Today's lunch brought to you by the letter E

This week's preschool letter is E. Not many E foods out there except eggs and I just wasn't feeling an all egg lunch. So, I decided that E would stand for eclectic cause these lunches are kind of a mish mosh of several different things we had around the house this weekend. We had some leftover sticky rice, some blue cheese and pecan dip, some granola bars...none of it really goes together but we're gonna make it work. E is for Eclectic, remember?

Little chic's lunch

Rice balls with nori "E"s on a bed of carrots, Grape and blue cheese salad, Granola bar, snack mix with popcorn, puffed corn and chocolate Cheerios.

Big chic's lunch

Celery sticks, Granola bars, Grape and blue cheese salad, Ham and cheese sushi

I started out making "sushi" with ham, cheese, spinach, and carrots. Big chic loved it but Little chic wanted me to make hers into rice balls, so the ham and cheese and veggies are on the inside.


After a party this weekend, we had some leftover blue cheese and pecan dip. I mixed it with some halved grapes to make one of the hubs favorite salads. I was making it for his lunch, but the chics wanted to taste it and then insisted it go into their lunches as well.




The granola bars are the beloved Smitten Kitchen Thick and Chewy Granola Bars. So yummy!

A few from this week...

Two lunches (okay, technically three - I made the first lunch twice) to post today from this week. Both chics took this lunch this week:
Orange segments with blueberries, Homemade granola bar, Carrot and okra chips, Black olives, Turkey and cheese skewers.

These granola bars are called Playgroup Granola Bars. I used to make them all the time. That was before I found the Smitten Kitchen granola bar recipe! Anyway, I've been making Smitten Kitchen's granola bars for so long that I completely forgot about this recipe. One of my friends made them the other day and it reminded me of them. Although I like the Smitten Kitchen's granola bars more, the Playgroup Granola bars are much easier and require less special ingredients.

The other lunch for the week was a leftover lunch...Big chic took leftover Pioneer Woman's Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Spaghetti and meatballs with parmesan cheese, Celery sticks, Fruit leather

Pioneer Woman's Spaghetti and Meatball recipe is really good and fairly easy. I made a batch of it a couple months ago and froze the leftovers in the trusty Foodsaver. All I had to do for dinner was cook the pasta and heat up the sauce. It's perfect for a busy weeknight and it's even better the next day (or a few months later :) )

Greek Yogurt....mmm!

Greek yogurt is awesome! Even the hubs, who's normally not a lover of yogurt, likes Greek yogurt. (likes it - still doesn't love it, but we're working on him!) It's thicker, creamier, and a lot less tangy than your usual yogurts. I like to make my own yogurt but can never get it as thick (or even close) as Greek yogurt. I used to spend way too much money on it at a specialty store, until finally the wonderful and most awesome Costco started selling it in a huge container at a great price! LOVE that Costco! Big chic loves her Greek yogurt two ways - 1. with a drizzle of honey or agave nectar and walnuts 2. with strawberries and granola. Tomorrow she's getting variety #2.

Natural Peanut Butter with Celery Sticks, Bakerella's Congo Bar, Granola, Greek Yogurt with Strawberries.

Nothing special

Big chic has been buying lunch more lately. Honestly, the dining hall has had some pretty healthy meals. Last week, I stopped in to eat lunch with her and they had roast beef and broccoli. Not even pressed, prepacked roast beef. Like REAL roast beef slices. I was impressed. So, anyway, she IS taking lunch tomorrow and told me what she wanted. Nothing special, but here it is...

PB&J on homemade white whole wheat bread, Frozen blackberries, Granola bar, Frozen green beans

I made the white whole wheat bread from King Arthur's website in my awesome pullman pan. It came out a little disappointing, but it was still good. I have to admit, though, that I didn't have any potato flakes for the recipe, and I'm a little disturbed by the thought of potato flakes anyway. So I'll live with my bread the way it is!

The Thrown Together Lunch

Somehow today just got away from me. It seemed like I woke up with a whole day of possibilities in front of me and somehow ended up exhausted standing in the kitchen at 9 pm with no lunch made for tomorrow. I thought about letting the big chic eat hot lunch for tomorrow, but I had already promised her that she could buy hot lunch on Thursday, so I had to stick to my guns and make a lunch.

Granola and Oreos (ya, she's gonna love me!), Ants on a log, Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries.

Field Trip #6

Another week and another field trip! This time I'm chaperoning and am bringing lunch for the beloved Kindergarten teacher as well, so I've got three lunches to prepare. Fortunately, they are all going to be the same.

We are having a picnic and tomato mozzarella sandwiches make great picnic food. They just get better the longer they sit. Okay, so eventually they would get moldy and gross, but an overnight rest makes them awesome!

Tomato mozzarella sandwich, Kettle bbq chips, Homemade granola bars, Green grapes

I try to make lunch for our teacher occasionally and you should too! When I was teaching, I felt so unappreciated about 90 percent of the time and small gestures from parents went a LONG way. As far as I'm concerned they could erect a statue of the beloved kindergarten teacher and throw a parade for her and it STILL wouldn't be enough. She's awesome!

Banana Hot Dog

I still haven't been to the grocery store and as I was complaining about our lack of food, the hubs opens the freezer and says, "do you even know what's in here?" I swear that I do, but I have to admit that between our three freezers, we have a lot of food. He swears that I come up with our best meals when I go into it without a plan, but I think he just wants me to clean out the freezers. Whatever the case, I agree to "be creative" and use the food we already have. Of course, this includes the chic's lunches. She is one tough customer, but I do love a challenge!

Little chic's banana hot dog

I know I'm probably not the first person to ever turn a banana into a hot dog, but I thought it was a pretty neat idea. I tested it on the little chic and she loved it! I left the banana whole so that it doesn't get brown and gross before tomorrow. The big chic can add it to the bun when she gets ready to eat.

Peanut butter and honey on a hot dog bun, Babybel cheese and green beans, Granola bar, Banana

Now...what can I make for dinner with frozen green beans, an Amish bread starter, and chipotle chilis...hmmm...this could be an interesting week!

Cinnamon Rolls and My Foodie's First

I finally made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. My friend got her cookbook and after looking through it, I just couldn't resist. I have another recipe that I normally use for cinnamon rolls, but I rarely make them because they take such a long time. And anyone with two kids breathing down your neck asking for breakfast will tell you that there is not enough time to make cinnamon rolls from scratch in the morning. I've always wanted a recipe that I could make up the night before and bake in the morning and this one was exactly what I was looking for.

The actual roll part of these is good but what makes them really stand out is the icing. It's a maple coffee icing. Maple...coffee...mmmmm! The hubs loves pecans on his cinnamon rolls so we added them after the icing. I only made half the recipe and still came out with three pans full. So, it makes LOTS of cinnamon rolls, but then again, I've never heard anyone complaining about having fresh homemade cinnamon rolls hangin around! These definitely lived up to their reputation. They were fantastic!

Rolled out and spread with cinnamon sugar goodness

Rolled up

After final rise

Grab a fork!

In lunch news... I decided to let the big chic make her own lunch for tomorrow. I thought that after our last week's lunch drama, she might see exactly how long it takes to make a lunch and exactly how much thought goes into it. I told her the lunch rules (a grain, a fruit, a protein, a dairy, and a veg) and she did the rest. She was very concerned with the colors of the foods in the lunch...thus the blueberries. She needed something blue in her lunch, she said. She was really excited about making it herself, so we'll see what she thinks of it after eating it tomorrow!

Banana and granola bar, Babybel cheese on turkey slices, Frozen blueberries, Goldfish, Carrots and ranch.

Flowers and Granola

The rainbow lunch from yesterday was not such a big hit. The second that the chic got in the car she told me that she didn't like her lunch. She said that she doesn't like the veggies cut up so small. Apparently I'm supposed to make "fancy" lunches WITHOUT cutting the veggies too much. Lotsa rules involved with the whole lunch making process :)

SO, tomorrow, we get back to the types of lunches she loves...with lots of flowers and minimal cutting!

PB&J sandwiches with homemade blueberry jam, Cantaloupe flowers, Chocolate chip granola square, Cucumber and carrot cut outs

A few days ago, the chic asked me to make chocolate chip granola bars. It was perfect timing cause Smitten Kitchen has just posted a new granola bar recipe that looked awesome! I decided to try it and see how it compared to my usual recipe. The only change I made to the recipe was that I used agave nectar instead of honey or corn syrup. For my dried fruits and nuts, I used coconut, pecans, walnuts, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, dried cranberries, raisins, wheat germ, and, of course, chocolate chips. I doubled the recipe and baked them in a 9x13 pan. I had to bake them for a few minutes more...maybe 15 minutes.

These were hands down, the best granola bars I've ever made! Not too sweet, not too dry...just a bit sticky. The only drawback to them is that I've eaten a ton of them. I ended up freezing some cause I was afraid that I would completely finish them off. I'm going to make them again and plan out my fruit/nuts mix a little more. This time I just threw in a bunch of stuff I had on hand. You should definitely try the recipe!

The Granola Roll

I can't let this week go by without doing a few heart themed lunches!

Strawberry peanut butter sandwich, Granola roll, Cheese hearts with toothpick arrows, Cucumber slices.

The sandwich is made from this huge heart cookie cutter that I have. The cookie cutter is too big for one slice of bread so I cut out two halves (from two pieces of bread) and put them together. When she's ready to eat, she can put one half on top of the other and eat it like a regular sandwich.

I have struggled all year with sending granola to school. We eat a lot of granola and it's usually in loose form not in bars. I never sent it to school by itself because I worried about how messy it was. When it's on top of yogurt or covered in milk, it's a bit more manageable, but dry, it can be a mess. Especially for a Kindergartner...seriously, come look under my dining room table. So, like I said, I've tried to think of a way to send it to school and I think I finally found a way...I think...

We're calling it a "granola roll" and here's how you do it:

First tear off a small piece of wax paper. (parchment would probably work fine also) and place the granola in the middle of the paper.

Roll up lengthwise CAREFULLY. This took a couple of tries, but the secret is that you have to roll it kinda loosely or the granola all smooshes out the ends, but still tight enough so the granola doesn't come out the sides.


Twist the ends closed...again CAREFULLY so you don't tear the paper.

When you're ready to eat, tear off one end and pour into your mouth! (No dropping your spoon, no nuts rolling off the spoon and onto the floor, no one accidentally bumping your arm and granola flying everywhere...just straight into your mouth!)

Although we've tried a few of these at home, tomorrow's the granola roll's maiden voyage to school so we'll see what happens!

Two for One

As you are all aware, the week before Winter Break is a crazy one, filled with concerts, parties, dinners, gift exchanges, etc...On top of this, our beloved dog is having some serious medical problems. All these things have kept me away from the computer and away from my blog. I finally had a bit of time today to sit down and update, so I've got two lunches to post.

First is tomorrow's lunch... I have to make sugar cookies for the chic's class to decorate and looked everywhere for a huge snowflake cookie cutter. I couldn't find one. I've been complaining about it at the little chic's dance class and yesterday one of the mom's (Hi Jill!) comes walking in the dance studio with a gorgeous gigantic snowflake cookie cutter. I couldn't resist using it to make something for lunch with it, but the thing is too big for anything but a tortilla. I know I posted a quesadilla last week, but I HAD to use the cookie cutter while it's on loan!

Snowflake quesadilla on dried cranberries (the little heart is a Junior Mint), Cucumber holly leaves and bell pepper holly berries, Triscuits

The second lunch was Monday's lunch and it was a disappointment. This was supposed to be more like a reindeer (ya know those cute reindeer cookies you make with pretzels?), but it ended up looking more like a bear. Plus, I really wish I had the Laptop Lunchbox 2.0 cause it's got the bigger container option. The original Laptop Lunchbox doesn't have a larger container so sometimes I feel like I'm squishing my stuff in there (thus the funky bear ears...I mean reindeer antlers).

PB&J Reindeer/Bear, Reindeer food, Carrots, Cheese stick, Fruit Leather, Rice Krispie Angel

Croque Monsieur

Weekend lunches are particularly difficult meals for us. We are usually running around here and there and and we seem to end up at a restaurant for lunch. This drives me crazy. As much as I love to eat out, I find it frustrating that we have all of this perfectly good food at home but my family is too spoiled to eat "just a sandwich" for lunch. The only way I can convince my family to eat lunch at home on the weekends is to make something they love. This weekend, it was Croque Monsieur sandwiches. You never know whether the big chic will eat a whole sandwich or a half, so I always make extra. She ended up eating a half, so the remaining sandwich is her lunch for tomorrow.

Croque Monsieur sandwich, Wallaby Organic Yogurt, Roasted beets, Tomato slices, Radish, Vanilla Almond Granola, Cucumber slices

The beets are experimental. A year or so ago, I made beets and the chic hated them. It's the only food I've ever heard her declare to "hate". I love beets, though, and last night as I was getting ready to stick some in the oven, the chic walks in. She asks what they were. Knowing that if I told her they were beets she would never have tried them again, I lied and said that they were red potatoes. She tried one and she loved it! She kept grabbing them off of the baking sheet and ended up eating a handful before I could get them in the oven. I'm hoping that maybe she's changed her mind. So, the leftover beets are going in her lunch just to see what happens. She may bring them home untouched, but she might not!

Croque Monsieurs are soooo good! Basically they're just a ham and cheese with the addition of a cheese sauce. When La Madeline restaurants became popular years ago, it was the hubs favorite thing on the menu. I decided then that I'd better learn to make them. It's hard to vary on them much. We've made turkey versions also but the rest of it always remains the same. Here's how I make them:

Croque Monsieur Sandwiches
Makes 4

8 slices of whole wheat bread, lightly toasted

8 slices of Swiss or Gruyere cheese

8 slices of ham

Dijon mustard to taste

2 Tbsp butter

2Tbsp flour

1 1/2 c Milk

1/4 cup Shredded Parmesan

1/2 cup Shredded Swiss or Gruyere, divided

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in saucepan and stir in flour until smooth. Slowly add milk and continue stirring until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in nutmeg, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup Swiss. Stir until cheese is melted.

Spread Dijon mustard on four slices of toast. Place mustard side up on a baking sheet and top with two slices of ham and a slice of cheese per sandwich. Spread thin layer of cheese sauce on the remaining toast slices. Place them cheese sauce side down on the sandwiches. Ladle remaining cheese sauce on the top of the sandwiches. It will be a pretty thick layer of sauce. I usually let it cool a bit to make it thicker so it doesn't run off the sandwiches. Sprinkle the remaining Swiss cheese on the top. Bake 400 degrees until brown and bubbly on top.

The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie (and a lunch, too!)

First the lunch, then the brownies...

Snail Sandwich Roll-ups, Babybel Cheese, Baby Carrots, Ultimate Chocolate Brownie, Apple chunks topped with Feed Coconut Cranberry Granola

Snail Roll Ups are just sandwich rolls (in this case goat cheese, red bell pepper, and spinach) stuck onto a pickle spear. I used green toothpicks for the antennae. The chic walked in while I was making them and said, "awwww, how cute" before she said, "Oh, I'm not supposed to see it" and ran out. They ARE cuter in person than in the picture.

Now for the brownies...

Brownies are my weakness. I cannot resist that slightly crunchy crust atop a chewy fudgy center. Mmmmm! I saw a brownie recipe a long while ago that caught my attention just by the mere outrageousness of it. I swore that the next time I was having a serious chocolate craving, I would make them. Time passed and I forgot about the recipe...until last week when I was cleaning up my Internet bookmarks and it came up. I'm supposed to be on a diet which just makes my sweet tooth go into overdrive. I decided that I just had to try them before I forgot about them again.

I have to admit that occasionally I make things that I'm just embarrassed about because they are so blatantly unhealthy. These brownies are one of those things! The hubs came home and asked what kind of brownies they were and I said, "Just eat one and then I'll tell you". Well, around our house you can never tell exactly what that means. I've made the brownies with spinach puree, applesauce, peppermint candies, whole wheat pastry flour, etc...so he was a little apprehensive. He finally made me admit what was in them before he would try one and I had to confess...TWO GIANT MOVIE SIZED SYMPHONY BARS. That's right, movie sized. Symphony bars are those chocolate bars with toffee pieces and nuts. Kinda like a poor man's version of a Toberlone (my other weakness).

So you mix up a box of brownie mix and put it in the pan. Lay the two GIANT sized candy bars on top and then mix up another box of brownie mix. Pour it over the top and bake. I seriously read the directions about ten times cause I was absolutely sure that there was no way THAT much chocolate was supposed to be used. But it was...and ya know what? It was fabulous! You're supposed to wait to cut them till they're cool, but I thought that the hot brownie with the melted chocolate center was just about the most heavenly thing ever. The hubs and I decided that they were so so wrong, yet so so right!

Supposedly you can make them with any GIANT sized candy bars, so I'm thinking Carmello's are next! AFTER my diet!

The Sack Lunch

Tomorrow is the chic's first Field Trip. This means I had to pack a lunch that did not require ice packs and that was completely disposable. I did it, but by no means did I like it. If anything, packing this lunch made me appreciate my Laptop Lunchbox even more. There are such limitations with plastic baggies, and I'm still worried that her sandwich will get smooshed in that bag. I went with the traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and tried to jazz things up as much as I could.

Jack-o-Lantern napkin, carrot sticks inside cucumber rings, pb&j pumpkin sandwich, granola bar, honeycrisp apple.

I kinda feel like I'm letting her down without the usual pomp and circumstance associated with her normal lunch. Hopefully, she will have so much fun on her field trip tomorrow that her lunch will be unimportant. I gotta admit that I'm looking forward to getting back to her Laptop Lunchbox tomorrow!

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."