| Different Ideas for Summer Lunches Kids Can Help Make |
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Kids can spread tuna salad on a tortilla, or arrange a face with mandarin oranges and vegetable slivers. (SHNS photo courtesy The Cincinnati Post.)
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By Joyce Rosencrans
Scripps Howard News Service
The summer midday meal shouldn't be an afterthought for kids. It's an important time when a major portion of the day's calories and nutrients must be provided. But cooking is less than appealing at high noon on hot, sticky days, so sandwiches are in. The hot "soup's on" routine is out until September or until a cold day in July. A sandwich search for something different turned up a trio of tasty recipes that children of a certain age or maturity might pitch in and help fix themselves. We're not talking bologna, or baloney either, for that matter. They might learn a thing or two about working in a kitchen with these recipe experiences under their belts, literally. Kids might clamor for grilled cheese sandwiches and hamburgers, but they get enough of those high-fat favorites when they're out on the town. Besides, they're hot, hot, hot. At home, the adult-in-charge can stock lots of no-cook sandwich makings, healthy stuff with high protein, less fat. There's lean ham, roast beef, cold chicken or sliced turkey instead of cold cuts. Baby spinach leaves can be mixed in among lettuce leaves for more vitamins (dark green is good), in addition to tasty tomatoes-in-season. A variety of interesting mustards can add flavor, color and zip to blah-tasting reduced-fat mayonnaise. Adults should buy other vegetables not usually associated with sandwiches, too. Think Dagwood Bumstead. He wouldn't think twice about piling thinly sliced cucumbers, slivers of green bell pepper and cabbage leaves on a ham-on-rye or turkey-on-wheat. Use pre-cut cole slaw and you can call it turkey-in-the-straw. Of course, the bread itself makes or breaks a sandwich. These recipes for offbeat sandwiches do novel things with what you might call ethnic breads -- flour tortillas for rolling up mandarin tuna salad and pita breads as a base for instant pizza (this is the only hot one in the bunch, so save it for days when you don't mind turning on the oven). The third sandwich is open-face: egg salad with choice of a green vegetable (asparagus, avocado, garden green beans, zucchini, broccoli) on sourdough toast. Healthy foods don't always have to be made with fresh produce. It's convenient to have canned foods on hand. The tuna salad is made with canned mandarin oranges to be different, healthful and moist without so much mayonnaise. Kids can make a big smiley face with green pepper or celery and mandarin-orange segments before they roll up their tuna salad in a flour tortilla. The egg salad teaches a lesson that delicate egg protein is always to be simmered never "hard-boiled." Have the kids follow directions for proper hard cooking off the surface-burner heat. After the eggs have a five-minute bath in cold water, they can tap the eggs and roll them under their palms to crackle the shells for easier peeling. An egg slicer makes quick work of dicing the eggs. Just run a serrated plastic knife through a pile of egg slices in a narrow-bottomed mixing bowl. This is safe chopping for kids. Real bacon bits are available in glass jars these days, so the egg salad can have breakfast appeal without the fear of frying with youngsters around. Pita bread rounds spread with Italian-flavored tomato paste make instant pizza crusts for kids to top with leftover chicken, sliced or diced, and a choice of vegetables, plus Parmesan and mozzarella. Kids love customized, individual pizzas, if you can stand the heat in the kitchen for 10 minutes. On days when lunch is to be a porch picnic, take this Black Bean Salsa in a snap-lid container to the great outdoors and a bag of tortilla chips. Kids will love to help mix up this colorful mixture. Black Bean Salsa Ingredients: 15 oz. can black beans
7 oz. can whole kernel corn with peppers, drained
1 medium mango or 1 cup diced honeydew melon or 2 peaches or tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped Vidalia onion
1/4 cup freshly chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
Hot sauce to taste Preparation: Rinse and drain black beans. Empty into a medium mixing bowl. Add whole kernel corn with peppers, drained. Now add the fresh ingredients: 1 medium mango or 1 cup diced honeydew melon or 2 peaches or tomatoes, diced. Add 1/4 cup each finely chopped Vidalia onion and coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 1 teaspoon garlic salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin and hot sauce to taste. Note: Have this salsa with cold chicken drumsticks and take-along vacuum bottle of icy-cold lemonade. Serves: 8, about 1/3 cup each Tuna Roll-Ups Ingredients: One 12-oz. can solid white tuna in water, drained
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise dressing
1/4 teaspoon curry powder, optional
One 11-oz. can mandarin orange segments, drained
1/3 cup finely chopped celery or water chestnuts
4 small flour tortillas
2 cups loosely packed torn lettuce and/or smooth spinach leaves Preparation: In a medium bowl, use a fork to combine tuna, mayonnaise and curry powder, if using. Stir in orange segments and celery. Spread 1/4 of tuna mixture onto each tortilla to within 1 inch of the edge. Top with 1/2 cup lettuce. Roll up; serve as finger food. Serves: 4 Egg Salad Sandwiches on Sourdough Ingredients: 5 hard-cooked eggs, peeled, finely chopped
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbs. Tabasco green pepper sauce
2 Tbs. real bacon bits
2 Tbs. sliced green onions, with tops
Dash of seasoned salt, if needed
4 slices sourdough bread, toasted
6 asparagus spears, blanched and cut in half lengthwise Preparation: Gently cook eggs by covering with an inch of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to boiling on medium-high heat, remove from surface burner, cover saucepan and let stand 10 minutes off heat. Then drain eggs and plunge them into a bowl of cold water. Let stand 5 minutes. When ready to make the sandwiches, tap egg shells on countertop and roll under palm to crackle the shells. Peel eggs and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix mayonnaise and green Tabasco with a fork. Dice eggs into the mayo mixture; use fork to stir in bacon bits (from a jar) and green onions. Stir well and then taste for salt, adding just a few grains incrementally. Meanwhile, have more water boiling in a saucepan and plunge in asparagus spears, which have had bases snapped off, most of the stalk peeled. Cook a minute, then put in cold water to cool immediately. Drain on paper towels and slice lengthwise. Spread sourdough toast with egg salad and garnish with asparagus spears, using three halves for each serving. You may substitute zucchini or broccoli florets or ripe avocado slices. Have tomato or orange slices on the side, or sweet, tiny grape tomatoes before local tomato season commences. Serves: 4 open-faced sandwiches Pita Pizzas Ingredients: 4 pita breads, 6-inch diameter
One (6-oz.) can Italian-seasoned tomato paste
6 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup cubed cooked chicken breast
Canned mild green chilies, diced, drained
Sliced pitted black olives
1-1/3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese or pizza-blend cheese Preparation: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread tops of each pita with about 2 tablespoons tomato paste. Sprinkle each with 1-1/2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Top each with 1/4 cup diced chicken, then desired amounts of green chilies and black olives. Top with 1/3 cup mozzarella. Bake pitas directly on wire oven rack 10 to 12 minutes at 400 degrees. Variations: Top with sliced canned mushrooms, quartered canned artichoke hearts, slivers of green bell pepper and Vidalia onion. Serves: 4 (Joyce Rosencrans is home editor of The Cincinnati Post. ) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com. )
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