Fun Friday...with chicken!

Now that Lent is over, we can eat fast food and we can eat meat on Friday.  We decided, why not both?  This evening, we indulged in Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  I just happens to be my favorite fast food. ☺  We always buy extra nuggets for the kids because you never know when they are going to be going through a growth spurt which makes them ravenous.  Luckily for Molly, the kids ate their normal amounts of nuggets and she gets leftovers.

Our main entrée is leftover Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets.  We are serving these with a side of honey mustard for dipping.  Lucky girl!

Our vegetable side is a romaine lettuce salad, as per Molly's request.  We are serving this with light Italian dressing on the side.

Our fruit side is strawberries and blueberries.  Molly enjoyed these so much in today's lunch that she asked for them again for tomorrow's lunch.

Finally, we see the return of Molly's favorite Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  She was very excited to hear that it would be back!

There isn't a Fun Friday extra treat because we have gone through enough Easter candy this week to make a dentist faint.  Next Friday will have a special treat.

Spring is Here!

Spring is finally here!  At least it finally feels like spring in Western PA since the winter lasted for what felt like an eternity.  It has been warm for the past few days, the flowers are in full bloom and we have been cooking on the grill just about every night.  The other things that spring promises are fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms and back yard gardens.  We were lucky enough to find some great fresh produce recently and enjoy the taste of spring via strawberries and peppers.  YUM!

Our main entrée is a pimento cheese sandwich "quesadilla".  We used Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Flat Bread and spread Trader Joe's pimento cheese spread on it.  Then we folded it and sliced it.  This is Molly's favorite sandwich.

Our vegetable side is a romaine lettuce salad with yellow and red peppers.  We added a small container of light Italian dressing at Molly's request.

Our fruit side is strawberries and blueberries.  The blueberries are a little bit tart and the strawberries are very sweet.  A great combination.

Finally, our dessert is vanilla wafers.  Molly requested these too.  I think we'll be seeing our favorite yogurt soon though.

Fast Food?

Since we gave up fast food for Lent this year, I have a feeling that Molly is really craving it now that she's allowed to have it.  Tomorrow at school, they are serving something called Teriyaki Beef Nuggets.  She begged me to let her buy her lunch.  "Mom, I really like those and they are just like Chinese take out."  All that I could think is, do kids really eat those?  If they served Teriyaki Beef Nuggets when I was in school, most kids would've turned their noses at it.  So, I am letting her buy the beef nuggets that are being served with rice pilaf, a vegetable, an egg roll, chilled fruit and a fortune cookie.  I can't wait to hear how this goes.  Molly, unlike most children her age, likes new and different foods which means that she will probably love it.  I'm just interested in hearing what happens with the other kids.  Happy Chinese Food Wednesday!

Flatbread Pizza

Since there was no school today, because of the Easter holiday, our normal pizza Monday has been moved to Tuesday.  At first, we weren't supposed to have school tomorrow but it is a make up day for one of our snow days.  So, it's pizza Monday on Tuesday.

P.S. - We had a fantastic Easter and we hope that all of you did as well!

Our main entrée is cold pizza!  We made this pizza using Molly's favorite middle eastern flat bread from Trader Joe's as our crust.  We added sauce, cheese and turkey pepperoni and baked it in the toaster oven.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is cucumbers slices.  Molly requested these since she hadn't had them for a while.

Our fruit side is applesauce.  Molly and her siblings really enjoy applesauce.  We usually try to have fresh fruit but every once in a while applesauce will do the trick, and does it ever.

Our dessert is a 100 calorie pack of Oreo Crisps.  After getting their sugar high from Easter, (courtesy of all of the grandparents...thank you to Grammy, Papa, Nana and Grandpa! ☺) we are taming it down little by little.

Easter Lunch

I was looking for some neat things to make for Molly's lunch tomorrow since it is the last full day of school before Easter break.  I couldn't find too many examples besides desserts.  So, my brain was in full on creative mode.  I used a few ideas that I had found with the desserts and tweaked them a little bit.

Happy Easter one and all!  Christ is Risen Indeed!

Our main entrée is bunny biscuits.  We took refrigerated biscuits and added shredded cheddar cheese to them for flavor.  We then used a circular cookie cutter to cut out the face and then using the same cutter, cut the ears off of the corners of the biscuit.  After attaching the ears to the head, we added turkey pepperoni noses, whiskers and inner ears.  Then, we added black olive ends for eyes and small section of the olive for a smile.

Our vegetable side is a cucumber bird's nest with three small mozzarella balls inside to represent eggs.  We have a vegetable peeler that makes "spaghetti" noodles out of the vegetables and we used it to make the nest.

Our fruit side is watermelon and cantaloupe.  We used a small bunny cookie cutter to cut these out into adorable Easter shapes.  These fruits are extremely sweet and juicy.

Finally, our "fun Friday" on a Wednesday treat is a chocolate dipped Peeps marshmallow treat.  Molly really likes regular Peeps so we figured that she'd really like one that was dipped in chocolate.

Again, Happy Easter.  May God Bless You!

Requested Lunch

Since this week is shorter, we've gone with our all request lunch for tomorrow.  As I stated yesterday, Molly really is a creature of habit.  When I asked her what she wanted, I could've guessed before she even opened her mouth.  Of course she asked for a pimento cheese sandwich "quesadilla" as her main entrée and a few other favorites for her sides.  I was surprised, however, that she asked for a special treat on a Tuesday.  Not that I'm not flexible about these things, but she usually doesn't stray from our normal routine.  I had to decline her request though, since tomorrow's lunch will definitely have a treat in it.

Our main entrée is a pimento cheese sandwich "quesadilla" made with Trader Joe's pimento cheese spread and middle eastern flat bread.  If Molly had her way, she'd probably eat one of these every day of the week.

Our vegetable side is sugar snap peas.  We figured that she'd request cucumbers but when she saw these in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator, her eyes lit up.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  Her choices were kind of slim on fruit because we need to go to the grocery store; but she was very happy to have strawberries as an option.

Finally, we have our dairy/dessert staple, Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  Molly must have probiotic proficiency because of the amount of yogurt that she consumes.  But, it tastes really good so we don't blame her for wanting it all of the time.

Short Week

We are lucky enough to have a spring break at the end of this week and the beginning of next week.  It will be so nice to spend time together as a family during the celebration of Easter.  We have so many traditions in our family for Easter and we look forward to them every year.  From dying Easter eggs to reading the stories of how Jesus gave his life so that we could live ours.  It is such a special time of year.

Only 3 lunches at school this week.  We will be sure to make something special on Wednesday that has an Easter theme.  Stay tuned. ☺

Our main entrée is pepperoni pizza.  Yep, a normal pizza Monday.  Molly's Papa brought this pizza for us all the way from Buffalo, NY.  Yes, we gave up fast food for Lent but we really didn't get fast food since Molly's Papa bought it half baked and we had to finish baking it at home.  A stretch?  Maybe.  But it is really delicious!

Our vegetable side is a romaine lettuce salad.  We've added light Italian dressing on the side that we feel will go well with the pizza.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries. This batch is a bit sweeter than the last.  We're almost at those incredibly sweet "yes, summer is here" strawberries that we long for all year.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is our standard Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  Again, it was by request.  Molly really is a creature of habit.

Lenten Lunch 5

This is a Lenten Lunch by request.  Molly really enjoyed certain parts of her dinner tonight and requested that they be part of her lunch tomorrow.  She also requested a pimento cheese sandwich, but I had something else in mind.  Turning a favorite recipe into a meat-less recipe is pretty easy; we added extra vegetables to make up for the lack of meat.

Our main entrée is pasta salad.  Molly's Daddy was making some angel hair pasta to use for his lunch tomorrow and we asked him to add a little for Molly.  To the angel hair, we added chunks of colby-jack cheese, green pepper, zucchini, carrots, olives and light Italian salad dressing.  We don't think that Molly will miss the pepperoni that we normally add.

Our vegetable side is a plain romaine lettuce salad.  We figured that there was enough variety of vegetables in Molly's pasta salad, that a plain romaine salad would be nice.  This is served with Ken's Steakhouse light Italian salad dressing, Molly's favorite.

Our fruit side is sliced D'Anjou pears.  We found these Argentinian beauties very inexpensively at Aldi today.  They are very sweet and juicy.

Finally, our Fun Friday dessert is sugar free/fat free vanilla pudding.  We added a few white chocolate chips and bits of strawberry to the top as an extra added bonus.

Use Your Chicken Noodle!

We are letting Molly buy her lunch tomorrow because it is her absolute favorite lunch.  A chicken sandwich and chicken noodle soup.  She has been coughing, still, and her selling point was that it would be good for her throat.  What a kid won't do to get what they want!  She's usually pretty sly about it when she wants to buy her lunch.  She'll ask what the school lunch is on random days and if it doesn't sound like something she wants, she asks what the lunch will be on the next day.  Then, she acts like an angel the day before, to make sure that she is "good enough" to buy her lunch the next day.  Well, she's been good enough so she gets her favorite lunch.  Good job, Molly!

Whatever the Weather

I posted on Facebook today, that I felt like I was just going through the motions but I wasn't really there.  I think that the weather had a lot to do with my mood today.  We were very spoiled with two days of gorgeous sunshine and warmth.  Then, today we have nothing but gray skies, rain and cold chills in the air.  It has made me very sleepy and very unmotivated.  Luckily, I have three very active children who are constantly coming up to me and asking me to play or dance or sing and it quickly gets me out of my rut.  There is sunshine beaming through my kids and that can make my mood brighten in an instant.  They may drive me nuts sometimes but they also can put a smile on my face no matter what else is going on in my life.

Our main entrée may look familiar because it is a frequent request of Molly's.  A pimento cheese sandwich or as we call it, a quesadilla.  She just loves it and every time I go to Trader Joe's she requests that I get the pimento cheese spread and flat bread.

Our vegetable side is sliced cucumbers.  Molly enjoyed the sugar snap peas today but requested the cucumbers for tomorrow's lunch.  She says that she really likes the crunch and the juiciness.

Our fruit side is a sliced plum.  This batch has a great tartness that Molly really enjoys.  She and her siblings really like tart and sour things, like lemons and limes...and tart plums.

Our dairy/dessert side is the ever popular Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla yogurt.  The perfect end to a delicious and nutritious lunch.

Busy Week!

I, like most parents, keep a calendar in the house with everything written on it so that I don't forget an important event.  This week, we have NO empty spaces.  There is something going on every single day.  April has a lot of things on the calendar and May is filling up at a fast pace.  I can only imagine how much more full it will become when Molly's sister and brother get older.  Even though we are busy, we still have to make time for family time.  We had a great time walking to school today because the weather was so nice.  Then we had some cuddle time after we got home this evening.  Maybe tomorrow we'll have a dance party after school?  We might be busy and we might be tired but we always have fun.

Our main entrée is Molly's favorite quesadilla.  We spread Trader Joe's pimento cheese spread on Trader Joe's Middle Eastern flat bread, folded it in half and cut it into quarters.

Our vegetable side is sugar snap peas.  They are coming back into season and we couldn't be happier.  These taste great fresh out of the bag or steamed and even stir fried.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  Molly's Grammy brought these over for us.  The smell so sweet and have such a deep red color, just the way a yummy strawberry should be.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  Molly said that sometimes she adds some of her berries to it because it tastes so good.

School Pizza Monday

WOW!  What an awesome weekend!  The weather is finally starting to get warmer and that weird bright thing in the sky is making a return appearance.  The kids spent most of the weekend outside and we actually relaxed and had fun.  We all have been needing this so much.  We hopefully aired out all of the germs inside of the house because we were able to have the windows and doors open almost all weekend.  Here's hoping that we are done with sickness until next year.

Molly has been pretty good this weekend and begged to get the pizza at school for lunch tomorrow.  I guess this whole "no fast food" Lenten sacrifice has really gotten to her.  We decided that even though it is technically fast food, because the school serves Papa John's pizza, we will let it slide because it is being served in school and comes with a whole bunch of other things that are made there and not in a fast food restaurant.  She was so excited that her Daddy and I both got huge hugs and kisses with a plethora of thank yous that followed.

Lenten Lunch 4

YES!  Mommy is on the mend!  Which means that Molly will be packing her lunch and getting some good nutrition.

As I was thinking about Molly's lunch, I was trying to think of the meatless meals that we had during Lent when I was growing up.  Then, it hit me...breakfast!  At least two or three times during Lent, we had breakfast for dinner.  We would usually have pancakes or waffles or french toast; then some sort of potato, scrambled eggs and usually some fruit.  Today's lunch is a bit of a twist on the regular breakfast that is served for a Lenten meal.

Our main entrée is a cinnamon raisin bagel thin by Thomas' bagels.  These are wonderful because you still get the great bagel taste, the delicious flavor and the bagel "chew".  But, it's not nearly as filling and doughy as a regular bagel.  We've spread some light cream cheese on the bagel thin and created a sandwich with it.  We've also added a small container of roasted pepitas or pumpkin seeds.  These will add a nice crunch, a savory element and a little extra protein.

Our fruit side is a sliced plum.  This has a sweet and tart flavor and it's nice and juicy.

Our diary side is Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt.  Molly's favorite!

Finally, we have our Fun Friday treat!  We added a roll of Smarties candy for her special treat.

Home Opener

Mommy is still as sick as a dog.  Tomorrow is the Pittsburgh Pirates' Home Opener and the school is offering a special lunch for it.  So, Molly will be getting lunch at school tomorrow.  Hopefully, I'll be feeling better tomorrow so that Molly can get better nutrition on Friday.

Mommy's Sick

If there could be at least one week where all five of us are well, I'd be ever so grateful!  We are now on to the cold/sinus infection leg of our journey.  Will it ever end?  I have this awful thing now and I really can't wait for it to leave and never come back.  Cough, sore throat, sinus headache, itchy ears/eyes...it's like there is a party going on but not a fun kind of party.  For this reason, Molly is the lucky recipient of an electronic lunch ticket for school tomorrow.  She's kind of excited and I'm happy to just be able to sit and drink some more hot tea.  Here's hoping that all of these illnesses leave soon and that we finally get several weeks of nobody being sick. Cheers! ☺

Monday Tuesday

A long weekend is always welcome in our house.  We usually get a lot more done and still have the time to enjoy getting it done instead of rushing around.  Molly didn't have school today because it was an in-service day for the teachers.  So, we are doing our cold pizza Monday on Tuesday.

Our main entrée is cold pepperoni pizza.  We made the pizza on Sunday night and there were only a few pieces left over.  We are still sticking to our Lenten sacrifice of no fast food so we made this pizza using Trader Joe's pizza dough and sauce.  Then we added mozzarella cheese and mini pepperoni.

Our vegetable side is sliced cucumbers.  We decided to slice them in half just to mix it up since we usually just use whole slices.

Our fruit side is a clementine and strawberries.  Molly really enjoys this combination and it offers a great boost of vitamin C.  Hopefully this will keep her from catching all of the things going around since the weather can't make up it's mind.

Finally, we have our lunch staple of Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt.  Dessert and dairy all in one.

Lenten Lunch 3

This whole time, I'm thinking that a Lenten lunch is going to be hard thing to figure out.  Then, as I look back at Molly's Lunch Box, most of her lunches are vegetarian.  Very rarely is there any meat in her lunch at all.  So, if you are looking for a kid friendly Lenten meal idea, just look at just about any lunch on this blog and you'll be set through Easter.

Our main entrée is our take on a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  We split a banana in half and filled it with Nutella hazelnut spread.  Then we spread peanut butter on one slice of bread.  We then put the banana on the bread, wrapped it up, and cut it in half.

Our vegetable side is small slices of green pepper.  Molly has liked peppers since she was very young.  Plus, it gives her a nice crunch.

Our fruit side is a plum.  We found these at Sam's Club and they have a great sweet/tart flavor.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is candy.  There are two mini Kit Kats and two mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  This is not a regular treat but we decided to go a little crazy since Molly has been doing very well in her school work and hasn't complained much at all about her homework this week.

Buying Lunch

Now that I've gotten the whole lunch ticket thing taken care of, Molly can't wait to buy lunch.  I think it's the fun newness of the electronic lunch system added to the yumminess of popcorn chicken that has gotten her really excited to buy lunch tomorrow.  We're pretty excited for her too because we always liked chicken nugget day at school.

*Side note* Just wondering why it is still snowing in Western Pennsylvania?  I thought that March was supposed to go out like a lamb and bring warmer spring-like weather.  Hopefully this means that spring will be that much nicer this year. ☺

Wednesday Already!

This week is going by pretty quickly.  We've been keeping ourselves busy with errands, cleaning, paperwork and everyday life.  Molly's little sister is feeling much better, she's driving us crazy so she's definitely getting back to normal.  Molly's little brother is a drool monster with his teeth but he's in much better spirits.  Molly is just her happy old self and working hard on her school work and some other fun projects like a writing contest through our local PBS affiliate.  This is the second year that she has entered.  She and her Daddy work very hard on this project and have a lot of fun being creative together.  I am still a little tired from the crazy week I had last week but I've managed to be pretty productive.  I straightened out the lunch ticket situation.  It was my fault because I was using tickets from last year and they don't take them anymore.  Now, her account is up to date and she can buy lunch whenever she wants.  But, she's packing tomorrow.

Our main entrée is a quesadilla of sorts made with Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Flat Bread and Pimento Cheese Spread.  Molly saw that we had this in the fridge and begged for it!

Our vegetable side is edamame.  Some people have told us that they've tried it and didn't like it.  We suggested that they try it both cold and hot to see if it might be a temperature thing.  All we know is that our whole family enjoys edamame whether it be hot or cold.

Our fruit side is an apple.  Molly requested this after she saw us give a nice cold apple to her brother to help his teething along.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is none other than our trusty Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt.  Molly asked for a cookie but we said to wait until Friday for her treat.  She enjoys this yogurt so much that she didn't argue at all.

Breakfast!

Molly asked to buy lunch tomorrow because they are serving breakfast for lunch.  At first I figured, why not?  I have one sick kid and one teething kid so if she bought lunch, I'd have one less thing to worry about.  Then I get a letter home from the school saying that her lunch account has a negative balance.  WHAT?  Molly's school has started using an electronic system for lunch where parents put money on an account and the kids put in their pin to buy lunch and snacks.  This is a great idea as far as I'm concerned, but we still have a bunch of lunch tickets that we were told to use until they run out.  If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that Molly rarely buys lunch so we still have lunch tickets and use them when she buys lunch.  Molly has told me that the lunch ladies give her a little grief when she uses the tickets but that they will take them if she puts her pin in, which she is fine with.  Then last Friday she said that I need to call them because she isn't allowed to use lunch tickets anymore.  So, since I have the sick kids at home I didn't have a chance to call during school hours.  I left a message and I'm waiting for a call back so that they can tell me what they've been doing with the tickets that I've been sending in and what they want me to do with the tickets that I still have.  I would've expected a note or something that says that the tickets aren't allowed anymore.  Oh well, we'll see how this pans out.  Until then, we'll be making our lunches no matter what.

Our main entrée is a waffle sandwich.  We toasted two waffles, a little extra crispy so that they won't get soggy, and spread peanut butter on one waffle and maple flavored cream cheese on the other.  We then layered thinly sliced apples on top of the peanut butter and added the cream cheese waffle on top.  YUM!

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  These are very sweet, yet a little bit tart.  Absolutely delicious!

Finally our dairy/dessert side is Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt.  A great end to a great lunch.