We heard about Wick's new book through the grapevine and were keen to try out new ways of brightening up that 'ol boring lunchbox. She has a 'whole-listic' approach to food. And by that we mean using as many vegetables, nuts, grains and beans as possible. This box is a sort of snapshot of what she offers in her workshops for individuals and corporates. Better still she's a real person. A parent of three, so she's doe the hard yards and can talk authoritatively about what works with kids - and adults. This is her second book - her first was
21 Marvelous Lunchbox Makeover, which won the coveted
Gourmand Award for Best Food and Family Cookbook in New Zealand (2015).
Wick is not a nutritionist or a vegetarian or a paleo. She claims her style of cooking comes from piratical learnings and general life. So that's refreshing. What she offers here is not original. I've pretty much come across every recipe in someone else's cookbook at one time or other. But what is cool is that it's all in one place. That's especially true for the gluten, nut and dairy free options. Also, most of the morsels here within can be made into small 'lunchbox' portions, for little hands. And, for you older peeps, who can't bare to face another egg salad sandwich, there's hope for you, too.
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| Wick Nixon |
Opening up at a random page my two girls (6 and 8yrs) fell upon the
Brown Rice Sushi Balls (pg 12 if you are reading along). Sushi is popular in our household - especially anything with chicken or prawns in the filling. I'd have to say our efforts were not entirely successful on first go. Mainly, because this particular recipe calls for a few different ingredients - items that we don't usually stock. And this, I guess, was the first hurdle. This recipe calls for brown rice. we were out of that, so we substituted white basmati. A trick for young players - you need to slightly overcook it, otherwise it wont stick together.
Number two problem was that we needed runny honey. We had the firm clover variety which works if you melt it in the microwave a little. But the main issue was that this version of sushi needs tahini. Not exactly something I have kicking around in the fridge. Also a decent pot will set you back about $7.00 so you need to be committed or have other uses in mind. Hummus is probably the main one. Kids love that, so you're likely good there.
Anyway, the tahini was strangely vacant. We decided to go with peanut butter as a substitute. Crunchy! So now the whole thing is turning into the something resembling the 'blue soup' incident in
Bridget Jones's Diary. Nonetheless we soldiered on. They came out pretty good considering. Considering the stain on my trousers when my 'sushi ball' disintegrated whilst giving it the taste test.
But joking aside, this incident does show if you buy this book, you need to be prepared to try and purchase a few new larder items. That's not a bad thing. Today, you can get anything at your local supermarket and health store. And there's one in every mall.
A case in point is psyllium husks...
