Photograph by Carmen Troesser
Peanut butter and jelly, cheese sandwiches, yogurt tubes, grapes—all are standard items packed into kids’ lunchboxes every day. Whether it’s because they are the most requested foods or the easiest foods to pack really doesn’t matter. The biggest parental concerns are, will the lunch spoil, and, most importantly, will it be eaten? So we gave the bento box challenge to professional chefs with kids: Make it fit, make it pretty, and make it something your child will love.
MENU ONE: LET IT GO
Elsa’s Blueberry Wrap
Anna’s Fruit Salad
Olaf the Snowman Snack
Your little ones may have wondered what Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen eat for lunch. We found a chef, Elizabeth Schuster, who has made a living out of pairing movies with an appropriately themed menu. Owner of Tenacious Eats, she has two children: an 8-year-old who loves to cook and a 17-year-old.
Elsa's Blueberry Wrap
1 teaspoon cream cheese
1 whole-wheat tortilla
1 teaspoon blueberry jam
3 ounces honey-baked ham, finely sliced
Spread the cream cheese on the tortilla, then the blueberry jam. Make sure to leave 1 inch of tortilla uncovered, because its contents will spread when the tortilla is rolled. Layer the ham on top of the blueberry jam, slightly overlapping the slices while avoiding the edges of the tortilla. Fold up the left and right edges of the tortilla like a burrito. Tightly roll the wrap. Cut the rolled wrap in half for packing, or slice it into pinwheels.If you start with two layers of tortilla and do not roll them up, you can use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter to cut out snowflake sandwiches.
MENU TWO: STRAIGHT FROM THE BOOK
Confetti Pasta Salad
Wheat Crackers
Blueberries
Raspberries
Edamame
Chef Marianne Welsh is the author of End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad and Garden Safari Vegetable Soup, storybooks in her Kitchen Club Kids series that promotes healthy eating while encouraging kids to get involved in the kitchen. For a bento box, Welsh suggests a main course, a variety of fruits, veggies, and something crunchy or salty.
Confetti Pasta Salad
1 14½-ounce box whole-grain pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 red peppers, diced
1 handful of baby carrots, diced
1 cup of corn3 green onions, sliced thin
8 basil leaves, chopped fine
Salt and pepper, to taste
¼ cup Parmesan cheese (optional)
Lemony Vinaigrette:
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon sal
t¼ teaspoon black pepper
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Stir in 1 tablespoon olive oil to keep pasta from getting sticky. Add red peppers, carrots, corn, green onions, basil, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle in Parmesan cheese. Whisk together ingredients for the vinaigrette, and pour over the pasta mixture. Refrigerate, and serve cold.
Tip: Muffin tins, fancy cupcake liners, or rubber dividers available in most culinary stores can make lunches look more colorful and exciting. And don’t forget the occasional love note.
MENU THREE: INTERNATIONALLY SPEAKING
Zucchini Bread Sandwich
Dried Misson FigsG
reek Yogurt
Companion Granola
Chef Jon Hoffman, formerly of Oceano Bistro in Clayton, is now the executive chef at Whitebox Eatery in Carondelet Plaza. We caught up with him a week before the restaurant’s grand opening, and he said one of his biggest concerns is packing lunch for his 3-year-old’s first year of preschool. He was eager to take on our challenge.
Zucchini Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
Preheat oven to 325. Spray two 8- by 4-inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking oil. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and sugar. Gradually add the sifted mixture, and stir until well-blended. Stir in the zucchini. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, and bake 40 to 60 minutes. Test the center with a toothpick to determine if it's done.
Zucchini Bread Sandwich
Zucchini bread
Herbed goat-cheese spread
Cucumber, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
Slice zucchini loaves to desired thickness. Coat two slices of zucchini bread with herbed goat-cheese spread and add layers of cucumber slices. Combine the zucchini bread slices into a sandwich.
