Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Lunch for Thursday

I love that Bayberry gets to use a microwave. That really opens up lots of possible lunches for her. Picky Eater can't use a microwave (imagine the chaos and dangers of letting elementary school students as young as four years of age use a microwave unsupervised!). However, I do live right across the street from her school. It's occurred to me to deliver her some hot lunches throughout the year. I think that would be fun, and parents are encouraged to eat lunch with their children when they can.

But for today...

For Bayberry: In her large main compartment, she has Coconut Black Beans & Rice and Steamed Broccoli, which she'll heat up at school. She has a corn muffin, grapes, and a small sweet potato/butternut squash pie (More about that in a minute). She's taking water to drink.



Picky Eater is taking a corn muffin, some grapes, a mini pie, carrots, cucumbers, orange segments, and a small bit of salad dressing for dipping her veggies. She's taking lemonade to drink.

For the mini pies, here's what I did (Shhh...the kids think it's pumpkin pie!)

For the crust:

Combine 1 1/3 cups flour (1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 unbleached all purpose is great!), 1/2 tsp sea salt in your food processor. Add 8 Tbsp butter (or coconut oil, which is wonderful in baked goods) and pulse 12 times. Slowly pulse in 2 to 3 Tbsp ice cold water. Remove to a lightly floured surface and form a ball.

Divide your dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Flatten each ball into a round miniature pie crust.

Place each crust into a mini muffin cup. Set crusts aside so you can prepare the filling.

For the filling:

Steam 2 cups of peeled & diced orange vegetables. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, even carrots are fair game! Drain any water away from the cooked vegetables.

Process until smooth, then stir in 1/4 cup maple syrup, 2 Tbsp flour, 2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon, and 1 beaten egg (I used Ener-G egg replacer, though).

Fill mini pies to 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees until puffed up and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure they don't overcook.

5 comments:

  1. I really like these! Bayberry's meal looked like a little bento garden in the thumbnail. The "pumpkin pies" are awesome.

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  2. Curious, are you freezing some of the pies to use for later? I would be very interested to know if they hold up in the freezer. Thanks!

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  3. Ha! They didn't last long enough! Between dessert last night, visiting friends, three lunch boxes, and one tip-toeing to the fridge husband, they were all gone before I knew it. It should freeze very well. I mean, it's a squash pie. I've frozen big ones and little ones before successfully. Pretty much all that's missing between this and a "real" sweet potato or squash pie is the sugar and milk. I'm planning to make a large batch in September since they were so popular, and I'm going to do other fillings at that time. I'll let you know how they do in the freezer, but I suspect they'll be great.

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  4. 3 Researches PROVE How Coconut Oil Kills Belly Fat.

    This means that you literally get rid of fat by consuming Coconut Fats (including coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut oil).

    These 3 researches from big medicinal magazines are sure to turn the conventional nutrition world around!

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