bye-bye brown bag blues.

Now, don't be sad.

I am not; authoring this blog has been a lovely endeavor, and has kept me on my toes.

The only problem is, my toes are tired. Instead of maintaining two blogs, I have decided to focus on just one, my original blog: www.talkoftomatoes.com.

Another reason to downsize my blogging commitments: there is a good chance I will be starting culinary school in the next few months. Something I will no doubt talk and talk about on my blog Talk of Tomatoes.

I still love the idea of Brown Bag Blues. I had a blast coming up with the idea and filling up this humble little blog with tiny size solutions for the lunch hour. All is not lost. If you enjoy this blog, note that:

1. At least for now, I will leave this blog and all of its' ideas intact. So even though I won't be posting regularly, the ideas will live on.
2. I have implemented a Brown Bag Blues category on my Talk of Tomatoes blog. Because I love to play around with food, a lot of recipes are developed for entertaining and dinners, but that doesn't mean I leave lunch out. I will post ideas for lunches in this new category; often it will include a recipe.
3. This idea for Brown Bag Blues will stay with me; if it finds its feet again---elsewhere---I will let you know.
4. THANK YOU for reading this blog; it warms my heart. Blogging is not about listening to oneself ramble, it is about reaching readers. You made it meaningful; please join me on my other blog!

Cheers, and thank you!

Janelle

green is the new brown.

Green may very well be my favorite shade of brown.

Green is a special word, by itself touting all things healthy, farmed and critical to our fate. Walking through a farmer's market or produce section in a grocery store, you will be welcomed with long, green arms. Green is an important part of our diet, offsetting brown and offering essential contrast to all the other colors.

Green should probably be the color of our blood.

So, insert some healthy goodness, some greenified godliness into the lunch of your little ones. Their bodies will thank you. And don't make green out to be the bad guy, green can be just as playful and fun and tasty as the next color:

• celery
• snap peas
• broccoli
• cucumbers
• sliced green bell peppers
• sliced zucchini rounds
• asparagus, steamed
• pesto tortellini pasta salad
• lime yogurt
  
• green figs
  
• pesto ranch or green goddess dressing (for salad or veggie dipping)
• dehydrated peas (at whole foods or just tomatoes)
• green chips (I love the Snapea Crisps variety from Trader Joes; aren't there guacamole chips?)
• green olives (my son adores these!)
• dried green apples
• dried edamame
  
• green jello
• pears
• kiwi
• green grapes
• granny smith apples
• honeydew melon
• spinach tortilla with green salsa and cheese (pre-melted)
• guacamole with tortilla chips
• dill pickles
• pirate booty (the kale version is green; find in organic section of store)
• green salad
• green apple juice
• limeade
• green tea

Happy go Green!

slices of salami.

For the love of salami.

My 10 year old adores salami. He would happily eat the same sandwich every day: salami, mustard and [sometimes] cheese, preferably shredded.

Just to push the variety button, I sometimes just stick a pile of salami and maybe some tiny chunks of cheese in his lunch.

We have had salami slices in our lives for YEARS. Recently, we upped the caliber a notch and started supplementing our salami stash with Salumi Salami (cool photo here).

Salumi Salami is famous; it is made in Seattle (nice article here), by Mario Batali's father. You can stand in line for sandwiches at his shop, but get there early because the lines are long. We lucked out; our nearby grocer started stocking Salumi, so we only have to travel a few blocks and no lines out in the rain!

mini-muffins for my muffins.

I don't actually call my sons my little muffins; though when they were quite a bit smaller, I did occasionally call one of them peanut and perhaps even 'my little pumpkin.'

Now that they are a bit bigger I call them sweetheart, doll and darling. No more 'how is my cutey-cute?' Or my 'sweet little munchkin.'

Name-calling aside, even bigger kids like mini muffins; it just takes fewer bites to inhale a mini muffin than it used to.

I am a big fan of mini muffins; they are easy to eat when in a hurry, less messy than a large muffin and a nice way to tuck in some fruits, nuts, bran, oat, etc., into lunch. Sometimes I use muffins as a replacement for sandwiches---just to keep the whole brown bag experience interesting. After all, the goal here is to keep the brown bag blues at bay.

These mini muffins were from a mix, so use your favorite recipe or mix and pull out the mini muffin tin to bake off a lunch time treat.

I can't help it: M 'n' M cookies again.

I make these cookies once in awhile. They don't have a long list of healthy ingredients, so don't hold your breath. (At least there are pecans, and nuts are good source of protein, right?).

These cookies generally show up at our house during holidays, an impulse that coincides with various colored M 'n' Ms. When I go to the store and there are black and orange M 'n' Ms, I just cannot resist. Same goes for red and green around Christmas and all the pale blues and pinks and yellows around Easter.

I think I am a sucker for a touch of holiday, a wink at the season and a smile from my kids who are tickled to find these cookies in their lunch box, again...

M 'n' M Cookies
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups m n ms
3/4 cup roughly chopped pecans

Oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars. Add egg, vanilla and mix. Add flour, salt and soda and stir to blend. Mix in M 'n' Ms and pecans. Place in spoonfuls on tray and bake 10-13 minutes. Happy Holidays!