Yesterday was one of those cold, wet spring days when I should have had some sort of stew or soup bubbling away on the stove.

But I just wasn’t organized. So when dinner came, I went into scrounge mode. I found half a box of white pasta shells and a quarter box of whole-wheat penne. Those and whatever random scraps of cheese I could find would have to do.

I ended up making my new go-to mac and cheese — modernist mac and cheese from the folks at Modernist Cuisine. I didn’t have milk, so I started by heating a splash of the fat-free half-and-half I use in my coffee. I added 9 grams of the magic ingredient (sodium citrate) and brought it to a simmer.

Then I added whatever cheeses I had handy — bits of crumbly cheddar and feta, some Gruyere, some Parmesan and a bit of pecorino. Pretty soon I had a perfectly smooth and creamy cheese sauce for the pasta.

So the leftovers of that make an easy thermos-ready main course for today’s lunch.

I seem to be lacking produce this week (time for a trip to the grocer). So I added a fruit-free parfait to today’s lunch mix. Yogurt, crumbled graham crackers and some jam. OK, the jam is a poor substitute for fruit, but it made me feel better.

Add some whole-grain crackers and hummus and we are good to go. A little carb heavy today, but so it goes.

While I have your attention, I want to take a moment to pimp an effort by a friend and fellow blogger. Aviva Goldfarb, the talent behind the cool site The Six O’Clock Scramble, has made it her mission to make it easier for busy families to get dinner on the table.

Now she has a new project — getting families to commit to eating together. We all know how important that is. We also all know how hard that can be. I consider myself incredibly lucky to work from home. It means we get to eat together virtually every night.

Aviva is running a Family Dinner Challenge — asking folks to commit to sitting down to dinner with their families at least three times a week for four weeks. Check out her challenge. Because eating together is good for everyone.

And now for this week’s lunch gear giveaway! Ready for some bento box action? This week it’s a complete set from Laptop Lunches. The larger container holds four smaller containers that can fit all manner of goodies.

As usual, just leave a comment to enter. Parker will pick a winner tomorrow morning.

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As I mentioned the other day, Parker and I have a lunch tradition for his last day of school.

The afternoon before, he and I head downtown. He is allowed to shop wherever he wants to fill his lunch box for the next day with whatever appeals to him.

A couple years ago, that resulted in this:

Tapioca pudding… Some sort of berry tart… A slab of black forest cake… And some sort of chocolate cake thing…

Obviously, that year he did all of his shopping at the bakery. It’s the last day of school. Might as well celebrate, right?

Last year, he took a more moderate approach. He started at the local candy shop, moved on to the wine and cheese shop, hit up the natural foods store, then finished up with the bakery. And we ended up with this:

His favorite smoked ham… Golden raspberries… Swedish fish… A lemon bar… Part of a chocolate eclair… A slice of chocolate cake… AND a tapioca pudding.

Oy.

Not sure what he has planned this year, but I’m sure it will be equally indulgent.

Today’s lunch is slightly less so. I went with leftover flank steak from last night’s dinner and paired it with a few lemon wedges. Not quite the carpaccio he loves, but I doubt he’ll complain.

Round it out with a couple cream cheese and strawberry jam “sandwiches” on graham crackers and a hunk of leftover roasted cauliflower from dinner last night and we are good to go.

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If you’ve ever wondered why I advocate stainless steel lunch containers — particularly for children — this is it.

Sure, stainless is easy to clean, dishwasher-safe and won’t leach any chemicals into food the way plastic can. And those reasons are high on my list. But let’s face it… The No. 1 reason is that stainless is nearly indestructible.

I foolishly varied from my usual LunchBots stainless steel gear yesterday because I’d made Parker tortilla chips and none of those containers were large enough.

So I used a large orange container made of what I considered to be pretty durable plastic. And I packed it inside his padded, insulated, seemingly safe lunch box at 7:30 a.m.

This is what I got returned to me at 3:30 p.m.

How did this happen?

Wait for it…

You know what’s coming…

You’ve all heard it a million times…

“I don’t know.”

Of course not.

Lesson learned. Metal rules.

For breakfast today I decided to be creative. What was I thinking?

I had a bit of ground turkey in need of using up, so I browned it in one half of a skillet. In the other half, I cooked some egg whites. Add some shredded cheese and wrap it in a whole-wheat tortilla. Seemed to me a great breakfast burrito.

Clearly I was mistaken. You’d have sworn I asked Parker to eat slime…

He finally ate it once I’d extracted the egg. I’d planned to make a second one for his lunch, but that obviously would not have gone over well. So instead I made a ground turkey and cheese quesadilla. Basically, a flat version of his breakfast, minus the egg.

For a side, I made him a creamy corn and carrot salad. All I did was whisk together dollops of sour cream and plain Greek nonfat yogurt with salt, pepper and a minced clove of garlic. Then I added the kernels cut raw from an ear of corn and a few chunks of raw carrot. Raw corn is insanely delicious in salads. If you haven’t tried it yet, be sure to this summer.

Add some strawberries and that’s good enough. Here’s hoping nothing comes home smashed.

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Today… Parker got a treat. I needed to take a picture of the homemade tortilla chips I sometimes make for him as an after school snack. I was writing about how to make them for Rachael Ray’s blog (check it out here) and needed a photo.

All weekend I kept thinking I’d make them as a fun snack. That way I could shoot them and Parker could have a treat. Except all weekend my plans kept getting sidelined.

Which is how I found myself frying tortilla chips at 6:30 this morning. Admittedly, they aren’t hard to make (for instructions follow the link above) and it took me less than five minutes to do the whole batch.

But I wasn’t willing to feed Parker tortilla chips — even homemade whole-wheat tortilla chips — for breakfast. So that made them an easy choice for today’s lunch.

Since I already was at the stove, I decided I’d also whip up some mini quiches — breakfast and lunch in one. I usually make these with ham and cheddar, but was out of ham. So I went with chicken. Parker was not thrilled by the substitution, but rolled with it.

Round it all out with some strawberries and that’s good enough for a Monday. A Monday that marks just three weeks of school left.

Wow…

That also means we are getting close to the last day of school. Longtime readers know that the last day of school means a very special lunch for Parker. I’ll post highlights of lunches past soon!

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Parker has three — THREE!! — tests today. Oy. It made for a long evening of studying last night.

Luckily, he had a great attitude about it and did really well. Luckily, I had three glasses of wine to help keep my attitude great, too.

First there was spelling. Flange? Hodgepodge? Fringe? Really? These are third grade spelling words? Parker did great with them, and I’m sure there is some broader academic reason for them being used… But flange?

Then there was math vocabulary. When I was a kid, we had math tests. We had vocabulary tests. I don’t ever recall having math vocabulary tests. Still, he did fine sorting through numerators, denominators, improper fractions, etc. Thank goodness he had written down the definitions. I’d have needed to look them up otherwise.

Then he finished two essays — one on everything he has learned in third grade, the other about a famous wind storm on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington during the 1930s.

By this point, I’d run out of wine. Luckily, he didn’t need to study for his third test, some sort of state standardized reading test. He reads way above grade level anyway, so he’ll be fine there.

So this morning, I tried to keep all this in mind as I prepped his lunch. That boy’s brain will be working hard today. So I wanted to give him a sustaining lunch that would make him happy and power him through it all.

Plus, we’re doing a 5K race tonight for charity, just to top the day. No, we won’t run it. I only run when being chased by somebody. But the weather is nice, so it will be a lovely evening for a 5K walk.

So I started with Parker’s favorite — carpaccio with lemon. For a little carb power, I grabbed a package of whole-wheat cheese tortellini. Many people don’t realize you can cook these in a skillet instead of boiling them. It’s fast and it gives them a great texture. So I did that, then sprinkled them with a little extra cheese.

Add some orange wedges and hopefully that will be enough.

For today’s free lunch gear giveaway, I have a very cool lunch box from Lands End. I love the space design on it. And the wipe-clean interior is something I’ve needed lately. I’m not sure how Parker is capable of making such a mess of the inside of his lunch box, but I’ve needed to hose and scrub it out several times this week.

So as usual, just leave a comment to entrer and Parker will pick a winner in the morning. Good luck.

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Steak isn’t exactly the traditional filling for these Asian rolls, but it is the secret to getting my son to embrace them.

And since they are fast and easy to make — and a great way to use all sorts of leftovers — they make a perfect lunch item. Not sure how or why I’ve gone this long without making them for Parker’s lunch before. I used to make them for dinner all the time.

Here’s how it works. Head to the grocer’s international aisle and grab some rice paper wrappers (they look like really thin paper plates). They are cheap. They also come in packs of 20 or so, but don’t worry; they last forever.

While you’re there, grab some thin rice noodles. They look like clear or white angel hair pasta that has been balled up. That’s it. Those are the only special ingredients you need.

You can make the rolls the night before (when putting the leftovers away), but I find them fast and easy enough that I did them as part of my usual morning packing routine today.

Fill one large and one small bowl with hot water. Add about 1 cup of the noodles to the small bow. After 2 or 3 minutes, the noodles should be tender. Drain them and return them to the bowl. The noodles are ready to use.

Place 1 rice wrapper in the large bowl of water and leave it there for 10 seconds. Remove the wrapper and set it flat on the counter. It becomes more pliable within the next 20 seconds or so.

Now grab a bit (no more than about 1/4 cup) of the noodles and mound them in an oblong along the side of the wrapper closest to you. On top of the noodles, pile small amounts of whatever fillings you like. Today, I did thinly sliced leftover steak and strips of cucumber. Shredded carrots, greens, thinly sliced strips of bell pepper, shrimp, even chicken or turkey all are fine choices. Ditto for any variety of leftover salad. A fresh mint or basil leaf is a traditional addition, but I decided not to push my luck with Parker today.

Once your fillings are in place, fold the edge closest to you over the fillings. Then fold the sides up over them. Finally, roll the entire thing away from you, wrapping it up in a tight bundle. Done.

It can be tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it they really speed along. When packing them, just be sure to leave space between the rolls so they don’t stick together. Or you can do what I did and put strips of parchment paper between them. Because I know a certain 8-year-old won’t be careful when separating rolls that stick together…

For a dipping sauce, I went with a basic spicy peanut sauce. All I do is mix natural peanut butter, a splash of vinegar, a splash of soy sauce, a dollop of hot sauce and enough water to thin the whole thing to a dipping consistency.

For the record, I took the unusual (for us) step of offering Parker a choice of which veg got wrapped in with the steak in his rolls — red peppers, carrots or cucumber. He went with cucumber, which he considers the most benign of veggies.

For the rest of his lunch, I went with a basic parfait — the same one I made him for breakfast. Yogurt, banana slices, blueberries, granola, chocolate chips (just a few) and a drizzle of honey.

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I decided to embrace my inner casserole. And you’re going to want the results of this.

I don’t generally do casseroles. Nothing against them. They just tend to take longer than I like. Plus, while I don’t have a problem with my food “touching,” I’m not a huge fan of a big pile of ingredients. I’d rather have the various components on their own.

But I decided to try my hand at casseroles. And if I was going to do it, I wanted it to be worth it. Which means, it needed to be the ultimate comfort food casserole.

So I started with a base of thinly sliced sweet potatoes gently seasoned with cumin and smoked paprika. Those get layered and roasted until tender and slightly crisp at the edges.

Then I pile on a whole mess of barbecue pulled pork. A nice thick layer.

Then I piled on a three-cheese mac and cheese. A nice thick layer.

Then I sprinkle on a nice thick layer of panko breadcrumbs adulterated with Parmesan cheese and butter.

Bake it all up and… Wow!

Parker loved it. Well, he wasn’t thrilled with the sweet potatoes (though he generally doesn’t object to them), but he still ate them. The rest of it, of course, he devoured.

And like all great dinners, it make ample leftovers. So that’s where today’s lunch began.

After that, I packed up some kiwis and blueberries. Then I stuffed a baby bell pepper with some purchased hummus doctored with a bit of finely chopped salami.

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