Parker woke up bright and early today. But for once I wasn’t complaining.

I was heading out of town again, back to New York. With an early train (that became a plane, but that’s another story) to catch, being bright eyed earlier than normal was appealing.

So I used the extra time to whip up Parker’s favorite breakfast and lunch combo – ham and cheese mini quiches.

I considered getting creative with what I put in the quiches. Then I considered how cool it would be to actually get to the train station on time and decided creativity is overrated.

Ultimately I didn’t get to the train station on time. Damn traffic. Working mostly from home you tend to forget that lots of people like to drive to work in the morning…

Either way, the quiches came out great. I packed those up with a bit of fruit, some brown rice crackers and… alligator jerky.

Because why not.

Parker and I had picked it out at a meat shop that specializes in unusual critters. I didn’t get a chance to taste it in the morning rush. But if it’s not good, I’m sure I’ll hear about it!

For no particular reason, I was inspired by puff pastry this morning. I’d had a box of it in the freezer since who knows when and decided today would be the day it got used.

This of course got no fight from the 7-year-old.

I started by mixing fresh blueberries, cinnamon, cornstarch and just a bit of sugar. Then I rolled out the pastry (which I’d thawed overnight in the refrigerator) and cut it into four pieces.

I divided the blueberry mixture between three of the pastry squared, folding them over on themselves to create turnovers (kind of). A sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on the outside, then into a 375F oven for about 15 minutes.

Done and delicious. Parker had one for breakfast, another in his lunch.

I then took the final square of pastry and cut that in two. Then I shoved some random ham and provolone into those and folded them over. Another 15 minutes and I have ham and cheese croissants (kind of).

Add some fresh blackberries and I called it good enough for today.

I’m pleased to report that Parker made a speedy recovery on the couch yesterday.

I’m also pleased to say that yesterday’s lunch didn’t go to waste.

I did discard the steak. Reheating it a second time just seemed like a bad idea. Luckily, there still was enough left in the refrigerator from Sunday to fill his thermos again this morning.

That, a few more strawberries for his crepes, and a yogurt just for the heck of it, and we were good.

“I can eat the strawberries by themselves, right?” he asked this morning.

“I suppose.”

“And then eat the crepes by themselves?”

“If you want.”

“Good! I want to.”

Whatever makes you happy…

Was really excited about today’s lunch. It had everything Parker loves.

Steak tacos made from leftover grilled flank steak from last night. The steak was delicious. I’d marinated it in a blend of fresh curry leaves, cumin, sweet paprika and soy sauce.

Then I gave him leftover crepes that came out surprisingly well, along with some sliced strawberries for stuffing in them.

And then I sent him off to school.

And then an hour later I got the call.

Parker had been sick.

So now he is back home and on the couch. Ah well… At least it was before lunch…

Trying new things is a big part of our family food culture. But sometimes I’m kind of stupid about it.

As in, trying to do it at breakfast.

Because when it fails, not only do I find myself having to make a second breakfast, I also don’t have the benefit of being able to use the leftovers in Parker’s lunch.

This morning I had the brilliant idea to make Parker matzo brei (sounds like fry). Basically, you crumble up matzo bread (giant Jewish crackers), soak them in water until soft, then drain them, mix them with eggs and fry them.

They end up as sort of an eggy fritter, which seemed like a winning idea.

Mind you, I’ve never made or eaten these before. Ditto for Parker. And we’re not Jewish, so we don’t really have a taste for these foods.

But I went with it, seasoning it according to the recipe with salt, pepper and cinnamon.

They certainly were easy and I was already planning how to pack the extras in a thermos for a warm lunch for Parker.

To his credit, Parker s… l… o… w… l… y… ate two of them.

“These really aren’t for me,” he said. “Can I have a yogurt?”

So I tried one. I’m amazed he made it through two of them. They really aren’t for me, either.

Which put me back to stage one of lunch planning. Luckily, I’d grabbed a container of sushi at the grocer yesterday. It had been destined for MY lunch today. That was a good theory.

“Did you get me sushi?! Yay!”

Which decided it.

Round it out with some fruit, peanut butter crackers and a bit of the leftover rice pudding from the other day, and it’s a fine way to end the week.

Have a great weekend!

Actually, it’s more like chicken chunks with sauce. But it was tasty all the same.

The problem is my food processor. Normally, I dump in some chicken breasts, pulse until they are ground, then fry them up with some tomato paste and seasonings.

Except my new processor (my old one died) really sucks. So after trying without success to get it to chop the chicken last night, I finally dumped the meat on the cutting board and attacked it (the chicken, not the processor, though that was tempting, too) with a cleaver.

I did not do a particularly good job.

But last night was Parker’s karate class, so I didn’t have time to get picky.

I was just happy that it was still tasty. And that there were leftovers for today’s lunch.

To round out the lunch, I added a slice of bread topped with brie and a chunk of honeycomb. If you haven’t tried this, you really should. It is beyond delicious.

It was good to wake up in my own bed this morning, and even better to have my little guy wake me up for snuggles.

I wouldn’t have argued if he’d waited a bit later than 5:45 a.m. to do so, but there you go.

So I decided to take advantage of our extra long morning to make a special breakfast of rice pudding. I decided to try a risotto-style pudding. I melted butter in a saucepan, then added arborio rice, which is wonderfully starchy.

Once the rice had browned, I started adding the milk a bit at a time, same as I would broth for risotto. It was a bit labor intensive, but since I had the time and Parker was content sitting at the counter and chatting while I stirred, it worked for today.

The result (sweetened with just a bit of sugar and a lot of cinnamon) was rich, thick and totally delicious.

And, as with all the best breakfasts, there was enough left over to pack in his lunch.

The only downside to this brilliant plan was that by the time I’d finished, I’d lost my motivation to craft a creative lunch. So instead I grilled a peanut butter and jelly on sourdough, added some fruit and decided that was good enough.

Meanwhile, when I went to get coffee, I was greeted by this. I’m not sure if they were protecting the espresso maker while I was gone, or are supposed to scare me away from it now that I’m back.

Not surprisingly, day No. 2 of being out of town is even harder than day No. 1. The foods you packed two days ago have to have resisted becoming soggy, yucky, mushy, crumbly and everything else that can happen to a kid’s lunch between when it goes in the box and when it enters his mouth.

So today I went with items unlikely to do any of those things. I started with a pile of sliced smoked ham. It’s one of Parker’s favorite treats and is produced by a smoke house a few miles down the street from our house. I could have made a sandwich with it, but Parkers prefers it straight up.

After that, I added some whole-grain bread with brie smeared on it. He can drizzle some honey from the blue container on it just before eating.

I rounded out the meal with more of the fruit (fingers crossed it hasn’t turned to ooze by today) and more Calvin crackers for a taste of comfort.

The good news — I get home late tonight. I’ll be a zombie when I pack tomorrow’s lunch… But then that’s true most days.

Packing lunches for kids is hard enough. Packing them in advance for while you are away on a business trip… even harder.

So many things to account for. Nothing can need to be heated. Nothing can be at risk of going bad, getting mushy, getting soggy, or looking at the would be diner crossed eyed (because as we all know with our kids, that can be all it takes to turn them off something).

So for today, day No. 1 of my trip to New York, I kept it simple and sturdy. A friend brought over some ham and cheese quiche during the weekend. A slice of that was a fine place to start.

We had a ton of fruit, so I went a little crazy there and assembled a blend of strawberries, watermelon and pineapple. I’m a little concerned about the strawberries getting mushy but they should be OK.

Finally, in a nod to comfort, a container of what we call Calvin crackers. About a year ago, Parker read a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which a grumpy and sad Calvin was comforted by his mom with a plate of crackers spread with peanut butter.

A simple thing, but Parker latched onto it and decided that was his comfort food when grumpy or sad.

Since he’s never happy when I need to be out of town, and there’s always a few tears, I figured some Calvin cracker might help.

Well, kind of together.

I started Parker’s lunch today with the remains of last night’s dinner. And last night’s dinner started with a random package of local chorizo I found in the freezer. I know… I’ve been doing a lot of finding this week.

It’s because I haven’t had time to shop. And when I don’t have time to shop, I dig.  Being able to dig and find gems like chorizo are one of the few advantages of being a chronic overbuyer when I grocery shop.

I always buy too much. I always end up freezing what we can’t eat in time. I always forget it’s in the freezer.

Until I need to dig.

So last night’s digging resulted in a simple whole-wheat pasta tossed with crumbled chorizo browned with onions and a massive amount of garlic. There was just enough left to fill Parker’s thermos this morning.

For breakfast this morning, I made Parker a smoothie (mango, milk, buttermilk, blackberries and cinnamon). To go with it, I spread a bit of butter on some bread, then dusted it with a blend of cinnamon-cardamom-sugar, and toasted it under the broiler.

As Parker was eating that, I realized that toast also would make a great PB&J. And since all the ingredients were still out and the oven was still hot, why not?

Round it out with some fruit and that’s a fine end to the week. Everyone have a great weekend.