Lunches for my kiddo!: 2015

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

B x2

Blueberry yogurt, bowtie pasta, Brazil nuts, and broccoli

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Done!

Or are we? Finally finished A-Z. I asked kid if she wanted to switch to school hot lunches a couple times a week and she requested we redo the alphabet "but no quesadillas!!".

Friday, September 11, 2015

V is for

Villain jelly bellys, veggies, V babybel, and an Apple for good measure with a note saying not to worry, the fruit didn't come from one of the people on the candy wrapper!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

This one was a real pain to try to think up too. I was going to write "Under the Sea" on the sandwich but quickly got bored with the writing. I did sing the song to her this morning from the Little mermaid and forced her to join in to insure that it would get stuck in her head and the lunch would make sense! Along with her regular sandwich is Swedish fish, pretzel goldfish, and cheesy goldfish. Of course kid loved this one...it's mostly snacks! After school I had her eat an apple for good measure:)

T is for

I like Turtles! He is a sandwich thin with salami and provolone with baby pepperonis for the feet. I used a food marker to paint on him. Turkey among the "trees", a T babybel, and Teddy Grahams!

S is for

Smoked sausage, sunflower seeds, and S'mores!

This one involved a late night run to Wal-Mart to get Hershey's chocolate spread (by the Nutella and peanut butter) and marshmallow fluff. Kid very excitedly asked for this one again!

R is for

Kid loved this one! Raspberry gummies, raisin, rice krispy treat, and fried Rice! She/We love rice. I think this super adorable thermos and the rice will be a staple in the coming months for sure!

How to make perfect fried rice:

I made white rice in the rice cooker the night before and put it in the fridge overnight (this is essential for perfect fried rice. It HAS to be leftover cold rice). I heated up the pan, put a quick drizzle of oil on it, cracked in THREE eggs (this is the only time kid will eat eggs so I always amp it up whenever i make rice) and let it set for a minute. Once the whites start to get a little less see through, you use the spatula to crack the yolks and then kindof chop the eggs up. They aren't fluffy scrambled like you would want for breakfast with toast this way, but for some reason, it makes the rice better to cook them like this. Also, it leaves the pan "clean" when you do it this way. No egg to scrape off later in the sink. Once the eggs are about cooked through, I dump in the cold rice from the fridge. Add a palm-full of onion flakes and a splash of minced garlic and gently break apart the rice with the wooden spoon used earlier with the egg. Once the rice starts heating up I put a good pat of butter in the middle and make sure to stir the rice around to "fry" it. Towards the end I put in a good healthy splash or two of soy sauce. That is it. Perfect easy quick fried rice.

Q is for

Raspberry "cake" from "P" day, veggies, and quesadilla. This one was so much harder than I had anticipated! I ended up writing a funny note about being quiet and how my lunch was like a Quidditch match.

Kid does NOT like quesadillas. Which is ridiculous. She LOVES fajitas. It is one of her top 3 favorite meals. This quesadilla consisted of leftover fajita stuff chopped up, the same cheese we use with fajitas and the same flour tortilla that is on the fajitas. With a side of sour cream and salsa. I had to fight with her after school to get her to eat even 1 measly triangle. Grrr.

P is for

Pizza again! Pumpkin "cake", pecans, and peanut butter rice krispy treats.

Pumpkin loaf was bought at Sam' Club. It came with the pumpkin, coffee cake, and raspberry cake. Kid, surprisingly LOVED them. They ended up being after school snacks for a whole week until I started to worry about their freshness and we decided to go for broke one night and eat the last 6 at once (1 of each flavor for both of us).

O is for

Another easy peasy one. I made O shaped sandwiches (with my uncrustable maker), Oreos, Oranges, and peach flavored O shaped gummies.

Kid did NOT like oranges. She told me the day before that she hoped there wouldn't be orange juice in this lunch since she already knows she doesn't like it. I was hoping that mandarin slices would be less offensive. She ate them because I forced her to but I don't know if that is a battle worth having again.

N is for

Noodles, nuts, Newtons, and a Ninja Babybel cheese. This was super easy to make and surprisingly kid loved it. I see a lot of Babybel cheeses in our future! I used a regular paring knife to cut out the little rectangle and a food pen to make the eyes. However, she says these are the ONLY noodles she doesn't like. Lesson learned!

M is for

Minion madness! Kid got banana pb wraps again (everyone knows bananas are a minions favorite!), Minion cereal (supposedly there are minion pics on these but what little I could find on them were hardly worth the fuss. But it was banana flavored cereal and kid got it right away), and Minion cookies! The cookies were a pain to make. I couldn't find my blue coloring that I used when I made Minion Valentines for the class (that turned out WAY better) so I tried to do white frosting and sprinkle the blue sugar I have in the cupboard. As you can see, it wasn't nearly the same effect as my previous cookies. Oh well. Kid liked them.

L is for

Kid loved this one! Lunchables and Lego candies. Took me awhile to find the candies and it involved a trip to the mall (boo) but I got them!

K is for

K PB&J I cut out with a knife, veggies for good measure, Koala bear cookies (shhhh...they are really Panda bears) and Kisses!

J is for

I is for

Italian Flags that I made, DIY Italian Pizza, "Ice Cream" and Iron Man eraser. I was a tough one. I really pondered what I had and spent all weekend trying to come up with a way to get Ice Cream. I was afraid I was going to have to get kid out of school just to go out for Ice Cream for lunch! In the end, I decided to make a fake ice cream! I eyeballed the ingredients and did it in a coffee cup in the microwave. It is a generous scoop of marshmallows, a good size chunk of butter (I was afraid of it sticking to my coffee cup so I was pretty generous with the butter), microwaved for probably 30 seconds with a stir halfway. Then I added a handful or two of Coco Rice Krispys. Put my hand in an inside out Ziplock and used the bag as a scoop to grab some of the treat and form it into the ice cream cone. I made a point to try to cram some down into the cone for two reasons. 1. Rice Krispy's are delicious and you should always have as much as you can. 2. For Stability. I was a little scared that the cone would crush when kid tossed around her lunchbox at school.

She gave this lunch 2 thumbs up!

H is for

This was one of my favorite ones to do! Heart shaped sandwiches, Hazelnuts, and Hamburger cookies!

To make the Hamburger cookies, you will need Nilla Wafers, frosting, sesame seeds, and Thin Mints (or grasshoppers). There is a cuter way of doing these where you put coconut in a baggie and a couple drops of green coloring to make lettuce. Then you can color the frosting red and/or yellow for ketchup and mustard. It turns out that I severely underestimate how long it takes me to make these lunches though so I did a quick and dirty version! Nilla wafer, canned frosting, cookie, canned frosting, nilla wafer, drizzle of honey, dipped in sesame seeds. Not as fancy as the ones I made in the past but these just took a minute and got the point across!