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.

Nothing Green Lunch

As so many times before, Molly has requested breakfast for lunch.  And as so many times before, we are having an issue with fitting in a vegetable.  The cucumber worked fine last week but the more and more I thought about it, the more I would've omitted it.  I think that the veggies go great with a savory breakfast but we are doing a sweeter breakfast so the veggies just don't fit.  Guess we will be having  a few extra veggies with our dinner tomorrow night.  As long as she gets them somewhere.

Our main entrée is a whole grain waffle sandwich.  We flavored some whipped cream cheese with maple syrup, spread it on each side of the extra crispy waffle and layered thin slices of apple in the middle of our sandwich.

Our fruit side is a clementine and some pomegranate seeds.  This will help boost Molly's vitamin C level.

Our final side is a great combination of multi grain Cheerios, peanuts and dried cherries.  The main part of this mix is the peanuts to add protein to Molly's lunch.

Maybe Monday?

Molly has been feeling kind of sick all weekend.  She has a stuffy nose and a cough that just won't let up.  She didn't go to church this morning and I'm wondering if we'll send her to school tomorrow.  Poor thing.  Plus, she is still a sad sack because she says that school won't be the same without Miss Sizer, the student teacher who's last day was Friday.  I'm preparing myself for a little bit of a struggle tomorrow morning and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised with a child that is feeling better and not as sad.

Maybe a little breakfast for lunch will help.  We haven't done this in a while.

Our main entrée is mini waffle sandwiches.  We put some real maple syrup in a little bit of whipped cream cheese and then spread it between two mini waffles.

Our fruit side is a sliced apple.  A nice crunchy and juicy contrast to the waffle sandwiches.

Our dairy side is Dannon Light and Fit strawberry yogurt.  This will provide extra protein plus a delicious creamy and sweet flavor.

Finally, we have a little mix to round things out.  We used about 1/4 cup of unsalted, dry roasted peanuts and about 1 TBSP of raisins.  This is something that we usually have for an after school snack and we figured that it would be nice for a lunchtime side as well.

Breakfast for Lunch

It was a LONG day for Mom today.  I think I had something scheduled for just about every minute today, but that made it absolutely fly by.  On my way home from the PTA meeting I was contemplating a nice easy lunch for me to pack and the first thought that popped into my mind was...Breakfast!  I could prepare this pretty quickly and still get some other things done in the process.  Plus, who doesn't like breakfast?

For our main entrée, we have mini waffle sandwiches with a spread of light cream cheese that has been flavored with real maple syrup and a little bit of cinnamon.  We layered in a few thinly sliced apples for crunch, since the "toast" on the waffle will more than likely wear off while sitting in the lunch box.  This is our take on waffles with syrup.

Next we have our tropical fruit kabobs on plastic re-usable lollipop sticks.  We found a very large and yummy looking papaya at the store this weekend and its perfectly ripe and ready for eating.  On this outing, we also found a pineapple for just over $1, so it was a no brainer.  We sprinkled a bit of shredded coconut on top to complete the tropical theme.

We are going to try bringing strawberry yogurt tomorrow.  I'm a little concerned about this because I fear the mess it will make.  Guess we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings and whether we need to completely clean out every nook and cranny of Molly's lunch box.  (Laptop Lunch Box, don't fail me now!)  This is dotted with a few pieces of strawberry cut into heart shapes with a micro cookie cutter.

Finally, we have a hard boiled egg.  Molly really likes them so I'm hoping that this will give her a little extra protein to power through the day.  I cut it with a crinkle cut knife, just to make it cute.

Now, I know what you are going to say...where is the vegetable?  I have no good answer.  I couldn't find anything that would really go with the breakfast theme and taste good cold.  I pondered whipping up some potato pancakes with some zucchini and carrots grated into the mix but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't taste too good cold.  Then I thought, maybe a cold carrot and raisin salad, but that is pretty acidic when I put the vinegar dressing on it, so that combined with pineapple might be a bit on the tangy side.  So, my question for you is...what kind of vegetable would you serve?  I decided to go for the extra protein instead and make grilled chicken and spinach salads for dinner tomorrow so that she gets her daily allotment of vegetables and all will be right with the universe again.  ☺