-black lunch?

We discovered, at Whole Foods, black radishes. It is true! And I have a recipe for black bean soup, if soup is your idea of chasing away the brown bag blues. And you can always count on black olives, black currant soda or juice, black beans on a quesadilla, and grapes that are more black than purple. And I have seen black pasta noodles: toss some of those with olive oil and Hawaiian black salt and black sesame seeds. Raisins! Prunes! Blackberry jam and baby, roasted eggplant (with darkest purple basil leaves). Maybe the eggplant in a dip with blackish crackers or the darkest purple tortilla chips you can find. Kalamata or olive tapenade, fig spread...

...okay maybe there aren't THAT many black bagables, maybe you can help name some? Ideas? Recipes anyone?

a flurry of tzaziki

It is thick and white but won't be coming down from the sky. This flurry should be in kitchens all around, in a hurry to pop dipping options into brown bags the world over.

I thought flurry was a nice description of mixing up this recipe and/or filling a brown bag since for me that process is usually hurried. When I am really on top of my game, I make lunch the night before... but time and again I am throwing, chucking, shoving and grabbing all the nearest bagable items to rapidly insert into the bag on our way out the door: quick---before we are late! So, I make sure at least recipes are made the day/night before, to assist in my morning flurry. Recipes just are not going to happen at my house during the morning rush; but that is just me.

I made tzaziki so my boys could try it as a dip for cucumber half-moons, zucchini matchsticks and pita triangles. Turns out, one son prefers it with broccoli, another on pita with grilled (cold) lamb.

By the way, if my boys ate tomatoes, a pile of cherry tomatoes would be a perfect accompaniment with tzaziki; hopefully your kiddos like tomatoes. Tzaziki is a great partner for adding veggies to brown bags!

Quick facts I borrowed from Wikipedia:

• Tzatziki is a Greek appetizer.
• The Greek name is based on/means chutney.
• Tzatziki is traditionally made with strained sheep/goat yogurt, cucumbers, onion, garlic.
• It also might have: olive oil, vinegar and herbs (dill, mint, parsley).
• It is often served with pita bread/flat bread, olives.
• It is a standard condiment in Greek souvlaki and gyros.
• Tzatziki is served cold.

I adapted a Tzatziki recipe from Barefoot Contessa:

Tzaziki
Kosher Salt & Coarse Pepper
2 cups plain (or Greek) yogurt
1 medium cucumber, unpeeled and seeded
1/2 cup sour cream
1T champagne/white wine vinegar
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh dill

Place the yogurt in a cheesecloth or paper towel-lined sieve and set it over a bowl. Grate the cucumber and toss it with 1 T of kosher salt; in another sieve. Place both bowls in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours so the yogurt and cucumber can drain. Squeeze as much liquid from the cucumber as you can; mix/blend yogurt, cucumber, sour cream, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of pepper. You can serve it immediately, but I prefer to allow the tzatziki to sit in the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavors to blend. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

A flurry of recipes:

• Chevre Tzaziki from Anne's Food.
• Beetroot Tzaziki from Cook (almost) Anything at least Once.
• Tzaziki from Cooking Light.
• Santa Cruz Organic based Tzaziki.
• Elise from Simply Recipes provides Tzaziki with Swiss Chard.
• Tzaziki from Family Fun.

The ubiquitous PB&J

My son went to visit a new school, to help him decide 'where to go to school next year.'

He knew some of the kids at the school, and met others that he really enjoyed. Not too long after his visit, I was having coffee with my new, favorite friend who also happens to be a mom of one of the boys in this particular 5th grade class.

I had to share with her. I mean, how often do you get the fun, social scoop on your own child? I had asked my son what he thought of her son. We were having lunch and he peered at me over his fork and said, "yes, I remember him, he is very sanguine." And, perhaps noting the demise of my education on such highly appointed verbiage he paused to share the definition: "happily confident."

I smiled, to pretend I understood and mask my amusement at his use of vocabulary. As if it were normal. As if his mom even knows how to pronounce, let alone define the aforementioned word. Sanguine. It does roll of your tongue, though, doesn't it?

So I shared with my friend that she had a very sanguine son. And then, adult to adult, I shared the definition. We had a good chuckle and drank our coffee, like grown-ups should.

You would think 'nice' or 'friendly' or even 'outgoing' would have come to mind. Sort of like when you make a PB&J you would describe it as simple, basic, or standard.

But that is not always the case. In fact, PB&Js can be so much more. It is the quintessential sandwich to initiate good ideas; the ubiquitous combination that is the foundation for unveiled ingenuity... (Touché---mom knows big words too!)

I emailed some friends to ask how they reinvented the PB&J; here are some of the responses to my PB&J query, to bring these slices of bread and condiments beyond 'classic,' 'nice' or 'usual.' Here are personality-filled sandwiches that might even be considered sanguine:

• Erika from Tummy Treasure had this to say: "My favorite is a peanut butter and banana sandwich with a sprinkle of toasted coconut. When blueberries are in season I also like fresh blueberries and almond butter on whole wheat bread."

• Stefania from Family Food had this amazing rendition: THAI-STYLE PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH. Serve on a toasted, halved whole wheat bagel (or wheat toast) spread a layer of creamy peanut butter. Then top that with chopped salted peanuts. (You could use chunky peanut butter but this method is waaay better.) Then, top the peanut-y peanut butter bagel with: thin slices of red onion, thin slices of cucumber, Thai or regular basil leaf.

• Michele from What's Cooking? has reinvented PBJs twice over: her daughter loves hers open faced on Naan with lemon curd, her son isn't allowed to have peanut butter at his preschool, so she uses sunflower seed butter and jam. He can't tell the difference---and the kids at school are safe!

• Julie from Bad Home Cooking offered this: "my son loves his PB&J's...but he also likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches (me too: especially with creamed honey and crunchy peanut butter!). A Japanese version of the ubiquitous (hey---that is where I got that word from---thanks Julie!) American PB&J that my kids love is Onigiri.
  

• Alisa at Go Dairy Free offered her toasty "PBJ": I love almond butter on toast with just cinnamon or a bit of honey and cinnamon. I like it in toast format, but a sandwich works as well. Also, very un-nut-like, I am addicted to Toby's Tofu Pate with tomato slices and lettuce. Still a non-meat spread though, only partially with the theme.
  

• Karen's son prefers FlufferNutters made with REAL marshmallow fluff; she likes to sneak in the occasional crunchy peanut butter & piece of milk chocolate---a PB&smores! You can find more of her ideas at Family Style Food.

• Janelle from Talk of Tomatoes (Okay, that is kind of a joke, since that Janelle is ME---I write on talkoftomatoes as well as brownbagblues---follow THIS link to my article on the Wellfed Network where I uncover the unusual way my kids like their PB&Js!) talks PB&Js, too.
  

So instead of landing a basic, borderline boring PB&J in your brown bag, aim for better, brazen and brilliantly revised PB&J's! Please share your brown bag brilliance so we can all bag some novelty sandwiches! And to continue to curb your appetite for PB&Js:

• PB&J according to Wikepedia
• PB&J ideas by the bagful
  
• Consider an Elvis Sandwich, Nutella or Ed Levine's article on building a perfect PB&J
  

purple is the new brown.

What child wouldn't chuckle at an all-purple lunch? Even better would be some musical attachment where the bag, once opened, belted out a raucous rendition of "Purple People Eater."

In the very least, color-coded lunches provide the brown bagger a new way of coming up with lunch ideas. Think 'purple' and scour your pantry and fridge, think 'purple' and visit the grocery store or farmer's market. And tell me what you find! Here is just a small little list to get you started:

• purple cow drink (mix small amount grape juice with milk and put in thermos)
• blue corn tortilla chips (with black refried beans for dipping)
  
• blueberry yogurt
• grape fruit leather
• red grapes
• blueberries
• prunes
• plums
• figs
• raisins
• kalamata olives
• blueberry cream cheese on a bagel
• grape or raspberry jelly on wheat or pumpernickel bread,
• grape juice
• Purple cabbage slaw (with black sesame seeds?)
  
• Radicchio---or purple tinted endive---with raspberry dressing
• prune juice
• blackberries
• eggplant

Sometimes I cheat and include a 'purple package' of food like the picture of the granola bar or vanilla milk, above. The contents might not be purple, but the package is!

yellow is the new brown.

It is that time of year, when I keep reminding myself, in Annie-like fashion: "the sun will come out, tomorrow!" For some reason, this year in particular, I have been craving the glowing warmth of that blazing ball of fire. And although I cannot do anything about the sky, I can add a little warmth and sunshine to my children's lunches. So when they open up their brown bags, they will be filled with glowing yellow on top of yellow: a bag full of sunshine to brighten their day.

What goes into a 'yellow brown bag'? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• freeze dried corn pieces (buy at whole foods or online at just tomatoes)
• mini corns (canned tiny corn cobs)
• yellow squash
• yellow pepper slices with ranch (maybe ranch with a tsp of mustard for color?!)
  
• quiche wedges
  
• egg pasta with olive oil and Parmesan
  
• egg salad sandwich
• Hawaiian bagel w/pineapple cream cheese
  
• yellow beets, roasted with olive oil and salt
  
• egg bagel with cheddar and butter
• granola or yellow-colored cereal with milk
• lemon yogurt
• golden yellow apple slices
• dried apple, pear, banana, pineapple or mango slices
  
• pineapple
• banana
• lemon bars
• cheddar rice cakes
• popcorn
• lemonade

It you like colorful, bagable ideas, here is a bagful of white ideas and a bagful of red.

white is the new brown.

These little yogurt pretzels show up only occasionally in my boys' lunches, and they love finding a bag of these pretzel treats.

Trying to put together a color-themed lunch can be challenging, but forces me to 'think outside the bag.' I rustle through cupboards and the fridge for whitish foods, and if I really have my 'thinking cap on' I will think 'white lunch' while walking through the grocery aisles.

Though this list is only a beginning, it may help you find your thinking cap:

White Bagables
* mini mozzarella balls
* string cheese
* vanilla yogurt
* cream cheese or white cheese such as swiss, Havarti, jack on plain bagels (try the mini bagels)
* white cheddar popcorn
* white cheese quesadilla on plain tortilla
* jicima sticks
* cauliflower w/ranch or zesty non-ranch
* cucumber moons (remove seeds and skin)
* cheese filled raviolis or pasta with oil and Parmesan
* hard boiled eggs
* crackers w/white cheeses or hummus
* rice crispy treats
* white rice with chicken
* white bean soup
* mushrooms w/ranch or zesty non-ranch
* tofu
* macadamia nuts
* white grape juice or milk
* white cheese sandwich with hummus, sprouts, butter
* baked potato slices

red is the new brown.

When you need an injection of brilliance for your otherwise boring bags: try a color themed lunch! This will spur the brain forward amidst your busyness. Even walk through the grocery aisles with 'red' on your brain; with your 'rose-colored glasses' you may be surprised at all the new foods, lunch ideas and variations you might find!

Keep your child's [food] curiosity alive while at the same time providing them with a healthful, practical lunch. My boys helped me start a list of possible red bagables to get you started:

* strawberry jam on wheat bread
* Tomato tortilla with cheese and salsa
* pepperoni sticks
* salami slices
* mini pizzas
* strawberry yogurt
* red apples
* cherries
* raspberries
* strawberries
* watermelon
* sliced red peppers
* cherry tomatoes
* radishes
* red fruit leather
* red vegetable chips
* small bites of roasted red new potatoes
* dried cranberries
* strawberry juice
* cranberry juice
* red grapes
* sun dried tomato dip (for veggies)
* red pesto mayonnaise (for sandwich)
* tomato bagel
* red pasta in olive oil with salt (with roasted red peppers?)
* red tortilla chips