Top 10 healthy, eco-friendly lunchbox ideas from Munch Cooking Eco-friendly Lunchboxes must be easy, healthy and be fun. So here are the Top 10 lunchbox recipes from Munch Cooking. More ideas over at www.munchnz.co.nz which is written by real mums. Plastic is so bad for the environment so try ‘wrapping it green’ with some of Munch Cupboard products. Or if there is no alternative try at least to reuse and recycle. We hope you enjoy making an eco-friendly healthy lunchbox. Anna B x
About Munch Munch is an eco-friendly New Zealand social enterprise company that makes and markets products and offers ideas and recipes to feed the family. Munch was founded by Anna Bordignon. Anna has three boys and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Anna is a commercial lawyer and when she was pregnant with her first child she completed an MBA to move into a social enterprise business. Anna started Munch while pregnant with her second child and it became a selfsustaining enterprise in 2013 Munch is about building a sustainable ethical Munch team with children at the heart of it. Munch grew out of an Award winning cookbook by Anna and her optimism to grow a company that essentially had four aspects to it: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Healthy easy food ideas. Eco-friendly, unique products with strong beautiful design elements. Strong advocates for our children. Sustainable ‘motherhood’ workforce.
Munch started out with a strong interest in children’s nutrition. Since our first international award winning cookbook, our blog and recipe index has grown substantially. A publishing company has also recently approached us to produce a cookbook in 2016 on lunchboxes and eco-friendly products.
About Munch Cupboard Eco-friendly, unique products with strong design elements We make and market mainly eco friendly products ranging from breast-feeding products to lunchboxes and more. The products we make are what we call issue-based products, in that they try to raise an issue: for example our Munch Litterless Lunchwraps help to encourage our kids to have waste-free lunchboxes and the issues around the damage to the environment that plastic causes. The products that we make also attempt to use all natural and biodegradable components. If they do not, they are at least reusable. Beauty is also important and we believe products need strong beautiful design elements. Many of our products are made locally by mums in their homes. We also market products that we love and many of our Munch mum reviewers offer fantastic reviews that you can read about under the Munch Loves section on our website. We also run frequent product giveaways on our Facebook page.
About Munch Community Advocacy for our children We love delving into issues that confront the health of our children. We run the Munch Food Awards each year to raise awareness of the good and bad in the kids food
industry. We also believe it would be great to have a world without plastic. Linking private and public entities is vital to assisting change and we work hard maintaining our varied relationships: for example Auckland University often provide posts relating to recent research. We also have a strong fundraising arm whereby we offer ‘ethical fundraising’ – child lead, local, community focused, considers the environment, educational and fun. We like to work from the heart, keeping children at the centre of everything we do. Too many companies do not look long term and do not really think about how they can contribute to communities and the environment. We try our hardest to reach our ideals.
1 Pita bread triangles and hummus Prep time 5 mins Cook time 5 mins Serves 12 Ingredients for Pita bread
1 packet of wholemeal pita breads
Method 1. Place the Pita bread in the toaster and toast till brown. Then cut into quarters. 2. Then store in airtight container. Will last for a week. 3. Put them in your child’s Munch Litter-less lunch baggie for their lunch Ingredients for hummus
1.5 cooked chickpeas 2 tsp tahini paste 2 Cloves garlic 2 tsp cumin powder Rind of 1 lemon Juice of 2 lemons 2 tsp olive oil
Method Add all ingredients into the food processor. Mix until all smooth. Put them in the Squish Delish food pouches and then let your little one squeeze out the hummus onto their Peta Breads.
2 Cheese and relish pinwheel scones Prep time 5 mins Cook time 15 mins Serves 12 Ingredients
3 cups self-rising flour ½ tsp salt 50 gm butter, cubed 1¼ cups milk ½ cup of relish 1 cup grated cheese
Method 1. Pre-heat your oven to 240 C and grease or line you’re a baking try with baking paper. 2. Sift the dry ingredients into a good sized bowl and rub the butter into the flour. Make a well in the center, pour in the milk and with a knife mix this altogether to make a nice soft dough. 3. Tip this mixture onto a lightly floured board or bench, and bring it altogether. It may need a little bit of gentle massaging to do this. Roll your mixture out till it is about 20 cm by 35 cm (a rectangle shape roughly). 4. Spread this with the relish or vegemite and then sprinkle over the cheese. 5. Roll this up from one of the long edges. Try to make it a reasonably tight roll. 6. Slice your roll into 2 cm slices and then place on your tray. Try and keep them nice and close to each other. I used a small roasting pan for mine so they were squeezed in together. 7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until they have risen and look golden. 8. Serve as soon as you can. If you are saving them for lunch boxes. Let these cool on a rack then wrap them up and pop them in the freezer until you make the lunches. These will defrost by lunch time. 9. Then place them in their Munch Litter-less lunch wraps.
3 Baby sushi Prep time:15 mins Cook time: None Serves 12 Ingredients
2 sheets of nori sheets cut in half 1 cup cooked sushi rice (approximately ⅓ cup dried sushi rice) 3 tbsps rice vinegar or sushi seasoning Possible fillings: tuna mayonnaise, smoked salmon, avocado, cucumber, left over roast chicken, prawns.
Method 1. Prepare you sushi rice in advance as it needs time to cool by rinsing ⅓ cup rice under cold water and place in a saucepan, then add ¾ cup cold water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. 2. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes with the lid still on the saucepan. 3. Turn out from the saucepan into a bowl, add the rice vinegar and stir through with a wooden or plastic spoon. Allow to cool. 4. Place your bamboo sushi mat on a damp tea towel and cut a sheet of nori in half and lay on the sushi mat. 5. Place about ¼ cup of rice on the nori sheet and spread out with damp fingers or a wooden spoon. 6. Along the top of your nori sheet make a row of your chosen filling. Gently roll using the bamboo mat, tucking the filling in with your thumbs as you roll. 7. Continue to roll until you create a sushi roll. 8. Move onto a chopping board and slice using a damp serrated knife. 9. Wrap the left over Sushi in some Nil wraps and the made ones in the Munch Litter-less lunch wraps for your child’s lunch.
4 Tahini snowballs Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: None Serves: 12 Ingredients ½ cup dried fruit (I used dates but dried apricots would be delicious too!) ⅓ cup honey ⅓ cup LSA ⅓ cup mixed nuts chopped into small chunks or rice bubbles ⅓ cup hulled tahini paste 3 tbsps cacao powder Shredded coconut for rolling Method 1. Place your dried fruit and honey in a saucepan and soften over a medium heat for a few minutes. 2. Blend the dried fruit and honey to a smooth paste. Then combine all the ingredients in a bowl except the shredded coconut. 3. Roll into balls about 1 tbsp in size. Then roll the balls in the shredded coconut and place in the fridge to harden. 4. Put balls straight into the Munch eco lunch box.
5 Pumpkin scones Prep time: 15 mins Cook time:15 mins Serves:12 Ingredients
60 g softened butter ¼ cup caster sugar 1 egg ½ cup of cooked mashed pumpkin 2 ½ cups self-rising flour ½ tsp salt ½ cup milk approx
Method 1. Preheat your oven to 220c. 2. Cream butter and sugar. Then fold in the mashed pumpkin and egg. Then sift in flour and salt. 3. Add enough milk to form a dough. 4. Roll out the dough and cut with cookie cutter. Place scones on a tray, reasonably close together. 5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. These are light and fluffy and freeze really well. 6. Put the scones in the Munch Litter-less lunch baggies and wrap the rest up in a large Nil wrap.
6 Purple Cake Day Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Serves: 12 Ingredients 2 cups flour ¾ cup sugar 2½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp baking soda ¼ tsp salt 1 cup milk ½ cup oil 2 eggs 1½ blueberries Method 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Put the first five ingredients into a fairly large bowl. Toss with a fork to mix. In another bowl beat the eggs lightly and add the milk and oil and mix. Add the berries. Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix until just combined. Coat 12 medium sized muffin pans with oil. Put the mixture in each cup and bake at 180 c for 15-20 minutes until muffins spring back when pressed. 6. Put the muffin in a Munch Litter-less lunch baggie and the balance wrapped in a large Nil wrap.
7 Broccoli cheese bites Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Serves: 12 Ingredients
300gm cooked broccoli, thawed and drained of liquid (I used fresh steamed broccoli) 1½ cup of grated cheddar cheese 3 eggs salt and pepper 1 cup breadcrumbs
Method 1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. 2. With your hands, form small patties and put them on baking tray that you have lined with baking paper. 3. Bake at 190 Celsius for 25 minutes, turning the bites over after the first 15 minutes. 4. Put some in a Munch Litter-less lunch baggie and wrap the rest in a large Nil wrap.
8 Tortilla wraps Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: None Serves: 12 Ingredients Whole meal tortilla wraps Ham, bacon or chicken (cooked) Carrot Cheese Avocado Mayonnaise Tomato Cucumber lettuce Method 1. Finely chop, slice and grate all the ingredients. 2. Spread mayonnaise on the tortilla then the lettuce, meat and other ingredients. Fold up the bottom and the top and then roll. Do not put too much in the wrap otherwise it will be hard to roll. Then cut in half and place in a Munch Litter-less lunch wrap.
9 Banana cookies Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Serves: 30 Ingredients 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed 100g softened butter 1 egg 2 cups rolled oats ¾ cup whole meal flour ¾ cup plain flour ½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp vanilla paste 1 cup desiccated coconut 1 cup chopped dates Method 1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C. 2. Combine the softened butter, egg, mashed bananas and vanilla paste in a large mixing bowl. 3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the banana mixture. 4. Fold in the oats, chopped dates and coconut. 5. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and arrange the mixture in balls about a tablespoon in size on the tray. Gently flatten with a fork. 6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remember they are moist cookies so similar consistency to banana bread. Put the banana cookies into a Munch Litter-less lunch baggie and store the rest in a stainless steel container.
10 Cheesy sweetcorn puffs Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 7 mins Serves: 15 Ingredients
¾ cup flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 cup grated cheese 1 egg, beaten 3 Tbsp milk 100g sweetcorn
Method 1. Sift flour and baking powder. 2. Add cheese, beaten egg, sweetcorn and milk. 3. Line a tray with baking parchment and divide the mixture into 12 blobs and cook for 5-10 minutes at 210 C. 4. Put a few corn puffs into a Munch Litter-less lunch baggie and store the rest in a stainless steel container.
NO BAKING OR COOKING inspiration
Below are some more ideas for the lunch box with no baking or cooking involved. Just plain easy!
Carrot sticks and something to dip them into Celery and cream cheese Cold pasta Mini sandwiches: cut them with your cookie cutters for something a bit different Hard-boiled eggs Yoghurt pots Sunflower and pumpkin seeds Cherry tomatoes Dried fruits and seeds: cranberries, apricots, dates, prunes, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds Fruit purees in Squish Delish pouches (these can even be frozen) Snap peas, mange tout or good old frozen peas Plain, unsalted corn chips and a dip Chicken drumsticks or cold cooked sausages Grapes, strawberries and blueberries – or easy fruits to pack and pick at Sliced pear doesn’t seem to brown in the way that apples do Popcorn Cheese and crackers
Keep an eye out for our new Cookbook by Munch which will have loads more seasonal lunchbox ideas for your family. For more recipe ideas head on over to www.munchcupboard.com
Eco-friendly equipment by Munch Cooking
Available for American, Canadian, United Kingdom and German customers on Amazon. For New Zealand and Australian via www.munchcupboard.com. We are able to ship to other destinations so please email us for quote at info@munchcupboard.com