World's Fastest Lunch

One thing I really like about the ol' Easy Lunchbox is the speed of making lunch!

Okay, so I go all feral-masterchef on the weekends to prepare the bits-n-bobs, but that is just so I can watch Dr. Who before school. 

Here we have baked-bean mousetraps, with dried peaches and blueberries, and almonds... with yogurt, crackers and onion dip, an apple and a banana.... and then all piled into the cooler bag with a tiny esky cooler bottle to keep it all at a good temperature.

I love the banana guard- but I have lost my froot guards sadly.  I may have to replace them.  I also love the Sistema cutlery sets... even though Dan lost my knife and fork!

Banana and Apple Pancakes

This morning I felt like banana pancakes.... but I got a bit carried away with the making.... and actually, these are better.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup dried apple

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, and mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and dried diced apple.
2. Mix flour mixture into wet mixture.
3. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium heat. Pour the batter onto the pan, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.

Next time I will use brown sugar instead of white. 

Review #1: "The Lunch Box"

Ah, I started with a really basic lunchbox recipe book..... and now it has a total of 8 post-it flags attached to it.  This is "The Lunch Box" by Glenda Gourley.  This was published here in New Zealand by the National Heart Foundation in 1991.

I bought this secondhand from trademe.co.nz ..... for like $3.... so I felt like it was never going to let me down.  Here are some of the things I made from the book today:

First I made "Banana Tree Stumps".... these are basically peanut butter and honey around a piece of banana, then rolled in chopped nuts.  They were totally tastey... but... there was not a lot of guidance about HOW to do this.  I discovered that those corn-handles worked well, and a light covering of the peanut buttery stuff was the least messy method.... and then sprinkling the nuts on top.  I think if I was going to put them in a bento, I would make them and freeze them overnight before taking to work.  Interestingly, banana slices out of the skin stay yellow in the freezer.

These were called "Three blind mice".... I did not put 3 on a half slice of toast, but made 1/4 slice pieces that would fit in my lunchbox.  The mushroom ones above looked right, while the pineapple slices looked like a piece of pineapple under a layer of cheese..... And in the picture in the book, well, the chives were fresh and not all toasted from the oven like mine are.  Otherwise the finished product matched the picture.

And then I made this......

But I will mention that you will see the other potato later this week........

So to allocate the scores:
Information:  4/5 points
Recipes: 3/5 points
Originality: 3/5 points
Pictures: 4/5 points
Overall: 4/5 points

This gives it 18/25 points, so not bad.  I think that a second edition would be nice, as a lot of the information could use overhaulling around breads and stuff.  The recipes are easy to do, though not all the instructions are there... there are plenty of good ideas for lunch, and even lists of ingredients that work well together for sandwiches.  No recipe has really expensive or rare ingredients, and nothing seems to take too long to prepare.  There are handy boxes of tips and guidelines included.  There is a section on the food pyramid, and whole pages on what to watch out for in store-bought snacks.

Basically, I was impressed.  The mice will be in my bento tomorrow..... :D