Lenten Lunch 1

The season of Lent started yesterday and as Catholics, we restrict certain things during this season.  Every Friday, we abstain from eating meat.  I am not someone who eats a lot of meat but for whatever reason, I crave a hamburger every Friday during Lent.  I guess it is something about not being able to have something that makes you crave it because when Saturday rolls around, I'm no longer craving the hamburger.  Funny how the brain works.

Hopefully Molly will not have the same cravings as her Mommy and be excited to have a Fun Friday lunch.

Our main entree is leftover cheese pizza.  This was part of our take out extravaganza earlier this week.  Dominos delivered and now Molly reaps the benefit of another leftover.

Our vegetable side is a green salad with light ranch dressing on the side.  We added a little extra dressing so that Molly could use it to dip her pizza crust in.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  These strawberries are from Plant City, Florida.  I, Mommy, lived in Florida for a few years and I have to say that the strawberry festival in Plant City is one of the most awesome things I've ever experienced.  From the smell to the sights and finally the taste of those sun ripened, sweet and juicy delicious beauties.  INCREDIBLE!!

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is courtesy of a few Valentine's Day goodies that Molly's classmates gave to her.  There is a small pack of Bottle Caps and a small Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Lenten Lunch 5

This is a Lenten Lunch by request.  Molly really enjoyed certain parts of her dinner tonight and requested that they be part of her lunch tomorrow.  She also requested a pimento cheese sandwich, but I had something else in mind.  Turning a favorite recipe into a meat-less recipe is pretty easy; we added extra vegetables to make up for the lack of meat.

Our main entrée is pasta salad.  Molly's Daddy was making some angel hair pasta to use for his lunch tomorrow and we asked him to add a little for Molly.  To the angel hair, we added chunks of colby-jack cheese, green pepper, zucchini, carrots, olives and light Italian salad dressing.  We don't think that Molly will miss the pepperoni that we normally add.

Our vegetable side is a plain romaine lettuce salad.  We figured that there was enough variety of vegetables in Molly's pasta salad, that a plain romaine salad would be nice.  This is served with Ken's Steakhouse light Italian salad dressing, Molly's favorite.

Our fruit side is sliced D'Anjou pears.  We found these Argentinian beauties very inexpensively at Aldi today.  They are very sweet and juicy.

Finally, our Fun Friday dessert is sugar free/fat free vanilla pudding.  We added a few white chocolate chips and bits of strawberry to the top as an extra added bonus.

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.

Lenten Lunch 3

This whole time, I'm thinking that a Lenten lunch is going to be hard thing to figure out.  Then, as I look back at Molly's Lunch Box, most of her lunches are vegetarian.  Very rarely is there any meat in her lunch at all.  So, if you are looking for a kid friendly Lenten meal idea, just look at just about any lunch on this blog and you'll be set through Easter.

Our main entrée is our take on a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  We split a banana in half and filled it with Nutella hazelnut spread.  Then we spread peanut butter on one slice of bread.  We then put the banana on the bread, wrapped it up, and cut it in half.

Our vegetable side is small slices of green pepper.  Molly has liked peppers since she was very young.  Plus, it gives her a nice crunch.

Our fruit side is a plum.  We found these at Sam's Club and they have a great sweet/tart flavor.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is candy.  There are two mini Kit Kats and two mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  This is not a regular treat but we decided to go a little crazy since Molly has been doing very well in her school work and hasn't complained much at all about her homework this week.

Lenten Lunch

Tomorrow is our first Lenten lunch because Molly bought her lunch on Wednesday.  When I was growing up we always had grilled cheese and tomato soup or fried fish on Fridays but now we have to be a little bit more creative since we serve a cold lunch.  Also, our family gave up fast food for Lent so any type of food that we serve is homemade.  If we give Molly her favorite cold pizza on Mondays, it will be made by us and not our favorite Sir Pizza.  Hopefully we will have some good ideas for our Lenten lunches and maybe break some traditions.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread.  Yeah, not the most creative meatless meal but we have high hopes that there will be some more inspired entrées over the next few weeks.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers and baby carrots.  These will provide a nice crunchy texture and help to cleanse her palate from the peanut butter.

Our fruit side is a clementine and some fresh pineapple.  This tropical blend is a very refreshing and juicy.

Finally, our fun Friday dessert is a few Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies.  Molly's little brother hasn't been feeling well and he LOVES cookies so we splurged and got some for him.  But since he isn't quite 2 years old yet, he is more than happy to share his container of cookies since he can't eat them all.  Well, he probably could but Mom won't let him. ☺