Theme Lunch 3 - Summertime!

We can't wait until summer vacation begins.  We have grand plans of hanging out poolside at Grammy and Papa's house with fun in the sun, swimming, building sandcastles, hanging out at the neighbor's fire pit, eating great fresh fruits and vegetables and catching fireflies!

Our main entree is a salami and colby jack cheese sandwich.  We used a foot shaped cookie cutter to cut it out and then added a flip flop with our food safe markers.  Finally, we added a little sunglasses pick.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.  We used our crinkle knife to cut the cucumbers for extra fun.  We then added a beach ball pick to this container.

Our fruit side is watermelon.  Nothing says summer quite like fresh watermelon.  We used a small starfish cookie cutter to cut out a few pieces and then added some fun summer picks.  We have a sand pail and shovel, sunglasses and a beach umbrella.

Finally, our dessert is.....MONEY$$$$!  Summertime and ice cream go hand in hand.  We put a few quarters into a tiny container  form Molly to buy some ice cream.  We added it to a bigger container that we lined with a foil cupcake line and then added a cute ice cream cone ring.  Molly loves her rings!

Only a few days before it's summer all the time!!!  As Phineas and Ferb would sing, ♪♫ There's 104 days of summer vacation til school comes along just to end it.  So, the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it. ♫♪  This summer is going to be GREAT!

Final Lunch of the School Year!

WOW!  So, this is it, the final full day of school which means the final lunch of the school year.  What a year it has been.  We are so proud of Molly.  She has transitioned into an avid reader with some mad math skills.  She has grown about three inches in height and probably 5 pounds in weight. She is currently going through yet another growth spurt.  She seems like a different kid.  She has matured by leaps and bounds and doesn't seem so little anymore.

Each of her lunches have been a labor of love.  I've learned so much from her feedback and from suggestions of other Moms and Dads.  I feel so proud to have completed the blog for the year and I can't wait to see the fun and new things that next year hold.  A HUGE shout out to Laptop Lunches for making such an incredible lunch box that has allowed us to create these healthy and delicious lunches every single day.

For our final lunch, we are looking back at the very first lunch of this school year.  This is one of her ultimate favorite foods of all time. We LOVE YOU so much, Molly!  Congratulations on another successful school year!

Our main entrée is vegetable sushi!  Molly loves her sushi and we figured that we'd take Molly's Lunch Box full circle and end with what we started with.  We made some brown sushi rice, spread it on the nori and added light cream cheese, cucumber and carrots.  On the side we have the classic light soy sauce.

Our vegetable side is multi-colored peppers.  Molly would eat peppers everyday and she will as soon as they grow in our garden this summer.  We have little buds and the promise of some yummy goodies all summer long.

Our fruit side is a summer classic...watermelon.  We keep getting the mini watermelons because they are so sweet.  We think that watermelon is the perfect fruit to get Molly in the mood for summer.

Our final side is our dessert.  We found these Heath Chips Ahoy cookies and figured that they would be a fantastic Fun Final Day treat.  Molly really likes Heath toffee so she will be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, we gave Molly a special drink instead of her usual water.  Sushi is great with iced tea so we gave Molly some Snapple Mango and Papaya iced tea.  We think that she will be ecstatic with this choice.

*Thank you all for reading Molly's Lunch Box.  It has been so much fun to share my ideas and Molly's favorite foods with each of you.  Please tune in for some new ideas and delicious healthy lunches coming to your computer in September.

Ham and Cheese Biscuits

I'm trying to be creative and think of new things to put in Molly's lunch box for the last few weeks of the school year.  I usually keep a package of canned biscuits in the refrigerator just in case we need a side to go with dinner.  But lately, I've been using them for Molly's lunch (and everyone else's too) when digging up new ideas.  So, for tomorrow's lunch, another new idea.

Our main entrée is ham and cheese biscuits.  We sliced a biscuit in half, put in reduced fat American cheese and a little bit of light ham, pressed it together and baked it.  Daddy says that they taste great. We also added more Baby Goldfish Crackers, as per Molly's request.

Our vegetable side is mini dill pickles.  This too was a request.  We think that she would eat them with every meal but she does crave them more at lunch time.

Our fruit side is our incredible watermelon.  So sweet and juicy with such a refreshing flavor.  Thanks to Molly's Daddy for cutting the whole huge watermelon up for us so that we can enjoy it more easily.

Finally, we have our little dessert.  Not much room again today so we tossed in a couple of Butterfinger eggs as a little sweetness to end the meal.

Trying something new!

Today was the last day of preschool for Molly's little sister.  Bittersweet and an absolutely incredible day.  The preschool has a carnival at the end of the year for their 3 year old program and today was the day.  We played games, painted faces, got tattoos (only temporary Grammy, don't worry), bounced around, fished for ducks and ate some yummy treats with incredible friends.

The fact that we went to the carnival meant that we didn't get a chance to do our normal Tuesday run to Sam's Club during the day.  So, when I picked Molly up from school, to Sam's Club we went.  Luckily for us, they were sampling the new Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Sandwich Bread.  I've seen these and have been wanting to try them so our timing was perfect.  Molly really liked them so in the cart they went and in the lunch box they are!

Our main entrée is a Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Sandwich.  We put a piece of colby jack cheese in between the sandwich slices and toasted it in the toaster oven.  Molly said that it will be like a grilled cheese and a quesadilla combined.  We think that she's right on!  We also tossed in a few baby Goldfish crackers because when a fish is in a school, he has to have company. (ba dum bum...cha!  haha!)

Our vegetable side is fresh sugar snap peas.  They are back in season and just as delicious as ever!

Our fruit side is a super sweet watermelon.  We found this at Sam's and we really picked a good one.  Very juicy and sweet with an amazing fragrance, this watermelon is a sign of summer and the wonderful things that it brings.

Finally, there wasn't much room for any dessert so we tucked a small package of Skittles in with Molly's silverware.  She might just jump out of her skin because she has gotten real desserts for two days in a row.  But she has been such a good girl that she deserves it.  Go Molly!

Easter Lunch

I was looking for some neat things to make for Molly's lunch tomorrow since it is the last full day of school before Easter break.  I couldn't find too many examples besides desserts.  So, my brain was in full on creative mode.  I used a few ideas that I had found with the desserts and tweaked them a little bit.

Happy Easter one and all!  Christ is Risen Indeed!

Our main entrée is bunny biscuits.  We took refrigerated biscuits and added shredded cheddar cheese to them for flavor.  We then used a circular cookie cutter to cut out the face and then using the same cutter, cut the ears off of the corners of the biscuit.  After attaching the ears to the head, we added turkey pepperoni noses, whiskers and inner ears.  Then, we added black olive ends for eyes and small section of the olive for a smile.

Our vegetable side is a cucumber bird's nest with three small mozzarella balls inside to represent eggs.  We have a vegetable peeler that makes "spaghetti" noodles out of the vegetables and we used it to make the nest.

Our fruit side is watermelon and cantaloupe.  We used a small bunny cookie cutter to cut these out into adorable Easter shapes.  These fruits are extremely sweet and juicy.

Finally, our "fun Friday" on a Wednesday treat is a chocolate dipped Peeps marshmallow treat.  Molly really likes regular Peeps so we figured that she'd really like one that was dipped in chocolate.

Again, Happy Easter.  May God Bless You!