Munch Munch

I haven't been updating because I keep having things scheduled first thing in the morning and that seems to be my main time to post. Busy busy me also means a certain lack of creativity in the lunch department. I did, however, feed my children (most of the time) so here's a glimpse at lunches past;

Octodogs w/ ketchup for dipping, Mac 'n Cheese, sauteed purple cabbage, mango applesauce squeezer, red licorice for a treat. 

Tuna salad on hot dog bun, multigrain crackers, grapes, celery w/ cream cheese, homemade snack bars, mini chocolate chips.

Yogurt with blueberries, peanut butter and jelly roll-ups, cucumbers and red peppers, grapes and more blueberries, fruit ''nuggets' as a treat.

Not a school lunch but a picnic lunch for our day at the Botanical Gardens; pizza w/ dipping sauce,  hot dogs, cheese sticks, crackers and almonds, sour cream and onion goldfish, watermelon, pear and raisins. 

Yogurt w/ raspberries (frozen to keep the yogurt cold longer), almonds, cream cheese and peach jam roll ups, grapes, carrots, goldfish, and fruit nuggets.

Watch Out... Them Some Angry Birds

Yeah, I know the title is grammatically incorrect, so sue me, okay?

The boys LOVE Angry Birds and have gotten to levels I can only hope (or not) to reach some day. In honor of their accomplishments, I put together an Angry Bird themed lunch today.

Ham sandwich on whole wheat bagel, Asian pear & blueberries, carrots, Angry Bird babybell, graham crackers, Pig cucumber, and mini chocolate chips.

The bird is made out of babybel cheese with the red wax cut away, hard boiled egg whites for the eyes, carrot for the nose, nori for all the eyebrows and pupils and a little cream cheese to hold it all together. The pig is made from cucumber with egg white for eyes and nori for the pupils and nostrils.

The Gateway Sport

You have this little baby (ok, so he was 10lbs and not so little but ya know...) and you swear to protect him from everything you can that may hurt him. You do your best for 5 years. You keep him relatively whole and unbroken and you pat yourself on the back for doing such a good job. Then, one day, your neighbor is out shooting hockey pucks with his kid and lets your son have a go at it. Dually impressed he tells your sweet baby that he's a natural. As much as you want your son to develop his own interests from his older brother you were kind of thinking maybe he'd get into erector sets instead of legos. Instead, he's decided it's ice hockey. Yup, that's what it is. Thinking that he'll get on ice skates and fall a few times and truly hate it, you go ahead and sign him up for beginning ice skating.  And then...he loves it. I mean, really, really, REALLY loves it.  So it begins....

Ice skating....the gateway sport...

Snips and Snails

Yesterday my oldest, Alex (7), decided that he didn't like what was on the menu for that evening. Apparently, pancakes and eggs were not to his liking. So he decided to share his commentary in a place that was sure to be noticed.

Needless to say, I stuck with the original plan for dinner.

I'm hoping he's a little more pleased with today's lunch, to say the least. 

Snails, watermelon balls, mini pepperoni, pizza sauce for dipping the snails, red ants on a log, mini chocolate chips.

The snails are made with Pilsbury breadstick dough. Just pull them apart (after that dreaded POP!) and roll up one end and tuck the other end under for the head. Brush with melted butter and bake according to the package. Things not to do: turn your back on your puppy so he eats 1 or 2 of them off the stove, get sidetracked making your husband's lunch and overcook the snails.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails; that's what little boys are made of!


It is Wednesday so pop on over to see Shannon!!

Ole!

I woke this morning wishing I were in laying on the beach in Mexico. Just me, the warm sand, blue water, a trashy novel and Raul the cabana boy. Alas, back to life, back to reality (tell me you don't have that song in your head now...liar!).  With Mexico on the mind I made lunch for the boys;

Quesadillas and beef taquitos with guacamole, carrot sticks, watermelon stars, mini chocolate chips.

The Insanity Goes Beyond Lunches

I'm a list person. I LOVE lists. I will make lists of the lists I need to make. I also love organizational things; boxes, files, white boards, calendars...you name it!  Now, this doesn't actually mean I'm really truly organized but it sure gives that impression.

How to appear organized:

1. Get a dry erase calendar and put on it your activities, lunches (in red) and dinners (in green).
2. Get a giant erase board and divide into sections for each person
3. Write down routines/chores for morning, afternoon, and evening
4. Don't actually use them so they look nice and pretty for as long as possible.

For today's lunches I tried out my new sandwich cutter. It worked pretty good and really only took off just the crusts so I was impressed.  Oh, and yes, then I washed it and put it back in one of my organizational boxes. The one that holds all my cutters and molds specifically for lunches. 

PB&J heart sandwiches surrounded by craisins, salsa sun chips, cucumbers and sweet snacking tomatoes, 1/2 banana w/ almonds and mini chocolate chips. 

I'm off to make my lists for the day....

It's a Two-fer

What a hectic and crazy morning I had! Got up extra early to get their lunches ready and still have enough time to take a shower, find someone to watch little Miss and rush off to take my oldest to the dentist even earlier than we normally leave for school. Lack of sleep, caffeine, and brain cells leave me with nothing witty or pithy to say so enjoy the 2 days of grub....

Corn-dog muffins, cheese stick, cucumber flowers and carrot sticks, watermelon balls and mini chocolate chips.

PB&J star sandwich surrounded by bunny grahams, 1/2 banana and almonds, celery and cream cheese, cantelope stars and craisins, mini chocolate chips.

Apples, Pears, and .....oh my!

So my Mother in-law is visiting and she has been teaching me to crochet. I don't know if I will ever be a professional but, hey, I just may be able to make a banana hammock. Wait...wha?  Crocheted (that word looks so wrong) banana hammocks?!?!

So this crochet project is actually for an apple cozy. Yes, an apple cozy. Think of it as a cozy warm sweater for your poor little apple who needs a hug. Stay with me now....I'm not ADD, your brain just doesn't work as fast as mine. So this is the apple cozy project I found online.

 There are several sites but I have to give kudos to Crafty Anna since I'm able to follow her pattern and I think it's super cute. Now looking at other pattern sites I found, well, look for yourself...

Apples, Pears and...oh my!


Oh, that's not a banana hammock?  My bad...


P.S. In case you really are moving slow this morning, this was not about a bento lunch. I'll try and get to that when I stop laughing.

Monster Nom Nom

Since I quit drinking caffeine first thing in the morning on a regular basis, I find I'm much more even keel in the mornings and less of a giant biznitch waiting for the Bialetti to brew my morning espresso. While I'm not little Miss Molly Sunshine that everybody hates to see before noon, I can manage a smile and some pleasantries most mornings within a few minutes of my feet hitting the floor. Some days, like those days when some little fingered troll has been messing with my alarm clock,  I'm a little frazzled when I get up late and the mommy monster does show her not-so-pretty little face. With that being said, I'll leave you to deduce my morning mood....

Bagel and cream cheese with cheesy teeth and olive and craisin eyeballs, carrots and broccoli with ranch for dipping in the little container, roasted peanuts, grapes and blueberries and mini chocolate chips.

....and now I'm going to go get another cup of coffee.


Happy Wednesday!

P.S. Head on on over to BentoLunch.net  and see Shannon for What's For Lunch Wednesday!

This Is What Happens When Your 2 Year-Old Wakes You Up At 5am

You have time to bake. Yes, seriously. Now, I'm not a baker. AT.ALL. In fact, most everything I bake turns out rock hard or explodes in some way. I don't know why, exactly, but I blame it on the altitude. Never mind that thousands of people bake at high altitude with no problem every day. I am simply not one of those people.  I do, however, like to APPEAR like I can bake so some times I call it in. Today was one of those days. So, after you oooh and aaah over my baked creation for the boys' lunches, I'll tell you how I did it.

Pepperoni pizza roll ups, black olives, cheese stick, julienned carrots, Asian pear and blueberries,  and fruit nuggets as a treat. The little container has a little more pizza sauce for dipping.

Mmm mmm....that homemade pizza goodness...doesn't it look tasty? Frankly, I wouldn't know, it's not gluten free (yes, I sent my kids to school with untested/untasted food don't judge me), but it sure LOOKS tasty.  I used Pilsbury pizza dough in those tubes that pop open when you start to peel them. Ok, side note; does it freak anybody else out when it does that, or is it just me? I also have a problem with champagne corks and refuse to open anything like that. So, this dough...yeah...roll that baby out. It's stickier than my kid's hair after an ice cream cone so be sure to use lots of flour on the counter and on the rolling pin. Squeeze some pizza sauce on it, not as much as you would a normal pizza because then it's too goopy, sprinkle a little cheese and any toppings you want. I discovered mini pepperoni. No joke...little disks of nitrates! Roll up that bad boy so it's a log and slice it up; I think the smaller slices 1/2"-3/4" worked better than the bigger ones. Bake at 425 until mostly done; maybe 10 minutes, and then take them out, add a little spot of sauce, sprinkle of cheese and a couple nitrate disks and put back in to finish it off. 

I don't have exact measurements or times because that's just not how I (pizza) roll. 

Learn To Pick Your Battles

Today is pizza day at school and the boys begged me to let them get hot lunch. It's not even "good" pizza from a restaurant but that cardboard nastiness that schools slop some tasteless tomato sauce and generic government cheese on and call it pizza. Part of me wants to scream "My food is SO much better than that!!!!!"  but then I remember what it's like to be in elementary school and how exciting it was to get that little tray and pick out my milk and then wait with anticipation for whatever slop they called lunch that day.

I relented and the sheer excitement coming from both boys did help alleviate the pure horror that they would want that over my lunches.

So, in honor of learning to pick my battles, I'm sharing one of my favorite blogs and blog posts of all time. I'm sure a number of you have seen this before but I think it bears repeating on this Friday.

Knock Knock Mother F*****

Oh, and I seriously need a 6' metal chicken. Just sayin.

The Best Laid Plans

I had this great plan to make these fabulous Mac-N-Cheese muffins for the kids lunches. I even got up early to do it (seeing as I passed out last night before cooking the pasta as I'd planned).  You know, sometimes things just don't work out. This was certainly one of those times. Well, I think it was. I wasn't thrilled with how the 'muffins' turned out but Noah really liked them and Alex found them ok; although he would have preferred them without the ham. Now, that was this morning after I pulled them out of the oven so I have no idea how they faired come lunchtime. Just to be safe, I made some PB&J flowers and then added a hard boiled egg, brocoli (w/ ranch to dip in the covered container), fresh peaches and craisins and some fruit 'nuggets' for a treat. It was a fairly diverse lunch so I felt ok sending the questionable muffins as I figured they'd get enough to eat otherwise.  That's about as exciting as it gets today, folks. Some days you just have to go with the flow, or the funky mac-n-cheese muffins as the case may be.