Picnic Lunch

While looking for inspiration for Molly's lunch, I channeled our weekend.  We had so many picnic-like meals, it was easy to figure out a great lunch.  *side note - has anyone else realized how many different "salads" there are at a picnic?  pasta salad, fruit salad, veggie salad, jello salad, etc.  I wonder if picnic is another word for salad somewhere?  haha!

Our main entree is a cheese tortellini salad.  We cooked up some Trader Joe's cheese tortellini for lunch today for Molly's siblings.  The rest were put in a container, light Italian dressing was added and there you have it. One of Molly's favorites.

Our vegetable side is mini cucumber slices.  We picked up another bag of these mini cucumbers at Sam's Club today.  They are crunchy and great by themselves or dipped into hummus or a yogurt dip.

Our fruit side is strawberries and blueberries.  We saw a lot of fun recipes for strawberries and blueberries incorporated into desserts for memorial day.  The idea of a vanilla yogurt parfait with strawberries and blueberries sounded really good.  This and the next container could be that, just deconstructed.

Our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt.  Molly is all about the vanilla yogurt right now.  Parfait or no parfait, it's a great end to a healthy lunch.

The Return of an Old Favorite

When we went to Trader Joe's the other day, we picked up a bunch of things and a few old favorites made it into the cart.  Molly used to request pimento cheese sandwiches all of the time.  I introduced pimento cheese spread to my kids one day on the way home from the zoo.  Trader Joe's is very close to the Pittsburgh Zoo so on our way home, we stopped for a snack.  I bought mini whole wheat pitas and the pimento cheese spread as a way to introduce it in a small way, just in case they didn't like it.  Well, they are truly my kids and it showed with their new found love of pimento cheese spread.  We haven't had it for a while so Molly's eyes lit up when she saw it.

Our main entree is mini pimento cheese sandwiches.  We split 5 (there are 6 in a serving according to the nutritional information) Trader Joe's mini whole wheat pitas and filled them with Trader Joe's pimento cheese spread.  Molly is going to go crazy over this blast from the past.

Our vegetable side is mini cucumbers.  We used our crinkle knife to cut these up to make them look more like a pickle.  They are really crunchy and refreshing.

Our fruit side is a peach and some raspberries.  We found these peaches very inexpensively at a huge sale at  a local super market.  We like the combination for both aesthetic appeal and flavor.  

Finally, our dairy/dessert is plain vanilla yogurt.  Molly will more than likely add her raspberries to this yogurt.  She has been loving this combination of vanilla yogurt and fresh berries.

Pizza Friday!

Thing 2 graduated from preschool today and it was awesome.  The four of us, along with Grammy and Papa, watched as she sang her songs and received her diploma on the stage.  (sniff...sniff...)  She will be joining the ranks at the Elementary School in Kindergarten next year!  That also means that she will be the lucky recipient of a new Laptop Lunchbox of her own and get fun lunches just like Molly.

For now, we're still sticking with lunch just for Molly.  A Fun Friday of yumminess!

Our main entree is cheese pizza.  We picked up a "take and bake" pizza at the grocery store today after graduation so that we'd have an easy dinner.  There were plenty of leftovers so Molly is getting a slice in her lunch tomorrow.

Our vegetable side is a mini cucumber.  We sliced these into little nickle slices so that Molly can just pop them in her mouth.  They are SUPER crunchy and delicious.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  It's the merry berry month of May here in Pittsburgh so the strawberries are plentiful and amazingly scrumptious!

Our dairy side is a mozzarella and cheddar cheese stick.  We wanted to add a little extra protein so that Molly wasn't starving at the end of the day.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.  We picked these up as a special treat for Thing 2's special day.  The kids went gaga over them.