Trader Joe's Autumn Lunch

The original plan was to make a Trader Joe's PUMPKIN lunch, filled with all things pumpkin as advertised in the October Fearless Flyer. However, when SuperBoy and I finally got to Trader Joe's mid-month, half of the coveted pumpkin foods were already gone. Wow, people must love pumpkin!

Therefore, this lunch morphed into a lunch of delicious, autumn food items found in Trader Joe's October Fearless Flyer.

Today's Autumn Lunch consists of:
* Organic Applesauce Cups - a package of 4 cups comes in 3 different flavors - Regular, Cinnamon, or Wild Berries. $1.99 for 4 cups, which is pretty much the same price as other name-brand applesauce cups.

* Toscana Cheese with Cinnamon - It's back, albeit for a limited time! One of my absolute favorite cheeses. Here's how Trader Joe's describes it nutty flavor of aged Parmesan and the creamy texture of farmstead Cheddar, generously coated in cinnamon". Yum! $7.99/#, but it's usually around $5 for a wedge.

* Roasted Mashed Sweet Potatoes - Found in the freezer section, this little pucks of delightfulness turn into mashed sweet potatoes after a quick stay in the microwave. Delicious, easy and nutritious! $2.49/6 servings.

* Pumpkin Bars - These are like a Nutri-Grain or other fruit-filled cereal bar, except there is pumpkin on the inside! $1.99/6 bars, which is the same price (if not less!) than name-brand cereal bars. (I packed this bar as my kids' mid-morning snack.)

* Pumpkin Joe-Joe's - Oreo-type cookies and Autumn collide in these pumpkin-spiced cookies from Trader Joe's. $2.99 for a 10.5-oz box.

* Honey-Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli - these beautiful pockets of pumpkin and ricotta are sure to delight any pumpkin-lover!  $3.49/2 servings.

Kid reviews to be posted on Thursday.

All Things Pumpkin

'Tis that season for all things pumpkin-related. So how does one make a pumpkin lunch? The good news is that you don't need to use all of these components in one lunch. Make a sandwich, add some veggies, along with with a jack-o-lantern clementine. OR create a faux pumpkin out of a wrap (see below), add some fruits & veggies, and PRESTO: your own pumpkin-themed lunch. No one said this had to be difficult. You can make it as complex or simple as you want it to be. Follow along to gather ideas to create your own.

Here are the ingredients that I used:
* Clementine
* Sharpie marker
* Sun-dried tomato wrap or tortilla
* Mayonnaise
* Deli meat
* Celery tops
* Rice
* Red & yellow food coloring
* Yogurt
* Pumpkin bread
* Pumpkin seeds

(1) Clementine Jack-O-Lantern: this one is easy! With a Sharpie, lightly outline a jack-o-lantern face on the side of a clementine. Once you're satisfied with your sketch, color it in. IMPORTANT: let it dry before placing it in the lunchbox. HELPFUL TIP: my kids have a hard time beginning the peeling process, so I cut into the peel (on the back side of the jack-o-lantern) to assist them in getting started.

(2) Sun-dried Tomato Wrap Pumpkins: Lay a sun-dried tomato wrap flat. Spread with mayonnaise, and layer thinly with deli meat. Beginning at one end, roll up the wrap, and slice into 1"-2" slices. Add a toothpick to keep the slices from unrolling. Cut the tops off of a celery stalk. Add a celery top, preferably with leaf attached, to the other end of the toothpick, thereby completing the 'pumpkin' look.

(3) Pumpkin Rice Balls: Two ways to do this.
* Method #1: Cook rice according to directions. Mix together red and yellow food coloring to create orange; then stir orange color into rice. This is the way I did it, and it made some rice really orange, and some a light orange. Not exactly what I was going for.
* Method #2: Another option that might work better: add the food coloring to the water as the rice cooks. I haven't tried this method yet; however, I would assume that you'd want to add more food coloring than method #1, since the water will dilute it.
* Once the rice is cooked, let it cool until you can easily handle it. To keep the rice from sticking to your hands, lightly wet your hands before handling the rice. Form rice into small balls; this will be your pumpkin. Poke a small hole in the top of the rice ball, and insert a celery top as the stem. Presto: pumpkin rice ball.

(4) To round out the lunch, I added orange (red & yellow) food coloring to vanilla yogurt.

(5) A slice of homemade pumpkin-craisin bread added some fruit (craisins) & veggies (pumpkin puree). HINT: Trader Joe's also sells a pumpkin bread mix that is yummy! And if you bake it at home, then it's homemade, right?!

(6) Lastly, I added a few cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds for a touch of sweetness. I think we used a recipe from AllRecipes.com, perhaps one like this: Sweet Pumpkin Seeds.

Then I packaged the components into a lunchbox in a pleasing way. So ... what kind of pumpkin lunch will YOU come up with?