Flowers and Mice

Getting ready to go back to school from Labor Day, which my daughter declared, "the worst day ever" cause she isn't going to school today. Guess it's a good thing she likes school, but still...I think the separation has been worse on me than on her!

I can't wait to hear what she thinks of her lunch for tomorrow. I might have not have mentioned this, but she likes for her lunch to be a surprise. So, I'm not allowed to talk about it in front of her and I have to make it when she's not in the kitchen. It's kinda funny that she wants it that way, but on the other hand, I don't know what else I'd expect from her. She loves food as much as I do and the promise of a surprise in the lunchbox is very appealing! Hopefully, this one won't disappoint!

Strawberry mice, homemade fruit and nut granola bar, cucumber chain, peanut butter and jelly cut outs.

*The strawberry mice idea is from Disney's website. They have some cute food ideas. They were super fast to make too!

*Granola bar recipe can be found here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Playgroup-Granola-Bars/Detail.aspx but I made a few changes. Instead of wheat germ, I used 1/3 cup ground flax seeds and 1/3 cup wheat bran, I lowered the sugar to 1/2 cup, added 1 cup of chopped nuts (pecans, almonds and walnuts), instead of all raisins, I did half raisins and half craisins, threw in a handful of whole flax seeds, and used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose. They are delish! I wanna try applesauce for the oil and egg, but haven't yet.

*PB and J - We do LOVE the natural peanut butter at my house. We buy it in the bulk section at Central Market and if you haven't tried it before, you really should. Look on the back of a jar of peanut butter some time and you will be shocked at how much extra stuff is in it! The ingredients in the natural peanut butter ...peanuts and salt. That's it. And honestly, I think it tastes better. For the jelly, I have to admit that I DO make our jelly. Again, lots of creepy stuff in a jar of jam or jelly, so I taught myself to make it and now that's what we eat. I don't make sugar free, but the only ingredients are fruit, sugar and pectin. I can live with a little sugar. This was red raspberry.

One last thing to wrap up today's post...

"How long do you spend making her lunches?" I've heard this a bunch. I even read a comment on another blog that linked me saying that I must only have one child and a lot of free time. HA! Nope. Two kids and one is home with me. I wish I could say that I lounge around eating bon bons and watching soap operas all day, but sadly, that's not the case. I never think it takes that long to make lunch. I spent more time making her lunch when she was at home all day. So today, I timed myself. It took 27 minutes from pantry to dishwasher (start to finish). I don't think that's bad. So there it is..."How long do you spend making her lunches?" "27 minutes."

5 comments:

Oleys said...

hahaha! I read that comment, too! It was a link from my blog, I think. I think some women are just jealous (I know I am!). I think that people should spend more time making lunches/dinner for their families anyway and maybe less time on the computer! ;)

Oleys said...

By the way - I also buy the natural peanut butter (but do NOT make my own jelly - I wish). But I buy the ones with less sugar (Simply fruit, Polaner All fruit, or Preserves). I also buy organic ketchup because their is High Fructose Corn Syrup in EVERYTHING! You rock, sister. :)

Kerry said...

I love your site and can really appreciate the effort you put into your children's meals. I would love to make those strawberry mice but can't tell what else you used. I checked Disney but can't find them.

Michelle said...

Thanks Kerry! To make the strawberries, I used sliced almonds for the ears, chocolate chips for the nose, and sliced red licorice for the tails. For the eyes, I inserted the chocolate sprinkles (the jimmies kind) into the strawberries sideways so only the tip was showing. Here's the link if you'd like to see the original... http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50362
There are tons of ideas on the site!

Kerry said...

Thanks! My four year old daughter is just starting preschool a couple days a week and I wanted to send her some fun and interesting snacks. She's already a healthy eater, but it's great to see ideas of how to make those choices more exciting. We just bought a laptop lunch set and she's already been using it.

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