Pepperoni Roll

I went to my favorite bake shop to get some birthday goodies (my birthday was yesterday) and picked up a pepperoni roll for the girls while I was there so tomorrow's lunch was nice and easy. 

Tomorrow's lunch is in a Laptop Lunches bento box.

Our main entree is the scrumptious pepperoni roll.

Our vegetable side is mixed pepper rings.

Our fruit side is raspberries and blueberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is plain Greek yogurt with honey and a few sprinkles.

Theme Lunch 2 - Teddy Bear Picnic

Four days left in the count down to the last day of school.  Our theme week is going on strong and what better to remind us of summer than a teddy bear picnic?

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We used potato bread, natural peanut butter and Trader Joe's Reduced Sugar Apricot Jam.  We then used a small teddy bear cookie cutter to cut out our little bear family.  Finally, we used our food safe markers to add details and a little picnic basket pick.

Our vegetable side is ants on a log.  What is a picnic without ants?  We used our natural peanut butter again on celery with currants because Molly really liked that last time.

Our fruit side is checkered apples.  We found this idea from Jenn at Bento for Kidlet.  She has a great little tutorial here.  Looks just like a checkered table cloth to us.  We also added a giant ant that we found at our local bake shop.  

Finally, our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt with fun colored sprinkles.  It reminds us of some fun desserts that we have had at our picnics.  Our kids are fans of funfetti cupcakes or cookies with sprinkles as a great picnic treat.

Fun Friday Lunch

Molly had an absolute blast at "Yo Vikings!" today.  She loved how the book came to life and the fact that the main character had such a vivid imagination, kind of like our Molly.  I'm so happy that we live in a city where a short bus ride can offer awesome theater, music and world class museums plus an incredible zoo.  The "burgh" sure is a great place to live.

Our main entree is turkey pepperoni, crackers and cheese.  Molly requested this just before bed tonight.  Sometimes, she's all about the finger food.

Our vegetable side is sugar snap peas.  These looked so yummy at the store yesterday, that we had to pick them up.  They are sweet, crunchy and juicy.

Our fruit side is a mix of berries.  One of our local grocery stores has raspberries 2/$3 so we loaded up.  We added a few blueberries and blackberries too.

Our dairy is plain old vanilla yogurt....but we added some fun sprinkles to liven it up a bit.  The weekend is almost here so we're ready to celebrate!

Finally, our fun Friday treat is an Archer Farms Organic blueberry fruit strip.  We purchase these at Target all of the time and they usually serve as an after school snack or an accompaniment to yogurt at breakfast, which means that there aren't any left for lunch.  We held on to one just for Friday.

*Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mommies out there!  My plan is to sleep in and that is enough for me.  ☺

Christmas Ornament Apple

We love Christmas at our house and we are always looking for some new and fun ways to celebrate.  Molly's little sister is going to be the snack person for the Christmas Party at her Preschool later this month, so we got our thinking caps on and did a little internet research.  We found some incredibly cute ideas and decided to give one of them a try in Molly's lunch.

Our main entree is a croissant sandwich.  We found these miniature croissants at Aldi during our last shopping trip.  We sliced the croissant in half and toasted it to reduce the soggy factor.  Then, we added half of a piece of provolone and some salami.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is cucumbers that have been cut with our favorite crinkle knife.  We sliced them pretty thin and they look a little bit like pickles.

Our fruit side is our Christmas Ornament Apple!  We sliced an apple in half, cored it and then cut it into three sections.  We spread a small amount of peanut butter on the slices, then stuffed some mini marshmallows between them.  Finally, we added a little piece of a small pretzel knot for the hook on our ornament.  If it were Fun Friday, we would probably have added some mini M&Ms to adorn the marshmallows and make them look more festive.  

Our dairy side is a colby jack cheese stick.  Molly has been extra hungry lately (growth spurt?) so a bit of extra bone strengthening calcium and some hunger staving protein seemed like a nice addition.

Finally, our dessert is vanilla yogurt with Christmas sprinkles.  We're going to be adding a little more Christmas cheer to each lunch.  Sprinkles are a great way to add some fun to any lunch. 

Picture Day!

Tomorrow is picture day at Molly's school.  She is so excited.  We made sure to put lots of products in her hair after her shower this evening.  (Her hair is naturally curly so the more products, the better.)  Her outfit is all picked out and will be ironed shortly.  The perfect little corduroy skirt and a matching sweater twin set, plus pink tights and adorable brown shoes.  She's got it all taken care of from head to toe.  I confess that I did help her out a little bit with the wardrobe choice but she had it all put together for me to look at.  Gosh, it is nice to have her be able to help herself a little bit when it comes to picking out clothes.  Granted, some of her choices make quite interesting ensembles from time to time. ☺

Our main entree is a turkey wrap.  We started with a flour tortilla, added some whipped cream cheese to help everything stick, then layered smoked turkey slices and "salad" for crunch.  We rolled it up and then cut it into 4 pieces after cutting the ends off.  (The dog was very grateful for the ends that were thrown to him during preparation.)

Our vegetable side is red and orange peppers.  We are falling for fall right now in Western Pennsylvania and the season is in full swing.  The weather is cool, damp and crisp and the leaves are just starting to change color.  We used a small set of leaf shaped cookie cutters to make our peppers look like they are ready for autumn.

Our fruit side is green and red grapes.  We decided to mix it up a little bit so that Molly had some extra color in her lunch.  We think it's fun to see variety when eating a meal.

Our dairy side is a colby-jack cheese stick, just in case Molly is hungry after eating her wrap.  She has a very healthy appetite for a 7 year old and we don't want her to lose steam before the end of the school day.

Finally, our dessert is vanilla yogurt.  We tossed on a few leaf sprinkles to keep with our theme and to make her lunch that much more colorful.

Do Over With Help

Molly has recently expressed an interest in helping to make her lunches.  I've changed my schedule a bit lately and I'm home more often in the evening.  So, I figured that the more involved she is in the process, the more likely she'll eat it or try new things.  (Note: She doesn't eat all of her lunch all of the time and will sometimes turn her nose up to trying something new or very odd to her.)  Molly enjoyed her lunch so much today that we are repeating a few of the same things, and she helped to make them!

Our main entrée is Molly's favorite "quesadilla."  She spread Trader Joe's Pimento Cheese Spread on a Trader Joe's Middle Eastern Flat Bread, folded it in half and we cut it into quarters.

Our vegetable side is the same as yesterday's lunch as well.  We sliced up a few cucumbers and added a pinch of Trader Joe's Shredded Carrots for sweetness.

Our fruit side is a clementine with a handful of blueberries.  Molly peeled and divided the clementine and added the blueberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Dannon Light and Fit Vanilla Yogurt with a special little twist for our helpful little chef.  We tossed a bit of teddy bear sprinkles on top for a splash of color and fun.