New Year! New Ideas! New Lunches!



Happy 2013 everyone!


I hope you're feeling rested and energized heading into the new year. We are in full winter swing at BCS, thanks to some great holiday snow fall that turned our playground and neighborhood into a wonderland, followed by a deep freeze that's been keeping us inside.
Long mornings playing outside in the cold mean hungry bellies at lunch time, so we've been focusing on  warm, comforting dishes for lunch. So far this month we've cooked and eaten roasted beets, mashed potatoes, turkey-quinoa meatloaf,  squash soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie pasta, barbecue chicken and sweet potatoes!
We've got some new recipes coming up too - sauteed snow peas, vegetarian stuffed peppers, cornmeal pancakes  - and the return of white bean and kale soup!

I also wanted to mention something great that happened right before the holiday. You might remember Sarah's idea to send food bags home with families over the break from my last post. Well guess what? Our fundraising effort was picked up by friends and we ended up with so many more donations than we expected! Enough to pack and distribute 15 bags of food instead of 10! I'd like to thank parent volunteers Sue Chayer and Donna Harrington for their help organizing and packing bags.

Yesterday for lunch we had vegetable soup, wraps with homemade hummus, and oranges.

Soup base...

I sauteed carrots, celery, and onion in butter to start, then added veggie broth, more sliced carrots, corn, peas, minced garlic and green beans. I cooked whole wheat penne separately and added it at the end so it wouldn't get too mushy. I seasoned with celery salt, pepper, and just a few red pepper flakes.
For the wraps  I just spread hummus on whole wheat tortillas, rolled them up and cut 'em in half.


Lunch!