100th Day of School

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school for Molly.  It is such a milestone for these kids because even though school seems to drag on at this time of year because it's a reminder that summer is just around the corner.  They really don't celebrate it much as the kids get older but I've heard some fun things that some of the teachers are doing. My friend told me that her daughter's kindergarten class is dressing up like they are 100 years old.  I begged for pictures.  Molly had to bring in 100 of something when she was in Kindergarten.  She chose fun little glow in the dark beads because she was very into making bracelets with them at that point in time. 

Happy 100th Day of School, Everyone!

Our main entree is a pita pocket sandwich.  We used a new whole wheat half pita and stuffed it with salami and provolone.  We then used one of our food safe markers and wrote a little message for Molly on it.

Our vegetable side is green pepper.  We cut out several 100's with a small cookie cutter.  Molly just loves peppers and we thought it would be a nice compliment to her sandwich.

Our fruit side is natural (no sugar added) applesauce.  Molly has a loose tooth so she asked to have things that wouldn't hurt her tooth.  We added a 100 that we cut out of a whole fruit leather.  We're not sure if this will be swimming in the applesauce by the time Molly gets to lunch, but that might be fun to find too. 

Our dairy side is a cheese stick.  Just in case Molly is still hungry after eating the rest of her lunch.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat and 100th day of School treat is strawberry Jell-O Jigglers cut into a 100 with our trusty cookie cutters. ☺

Loose Tooth

Molly finally, (at 7 years old) has her first loose tooth.  She got her first tooth about a week before her first birthday so the dentist said not to be surprised if she gets her grown up teeth a little later too.  I was talking to her about her day and as I was looking at her, I noticed that there seemed to be a small gap between her bottom teeth that hadn't been there before.  I asked her if her tooth was wiggly and she showed me, with her chest puffed out in pride, that indeed it was.

We made sure to give her some softer foods so that she has an easy time eating.  Our only issue was finding a vegetable that she would eat cold that wasn't too crunchy.  I offered edamame or peas but she wasn't interested.  At this point in time we're fine with no vegetables as long as she eats.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We used whole grain white bread, peanut butter and cherry preserves.  We then cut out small leaf patterns with mini leaf cookie cutters.  We're loving fall and the beautiful leaves so we are paying homage to them.

Our fruit side is unsweetened applesauce and grapes.  Molly requested both of these since they are nice and soft but still taste good.

Our dairy side is a twisted cheese stick.  Molly said that she missed this in her lunch today so we ran out and got some for her.

Our extra crunch is baby goldfish.  We figured that there was enough mushy food in here so a little crunch was a nice touch.

Finally, our dessert is low fat strawberry yogurt.  Molly said that she still likes vanilla but that strawberry would be a nice change.  She's so sweet when she asks for things kind of shyly.

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.