Running Lunch

I started a Couch to 5K training group this past Sunday and tonight was our first run.  It was so much fun!  I roped three of my friends in so that they can see how awesome running really is.  You might ask why I am doing this training since I've already run in several 5Ks and on a relay team at the Pittsburgh Marathon last year.  Answer: I want to learn more about this sport that I have learned to love.  I want to make sure that I'm doing it right and I want to get tips to help me become a better athlete.  I also want to be a positive face in this crowd.  I am an overweight asthmatic 30-something mother of three.  If I can do it, anyone can.

I always hated running because "I couldn't do it" because I was too heavy or because my breathing was bad, etc.  But, you know what?  I CAN do it and now I run on a very regular basis.  I don't consider myself a runner, I consider myself a glorified jogger but I strive to be a runner someday.  I've been working on losing weight, well most of my life (gotta get that thyroid to start working with me and keep working) and I train no matter what the weather or the hills around my house.

I do this to get out of my house, BY MYSELF!  I am lost in my own thoughts and my only worry is getting from point A to point B.  I have no kids yelling "MOM!" at me.  And I feel fantastic after I get back.

I have to say that my husband is an incredible support in all of this.  He's a runner too and we are always working in our training runs so that each of us has equal time.  I also get great support from my friends and family who are cheering me on.  Finally, the support of all of the "Peeps" at Mojo Running & Multisport is so wonderful.  It is a team that I am proud to be on.

Okay, stepping off of my soapbox and onto the kitchen floor to whip up Molly's Lunch!

Our main entree is a ham and cheese sandwich.  We used a multi-grain roll from ALDI, then added ham, pepper cheese and mustard.  Molly's Grammy was nice enough to share the delicious multi-grain rolls with us so we had to add them to Molly's lunch right away.

Our vegetable side is carrot sticks.  Nice and simple and a favorite of Molly's recently.

Our fruit side is a kiwi.  Not as cool as Frankenkiwi, but still just as yummy!

Our dairy side is a Castle Wood Colby Jack Cheese Stick.  Molly requested that this be added just in case she is really hungry tomorrow.  She's definitely feeling better. ☺

Finally, our dessert is Low Fat Strawberry Yogurt.  This too was a request of Molly's and we were happy to give it to her.  She and her siblings are pretty much over the Halloween candy (thank goodness) and are now asking for fruit, yogurt and graham crackers at dessert time.  I think our influence is rubbing off on them.

Something a Little Different

As I was sitting in a meeting tonight, I was pondering what to make for Molly's lunch.  I wanted to do something different since we all know that she'd eat a pimento cheese sandwich every day if possible.  I was thinking back to her Easter Lunch and what a hit the bunnies were.  So, I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some refrigerated biscuits.  From there, the pepperoni pockets were born!

Our main entrée is pepperoni pockets.  We made these using refrigerated biscuit dough, added shredded cheddar and turkey pepperoni, sealed the top like a dumpling and baked.  A few of them unfolded but most of them stayed together.  This could be a go-to dinner for us in the future.

Our vegetable side is sliced multi-colored peppers.  They are small peppers so they look really neat when you cut them up.  Plus, the different colors add to the fun of it.

Our fruit side is strawberries and red grapes.  We found these grapes at Aldi during our grocery store run.  They have some great prices on very good produce.

Finally, our dairy/dessert side is our good old Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla yogurt...BUT, we added a few white chocolate chips, just for fun. ☺

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.

Hello December!

Tomorrow is December 1st.  Where did November go?  Weren't we just putting on our Halloween costumes and trick or treating?  Our family is going to do our best to slow down a little and enjoy the splendor of the Christmas season.  Yes, we have a lot of things planned but we are making sure that we don't forget why we celebrate.  Simple things like lighting the Advent wreath candles and reading the bible verses every night or playing with our Fisher Price Nativity keep our minds and hearts focused on the miracle that is Jesus Christ.

There won't be quite as many lunches to pack in this month so we are going to try to make them as fun and tasty as possible.  Molly sure does deserve it.  She will definitely be on Santa's nice list.

Our main entrée is a fun pasta salad.  Molly has been asking for pasta salad for the past two days and we finally had time to make it tonight.  It's made with Trader Joe's Vegetable Radiatore Pasta, black olives, pepperoni, chunks of string cheese and light Italian dressing.

Our veggie side is a baby spinach salad with light Italian dressing.  We decided to forgo the regular balsamic dressing and match up the Italian dressing with the pasta salad.

Our fruit side is Southern Grove dried Fuji Apples from Aldi.  They are dried apples with a little bit of cinnamon sugar on them.  They are kind of like dessert and all of our kids really like them.

Our dessert is a few graham crackers.  Just a little something sweet but still healthy.

Happy Halloween

We had an INCREDIBLE Halloween.  When we woke up this morning, I made some special Halloween cinnamon rolls with chocolate icing.  Thank you Aldi!  They were delicious.  I'd post a picture but they were eaten so quickly that I didn't get a chance.  Instead, I'll just put a link here.

We made a Spooky lunch of Mummy Pizzas.  The kids ate these really quickly and asked for more right away.  

These Mummy Pizzas were really easy to make.  We took Thomas' English muffins, split them in half, then laid them on a cookie sheet.  We topped each half muffin with spaghetti sauce (we were out of pizza sauce) and then laid on some pulled apart string cheese.  We left a little room for the eyes when putting the cheese on.  Then, we added two slices of black olives for the eyes, baked at 425 for about 10 minutes and served.  YUM!

We all took a little nap to gear up for Trick or Treating and upon waking decided to sit and watch, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" on DVD.  All of the kids loved it, especially the baby.  It really got us in the spirit of Halloween.

My husband and the girls then carved the pumpkin.  SO CUTE!

Finally, we had to get dinner going before getting our costumes on.  Time for the Mummy Dogs! (note: none of us were mummies this year, it was just the food theme. ☺)

These are the full size version of the Mummy Dogs that we put in Molly's Lunchbox the other day.  We sliced a slit on the bottom half of the hot dog and added a small piece of American cheese.  Then, we wrapped the dog with pieces of refrigerated crescent rolls.  We had sliced the crescent rolls into strips earlier.  We then poked two holes in for eyes.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  Let cool a bit.  Add mustard eyes and serve.  We served these with some potato chips and salad, plus some extra mustard for dipping.  

We then got on our costumes, did our make-up and braved the cold evening here in Pittsburgh.  

The kids came home with a TON of treats and had an absolute blast while walking the hills of the neighborhood.  We had about 200 Trick or Treaters here at our house.  A successful night all around.  Time to watch the game!  GO STEELERS!

(plastic pumpkin that I carved last year)

Hope everyone has a great week!  We have in-service days on Monday and Tuesday for parent/teacher conferences.  So, we'll see you Tuesday night for Wednesday's lunch.

Again, Happy Halloween, from our house to yours!

Reluctant Lunch

It was a rough day today.  We went to pick Molly up at school and when she hopped into the van I knew that she wasn't in a good mood.  She proceeded to lecture me on the importance of looking at her folder every night because, somehow we missed a paper last night.  She was mortified because it was something that had to be signed by a parent.  Then she told me that her stomach was hurting at lunch, so she didn't eat much.  Well, when we got home, I looked at the paper and it wasn't due until tomorrow so that was no big deal.  The teacher didn't even say anything to Molly but Molly noticed it.  Then I looked at her lunch and she took one bite of an apple wedge and ate one of the small roll-ups.  That's all.  I was so ticked because of the time, effort and love that I put into that lunch.  She uses the tummy ache any time that she doesn't want to do something.  My theory is that she was probably too busy talking to one of her friends and didn't have time to eat because she was ravenous when she got home.  I reluctantly packed this lunch and hopefully it will be eaten.

Our main entrée is 2 chicken strips.  Not the most nutritious but something that we're hopeful will be eaten.  These are all white meat, which make us feel a little bit better about sending something fried in her lunch.

Our vegetable side is just a few green beans.  These were steamed and cooled.  Molly usually likes these so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Our fruit side is Trader Joe's No Sugar Added Applesauce.  This is always a hit at our house with all three of the kids.

Finally we put two cookies in that we baked this evening.  Aldi has some fun and delicious refrigerated cookie doughs that are great for a special treat.  Plus, these have some cute Halloween decorations on them.

Helper's Lunch

The first day of school was a HUGE success!  Molly loved the sushi and said that everything tasted great!

She helped make her lunch for tomorrow and was very excited to be a part of it.

Tomorrow's lunch consists of...

A whole wheat pasta salad.  The dry pasta was purchased at ALDI very inexpensively.  We added some light Italian dressing, black olives, carrot matchsticks, edamame and red peppers.

Next we wrapped a pepper jack cheese stick with some thinly sliced ham, sliced it and skewered it on re-usable plastic lollipop sticks.  We added a few extra black olives to that container because they are a favorite of Molly's.

We washed up some sugar snap peas as a nice crunchy side dish.


Finally, for our fruit/dessert we washed up some grapes and dried them thoroughly and added a few Annie's Homegrown Bunny Graham Friends for variety.

Add in a re-usable bottle of water (part of the Laptop Lunch Box) kept in the refrigerator all night so its nice and cold.  Then a cloth napkin, loving made by my Aunt Sis.

No waste, good nutrition and a happy kid helping to do her part in making the environment a little better for her future.