Easter Week Lunch 3

Tomorrow is the last day of school before Easter vacation.  Molly is so excited to have a few days off and enjoy some family time and traditions.  We have a lot of plans to celebrate the sacrifice that God made for us and the miracle of Jesus' resurrection.

We'll be back next Tuesday night for another installment of Molly's Lunch Box.  We're pretty sure that the rest of the year is going to fly from then on.

Happy Easter, Indeed He is Risen!!!

Our main entree is a salami and cheese basket.  We used our mini cookie cutters to cut out eggs and a "Peep" chick out of provolone and salami.  We also used our food safe markers to make our basket more fun.

Our fruit side is strawberry flowers.  We used more cookie cutters to cut out these cute flowers and added a few plastic stems.  We also have a few bunnies hiding in this container too.

Our fun side is Annie's Organic Pizza Snack Mix (shaped like bunnies).  We usually add crackers to any meat and cheese entree but this mix will work just fine.  Plus, it's really yummy!

Finally, our Easter dessert is a bed of Annie's Homegrown Bunny Graham Friends topped with a chocolate covered marshmallow Peep.  Molly remembered the Peep from last year and requested one this year too.  How could we not?  They are so cute and delicious!

Something Different

Today was kind of strange when I was making Molly's lunch.  I usually have a main entree in mind when I am preparing Molly's lunch.  Today, I only had the sides planned and decided to just go with it and fill in from there.

Our main/vegetable entree is cucumber boats.  We mixed dill with some light cream cheese, scooped the seeds out of some small cucumbers and filled them with the cheese mixture.  YUM!

Our fruit side is sliced kiwi.  We weren't really going for a green and white theme but it just kind of happened.

Our dairy side is strawberry yogurt.  Molly likes strawberry yogurt once in a while for something a little different.

Our extra side is Scrabble Cheezit Crackers and Annie's Homegrown Bunny Graham Friends.  We thought that the Cheezits would be nice to scoop out any extra cream cheese.  The bunny crackers are a little something extra special.

Purses for Lunch

Molly is always willing to try something new.  She tried sleeping overnight at a friend's house for the first time this past weekend.  She is trying ballet classes this year.  She's always trying new ways of singing, dancing and making little crafty art projects.  And she is the first one to try something new to eat.  We are so lucky that Molly is open to new things.  She has found that her options are so much more broad because she has tried these things and actually likes them.  A perfect example is the purses that she will be enjoying for lunch.  I bought these several months ago and made them for dinner.  Both her father and I oohed and aahed over them but the kids were a little resistant at first.  Then, Molly decided to be brave and take a taste.  She loved them.  She encouraged her sister to try them and she ended up liking them too.  Thanks to her willingness to try new things, she gets a favorite for lunch tomorrow.

Our main entrée is Trader Joe's Perline Pasta and Prosciutto with a drizzle of light Italian dressing.  These little herbed pasta purses are filled with a yummy blend of prosciutto and cheese.  Incredibly delicious!  Plus, what girl doesn't love a purse?

Molly really enjoyed the carrots today so we've decided to cut up a few more with our crinkle knife for tomorrow's lunch.  If we just threw in some baby carrots, we'd probably have a few return home.  But with this "neat looking" cut, we have no left overs.

We've quartered an apple for our fruit side.  These apples are amazingly juicy and sweet.  Each bite is crunchy and fresh.

Dessert is Annie's Homegrown Bunny Friends.  This variety of flavors is the best of all worlds.  You have the plain vanilla, chocolate and chocolate chip all in one snack.

A little SPOOKY!

Tonight I had a PTA meeting and I was in charge of refreshments.  When I went to the first PTA meeting this year, Kelly, the head of hospitality, did an entire back to school themed snack.  She made a school bus shaped cake, pencils made of string cheese and Bugles for the tip, plus some other really adorable things.  I felt like I had to keep up with this stellar display of refreshments so, I made my theme Halloween and went a little nuts.  First, I had a veggie tray with hummus, real scary right?  BUT, I peeled carrots and made them look like fingers by notching out knuckles and putting a sliced almond on the tip to make it look like a finger nail.  I put these fingers in the hummus and it looked like a hand was coming out of it.  Next I mixed some Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Dip Mix with one brick of cream cheese and the Fiesta Dip Mix with another brick of cream cheese.  After letting them sit in the fridge for a while, I scooped out small portions and rolled them into small balls.  I put slices of olives on them and they looked like eyeballs!  These were served with crackers.  I made vampire apples by quartering some Jonagold apples and cutting out a mouth, then I pushed slivered almonds into the mouth to make the teeth.  Finally I made some brownies, frosted them with cream cheese frosting, and piped spiderwebs and spiders on top with milk chocolate.  I think everything was a hit because there were only a few veggies and a couple of apples for me to bring home.  You'll see a few of the left overs in Molly's lunch.

Our main entrée is a Castlewood Honey Ham and Castlewood Pepper Jack Cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with a little mustard for extra flavor.  We've cut this sandwich into a ghost and pumpkin to get us in the mood for Halloween.  Headless Horseman anyone?

The vegetable side is carrots and sugar snap peas.  The carrots were cut with a crinkle knife for texture and to make it easier to bite into.  The sugar snap peas are alway a favorite and go well with the carrots because they are both sweet.

For our fruit side, we are using some of the left over vampire apples.  We chose the Jonagold apples because of their bright red color, good for lips, and their firm yet sweet texture.  The slivered almonds do become a little soft and sometimes break but that's a great way to show your kids what happens when they eat too much candy.  ☺

Finally we have Annie's Homegrown Bunny Graham Friends for dessert.  This is a great blend of chocolate, vanilla and chocolate chip graham crackers.  It's just enough sweetness to get Molly through the second half of the day.

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.