chickinthekitchen.com

Summer Vacation

I am on a mini staycation for a couple of days this week — the boys have gone to their grandparents and I am truly soaking in every bit of silence in my house.

I did manage a batch of Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos, but I am otherwise not doing much cooking over this week and next, since our schedule is packed with end-of-summer parties and cramming in day trips before school starts again on September 7.

I’ll be updating Chick in the Kitchen with my farm share pickups this week and next, but otherwise I won’t be back here until September 5, when I post my back-to-school meal plan for the week. That post will include our Rosh Hashanah dinner plans, too — I’m excited to try some new recipes this year.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter for quick updates between now and then.

Leave a Comment August 25, 2010

Kid-Friendly, Non-Insulated, Reusable Lunch Bags

I have been looking around for non-insulated, roll-top reusable lunch bags — basically, a paper bag made out of some sort of washable fabric. Waterproof, ideally. But with the flood of reusable lunch products on the market, you’d think a bag like this would be easy to find. Wrong.

There are tons of insulated bags, and we already own two: one is from Thermos (similar to this one), and one is from Arctic Zone (similar to this). They both worked fine this summer as snack bags (I pack the boys’ lunch in separate lunchboxes). The problem is that these bags are bulky, and space in my kids’ backpacks is at a premium. I don’t need the insulation for their snacks, since they normally take water or juice and something nonperishable to eat. Plus, they have snack within a couple of hours of me packing their bags. Here’s what I have come up with:

The Organic Messaging Company has Velcro-sealed cotton bags with a handful of bold but simple graphics. Kids Konserve also sells a cotton lunch sack. There are similar organic products from Rebel Green, but the cute designs are much more “twenty-something in the city” than “elementary school boy.” A slightly more kid-friendly bag comes from Green-kits. Each bag is $8 and includes personalization up to 15 characters — I could add the boys’ names, initials, or even a funny title like “Super G!”.

Artist’s Club’s plain cotton lunch sack looks just like a paper bag, and the kids could decorate it as they like with paint or fabric markers. It’s only $4.99. I could see this being a cute craft for a birthday party, too.

If you want to go the Etsy route, there are a bunch of bags to fall in love with, like the ones from Don’t Quilt Your Day Job. Although I think it’s beautiful and clever, I’m not sure the boys would see any difference between using one of these and an actual plastic bag from Target.

I also found an easy pattern for sewing your own snack bags with oil cloth, but I think two layers of oil cloth would be too stiff for what I want.

I did find the type of bag I’m looking for in a feature on The Daily Green, and it seems to be sold in the online store of the the New York Botanical Garden, though the link is showing a picture of a book on Japanese stone gardens. I called the store today to clarify, but they were swamped and after keeping me on hold for a while asked for my number to call me back.

I’m definitely done looking for bags online, but I’m going to check a couple of my local stores again before I pay for shipping from one of the above vendors. Has anyone seen these non-insulated bags around? Please let me know if you do.

2 Comments August 18, 2010

There is too much. Let me sum up.

J. smoked beef ribs last Saturday (yes, more than a week ago), and at his request I made mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed green beans tossed with French’s Fried Onions. When he tasted the sweet potatoes he said “This is exactly what I wanted.” Ah! I was in heaven! A. has started eating beef recently, for the first time since he was about 2 years old. He liked these ribs a lot, too. The boy has good taste. (more…)

2 Comments June 27, 2010

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last weekend we put in a small garden. Before we belonged to a CSA, we would grow lots of lettuce and tomatoes, plus some peppers and sugar snap peas. With the farm share, though, we get more lettuce than we can eat, so we held off on planting any this year.

We did plant several varieties of tomatoes, a black bean plant A. started growing in school, sugar snaps, and a couple of hot peppers. We filled in the rest of our squares with some flowers A. chose. I’ve never had flowers in a vegetable garden before, but we had the room and I like seeing them as I pull into our driveway.

3 Comments May 23, 2010