School Lunch -- Nuggets and Chips

Today was Junk Day -- Friday. Lunch at school was this. School has healthier alternates of mixed green salad or deli sandwich or grilled cheese  etc. But of course BS did not even consider those.

Gajar Paratha with Nutella and Yogurt

Today's home lunch at school was Gajar Paratha (paratha made with grated carrots mixed in the dough) rolled with nutella, plain yogurt and clementie. Also a small pack of organic chocolate chip cookies. I am not much of a roti paratha maker but Aunty(LS's babysitter who we hired  a few months back and who helps me a little with cooking) is a great one to make different parathas.

The yogurt came home.

Quick Frittata, Bread and Juice

Today was Home Lunch. A cheater's Frittata with frozen vegetables, a whole wheat bread buttered and an Honest Kids juice pack. Snack was a yogurt parfait.

School Lunch and a Clementine

Today was School Lunch day. BS usually does not like meat much and so most school lunches are a no no for her. She picks a few though and today's is one such. She even enjoyed it she said. For her morning snack she carried a clementine.

School lunches in our school district are $2.10 and looks pretty good to me so far.

Tell me about your school going child's school lunch program. Also tell me where this school is and the cost of the meal, if any

Pasta with Meatballs and Banana

Today's lunch was a Penne with meatballs and sweet peppers. The meatballs were from Costco and the sauce was store bought. The snack was a banana.

Books read: Math Verse and Science Curse.

Little House and Lemon Rice for Lunch

BigSis is reading HarryPotter now and it is hard to get her off that and make her read anything else. So Harry Potter is going to be the major player book wise in her reading list for the next months.

But since I love buying and borrowing books and our library always has an ongoing book sale where used books are sold really cheap, I picked up two classics for a quarter and two dollars recently. 

One of them is "Little House on the Prairie", the second book in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I hadn't read the Little House series as a child and am thoroughly enjoying it now. BS has read some other books in this series but not this one. She read and finished it in between Harry Potter. It is a charming book very well written and gives a picture of a different America years ago. The details the author adds about her father building the house and the front door which has a latch from logs is intriguing as is the part about the wild animals in the prairie. I wasn't aware that this was part autobiography and to know that Laura Ingalls really lived a life like that now makes it more interesting.
When I asked BS what she thought was hard about Laura and Mary's life, she said lack of Television and wild animals. And when I said what she though was fun about their life, she said "No homework"!
On Amazon


The other book I got is "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss. I had loved this book as a child and I really want BS and later LS to read it. On Amazon. 

The Food

 
Uma, a reader of my other blog had wanted me to post what I send for school Lunch everyday. Now BS is a fourth grader and I don't send a home lunch every day. Her school has a good cafeteria and serves decent hot food so at least a day or two in a week, I ask BS to eat there. Since her tastes are more Indian than American she prefers the home food. Else I would have asked her to at the school cafe every day !!

LS who is 4 goes to school only 3 days a week, of which one day is Pizza day. The other two days I give her a staple boring lunch because at school she doesn't want variety. Her lunch is either a grilled cheese sandwich, scrambled eggs and a bread or boiled pasta with ketchup.

BS however likes variety in her home lunches and so I try to rotate things a bit. I thought it might be a good idea to post the lunches that I pack for her, at least the better ones.

Today's(this was actually last Friday's) lunch was Lemon Rice, Brownie and a Clementine.

The Lemon Rice was a simplified version of the more exotic Lemon Rice. I could have added some vegetables but then didn't.

1. Cook Rice like you would normally cook rice.

2. Now heat oil in a fry pan.

3.Temper the oil with few cumin and mustard seeds and some curry leaves.

4. Follow with the rice, say 1 cup of cooked rice. Sprinkle little turmeric powder and salt and then mix with rice. Fry the rice for a minute

5. Next add lime juice. I added almost half of a Meyer lemon for 1 cup of Rice and mixed it with the rice. Also sprinkled a little sugar. Taste and adjust and you are done  

Aloo Tikki and a story

I have neglected this blog for the longest time. The house and school move has taken its toll on us. Also BS being in fourth grade now, there is lot of school work to be done which takes up considerable time during the week.

Of the books that have been read in the recent past we have very much enjoyed Laura Numeroff's, If you give a Dog a Donut and If you give a Moose a Muffin and now we are waiting to finish the rest. These books are for smaller children in the 3-5 years age range with superb illustration and whacky imagination.

BS has been reading a book for her school called "Letters From Rifka". She sees it from a school work point of view but I read it in snatches and it is a beautiful book. Yo can read the review here on Amazon.











BS recently also wrote a story which she then wanted me to post on this blog. So here I am with her story. The colors and font are all hers and I am in no way responsible for the neon glow

There once was a land named Sugarland. There was something very special about Sugarland. Everything was made of candy! The houses were made of gingerbread, the grass was made of licorice, and the flowers were lollipops! In that land of Sugarland there lived a group of friends who started a club. They named their club the Sugar Buddies. The Sugar Buddies had lots of fun in their club .They would do arts and crafts, sing songs, and help those who needed help. One day a little boy moved to Sugarland with his family. The little boy became good friends with the Sugar Buddies, so they let him join the club. As they got to be closer friends the Sugar Buddies realized that the little boy was very greedy. The Sugar Buddies told him “Everything here is made of candy.” The little boy said “I don’t believe you.” The day after there was a big storm. The next day when the little boy was going to a club meeting he saw that a piece of some ones roof had fallen off. He thought about what the Sugar Buddies had said and tried it. He exclaimed “They were right! This is the best thing I ever ate!”When he got to the clubhouse he said “You guys were right! That was the best thing I ever ate!”From then on the little boy would eat the grass when no one was looking. Then came a day when he got caught. Some older kids saw him and made fun of him. “Hey look, why is he eating the grass? Does he think he’s a cow? If he is, why isn’t he saying moo?  HA!” The Sugar Buddies saw the older kids and asked them to go away, so they left. Then the Sugar Buddies asked their friend nicely why he was eating the grass. The boy said he was eating it because it tasted good. He had eaten almost all the grass. A few days later everyone in Sugarland was alarmed. The little boy was greedier than ever! When someone asked him to stop, he would say “NO.”. The Sugar Buddies had to save Sugarland! The Sugar Buddies had an idea. They let him keep on eating and pretty soon he had a stomach ache. The boy said “My stomach hurts. I never want to eat any candy again.” Everyone cheered loudly! Then they said “Sugar Buddies, you’re our hero!”

                                        THE END

 
THE FOOD
Now to the simple Aloo Tikki which both the girls love. Well BS definitely does and LS says she does but does not eat hers

Boil 3 large-ish potatoes.

Cool the potatoes and then peel.Now mash the potatoes very smooth.

Next take 3 slices  of bread, remove the sides, dampen by sprinkling water and add to potatoes.

To the above mashed potatoes and bread add
1 tsp Amchoor
1/4 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Red Chili Powder (go easy for kids)
2 clove of garlic minced
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
salt to taste
some Beet noon or black salt

Mix all of the above with the potatoes and make a smooth dough

Heat a non-stick pan lightly greased. Very, very little oil is needed and spraying a non-stick pan with oil or greasing with your fingers works best

Now take a scoop of the mashed aloo, flatten on the palm of your hand and put on the pan. If you are using a large pan you can do about 7-8 patties/tikkis at the same time. At medium heat cook for 5 minutes and flip. You will see that the side has deep brown spots. Next cook other side for 4-5 minutes.

Remove and arrange on a serving plate. You can later make a chaat out of it or serve it to kids just like that with some ketchup.

These patties also make great fillers for lunch sandwiches.