Mostly raw: two juices and a lunch box

While summer produce abounds it is easy to make juices and to eat more raw food.

Green juices are the best, of course, above celery, cucumber and green apple, light and refreshing.

 This one is a smoothie and the kids made it: melon, natural apple juice, banana and apricot, decorated with borage flowers.

And below a fruit lunch box: grapes, melon, watermelon, strawberries and wild strawberries (these are from the garden), plum and apricot, plus some mini pikelets. Easy as!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Life is a bowl of (white) cherries

White cherries remind me of the crunchy white 'duroni' cherries I used to eat in Italy as a child. I guess that, like the red ones, the best ones that are grown in NZ are exported, as in the shops we only seem to get seconds, and need to spend quite a bit of time sorting them. In my memories life as a bowl of cherries meant that most were good and occasionally one was bad, but in the supermarkets here you can find boxes full of bad cherries, and occasionally a good one! How can this be possible? 

Pity, they make a great addition to the lunch boxes. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

'5+ A Day' and 'Eat Your Colours' lunch boxes in Little Treasure Magazine

Check out the February-March issue of Little Treasures magazine for my healthy and colourful lunch boxes, full of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Fruity lunch box for two, Vegan and mostly raw

Thank you to all of you for your lovely thoughts about lunches in New Zealand schools. Little time to post recipes today, So I am adding a photo of another lunch box idea, a lunch box for two (to share with your friend at school or at work :-)). The 'main' is avocado pita bread (the pita bread being the only thing pre-made here (and baked too, the rest is raw). In the pita sandwiches there is avocado (treated with lemon juice not to go brown), lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The rest, as you can see, is fruit: green and gold kiwi fruit, mandarin, grapes and strawberries. Believe it or not this was actually quite filling!

Have a great week!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Lunch in NZ schools

Did you watch this? If you didn't you should. It shows you what New Zealand children eat for lunch at school. The first part is a school in a affluent area (not all the food is healthy, but there are a few good lunch boxes), and then there is a school in a poor area. Yes poor, no other words for it. I don't want to say any more because you need to see it, and feel it, to understand it. 

It was also interesting to see what KidsCan is doing to provide lunches in some of the poorest schools, good on them, but I really hope that they are going to include some fresh food there, otherwise everything is either canned (even the fruit) or cames in a packet, and the bread is too white! Of course it is better than eating nothing, but for a Country that bases its economy on agriculture it is unacceptable that fresh produce cannot be given to school children who are, after all, the one who need it most. 

And to keep in theme with the post, here is a photo of a lunch box, mostly salad (and to see the quantities of fresh produce just scroll down, they are lined up in a tray, it isn't much, and yet it is filling and nutritious. The little eggs are quail eggs. The carbohydrates addition are three slices of crostini (just baguette slices brushed with olive oil and toasted in  the oven - my kids love them!). OK, I am a Mum who likes to cut the carrots all pretty and not everybody finds the time for that, but even if you like to cut things differently from me, the massage is the same: 5+ a Day, try to use more colours (I aim for 5 different colour groups, and in winter at least 3), more veggies (not just fruit!), some protein, some carbohydrates. Of course this is just an idea, it depends on what I have in the fridge mostly, for example Vegans can substitute the quail eggs for some almonds, others could have cheese instead. No chips in my kids' lunch boxes!

And of course it goes without saying that before going to school a good breakfast is needed :-). Please watch the video and share your thought with me.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vegan school lunch boxes, eat your colours and 5+ a Day

Carrot and cucumber sticks, grapes, blueberries and Cape gooseberries, Olive focaccia (homemade)

When I was living in Japan I learned to present lunch boxes including a spectrum of at least 5 colours.

I try to do this with the kids' lunch boxes now, and these days the 5 + a Day is also promoting 'colours', which is a good way to make food more interesting. Of course here in NZ lunch boxes are stuffed down the school bag and tossed around, so I could never make them like these super pretty bentos, (I also wouldn't have the time in the morning or late at night!) but sometimes I do them for a lunch at home.

Now it is a complete coincidence that these lunch boxes are all Vegan (and containing mostly raw food!), often the kids would have cheese rolls and homemade pizza, and often a milky chocolate drink or a drinking yogurt too, but as they have so much milk and yogurt for breakfast everyday that they can do without for lunch!

My problem has been trying to have 5 different colours as the season is getting colder, especially for the blue! The first photo was taken a couple of month ago, and the rest followed every couple of weeks. When there are blueberries around it is so easy, now most of the berries they have are frozen, good for smoothies and cereals and desserts, but not school lunches.

Avocado sushi, cherry tomato, banana, kiwi gold, feijoa, mandarin, grapes

If I don't have blueberries I try to put a few red/black grapes, is a pity that they are all imported, but so are the bananas. For the rest I always try to be seasonable and use fruit and veggies that grow in NZ, the tomato here was from my garden. Sushi only happens if there is some left over after dinner the night before: I could never get up at 5am to make it fresh!

Baguette with green salad and hummus with Dukka, banana, mandarins, kiwi gold, dried prunes

When I don't use grapes I try to add something close to purple/blue, like dried plums. Hummus is also another favourite filling, if they could my kids would have a hummus rolls every day, and they don't seem to be fussed if it smells of garlic.

Baguette with rocket salad, hummus and broad beans, orange, grapes and Cape gooseberries

Hummus again, this was just over a week ago, believe it of not I had broad beans in the garden, an unseasonal plant that followed its own schedule! Not enough for a meal, but enough for a couple of rolls. The Cape gooseberries too are from the garden, incredibly enough they are still going!

Dolmas (rice wrapped in vine leaves), carrot sticks, cucumber and cherry tomatoes, banana, grapes and mandarin

Winter is progressing and the lunch boxes are becoming a bit repetitive: mandarins, banana, carrot sticks and grapes seem to dominate, and I occasionally buy cherry tomatoes even if they are grown in hothouses (but so are most cucumbers, I guess). The dolmas came from a can, a very occasional purchase, but it does add variety and, yes, the kids love those too!

I am dreaming of cherries and strawberries and blueberries and plums and colorful capsicums which make it so easy to add colour, but I also guess that winter is the time when we should overdose with oranges and yellows.

And if you have kids please tell me, what goes into their lunch boxes this season?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©