lunch in a box forums

I've been a long-time reader of the Lunch in a Box blog. It's more than just bento blogging. It's practical food packing advice for kid and grown-up lunches. Time-saving tips. Food recommendations--what works best as leftovers and how to care for them for optimum freshness.

Now Biggie and fans have a place to chat: the Lunch in a Box forums. I've had so much fun the last few weeks "meeting" food bloggers and the lunch-packing obsessed. Check it out if you're looking for fun new ways to pack lunch for your kid or yourself, or if you're just a foodie like me.

peet's burundi

This escaped me while I was on vacation, but for one last day (today!) you can buy Burundian coffee from Peets:

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE - BURUNDI
Discover Peet's Burundi—a berry perfumed and caramel textured East African coffee. This wonderful new treasure is a coffee redolent of Kenya's berry perfume, but with the bold, caramel texture we enjoy in Burundi.

Tucked in between Rwanda and Tanzania, Burundi sits in the heart of that grouping of East African jewels which consistently provides us with interesting African flavors: berries and body, clarity and heft. Given the country's remote location, it is difficult to get coffee out on time to be savored at the peak of the season. Fortunately we did—because Burundi coffees are at their finest this time of year.

This coffee is so good that we are making it the heart of our upcoming Anniversary Blend—but it's a treat to taste alone, so we're offering the top pick of the lot for one last roast.

Order online by Tuesday, March 3rd for the last roast.
Also available in Burundi African sampler.

Cross-posted at Where in the World Am I.

impala

The food on our trip wasn't great, but one night the main meat dish was an interesting surprise. I was going through the buffet, scooping up rice and vegetables, avoiding pasta and bread, and I don't love pot roast, but I figured I'd take a piece or two because I was pretty hungry. A few people behind me in line, I heard someone ask, "What is the meat?" The answer: "Impala." I had mixed feelings about eating one of the little critters I had just watched all afternoon long on safari, but I didn't want to return meat I'd already taken from the chaffing dish. I went back to the table and said to Mike, "Guess what the meat is!"

I sat down and tried it, and it was tasty! It's like pot roast, only leaner. And the roasted veggies on the side were a nice complement. This was undoubtedly the best meal of the whole trip, outside of one night in a restaurant.

glutino pretzels sale

I'm not really a pretzel fan, but if you are, check out the sale Amazon.com Groceries is having on Glutino gluten-free pretzels. Now through February 28, enter code GLUTPRET at checkout to receive a 40% discount. The pretzels also qualify for free shipping if you spend $25 or more (on items that qualify for the free shipping).

trekking food

I'm a little nervous. We're leaving to start our Tanzania vacation tomorrow, starting with climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. My fate rests in the hands of a tour company. I'm certain they'll get me to the summit safely and soundly. I'm never certain, though, that despite assurances they can feed me properly, they actually will. They say they've had gluten-free trekkers before. They recommended I bring some of my own bread, pasta, and cereal to substitute the "regular" stuff that's usually provided. It can't go that wrong, can it? Taking food responsibility out of your own hands is always a tad risky.

I hope to come back in a couple weeks and report that the trip was a success dietarily!

kind fruit + nut bars

I discovered these bars over a year ago, at a Whole Foods just before we left California, and I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned them before now. Maybe because back then I was just buying one or two bars at a time as special treats, but I just recently bought several cases of them to drag up Kilimanjaro with me.

Kind Fruit + Nut bars are totally yummy. They are mostly whole nuts with some dried fruit and a sprinkling of glucose, honey, and puffed rice to help keep everything together. They are a heartier energy bar than anything I’ve tried in a while. (As much as I love Lara bars for the taste, the Kind bars are more filling.)

I’ve been eating mostly the almond and apricot and macadamia and apricot varieties, but to mix things up a little I ordered some different flavors. Today I had my first sesame peanut with chocolate bar. The chocolate was surprisingly chocolate-tasting. However, I’ve noticed that the bars that are mostly nuts without fruit are hard to bite into. They’re tasty once you do bit though. I liked the peanut sesame bar, and all that biting and chewing will give me something to do while I’m plodding up the mountain.

Kind bars are made in Australia. They are gluten-free and some are dairy-free (some have yogurt or chocolate). They can be purchases individually at Whole Foods and other health food stores. You can buy them by the box at Amazon.com.

I have to say that they are a tad expensive, although buying them in enough quantity on Amazon to get the free shipping helps. If I weren’t living in a place with limited snack food plus planning a major trek, I would still be on my one or two per shopping trip buying schedule.

(Image from healthyreader.com)

best bananas

Our cook makes the most amazing bananas on the planet. If I could marry food, this might be my chosen one. He serves them with a yellow curry sauce and when I eat them I’m transported to the delirious times of dizzy noo shak at Bombay in San Diego (scroll down to Bombay Curries Vegetarian… wait for it… wait for it).

rice chex

Have you heard the news? At first I thought there was a mistake in the search results on Amazon.com Groceries. But then I read it on another blog and I finally saw in the store for myself. Rice Chex are now gluten-free. It's about time. There's no reason for Rice and Corn Chex and Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes to not be gluten-free, but for some reason General Mills and Kellogs insists on using malt. But that is no longer the case for good old familiar Rice Chex. It says so right on the font of the box and the ingredients list confirms it.

It's such a relief to walk into any grocery store now and be able to buy a box of cereal.

amazon.com groceries

Excerpted from my Where in the World post today:

Aside from the toiletries and cleaning products from Costco we also placed a gigantic order with Amazon.com Groceries. They have bulk discounts on, surprisingly, most of the gluten-free foods I eat on a regular basis. My favorite crackers, cookies, and pasta plus some of the Bob's Red Mill baking mixes are available for much cheaper than specifically gluten-free shopping sites. Who knew that something as mainstream as Amazon.com could be such a gluten-free paradise? If you shop smartly and choose only items from Amazon and not outside sellers, you'll get free shipping on all of it, too.

lara bars

I heard about Lara Bars when I was searching the forums at celiac.com for energy bars. Any sort of energy or snack bar is suspect because they usually have oats in them or a long list of bizarr-o sounding compounds of indeterminate makeup. Also, even when I could eat those energy bars, I just didn't like them that much.

In comes Lara Bar. The ingredients are simple: nuts and dried fruit. The flavors are amazing. The cherry pie flavor, while not gooey with pie filling oozing from under a flaky crust, actually tastes like cherry pie. Because it's made of cherries. Somehow the cashews in the banana cookie bar mimics the taste of cookie crumbs. The only ingredients though are the cashews and bananas.

While the flavors are amazing and I've been buying them by the case, there's one drawback to these bars. They're somewhat high in sugar and fat. That's to be expected when there's nothing but fruit and nuts I suppose. They do give you the quick burst of energy with a shot of flavor that's better than any Balance or Cliff bar. But I wouldn't want to make a full meal out of them. I keep them as snacky treats for when I'm traveling.

I've seen Lara Bars at Trader Joe's, REI, and other grocery and outdoors stores. You can order cases directly from the Lara Bar website, but they're cheaper from Amazon.com.

(Image from FitSugar.com.)