All Request Lunch

Most of the time, I ask the girls if they want anything in particular and tonight was no different.  This time, they both chose different things so Daddy helped to get things started while I was at run club.  Team work!

Molly's main entree is pasta salad.  It's whole grain penne pasta with a little bit of salami, mozzarella cheese, red peppers and light Italian dressing.  

Bean's main entree is peanut butter and jelly.  Molly's vegetable side is in her pasta, Bean's is an orange pepper on the side.  We also added a cheese stick to Bean's.

Our fruit side is strawberries.  We added a little sunflower pick to this container.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt.  We added some mini chocolate chips that have fun colors on them.

Our little notes are from Lunchbox Love.  They went through a lot with Hurricane Sandy and they are doing a wonderful thing by donating to victims.  Here's their story.  http://bit.ly/W6YqfG  When you order, use the code MOLLY to save 15%.

Fall Fun Lunch

The girls both requested peanut butter and jelly.  I love days like this!

Our main entree is peanut butter and jelly that we cut with leaf shaped cookie cutters. Fall is almost over here in western PA.  There are only a couple of leaves left on the trees.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.

Our fruit side is clementines, pomegranate arils and starfruit.

Finally, our dairy dessert is vanilla yogurt.  There is a little cinnamon sprinkled on top.

 

Fun Fall Lunch

We had a very full weekend with lots of fall traditions.  We did our annual trek up to McConnell's Mill State Park and had a blast running around and piling up leaves, then jumping in the leaves.  We got some great photos for our memory book.  Then, we went to Brown's Country Kitchen (a little hole in the wall joint with awesome food) for some lunch and homemade pie.  Finally, we stopped at Baldinger's Candy store on the way home.  We let the kids each pick out 10 pieces of candy since Halloween is right around the corner.  If you are interested in checking these places out, I have more details about them in this post.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that has been cut into leaf shapes to reminisce about our fun weekend.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers and carrots.

Our fruit side is strawberries and pomegranate arils.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Very Berry Chobani Champions Greek yogurt.

Camping Lunch

When the girls at Bento Bloggers and Friends came up with a summer lunch themed blog hop (see below), I jumped right in. *pun intended* This is a fantastic group of ladies that make incredible lunches for their kids and even some of them make lunches for their husbands.  They are all a great source of inspiration.

When given the theme of a summer lunch, I was torn between doing something like the summer lunch that I made for Molly at the end of the school year and something new.  I thought about some of our favorite summer activities and our theme was born.  Camping!

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We cut our sandwich into a triangle and used our food safe markers to create our camping tent.

Our vegetable side is campfire peppers.  We cut pieces of yellow, orange and red peppers into flames, stacked them and put some kindling, a/k/a pretzel sticks, at the bottom.  These were a big hit.

Our fruit side is a banana, a sleeping bag banana.  We cut the banana in half and wrapped it with a fruit roll up.  Then, we added some chow mein noodles for crazy bed head hair.  Finally, we used our food safe markers to add a sleepy face.  *note: the moisture from the banana makes the fruit roll up very sticky and messy, but still yummy.

Our dairy side is a Babybel cheese.  We cut out a little tree shape in the red wax.  We are always surrounded by big beautiful trees when we go camping.

Finally, our dessert is roasted marshmallows.  We put mini marshmallows on pretzel sticks and used the burner from our gas stove to toast the marshmallows.  All three of the kids LOVED this, especially because they could eat the stick. ☺

*This tray is from Target and the cup filled with water is from Ikea.

Now, head on over to visit the incredibly talented Shannon at the awesome What's For Lunch At Our House by clicking on the blog hop link below and keep hopping for some great summer lunch inspiration.

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.

Dance Recital Lunch

Molly and her sister will be performing tomorrow night in their dance recital.  They are both very excited.  Molly will be in a ballet number and a tap number.  She loves her tap costume (black and blue with little black sparkles) and her ballet costume looks like a beautiful pink and yellow flowing flower.  They both get to wear make-up...REAL make-up and Molly's little sister just loves make-up.  (Daddy's not a fan of the make-up but he agrees that they look beautiful.)

We've made a very special dance themed lunch for the special day, along with a very special Fun Friday treat.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We used our ballerina cookie cutter to cut it out and our food safe markers to decorate it.  (Not my best effort.  It's quite an odd shape.)

Our vegetable side is star shaped cucumbers.  We know that Molly will be a star tomorrow night!  We used our micro cookie cutter to cut these little stars out.

Our fruit side is strawberries.  We used a larger star cookie cutter to cut these out.  We also added a ballet slipper ring to this container.  Molly will be so excited because she is giddy about rings every single time we put one in her lunch.  (We have one for her sister too!)

Our dairy side is a Babybel cheese.  We used the same micro cookie cutter that we used for the cucumbers to cut out a tiny star from the wax.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is ballet slipper cookies.  We dipped nutter butter cookies in pink chocolate, let them set and then added some white chocolate embellishments.  Cute and delicious!

Field Trip Lunch!

Molly is going on a field trip tomorrow.  She and several other children in GATE/High-Achieving Students are heading to the Pittsburgh Playhouse to see, "Yo Vikings!"  Molly can't wait because she gets to dress up, ride a school bus (we live on the same street as the school so we walk) and seeing a fun play.  Yo Vikings! is about a girl named Emma who's world is transformed into an epic Viking adventure.  We used the flyer that came home as our inspiration for Molly's packed "brown bag" lunch.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We cut out a Viking shape and used our food safe markers to create a Viking.  We put this sandwich in a recyclable blueberry container so that it won't be squished.  We got this idea from our friend Keeley McGuire, who also blogs about her daughter's lunch.  Click here for the post that we got the idea from.

Our vegetable side is baby carrots.  Molly requested these because they tasted good to her today.

Our fruit side is an apple/strawberry squeeze applesauce on the go.  No bruising of the fruit and lots of yummy flavor.

We added pretzels, Annie's Snickerdoodle Bunnies and Annie's Organic Fruit Snacks and a mini bottle of water to round out Molly's lunch.

Molly's lunch bag is our take on the cover art for the book "Yo Vikings!", but we made Molly the main character, Emma.  We also changed the title to Yo Molly! so that she has her name on her lunch, as requested.  ☺

Marathon Lunch

If you follow this blog, you may know that Molly's Daddy and I will be running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon this Sunday.  This is Daddy's second half marathon and Mommy's 1st.  I'm excited and terrified at the same time.  I trust in my training and the shape that my body is in so I'm confident that it will be an absolute blast.

In honor of this massively amazing event, we decided to theme Molly's lunch with fun little bits from our training as "Runners of Steel" in our awesome city.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We used whole grain white bread, spread on some natural peanut butter and low sugar strawberry jam.  Then, we used our food safe markers to create a running shoe.

Our vegetable side is frozen peas.  These will thaw down and be a great cool addition.  The peas remind us of the little sport jelly beans that we use to fuel during long runs.  They are also a great source natural carbohydrate, something that runners are always looking for.

Our fruit side is a banana with some Nutella inside of it.  Runners love bananas for potassium and a quick sugar boost with carbohydrate.  We also added the word RUN using a strawberry fruit leather and our alphabet micro cookie cutters.

Our dairy side is a cheddar and mozzarella cheese stick.  This is a great source of protein.  A runner needs a certain amount of protein to fuel their muscles and keep their appetite satisfied long after the carbohydrates have burned off.

Finally, our dessert is Mommy's favorite post race snack.  Pretzels with a few dark chocolate chips.  The salt helps to keep electrolytes in check and the chocolate, well, it's dark chocolate...enough said.

Best of luck to our fellow Runners of Steel as we all tackle the City of Bridges!

Fridge Clean Out Lunch

We're feeling a lot better today, thank goodness!  Our goal is to make sure that we eat what is in the refrigerator since there were a few days of take out.  The less we throw out, the more money we save and the less waste we create.

Our main entree is a peanut and butter sandwich.  We are out of some things so we decided that an old fashioned pb&j would work just fine.

Our vegetable entree is canned green beans.  These were part of our dinner so it was easy to just toss them in Molly's lunch.  She will eat these warm, cold or just out of the can.  (Just like her mother!)

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.  These only have a few days left so we needed to use them before they were a lost cause and sent to the compost bin.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions orange vanilla Greek yogurt.  We also added a small container of mini chocolate chips in the strawberry box.  Molly really enjoys mixing these into her yogurt.

Classic PB&J

I had an incredible run tonight with the peeps at Mojo Running and Multisport, as usual.  My asthma was beating me up a little bit because the temperature dropped suddenly and it was very damp outside, but I kept on trucking as well as I could.

To reward myself, I went out with the crew afterward to have a beer and to try an anomaly called the "Gobblerito" at Mad Mex.  My girl, Jenn, has been raving about this concoction for weeks.  It is basically Thanksgiving dinner wrapped up in a flour tortilla, covered in gravy and served with a side of cranberry sauce.  It was phenomenal!  Seriously!  If you are anywhere near a Mad Mex restaurant, you must try it.  It's only around for a little while longer, then comes the Feast Navidad Burrito that just so happens to include roast beast.

Our main entree is a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We were inspired by the gobblerito when choosing which cookie cutters to use.  Thanksgiving is only a week away so we broke out the turkey cookie cutter and a leaf cookie cutter.

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.  These will be a nice palate cleanser after the peanut butter.

Our fruit side is brought to you by the letter "P".  Pears and pomegranates.  These compliment each other very nicely because the pear is a bit on the mild side and the pomegranate arils are more vibrant in flavor.

Finally, our dairy/dessert it Chobani Champions Honey-Nana Greek yogurt.  Molly said that she really enjoyed this variety the other day and decided that she'd like to try it again.

Hello, Tooth Fairy!!!

Today was a very exciting day in our house.  Molly's little sister was the snack person and had a blast sharing her fruity froggie face snack at preschool.  (See Below)  Then, we had dance class for both of the girls.  Finally, Molly had a dentist appointment.  She had a fantastic report, no cavities, plus her smile is perfect.  The dentist said that Molly's tooth was really loose but we could leave it and let it fall out on it's own, which Molly seemed happy with.  But, when we got to the car, she started crying a little bit.  She said that she was having trouble eating and that her tooth hurt in school.  So, back into the dentist office we went and had the dentist take it out.  Now, we are pleased to report that the Tooth Fairy, herself, will be visiting our house.  A full report will be included in tomorrow's post.

Our main entree is peanut butter and jelly.  We cut these into fall fun shapes, including leaves and acorns. (The acorns look a little like bells to us)  We figured that these would be easy to eat for Molly with her missing tooth.

Our vegetable side is sliced cucumbers.  We used our crinkle knife to make Molly's favorite shapes.  She said that they taste better when they are cut like this.

Our fruit side is green grapes.  We added a few plastic cupcake picks in the shape of leaves to match our sandwiches.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is the return of Molly's favorite Chobani Champions Verry Berry.  She doesn't know that we picked these up at the store.  We think that she'll be very excited to see this.  Almost as excited as she will be with her visit from the Tooth Fairy!

*These are the Fruity Froggy Faces that we sent in for the Preschool Snack today for "F,f" day.  We try to keep our snacks healthy and fun.  These are apples, with cream cheese balls with an added mini-chocolate chip for eyes and a piece of fruit roll up for a tongue.  They were a big hit!  Nothing was sent home but the container. ☺

Though.....we did have one flattened frog........ Whoops!!!  No worries, we fixed it!  HAHA!

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.

Classics Are Always Good

This is a very busy week at our house.  The girls started Faith Formation (a/k/a CCD) tonight and their Daddy is a Catechist (teacher) at the church so everyone was really excited to get things started.  This weekend is the semi-annual Consignment Sale at Molly's little sister's preschool so I will be busy helping there this week.  Also, Molly's Daddy and I are lucky enough to be seeing Wicked this week in downtown Pittsburgh.  It is one of my all time favorite Broadway musicals and the theaters here in Pittsburgh are amazing.  There is not a bad seat in either Heinz Hall or the Benedum Center.  We have something on the calendar everyday this week but, we will do our best take a breath and enjoy it.  ☺

Tomorrow's lunch started out with a general idea for sides but I didn't think of the main entree until I was almost done with everything else.  Then it hit me, nothing is better than a classic!

Our main entree is a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich.  PB&J is good any day of the week.  We used whole grain white bread, added the peanut butter, Trader Joe's No Sugar Added Grape Jelly and used a large butterfly and a small butterfly cookie cutter to cut them out.

Our vegetable side is a green salad.  We added a few pieces of red and orange bell pepper and some black olives.  We are serving Ken's Steak House Light Italian Dressing on the side.  We've also added a Babybel Cheese to this container for some extra protein.  We used a micro cookie cutter to cut out a heart on the wax outer layer.

Our fruit side is a sliced McIntosh apple.  It's that time of year here in Western Pennsylvania.  There are apples and pumpkins galore!  These McIntosh apples are petite with a wonderful sweet and tart flavor.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is a Chobani Champions Greek Yogurt in Verry Berry.  Molly will be so excited when she sees this.  She has really taken a liking to these and isn't seeming to get bored with them.  This makes us very happy since they are so good for her.

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!

Lenten Lunch

Tomorrow is our first Lenten lunch because Molly bought her lunch on Wednesday.  When I was growing up we always had grilled cheese and tomato soup or fried fish on Fridays but now we have to be a little bit more creative since we serve a cold lunch.  Also, our family gave up fast food for Lent so any type of food that we serve is homemade.  If we give Molly her favorite cold pizza on Mondays, it will be made by us and not our favorite Sir Pizza.  Hopefully we will have some good ideas for our Lenten lunches and maybe break some traditions.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread.  Yeah, not the most creative meatless meal but we have high hopes that there will be some more inspired entrées over the next few weeks.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers and baby carrots.  These will provide a nice crunchy texture and help to cleanse her palate from the peanut butter.

Our fruit side is a clementine and some fresh pineapple.  This tropical blend is a very refreshing and juicy.

Finally, our fun Friday dessert is a few Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies.  Molly's little brother hasn't been feeling well and he LOVES cookies so we splurged and got some for him.  But since he isn't quite 2 years old yet, he is more than happy to share his container of cookies since he can't eat them all.  Well, he probably could but Mom won't let him. ☺

Typical Tuesday

Molly went GAGA over the sushi today.  The thing I love about her is that she knows how much time it takes to make the sushi and she is so appreciative.  She is also pretty logical and knows that she can't get sushi everyday so she requested peanut butter and jelly for Tuesday's lunch.

Our main entrée is a classic peanut butter and jelly.  We used Jif peanut butter and Trader Joe's strawberry jam and spread them on whole wheat bread.  We used a large flower cookie cutter for the main sandwich and a micro triangle cookie cutter for the smaller sandwiches.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers.  We sliced these and then notched out a few triangles around the sides to make them look like little flowers.

Our fruit side is some fresh strawberries.  Molly really likes just about any type of berry and we are very lucky to have them available to us.

Finally, our dessert/dairy side is Dannon Light and Fit strawberry yogurt.  Just a little something different from our normal vanilla to change things up a bit.

Holy Snow!

Living in Western PA, the weather is beyond unpredictable.  The weather man this morning said that we were supposed to get 2 to 4 inches of snow starting at 9pm tonight.  Well, when I left to pick Molly up from school this afternoon, we had just under an inch of snow already.  Now, we have at least 6 inches and the precipitation is still coming down heavily.  Molly's school already has a 2 hour delay and they may just cancel school altogether but we made lunch anyway, just in case.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly on white.  We purchased some "uncrustable" like sandwiches at the store just to have on hand and decided to try one for Molly's lunch.  These things are loaded with peanut butter, no wonder the kids like them so much. ☺

Our vegetable side is cucumber slices.  They will hopefully cut the peanut butter a little bit.

Our fruit side is a mix of fresh berries.  Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.  Sam's Club is always good for fresh and delicious berries year round.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt.

100th Day of School Lunch!

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school!!!  Molly is so excited because every year the teachers make a big deal about the 100th day.  We had our open house for school tonight and all of the talk was about what was going to happen for tomorrow and how they were going to mark the big day.  Molly wanted to make sure that she would wear something that represented the 100th day so we found the necklace that she made last year that has 100 beads on it.  She also asked for something in her lunch to follow the theme so, here we go!

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We do not have number cookie cutters so we freehanded the 100, which was pretty difficult on whole grain bread.  haha!

Our vegetable side is orange bell pepper slices.  These offer a color that is different from the normal green or red that we usually have for Molly's veggies.

Our fruit side is a clementine and some red grapes.  The grapes were a huge hit in today's lunch and she requested that they be part of tomorrows lunch.

Our dessert side is Trader Joe's Ginger Cat cookies.  Molly really likes these and hasn't had these in her lunch box for a while so we decided to add them.

Tomorrow isn't just the 100th day, it's FUN FRIDAY!  So, we added a few Hershey's Kisses as an extra bonus.  Molly has been working really hard and deserves this special little treat.

Monday Monday

We had a very full weekend.  Though there was a day off of school on Friday, that was the last time that we took a rest.  Saturday, we saw The Laurie Berkner Band Live at Heinz Hall!  It was AMAZING!  It was Birthday Party themed and we were sure to dress up and wear our favorite party hats.  We sang and danced for over an hour and didn't stop smiling until we were asleep in our beds that night.

Sunday, Molly's cousin was baptized and we were so honored to be part of such a special day.  Watching her be bathed in the spirit of Christ Our Lord was just incredible.  The service was wonderful and included a nice variety of delightful music.

A fantastic weekend all together.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread.  We had so much great music this weekend that we decided to use our music note (eighth note) cookie cutter to keep the theme going.  FYI: We had to stack our two sandwiches to fit into the container in case you were worried that Molly only got half of a sandwich.
*Blogger's note: We turned our photo so that it would be easier to recognize the music note.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers.  We sliced these very thinly and Molly really likes them like that.  They are still crisp but it creates a different type of texture.

Our fruit side is fresh strawberries.  We found these at Sam's Club.  We were a little worried that they might not be sweet enough but decided to buy them anyway because Sam's has a 200% guarantee on their produce.  Well, they aren't as sweet as they usually are in the middle of the summer but they are definitely delicious.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Dannon Light and Fit strawberry yogurt.  Molly requested this as usual.  A light, sweet and creamy end to her lunch.

No Pizza Monday

We had a rare thing happen this weekend.  No pizza!  Well, the kids had pizza on Saturday night but there were no left overs for Molly's Monday lunch.  This was a big dilemma since I usually count on that Monday staple.  So, I asked Molly what she wanted for lunch tomorrow and her request was a good old peanut butter and jelly.  Also, we had part of our extended family over today and made some chocolate chip cookies and those were definitely on the request list.  So, although she may not indulge in her regular Monday pizza, she does get a nice little treat instead.

Our main entrée is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat.  We chose classic Jif creamy peanut butter and Trader Joe's strawberry jam.  A great combination.

Our fruit side is a mix of blueberries and kiwi.  We found these blueberries at Sam's Club at a pretty decent price and they are nice and sweet.  Molly will be really excited to have two of her favorite fruits in her lunch.

Our dairy side is Dannon Light & Fit vanilla yogurt.  This was another request of Molly's.  We are more than happy to give it to her too.  It is so good for her, yet she thinks of it as just another delicious treat.

Finally, we have our homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Molly, her sister and our special friend helped to make these awesome treats.  There is just something about homemade chocolate chip cookies, they taste better than just about anything else in this world. ☺