Something New

Our local grocery store intrigued me today by offering new and exotic fruits.  I had seen some of them before and some, I hadn't.  Most of these were pretty expensive and if I'm going to dip deep into my budget, I want to make sure that I at least like it.  We went for the least expensive variety of "fruit" so that we could all try it without breaking the bank.

Our main entree is mini-ravioli pasta salad.  We cooked up a bunch of Trader Joe's dried mini cheese ravioli for dinner and saved some for Molly's lunch.  We added black olives, light shredded mozzarella, turkey pepperoni and light Italian dressing.

Our vegetable side is a garden salad.  Molly loves black olives so we added a few extra to her salad.  On the side is more of her favorite light Italian dressing.  We figured it would go nicely with the pasta salad.  We added a Babybel cheese on top for extra protein.

Our fruit side is our "something new".  We decided on a pepino melon.  These originate mostly in South America and are really neat looking.  The pepino melon is small, like a large lemon and the skin is a pale yellow with dark purple stripes.  Pepino translates into cucumber and it is a very good translation.  The flavor (minus the skin, which is edible but not very tasty) is a mix between cucumber, pear and banana.  Very interesting.  The texture is soft, like a cantaloupe so it was easy to cut with our crinkle knife.  We're excited to see what Molly's verdict it.

Finally, our dessert is unsweetened applesauce.  Molly has been asking for this lately and since the pepino melon isn't all that sweet, we figured that it would be a nice addition to her lunch.

Another Request!

Since Blogger wasn't working last night, I am going to blog about Molly's lunch a little late so it will be short. This whole lunch was by request.  It all stemmed from our mini ravioli dinner and blossomed from there.

Our main entrée is a pasta salad.  Trader Joe's sells these yummy little packages of deliciousness and calls them mini ravioli.  Our whole family really likes them, even the pickier eaters.  We made these dry pastas for dinner last night and used the left overs for Molly's lunch.  We added some light Italian dressing and small pieces of pepperoni for spice.

Our vegetable side is a baby spinach salad with cucumbers, shredded carrots and fennel.  We served some of the light Italian dressing on the side to compliment the pasta salad.

Our fruit side is a kiwi sliced into spears.  Just a little different than the normal round slices.

Finally our dairy/dessert side is Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries.

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.