Happy Birthday, Friend!

Last week, Molly was invited to eat lunch with one of her friends and a few other classmates because it was her friend's birthday.  Since Molly's birthday isn't until the summer, it was nice to make a birthday themed lunch during the school year.

Our main entree is a roast beef and smoked Gouda sandwich.  We used our Lunch Punch birthday cake sandwich cutter and food safe markers to decorate it.

Our vegetable side is pepper rings.  We added a few birthday candle picks to keep with our theme.

Our fruit side is grapes with a birthday pick.

Our dairy side is a Chobani Champions Dragon Fruit yogurt tube.

Finally, we baked some brownies with sprinkles on top and cut out a small piece as our special birthday dessert.  

Happy Birthday, Katelynn!

Life Got In The Way (But a Yummy Banana Muffin Recipe to Make Up For It!)

Yep, typical situation.  We're still making our house a home after the move and Daddy and I both have been training for various running events.  Plus, we're both fundraising for our Pittsburgh Marathons by selling headbands that I make.  We're running for a charity this year and need to raise funds.  The blog was pushed to the back burner but I still took a couple of pictures!

So, we have two fun lunches with a great go-to recipe!

Our first lunch is an Eggo Pumpkin Waffle sandwich with whipped cream cheese and thinly sliced apples inside.  WELCOME FALL!

Our vegetable side is pepper slices.

Our fruit side is strawberries.

Our dairy/dessert is a Chobani Champions Strawberry Banana tube.

Our second lunch is Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.  Recipe below.

Our veggie side is cucumber slices.

Our fruit side is raspberries and clementine segments.

Our dairy/dessert was Greek yogurt with honey in a silicone tube.  It didn't make the photo.

Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

2-3 ripe (very ripe) bananas mashed

1/3 cup honey

*1/3 cup natural peanut butter VERY IMPORTANT (The stuff you can make yourself or at Whole Foods)

2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

2 tsp PB2 peanut butter powder

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add the next 5 ingredients and mix well.  Finally, add the chocolate chips.  The batter will be pretty thick.

Add batter to lined muffin tin.  

Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 degrees F and bake for 10-12 more minutes.  A toothpick will come out clean aside from some yummy melted chocolate.

Brinner for Lunch

Tonight we had Brinner, you know, breakfast for dinner.  

The girls asked if the leftovers could be their lunch for tomorrow.  Easy for me!

Our main entree is pancakes.  The girls like these just plain but I put a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on them for an extra flavor.

Our fruit side is strawberries.

Our protein side is turkey bacon.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Tubes.

Pumpkin Bread Sandwich

Oh yes, it's the most wonderful time of the year, in my opinion at least.  Fall/Autumn brings cool crisp air, fresh apples, pumpkins, beautiful leaves and the most amazing smell!

We're getting a little taste of it here in Western Pennsylvania today and so is our lunch for tomorrow.

Lunch is in an Easy Lunchbox.  Link below.

 Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Pepperidge Farm Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Swirl Bread.  YUM!!!!

Our veggie side is a white cucumber and a few pepper rings.

Our fruit side is a Chambersburg peach.

Finally our dairy/dessert (not pictured...oops!) is Chobani Champions Yogurt Tubes.

Make Your Own Lunchables

One of the girls' favorite things for lunch is make your own Lunchables.  They like to pick their favorite meats and cheeses, then add some crackers.  We like that we can choose healthier things than what is in the deli case.  Our lunch is in Easy Lunchboxes.  Link below

Our main entree is honey ham wrapped around a string cheese and then sliced.  We added some butter crackers for the girls to stack their meat on.

Our vegetable side is a white cucumber.  We were given one of these by a really nice man at our local farmer's market.  The skin tasted bitter so we removed it but the rest was really nice.

Our fruit side is fresh blueberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is a Chobani Champions Greek yogurt Tube!  YUM!

Day 3!

Bean requested mac and cheese for tomorrow's lunch so we are breaking out our Thermos containers and Lunch Bots.  Links below.

Our main entree is Annie's White Cheddar Shells.  Our method is to microwave the pasta in a separate container in the morning, fill the Thermos with hot water from our Keurig to warm it up, dump the water and fill the Thermos with the hot pasta.  The girls say that their lunches are piping hot at school.

Our fruit side is a Chambersburg peach and some prune plum segments.

Our vegetable side is baby carrots, cucumbers and pepper rings.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is a Chobani Champions tube.

Valentine's Week Lunches

We had so much fun making Valentine's Day and love themed lunches all week last week.  Sometimes, it's just sometime as simple as using a heart shaped cookie cutter to make a special lunch.

Our Love "lunchable" is turkey pepperoni, provolone cheese cut with a heart shaped cookie cutter and crackers.  Plus, peppers, berries and a Chobani Champions tube.

 We made peanut butter and jelly for Ash Wednesday (since we are Catholic and don't eat meat on that day). We made it extra fun by turning it into a "fairy sandwich" by adding Valentine sprinkles in the cut out area.  This is accompanied by red peppers, blackberries and Chobani Champions tubes.

Finally, our REAL Valentine's Day lunch is hot pink chocolate chip pancakes. (We bought a mix at ALDI.)  We used our food safe markers to put hugs and kisses on our hard boiled egg, added some berries including a heart shaped strawberry, cherry Jell-o jigglers cut into heart shapes, Chobani Champions tubes and an extra little kiss. ♥

All of this week's lunches are in Easy Lunchboxes.

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

The first few weeks of January

Since taking a hiatus from the blog, I have gotten a lot more sleep and I'm working on myself a lot more.  I've been trying to be more organized in my shopping and menu planning, plus concentrating on health.  We, as a family, threw caution to the wind a bit over the holidays and needed to get back on the healthy wagon.  

We are still packing lunches for the girls (and so is my husband) every day.  I plan to do a round up like this every week or so.  These are just a few of my favorites from the last couple of weeks.

Our happy winter lunch with a sandwich, peppers, clementines, pomegranates, string cheese (I wrote on the wrapper with a Sharpie marker.) and a fun Friday treat of white chocolate dipped pretzels with peppermint in Easy Lunchboxes.

 Our piggy sandwich (CuteZCute Cutters), cucumbers, sugar snap peas, clementines, apples, blueberries and Chobani Champions in Laptop Lunch Boxes.

Our Elephant sandwich (Lunch Punch cutter), cucumbers, clementines, pomegranates and peach yogurt in Easy Lunchboxes.

Eat 'N Park Christmas Star

Just about anyone from Pittsburgh will agree that the Christmas season doesn't start until we've seen one particular commercial.  This year is the 30th Anniversary of the Eat 'N Park Christmas Star commercial.  It has a heartfelt story and a feel good message.  For our last school lunch of the 2012 year, we're paying homage to this Christmas staple.
*Eat 'N Park is a sit down restaurant similar to Denny's or Perkins. (only better!)

Our main entree is a tree shaped quesadilla.  We found the perfect cookie cutter for this lunch and the idea became reality.

Our fruit side is strawberries and blackberries.

Our dairy side is Chobani Champions Very Berry.

Finally, our final Fun Friday Treat of 2012 is something else that Eat 'N Park is known for, the Smiley Cookie!!!  We picked up a couple of mini Smiley Cookies just for this special occasion.

 

...and they helped make it!

The girls did not have school Monday or Tuesday because of parent/teacher conferences and the election. (Their school is a polling place.)  We had so much fun playing games, reading books and making some fun recipes.  One of the things that we made was soft pretzels.  We found them in the canned refrigerated section of ALDI and they were a blast to make.

Our main entree is a soft pretzel from ALDI.  We added a small container of pimento cheese spread for Molly and some Bee's Knees Peanut Butter and Company peanut butter to Bean's.

Our vegetable side is yellow and red peppers.

Our fruit side is mini Empire apples that have been cut into slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek Yogurt.

Leftover Pizza

A super fun and busy weekend resulted in a pizza night on Sunday.  We had plenty of leftovers and they are perfect for lunch.

Our main entree is leftover cheese pizza.

Our vegetable side is a green salad.  We put a side of blue cheese dressing in Molly's and ranch in Bean's lunch using our Easy Lunch Boxes Mini Dippers.

Our fruit side is apple slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek yogurt.

Fun Fall Lunch

We had a very full weekend with lots of fall traditions.  We did our annual trek up to McConnell's Mill State Park and had a blast running around and piling up leaves, then jumping in the leaves.  We got some great photos for our memory book.  Then, we went to Brown's Country Kitchen (a little hole in the wall joint with awesome food) for some lunch and homemade pie.  Finally, we stopped at Baldinger's Candy store on the way home.  We let the kids each pick out 10 pieces of candy since Halloween is right around the corner.  If you are interested in checking these places out, I have more details about them in this post.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that has been cut into leaf shapes to reminisce about our fun weekend.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers and carrots.

Our fruit side is strawberries and pomegranate arils.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Very Berry Chobani Champions Greek yogurt.

Lots of Veggies

Molly had two requests today.  1. To use one of the "cool new lunch boxes" that Bean used today and 2. To have some veggies with hummus.  That was our jumping off point.

The girls' lunches are exactly the same but in two different containers.

Our main entree is lots of veggies with Trader Joe's 3 Layer Hummus.  Bean's hummus looks a bit nicer since it was scooped out first.  It's cilantro, regular and red pepper hummus all layered so nicely in the container but not so pretty scooped into a smaller container...but still delicious.  Our veggies are zucchini, carrots, cucumbers and red peppers.

Our fruit side is apples slices and pomegranate arils.

We added some crackers and a cheese stick to round out our meal.

Finally, our diary/dessert is Chobani Champions Very Berry.

 

All Request Lunch

Usually when I suggest something the girls are quick to agree with a "sure, sounds good Mom" but tonight they both wanted different things.  Luckily, their requests were an easy fix or Mama might have tried to sway their choices.

Bean's lunch is leftover pasta with a little bit of butter and Parmesan.  We will heat it up in the morning before school.
Her veggies are cucumber slices, pepper rings and shredded carrots.  Her fruits are strawberries, fresh figs, kiwi and pomegranate arils. These are in a Lunchbots Duo.
Finally, her dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek yogurt. (we love their new design!)

Molly's main entree is a super cinnamon raisin sandwich.  Trader Joe's makes this amazing cinnamon roll bread and we spread Peanut Butter and Company Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter.
Her veggies and fruit are the same as Bean's.We also put Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk in Molly's lunch.

MOMables Week - GIVEAWAY and Lunch 4 and 5

Our MOMables week continues.  Our Thursday lunch is being posted with our Friday lunch because Mama was just plain too tired to blog last night.  Thursday's lunch is a Thermos Thursday lunch with soup.  Friday's lunch was not on the MOMables menu this week but it's a favorite from our MOMables collection.  If you liked this week's lunches and want to give it a try, you can have a free trial week and enter our giveaway for a three month subscription. (see below)

Our main entree is Italian vegetable soup for Molly and chicken and dumpling soup for Bean.

Our vegetable is a salad.  We have our dressing in the Easy Lunch Boxes Mini Dippers.

Our fruit side is strawberries and raspberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions vanilla orange Greek yogurt.

This is a screenshot of Thursday's menu on MOMables.

Our Friday lunch is a favorite with a Fun Friday Treat!

Our main entree is a waffle sandwich with whipped cream cheese and sliced strawberries.

Our fruit side is a GoGo SqueeZ apple cinnamon applesauce on the go.  The girls say that it tastes just like Apple Pie.

Our dairy side is peach yogurt.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is Lindor Vanilla White Chocolate Truffles and a couple of pretzels.  

ps - if you like the little notes, look at the back.  So fun!  They are available at SayPlease.com.  You can get 15% off by using the code MOLLY.

Now....our MOMables giveaway!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MOMables Week, Lunch 3

Tomorrow's lunch is similar to a few things that we've tried before but different too.  The trick is to flatten your bread with a rolling pin.  Thanks to MOMables for coming up with such fun things to make for lunch.    ps - tomorrow is Johnny Appleseed's birthday so we threw a few references in for that too.

Our main entree is Italian Sushi.  It is salami with cream cheese on whole grain white bread.  I think that these may become a regular request.

Our vegetable side is purple cauliflower for Bean and cucumbers for Molly.  Bean's has a small container of ranch dressing for dipping.

Our vegetable side is a checkered apple in honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  We learned this skill from our friend Jenn at Bento for Kidlet.

Our dairy side is a Babybel Mozzarella cheese.  We cut an apple shape out of some of the red wax for Johnny Appleseed.

Finally, our dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek yogurt.  YUM!

*This is a screen shot of the MOMables menu for today. 

MOMables Week Lunch 2 The Airport Sandwich

The next lunch in this week's MOMables menu is called The Airport Sandwich.  Laura, of MOMables, explains how she was stuck at the airport with her kids and this ended up being the mix of odds and ends available to her in a pinch.  *note - The original recipe called for cheese to be added to the sandwich but my girls weren't sure about it.  A tip, don't send in a main entree that the kids might not eat.  Save something new for when they are home and have the option of something else.  You don't want them to not eat and have a cloudy brain for the rest of the school day.

Our main entree is The Airport Sandwich.  This is a peanut butter and apple sandwich on whole grain white bread.  We used Peanut Butter and Company's Cinnamon Raisin Swirl (OMGOODNESS!) and very thinly sliced apples.  It's like fall inside of a sandwich.  We used our Wonder Bread Sandwich press to make our own "uncrustable" sandwich.

Our vegetable side is red and yellow bell peppers slices and purple cauliflower.  The girls were very excited to try this new vegetable tonight (I think the purple sold them) and said it would be great in their lunches.  We added a small container of ranch salad dressing for dipping.

Our fruit side is the apples in the sandwich and De Anjou pear slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions orange vanilla Greek yogurt.  We added some mini chocolate chips.  This is Molly's favorite way to eat this flavor.  Orange and chocolate = yum!

This is what the MOMables menu for today looked like.

ps - Easy Lunchboxes are available again!  They are great for the WHOLE family.  Proof: here's Daddy's lunch for tomorrow.  Pork steak, sweet potato, edamame and grilled peppers.

MOMables Week!

I've talked about MOMables (the meal planning website) before and I have the ad for it on the left side of the screen.  MOMables makes an entire week of menus for you to follow for lunches and includes recipes, shopping lists and plans.  The beauty of it is, you can follow it to a T or switch things out so that to use things that you know your kids will like.  You can get 3 months of menus for $18 ($6 a month) and that way you don't have to worry about not having an answer to "Mom, what's for lunch?"

This week starts with MOMables Monday Italian Swords.

Our main entree is Italian Swords.  For Bean, it is marinated mozzarella balls, salami and grape tomatoes.  Since Molly isn't a big fan of tomatoes, her is pepper jack cheese, pastrami and cucumbers.  We used long picks but MOMables suggested that if you can't find picks, try the stirrers at Starbucks.

Our vegetable side is carrot stick and the vegetables on the skewers themselves.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  California is having a great season because these are really sweet.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek Yogurt.

Stay tuned through the week for more MOMables inspired lunches.  There will be a fun giveaway at the end of the week.  

Hello Kitty Breakfast for Lunch

Daddy made his famous pancakes for dinner and there were enough leftovers for the girls' lunches tomorrow.  Hello Kitty is a favorite around here and yes, I bought the pancake maker....and I'm SO glad that I did!

Our main entree is Hello Kitty pancakes.  Daddy even put a couple of mini chocolate chips in them for extra fun!  We used our food safe markers to embellish them a little bit.

We don't have a vegetable side but we did add some turkey bacon to go with the pancakes.

Our fruit side is strawberries, grapes and a Hello Kitty kiwi.  We used a stamp to press the face into the kiwi.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Verry Berry.

Butterfly Lunch

We were inspired by our friend Michelle at Creative Food.  She made an awesome butterfly lunch, two of them actually, and we realized that we had the same pasta that she used.  The wheels started turning and now we have a fun lunch for the girls.

Our main entree is a buggy pasta salad.  We cooked the pasta from a box of Back to Nature Crazy Bugs Macaroni and Cheese, drained it and cooled it.  (We are saving the cheese packet for our next movie night to jazz up our popcorn.)  Next, we added marinated mozzarella balls, tomatoes and some light Italian dressing.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is crinkle cut cucumbers.  (say that three times fast!)

Our fruit side is apple slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions.  Molly chose Honey-Nana and Bean chose Vanilla Chocolate Chunk.