LIVEN UP YOUR CHILD’S MEAL
New cookbook offers alternatives to standard sandwiches
Packing school lunches is a routine some parents look forward to less each year. But a new cookbook by Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh focuses on making lunch easier and more successful through smart planning and high-yield recipes,
There are few aspects of returning to the routine of the school year that parents look forward to less than the grind of packing school lunches. Every. Single. Day. Even the sort of person who gets a fair amount of pleasure from making dinner for a family can tire quickly of prepping and dividing little portions of sliced up fruit and vegetables into tiny containers.
Ditto tossing mostly uneaten sandwiches into the compost at the end of the day.
That’s why the co-authors of a new cookbook geared to the school year devote so much attention to making lunch easier and more successful through smart planning and highyield recipes.
The School Year Survival Cookbook (Appetite by Random House, 2017) is the highly anticipated second book by co-authors Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh, founders of the popular food blog Sweet Potato Chronicles.
The idea for the book actually emerged while the two were on tour for their bestselling How to Feed a Family.
“What we really heard from parents is that it was the how, as much as the what, when it came to food that was really frustrating them so much — how to make it happen when you’ve got kids in school, on teams, in dance or whatever, as well as being a busy working parent yourself,” Marsh says.
“I think everyone wants to do their best, but sometimes when you look at a week that is just packed you think, ‘How is this going to happen?’ ”
She and Keogh felt parents needed their next book to be as much about the strategies as the recipes.
Those strategies include finding alternatives to the standard sandwich, so often left forlorn and saggy at the bottom of a lunch bag (or worse, a backpack or locker).
“My kids are not fans of sandwiches so I am always trying to think of a non-sandwich lunch,” Marsh says.
Hence, most of the recipes yield eight servings so there are leftovers to pack as the main event in a lunch (or to tuck away for a dinner on another busy night).
And the book’s lunchtime leftover game encompasses breakfast favourites, too, like the protein pancakes with cottage cheese that make for easy finger foods packed alongside some fruit, edamame, bocconcini cheese and cherry tomatoes.
Baked turkey meatballs, broccoliand-cheese patties and mini frittatas are just a few of the The School Year Survival Cookbook’s freezer-friendly lunch recipes offering a way out of the thankless cycle of composting sandwiches.
But equally important to finding new things to pack in those bento boxes and Star Wars lunch bags? Bringing your lunchtime operation into the family meal-planning process, Marsh says.
If previously you’d simply tacked some lunch meat on to the end of grocery shopping as an afterthought, you might instead plan to have enough leftover chicken or quesadillas to account for three days of lunches, for example, plus go-to soups or wraps for the others.
If your kids are big enough, engage them in a little food prep when you get home from the grocery store, perhaps washing and chopping the fruit and vegetables for that week’s lunches and getting them into containers.
Marsh says she also recommends spending some time — ideally before school starts — getting the kitchen ready for packing lunches. Check to see if food containers need to be replenished, find the Thermos and lunch bags and make sure you’re storing them in a handy spot. (No school morning is made easier by having to drag a stool across the kitchen to reach this stuff.)
Next, go through the pantry and compost stale dry goods to make space for the staples your family really uses.
With a little legwork out of the way and some inspiration from the beautiful images in The School Year Survival Cookbook, we’ve got this.
Broccoli And Cheese Patties
Star Tested
1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil 1/2 yellow onion, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups (1 L) broccoli florets, finely chopped Kosher salt and pepper, to taste 2 large eggs 3/4 cup (180 mL) panko crumbs 1/2 cup (125 mL) grated cheddar 1/3 cup (80 mL) grated parmesan
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C).
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and stir occasionally until they begin to soften. Add broccoli. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until broccoli begins to soften. Remove from heat.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, panko crumbs, cheddar and parmesan. Add broccoli mixture to bowl and stir to combine. Use hands to form six patties, making sure they are even in size and thickness. Arrange patties on a lined baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until edges start to crisp and brown. Using a spatula, flip patties and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before refrigerating in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freezing for up to 3 months.
Protein Pancakes With Cottage Cheese Star Tested
1 cup (250 mL) whole wheat flour 1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda 1/4 tsp (1 mL) Kosher salt 1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground cinnamon 2 large eggs 1 cup (250 mL) low-fat cottage cheese 3/4 cup (180 mL) 2-per-cent milk 2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil Unsalted butter, to grease pan
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cottage cheese, milk and oil. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat and melt a pat of butter. Pour about 1/4 cup (60 mL) of batter into skillet for each pancake, and cook no more than one or two pancakes at a time.
Cook until pancakes are golden brown on bottom and bubbles break on surface.
Flip to cook other side. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to pan as necessary. Transfer to a plate to serve immediately or a rack to cool completely.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to a week. Excerpted from The School Year Survival Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Sanity-Saving Strategies for Every Family and Every Meal (Even Snacks) by Laura Keogh and Ceri Marsh. Copyright © 2017 Sweet Potato Chronicles. Photography copyright © 2017 Maya Visnyei Photography. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.