Soup for the Sick

Chicken soup is the quintessential "sick" food. Always has been and always will be. When the kids or the hubs gets sick, they always request chicken soup. In the past, I've relied on pre-made stock or broth as the base for my soup, but I've honestly never been incredibly happy with it. There is a ton of sodium in canned or boxed stock and they add preservatives and who knows what all else. For some reason, I always thought that homemade stock or broth would be a pain to make and never really tried it. WELL, I finally found an easy yet incredibly flavorful recipe to use as a base for my soups. Guess where? Come on, guess...give up? Pioneer Woman, of course! Hyacinth's Chicken Soup is amazing! I mean it, a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Throw everything in the pot and simmer for a long long time. Easy! It does take a while to cool enough for the fat to coagulate at the top so that you can remove it (fatty chicken stock is just gross!) so, with that in mind, I would make it the day before you actually want to make soup. The only change I made to the original recipe is that I cracked the chicken bones before putting them back into the pot-a little tip I picked up by reading all of the comments on Pioneer Woman's blog. I always read the comments on recipes. People always leave suggestions on ways to improve the recipe or variations that they have made. It's one of the reasons that I love using the Internet for new recipes.

Anyway, after you make the broth, your possibilities are endless. You can use it in any soup you like. Little chic's favorite is chicken noodle with egg noodles. Always a good option when you're feeling under the weather. But, the last time I made the soup, I made my new favorite variation...matzo ball. I think matzo ball may be the best sick food around. Matzo balls are basically cracker dumplings which means they are soft enough for a sore throat and "crackery" enough to help soothe an upset stomach. I'm telling you, it's perfect!

One last thing before I go...my most wonderful and incredible doctor has started a blog that I think is chock full of great ideas and tips for healthy living! I've seen this same doctor for almost 20 years (wow that makes me feel old!)and one of the reasons that I really like him is that we share a passion for a more natural, chemical free lifestyle. On his blog, he's discussed all sorts of topics from red dye to grass fed beef. You should all check it out! Your Health, Your Life

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

Well, I'm still here. I haven't posted in a while, but it's not because we haven't been cooking! We've had some family emergencies to deal with and vacations and we are finally back into the swing of things...I hope! Lunches have pretty much been "second verse, same as the first"- a whole bunch of repeats. I mean, even I will admit to the fact that there are only so many things you can do with a pb&j! So no real lunch updates this time. Birthday goodies though? Yeah, I got some of those!

The beginning of the year always brings a three month stretch of birthdays. And the end of January/first of February is particularly crazy because little chic's birthday, my birthday, and big chic's birthday are all one week after another. What this means to me? Well, I'm sure most of you can imagine what happens to mommy's birthday sandwiched in between the chics'...it gets greatly diluted! OR I inevitably end up at American Girl Bistro because it is smack dab in the middle of the girls' birthdays. Anyway, the chics love taking treats to school to share with their friends and they are very opinionated about exactly what those treats will be (Hmmm...wonder where that comes from?).

We'll start with little chic. She requested, "strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting with a strawberry on top with B's like you did sissy's cupcakes". Pretty specific and pretty easy to accomplish. Exhibit A... She added the hearts as I was piping the B's.

Now big chic's birthday request was a little more challenging. She wanted rice marshmallow treats with chocolate inside. I suggested adding chocolate chips to them, but was shot down. I told her I could do a layer of chocolate sandwiched in between the squares, but was shot down again. Many ideas, many rebuttals. Finally I said that her request might be kinda difficult. To this she replied by patting my leg and saying, "That's okay mommy. You're a good cook. You'll figure it out." The hubs almost fell out of his chair laughing so hard. Soooooo, after a little experimentation, I decided to put the chocolate on the outside...and put them on a stick...and roll them in sprinkles. Exhibit B... Then I wrapped them in treat bags and made little tags for them.

I have to admit that I was THRILLED with how they turned out! They were a little finicky to figure out though, so if you wanna try them yourself, here's are a few secrets to success...

I made a test batch a few weeks ago and I am glad that I did! At first the balls fell off the sticks the second that I stuck them into the melted chocolate (oh and I used Candy Melts, by the way! Regular chocolate doesn't dry as hard or as quickly.) Fortunately, one of my friends was hanging out with me that day and she suggested I freeze them before dipping. Genius idea, I tell ya! Not only did they keep they're shape, the chocolate hardened much more quickly. The other trick is the exact timing for sprinkles. If you put them on too soon, they sink into the chocolate, wait too long and they won't stick to them at all. There's no scientific method to it. I wish there were! It'd make things much easier. But I found that as soon as they were a bit difficult to pull off the parchment, they were just tacky enough to hold the sprinkles but not let them sink in. After figuring out the first batch, these were super easy to make. The most time consuming thing was wrapping and tagging. The end result was worth the effort, though and I will definitely be making these again for other school and party treats!

Back from the break!

I think the first day back from a break is the worst. Even though the chics consistently got me up before sunrise during their Thanksgiving break, somehow the sound of the alarm this morning was just excruciating. After getting the big chic ready for school today I realized that I forgot to make her a lunch! Oops! We were so preoccupied with other things this weekend, that school kinda snuck up on me. Fortunately there's always the dining hall! Tomorrow, though, little chic has school, too and there is no dining hall at preschool.

Cucumber slices, Clementine with dried cherry, Wheat Chex, Cheddar cheese with ham twirls

Turkey Turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I haven't made any Thanksgiving lunches! I'm trying to come up with some fun crafts for the kids over the holidays and came across the cutest turkey shaped sandwiches on Family Fun's website so I thought tomorrow would be the perfect day for a Thanksgiving lunch. My turkey did not turn out as cute as I would have liked, but I think it will suffice (plus big chic is becoming more concerned with having a grown up lunch, rather than a cutesy one!)

Turkey turkey and cheese sandwich with mini pepper feathers, grapes, chocolate chunk cookie

Immaculate Baking Co. makes ready made cookie dough in all sorts of flavors. Recently the hubs was reading some review of the best ready made cookie doughs and their chocolate chunk was the winner. I had seen it at Central Market, but had never tried it and that article convinced me that I should. The cookies are really good, but what I like more is that all of the ingredients are natural...no weird stuff, no corn syrup. They're made from the same ingredients that I make cookies from. LOVE that!

Pumpkin Patch

Tomorrow little chic is visiting a pumpkin patch! Well, technically the pumpkin patch is coming to preschool, but still... so, the theme for the day is orange. When I saw some orange globe carrots at the store this weekend, I knew I had to buy them for her orange lunch.

Ghost marshmallows, Cheese skewers (yes, it's American cheese...don't judge!), Orange globe carrots, Fruit leather and Trail mix cookie.

Big chic eats too...

This is one of big chic's lunches this week. She's on an anti-bread kick lately. I don't know why, but she came home from school last week with a seemingly uneaten peanut butter and jelly. When I asked her why she didn't eat her sandwich, she said that she didn't like bread so she just licked the peanut butter and jelly off of the bread. Okay... so sandwiches are out. Not sure how long the no-bread kick will last. We'll see.

Cucumber chain, Ham cheese and carrot flowers, Fruit dip with strawberries and pineapple, bagel chips.

FIRE!!!

On Monday, after a very long day of activities, we finally returned home after 7:30pm. Here we were, already a half hour past bedtime and I had two chics that needed baths, one chic that needed to work on her homework packet and do her daily reading, and another chic that thinks she's the Lady Gaga of preschool fashion that had not yet picked out her outfit for the next day (believe me...this is NOT a simple decision for her!). Did I mention that I hadn't even packed lunches for the next day? Well, exhausted and in a hurry, I tell big chic that she can buy lunch the next day (YAY for the dining hall!) and ask the little chic if she will just take a normal lunch (meaning undecorated) cause mommy is tired and it's late. "Mommy, no!" she says, "I want a fire lunch cause we're having a fireman for preschool." UGH!!! The hubs just laughs and says, "You created this!' and I know he's right. Sooooooo while he gets the big chic ready for bed, I try to create the quickest, fastest and easiest fire themed lunch I can. Here it is...

PB&J house with baby bell pepper fire, Crust tree trunk with parsley leaves, Carrot sticks with Twizzler fire hoses (I was desperate, okay?), Grapes

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!

"B" happy!

In preschool, the letter of the week is "B" so we did a lunch of all "B" foods...

"Brooke" made with Bread, Berries, Baby chick made with a Boiled egg, Blue cheese dip with Baby carrots

I know that my posts seem to focus only on the little chic's lunches, but I promise that big chic still takes her lunch! She pretty much takes the same lunch as the little chic on Tues and Thursdays and takes leftovers the rest of the time. It works out well and gives me a break from an entire week of fancy lunches. Here's one of her leftover lunches:

Wild Mushroom Quinoa Risotto, Blue jello (leftover from "blue day"), Applesauce, Purple carrots, Cheese stick

See...I'm feeding the big chic lunch...I swear!!

A whole lot of packaging!

Tomorrow's lunch was requested by the little chic. She remembers the banana hot dog that I made for her sister's lunch last year and has asked for it a few times since then. For some reason she thinks it's SO funny to have a banana in place of a hot dog. Fortunately for me, it's super easy to do. I take a whole wheat hot dog bun and spread peanut butter and honey on the inside. I leave the banana in the peel so that it stays fresh and she puts the banana in the bun when it's lunchtime. Here's what it looks like as a finished product (this one was on a regular white hot dog bun):

The rest of her lunch is leftover items from big chic's class. Big chic's class does community snack where parents trade off weeks when they provide snacks for the class. The verdict is still out on whether or not we will continue doing community snack. It really all depends on what other families will send when it is their turn. I'm hoping that other families will send healthy snacks and that we don't get PopTarts and "fruit" snacks. I volunteered to bring snack the first week so that I could kinda set an example and so that if I decided to opt out, I didn't feel like I owed anyone snacks. Anyway, we have to send the stuff ready to serve, so we bought lots of prepackaged snacks. I am tired of seeing the leftovers in the fridge so the chics are going to be taking some of it in their lunches.

Banana hot dog, Cheesestick, Fruit Leather, Baby Carrots

Blue Food

Warning: if the sight of unnaturally colored food makes you queasy, look away now!

Tomorrow is "blue day" at preschool. Gotta say, not the easiest color to achieve naturally. This lunch is more of a purpley blue combo, but it was as close as I could get. The only thing that I added color to was the cottage cheese. I thought it looked gross, but little chic thought it was awesome. Go figure!

Purple baby carrots, Cottage cheese(with a dot of blue icing color), Frozen blackberries, Blue jello.

"O" yeah!!

Sometimes I find myself struggling to come up with a new idea for the chic's lunches, and we all know that the little chic has seriously high expectations for her lunches this year. My lack of creativity and her demand for pizazz is a recipe for disaster. In the past, on a day where I'm just not feelin' it, I can tell big chic to buy her lunch in the dining hall. But, preschool has no dining hall to turn to in moments of weakness. Needless to say, I've been a little worried about disappointing her with the uninspired lunch. So imagine my delight when she comes home last week with a calendar listing all of the themes for the month. It's like the lunches can just plan themselves! WOOHOO! This week the theme is "O is for Ocean". She had already asked for this salad in her lunch so I decided to focus on the "O" rather than the "Ocean".

Spinach salad with apple O's and pistachiOs with pistachiO dressing, O sandwich with turkey and cheese, Carrot chips, Cherry fruit leather.

Big chic is buying her lunch tomorrow so little chic got to pick whichever containers she wanted to take and she chose the blue with the big container.

The salad is another Aarti Party recipe called The Ugly Duckling Salad. Little chic devoured it and asked if she could take it in her lunch this week. Aarti is my new favorite for finding new recipes. We've made almost all of her recipes so far, and we have loved every one of them. Nothing has even been mediocre, like "meh it was okay". It has all been so good, we are fighting over the little bits left in the bowl or pan. Seriously yummy! Tonight we are making her tumeric rubbed shrimp stuffed with cilantro and garlic with her apple lime peanut slaw and the whole family is excited about another Aarti menu!

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 :) )

Double Trouble

As I write this post today, my little chic is sitting in a preschool class...her FIRST preschool class...EVER! She was so excited about it this morning that she was literally telling me to leave. I think the exact words were, "Can I go color now? You can go ahead and leave." Although I am so glad that my little darlings are confident enough to meet new challenges head on, another part of me is kinda sad that my baby pretty much kicked me out of her class this morning. I have to say, though, that I was a tad excited too. I haven't had a day alone with no children, and no husband, and no appointments in years. So, I'm sitting here typing, listening to the sounds of the dishwasher and air conditioner instead of whining for snacks or the sweet sweet sounds of Nickelodeon (raise your hand if you wanna scream every time you hear a Big Time Rush song).

Because big sister's lunches were such a big deal last year, little chic has been thinking about her first day of school lunch for quite a while. When I originally asked her what she wanted in her lunch, she told me to make a Tinkerbell sandwich. I told her that might be a little hard and she said, "Nuh uh. Just make the sandwich shaped like Tinkerbell and her eyes can be blueberries and her dress can be lettuce leaves." Ooooookay... Maybe she should start making the lunches? I finally convinced her to go with something a little less time consuming and she decided to help me make them. While big chic goes more for the surprise aspect of the cool lunch, little chic wants to have a bit more control (and by control I mean BOSSY!) She told me every thing that would be in her lunch and how to make it (again, BOSSY!) Did I mention that she stood over me, umm, I mean helped, the entire time? Both chics took pretty much the same lunch today with a few variations..

.

Big chic's...Lite turkey bologna butterfly sandwich, Peach flower filled with goat cheese and almonds, Sugar snap peas inside mini pepper rings, Cranberry white chocolate chip cookie and dried cranberries

Little chic's...Cranberry white chocolate chip cookie and dried cranberries, Celery sticks inside mini pepper rings, Peach star filled with goat cheese and almonds, Lite turkey bologna butterfly sandwich.

Beet and Orange Salad

This is the lunch that big chic was supposed to take earlier in the week (before the awesome Sloppy Bombay Joes). We've had our back and forth with beets. Big chic loves them, then hates them, then loves them again. One thing she always loves, though, is goat cheese. So, when I made beet and orange salad (with goat cheese) with our dinner last weekend, she loved beets again. She asked me to pack this salad for her lunch this week.

Beet and orange salad with orange vinaigrette, Plum, Carrots with red pepper heart

Sloppy Bombay Joes

We made a new recipe last night that was a huge hit with the family. It's an Indian twist on sloppy joes from Aarti Party, the new show on Food Network. The recipe (Sloppy Bombay Joes) sounds a bit odd (raisins, pistachios, garam masala) but the end result was phenomenal. Everyone devoured their dinner and both the big chic and the hubs asked me pack up leftovers for their lunch. We served ours on whole wheat sandwich rolls and topped them with sliced mango. DELISH!

Sloppy Bombay Joe with sliced mango on top of saffron rice, Half of a cowgirl cookie, Cucumber slices, Greek yogurt with strawberries.

1st grade, here we come!!

Today's the big day! YAY!!! And I'm not even going to try to pretend that I was a teary eyed mommy walking my sweet little angel in to the school this morning. No, no...I was the one that slowed down just long enough for the big chic to jump out and then peeled out of the school parking lot screaming, "WOOOOHOOOO!". I'm just kidding! I walked her in, took her picture, the whole thing, BUT I admit that as I drove out of the parking lot, I might have said, in a very soft yet excited voice, "woohoo!"

Let's be real, these last few weeks of summer have been a killer. The big chic and little chic are beyond tired of being together and could be a psychological study in mood swings. One minute they are hugging each other and playing nicely together, the next minute someones crayon "accidentally" marks on someone else's paper and the screaming, crying, and whining begins. Last year, at the end of summer, I was a sobbing crying mess because my first child was starting kindergarten. This year, at the end of summer, I was a sobbing crying mess because I couldn't take one more "I'm telling mommy!" or "Then I'm not playing!". I will miss the big chic while she's in school today, but I sure as heck am not going to miss the fighting!

Back to school means back to lunches. This year will be a bit different. I'm probably going to let her buy lunch a little more. The school is keeping the same lunch provider as last year so we know enough about the menu options now to let her eat there a little more. AND the little chic will be starting preschool next week, so I'll be making two lunches a couple times a week. We are sticking with the tried and true Laptop Lunchboxes, but we've added a few pieces to the collection to make my life a little easier. Another difference is that, this year, I'm not going to promise to post every single day. I have so much going on this year that I'm a little nervous about how it's all going to work out. But, the healthy lunch issue is important to me so I'm continuing on with the blog hoping that someone somewhere is getting some inspiration.

So, after all that, here's our first lunch of first grade...

Yogurt dip with cucumber and carrots, Clementine and blueberries, Cranberry white chocolate cookies, Peanut butter and jelly flower cut outs.

How to Make Meatloaf in the Summer

Well, hello there! The big chic starts school next week and my mind has been turning towards lunchboxes and Foodie Footsteps. It's been a great summer, and although I haven't been blogging, I've thought about my blog sooooo many times. I should have blogged more this summer about recipes that I was making, but we have been so busy. A Disney trip, a visit to the great grandparents across country, and countless play dates, summer camps, and movie days have occupied my mind as well as my time. I hope that I still have some readers left after my summer break!

Anyway, for those of you that are still left, I thought I'd share a very interesting recipe that I rediscovered this summer. I say "rediscovered" because I've had the recipe for quite a while stuck in one of my many binders filled with printed, copied or handwritten recipes that I've collected over the past fifteen years. If you're like me, you have an entire section of your kitchen dedicated to this mish mosh of recipes. The hubs complained about it constantly. A very good friend and fellow foodie told us about an e-reader for your kitchen. I thought it was an awesome idea, but the hubs, being the money saver that he is, had a hard time justifying the purchase. Well, a few weeks ago, he finally broke down (or I wore him down, depending on who you ask) and he bought me a Demy Kitchen Reader.

My New Best Friend...the Demy

It is SO cool. You put all your recipes into the Key Ingredient website and sync them to the Demy. You can create your own cookbooks and add pictures and everything. I thought adding the recipes to the Key Ingredient website would be horrible, but most of my recipes are from magazines and websites and you can just cut and paste them from the website. Now, I don't have to print out recipes or take my laptop into the kitchen (which REALLY freaks out the hubs). All my recipes are at the tip of my finger...literally...it's touch screen. Such an awesome idea. You don't have to have a Demy to use Key Ingredient, either. You can create an account and add recipes to it (similar to All Recipes). Here are links to both in case you'd like to take a gander: For the Demy For Key Ingredient

There is a point of all of this rambling, I swear. One of the bonuses of putting my recipes into the Key Ingredient website, is that I found a bunch of recipes that I completely forgot about. One of those recipes was a meatloaf made in the bread machine. Yes, you read that right...meatloaf in the bread machine.

Now, if you've read my blog, you know that big chic loves some meatloaf! But, since we live in Texas, summer in unbearably hot and the idea of baking in the oven is not a pleasant one. Meatloaf is usually not on our summer foods list. The bread machine puts off very little heat, though (especially compared to the oven). I decided to give it a shot, I mean, how bad could it be? I'm guessing you could use any meatloaf recipe as long as it made to same volume. This is the recipe I used...

Breadmaker Meatloaf

MEATLOAF

1 medium onion, chopped

2 lbs ground sirloin

1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I used dried wild mushrooms that I rehydrated in some boiling water)

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup bread crumbs (I used Panko)

2 eggs, beaten

GLAZE

1/2 cup ketchup

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp prepared mustard

Combine all meatloaf ingredients in a bowl. Mix glaze ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Remove the paddle from the bread machine pan and press meatloaf into the pan.

Next is the hardest part. You need to set the machine to skip the rise and proof setting and to bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. My machine doesn't have a way to bypass the proof or rise cycles, so I had to start a bread cycle and let it go through the steps. I put the pan into the bread machine when there was 1 hour and 10 minutes left in the bake cycle. Needless to say, since a full cycle on my machine is almost four hours, this recipe would require some pre-planning. (It would be worth it though since the proof and rise cycle use almost zero heat!)

When there are 30 minutes left on the bake cycle, open the machine and pour the glaze over the top of the meatloaf. Close the lid and continue to bake.

Once the meatloaf is done, allow it to cool for a minute and drain the juices. Remove from the pan...gently...NOT like this...

Slice and serve

I certainly won't say that I had the most supportive team of taste testers for this. When I told the hubs what we were having for dinner, he crinkled up his nose and said very slowly, "okay". The chics said, "in the bread machine?" and made yuck faces. After tasting it though, all of their skepticism disappeared. It was surprisingly moist and delicious. We'll be making meatloaf in our bread machine again. It makes me wonder what other things I could make in the bread machine...hmmm...

Baked Lemon Pasta

Yesterday, I came across a recipe that I had never seen before. I thought that I knew all of Pioneer Woman's recipes, but I was mistaken. I was trying to find a recipe that I could add a random 1/2 pound of sea scallops left in the freezer. Some sort of pasta seemed like a good option and I thought that Pioneer Woman had a scampi recipe. Well, it turns out that she didn't have a scampi recipe, but she did have a recipe for Baked Lemon Pasta. Lemon...scallops...pasta...sounded like a winner to me! I've gotten pretty fast at making homemade pasta so I made a batch of fettuccine to go with the sauce. Her recipe doesn't use scallops (or any other meat) but I thought it would be a good pairing. I seared the scallops and then quartered them but I didn't add them until I baked the pasta (I had a sneaking suspicion that the big chic would want to take it in her lunch and didn't want her to worry about having a stinky seafood lunch!) Although the recipe sounds a little weird (sour cream?), it was really good...kinda like a lemony fettuccine alfredo. It was so popular with the chics and the hubs that we only had about 1/2 cup leftover! Just enough for big chic's lunch...

Lemon pasta, Watermelon, Cookie, Caesar salad

We are currently overhauling the chics' playroom and went to Ikea this weekend to get some storage ideas. We always leave Ikea not with boxes of furniture, but with bags of food. These cookies are from our last visit. They're called Kakor Chokladflarn. They're like the Swedish version of a Peppridge Farm Brussels cookie. But better...much, MUCH better!

Big chic gets to buy her lunch for the rest of the week. Because I don't want to leave a balance in her lunch account over the summer, I figured out that she needs to buy lunch two times a week for the next three weeks to use up the balance on her lunch account. After looking at the lunch calendar, she chose Thursday and Friday of this week. So I'm off of lunch duty for the week! Everyone enjoy your weekend!

White Trash Strawberry Shortcake

I know there are a lot more things in tomorrow's lunch than this one little dessert, but I just love the name of it, so that's what I'm focusing on. I'm not even going to try to deny the fact that I bought not one Twinkie, but an entire box. I was at the store last week and when I passed them on the end cap, the 10 year old in me had to have them. Now that I've eaten a couple, my craving has been satisfied. So, what do I do with all the leftover Twinkies? White Trash Strawberry Shortcake, of course. Twinkies are "cream" filled sponge cake, after all. All the work is done for you!

Peanut butter and jelly silly face sandwich with fruit leather tongue, Cucumbers and carrots, White Trash Strawberry Shortcake, Watermelon