Brown Bagging

[Guest guest]

Mike & Irene,

I love the plastic white lids on mason jars too, especially for things

that react with metal (like kombucha). However, in my experience they

do not seal as well as the metal canning lids. (Meaning, slow leaks -

not good for lunch bags.) You can get around that by pushing the round

flat disk part of the metal canning lid up into the plastic lid. You

can get it out later to wash, but it usually stays in well until you

pull it out. You get the best of both worlds - a good seal, and the

convenience of 'one' lid.

I've struggled with what to pack my kids for lunch (kindergarten, 3rd

and 5th grades). It's hard to send them with good food that doesn't

make them feel deprived. One option is to make sandwiches on sprouted

grain bread. You can also make chicken salad etc, and put it in a jar

or small thermos. (Thermos makes a small stainless steel thermos with

a wide mouth - plastic lid though. They're expensive, but worth it. I

found mine at Wal-Mart.) Other things that are packable are hard

boiled eggs, rolled up/chunks of meat and cheese as finger food, nuts,

organic fruit & veggies and homemade popcorn made with coconut oil and

sea salt. More than once my kids have told me that other kids now

bring some of the healthy things that they do. They've quit asking for

most junk. (We went the WP way about 2 years ago.) For a drink, I just

send water. They drink enough milk at home.

Best of luck!

Jan

western land

> [MAP] and put them in those fabulous little half-pint wide-mouth

jars

> with white plastic lids. I use those containers all the time when I

> pack meals to go.

>

> [irene] Where do you get those?

>

> [MAP] They're mason jars, so anywhere you buy mason jars, like

> independent hardware stores (Ace, True Value, etc), supermarkets,

> Walmart, general stores, etc. The jars and lids I have are made by

> the company Ball and I see them all over the place. Those HPWM jars

> are a tremendous blessing! Sturdy as heck, but glass, and the

> advantage over the great small Pyrex bowls (that I also often use)

> with the snap-on blue plastic lids is that the screw-on lids of the

> mason jars won't accidentally come off and they're fairly watertight

> for transporting liquid stuff. The mason jars are also much cheaper

> than the Pyrex jewels. For drinks, I use the half-pint

regular-mouth

> mason jars, an essential part of any MAP-sponsored picnic.

>

> Mike

> SE Pennsylvania

>

> The best way to predict the future is to invent it. --Alan Kay

[Guest guest]

Thanks to all for the great lunch suggestions.

I will start first by getting sprouted tortillas and sourdough bread

to replace the staple items the kids are used to eating.

Last night I made a wonderful meat loaf and cooked it in a muffin

stone instead of in a loaf pan. It was great! I thought about sending

this in lunches cold with a bit of homemade ketchup.

I made the banana bread recipe from NT and have been sending that for

snacks for the boys. They love it. I slather it with some butter and

pack it in a tiny tupperware so it doesn't get beat up in their back

pack.

Does anyone have a good ranch-type salad dressing recipe? They love

salad and it packs well. I had been using an organic bottled recipe

but it has soybean oil in it!

Thanks again!

=====

Green Blessings,

" What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. "

From Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins

(1844–89)

[Guest guest]

Ranch Dressing:

Use half creme fraiche or sour cream and half homemade mayo as the

base. Then put lots of salt, pepper, garlic, thyme and a bit of lemon

juice to flavor it. Yummmm.

> Does anyone have a good ranch-type salad dressing recipe? They love

> salad and it packs well. I had been using an organic bottled recipe

> but it has soybean oil in it!

> Thanks again!