Introducing LaLa Breakfast!

We are absolutely thrilled to introduce the newest member of our family: LaLa Breakfast!

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day and yet so very many families I have spoken to struggle with it – mine included. I'll admit, it has been a challenge at times to make sure my kids (and myself and my husband!) are fed a balanced meal in the morning before we all race out the door. I set out to improve the flow of lunch with LaLa Lunchbox and since then, lunch planning has been chugging along smoothly. But after one too many breakfast-related arguments, temper tantrums and mishaps, I realized something had to be done. 

What's the problem anyway? First of all, time is tight. And though I may be a morning person, my family members certainly are not. There were two options: I could choose what my kids ate in the morning (and deal with the potential waste of unwanted items) or be faced with a barrage of requests, many of which I either couldn't (or didn't want to) prepare in time or didn't have on hand. I don't know about you but the last thing I want to hear in the morning as I struggle to get everything done is whining.

Your favorite monsters are back

Select your favorite breakfast combos

Customize the foods for your family's needs

Enter LaLa Breakfast. It began on paper, just like LaLa Lunchbox. Each night, my kids eagerly grabbed for it and selected what they'd like to eat the next morning. Naturally, it had to be within reason; I'm neither a short order cook nor a fully stocked grocery store. I let them know what was available and they made their selections. Whatever was able to be prepped in advance, was. Cereal was poured into a bowl and set out on the table. Fruit was cut and stored in containers in the fridge. Breakfast became easier chez moi! And I'm happy to report, the breakfast-related whining has left the building. LaLa Breakfast gives users the option to "hide" items that are not available and like LaLa Lunchbox, it generates a handy grocery list for parents. The Food Library is organized into the following four categories: Eggs, Produce, Grains and Protein. For those who have both LaLa Breakfast and LaLa Lunchbox, the two grocery lists can be seamlessly synced into one, and accessible via multiple devices. 

LaLa Breakfast was created to end breakfast chaos so that families can wake up to healthy, happy mornings. I sincerely hope you enjoy using it! And special thanks to my sometimes goofy, always hungry little (and big!) monsters for their hearty support, feedback and big smiles.  

My hungry monsters

Promo Codes for Free LaLa Lunchbox Downloads!

Enjoy! But as a courtesy to others, please leave a comment below claiming your code so that others do not try in vain. 

Happy Wednesday.  

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LaLa Granola Bars and Food Revolution Day 2013!

As I've mentioned, (here and here) I've got nut allergies. It's really difficult to find a good tasting granola bar that's made without nuts, but beyond that, it's hard to find a granola bar that's made simply. So we take matters into our own hands at my house and regularly make our own, and affectionately call them LaLa Granola Bars. They're nut free, dairy free, full of delicious flavor and have zero added refined sugar. They are snacks that I feel great about packing for my kids' lunch and that I can safely consume myself. Win-win! 

My son spreading granola bars onto a cookie sheet for Food Revolution Day 2013

In honor of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day 2013, my son and I rolled up our sleeves and made these delicious and simple granola bars. Here's a link to the recipe we used. The whole process took less than 20 minutes but it's 20 minutes of well spent time together. I'm proud to see my son wielding a spoon, ready to help out. I believe that one of my many responsibilities as a parent is to teach him the importance of good, fresh ingredients and to show him the joy that comes from making meals ourselves. Today our Food Revolution Day celebration took part on a small scale but I believe that real change happens both from the bottom up and the top down and therefore, all of these small moments matter. I look forward to hearing him tell the story of our adventures in the kitchen this morning when we serve these granola bars to guests this weekend. 

Homemade LaLa Granola bars! 

Roasted Black Beans and the Healthy Lunch Challenge

You know that phase when kids start counting and then they delight in counting all the time? My son is there now and it's incredibly entertaining. He's super excited to count to 20 these days and, while he skips 17 every single time, it is amazing to hear him sing out his numbers. Though he doesn't truly understand quantity, addition or subtraction in the formal sense, he can see that ten grapes are more than 5 grapes, and if his big sister reaches over and takes one of his four strawberries he can count that he now only has three. Math and food are a thrilling combination. 

Our Healthy Lunch Challenge plan

Enter Crunch a Color, the Healthy Eating Game. It's an award winning card game that families can play together to encourage nutritious eating. The cards have colors, food lists, cute drawings and point values and the person with the most points wins. But there's deeper learning here; avocado and green grapes are both green foods but avocado gets 10 points and green grapes get 5. That makes for interesting conversation. My kids love to compare and it's pretty neat to see my daughter helping out her little brother with the tally (after the whole "haha, I win" bit is done, of course).

When Jennifer Tyler Lee, Crunch a Color's creator, asked me to be part of the Healthy Lunch Challenge, I was thrilled. My daughter chose the lunch below that features three colors, a protein, a healthy grain and no processed foods. We planned it using LaLa Lunchbox so I was sure to have everything I needed on hand. 

This lunch features a delicious and healthy new food that we are crazy about chez moi: roasted black beans! YUM. My daughter calls it black bean popcorn thanks to its satisfying yet light crunch and practically begs for it on a daily basis. We packed this lunch together and snacked along the way. Aside from the roasting time for the beans, this took less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Check out this deliciously colorful and balanced lunch!

3 colors: Green celery, Orange carrots and Red raspberries
Protein: Black beans (two ways: roasted and pureed into an easy dip)
Healthy Grain: toast crust from whole wheat bread
We always pack lunch with water (5 points extra) bringing the total points to 55!

I used half of one can of black beans for roasting and the other half to make a black bean dip that was finished in three minutes. I cut carrots and celery for dipping and added the toast crust (affectionately called Toast Crust Dippers in my house) that I cut from the bread of my anti-crust son. My daughter grabbed and washed a handful of raspberries and voila! Lunch is complete! 

Here's how we made the roasted black beans:

black beans, ready for roasting! 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Open one can of black beans. Rinse and dry them with a paper towel. Spread half of the can onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil and a scant sprinkle of salt. Roast in the oven for approximately 35 minutes or until crispy. 

Here's how we made the black bean dip:

Ingredients for black bean dip

We poured the other half of the beans into a bowl and then added: 
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* note: I initially intended to add fresh garlic but changed my mind at the last minute.  This dip can be made with either, depending on your penchant for garlic flavor. 

Using a stick blender, blend all of the ingredients until smooth.

Enjoy and happy lunching!

Seaweed Grain Bars!

My daughter is obsessed with seaweed these days. We've always had toasted nori sheets in the house and go through phases where they're a snack of choice but we're in a whole new realm of seaweed love chez moi. There's a company called SeaSnax, whose tagline is "strangely addictive" and the thing is, it's true. Maybe it's the salt. Maybe it's the papery-thin yet melty-on-my-tongue texture. Whatever it is, these things are delish. The thing I cannot stand about seaweed as a dry snack is the mess. It drives me up the wall to see little bits of seaweed paper all over the place. So I wondered – how could I get the same awesome flavor without the mess? Introducing the Seaweed Grain Bar! 

Seaweed Quinoa Bars and Seaweed Oat Bars

I decided to experiment with grains and eggs and see where that got me. The formula is easy: 2 cups of cooked grains + 4 eggs + 1/2 cup vegetable stock + 4 sheets of toasted nori. I began with quinoa. I was a little afraid that the nutty flavor of the quinoa would overpower the seaweed but it didn't. Next time I might add another sheet of nori though, for a flavor boost. Then I wondered about steel cut oats. For this batch, I added the shavings of one carrot. I wasn't sure whether this could be for breakfast or for snack so I ate a piece for both. I love the heartiness of steel cut oats and I love that they are so adaptable to both sweet and savory flavors. 

When I asked my daughter to try these, she initially put her nose up to the idea. Admittedly, she's not a quinoa fan so she took a mouse-sized nibble of that one and proclaimed it "not for me, Mom." She bit into the oat version and wasn't sure what to make of it... she giggled a little and said oats were for breakfast but seaweed was a snack! She preferred the Seaweed Oat bar but prefers the paper thin snack version for now. My husband and I, on the other hand, cannot get enough of these. When I think about what's in them, I'm delighted. Fiber-rich whole grains, mineral-rich seaweed, protein-packed eggs. This thing is a winner. 

Here's the recipe:

Seaweed Grain Bars
2 cups cooked grains (quinoa, steel cut oats, farro, etc)
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable stock
4-5 sheets of toasted nori, cut into small pieces
Shavings of one carrot (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 375. In a bowl, add the beaten eggs and vegetable stock to the cooked grains. Combine thoroughly. Add the nori pieces and make sure they're evenly distributed. Add the carrot shavings (optional) and evenly distribute. Pour into an 8x8 dish lined with parchment paper. Bake for approximately 28-35 minutes (note: there was a longer cooking time with the oats than with the quinoa) 

Enjoy!

What do you love? Do your kids know?

I came across this question on Twitter earlier this week: if you could describe your mom in one word, what would it be? Admittedly, I couldn't do it. But it got me thinking about other things that I could articulate about who my mom is as a person, in addition to being my mom. Do I know about the things she loves? Where she finds joy? And what about me? Do my kids know about what I love outside of being their mom? 

My mom, doing one of the things she loves best! 

As moms (and I suspect dads are no different), we are focused on our children's happiness and their health and their ability to navigate the world with grace and fortitude, of course. But as humans, we long to be connected and understood. My kids may know that I love to exercise, as one example, and at this stage in the game, they don't need to understand all of the reasons why. I'm happy to continue to show them that I have interests beyond my work and my parenting. My hope is that over time, knowing about their mom and dad's outside pleasures will help them learn the importance of developing interests and hobbies of their own and understanding that people (adults and kids alike) are complex with needs and hopes and wants and individual lives.

My mom loves history and politics. She loves the Impressionists and the color green. She likes to plan vacations and it makes her incredibly happy to cook for hours. She doesn't like to swim or talk on the phone and she takes great pride in her green thumb. My mom is strong and fit; she has been known to make whipped cream from scratch at the same pace as a hand mixer. 

Do your kids know about what you love? This Mother's Day, make part of your day about letting them in on these gems that make you a wonderful, celebrated individual.

Shout Out to Moms Everywhere

I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mom in 2006 when my daughter was ten days old. That officially makes this my 8th Mother's Day as a mom. Yipee! Happy Mother's Day weekend to every Mom! 

To celebrate Moms everywhere, LaLa Lunchbox is on sale for half off all weekend. The busy moms in your world will love using LaLa Lunchbox to help lessen the load of the morning crunch, and kids everywhere love the fun, colorful monsters and having a voice in what they eat for lunch. 

We are honored to be featured on the App Store in two categories! The first is in the Mother's Day Gift Guide and the second is part of Moms on the Go, within the Mother's Day feature. Thank you, App Store!

And thank you to Moms both old and new, whose tireless efforts, dedication, warmth, intelligence, intuition and smiles help us all power through shiny days and dull ones.

My mom and my first born - May 2006

Happy 7th birthday!

Seven today!

My big gal is 7 today. SEVEN! I think that's officially big kid territory. Maybe 6 was and I have just been in denial for a year. But there's no doubt about it, she's a big kid now.

I got an email last night from a friend of mine – a very pregnant friend who I am secretly hoping has her baby today – saying she felt like there should be something that parents say to other parents on their children's birthdays. I agree - but I wonder what that would be exactly? Is it congratulations? As in, congratulations on having a 7 year old? That's kind of weird. Is it congratulations as in, congratulations on surviving the drama, the Ramona Quimby obsession, the homework, the playdates, the 16 cartwheels in a row, the 'I-can-make-my-own breakfast, Mom' independence? Would you say "Whoah nellie?" As in, whoah Nellie, your face and your child's face have both really aged in the last 365 days! Would you say "good luck in the coming year"? I suppose that's appropriate but it doesn't acknowledge the sentimentality and amazement that every parent feels about the years that have flown by already. I awoke this morning to the smiling face of my now 7 year old. And in an instant I remembered the day she was born and how it felt to load her into the back seat of our car as we left the hospital and her teeny neck flopped to one side in the seemingly ginormous infant car seat. I remember the first bath I gave her in my kitchen sink and putting her wet slippery 7 pound body into one of those little hooded towels for the first time and wrapping her up in it like a burrito. I remember staring at her for what seemed like infinity and wondering what color her eyes would be and when she would lose her first tooth (grey; 5 yrs old). It sure doesn't feel like yesterday, but it doesn't feel like 7 years ago either. 

one day old

I've been making cupcakes all morning to bring to her school later. Two flavors: vanilla, from this absolutely phenomenal recipe, and chocolate wacky cake which is dairy and egg free. I got this recipe from a friend of mine years ago and have made it so many times with great success. It's apparently generations old - I guess really a tried and true recipe. I've added dairy free mini chocolate chips from Enjoy Life because I love them. 

Here's the recipe for Wacky Cake:

1 1/2 Cups cake flour 
3/4 Cup of sugar
4 Tablespoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon of white vinegar
1 Cup of water
5 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2/3 Cup dairy free mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and sift them to prevent the cocoa from getting clumpy. Add vinegar, water, oil and vanilla extract and stir until thoroughly combined.  Add chocolate chips. Line a mini muffin tin with cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.