For a short while I had two blogs, this and another called Brown Bag Blues.

I [unofficially] decommissioned that site so I could focus more on this one. But all is not lost, I plan to occasionally bring you boredom-beating brilliance to cure your brown bag blues. A few of my favorite recipes will find a new home, here.

Brown Bag Blues will be a category on this site, dedicated to providing good ideas for better lunches. Mostly, it will provide recipes that are perfect for tucking into lunches. For my own children, my brown bag agenda is to provide variety, balance, novelty~regularly tasting unfamiliar foods, and maintain/develop their curiosity toward food.

I pulled this recipe out of some random magazine a million years ago, then changed it a bit. I was excited to find a granola bar disguised as a cookie; it is still a treat but with more of a nutritional punch.

In fact, I have been known to put granola (sub varying cereals in place of cornflakes, even add a little coconut) and a variety of nuts (sunflower, walnuts, pepitas) and dried fruit right into these cookies. I will tell you the basic recipe, then you can improvise from there (note: if substituting, just stick with similar proportions):

Lunch box Cookies 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup butter 1 tsp vanilla 1 egg 1 cup flour (I use wheat) 1 cup oats 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder pinch salt 1 1/2 cups cornflakes cereal 2/3 cup roughly chopped pecans

Oven to 350. Beat sugars and butter; beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, oats, soda, powder, salt just to blend. Add cereal and nuts. (If you are a dough eater, this dough rocks). Shape into 'golf balls' and bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes 2 dozen, though I never count.