Is it Friday Yet?

We were so busy last week and the time just flew by.  This week is already dragging on and it's only Monday night.  Hopefully the rest of the week will go a little faster.  Although, Molly's day seemed to go pretty quickly.  She said that she's all caught up on the few things that she missed on Friday.  ☺

Our main entree is a salami and smoked Gouda sandwich on 12 grain bread.  We picked up some salami at the end of last week.  Molly was very excited to request one of her favorite sandwiches for lunch.

Our vegetable side is red and yellow peppers with a side of roasted red pepper hummus.  We asked Molly what she would like for her vegetable and this was her exact answer.  (so much for cucumbers and carrots. haha!)

Our fruit side is cantaloupe chunks.  We picked this up last week as well and were pleasantly surprised at how sweet this particular melon was.  It didn't last long after it was cut up.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chocolate Chunk Chobani Champions Greek yogurt.  We were so happy to see that Chobani Champions is a sponsor of the USA Summer Olympic team.  Way to go Chobani Champions!

Different Lunch

We're switching things up a little bit.  Molly's dessert is a bit non-traditional and in the container that usually houses our main entree.  Our vegetable might be considered our main entree and one of our sides is usually a main entree.  Gotta keep her on her toes!

Our main entree/side is cheese tortellini pasta salad.  We had about a dozen of these left over from our dinner and decided to use them for a side.  We put some light Italian dressing on it and added a little plastic spider for fun.

Our vegetable side is cut veggies and hummus.  We sliced up some red peppers, some carrots and added sugar snap peas.  We put about 2 tablespoons of red pepper hummus in a small container for Molly to dip her veggies in.

Our fruit side is a kiwi.  We slices this after peeling it and placed one slice on top because it reminds us of monster eyes.

Our dairy side is a cheese stick.  Since we don't have any yogurt and only hummus as our protein, we figured that this would be a nice addition.

Our dessert...well, the closest thing to a dessert is a peanut butter and nutella roll.  We used a hamburger roll and spread peanut butter on one side and nutella on the other.  We then cut it into pieces and added a little Halloween pumpkin pick.

Monday Love

The weekend was beautiful and its back to school tomorrow.  I think its important to start the week of on a positive note so that the sentiment carries on through the week.  It dawned on me though, that sometimes even the kids can get a "case of the Mondays" now and then, so I decided to celebrate Monday with a little love.

 We start with a very yummy honey roasted peanut butter and Nutella sandwich on wheat bread that is cut into heart shapes.  This shows the little extra love from her family that Molly might be looking for on a Monday.  There are 2 large hearts that represent Mommy and Daddy and three little hearts that represent Molly, her sister and her brother.

Next we have crudités (or some fresh veggies cut up cutely but crudités sounds fancier!) served with roasted red pepper hummus.  There are cucumbers and baby carrots that are both cut with a crinkle cut knife, celery and a pepper from our garden that was half green and half red.  That's part of the fun of growing vegetables, you never know what they are going to look like until you pluck them off of the vine.

*side note - Not all kids are going to be jazzed about veggies and hummus but most kids that I know will at least try some vegetables if they are cut up in interesting shapes and/or served with a dip.  If you child doesn't like hummus, try ranch dressing or ranch dip made with sour cream and a dry ranch mix or even honey mustard.

For our fruit side, we cut up some strawberries (you have to take advantage of them before they are out of season) and added in a few red grapes that come from a batch that are particularly crunchy.  I like to mix textures to keep the food interesting.

Finally we have our dessert!  We made a healthier rice krispie treat.  We used puffed wheat cereal that we found in the inexpensive bagged cereal section of the grocery store.  We added the normal marshmallows but cut back on the butter just a little bit.  They taste similar to Sugar Smacks cereal only in bar form and the best part is, the nutritional value is MUCH better because you are using a whole grain durum wheat instead of a bleached rice.  ☺ Eating healthier doesn't mean sacrificing all of you favorites.  If there is a way to modify it to be healthier, then try it.