Lunch

In the first week of February, there was great fascination around the office about the contents of my lunchbox.  I'm not sure what people were thinking - that I would be eating a kilo of foraged blackberries for lunch instead of sandwiches?  Interest soon faded as it became clear that my lunch was pretty much the same as it always is - cheese and tomato toasties with some tasty snacks for morning and afternoon tea.  The major difference has been that increasingly the ingredients of my lunch have been homemade rather than storebought (not sure what's going to happen when we run out of cheese, a plain tomato toastie just wouldn't be the same.....)

 

One change to my lunchbox this year (and a popular lunch conversation topic at work) has been the addition of a reusable lunch wrap instead of plastic wrap.  My sister-in-law made these and gave them to us for Christmas, and they are awesome!

I've been trying to make lunches a bit healthier (inspired by my friend/workmate Claire, who has been eating wholesome and very tasty looking salads for lunch every day!).  I've been baking a cake most weeks this year to eat for snacks (Ed did his bit this week and made an excellent banana cake), but I started thinking that eating cake three times a day might not be the best option for my life...  So I needed to think of some better snacks to have.  I'm loving stone fruit season, and have been buying plenty of fruit from the farmer's market which is a good start.

One staple lunch snack in our house is muesli bars.  Easy, tasty, and appear healthy regardless of the actual ingredients.  I had vague memories of homemade muesli slice that my mum made, and decided to give it a go.  I got this recipe from my brother, who got it from some friends who live a pretty inspirational lifestyle in the way they tread lightly on the planet and do 'living simply' well.  It is very easy, and very tasty!

Ingrid's Honey Oat Slice

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup coconut

3/4 cup plain flour

pinch salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

140g butter

1T honey

Mix dry ingredients together.  Melt butter and honey, and mix into dry ingredients.

Press firmly into a slice tin (10"-12"), and bake at 180C for 15 minutes.

Cut into fingers while hot.

This slice is tasty just on its own, but you can also add other ingredients to your taste - I added some pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews and dried apricots.

Cool in tin.