We are only about four weeks into the school year and I don’t think (despite their incessant pleading) that I can make one more peanut butter & jam sandwich. I thought school lunches would be a wonderfully fun part of motherhood. Cute Pottery Barn Kids lunch boxes…check. Adorable sandwich containers…check. Refillable water bottles…check. What I didn’t expect was that every SINGLE day they would request peanut butter & jam sandwiches. Surely they must be a little bit bored with them? I thought they’d want little sandwiches cut into fun shapes. Fresh fruit cups with adorable striped or polka dotted sporks. Truth be told…if they had their way I’m sure they would have Minion fruit chewies and bright orange cheese filled crackers…or Scoobie Graham Bones which they came home with (from a friend of course) yesterday (and let me tell you they really do look like doggie treats). The things they see in the market and say “please mommy” to which I usually reply “too much sugar” or “that is not real cheese”…I grew up with this amazing mom. The mom who said yes to every request in the market. The mom who let us have Bee Gee’s lunch boxes filled with scooter pies and Hostess treats. I’m not that mom. Have you looked at the sugar content in most of this stuff? It is amazing I still have my teeth.
So in my hunt to find something different I accidentally stumbled upon a left over idea from dinner. We had made a chicken sausage tart with chunks of cheddar. There was leftover dough and leftover filling – just enough to make a few little pocket like pasties. When we were in England they were everywhere. Here you just don’t usually see them. They are simple and very lunch box friendly.
We started with our leftover apple chicken sausages which had been cut open (before cooking) so that we could remove the meat and discard the casings. This was mixed with thyme, salt and pepper and spooned onto puff pastry squares. A cube of cheddar was placed on the top and the edges were brushed with an egg wash before they were sealed. The entire pocket was then brushed on the outside with the same egg wash and they were baked at 375 for about 40 minutes. I let them cool and then put them in the fridge until morning. Easy to wrap. I know our kids were surprised when they opened their packs to find there was NOT A PEANUT BUTTER & JAM SANDWICH IN SIGHT. The good news is that they tell me they loved the surprise of it. These were savory and sweet due to the apple bits and cheddar. The dough was flaky (even after a night in the fridge). They are so versatile that you could really stuff them with anything. I know they will be making another appearance in their lunch boxes soon.
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