Healthy Lunch Box

When Aiden was in kindergarten, what he brought in his lunch box to school wasn't really a top agenda in my daily to do list. The kindy provided food during break time, so whatever Aiden brought to school as bekal was just an additional extra treat.

In big boy school, Aiden is entirely responsible for what he consumes during his recess breaks. If it was up to him, he would probably use up his school allowance buying ice-cream and iced Milo. Hence, in an effort to try and steer him away from junk food, I've resorted to packing him healthy, if not at least, home made cooked food. Of course, I still give him his daily allowance, but he has to finish up his lunch box first before he uses the money. (Hopefully, he'll be too full, or even run out of time to buy junk!)

A friend recently shared some healthy breakfast recipes on her FB so I decided to try them out. Sharing them here, in case you are interested:

Egg and Savoury Muffins
You can either make them as simple egg muffins, or add meat and vegetables to make them savoury. However, the base recipe remains exactly the same:

Line muffin trays with muffin cups. Cut meat loaf, sausages, vegetables (I used broccoli) and golden mushrooms to desired size.

Beat eggs, fresh milk, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour egg mixture into prepared muffin cups to about 3/4 full.

Sprinkle cheese on top. (In the above picture, I only sprinkled cheese on the egg muffins on the left.) Bake in preheated oven until firm in the middle, 200degC for about 15-20 minutes.

The end result.

And tadaaaaaa... a healthy lunch box meal in less than 30 minutes! I especially like the savoury ones, as I can hide vegetables in each cup and Aiden will innocently eat them without much hustle and tussle.

Baked Potatoes
Aiden is more of an egg person instead of a potato person. He hates it whenever I pack this for him. However, Hubby loves this!

Peel the potatoes and cut to half inch dice. Cook until tender in boiling water. To make life simpler, I used Prego Cheese and Herbs as a base sauce. Thin with fresh milk to desired consistency.

Coat the potatoes with the sauce mixture.

Top generously with mozarella cheese. Bake until the cheese turns golden brown.

The end result.

On another note, some parents are extremely creative in bento-ing. From Wikipedia, Bento is a single portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.

Browsing through their pictures, I was wowed by their ideas and creativity. I can never do the same (did I ever tell you that scoring a C in art is already a major achievement for me??!!), but I guess it never hurts to try. So I'll end this post with my first attempt at bento. Promise you won't laugh, ok? *giggles*

In case you can't figure it out, it's a Minion! *chuckles* Aiden requested for fried rice so to top it off, I used an omelette as the body, seaweed for the body and quail eggs for the eyes. Served with homemade chocolate cake and pretzel sticks.