GYO - May #28

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The daily tiffin is proud to host this month's GYO. Thanks andrea for allowing us to host this wonderful event.

Grow Your Own is a twice-a-month blogging event that celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products. Anyone with a blog can participate! Do you write a food blog? A gardening blog? A farm blog? A hunting or foraging blog? An eco blog? A frugal blog? Anything whatsoever related to home and garden or fun activities to do with children? You can write a post about some of the edibles you have raised, grown, or found and cooked with. Having a food blog is not a requirement for participation.

The rules are simple:

* Make a dish that uses at least one item from your very own garden or farm and post about it. Your garden doesn’t have to be big. Container gardens are welcome! If you hunted or foraged, those items are also eligible. You can also use something that was given to you, but the giver must have personally grown or raised the item. If you paid for it, then it doesn’t count.

* Anything edible that you have grown or raised qualifies, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, edible flowers, nuts, grains, legumes, dairy products, eggs, livestock, and anything else I might have forgotten. Produce from both indoor and outdoor gardens are welcome! Different regions will have different things available, so feel free to feature things unique to your area. (Rambutan trees, anyone?) We are all about celebrating variety!

* Please make sure your dish is posted during the month of the event because we like to celebrate seasonal items. One post per blog, please.
* As a courtesy, please include a link to this announcement in your blog post, and then update later with a link to the round-up.

* If you want to include one of the Grow Your Own badges in your post, feel free to grab one from here. (Please upload to your own server/image repository.) Logos professionally designed by Jeff Meyers.

To include your post in the round-up, send an email to thedailytiffin(at)gmail (dot)com by the 30th of May 2009 with the following information:

* Subject line: Grow Your Own #
* Your name and location (country, state if applicable)
* Your blog URL
* Permalink to your post
* 300×300 pixel photo of your dish (As long as the photo is no larger than 300 pixels in either direction, it will work.)

For an event like this I think it’s useful and interesting to see what is fresh and available from different regions at different times of the year, so please make sure you include the location information when you submit your entry.

It’s hard to keep track of entries if we don’t receive an email, so please remember to email your information to us. We feel bad if we miss someone’s post!


We will post a round-up of all our dishes within a few days after the deadline (of course subject to any other events in life, acts of God, etc). Questions? Please ask in the comments or email us.

We are eagerly looking forward to seeing those wonderful recipes made by the ingredients from your kitchen garden !

This post was written by Dee

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: thedailytiffin@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Weekend Herb blogging # 169 - Recap

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Here is the much awaited round up for Weekend Herb Blogging # 169. Thank you Kalyn and Haalo for giving us this wonderful opportunity to host and thanks to all the dear participants who have made this a success. We have received 25 entries and here are all of them.

This week's host for WHB # 170 is Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness

The recap is in the order of the emails received.

Meeta has definitely re invented the wheel by making over this classic dish . It definitely looks mouth watering!



Fettucine with spicy lamb sausage meatballs


Dhanggit gets rid of temptation by yielding it with this crispy , golden pork with apples " lechon style"



Roast Pork with fried apples

Pamela turns some tired looking zucchini and carrot lying in the fridge into this fantastic mouthwatering cake!



Carrot Zucchini Cake

Anna turns a simple warm potato salad into a light meal by itself by making a rich addition of her father's home smoked trout to it.


Smoked Trout and warm potato salad

Chriesi talks about the goodness of artichokes and sends a wonderful risotto made with baby artichokes our way ! This is definitely a keeper !




Risotto ai carciofi



Suganya goes back to her childhood and makes her favorite dish Pennywort pepper gravy. It looks mouthwatering to me !




Pennywort Pepper Gravy

Joanne comes to us with this simple , yet endearing healthy side dish which goes well with her lasagna. I sure can gobble those up in a jiffy !



Peas with Honey and Lemon-pepper

Pam sprouts some broccoli seeds into nutritional powerhouses and yes I do agree with her that its the current hottest thing out there!



Sprouts


ts and js make these beautiful and unique lime macapuno bars for us and one new thing to know about is the mutant coconut !



Lime macapuno bars


Ning gets us this delicious, hot and flavorful and hearty chinese seafood and wintermelon soup



Seafood and wintermelon soup


Joelen throws in a few random ingredients for dinner and whips up this fantastic meal of mushroom and sundried tomato stuffed chicken , keeping in mind all those weight watchers !



Mushroom and sundried tomato stuffed chicken

Kalyn gets us a great Phase One food recipe for the south beach dieters, Its an asy-to-make hearty and wholesome Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Parmesan is definitely something which she will be making again.




Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Parmesan

Marija shares with us a recipe of Venezuelan Pickled eggplant salad from Manolla , a sweet beautiful Venezuelan lady with whom she and her family are acquainted with...



Venezuelan Pickled Eggplant Salad

Rachel, the talented gardener, talks to us about planting, storing and using the double agents in her garden , Cilantro and Dill. She has some great storage and cooking tips to share with us.




Cilantro Seeds


Brii gets us some yummylicious swedish sweets which are simple and easy to make. I am counting on this recipe to help me cook up something quick.



Swedish Sweets


Scott sends us a healthy , delicious asian inspired green salad whipped up with his kitchen grown cress and herbs.



Mixed Cress and Herb Salad

Kits Chow shares with us a spinach and tofu soup made of light vegetable broth which looks delicious and quite filling.



Spinach and Tofu Soup


Laurie shares with us an innovative and hearty seafood and vegetable stew . She used Poivron rouge , a moroccon spice. Quite an informative post and a hearty looking stew!



Seafood and vegetable stew

Haalo gets us a wonderful starter or a lunch recipe with this yummy looking carmelized endive tart. It is indeed a treat to our eyes !



Carmelized Endive Tart


Poonam gets us a dish called Daal Palak, Lentils with Spinach . Simple yet heartwarming and surely falls into comfort food category. She serves it with a simple Aloo - methi Bhaji( Potato and fenugreek leaves stir fry)



Daal paalak



Aloo Methi Bhaaji

Cinzia gets us a Softly glazed and fantastically fresh, yet simple and a very special Carrot vichy to us. Check out this recipe guys! It looks delicious!



Carrot Vichy

Organically cooked gets us


lahanorizo (cabbage rice) , a greek recipe. Now I know what to do with the head of cabbage , that I always conveniently tend to forget !




Lahanorizo

Liz gets us a dessert she invented just before a dinner party and she calls it frozen citrus cream with candied thyme. Tell me, Can you resist that ? I definitely cannot !!!




Frozen Citrus Cream with candied thyme


I get to the recap , tandoori asparagus, a healthy dish with a popular Indian dressing / marinade !



Tandoori Asparagus

Please feel free to leave a comment or write to me, In case I missed someone's entries or have a wrong link. Hope you guys enjoy the recap.

This post was written by Dee

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: thedailytiffin@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Weekend Herb Blogging #169

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Weekend Herb Blogging this week is hosted by the team at " The Daily Tiffin" we are proud to announce its commencement starting from 2nd Feb'09 to 8th Feb'09 . We thank dear Kalyn for graciously letting us host and also Haalo , who has taken over managing the event recently from Kayln. Thank you dearies once again for working so hard and making this a success for the 4th consecutive year.

Here are the RULES of the event and below is a recap just in case :)


1. Entries to Weekend Herb Blogging must be posts written specifically for Weekend Herb Blogging. This means they cannot be cross-posted in other events. Photos used in the posts however can be submitted to photo events like DMBLGIT.

2. Weekend Herb Blogging entries should have the goal of helping people learn about cooking with herbs or plant ingredients.

Only two types of entries will be accepted:
* Recipe posts where a herb or plant ingredient is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe
* Informative posts that spotlight one herb or plant ingredient, particularly including information about how they are used in cooking.
Naturally, posts can be a combination of both these criteria.

3. Posts must contain the phrase Weekend Herb Blogging with a link to this postand to Haalo's site. ( Cooking almost anything atleast once!)

4. The posts may be written anytime during the week but you must email us at thedailytiffin(at)gmail.com with WHB in the subject line by:
3pm Sunday - Utah Time
10pm Sunday - London Time
9am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time
You can use this converter to find out the corresponding time in your location.

5. In your email please include the following information and email it to thedailytiffin@gmail.com before 8th feb '09

* Your Name
* Your Blog Name/URL
* Your Post URL
* Your Location
* Attach a photo (300px wide)

This information will help us greatly as the recaps can be quite time consuming.

6. Recaps will be published Sunday Night or Monday.

7. Please feel free to use the logos above.

We are so looking forward to seeing all those wonderful recipes soon!

This post was written by Dee

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: thedailytiffin@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Just a Reminder ...

Monthly Mingle - Low Sugar Treats is being hosted on Daily Tiffin. Last date for entries is 8th December 2008.

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Here are the rules :

1. Create a dish that fits the theme of “Low- Sugar Sweet treats” as described above.
2. Post about it on your blog anytime from now until 8th December.(entries must be in English, please).
3. Link to this post and send the details to us (see below). Please feel free to use the logo created above for this mingle.

Once you’ve posted your dish, send an email with “Monthly Mingle: Low-Sugar Sweet Treats” in the subject line to: thedailytiffin (at) gmail (dot) com by 8 December 2008 with the following information:

* your name
* your location
* the name of your blog and its URL
* the name of your dish and a link to the relevant post
* a copy of the main photo of your dish 200px wide (and compressed so that it is below 1MB!)

This is going to be an exciting mingle and we are looking forward to having you over.

This post was written by Dee

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: thedailytiffin@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Announcing Monthly Mingle 27 : Low Sugar Sweet Treats

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Don't we all love sweets? Most of us cant stop eating just one! With the holiday season in the US, I traipse the stores, looking in wonder all the sweet treats ,hoping to carry at least a few boxes home , but when I read the labels pertaining to the calorific value, I come home without any!

With the fast approaching holiday season, many of us would be busy making sweet treats for our family and friends.

This month, we ask you to get your pots and pans out, put on your thinking caps and set to making healthy Low Sugar Sweet Treats. It would be great, if you use natural sugar substitutes like honey, agave nectar etc.




Here’s how it works:

1. Create a dish that fits the theme of “Low- Sugar Sweet treats” as described above.
2. Post about it on your blog anytime from now until 8th December.(entries must be in English, please).
3. Link to this post and send the details to us (see below). Please feel free to use the logo created above for this mingle.

Once you’ve posted your dish, send an email with “Monthly Mingle: Low-Sugar Sweet Treats” in the subject line to: thedailytiffin (at) gmail (dot) com by 8 December 2008 with the following information:

* your name
* your location
* the name of your blog and its URL
* the name of your dish and a link to the relevant post
* a copy of the main photo of your dish 200px wide (and compressed so that it is below 1MB!)

This is going to be an exciting mingle and we are looking forward to having you over.

If you too would like to guest host the Monthly Mingle in the future drop Meeta an email at blogmeeta [at] gmail [DOT] com (Please note that this email address is different to the one you should send in your entries at.)

This Post was written by Dee

Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: thedailytiffin@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Bake. Decorate. Donate. Cookies!

Making and decorating cookies -– and donating the cookies to a local food pantry, emergency shelter or senior center -- is a wonderful and fun activity you can do with your kids, your friends, your co-workers, your worship group, or your neighbors.

Cookies make people smile at any time of year. Just last week, I hosted a cookie decorating event, called Drop In & Decorate, at my house. In one afternoon, we decorated 250 cookies and donated them to a shelter for women who are homeless or victims of abuse.

What better gift to give on Mother’s Day -- or July 4, or Canada Day, or any day?

The idea behind Drop In & Decorate is that people get together for the fun part – the decorating. Do the baking ahead of time, or better yet, ask your friends to bake a dozen cookies and bring them to the party.


I use a basic sugar cookie recipe with Royal Icing. The cookies are easy to roll out and cut with large (3-4 inch) cookie cutters and baked up to a week in advance.

This year I experimented with squeeze bottles for the icing, which worked really well. My husband built a holder for them out of a piece of scrap wood. He drilled holes, so the bottles could stand nozzle-side down (avoiding the air bubbles that formed when the bottles stood upright for any length of time), and for legs he used recycled parts from our printer cartridges!

Pastry bags are easy to use for decorating, and give a great amount of control. We’ve had children as young as age 3 use them for decorating.


For more information about how to host your own cookie decorating party, along with our cookie and icing recipes, tips and sources, and lots of cookie ideas, visit the Drop In & Decorate blog.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Lydia from The Perfect Pantry

Food Blog Awards 2007

We folks here at The Daily Tiffin are rather speechless to say the least! The Daily Tiffin has been nominated for an award over at Well Fed.

When we look at the list of names in this category, we are filled with pride to be named on the same list. This just would not have been possible if it was not for you, dear readers. Because, without you we would not here.


I'd also like to thank my spectacular team for putting in so much hard work and passion into their posts. I love you folks.

So, if you do fancy voting, we would certainly be lying if we did not say, we'd like you to vote for us. ;-D

• The Daily Tiffin - Best Food Blog - Family/Kids: Click here to vote.

Whatever, you do, we still feel like winners, because in our eyes we have great readers and thank you all for the honor.

Hugs!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Drop In & Decorate

For those of you getting into the baking season, we at the Daily Tiffin would like to bring to your attention a wonderful cause started by the lovely Lydia over at The Perfect Pantry.

It all started a few years ago when Lydia and a few of her friends got together to bake cookies.

Well it seemed like they had baked a few too many and decided to call their local shelter and asked what they thought about receiving a package of wonderfully baked and decorated cookies. You can guess, they were extremely pleased. These cookies had brightened up many peoples day. Ever since then it has become somewhat of a tradition. Each year Lydia and friends get together and have a cookie baking and decorating party. Each cookie is carefully wrapped and then donated to a shelter. Imagine the smiles all around!

Lydia calls it Drop In & Decorate. It's simply a wonderful idea. Call up a few friends, bake a few cookies and then donate them to your nearest shelter. Then watch how this small gesture puts a sunny smile on someones face.

Lydia has also put together a helpful guide, which will show you how to host your own Drop In & Decorate party. This year she's even got King Arthur flour to sell a perfect Drop In & Decorate party kit.

So, if you are already in cookie baking fever why not have a party and help others. Drop on over to Lydia's blog and check out how you can host your own Drop In & Decorate party.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

spooky time

It’s coming up to the spooky time of year – Halloween! Traditionally this isn’t a big festive celebration in the UK but it’s one of my favourites so I thought I’d share some ideas for Halloween food and drink in case you’re thinking of celebrating. Most of these ideas are focused on kids but I’m sure the big kid in all of us will be happy enough too!

Skeleton fingers - use sliced white bread and take the crusts off. Lightly butter it and then spread it with crushed crisps (any flavour will do but you could go for something like beef so they taste meaty). Roll the bread up and secure with a cocktail stick. Eat quickly as they won’t stay crunchy for long.

Witches fingers – you can make sweet or savoury versions of this. The sweet version uses finger-shaped piped biscuits which, when they are cooked, are dipped in jam at one end. dab the top of the biscuit at the other end with more jam and press on a flaked almond so the jam oozes out and looks like blood. For savoury, cook some sausages. Tear the end of each and dip this in a little ketchup so it looks like the blood from a chopped off finger. At the other end, press in a flaked almond so it looks like a fingernail. Alternatively you can use asparagus spears.

Eyeballs – use a packet of white marshmallows. Using food colouring, paint the top with green/blue circles. Let this dry then use black food colouring to paint in the iris. You could add thin red lines around the edge to look like blood vessels.

Spooky cookies - get some Halloween shaped biscuit cutters and bake up a batch of various shapes – witches, cats, tombstones, spiders. Pumpkins etc. using the writing icing that you get decorate one of each then invite younger guests to make their own. however, if you do the tombstones, i think it’s decorate these yourselves - ice then in white then use black icing to pipe on the rip and the name of each guest. You can present these as people arrive!

Bats wings - marinade and roast some chicken wings and serve them on a platter labelled appropriately!

Witches fingernails – label up a bowl and fill it with the roasted seeds from your pumpkin - scoop out the seeds, wash them well and then roast them with salt, oil, chilli and garlic.

Not So Lucky Dip - finally, and you’ll not want to eat this creation, fill a bowl with chopped up jelly. Add some cold cooked spaghetti (intestines), lychees or grapes (eyeballs) and mini sausages (fingers) and some plastic spiders which can be exchanged for prizes. Cover with two folded cloths, leaving a gap in the middle where people can insert their hands then and invite your guests to see what they can find…

What other ideas are out there?

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.


This post was written by Abby from eat the right stuff

Safety and Care: Kids in the Kitchen II

The kitchen can be a very dangerous place for the younger ones on our lives. Toddlers and small children are very inquisitive and in their innocence will try anything lying open or pull anything that is within their reach.

Due to this reason the many points and guidelines focusing on safety and care in the kitchen when kids are around, cannot be stated often enough.

This is a pretty sensitive subject for me personally. My brother was involved in a kitchen accident at the age of 3. Today he is 32 and still suffers from the issues that plague him from this accident. One day he ran into the kitchen where our house-help was boiling water. She was not in the kitchen at the time my brother ran into the kitchen. Unfortunately the pot was a little too close to the edge and in his haste he managed to somehow pull the whole pot onto himself. He had third degree burns and a suffering of a life time. Surgeries and plastic surgeries, therapy and rehab followed. Till today he has not "healed". In his head he sometimes still fights certain demons that follow him.

So, writing this post is a bit difficult, but at the same time a bit satisfying. Satisfying because I hope my experience might help others who read this.

With just a few simple steps you can make the kitchen a safer place for your children. Prevention is the key word that will help you to avoid injuries, burns, and even fatality.

• Keep the pot and pan handles always turned to the back. This will keep children from intentionally or unintentionally pull them down from the stove and causing burns or other serious injuries.


• Be sure that children cannot climb on top of counters or cabinets. Tablecloths and other such hanging placements should be removed or kept out of range of your toddlers or small children. This prevents them form pulling things down onto themselves.


• Keep hot items at a safe distance. Never place anything hot on the edge of the counter. When moving hot items around make sure your toddler or small child is not in your way. It is safer to keep toddlers in a playpen or highchair when cooking in the kitchen, instead of allowing them to crawl on the floor.


• When opening the oven doors make sure that your child is not anywhere nearby. A toddler may unintentionally grab for the oven door and burn himself/herself.


• Microwaves should be placed out of reach for children. The best place for it is in between the wall cabinets.


• Use a microwave door lock to keep the microwave locked.


• Make sure the containers or formulas bottles that come out of the microwave are not hot. Let them to cool before allowing your children to handle them.


• Keep all appliances and their cords tucked away neatly. Allowing them to dangle over the counter top may cause children to pull them down from the counter.


• Plastic plug protectors are the perfect way to prevent tiny fingers sticking into the sockets. All sockets accessible to toddlers or small children should be protected with such plastic plug protectors.


• When older children are in the kitchen helping out, supervise them and never leave them out of sight.


• Keep sharp objects out of all children's reach. Knives should be placed in knife blocks and stored towards the back of the counter.


• Detergents, washing liquids and other cleaning material should be stored in a cabinet above the sink and not below the sink.

I have a wonderful online learning game I play with Soeren every now and then. It is called Welcome to Welltown. In Welltown your children will learn how to stay healthy and keep themselves safe by doing certain activities. A playful way to teach them such important lessons. We too spend our time in Welltown and often we focus on Kitchen Safety. Hope you and your children enjoy playing the game.

Review your kitchen with a sharp eye and make it a safe place for your children. Although you will find these points obvious and you might have often seen them it is so vital to take them into consideration before something really happens.

Further resources:
Kitchen Safety for children on their own
Kitchen Safety Fire Prevention in the Kitchen

I would also like to thank Asha and Sharmi for contributing to our Safety in the Kitchen month.

You will also find valuable information from our own Daily Tiffin team on out theme this month - Safety & Care. Each member shared helpful and important information for various topics, which should be actually be bookmarked for future reference.

We wish you a safe and accident free week.

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If you like what we girls do here and would like to vote for us in the Blogger's Choice Awards here. Thanks for your support!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

A Few Reminders

We hope you all had a great weekend! For all the mommies here, hope you had a wonderful day yesterday.

We just wanted to take this opportunity to remind you about our event this month - Kids in the Kitchen. We look forward to all your ideas and we've already received a couple of entries. You still have till May 19th to send in your own thoughts, ideas and guidelines. All this month we, at the Daily Tiffin, are also concentrating on Safety and Care. You'll find interesting articles for food safety for packed lunches and preventing accidents in the kitchen. There's more to come so we hope you will join us throughout May as we discuss Safety and Care at home.

While we are on the subject of reminders we would also like to ask you to spare a few minutes and vote for us as your favorite Parenting Blog. Each one of us puts in a lot of energy and research into the posts and we'd really appreciate your support.

Some of our own individual blogs have also been nominated and we'd love your support there too - if you think we deserve it of course:
Best Health Blog - FitSugar
Best Health Blog - Saffron Trail
Best Food Blog - Lunch in a Box
Best Food Blog - What's For Lunch Honey?
Best Photography Blog - What's For Lunch Honey?

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If you like what we girls do here and would like to vote for us in the Blogger's Choice Awards here. Thanks for your support!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

What's Up in May?

Take a moment and smell the "Blooming Blossoms" (photo by Meeta Albrecht)

There was a buzz of chatter behind the scenes at the Daily Tiffin. We've been working on an interesting plan you see. A plan that actually started to take form when we were thinking about the next theme for our event in May. One thing lead to another and before we knew it we were all excited about what was concocted.



This month we are going for a special theme. To complement the event we are guest hosting for Jyothsna of Currybazaar - Safety Moments, we decided to dedicate the whole month of May to Safety & Care.

Before we get into the details of the theme, let us first give you more details for the event.



Event in May:
Safety Moments is an event created by Jyothsna, which encourages us to take a moment and think about how safe our kitchen is. We thought this would certainly be a very interesting topic for many of our readers and decided to guest host the event for May. We also wanted to specify this into a more appropriate theme for our readers here by categorizing it into a topic many parents find very important - Kids in the Kitchen.

So, in May we would like you to go into your kitchens, have a good long look at it and make a list of any hazards, traps, dangerous gadgets or material you see that might harm the little ones in our lives. The first thing you do - remove them. Then send us an email telling us about them. Even if your kitchen is a safe haven for children - tell us what measures you took to remove those lurking dangers.

The Details:

1. If you have a blog write an article about the current theme and blog about it anytime from now till the deadline. If you do not have a blog then email your entry and we will add it to the roundup. The deadline for this event is May 19th.
2. Email your entry with the following information:
   • Your Name
   • Your Blog Name
   • URL/Permalink to your post
   Those sending their entries per email are requested to send:
   • their name
   • their write up in a text file (please check for grammar, as we will be copying and pasting)
3. In your post please include a link to this post, so your readers get a chance to inform themselves of the event and eventually take part too.
4. Please email your entries to blogmeeta@gmail.com no later than May 19th

Theme in May:
Safety and care however, does not only start and end in our kitchens. It is something that should accompany us where ever we go and what ever we do. This topic is so important that we want to dedicate the month of May to Safety & Care in our lives. From May 1st, each member of the DT team will be sharing their views, experience, tips and advice on how we all can go about our daily routine with care. You will be getting topics like safety and care in your fitness/sport routine, tips and tricks for kitchen hygiene and important things to consider when preparing lunch boxes and of course our own safety views on Kids in the Kitchen.

We really hope you enjoy the next month with us. For now go out and smell the wonderful blooming blossoms.

PS. Don't forget May 13th is Mother's Day ;-)

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If you like what we girls do here and would like to vote for us in the Blogger's Choice Awards here. Thanks for your support!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

Show Me Your Lunchbox - The Roundup

Thank you all for allowing us to peak into your lunch boxes, bentos and plates.
It really was exciting to see how each one of you packed your lunches, what ingredients you used and of course what boxes you all use!

The best thing of all was seeing so many of you packing not only scrumptious lunches, but healthy ones. Good for you!

If you should ever run out of ideas though, just come on over to this page for brilliant inspiration!



Before we do get into the actual roundup, we would like to share some great news with you. You might have noticed that badge in the sidebar under "Blogger Choice Awards." Well one of you went and nominated us for "Best Parenting Blog" and now many are already voting for us. We really would like to thank you for your awesome support and loyalty. We girls love writing for the Daily Tiffin and hope you enjoy what we are doing here. If you do and would like to take a few minutes to vote for us it would rub our egos in the right direction ;-) To vote simply click here.

Wait it does not end there folks. Some of our own individual blogs have also been nominated and we'd love your support there too - if you think we deserve it of course:
Best Health Blog - FitSugar
Best Health Blog - Saffron Trail
Best Food Blog - Lunch in a Box
Best Food Blog - What's For Lunch Honey?
Best Photography Blog - What's For Lunch Honey?

Now to the roundup!

1. Mahek - Love4Cooking
   "A SIMPLE BUT NUTRITIOUS TIFFIN which has rice, prawns, peas, and carrots so all the components of a healthy meal are taken care of."


2. Quillia - All Things Edible
   "I needed a good, balanced lunch box for my 8 year old but also needed something that would be quick to put together so I could send him off to school and go back to bed. Enter the goat cheese and the 4 minute lunch box: fresh strawberries, little goat cheese "sandwiches" made with whole wheat paris toasts, slices of black forest ham, cucumber coins, a thermos of strawberry yogurt, and for dessert, raspberry linzer cookies (with a few of the little cut outs for fun.)"


3. Suzannah - Sue Knits
   "I pack one for myself every day! Or every night, I should say, so I can throw it in the fridge and not have to deal with it in the morning"


4. Stephanie (per email) - Mix it up Meals
   "This is lunch for my almost four year old at preschool. She is usually helping in the packing process. She's a light eater, and I'm sure at least 1/2 of this will come home.
   
   
   
   Salad with Ranch Dressing -- she calls it fresh dipping for some unknown reason.
   Turkey Pastrami with the pepper cut off
   Red grapes
   2 Welsh cakes... perfect for the lunch box as they travel well."


5. Susan - Porcini Chronicles
   "At this point, follow my instructions very carefully: with a steady hand and your widest spatula under one corner of the frittata, scoop it out onto a dinner plate. Then, invert the frying pan on top of the frittata, hold the pan handle and the bottom of the plate really securely, think inspiring thoughts, believe in yourself (I think I can, I think I can…) and flip*. Now cook the frittata for another 2-3 minutes or until you feel with your finger that the center is firm."


6. Chris - Mele Cotte
   "I also know I am a snacker, and I make sure I put enough nibbles in my lunch to ensure a trip to the vending machine is promptly foiled."


7. Z - Water Boils
   "The above meal is my first demonstration of the art of eating and cooking efficiently. Only the raviolis and radish leaves (Yes, cooked radish leaves, I’ll elaborate in a second) are cooked for this lunch, rest is leftovers and stash. The zucchini is leftovers from my morning omelette, and the chicken pieces are from the freezer. Orange wedges are from lunch, I just couldn’t finish them after greasy Chinese."


8. Biggie - Lunch In A Box
   "had leftover sancocho (Latin American stew that I made with beef, tripe, potatoes, yucca and malanga -- like taro) from the night before, so when cleaning up after dinner I packed up my stew in a thermal lunch jar, chopped up Bug's stew and put it in a microwave-safe dish, and popped both into the refrigerator overnight"


9. Joker Girl - Pick Me Up Bento
   "A pick-me-up bento for tomorrow, with pretty colors and healthy veg and rice!"


10. Bharathy - Spicy Chilly
    "It is the Indian Tradition of having the sumptuous nutritious meal,after the SURYODAYAM,or the sunrise.This should be taken after the sun has risen well enough in the horizon...the time roughly between 10.30am-12.00noon.After the British rule,Indians stuck on to the habit of breakfast.They called this morning lunch as BRUNCH...but whatever.. my family still follows this method of HOT Brunch,a well balanced and nutritious array of vegetarian delights."


11. Kanchana - Married to a Desi
    "Being Indian, I have a tonne of tupperware lying around so I used a nice flat rectangular box as the base and filled it up with a few smaller boxes, and juice containers. My m-in-law had recommended I make rotis, but I decided that something hot in a thermos might be good after such a long trip. The bento boxes really remind me of how they serve the food to you on the airplanes, so I guess the theme was quite apropos."


12. Indosungod - Daily Musings
    "My lunch box is easy to pack, anything that will keep me from eating out is welcome in my lunch box. But the toughest (is that a real word? no time to look in the dictionary) is to pack a kiddie friendly lunch box, especially for someone like my daughter for who the process of eating rice is an arduous task by itself ,time consuming requiring constant prodding."


13. Masami - Initials Bento
    "Top: bento box lid
    Middle, from L-->R: carrot, celery, corn, ham, cabbage. Veggies were braised in chicken stock.
    Bottom: onigiri with umeboshi/katsubushi (bonito flake)/soy sauce filling"


14. Eliza - Notes from my Food Diary
    "or a long time, pasta has been the second staple item in our family besides rice. From simpe to complicated dish, pasta equals comfort."


15. Ulrike - Kuechenlatein
    "I have to admit that I am a "Mittagesser" a luncher at midday. So are the remaining members of my family, the three gentlemen. Two of them have lunch away from home, my firstborn at school and the BevA - the best husband of all - in a very good canteen at work. So I cook on weekdays for son no. 2 and me a healthy lunch."


16. Sujatha (per email)
    "Here I have attached a simple but happy lunch I packed for my husband & myself one day in this week. We usually eat rice for lunch along with some vegetables & fruits and for dinner it’s strictly Tiffin, like Idly, Dosa, upma..you name it + fruits. But lately (as I have become a bit health conscious) and I started including either a small box of salad or couple of Chappathis/Rotis and I had reduced the rice amount!
    
    
    
    Following in this pattern, this lunch I packed for us got, A small box of Ridgegourd dal rice, 2 Rotis, Rajma curry to go with the rotis and some cut fruits (Honeydew & Grapes). Hope this is what you wanted from us to take part in this event. Am not sure whether you need me to send in the recipes for this. Please let me know, if you need anything else from me."


17. Latha - La Gourmet Chef
    "Used the 4:3:2:1 ratio of Japanese Bento method with Dhokla, roasted Veggies (baby potatoes, green peas and carrots), Fruits (strawberry and grapes), and I replaced Dessert with dried fruits Walnuts and Cranberries."


18. Shaheen - A simple lunch box
    "a bagel(a kind of thick bread) with flavored cream cheese and some strawberries and grapes. A box of chocolate milk and some string cheese for a snack and lunch is ready. My son still prefers this to buying from the school and even helps me make it on a harried day.
    The cream cheese varies in flavor as per our moods..sweet to spicy to sour."


19. Nandita - The Indian Dabba
    "Dabba in many Indian languages means a 'box'. In India, the word dabba is easily synonymous with a lunch box as in 'Aaj dabbe mein kya hai?' ('What's in your lunch box today' in Hindi)"


20. Meeta - Fancy Egg Rolls
    "My mum constantly sends me packets of cashews, almonds and raisins from Dubai as she knows how much we enjoy them. Here I have made a little dried fruit and nut mix with a few cashews, almonds, raisins, hazelnuts and dried cherries. My mother calls this "brain food.""

Thank you all for contributing to this event. Hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did.

The theme to the next event will be announced on Wednesday so come back then folks.

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If you like what we girls do here and would like to vote for us, click here. Thanks for your support!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Show Me Your Lunchbox - Deadline Extended

Our first event on the Daily Tiffin is, as expected, a bit slow. We have 5 entries to date. We also got emails telling us that they wish they had heard about the event earlier. So, we have decided to extend the deadline for "Show Me Your Lunchbox."

As of today the deadline is set for April 20th.

Here's how it works:

1. Create any kind of healthy and happy packed lunch. It can be a lunchbox, a lunch bag or whatever you use to pack your lunch in. Blog about it anytime from now till April 20th, 2007.
2. Email your entry with your name, the name of your blog and your permalink by April 20th, 2007.
3. In your post please include a link to this post, so your readers get an opportunity to take part if they are interested. .
4. If you do not have a blog, simply email your entry, with a picture (if you would like us to add a picture) to blogmeeta@gmail.com.

Add this event to your Goolge calendar!


So, c'mon people let us have a peak into your packed lunches.

Here is the roundup to this event.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Show Us Your Lunch Box - Reminder!

Hi Folks!

Just a quick reminder for our first Daily Tiffin Event Show Us Your Lunchbox.

Create a healthy and well balanced lunch box, lunch bag or lunch packet and let us have a peak into it. Send us your entries by March 20th.

Post it on your blogs and send us the permalink or simply take a picture and tell us about it in an email. When we have enough entries we'll round them up right here on the Daily Tiffin.

Look forward to all your ideas.

Have a great weekend!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Events on the Daily Tiffin

The DT Team have been thinking long and hard about creating events for our readers to take part in.

The idea for these events is to involve you more into the blog. We post about healthy lunch boxes, but we are always left wondering what your lunch boxes look like. We make book recommendations and we are left thinking what kind of books you are currently reading. We will be giving you more fitness tips, but what does your fitness program look like? We admit - we are very nosy and are curious about what you do and want a little peak into your lives ;-)

So, we thought to make little events out of these ideas and get you to show us your lifestyle. Every now and then we would like to announce such an event. If you have a blog simply write up a post relating to the event theme and email it to us. If you do not have a blog, send us your thoughts and photos in an email. We will then do a round-up of all the entries.

These events will not necessarily be always food related, it could be for example we are curious to see where you go to the gym. Whatever the theme chosen the first thing we would like to know is if this would interest you. After all no event if you our guests do not come right?

Below you have the opportunity to give your vote for this. Please do take just a second and let us know. We decided to leave the final decision to you folks.

Events on the Daily Tiffin?
	Yes, I want to take part
	No, I have no interest
	Not sure

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

Guest Blogger at Chef Michele's

Hi Folks,

Don't forget today, I am guest blogging on Michele's Weekly Guest Blogger Event.

I am honored to have this opportunity and hope you all will join me at Chef Michele's today. I'll be telling a little story and presenting a recipe that I picked just for the event. As it always is on What's for lunch, Honey?, it has been tried and tested by my jury prior to the presentation.

Hope to see you there!