Pizza Wednesday

We can't have the end of school without an awesome pizza lunch.  So, even though it isn't our traditional Monday pizza, Wednesday is a good day for pizza.

Our main entrée is homemade pepperoni pizza.  We used our favorite Trader Joe's flatbread for our crust.  We added pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella and turkey pepperoni, then baked it in the toaster oven for a few minutes.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is cucumber sticks.  If you look back at Molly's Lunch Box, this is the most popular vegetable side because it truly is Molly's favorite.

Our fruit side is mixed berries.  We found some extra delicious strawberries, raspberries and blackberries at Sam's Club today.  Molly is going to be so excited to have these in her lunch tomorrow.

Our dairy side is a Colby Jack cheese stick.  Molly is going through a major growth spurt so the extra protein will keep her satisfied much longer.

Finally, our dessert is a very special Rice Krispie Treat that was "borrowed" from a larger batch.  Mommy made these for Daddy's co-worker's baby shower tomorrow.  She is expecting her baby boy in just a few weeks so we added some fun blue sprinkles.

Classic Lunch!

I was out for a run tonight, thanks to the gorgeous weather, and I was wondering what to make for Molly's lunch.  As I was running around my town, I was breathing in such great fresh air and reminiscing about fun picnics when I was a kid.  Even if we just threw a blanket on the lawn in the back yard and made a picnic there, it was always so much fun.  My Mom was always a fan of doing things outside so picnics were quite a regular occurrence.  She always made them fun too with little extra goodies or something different like a cool napkin.  My kids like to have picnics too, especially with my Mom.  What is their favorite picnic lunch?  Peanut butter and jelly of course.  They really like to help make it too.  We use little plastic spreaders and let them go to town and most of the time, they'll eat all of it.  So, I'm going to pay homage to a classic lunch, great memories and my incredible Mom.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

And Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, Sisters, Friends, Helpers and those special Dads who have to be a Mom as well as being a Dad!

Our main entrée is a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  No, Molly didn't help, but she would have if she would've been awake when I made it.  She just adores making her own things to eat.  We used a butterfly cookie cutter and a heart micro cookie cutter to cut these sandwiches out.

Our vegetable side is baby carrots.  This is such a simple and easy vegetable side that requires no prep work. Just open the bag, pull a handful out and put into the container.  A great way to get some veggies in without dirtying a knife and cutting board.

Our fruit side is Empire Apple slices.  Molly likes it when we leave the apple skin on.  She likens it to eating a whole apple.

Finally, our FUN Friday treat is exactly that...a treat, a Rice Krispie Treat!  Molly is the lucky recipient of a few leftovers.  Molly's Daddy had a few extra Rice Krispie Treats left over from his meeting last night and there were a few beach babe Teddy Grahams left over from Molly's sister's preschool treat.  A little bit of each makes for a super fun treat!

Happy Halloweenie!

I have found some great ideas for Halloween on the internet.  I found some incredible costume ideas and other ideas of how to use the things that I already have to embellish the costumes.  I also found some very unique snack and food ideas.  A few weeks ago, I posted about the fun snacks that I created for the PTA meeting in A little Spooky.  I've used a few more of these ideas for Molly's lunch tomorrow.

Our main entrée is mummy dogs.  We wrapped slices of refrigerated crescent roll dough around a mini beef hot dog and a few pieces of shredded cheddar.  We also poked holes for eyes and we would dot mustard on them at home but it won't last for lunch so we'll have to leave it up to Molly's imagination.

Our vegetable side is edamame.  We can pretend that its mummy brains to go along with our theme.

Our fruit side is a piece of apple with a little bit of peanut butter and a couple of mini marshmallows.  It kind of reminds us of the Muppet, Dr. Teeth.

Finally, we have a skeleton for dessert.  We made regular Rice Krispie treats and put orange food coloring in it.  We spread the "batter" on a wax paper lined cookie sheet so that it would be a thinner treat.  After the Rice Krispie treats cooled, we used a gingerbread boy cookie cutter to cut the bodies out.  Then, we melted some white chocolate and created the bones.

ps - we REALLY like Halloween at our house.

Monday Love

The weekend was beautiful and its back to school tomorrow.  I think its important to start the week of on a positive note so that the sentiment carries on through the week.  It dawned on me though, that sometimes even the kids can get a "case of the Mondays" now and then, so I decided to celebrate Monday with a little love.

 We start with a very yummy honey roasted peanut butter and Nutella sandwich on wheat bread that is cut into heart shapes.  This shows the little extra love from her family that Molly might be looking for on a Monday.  There are 2 large hearts that represent Mommy and Daddy and three little hearts that represent Molly, her sister and her brother.

Next we have crudités (or some fresh veggies cut up cutely but crudités sounds fancier!) served with roasted red pepper hummus.  There are cucumbers and baby carrots that are both cut with a crinkle cut knife, celery and a pepper from our garden that was half green and half red.  That's part of the fun of growing vegetables, you never know what they are going to look like until you pluck them off of the vine.

*side note - Not all kids are going to be jazzed about veggies and hummus but most kids that I know will at least try some vegetables if they are cut up in interesting shapes and/or served with a dip.  If you child doesn't like hummus, try ranch dressing or ranch dip made with sour cream and a dry ranch mix or even honey mustard.

For our fruit side, we cut up some strawberries (you have to take advantage of them before they are out of season) and added in a few red grapes that come from a batch that are particularly crunchy.  I like to mix textures to keep the food interesting.

Finally we have our dessert!  We made a healthier rice krispie treat.  We used puffed wheat cereal that we found in the inexpensive bagged cereal section of the grocery store.  We added the normal marshmallows but cut back on the butter just a little bit.  They taste similar to Sugar Smacks cereal only in bar form and the best part is, the nutritional value is MUCH better because you are using a whole grain durum wheat instead of a bleached rice.  ☺ Eating healthier doesn't mean sacrificing all of you favorites.  If there is a way to modify it to be healthier, then try it.