Happy New Year 2007

Welcome to the first Issue of the Laptop Lunches Europe Newsletter

We hope to make it both enjoyable and useful.
If there is anything you want added or featured, please let us know and we will do our best to accomodate.

In this issue

Recipes of the Month
News:
Vegan lunch box
Bento Sleeve Kit
Interview with Melissa Corkill of The Green Parent
Thoughts for food

Recipes of the Month

Mixed salad with mozzarella

Slice fresh mozzarella and ripe tomatoes.
Place the mozzarella on top of the tomato slice.
Add fresh basil leaves or basil  pesto.
Add sweet corn around it to make it more consistent.
Season with a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar or fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Grated Carrot salad with raisins and sunflower seeds

4 medium sized carrots, grated 1 tbsp of sunflower seeds or pine nuts 1 tbsp of raisins 2 tbsp  extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp orange juice 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar salt, pepper

Mix together grated carrots and raisins, seeds in mixing bowl. Slowly drizzle olive oil and orange juice, vinegar, seasoning until flavour is to your liking. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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Cooked carrot salad with cumin and  fresh coriander;

1 pound  of  carrots 1and half tsp ground cumin 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 clove of  garlic or 1 shallot Zest and juice of one fresh lime 1 tbsp of honey Olive oil  salt and pepper and a handful of fresh chopped coriander

Cook sliced carrots in a saucepan of boiling salted water until tender.
Drain well.
In the meantime, fry crushed garlic (or shallot) in the olive oil, then add 60ml of water, the honey, zest and iuice of lime, seasoning, cumin powder and seeds.
Add cooked carrots to that mixture.
Stir well and simmer over medium heat until liquid is alamost absorbed.
Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from heat. Cool.
Mix in the fresh chopped coriander.
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Desserts / Treats

Red fruit clafoutis

Clafoutis  is a traditional  French baked dessert composed of a layer of fresh fruit topped with a thick batter. It is a sort of fruit flan, pudding, versatile enough to serve for breakfast, tea, or dinner, and suited to a wide variety of fruits. Cherries and plums are commonly used but any fruit  work well. Delicious warm or cold.

Prep: 10 min
Cooking time : 50 min
Makes 5 big portions

200 ml of double cream or crème fresh 80g plain white flour 400g red fruits (fresh, frozen or in tin) 250 ml milk 4 eggs 1 pinch of salt 80g caster sugar Vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Spread the red fruits in an even layer (previously drained, reserving the juice) in a round ovenproof dish greased with vegetable oil.
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and pinch of salt.
Add to that  2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks as well as vanilla.
Whisk well  to make a smooth batter and add slowly milk and cream.
Pour the batter delicately over the fruits and cook it  at 160°C for 50 min.

You can use any fruit to make clafoutis: For example replace the red fruits by fresh pineapple and flavour it with 2 tbsp of rum. Or use apple pieces with cinnamon, red cherries, prunes, apricots etc
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Orange and chocolate chips muffins

Prep: 10 min
Cooking time: 15 mins
Makes 7 big muffins or 14 small ones.

2 eggs 300 gr self-raising white flour 6 tbsp sunflower oil 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 80 gr Demerara sugar (unrefined sugar) 250 ml plain yoghurt ( 2 yoghurts) Zest and juice of 1 orange Pinch of salt 80 g chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease or line 12 muffin cups.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, powder, sugar and salt.
Add the eggs, yoghurt, oil and the juice and zest.
Whisk well to make a smooth batter.
Lastly add the chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared muffin cups..

Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

You can replace the orange juice and zest by lemon and the chocolate chips by poppy seeds. In that case use the juice and zest of 2 lemon and 70 gr of poppy seeds.
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News

Vegan Lunch Box

After several years of writing her award winning blog, Jennifer McCann has now published the "Vegan Lunch Box" recipe book. Written with vegans in mind, this book is also ideal for vegetarians or anyone looking for inspiration or ideas for a healthy packed lunch. The Vegan Lunch Box is now available exclusively in the UK from Laptop Lunches priced £11.99 +P&P To order or for more information click here Back to the top

Bento Sleeve Kit

If You like the Laptop lunch Bento box but do not want to carry around the insulated carrying case then the Laptop Lunch Bento Sleeve Kit could be just what you are looking for. The lunchbox fits neatly inside this waterproof "Bento Sleeve" alongside an icepack (included) to keep your lunch cool. The whole kit can then fit inside your handbag or briefcase for taking to work. The Laptop Lunch Bento Sleeve Kit is priced £18.99 +P&P To order or for more information click here Back to the top

Interview with Melissa Corkill
Editor of The Green Parent Magazine and author of Green Parenting

When and how did your passion for natural parenting and green issues start?

I was raised with a real awareness of the environment, green issues and healthy eating. My mum, a lifelong member of Friends of the Earth, took us on Save the Whale marches as kids and made sure we ate an amazing vegetarian whole food diet. She inspired me to start asking questions and looking for answers but it was the birth of my first child seven years ago that really inspired a deeper interest in environmental issues. I remember finding mainstream parenting magazines so frustrating. There was a real lack of information about natural parenting so I set up The Green Parent magazine in response to this.

“Teaching children about the environment:
It is important that our children are aware of environmental damage and the steps we can take to prevent it. We must teach them how to look after the planet for a sustainable future and one way to do this is to encourage a child’s natural fascination with the world around them”.
Extract from “Green parenting” £8 from www.thegreenparent.co.uk

Do you think that school should provide a Green education to children or parents?:

Environmental education can be so much fun. Start at home, grow some herbs on a windowsill, invest in a wormery or get creative with junk – make papier maché with old newspapers, a dolls house from unwanted boxes etc. Learning about green issues can be an intrinsic part of family life.

In the December issue of your magazine you wrote:
“Every year we use 17.5 billion bags – enough to cover the whole of Surrey and Sussex. Last year, the BBC reported that supermarket shoppers spend £470 annually - a sixth of their food budget – on packaging.”

Do you think that one way supermarkets can tackle this problem is if they stop providing free plastic bags thereby encouraging people to take their own reusable recyclable bags?

I like the idea of a plastic bag tax to encourage consumers to use alternatives such as cotton shopping bags. There are some really great alternatives available now such as bags made from old parachutes – www.onyabags.co.uk or beautiful shopping bags created from recycled saris – www.adili.com. However, my current challenge at home is to avoid supermarkets altogether and just shop in local independent shops, armed with lots of cotton shopping bags. A bit more work but much more rewarding

“Eating well in the family:
Food is at the centre of our lives whether we recognise it or not. It is what sustains us and keeps us alive and so, good food is key to a healthy lifestyle. What we put into our bodies is hugely important and teaching children about diet and nutrition when they are young will hopefully encourage them to be healthy in the future.”
Extract from Green Parenting

What would you say to parents who do not cook (for lack of time, dislike or finding it out of date..) who do not care about food and then feed their children with highly  processed food?

I believe that nutrition is incredibly important for a child’s development and overall health and I do not think processed food has a place in children’s diets. I do understand that it can be difficult to prepare fresh food every day within a busy family schedule but there are ways of making home-cooked food easy and quick. My kids love pasta with pesto and so I make a big batch of pesto with fresh basil and pine nuts on a Sunday to last the week. They also love raw vegetables and a platter of these with some homemade humous doesn’t take long to prepare. Bread dough is really simple and quick to make. If you start it in the morning before leaving the house, it will have risen enough to make fresh pizza in the evening. Often involving children in the cooking process encourages them to try new things. Make family food fun, share mealtimes together, light some candles and turn it into a celebration.
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Thoughts for Food

“At lunch, there is so much more to choose from than a sandwich and a packet of crisps. Add pleasure! Add variety!"
Valerie Salomon

“Gastronomy is the art of using food to create happiness.”
Dr Theodore Zeldin

“If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food.”
Sally Edwards
 
“Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”
Elsa Schiaparelli

“The lunch box is very important. For most children, it contains the breakfast they missed, their lunch and the drinks and snacks which will support them until dinner time.
It must be re-invented day after day and offer fresh, colourful and non-processed food in sufficient quantity but above all in a sufficent variety to fulfil the needs of the children and grown-ups.”
Josee Thibodeau, dietician
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