Easy savoury scolls

And just like that, the Summer holidays have come to a close. School uniforms have been ironed, school and day-care bags have been cleaned, and school lunches are again, inevitably, on my mind.

I returned to work part-time last week too, which means that organising lunches and meals in advance is even more of a necessity. I’ve decided to make Sundays my  preparation day – with the hope that an hour or so of food preparation on Sunday will make things a lot easier during the rushed weekday mornings.

Sandwiches are made and frozen, fruit and vegetables are sliced, eggs are boiled and, on this particular occasion, a big batch of savoury scrolls was baked.

These were made even easier by using ready-made puff pastry. For all I had to do was top the sheets of pastry (I went with cheesy vegemite and “‘pizza”), roll them, slice and bake.

And while the kids demolished quite a few scrolls straight from the oven, the others were packaged up and placed in the freezer for a quick ‘grab and go’ addition to the lunchbox. My kids don’t mind eating the scrolls cold once thawed, however you can easily re-heat them for 10 minutes or so in the oven if you are wanting a nice after-school treat. 

And they made a pretty moreish afternoon snack for the grownups too!

 

Print Recipe
 Easy savoury scrolls
Course Baking
Cuisine Baking
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
scrolls
Ingredients
Course Baking
Cuisine Baking
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
scrolls
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175C (fan forced) and line 2 trays with baking paper.
  2. Place two pastry sheets on a clean work surface. Spread with vegemite and top with half of the cheese. Roll up to enclose filling - brushing the edge with a little of the beaten egg to seal.
  3. Place the other two pasty sheets on a clean work surface. Spread with the tomato paste, and top with ham and the remaining cheese. Roll up to enclose filling - brushing the edge with a little of the beaten egg to seal.
  4. Slice each roll into 8 pieces. Place the pieces, cut side up, on the lined baking trays. Brush the tops with a little beaten egg at this stage if you'd like the scrolls to be even more golden brown).
  5. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until puffed up and golden brown. Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack.
  6. Serve warm or cool.
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School Lunchbox Ideas – The Kindergarten Version

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When Miss C started school this year, so did the school lunch box requirements.  Her previous day-care supplied meals, and pre-school only required limited packed food, but starting kindergarten meant that she had to take a full packed lunch everyday. Actually –  it is more like morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea – with pretty strict school requirements on what can and cannot be sent. Anything with nuts is banned, (although I think that is pretty usual these days), pre-packaged food should be avoided and there must be a piece of fresh fruit for the appropriately named ‘fruit break’ in the morning.*

Needless to say I am slowly but surely figuring our what works, and what doesn’t, and am always on the lookout for ideas to keep her lunchbox selections varied. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of days when a vegemite sandwich and whatever fruit I can find lurking in the bottom of the fridge make an appearance, but for the most part I’m lucky that Miss C will generally eat most of what I pack – whatever that might be.

For example, here are Miss C’s lunches from last week:

Day 1: Apple for morning tea, ham and cheese sandwich, cucumber, carrots and sultanas for lunch, and some homemade muesli bars for afternoon tea.

Day 2: Grapes for morning tea, rice crackers with jam, berries and lamington balls for lunch, banana for afternoon tea.

Day 3:  Sliced oranges for morning tea, pasta (leftover from dinner the night before), grapes, dried apricots and a few pretzels for lunch, popcorn for afternoon tea.

Day 4: Banana for morning tea, ham, cheese and lettuce roll ups, cucumber, homemade muesli bar and blueberries for lunch, cheese and crackers for afternoon tea.

Day 5:  Sliced apple for morning tea, a “monster” cheese sandwich, carrots, cucumber and lamington balls for lunch, and popcorn for afternoon tea.

So there you have it – a week of school lunches!

So what generally works for us?

  • Fresh fruit – generally apples, grapes, pears, bananas, oranges, mandarins, berries, watermelon and stone fruit (when in season).
  • Vegetables such as carrots and cucumbers (cherry tomatoes will be sent home uneaten)
  • Plain popcorn, dried fruit, pretzels, muesli bars, home-baked goods for snacks
  • Leftover pasta
  • Cheese and crackers and homemade biscuits

What I try to send but comes back uneaten (accompanied with a look of disgust from Miss C)?

  • Tomatoes
  • Celery
  • Broccoli
  • Snowpeas
  • Dips

(ps. While I’m all for healthy foods for all, I must say, the ‘rules’ and ‘restrictions’ were quite confronting when we first started packing lunches**, particularly as we are a household that tries to practice the ‘everything in moderation’ mantra. I can only imagine what would be said if I sent Miss C with the sort of lunch that I took to school as a kid. For I suspect that a squashed vegemite sandwich (flattened by the apple that was put in the same brown paper bag), an OJ prima and a mini bag of crisps would probably not cut it.  And let’s not even mention the sneaky Big M and chocolate jam donut from the canteen….)

* I had the ‘audacity’ to send tinned fruit for morning tea a while back – and received a ‘friendly reminder’ of this fact. Yes the school lunch mafia is reaI, people!

** ie. the tinned fruit school lunch mafia….

What about you? Got any lunchbox tips?