Lunch Roundup

I thought I would share with you how the first week of bento lunches went. Picky eater loved it. We had loads of fun making them (at least I did) and older daughter enjoyed making them with me for two days and then left the task for methe rest of the week. We did have one pizza left for Friday and two kids wanting said mini pizza so I had to come up with something fun (instead of grilled chicken salad) for one of them.

We had had Mealpod dinners all week so tonight I cooked tacos with  homemade corn tortillas for dinner. I posted the simple recipe for tortillas last month. They were "kitchen sink" tacos with things that were leftover from the week. I found an acorn squash in the back of the fridge and a red pepper, so I cooked up some 90% lean ground beef, added some chilli powder, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds. Made tortillas. & Roasted the acorn squash in the oven sprinkled with some cumin seeds. After everything was cooked I piled the beef, spicy squash, crunchy fresh red peppers sliced thin and a bit of avocado. The result was sweet and spicy with a bit of a crunch with the red peppers. It was so delicious.

Tacos tonight was perfect for coming up with the last minute pizza alternative for my daughter's bento lunch tomorrow. I took some of the raw corn tortilla mix (masa & water - see the tortilla recipe), pressed it out in the tortilla press and put some cheese and a little meat in the center. I topped it with more tortilla dough and pressed it all around like a ravioli. Next I cut it out into a more circular shape with a round cutter, spritzed it with olive oil and popped it in the oven at 375 until it browned. I made a few so we could try it and see if it was good for lunch and daughter #1 and Dad voted yes. :-) I am calling it a round taquito but I'm not really sure what to call it. Topped with a bit of salsa it would be sooo yummy - even picky daughter #2 was rethinking the pizza she insisted on. :-)

& here it is in the lunch box. We are calling this one "Patriots lunch" - since it is the last school day before the super bowl and here in New England everyone is getting revved up. I made sure everything was red, white, or blue and made some star "tortilla chips" by baking cut out tortilla dough in the oven with a bit of olive oil spray and sea salt.

I wrote my list for next week's Mealpod dinners and lunch menu today, so I'll be back soon!

- Nicole

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