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!

Cold Pizza

Oh Monday...why must you come and bring the weekend to an end?

One good thing about Monday is the weekend leftovers!

Our main entree is cold leftover pizza from the weekend.  The girls are huge fans of cold pizza.  

Our vegetable side is baby carrots.  We have an Easy Lunchboxes Mini Dipper with a little bit of Ranch dressing in it for dipping.

Our fruit side is raspberries and blueberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is plain Greek yogurt with honey in a silicone tube.

Friday By Request

Both of the girls had their own ideas for lunch tomorrow so we went with it!

Tomorrow's lunches are in Easy Lunchboxes.

 

Bean requested another pumpkin bread sandwich but with whipped cream cheese in the middle.

Molly requested a hot dog with a relish/mustard mix on the side.

Our vegetable side is seedless cucumbers cut with a crinkle knife.  

Our fruit side is red grapes.

Molly has a GoGurt Simple in strawberry and Bean (who is getting very picky lately) has plain Greek yogurt with honey that we made and put into a silicone ice pop maker.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is a little Dove chocolate.

Pita Pizza

The girls have always been cold pizza fans and asked for a pizza lunch.

This is one of my favorite things to make because it's so easy.

Tomorrow's lunch is in Easy Lunchboxes.

Our main entree is a pita pizza.  We spread a thin coat of tomato paste on a whole grain pita, topped with a sprinkle of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, shredded mozzarella and some turkey pepperoni.  Bake and let cool, slice and then right into the lunch box. 

Our vegetable side is baby carrots.  There is a small container (Easy Lunchboxes Mini Dippers) of Ranch for them to dip their carrots in.

Our fruit side is fresh raspberries.

Finally, our dairy dessert is a new Gogurt Simple yogurt tube.

Pizza!

After a trip to Trader Joe's, we've got plenty of inspiration for some fun festive lunches, including pizza!

Our main entree is pepperoni pizza.  We used Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Flat Bread for our crust, added Trader Joe's tomato paste, pizza cheese and turkey pepperoni that we cut into tree and snowman shapes with mini cookie cutters.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.

Our fruit side is kiwi slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Trader Joe's Strawberry Greek Yogurt.

1st Christmas Lunch of the Season!

On the way home from dance tonight, I asked the girls what they would like in their lunches tomorrow.  Ready?  PB&J!  SHOCK!  But, they did ask for a Christmas theme and I am very excited to start the season off right.

Our theme is the candy cane.  When you ask my kids what Christmas is about, the first thing that they say is who it is about, Jesus.  The candy cane represents Jesus, not only in the "J" shape but a few other things that are beautifully described on this site.

Our main entree is a candy cane shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We embellished it with our food safe markers.

Our fruit side is raspberries, blueberries and apples.

Our vegetable side is canned green beans.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt.  We have a small container filled with candy cane sprinkles for the girls to add to their yogurt at school.

 

Spooky Lunch for Halloween

After having today off due to Super Storm Sandy, we're ready for a fun and spooky lunch for Halloween tomorrow.  I had this great idea to do a lunch that was all body parts.  Sometimes things sound better on paper.  Still, I'm pleased with the result.

Our main entree is brains.  Well, at least that was the original thought.  I mixed up some Heart Healthy Bisquick with milk, added a decent amount of shredded cheese and shaped the brains.  Then, I put them in the oven with great excitement about my creation.  The timer went off, I opened the oven door and BLAH!  These look nothing like brains.  Even using a red food safe marker to try and recreate the brain didn't work.  Oh well, that's what fun picks and rings are for.

Our vegetable side is baby carrot fingers.  We used whipped cream cheese to put the sliced almond finger nails on them.

Our fruit side is eyeballs.  We used canned pear halves (in pear juice) and cut them into a more circular shape.  Then, we added a maraschino cherry with a chocolate chip in the middle for the pupil.

Our dairy is green slime.  We added a few drops of green food coloring to vanilla yogurt.

Finally, our dessert for Halloween is a homemade chocolate chip cookie with some fall sprinkles in it.  Our Trick or Treat is postponed until Saturday so we figured that a mid-week treat would be fun.

*We found a great idea on Pinterest for a healthy Halloween treat to give out at school.  C.J. is handing this out to his friends at preschool tomorrow.  Just clementines and a Sharpie marker for a great treat.

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.

Halloween Simple Lunch

We're doing another Fun Friday Halloween themed lunch.  We found a great sandwich cutter at the grocery store and the girls requested sandwiches for tomorrow.  Bonus!  This lunch is nice and simple, only embellished by a sandwich cutter and a few Halloween picks.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that has been cut with our bat sandwich cutter.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.

Our fruit side is strawberries.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is Trader Joe's Halloween Gummy Tummies.

Like this stuff?  Win it by sharing a photo of your lunch on our Facebook page!!!  See below.

Have you seen our giveaway on Facebook?  We want to see your lunch!  Just post a picture of any lunch that you've made on our Facebook page, tag Molly's Lunch Box in it and get your friends to like it.  You could win this sweet Halloween prize pack to make some fun lunches.  Contest ends 10/17 at 1pm EST.

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.

 

Salad Lunch with Homemade Applesauce and Recipe

We love the fall in our house.  The windows are open, cool air is flowing through the house and the smell of fall fills every room.  We have so much fun going to the pumpkin patch, hiking through park and picking up the multi-colored leaves that are amazingly gorgeous.  We also like that there are tons of great apples in season.  This is why I'm sharing one of our favorite recipes with you.  See below.

Our main entree is a "big salad".  This was Molly's request after dance tonight so it made my decision really easy.  Our base is butter lettuce and we topped it with cucumbers, peppers, olives, turkey pepperoni and a Babybel cheese.  We added a little bit of Italian dressing for Molly and Ranch for Bean on our Easy Lunchboxes Mini Dippers.

Our fruit side is our homemade Baked Applesauce.  YUM!

Finally, our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt with some cute little flower sprinkles in it.

Baked Applesauce

7-8 large apples peeled, cored and cut into chunks
a sprinkle of cinnamon

*yep, that's it.

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Wash and peel your apples.

Core your apples.  (I find it easiest to cut the apple in quarters and then core the apple by cutting the center out on a slant.)

Cut your apples into chunks.

Place the apple chunks on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon.  We like Saigon Cinnamon.  Use as much or as little as you'd like.

Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until tender enough to mash.

While still warm, use a potato masher to smash them into sauce. (great stress relief!) Or put into a food processor if you prefer smoother applesauce.  We like it chunky like apple pie.

That's it.  Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.  It's great cold or warm.  My favorite way is warm with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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

Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook: Easy Lunch Boxes Review

If you followed the Talk Like A Pirate Day Blog Hop that we were part of two days ago, you have met a bunch of my friends.  We are part of a Facebook group called Bento Bloggers and Friends.  Through this group, I have met the most awesome people.  Kelly Lester is one of these friends.  She is the CEO of Easy Lunch Boxes and she called on some of our friends to help her write an incredible cookbook.  They use some products from Trader Joe's (we ♥ Trader Joe's) but you can use things from a regular grocery store if you don't have a TJ's near you.  I received a virtual copy of the cookbook a week ago and my hard copy yesterday.

I was so excited to be able to look through the book and pick out a few of the great ideas to try for the girls' lunches tomorrow.  This is what we chose....

Our main entree is the Waffle Pizzaaah! on page 152 by Corey Valley.  This is a simple yet delicious alternative to regular pizza.  We added some light Ranch dressing for dipping in a Mini Dipper by Easy Lunch Boxes.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.  Our pattern was inspired by Bobbi Jo Fleischman for her contribution on page 90.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  I don't know how these strawberries are so sweet and delicious but they are, even at this late in the season.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is Speedy Chocolate PB & Oat Snacker Whackers by Averie Sunshine on page 52.  Talk about a great treat.  It works to satisfy your chocolate and peanut butter cravings!

There are recipes for everyone from the kids to Mom and Dad.  (there are even contributions from guys!)  There are vegetarian recipes and vegan recipes plus great little tid bits that give tips and information.

Now that we've piqued your curiosity, you too can be part of the Easy Lunch Boxes craze.  Below are links to Amazon.com for the cookbook as well as the Easy Lunch Boxes that all of these recipes fit so perfectly in.  Also, the Easy Lunchboxes themselves are AVAILABLE!!  WOO HOO!!!

   

Easy Lunchboxes Mini Dippers!!!

I had a plan for sandwiches tomorrow but when I was asking the girls what they wanted for their vegetable, they both were all about salads.  Molly then suggested that they have big salads for lunch.  Luckily, we just got our shipment of the new Mini Dippers by Easy Lunchboxes.  They are perfect for a lunch like this.  The only difference between the two lunches is the dressing choices.  They agree about most things but are completely different when it comes to condiments.

Our main entree/vegetable is a salad with black olives, mozzarella and salami.  One of their Mini Dippers has their dressing of choice (Ranch and Italian) and the other has some cottage cheese.  We were trying to increase their protein by adding the cottage cheese.

Our fruit side is a mix of berries.  The berries aren't quite as sweet as they were at the beginning of the summer but they are still really tasty.  We have strawberries, blueberries and black berries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Orange Greek yogurt.  We put a few little heart sprinkles on top to dress it up.

Tomorrow is the color black day in Bean's Kindergarten class, so we decided to make her snack blackberries.  We put a few little black and white animal picks in for fun.