Lunch box for Monday

So here we go with the first lunch box idea of the week. I apologise in advance for the time consuming nature of some of the ideas but in reality it is perhaps nice to make these every now and again and perhaps store or freeze some of the items so you can pull them out as and when.

Snack - Apricot and Sultana Flapjacks (recipe to follow) and fresh fruit pot - mixture of seasonal fruits (mandarines, apples, pears, bananas, kiwis)

Lunch - Onigiri, Sushi rice balls (recipe to follow), carrot and cucumber sticks, edamame beans still in their pods and a pot of red grapes.

Apricot and Sultana Flapjacks
75g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
75g golden sugar (or replace with Agave syrup, I will talk about this stuff in a later post)
2tbsp honey
6 apricots chopped and a small handful of sultanas
175g rolled oats (normal porridge oats)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, butter a 20cm tin.
2. Melt the butter, sugar and honey in a large pan over a gentle heat. Stir well and then mix in the oats along with the apricots and sultanas.
3. Tip into the tin and level off. Bake for 15mins, until pale golden.
4. Cool slightly in the tin and mark into fingers or squares. Cool completely and remove from the tin.

Sushi Rice Balls
This is the link to the recipe I used to cook my sushi rice correctly. I did this today and although time consuming it worked a treat. The quantities made enough rice to make sushi for our dinner (3 adults, 2 kids) and enough rice balls for Sonny and Mia for lunch tomorrow.

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/sushirice.htm

Once you have cooked the rice, crush up some sushi nori into small pieces and mix this into the rice along with black and white sesame seeds. Wet your hands and roll the rice into balls.