Category Archives: Packed Lunches

Posts about my packed lunches

#449 – Nutella Sandwich Lunch

It’s World Nutella Day today, so in celebration of that naughty chocolate and hazelnut spread I snuck a little sealed sandwich into my lunch box today. Sealed sandwiches doesn’t work so well with the seed loaf I’d usually buy, so I decided to go all the way to the dark side and get a loaf of standard white sandwich bread.

#449 - Nutella Sandwich Lunch

Today’s Lunch:

  • Nutella filled sealed sandwich,
  • chicken mayonnaise sandwich (hiding under the Nutella one),
  • selection of vegetable crudités, including celery sticks, baby corn, carrot sticks & baby tomatoes, and
  • a little tub of strained yoghurt with some Thai pesto stirred into it.

#448 – Smoky Noodles and Veg Lunch

It’s been a good long while since there was a new blog post around these parts and even longer since there was a packed lunch. This year I want to get back to sharing my packed lunches here with you. I’m going to start slowly. I’m out of practice so it’ll be almost like starting from scratch. I hope you’ll stick with me as I find my blogging feet again.

#448 - Smoky Noodles and Veg Lunch

This meal, as with most of my packed lunches, is basically leftovers from dinner the night before. It was meant to be a chicken noodle stir-fry. But the chicken I had waiting in the fridge had crossed over to the dark side. So I bumped up the veggie content and added roasted cashews for some varied texture and sriracha chilli sauce for some flavour.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Smoky stir-fried noodles,
  • steamed sugar snap peas, rainbow carrots and broccoli,
  • crushed roasted cashew nuts,
  • some sriracha and
  • two nectarines cut into quarters.

14 Days of Zespri – Day 12

This is going to be my last packed lunch for the 14 days of Zerspri challenge. I’ve really enjoyed eating my kiwifruit lunches and I’ve loved being able to add some new items to my lunchbox collection. I opted to keep things simple with this lunch so I’ve got a sandwich, a little salad, some crunch veggies and a kiwi hanging out in it personal side cart.

Tomato salad and sandwich lunch

Today’s lunch:

  • A cheese and pickled jalapeno sandwich on low gi multiseed bread,
  • a simple baby tomato salad with spring onions,
  • a few sugar snap peas
  • and a kiwifruit.

Zerspri are currently running a campaign called Occupy Lunchbox through which they’d like encourage parents and children (and anyone else who packs lunches) to make healthy choices when packing lunchboxes. The ambassador for the campaign is a cutie called KID Z, check her out in the video below to hear all about what she stands for as the face of the Occupy Lunchbox movement.

14 Days of Zespri – Day 10

Ten days into the Zespri kiwifruit fourteen day challenge, I can hardly believe it. I may not have posted every single day, but I’ve been eating at least one kiwi a day since this challenge started. I’m feeling a little lighter, a little healthier and a whole lot more inspired. I’ll definitely not overlook these fuzzy fruits with the jewelled middles if I see them when out doing our weekly grocery shopping.

Kiwi Coleslaw and Kassler Lunch

I used today’s allocation of kiwifruit in an Asian flavoured coleslaw. I mixed it with sliced celery, julienne ginger, grated carrot, thinly sliced red and green cabbage, a sprinkling of sesame seeds and a drizzle of soy sauce. This is a delicious fresh version of a coleslaw, a lot lighter than mayonnaise laden variety, and is a good partner to the salty smoky kassler.

Today’s lunch:

  • Kiwi coleslaw with celery, ginger, carrot, red cabbage, green cabbage, kiwifruit and sesame seeds,
  • a little blue bear bottle filled with soy sauce to drizzle over the coleslaw just before eating,
  • a sliced kassler chop and
  • some baby tomatoes.

14 Days of Zespri – Day 9

I’ve really enjoyed taking part in the Zespri Daily Scoop of Amazing challenge. I’ve learned you can do more with these fuzzy brown fruits then just peeling them, cutting them into chunks and eating them. I’ve been trying to use them in interesting ways, so far I’ve made a kiwi smoothie, face mask, salsa, kiwi squares and pancakes. As the challenge has progressed I feel like I’ve gotten my blogging mojo back, something I’m very happy to have returned.

My lunchbox today is filled with “leftovers” from a braai we had last night. (Is it still considered leftovers if you purposefully prepared an extra portion of food to stick in your lunchbox?) My boyfriend was so happy to braai that he couldn’t wait to share our interesting supper with his friends over on G+.

Kiwi Kebab Lunch

The ostrich cubes on these kebabs were marinated in a mixture of kiwifruit, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chilli and olive oil. The kiwifruit in the marinade has a tenderising effect on the meat so it’s best not to let it sit for too long, an hour is perfect. I then skewered them with alternating chunks of kiwifruit and onion. The grilled fruit has a really intensified flavour and the onion turns all sweet and sticky, a yummy option for your next braai or just grilled in the oven.

Today’s lunch:

  • Chickpea, red onion and cucumber salad with zataar and dried apricots,
  • longstem broccolli and
  • braaied ostrich and kiwifruit kebabs.

Here is my recipe for the kiwifruit and ostrich kebabs.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kiwifruit mashed with a fork
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp grated garlic
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 chopped bird’s eye chili
  • 6 bamboo skewers soaked in water
  • 500g cubed ostrich steak
  • 1 onion cut into 8 pieces
  • 2 kiwifruit cut into 6 pieces each

Method:

  1. Combine kiwifruit, soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, ginger and chili.
  2. Add the cubed ostrich steak and mix so that all the meat is covered in the marinade.
  3. Set aside to marinate for about an hour.
  4. Skewer the cubed ostrich steak interspersing with alternating pieces of kiwifruit and onion.
  5. Grill kebabs for 5 minutes on each side.

14 Days of Zespri – Day 4

Today’s lunch is another kiwifruit laced affair, I’m having fun finding different ways to enjoy my stash of kiwis. I’m supposed to be sharing a recipe with you today, but honestly the salsa in my lunchbox today is so simple it’s hardly a recipe at all. I combined equal parts of diced kiwifruit, red onion and yellow pepper, a handful of chopped coriander and squeezed over the juice of half a lemon. That’s it! The kiwifruit adds a lovely sweet tang to the salsa that is a great accompaniment to the smoked chicken in the wraps. I loosely rolled the tortillas around the chicken and salad so that I had enough room to spoon in the salsa when I was ready to eat it. That way the tortillas don’t get all soggy and are easier to eat.

Chicken wrap and kiwi salsa

Today’s lunch:

  • Smoked chicken tortilla wraps with rocket, grated carrot and coriander,
  • celery sticks,
  • a tub of kiwifruit salsa and
  • a few strawberries.

This coming Saturday I’ll be participating in my third annual cookie swap. It’s the third year running in Cape Town and this year there are going to be events in Joburg and Durban too. Seeing as we’re well into our Zespri challenge I thought I’d attempt a cookie with kiwifruit in it and share the recipe with you. Most of the recipes I came across required dried kiwifruit and I don’t own a dehydrator or a very reliable oven so that wasn’t going to happen. I did come across this interesting recipe in an old edition of Lawrence Journal-World from 1987. How retro! The recipe is a variation of a tray bake that you cut into bars once cooled and I think pretty ideal for when you need to bake for a crowd.

Kiwifruit Bar Cookies

14 Days Of Zespri – Day 2

It’s challenge day two and I get to show off this Zespri happy yellow kiwifruit lunchbox. If you are a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I’m a sucker for a cute lunchbox. With it’s integrated kiwi side cart and slot to store a spife, this one is pretty nifty.

Smiley lunch

I don’t know about you but this year the seasonal flu bug hit me hard. It’s been weeks since I had the aches and chills, but I still have a lingering cough. With a double dose of vitamin C when compared to oranges, if I’d had a stash of kiwifruit then I could have kicked the flu’s butt.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Three smiley ham and cheese sandwiches on brown bread,
  • carrots sticks,
  • sugar snap peas,
  • a little tub of plain yoghurt flavoured with chopped coriander and a little celery salt and
  • a green kiwifruit.

I made sure to pack a spife too, so I can eat the kiwifruit easily.

#447 – Smoked Chicken Mayo and Roll Lunch

#447 - Smoked Chicken Mayo and Roll Lunch

I’m not a big fan of soggy sandwiches. So when I’m packing a sandwich (or roll) where the filling might cause this to happen I like to pack the bread and filling separately. Then at lunchtime I can assemble it just before eating.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Kitka bread roll,
  • smoked chicken mayo with red onion and fresh mint,
  • blueberries,
  • raspberries and
  • a minneola.

#446 – Spek Wrapped Spanspek Salad

#446 - Spek Wrapped Spanspek Salad

When I bought this spanspek (also known as cantaloupe) I knew that I wanted to eat it with prosciutto or a similar style cured ham. The only cured ham the supermarket had at the time was something called spek which I’d never tried before. That didn’t stop me from buying it though. I’m not going to lie, the alliteration in the title tickled me, but I found the flavour of the spek was too strong for the melon.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Cubes of spanspek wrapped in spek and
  • a salad with shredded cabbage, red onion, sugar snap peas and baby tomatoes.

#445 – Sausage and Salad Lunch

#445 - Sausage and Salad Lunch

The lunch in today’s post is an example of how I often plan for lunches by organising an extra portion of food at supper time. On this occasion we had a fairly lazy dinner of sausages and salads from our local German deli. I divided the food into three portions (one for me, one for my boyfriend and one for my lunchbox) and packed my lunch at the same time as I dished up supper.

Today’s Lunch:

  • Sliced debreziner sausage,
  • German potato salad,
  • a few quartered baby tomatoes and
  • mixed bean salad.