Pasta with Eggs

Between work and the early evening shuffling to tae kwon do, gymnastics or whatever else, getting a healthy dinner on the table quickly feels overwhelming at times. You too? One of my go-to weeknight dinners when I'm short on time has just four ingredients, takes less than 30 minutes to pull together and is really affordable. Here's my favorite part: all five of my family members love it! 

Spinach noodles with egg

Pasta with Eggs came about one night when I started making carbonara and realized that I didn't have bacon. The process to make it is nearly identical, but this version has neither bacon nor cheese. Since that evening, this has become a staple in my house and my kids love to take the leftovers for lunch. Eggs are versatile, delicious, and nutritionally dense. One large egg has a satisfying 6 grams of protein and is high in vitamin B2 so even when I'm serving what seems like plain pasta for dinner, it is anything but plain. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that eggs are dear to my heart. (also, collecting them with my daughter on a recent farmstay was seriously cool!)

But back to the pasta... the four ingredients you'll need are pasta, eggs, butter and salt. I'm sharing my recipe with you now and hope that it serves you as well as it has served me for years. You can make it completely dairy free by substituting oil for butter. 

Here's what you'll need: 
1 pound of pasta (fresh or dry will work) 
3 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
2-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of coarse salt

Here's how to do it:
1. Cook the pasta as directed, reserve 1/8 cup of the cooking water and set it aside. Drain the rest of the pasta and set it aside as well. Here I'm using fresh spinach noodles, but really, anything will do. I've also made this with gluten free, bean pasta and it's delicious!

2. Add the butter to the pot that you used to cook the pasta and turn the heat on medium low. 

3. Add the pasta back to the pot and stir to combine the melted butter. Add the reserved cooking water and then slowly add the eggs. 

4. When you've added the whole eggs and the egg yolk, stir with a wooden spoon to break the yolks, add the salt and combine into the pasta. 

5. With the heat still on medium low, keep stirring until the eggs just cook. It will form a rich, creamy sauce. Taste it to determine whether you'd like to add more salt (or add pepper). You might have some small egg clumps. That's okay. They're still delicious! Check to make sure the temperature on your stove isn't too high. 

6. Have patience. It takes about 7-10 minutes of low heat for the sauce to set. These are best eaten immediately, but my kids also love them cold for lunch the next day. 

Enjoy! 

Easy Dinner Recipe: Strata

If there's one thing all 5 of us always agree on, it's eggs. Strata is basically a frittata with bread and I love it because I can make it ahead of time and just reheat for dinner and I can also pop it into the lunchboxes! Score! 

I've made strata with spinach and with broccoli. I've made it with cheddar cheese and goat cheese. I've made it with olives and chick peas. But the version I keep coming back to has just tomatoes, basil and cheese. It's like having an egg and tomato sandwich with cheese, only better. Way better. Here's another thing I love about strata: it's a great way to use up bread that's getting stale. (here's another use for that)

Here's what you'll need: 
10 large eggs
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups of crusty bread, cut into one inch cubes
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Optional: 1/2 cup shredded cheese or goat cheese

Here's what to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 F
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and salt
3. Add the bread and combine so that the bread is totally soaked in. You can pop this in the refrigerator for 2+ hours or proceed from here. 
4. Add the tomatoes, basil (and cheese, if using) to the bowl. Combine thoroughly. 
5. Heat olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet (I prefer cast iron) over medium heat. Swirl the oil to coat the bottom and the sides. 
6. Pour the mixture into the skillet, and make sure everything is evenly spread. 
7. Bake until the eggs are completely set and the edges are golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. 
8. Let the Strata cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes.
9. Use a spatula to flip it out of the pan onto a board and serve. 

Corn Soup

image courtesy of organicfacts.net

While it doesn't feel like summer yet, I'm dreaming of blue skies, warm weather and a hallmark of the season: fresh corn. In preparation, I've created a recipe for an easy Corn Soup that you can enjoy during any season, but one that will taste utterly fantastic with the freshly hulled ears of summer. This version serves 4-6 and is vegan, but you can make substitutions (noted below). 

Here's what you'll need:
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 white fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3 inch chunks
• 2 cups vegetable broth (you can use chicken broth too)
• 1 cup coconut milk (I used full fat. You can use cow's milk too) 
• 3 cups of corn kernels (I used frozen corn for this, but come summer, I'm going fresh all the way) 
• juice of one lime plus 1/2 teaspoon of lime zest
• 1 scallion, chopped (green parts only, for garnish)
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika (garnish) 
• salt and pepper to taste

Here's how: 
1. In a soup pot, heat the oil to medium high and add the chopped onion and garlic. Sauté for about 5-6 minutes.
2. Add sweet potato, broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer.
3. After about 5 minutes, add the corn but reserve about a half cup of the kernels for garnish.  
4. Stir, cover and let this cook until the potatoes are soft (but not mushy). Should be approximately 20-25 minutes.  
5. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.
6. Purée with a stick blender, but leave some chunks for texture.
7. Add lime zest and juice and stir to combine.
8. Garnish with scallions, smoked paprika and corn. 

Enjoy! 

Huge App Update and New Food Bundles to Fit Every Lifestyle

Sneak peak from our new Nut Free bundle

When we first launched LaLa Lunchbox back in 2012, our goal was to make school lunches easier for families. Our mission was to get kids engaged in the meal planning process in a long term effort to help raise the next generation of healthy eaters. We sought to make the "what's for lunch" chore easier for parents, to help them save time and money by packing lunch items that they had already shopped for, and that their kids would actually enjoy eating. 

Sneak peak from our new Dairy Free bundle

We've been overwhelmed by the response in the last four years! To the LaLa Lunchbox users who email us with comments and praise, we thank you tremendously. We could not have come this far without you! To the publications who have posted about us, we are forever grateful. You have helped hundreds of thousands of people find relief in the daily slog of lunch packing. 

Sneak peak from our new Gluten Free bundle

While we are satisfied with how far we've come, the lunch-packing struggle is far from over. Here's the big news: to celebrate the back to school season, we've made the LaLa Lunchbox app FREE to download (what are you waiting for?)

Sneak peak from our new Vegetarian bundle

And the even bigger news: in response to the ever-changing landscape around families and food, we have added five dietary-specific food bundles for users to download -- nut free, dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian and kosher. Four of them have been curated by well-known, phenomenal dietitian and blogger Holley Grainger and the kosher bundle has been curated by the ever-amazing kosher blogger and cookbook author Ronnie Fein. Each bundle contains about 25 new ideas to provide lunch packing inspiration for a variety of lifestyles and eating habits. In addition to these dietary-specific bundles, we've also added three new bundles filled with lunch inspiration from drool-worthy creative food geniuses: Aviva Wittenberg, Sylina Lunches and Gina Kirk.

Sneak peak from our new Kosher bundle

Sneak peak from the Aviva Wittenberg bundle

We hope that this new content inspires you and your family to pack interesting, delicious lunches for your kids this year! As always, we welcome your feedback. Please just drop us a line to let us know how it's going. If you'd like, follow along on Instagram, where we post daily pics of school lunches - we're there in the trenches with you! Be sure to tag us (@lalalunchbox) to show off your lunch creations.

Sneak peak from the Sylina Lunches bundle

You'll be able to browse the new food bundles on the app and decide whether the content is for you before downloading. We think you'll be pretty excited when you see the wealth of healthy, delicious, kid friendly options. Of course, these new bundles won't replace the food library you already have -- they're designed to add even more amazing content to our already robust selection of foods. If your child attends a nut-free school, if someone in your family has allergies or sensitivities, if you have dietary preferences for any reason whatsoever or if you just want a fresh injection of new lunch inspiration, we've got you covered. Please note: these bundles are available for a separate, one time fee of $2.99, and with about 25 new lunch ideas in each bundle, that amounts to approximately 11 cents per idea. 

Sneak peak from the Gina Kirk bundle

So listen, back to school can be an overwhelming time for families. And getting back into the school lunch routine can be downright intimidating. We get that, and we're here to ease the pain. After you download LaLa Lunchbox, go ahead and hand over your iPhone or iPad to the kiddos and let them pick out the foods for their lunches. Their choices will become and easy-to-use grocery list for you so you'll stay on top of your lunch game. As Holley says, "inviting children to lend a voice in the food they eat helps to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, fosters a sense of pride and makes kids more likely to eat more food, resulting in less waste and more money saved." We bet that after using LaLa Lunchbox regularly, you'll never open up a smelly, uneaten wasted lunch at the end of the day again, and you'll never sweat over the "what's for lunch" question again. Win-win. 

Please feel free to email us with comments, questions or feedback - our customers are our number one priority! Best of luck with back to school!  - Gillian 

You may also like:
Best 4 lunch packing tips
Top 5 Reasons to Involve Your Kids in Meal Planning
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Chick Pea Kale Patties

Last year I found this Chick Pea and Parsley Patties recipe via Aimee at Simple Bites and it has become a standby in my house. My husband and I wolf them down and my youngest, who loves foods that are full of flavor, can't get enough of them. I made some modifications to the original recipe - initially based on ingredient availability in my own kitchen (recipe below) - and they were such a hit that we've continued to make them this way. This recipe is straightforward, simple and delicious. 

Ingredients: chick peas, kale, dill, lemon, garlic, dried shallots, ground corriander, ground cumin, olive oil, flour and egg.  

Combine all of the ingredients except eggs and oil and refrigerate for several hours to let the flavors open up to each other. Add those ingredients into a food processor along with the egg and combine until the mixture is a chunky batter. Some of the chick peas may remain whole and that's okay. 

Spoon the batter into a hot pan with olive oil, turn down the heat to medium and fry the pancakes until golden brown on both sides. Holy moly. These things are jam packed with flavor and loaded with nutrition. Home run!

Chick Pea and Kale Patties

Ingredients
One 15 ­oz can of chickpeas
1/2 cup chopped kale
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon dried shallot (or one fresh shallot, chopped) 
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Juice of 1 lemon (approximately 2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 large eggs
Approximately 1/4 cup olive oil for frying

Method
Rinse and drain the chick peas. Pour them into a large mixing bowl. Add kale, dill, shallot, garlic, cumin, coriander, lemon, flour and combine. Let the batter sit for at least one hour so that the flavors play nicely together. In a food processor (or in a bowl with a potato masher) mash the ingredients together until they form a batter (chunky is good, don't worry if it's not uniform). Add eggs and form into patties with your hands or a spoon. Heat half of the olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat and fry until golden brown (about 4-5 minutes per side). Repeat. This made 12 patties for us. Reduce the heat if they appear to be burning. Serve warm or room temperature with a dollop of sour cream or sea salt yogurt. Enjoy!