Final Lunch of the School Year!

WOW!  So, this is it, the final full day of school which means the final lunch of the school year.  What a year it has been.  We are so proud of Molly.  She has transitioned into an avid reader with some mad math skills.  She has grown about three inches in height and probably 5 pounds in weight. She is currently going through yet another growth spurt.  She seems like a different kid.  She has matured by leaps and bounds and doesn't seem so little anymore.

Each of her lunches have been a labor of love.  I've learned so much from her feedback and from suggestions of other Moms and Dads.  I feel so proud to have completed the blog for the year and I can't wait to see the fun and new things that next year hold.  A HUGE shout out to Laptop Lunches for making such an incredible lunch box that has allowed us to create these healthy and delicious lunches every single day.

For our final lunch, we are looking back at the very first lunch of this school year.  This is one of her ultimate favorite foods of all time. We LOVE YOU so much, Molly!  Congratulations on another successful school year!

Our main entrée is vegetable sushi!  Molly loves her sushi and we figured that we'd take Molly's Lunch Box full circle and end with what we started with.  We made some brown sushi rice, spread it on the nori and added light cream cheese, cucumber and carrots.  On the side we have the classic light soy sauce.

Our vegetable side is multi-colored peppers.  Molly would eat peppers everyday and she will as soon as they grow in our garden this summer.  We have little buds and the promise of some yummy goodies all summer long.

Our fruit side is a summer classic...watermelon.  We keep getting the mini watermelons because they are so sweet.  We think that watermelon is the perfect fruit to get Molly in the mood for summer.

Our final side is our dessert.  We found these Heath Chips Ahoy cookies and figured that they would be a fantastic Fun Final Day treat.  Molly really likes Heath toffee so she will be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, we gave Molly a special drink instead of her usual water.  Sushi is great with iced tea so we gave Molly some Snapple Mango and Papaya iced tea.  We think that she will be ecstatic with this choice.

*Thank you all for reading Molly's Lunch Box.  It has been so much fun to share my ideas and Molly's favorite foods with each of you.  Please tune in for some new ideas and delicious healthy lunches coming to your computer in September.

Last School Lunch

Molly begged to buy lunch tomorrow because they are serving popcorn chicken.  She has learned how to read so now she knows exactly what is on the lunch menu.  We agreed to let her buy lunch and then the final lunch of the school year (on Monday), she will pack.  She's going to be SO excited with her lunch on Monday!

Have a great weekend everyone!  Summer is almost here!

Un-Birthday Lunch

Tomorrow, is Molly's Un-Birthday at school.  Her real birthday is in the summer.  She is so excited to be the special birthday girl tomorrow.  She gets to have a special sticker, a crown and other fun special things.  She is bringing in a snack and drink too.  Our school district has implemented a healthy snack policy so she is bringing in frozen grapes and little Hug drinks.  It is going to be in the 90's tomorrow and her school doesn't have air conditioning so we think that it will be a nice refreshing snack.  PS - little Hug drinks are only 10 calories and don't have nearly as much sugar as Kool-Aid or Capri Sun.

 

A friend of mine recommended the new Thomas' Pretz-A-Bagels so that is our main entrée.  We cut the Pretz-A-Bagel in half and put Trader Joe's pimento cheese spread on it.  Cheese and pretzels are such a great combinations.

Our vegetable side is sugar snap peas.  They will be cool and crispy on a hot day.

Our fruit side is mixed berries again.  We have strawberries, raspberries and blackberries as per her request.

Our dairy side is low fat cottage cheese.  Molly really likes cottage cheese and it will be a great source of protein and a cool and filling treat.

Finally, we added a fun size bag of Skittles because every kid deserves a special treat on their Un-Birthday! 

Pizza Wednesday

We can't have the end of school without an awesome pizza lunch.  So, even though it isn't our traditional Monday pizza, Wednesday is a good day for pizza.

Our main entrée is homemade pepperoni pizza.  We used our favorite Trader Joe's flatbread for our crust.  We added pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella and turkey pepperoni, then baked it in the toaster oven for a few minutes.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is cucumber sticks.  If you look back at Molly's Lunch Box, this is the most popular vegetable side because it truly is Molly's favorite.

Our fruit side is mixed berries.  We found some extra delicious strawberries, raspberries and blackberries at Sam's Club today.  Molly is going to be so excited to have these in her lunch tomorrow.

Our dairy side is a Colby Jack cheese stick.  Molly is going through a major growth spurt so the extra protein will keep her satisfied much longer.

Finally, our dessert is a very special Rice Krispie Treat that was "borrowed" from a larger batch.  Mommy made these for Daddy's co-worker's baby shower tomorrow.  She is expecting her baby boy in just a few weeks so we added some fun blue sprinkles.

Red, White and Blueberry Lunch

I went through several of Molly's lunches and picked out some of her favorites for these last few lunches of this school year.  Breakfast for lunch is always a favorite of any of my kids.  We mixed this up a little bit to pay tribute to the good old U.S. of A!!!

Our main entrée is a waffle sandwich.  We toasted two waffles, extra crispy so that they don't get soggy, then added light cream cheese, flavored with maple syrup, to each waffle.  We then added slices of strawberry to enhance to the sweetness.

As usual, there is no veggie side but we do have a two little sides in the box with the waffle sandwich.  We added slivered almonds to one small container for extra protein.  Then, we put some mini M&M's in the other container as a dessert or a yogurt topping.

Our fruit side, aside from the strawberries, is blueberries.  We had a few of these beauties left over after making a bunch of fruit salads this past week.  They are so sweet and juicy.

Our dairy/dessert is Molly's favorite Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  She can add the blueberries, almonds or M&M's or just eat it plain.

Pizza Monday School Lunch

Molly has just over a week of school left before summer vacation.  She asked if she could buy the regular Monday pizza lunch at school this week and that I make her a special lunch next Monday at the last school lunch of the year.  We were happy to let her get one of her favorite lunches for the last time as a 1st Grader.

Summery Lunch

Now that the weather has gotten much warmer, we're feeling the summer bug biting.  This means cool refreshing salads and simple sides.  We had a fantastic meal with wonderful friends tonight and one of our favorite things was eating outside.  Something about a great meal with great friends in the fresh air makes any stress of the day just melt away.

This made Molly decide that she wants to go summery for her lunch.  We were happy to oblige!

Our main entrée is a "big plain salad" per Molly's request.  She's so funny when she wants something.  Her eyes get wide and she can't come up with the words fast enough.  Our salad (romaine lettuce) is being served with light Catalina salad dressing.  We also added a few yellow tomatoes because Molly really likes them and she said it would be okay.

Our fruit side (since our main entrée is also our vegetable) is mixed berries.  We brought these to our friends' house as a topping to some vanilla pudding.  There were just enough left over to toss into Molly's lunch.

Our grain/dairy side is cheese toast.  We added some shredded cheddar cheese to a flat bread and melted it in the toaster oven.  When it cooled, we cut it into manageable pieces. We also added a string cheese on the side for some extra protein.

Finally, our fun Friday treat is two rolls of Smarties.  There wasn't enough room for anything else. ☺

School Lunch

Tomorrow, they are serving mac and cheese at school.  Molly really likes the mac and cheese at school and since it is the last time that they will be serving it this school year, she's buying tomorrow.  Not too many days left for our favorite first grader.  We're going to have to think of some fun things for our last few lunches. ☺