Lunch?
Why sure, come on over! What's that? It's too expensive to fly over just for lunch, and besides it'd be breakfast the next day before you got here? Ohhh, you're really wondering what happened to our ongoing and incredibly mundane series of posts about food.. well never fear, we haven't forgotten you foodies!
Typically we eat lunch at home, in the very sunny eat-in-kitchen of the house we're renting. Brandie & the girls pick me up from the office anywhere between noon and 1pm, and I get an hour to play before going back to... well, play some more. Usually I drive the car back to work for the afternoon, which saves Brandie from having to pick me up while dinner is on the stove.
If left to their own devices I think the girls would eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch every day, but we try to mix things up with "toasties" (grilled cheese) or leftovers. In that department we've had a variety of new dishes from Brandie's research into the local fare (see future post on dinner), as well as old favorites like risotto and pasta or take-away from the Indian restaurant around the corner. Both girls still love hummus and carrot sticks, as well as sliced apples (no skin, please!) or banana.
There are plenty of great options for eating out, but we've been limiting ourselves to that treat only once a week (or less, as the budget demands!) Maranui Cafe is probably our favorite lunch-time destination, followed by Eva Dixon's as a close second. Both serve great food in a very casual, toddler-friendly atmosphere. If I need to work through lunch, there are a variety of caterers that magically appear every day to sell sushi, sandwiches, salads and soups as well as great "veg" to make my own.
For drinks, we usually get coffees or just drink water while the girls prefer the local apple juice. It's closer to cider than apple juice at home, very cloudy and fresher-tasting. On occasion I also like to have an L&P (Lemon & Paeroa), which is a lot like ginger ale.
We hope you've enjoyed our latest thrilling episode: try not to lose any sleep until our next one!
Typically we eat lunch at home, in the very sunny eat-in-kitchen of the house we're renting. Brandie & the girls pick me up from the office anywhere between noon and 1pm, and I get an hour to play before going back to... well, play some more. Usually I drive the car back to work for the afternoon, which saves Brandie from having to pick me up while dinner is on the stove.
If left to their own devices I think the girls would eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch every day, but we try to mix things up with "toasties" (grilled cheese) or leftovers. In that department we've had a variety of new dishes from Brandie's research into the local fare (see future post on dinner), as well as old favorites like risotto and pasta or take-away from the Indian restaurant around the corner. Both girls still love hummus and carrot sticks, as well as sliced apples (no skin, please!) or banana.
There are plenty of great options for eating out, but we've been limiting ourselves to that treat only once a week (or less, as the budget demands!) Maranui Cafe is probably our favorite lunch-time destination, followed by Eva Dixon's as a close second. Both serve great food in a very casual, toddler-friendly atmosphere. If I need to work through lunch, there are a variety of caterers that magically appear every day to sell sushi, sandwiches, salads and soups as well as great "veg" to make my own.
For drinks, we usually get coffees or just drink water while the girls prefer the local apple juice. It's closer to cider than apple juice at home, very cloudy and fresher-tasting. On occasion I also like to have an L&P (Lemon & Paeroa), which is a lot like ginger ale.
We hope you've enjoyed our latest thrilling episode: try not to lose any sleep until our next one!
To add to this, the girls and I recently attended a playgroup where morning tea was served. It's actually a snack and not tea at all. Part of the snacks provided were saltines with Marmite on them. This stuff looks and smells like tar but to the girls, I think it looks like chocolate. They both dove for the "chocolate crackers" and were very disappointed, to the point where they spit out the cracker and pushed what was left my way. I had to give it a try just to see if it was as bad as their faces indicated, and it was! Yuck! We'll rely on lots of fruits and veg for our vitamin intake here.