Peep, Peep

I haven't been posting lunches that I make for the princesses anymore, but I saw these on another blog  the other day and they were so cute I just had to try them.  Then they were so cute, I had to take a picture.

Deviled eggs - I mounded the egg yolk filling and added a carrot sliver for the beak and chocolate sprinkles for the eyes.  (Yes, I know chocolate spinkles don't go with deviled eggs, but they were the only thing I had around that I could think of to work as the eyes.)  Also on the plate, apple slices and pretzels.  Simple, I know, but I knew even if they did not like the egg, they would eat the apple and pretzels.

I thought these were so cute and the girls were impressed!  With the appearance anyway.  Tara ate her entire plate.  Savannah, on the other hand, pronounced them cute but would not eat them. 

Oh, well, you win some, you lose some.  And they are still cute!  Peep!!!

Oh, how the proud have fallen...

Remember way back at the beginning of the school year when I bragged aspired to make the princesses thier school lunches at least 4 times a week?

I had such a great first semester.  Then I got bored with photo-blogging the lunches, so that dropped off.

Then I just got bored.

Now, I am doing good to make lunches 2-3 times per week.  This is not good, y'all.  don't get me wrong - St. Mary's has great lunches as far as school lunches go, but man, they are expensive!  About $4.50 a meal.  Now, for your average 12-year-old, that is pretty darn good - but when the eaters are ages 4 and 6 - they probably eat about a dollars worth. 

I think part of my problem is just letting my evening get away from me.  Out of routine.  Out of wack. 

This is a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I really do like sending thier lunches and knowing exactly what they are eating.  So, just got to get back in the groove.

Oohhh, groove...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIaTEOUCft0

Is there a 12-step program for this?

That is 10, count 'em, TEN lunch boxes (and there is one is our fridge at work that is not pictured).  This is what happens when someone with a purse obsession starts packing school lunches.  My newest faves are the little paper-bag styled ones (the pink one with the peace signs and the blue with the small flowers). 

I think I keep the school lunch crowd of teachers entertained - not just with what is IN the lunch box, but in WHICH lunch boxes the girls will be carrying that day.  What can I say?  I like to change it up...

The catch-up lunch post

So, I got a little (okay, alot) behind on the lunches sometime in December (short month anyway because school let out for Christmas break, Tara had her tonsils out, which meant Savannah stayed with friends and ate the cafeteria meal...ahhh, but I digress...); at some point, I just decided to call it good and just get a fresh start come January.  But, I still managed to take a photo of the lunches I did make (and one crazy supper) so now, all in one whack - a bunch o' lunches for your consideration:

1) Wheat thins, mini pepperonis and mozzerella chunks, red bell pepper strips and strawberries (with some blueberries for Tara).

2) Mini pretzels, cheddar cheese cubes, red bell pepper slices and clemintines.

3) This is the supper that either wins me the Mama of the Year Award or causes someone to call Child Services:  I call it a Waffle Sundae - A whole-grain waffle with strawberry filling (frozen) with maple and chocolates syrups, whipped cream and a cherry.  Hey - minus the chocolate syrup, whipped cream and cherry, it is a very ordinary breakfast - I just let the girls dress it up some for supper.  They ate every bite!!!

I came up with Waffle Sundaes after a particulary stressful workday - I wanted something quick and easy that I knew would go over well and would get me out of the kitchen fast and avoid any whining.  Since then, I don't pull them out often, but Waffle Sundaes for supper are always a hit!









4) Wheat things, cherries-sweetened cranberries, vanilla yogurt, a ham roll up, grape tomatos for Tara and baby cukes for Savannah and a fudge-covered Ritz for a treat.

5) Hot dog chucks and cheddar cheese cubes, red bell pepper slices, strawberry slices and a mini cupcake for each.  This lunch followed Savannah's birthday - the cupcakes were left over from her birthday treat at school.

6) Wheat thins, grilled chicken slices, red bell pepper clices and strawberries and homemade whipped cream.

7) Spaghetti with sauce and parmesan cheese, red bell pepper strips and strawberry slices.

I confess that I did not photograph last week lunches - just needed a little time to get back in the saddle I guess, but tomorrow's lunch is already prepared and photographed, so tune in next wee to kick off our second semester's worth of lunches.

What the girls ate for lunch #12 and 13 w/e 11/13 and 11/20

This is 2 weeks worth of lunches - well, really 1 week and 1 lonely day during Thanksgiving week.  Anyway, here we go:

Monday - Savannah had a slice of banana bread, cut in half, some "cutie" wedges, a slice of ham and vanilla yogurt.  Tara had a slice of ham, wheat thins, "cutie" wedges and banana slices and vanilla yogurt.

Tuesday - Tara asked to "buy" today instead of Wednesday, so it is only Savannah - hot dog and mozzerella chunks, "cutie" wedges, orange bell pepper chunks, wheat things and a chocolate covered ritz cracker.

Wednesday - Tara only - yogurt, pretzel goldfish, blueberries and grape tomatos sliced in half.

Thursday - Tara had pasta and broccoli with cheese sauce, baby carrots and blueberries.  Savannah had a strong cheese, mini pretzels, an organic fruit strip, baby carrots and ranch dressing and "cutie" wedges.

Monday - wheat thins, mini pepperonis, mozzerella cheese chunks, red bell pepper slices and strawberries (with some blueberries for Tara).

Enjoy!  I hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we did!  Now on to Christmas!!!

What the girls ate for lunch #12 - w/e 11/13/09

Monday - mini pepperonis, pretzel goldfish, sliced strawberries and orange bell pepper strips.

Tuesday - french toast strips and syrup, sliced strawberries, for Savannah sliced cucumbers, for Tara sliced orange bell pepper strips and for both, a mini rice crispie treat.  (Thanks for Tara for help with the staging. :-) )

Thursday - For Savannah - a cereal bar, an organic fruit strip, grape tomatoes, wheat things and apple slices.  For Tara, cajun rice with black beans and corn, sliced grape tomatoes, ritz crackers and apple slices.

Friday - ham slices, sliced strawberries, sliced cucumbers and baby potatoes with parmasean cheese.

What the girls at for lunch #11 - w/e 11/6

Another week of lunches for you.  Getting right to it!

Monday - rotisserie chicken breast, wheat thins, baby carrots and ranch dressing and sliced strawberries.

Tuesday - pretzels, strawberries, yogurt and a string cheese

Wednesday- spaghetti and sauce with a chicken meatball, a banana for Tara and an apple for Savannah.

Friday - boiled egg "bunny" for Tara and "bear" for Savannah, sliced strawberries, nutri-grain bar and a string cheese.

You may have noticed the absence of veggies in most of the lunches.  Not sure what happened with my shopping, but for some reason I didn't get any red peppers which are the girls favorites and I ran out of carrots early on.  Oh, well - I stocked up this week!  Have a great week everyone!!

Loads of Lunches - What the girls ate for lunch...

I am 2 weeks behind I think, but don't worry - I have been taking the pictures, I just haven't been good about posting the pictures.  So, rather than try to go back day by day, I am just going to post them all here and describe the contents. 

First up - This was Monday, October 19 - cinnamon roll (made from pre-made cresent roll dough), for Tara - yellow bell pepper strips, blueberries, and strawberry yogurt; for Savannah - baby carrots, strawberries and vanilla yogurt.

Tuesday, October 20 - honey baked hams slices, wheat thins, baby carrots and broccoli, strawberries (with some blueberries for Tara) and mini pretzels dipped in strawberry yogurt coating.

Friday, October 23 - half a mini pita, orange bell pepper strips, apple slices, vanilla yogurt for Savannah and strawberry yogurt for Tara.  Oh, notice the yogurt containers - I posted before about wanting a reusable mini container for snacks and such.  Well, I found the perfect solition at One Step Ahead.  They are 2oz containers with twist on lids - meant for homemade babyfood, but perfect for snacks on the go or yogurt and such!  Yay, me!!!













Monday, October 26 - bow tie pasta with stroganoff sauce and sour cream, foccicia toasts, for Tara - blueberries and yellow bell pepper strips, for Savannah - raisins and orange bell pepper strips.

Tuesday, October 27 - "Fairy bread" - mini bagels with butter spread and sprinkles, apple chunks, pepperonis and mozzerella chunks and red bell pepper strips.

Thursday, October 29 - boiled egg, apple slices, red bell pepper strips and pretzel goldfish.

Friday, October 30 - spaghettie with sauce and cheese sprinkles, banana and mini pretzels with strawberry yogurt coating.

I am learning this year that I can no longer just pack whatever I want and know that it will be eaten.  Savannah eats much better nowdays when she helps choose what will be in her lunch. So, we are more interactive this year, but that can only be a good thing!

What the girls ate for lunch #'s 8 & 9 - w/e 10/9 & 10/16

Another 2 week post because the week before last was fall break so there were only 2 days of lunches that week. This past week was a regular lunch week for us though. 

Monday - Grilled chicken strips, cheddar cheese cubes, red bell pepper, brocolli, strawberries (and some blueberries for Tara), wheat thibs and 2 strawberry-dipped pretzels.

Tuesday - For Savannah - half a mini bagel with butter and sprinkles, celery sticks, strawberries and vanilla yogurt; For Tara - half a mini bagel with strawberry butter and sprinkles, blueberries, celery sticks and strawberry yogurt.  Savannah came home and announced she did not like the celery sticks.  Everything else was a hit, so pretty good overall.

Monday - ham roll-ups, smiley potatoes (mustard for Savnannah, ketchup for Tara), pretzel goldfish, blueberries for Tara, apple chunks for Savannah.

Tuesday - half a mini-bagel with cream cheese and sprinkles, baby carrots with ranch dressing, ham and turkey slices and applesauce.

Thursday - ham slices, baby carrots with ranch, wheat thins, blueberries for Tara, strawberries for Savannah and an organic fruit strip.

Friday  - Pig-in-a-blanket, red bell pepper strips, string cheese and an applesauce. (Today was a lazy lunch - I could not get motivated for some reason - the PIB's were leftover from the night before and I went from there...)

What the girls ate for lunch #7 - w/e 10/2

Savannah was sick for most of this week, so the last half of the week there is only 1 lunch each day.  Thankfully, both girls are fine now and so we are off to school tomorrow.  It will be a short week though - Fall Break starts Wednesday! :-)

Monday - Identical lunches except for the fruit.  Mini pepperonies, cheddar cheese cubes, Smore goldfish, and strawberries for Savannah and strawberries and blueberries for Tara.

Tuesday - Cheese quesasdilla cutouts, smoked turkey roll ups, baby carrots with ranch dressing, blueberries for Tara and strawberries for Savannah.

Thursday - teriaki chicken meatballs, rice and veggies, baby carrots and sliced Granny Smith apple.  The teriake chikcen meatballs are from Costco - Yummy!

Friday - teriaki chicken meatballs, animal crackers, red bell pepper strips, and blueberries and strawberries with an organic fruit strip.

What the girls ate for lunch #5 w/e 9-18-09 and #6 w/e 9-25-09

Okay, this is a 2 week lunch post.  With the yard sale over the weekend and a work trip to NYC that I left for on Sunday (more about that in another post :-) ), both weeks were short on lunches and I am just now able to sit down and post them.  So, anyways, I have three lunches from last week and 2 lunchess from this week.  We got off of our Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday routine - I was busy with prepping for the yard sale last Thursday, so didn't do a Friday lunch and this week - with me being gone - Dan was on Mister Mom duty and so the girls ate from the cafeteria menu the first part of the week.  But I made lunches for today and tomorrow and the girls seemed excited to have thier lunch boxes with them when they left this morning.

Monday - grilled chicken brest strips, pretzel sticks, red bell pepper strips and sliced strawberries.

Tuesday - hot dog slices, cheese ravioli with pesto and fresh parmasan, red bell pepper strips and sliced strawberries.

Thursday - Pepperoni slices, pretzel chips, carrot spears, and grapes and sliced strawberries.

Thursday (the 24th) - wheat thins, sliced strawberries and peeled and sliced cucumbers for both; tomato and provoline sandwhich spirals for Tara and a sliced hot dog for Savannah.

Friday - sliced, roasted chicken, orange bell pepper slices, sliced strawberries and a chocolate chip granola bar.

If any of you are packing lunches for your kiddos - I would love to see and hear about them!  I am always looking for new ideas!!!

What the girls ate for lunch #4 - w/e 9/11/09

Short lunch week this week becaue of Labor Day.  The girls only had 3 days of school.  I called Tuesday my Double Monday because it was our first day back to work/school and it was also Dance Night - well, gymnastics for Savannah and ballet/tap for Tara.  Now THAT was a long day!!!

We are experiencing a (hopefully temporary) setback in the "waste-free" credo.  Those fancy-shmancy Thermoses that I bought the girls - well apparently during transport from home to school to cafeteria, the contents gets pressurized - giving the girls a lovely shower when they pop the spout open to drink.  Not a good thing!!!  So, I went back to the rubbermaid "juice box" containers and, well, unless they are kept completely upright, they always end up leaking...ugh!  So, for now, we are back to pre-packages drinks - but I am not giving up hope of finding a good beverage container option for pre-school set that will fit easily in a lunchbox and be easy to use and not leak or spray!!! 

So, onto the lunches...

Tuesday - slice of pepperoni pizza left over frum supper the night before and for Savannah - red and yellow bell pepper strips, strawberries and a cereal bar cut into chucks.  For Tara, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and blueberries and an applesauce.  Not a good lunch day for Savannh - my fault mostly - she came home and announced that she does not like the yellow bell pepper strips and also that the cereal bar got all mushy and crumbled all over everything.  I didn't think about the fact that being in the same container with the fruits and veggies might cause it to get mushy.  It probably would have been okay if I had put it into a separate container, but all in the same tray like that with no divider was not a good move...

Thursday - For Savannah, a string cheese, wheat thins, red bell pepper strips and sliced strawberries.  She ate every bite.  For Tara, a little blends yogurt, blueberries, wheat thins, baby carrots and sugar snaps.  Another home run!

Friday - Savannah - pepperonis, mozzerella cheese cubes, pretzel sticks, baby carrots with ranch dip, grapes and for a treat, a fruit strip.  Tara - tomato and provoline sandwich spirals, grapes, baby carrots and broccoli, applesauce and for a treat, a fruit strip.

I find myself making them similar but different lunches for them.  I really thought I would be doing to identical lunches, but Savannah is more picky this year than she has been in the past, and I try to include things that each of them likes.  Still, most days at least some components of thier lunches are the same. 

As a side note, I am actually finding that in spite of the quite a few cute little bento boxes that we have and the laptop lunchboxes, my favorite lunch container for them is the regular Gladware sandwhich-sized container using the silicone muffin cups as dividers.  They seem to hold just the right amount and put all the food on display in a cute way.  Same concept as the laptop lunches, but a little smaller and more compact.  Anyway, just think it is funny that the gladware I got for less than $1.00 is my lunch-packing fave!!!  What lunch containers do you prefer?

What the girls ate for lunch #2 - w/e 8/28/09

So, the second full week of school has come and gone. The girls are settling in nicely - they like their teachers, their friends and Tara is just so thrilled to be going off to her school with her big sister each day!!! Of course, you would think Tara was 16, the way she plans her wardrobe each night before bed. If she wakes before me in the morning, she is standing at the top of the stairs with her clothes in her arms ready to get dressed. She is my little diva, for sure.

Anyway, on to lunches - although I packed lunch for them four days - taking Wednesday off - I only remembered to take pictures of two. I will try to do better next week!

On Monday, the girls had ditalini pasta (Savannah had a red sauce in the little green condiment container), strawberries, cheese cubes and sugar snaps with ranch dressing in the little container. It was a good lunch - they ate most every bite, except for a few sugar snaps that Tara finished on the way home.



On Friday, they had baloney and cheese roll ups, pretzels, fresh pineapple and mini baby carrots. Savannah came home and announced that she did not like her cheese in a roll up...funny, she liked it a month ago...oh well.


We have been doing pretty good with the waste-free lunches. The girls love their thermoses and napkins. We all love the napkins - I am thinking of getting a bunch for the house and eliminating paper napkins and paper towels for the most part! But, don't judge me too harshly, when you see the individually wrapped fruit leathers I got for the occasional lunch treat - hey, they're organic...