changing his view of lunch...

Suffice it to say, the man-cub was less than thrilled when we informed him that due to budget cuts, he was going to have to take his lunch to school often this year... VERY often.   Apparently, he did not think it was cool (or whatever they say these days) to carry his lunch to school.


Though it seems like a 100 years to him and a couple of years to me, I do remember back to the days of high school.  The same high school that he is now attending.  It wasn't cool to carry your lunch to school, especially if you carried any sort of lunch box.  The geeks and the really nerdy kids carried their lunch boxes and ate their homemade sandwiches and carrot sticks and the rest of us sat as far away as we could.


I made a rash promise to him during that discussion a month ago... I will do everything I can to make sure you don't have to take a pb&j.  


This prompted a lot of prayer... Lord, HELP!  I often send up such prayers and this one was for some divine creativity.  As He always does, God answered abundantly.  The discussion at supper tonight was light years ahead of the discussion last month.  I found out that my homemade ham & cheese minis are in high demand and make for a great trade... one ham & cheese for breadsticks with marinara.  


Even better, the discussion at lunch today centered around which kids were going to start bringing their lunch because Eric's lunch was WAY better than the lunch at school.  Eric looked at us tonight and said, "I'm single-handedly changing the way everyone eats lunch!" 


Well, I doubt that homemade ham & cheese minis are making that big of difference but it did my heart good to know that he is changing his view of lunch.


...currently I freeze all of the following recipes and Eric and Emme grab them from the freezer drawer in the morning and the frozen items serve as ice packs for the rest of their lunch.  At lunch they pop them in the microwave to reheat.


BASIC BREAD recipe... use for hot pockets, sandwiches and bosco sticks
  1/4 c butter melted
  1/2 c. warm milk
  1 c. warm water
  2 T. yeast 
 1/4 c honey
 1 egg
 5-6 c flour


dissolve yeast in 1 c warm water until foamy.  Melt butter, add milk, egg and 1 c. flour.  Mix in yeast mixture and then remaining flour until dough no longer sticks to side of mixing bowl.  Knead for 8 minutes.  Cover and let rest until double.  


HOT POCKETS
filling ideas:
      broccoli and cheese
      turkey and cheese
      taco meat
      pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese
      scrambled eggs, bacon bits, cheese
      salami and provolone
divide dough into 13-15 equal portions.  Roll each portion out to 1/8 inch thickness.  In the center put filling.  Fold dough over and crimp edges.  Place on greased cookie sheet or pizza stone.  Brush with egg white and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool.  Wrap in baggie, clear wrap or wax paper and freeze.  At school, reheat in microwave.


MINI SANDWICHES
divide dough into 20 equal portions.  Shape into a ball and flatten.  Place on greased cookie sheet or pizza stone and let rest for 10 minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool.  Cut in half and stuff with favorite sandwich meat and cheese.  Wrap tightly and freeze.  Reheat in microwave.


BOSCO STICKS
divide dough in 12-15 equal portions and roll out to 1/8th inch thickness.  Place unwrapped string cheese stick in center of dough and wrap dough around cheese stick pinching ends and seams tightly.  Place on greased cookie sheet or pizza stone and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush with melted garlic butter (1/4 c. melted butter, 1 t. garlic powder) as soon as they come out of the oven.  Cool.  Wrap tightly and freeze.  Reheat in microwave.