Fun Friday with a BIG Surprise!

My kids are all big time snackers.  In the middle of the morning when they are playing, they stop and say..."Mom, can I have a snack, please?"  Then, after school, that's the first thing we do, have a snack.  So, I figured, why not have a snack-like lunch?  This lunch includes many of our favorite munchies and snacks along with a BIG surprise for Miss Molly!

Snack #1 is Scrabble Cheezit Crackers, in a heart shaped silicone cupcake liner.  (per Molly's request.)

Snack #2 is salted peanuts and honey roasted peanuts for a nice mix.

Snack #3 is strawberries that are all sliced up and ready to just pop in her mouth.

Snack #4 is a cheese stick.  This is our "go-to" snack when we can't think of anything else.

Snack #5 is vanilla yogurt.  This is a great dessert alternative or mid-morning snack.

Finally, THE BIG SURPRISE......Molly gets to buy ice cream at school!  She's never done this before.  She's only had ice cream there when it came with a purchased lunch.  Molly is going to be so excited!  We can't wait to hear her reaction. ☺

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.

New Fun Friday Treat!

The weekend is finally here and we can't wait! Our Christmas traditions are in full swing.  We've gone to see the lights at Hartwood Acres and the whole family ooh-ed and aaawww-ed.  It was awesome.  Next comes the cookie baking, card making and more decorating.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Our main entree is turkey and cheese skewers.  We had the most delicious deep fried turkey breast at Thanksgiving so we had to get another one for this week.  Deep fried seems like it wouldn't be a healthy option but it is 98% fat free, all white meat turkey and again, delicious.  We cut the turkey into cubes and skewered it with plastic lollipop sticks along with a colby jack cheese stick that had been cut into cubes as well.  We have a little bit of honey mustard on the side for dipping.  We also added some Cheez-It crackers so that Molly can have a few carbs to burn off quickly.

Our vegetable side is green pepper strips.  This was by request again.  Sometimes kids get stuck on one particular food and the pepper is it for Molly these days.

Our fruit side is a tangerine.  We segmented it for Molly so that she wouldn't have to waste any time at lunch. Something about orange-like citrus screams Christmas.  We used to always stud oranges with whole cloves and leave them out in several rooms of the house to make it smell good.

Finally, our NEW Fun Friday treat is Cinnamon M&Ms.  We reluctantly purchased these when the kids asked because they didn't sound all that appetizing.  They really enjoyed them though.  The cinnamon is not a hot cinnamon, it's more like the powdered stuff in the pantry.  It is a mild hint of it with a good chocolate flavor.  If you like cinnamon, give them a try but I wouldn't recommend eating them on a regular basis, just a special occasion.

Back to School!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a great time over the break.  Our house is now in full on Christmas mode.  The tree is up, the lights are twinkling outside and the smell of Christmas trees is filling our house...care of a candle as our tree is artificial.  Before you know it, the jolly old man in red will be coming down the chimney with presents for all.  That is, if the kids start behaving.  I think that they are really excited and the excitement is taking over the part in their brain that tells them the proper way to act.  Or, maybe they are just ready to get back to school after a nice break.  Back to school and back to lunch.  Here is Molly's lunch for tomorrow.

Our main entree is provolone cheese, salami and crackers.  Molly asked for salami and cheese, but not in a sandwich and without any bread.  We improvised and added cheese crackers instead.  We used a fluted cookie cutter to make the meat and cheese into fun little shapes.

Our vegetable side is green pepper slices.  We had the choice of carrots or peppers and Molly chose the peppers because they are "softer" than carrots.  She lost another tooth over the break so now she is really cautious about what she eats so that the Tooth Fairy doesn't have to visit too often.  She'd rather have it spread out over time...and we're just fine with that.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  Molly's brother picked these out on a recent trip to the store.  He would eat two or three bowls of these every day if he could.  They are a great source of nutrition and we are really lucky that they are available to us at this time of year.

Our dairy/dessert is strawberry yogurt.  We had to spell it out to Molly when we were talking about her lunch because if her brother gets wind of the word yogurt, all action stops and he wants some right then and there.  She requested that it be strawberry and lucky for her, we had some.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Chicken Noodle Soup!

Tomorrow, Molly's school is serving one of her absolute favorites...Chicken Noodle Soup.  I'm willing to give in  and let her buy lunch because of this.  Plus, it is absolutely frigid here in Pittsburgh so some hot chicken noodle soup sounds absolutely wonderful.  This is served with an oven baked chicken patty on a bun, which isn't very nutritious but better than something that is deep fried and is fine for a special treat.  Their vegetable side is a tossed salad.  I'm hoping that they will serve the dressing on the side but you can't always get what you want.  (Wait a minute, I think that there is a song that says that! ♪♫) The cafeteria is also serving assorted chilled fruit, which is served every day.  I would rather they serve an apple or some sort of other fresh fruit, but alas, they don't.  Finally, they are serving Cheezit Scrabble Crackers.  I usually have these or Pepperidge Farm Goldfish on had for an easy snack because they aren't completely bad for you.  Then they serve milk for the drink.  I have to say that this lunch is pretty good and not nearly the catastrophe that most of the school lunches are.  Is it that hard to step away from processed food and invest in fresh ingredients?