Daddy, Mommy and Toddler lunch boxes | Lunch box Monday 26 May 2015

After a lovely but very busy weekend, it was once again time to decide on what to put in our lunch boxes. Luckily being in South Africa, we have our local electricity company, called Eskom, that assist with our daily lives. They provide us every day with at least 2 hours of electronic-distraction-free time, whereby we are allowed to use our imaginations, have a proper conversation or eat a romantic dinner with candles and a glass of wine... I am of course talking about our daily power-cuts required because we don't have enough electricity in our country!

So in order to obtain a decent cup of coffee on Sunday morning, we visited our closes shopping centre (as each province is divided up in sections the people almost right next to you might have electricity while you don't and each section will have a different time for their power cuts). While there I also went to Woolworth's to get lunch goodies and these brown hot dogs rolls just looked so soft and delicious! Instead of doing boring hot dogs, I decided to do mini-sub sandwiched with mustard (mixed with a bit of mayonnaise), shaved ham, cheese and my favourite butter lettuce.

I also saw this amazing green hummus mixed with basil pesto. I added carrot batons and celery cut into strips for some crunch. For the fruit version I added cherries (just came into season!!) that are so juicy and guavas cut into quarters that are incredibly sweet.

As I had enough time on my hands and the lunch box idea sounded so good, I decided to make it a family affair by making one for me, Hubby and Little Em! As Hubby hasn't received one in a while (being on a strict diet for kickboxing for so long that I gave up) he was very excited to get one again! However as each one has different appetites and/or needs, I made small adjustments to each one. Showing that you don't have to make different lunch boxes for each individual.

Hubby had two big and beautiful sandwiches, filled to the brim in one of the big PlanetBox lunch boxes.  He also had a decent amount of carrot and celery batons with a heaped tablespoon of hummus. I added just enough fruit to make it healthy! 

I had only one sandwich, cut in halve, the same amount of vegetable batons but only one heaped teaspoon hummus and a lot more fruit (for my sweet tooth). I only get one sandwich, not because my appetite is less (I actually think it might be bigger than Hubby's) but because I am trying to reduce the size of my posterior!

Little Em doesn't have mommy's big mouth so I changed her lunch box slightly. It is still a lot of food but my little girl eats a little every couple of hours, especially now that she has weaned herself of her bottles during the day.

I sliced her bread roll down the middle (on top) and filled that with butter and shaved ham, then I sliced down each side (giving the hot dog roll 3 cuts in length, not all the way through) and filled those with butter and cheese slices. Then I cut the roll into slices, which is a lot easier for her to hold. I also added two chicken nuggets, which is her favourite and a small container (half a teaspoon) of hummus for her tuse as a dip. The dip is also her new taste for this week. As mentioned before I have tried to introduce her to one new taste every week and it has worked great so far.

Then to dip in the hummus some carrots and celery (from which I removed the hard "hairs" which most people hate) and a guava that is quartered and some juicy cherries. To make it safe for her a use an olive stoning gadget to remove the pips so there is no choking hazard.

And there you go, 20 minutes for three delicious lunch boxes! Now, what do I put in tomorrow's lunches?