Special Treat

We are so excited to have a beautiful couple of days ahead of us.  As I have mentioned before, fall is my absolute favorite time of year.  There are cool and breezy days, warm and sunny days and gray and rainy days.  Each of them has their own pluses.  The cool and breezy days are fantastic to spend time outside, running around and playing in piles of leaves.  The warm and sunny days remind us of the wonderful summer that is slowly finishing its long good-bye.  Finally, the gray and rainy days are perfect for cuddling up under a warm blanket and snuggling into a good book with a cup of hot apple cider.  The next few days are promising to be warm and sunny but not too hot.  We have great plans with family and friends and we just can't wait!

Molly will be buying lunch on Friday (per her request) so we gave her a special treat one day early.

Our main entree is a salami sandwich.  We used Genoa salami, pepper-jack cheese and mustard on whole grain white bread.  We cut the crusts off and then cut the sandwich into quarters and served it point side up.

Our vegetable side is red and orange peppers.  They are cool, juicy and refreshing.  The crunch on these is perfect too.

Our fruit side is more honey crisp apples.  Molly liked the way that we prepared them for today's lunch so we did the exact same thing.

Our dairy side is a cheddar-mozzarella cheese stick.  Molly keeps requesting that these be added to her lunch so that she can keep from being hungry at the end of the day.

Finally, our Fun Friday (a day early) treat is Fit and Active S'mores Mini Drizzled Crisps.  They are light, crunchy and sweet and do not taste like something that would be considered healthy.  Molly and her siblings are huge fans of these.

Fall Breakfast

Fall is by far my favorite season.  The weather cools down and we get to play outside in sweaters and hoodies.  We can buy fresh apples from the orchard in town and pick pumpkins ourselves.  We get one of our favorite beverages, apple cider, from the same orchard.  Football is in full swing and Halloween is right around the corner.  Mums, scarecrows, haystacks, pumpkins and corn stalks adorn the neighborhood as if welcoming fall.  My absolute favorite part of fall though, is the smell.  I lived in Florida and I would have to come home to PA just to get a big breath of the fresh fall air.  There is nothing like it.  I'm convinced that heaven smells like fall in Western Pennsylvania.

Our main entree is a waffle sandwich.  Our waffles are the new Kellogg's Limited Edition Eggo Pumpkin Spice Waffles.  They are so delicious!  These have a true fall flavor with lots of cinnamon and pumpkin.  We added whipped cream cheese to the center and made a sandwich out of it. 


Our snack side is Pepperidge Farm Pretzel Goldfish.  We figured that a little crunch and salt would be a nice addition to this lunch.


Our fruit side is a Honey Crisp Apple.  These are such amazing apples.  They truly taste like apple cider and the sweetness is incredible.  We chopped these into chunks to make it easier for Molly to eat them.


Our dairy side is a cheddar mozzarella cheese stick.  Molly said that these really help her to stay full for the entire school day.


Finally, our dessert is vanilla yogurt.  We tossed a few sprinkles on top for fun.  These are fall themed sprinkles and even have little pumpkins in them.

Only Two Lunches This Week

Here it comes!  The week of Thanksgiving.  All of the preparations and traditions are being crossed off of the to-do lists and the anticipation of one of the best meals of the year is filling the air.  I LOVE this time of the year.  It almost seems like there is excitement running through everyone's veins from now until after the new year.

Molly has two full days and one half day of school this week.  This means only two lunches.  I'm kind of torn about how I feel about this.  Yes, a break is nice, but I have so much fun making the lunches that I think I'll miss it.  We may have to do some fun Thanksgiving left over lunches during the break.

Our main entrée is Trader Joe's Mini Cheese Ravioli pasta salad with light Italian dressing.  These are a dry pasta that are just as easy to cook up as mac and cheese, but much tastier.  

Our vegetable side is a butter lettuce salad with Trader Joe's Balsamic Vinaigrette on the side.  Molly has been on a salad kick lately so we are happy to oblige her request for more salad.

Our fruit side is a Honey Crisp apple cut into slices.  This is our go-to fruit.  It holds up for a long time and is alway sweet and crunchy.  Plus, you know what they say...And apple a day....

Our dairy side is Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.  We wanted to give Molly a little calcium and protein boost since her main entrée isn't protein heavy.

Finally we put in a few Frooties candies for dessert.  These are fruit flavor Tootsie Rolls and the kid just love them.

Cold Pizza

We had a great night at our house tonight.  We decided to order a pizza and some wings for a special mid-week surprise, since we usually reserve these treats for the weekend.  My Dad came for dinner while my Mom is at my brother's house awaiting the arrival of his daughter or son on Friday.  (Which we are Super excited about!)  We sat down, served our pizza and plugged in Toy Story 3.  About 20 minutes into it, Andy (the toys' owner) opens up a big black garbage bag to throw away some old toys.  At this, Molly's younger sister flips out and starts screaming and crying.  "I don't wanna throw away my toys...ever!  Mama, turn this movie off PLEASE!"  So, we ended up watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving instead.  It ended up being a fun night after all.  And we have leftovers for lunch!

Our main entrée is left over pepperoni pizza from Sir Pizza.  This pizza doesn't have the best sauce or the best crust but the pepperoni is incredible, plus "there is just something about the combined mediocrity that makes it spectacular."  So says Molly's Dad.  And it's even better cold!

Our veggie side is a baby spinach salad.  We've put some Trader Joe's Balsamic Vinaigrette in a small container so that Molly can add as much or as little as she would like.  

Our fruit side is a Honey Crisp apple cut into slices.  The crunch on these apples is incredible and the sweetness is awesome.

Our dessert is Pfeffernusse Cookies from Aldi.  These are a traditional German gingerbread cookie with a hard icing on top.  Very light and sweet and the perfect end to a great lunch.  

Another Monday

This weekend was pretty relaxed and fun.  I'm guessing it's the calm before the storm known as the holiday season.  I just feel like the next few weeks are going to absolutely fly by and before we know it, it's going to be Christmas.  This year, we are trying to prepare early, not sweat the little things and just enjoy each day watching the wonderment in our children's eyes.

But, we still have a few more weeks of school which means that there are lunches to make.

Our main entrée is a good old pb&j on whole wheat.  This has been the requested entrée for the last several lunches and we completely understand.  It always tastes good and is filling enough to get us through the rest of the day.  We cut this sandwich out with a shooting star cookie cutter and a tiny star micro cookie cutter.  Molly's been doing really well in school and we think that she deserves a star!

Our vegetable side is canned green beans.  Molly is just like her Mother, we could eat canned green beans everyday and straight from the can.

Our fruit side is a honey crisp apple cut into slices.  This is served with some Tastefully Simple Creamy Caramel Sauce for dipping.

Finally, our dessert is a small square of Tastefully Simple Blue Ribbon Blueberry Bar.  So delicious.  It is one of the best oatmeal "cookies" that we have ever tasted!

Fun Friday Plus a Reward Lunch

Despite it being a shortened school week, it seems to have dragged on.  I think that Daylight Savings time is really catching up to us.  See, having a 3 year old basically cancels out that extra hour of sleep.  We still put her to bed at the same time but she keeps waking an hour early.  This has caused said 3 year old to get quite grumpy and defiant today which makes us even more exhausted.  Here's hoping that everything gets caught up this weekend!  At least Molly is pretty much back on schedule.  I guess that's the difference between 3 year olds and 6 year olds.

Now on to Fun Friday!  Molly just loves Fun Friday.  We are actually giving her some money in her lunch box for the school store.  She's been working so hard on her reading and sight words and she deserves a reward.  The school PTA has a store in the cafeteria on Friday where the kids can buy fun little things like pencils, notebooks and stickers.  I think it's a great way to help the kids understand how money works and the importance of rewards.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly with extra jelly, by request.  We were informed that the last few sandwiches were a little peanut butter heavy and more jelly would make them taste better.  Kids!  So, we have fulfilled this request.

Our fruit side is a honey crisp apple.  These apples taste so much like apple cider.  There is an extra sweetness and you can almost taste a little cinnamon.  Very delicious.

Our veggie side is sugar snap peas.  We're not sure how much longer these will be available so we are taking advantage of them while we can.

Finally, we have a special Fun Friday dessert.  We picked up some Oreo Cakesters earlier this week and we've been saving them for this lunch.  These are the peanut butter creme filled Oreo Cakesters.  A very yummy Fun Friday treat indeed!