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.