At The Failsafe Table Newsletter - Feb 2017 #28 Back to School

#28

Welcome to the February 2017 edition of our Newsletter!

Happy New Year and welcome back to the first edition of At the FAILSAFE Table for 2017! Its back to school time, so we have lots of ideas to fill the kids lunche boxes of course. We encourage you to sign Sue Dengate's petition to stop MSG being hidden in our food and creating terrible, sometimes life threatning, reactions. Did you know the average Victorian household wastes over $2,000 worth of food every year? Check out the Victorian government's Love Food Hate Waste and Take2 campaigns to reduce food waste and take action against climate change. And finally, we have three new recipes from two of our regular contributors for you to enjoy.

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"This diet has literally saved my life"

According to Sue Dengate, most people regard true food allergies as potentially fatal but don’t take food intolerance seriously. Some doctors even say “I don’t believe in food intolerance”. The lifesaving stories on the Food Intolerance Network are amazing. While for some natural food chemicals are the cause, additives in our food are also a big a problem, particularly the MSG (635) group. It is becoming more difficult to know what is in our food. Some food companies are hiding additives as ingredients, or lately as "processing aids".

Please use this link to sign Sue's new petition to stop a new way of hiding MSG in food.

And don't forget to check out the Food Intolerance Network's latest newsletter!

Back to School Lunch Box Ideas

Alternative Sandwiches

If the kids are getting tired of sandwiches, why not switch it up with English Muffins, Focaccia or Pita Pockets (from Real Meals).

Bron’s Mini Pizzas

Delicious cold, and great for a school lunchbox treat or for birthday parties. Freeze the leftover pizzas or add to the lunch box. [read more]

Mountain Bread Parcels

These little parcels can be filled with almost anything, and are great for using up leftovers. They freeze well and can be dropped into the lunch box frozen. [read more]

Menu plan for school lunches

We did include the "School lunch box... 4-weeks sorted!"post a few months ago, but its worth repeating! [read more]

Max's MEMMs (Mini Expresso Melting Moments)

This yummy recipe (from the Food Intolerance Network) is sure to be a hit with the kids as it comes from 10 year old Max. [read more]

Muesli Bars

Muesli bars, such as these ones from Failsafe Foodie, are an easy and nutritious addition to the lunch box. [read more]

Peeled Pears and Apples

How do you include a peeled pear or apple (moderate salicylates) in a lunch box, without it going brown? This method is easy and quick enough to be done while you're preparing the rest of the lunch. [read more]

Thermomix Kalinti (Moroccan Bread)

A new recipe from Evelyn at Right to Be Alive. Super easy moroccan bread made with chickpea flour. If you have a thermomix you can also make your own chickpea flour. [read more]

Tips for a More Sustainable Year

Did you know the average Victorian household wastes over $2,000 worth of food every year?

To avoid this you can turn last night's leftovers (be careful of amines) into tomorrow's lunch. What about turning leftover pasta into pasta salad? Last night's roast into a tasty sandwich? Check out Love Food Hate Waste for some great ideas to reduce food waste.

And for a more sustainable school year, avoid too much packaging in school lunches. Reusable containers for sandwiches and snacks are a great way to cut down on the packaging sent to landfill. Also avoid those over packaged snacks. They're not saving you much time and they're not great for the planet. Skip the cling film and zip lock bags as much as you can too. You can get more tips for a sustainable school year from Victoria's climate change pledge program TAKE2.

Nude Food Days

Most schools seem to have them now, and I've felt like one of the positives about having to make all of Oscar's food is that I rarely had anything packaged to include! A lot of the reusable lunch box containers are plastic, but there are some alternatives, like the ones below.

Make your child's lunch boxes more colourful and help the environment by making your own reusable sandwich wraps from left over fabric. Just follow these easy instructions from Sew Mama Sew. [read more]

Stainless steel lunch containers are becoming more popular. While they cost a fiar bit more than the plastic ones, they can be expected to last much longer. Probably not a good idea if your child is always forgetting to bring their containers home! Biome has a huge range of styles and shapes to choose from. [read more]

Two Delicious New Recipes from Domestic Diva

In case you missed it, Domestic Diva posted two delicious new recipes over the holiday break - Gin & Pear Cocktail & Mocktail and Failsafe Tim Tams. And it doesn't matter that New Year's Eve and Australia Day have passed for another year. Either (or both!) of these would be delicious at any time.

Thank you for reading our newsletter. We hope you now have lots more ideas and inspiration for your families. Don't forget, if you liked the newsletter you can subscribe to have it sent to your inbox every month.

You can find more great recipes at Cooking for Oscar, Domestic Diva Unleashed, Failsafe Foodie, Real Meals and Failsafe Decorated Cakes.

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Rona, Trish, Sandra and Frilly Pants

“Charlie's 1st Lunchbox" image courtesy of futurestreet at flicr.com