Day 236

Day 236 - Yesterday I was over at Bobbi's blog and saw her slow cooker chicken.  It looked yummy so I decided to make it for dinner!  D gets some left overs for lunch.  Top left salsa, cheddar cheese, 3 marshmallows that I had her color to keep her busy while I did something else!, corn chips and the chicken.

Day 235

Day - 235 I don't know what happened yesterday.  I guess I was not ready for the long weekend to end.  I had holiday brain or something.  I got up, made D's lunch then packed it into her lunchbox without taking a picture of it.  It wasn't until she got on the bus that it dawned on me that I didn't take a picture!  Not today though!  LOL  Today D has turkey roll ups, cheddar cheese slices, red/yellow grape tomatoes, red pepper strips, Mom's fudge brownie crown with chocolate covered sunflower seed bling, dried cranberries/walnuts.

My kids love these brownies.  M calls them "Bad Larry's Swanky".  I'm not really sure what to make of that!  LOL

I take 2 boxes of brownie mix.  Any brand that happens to be on sale because I'm frugal like that.  1 can of sweetened condensed milk and one 12oz bag of chocolate chips.  Prepare the brownies according to package instructions...I mix both boxes and put them in a 13 x 9 in pan.  I slightly undercook them because we like them more like fudge than like cake.  I remove them from the oven when done.  Then in a large microwave safe bowl I heat the SCM till it boils.  I stir in the chocolate chips until they are all melted.  I pour this over the still hot brownies using a rubber spatula to even it all out.  Let them cool and enjoy.  **Warning**  It is like eating fudge on top of a piece of fudge.

Day 234

Day 234 - Yesterday I had minor surgery on my leg to remove some skin cancer.  I came home with a fairly large bandage and was just sitting on the couch taking it easy.  D came very close to my face, put her hand on my cheek and said "Are you ok Mommy?  Will you still be able to make me cute lunches?"  I couldn't help it...I laughed out loud!  I had not really planned to make her a cute lunch today.  I had made her an extra sandwich when I was making dinner and was just going to pack that.  After a question like that how could I not do "something"!?  So she has her chicken/bacon sub with a happy salami/cheese catepillar, some carrots, a pack of fruit snacks, lady bug m&m's and triple berry Newtons.

Day 233

Day 233 - Quickie lunch today.  D has salami flowers, ham roll ups, some whole wheat crackers and string cheese.  She has water and homemade yogurt with sour cherries.

Day 232

Day 232 - For lunch today D has a ham and cheese puzzle sandwich, puzzle piece watermelon, cucumber/orange bell pepper flowers and triple berry Newton flowers.

Day 231

Day 231 - More left overs today.  Short rib/spinach sandwich, decorated with a ham and cheese fish, carrots and a grape tomato, homemade yogurt topped with sour cherries.

Day 230

Day 230 - For lunch today D has a weekend clean up!  Top left is some mexican dip, apples slices, mini strawberry newtons with fruit leather flowers, corn chips and then everything but the kitchen sink pasta salad.

For the mexican dip...I'm really lazy and D and I are the only ones that really eat it so I just open a can of fat free refried beans and spread it on the bottom of a serving dish then I top it with greek yogurt mixed with a little bit of taco seasoning, top that layer with salsa, sprinkle on some shredded cheddar and top it all with some chopped black olives.  The pasta salad is a variation of the Rainbows and Butterflies pasta salad that I make for D.  I just added some deli meats, turkey, ham and salami.

Please forgive the picture quality.  I had changed the lens on my camera yesterday so I could take some pictures of baby birds in our back yard.  I never got around to changing it back and of course I was running late this morning and didn't have time to change my lens back.  So the lunch picture stinks but I did get some cute pictures of the babies!

Day 229

Day 229 - YAY!!  It's Friday!  This has felt like the longest week ever!  I am very happy that it's Friday!  Today D has some happy frogs!  In the top box is salami on oatmeal bread and a string cheese.  The bottom box is watermelon and kiwi.  The Lunch Punch works awesome on watermelon!!

Day 228

Day 228 - Today D has a "hearty" lunch!  It's a DIY lunchable!  She has turkey/ american and cheddar cheese, whole grain crackers, carrots, grape tomatoes, multigrain cereal bar cut outs and strawberry hearts.

Day 227

Day 227 - D was begging for a BLT for lunch.  I had to make due with what I had in the house...so she has a BST sandwich (Bacon, Spinach & grape Tomatoes!).  I used the princess Lunch Punch.  She also has some chopped kiwi, banana bread waffle strips and a kitty watermelon cut out.

For the banana bread waffles I just used my favorite banana bread recipe and cooked it in batches in my waffle iron.

Day 226

Day 226 - Quick and simple today...I really need to get to the grocery store.  D has a peanut butter and jelly heart sandwich with a heart cut out.  Her new favorite is that all sandwiches should include sprinkles of some kind...I think I may have created a monster with that one!  LOL  She also has grape tomatoes and watermelon/kiwi flowers.

Mother's Day Off

I made my own lunch for today so my mom could have a day off.  I put in tomatoes, half an orange, some strawberries that I cut up with my safe cutter.  I used as many of mom's picks as I could.  I have a tuna sandwich that I used my cinderella cutters on and then I made a monstrawberry like my mom does.

Click on the button below to hop on over to Snack, Lunch, Sninner to see what my friend Clara made to give her Mom the day off!

Day 225

I have been seeing tons of pictures like this on Pinterest lately.  Do you think I could find one on there today??  Of course not!  Anyway, something about these pictures makes me happy.  I'm sure it's the sprinkles!  What kind of monster do you have to be to not be even a little bit happy to see sprinkles?  Well today the sun is shining and I am starting to feel a little bit more like myself again so I decided to recreate this picture in a lunch for D.

Day 225 - D has apple slices with peanut butter, string cheese on a Hello Kitty cupcake topper, grape tomatoes and string cheese and her sprinkle smile sandwich!  It is just a peanut butter/strawberry jam sandwich.  I used a very thin layer of strawberry jam to hold the sprinkles on and I used a Wilton Icing Writer to draw the line.

Day 224

I am sorry for the poor picture quality these last few days.  It has been so dark and rainy there is no natural light to be found!

D's appetite still has not really returned.  Yesterday she came home with almost all her lunch still in her box.  Today she has turkey/ham/salami roll ups, babybel cheddar cheese, pineapple/cherry skewers, yogurt with strawberries.  Inside Hello Kitty is a crushed up Oreo cookie.  We were at the grocery store the other day grabbing a plain yogurt so I could make a new batch when a single serve container of Oreo yogurt caught D's eye.  She begged and begged for it.  I couldn't get over that the yogurt it's self had more sugar in it than a Hershey bar BEFORE adding the Oreo crumbs!  So this was my compromise, plain yogurt with strawberries and one cookie to sprinkle on top.

Day 223

We are having a seriously rough week around here.  I am still quite sick.  I am on antibiotics but I am not boucing back as quickly as D has...I guess that's the difference between being 7 and being 40! LOL

 D is allergic to penicillin.   Yes, we found that out the hard way.

This was only day 2 of the reaction.  It didn't "peak" till around day 5.  By that time she looked like Rocky Dennis! Since that time I always "hold my breath" whenever she needs to have antibiotics. Yesterday she got off the bus looking like this...

I nearly had a heart attack!  I said "D what happened to your face??"  and Miss Calm Cool and Collected replies "What? Mom, I just fell off the swing.  It's no big deal!"   I have never been more relieved to see my kid "injured" in my life!  She is such a trooper too.  She really hasn't complained at all and I KNOW it has to hurt!

Day 223 - So since I am still feeling so lousy I just barely managed to scrape this together this morning.  She has 1/2 of a left over chicken/bacon panini, grape tomatoes, yogurt with strawberries and of course her milk goes in the middle section.

No Cute Lunch Today

D's throat is still a bit sore.  I really wanted her to stay home another day but she insisted on going to school.  We both know the amount of make up work she will have and don't even want to think about what the pile would look like after 2 days out!  So I just packed her some homemade yogurt for her snacks and some protein fortified oatmeal for lunch.  D and I packed her bag together this morning.  Talking about which soft foods she would like and when she would like them (morning snack, lunch or afternoon snack).  A short time ago I got a call from the school nurse.  "D is fine but I wanted you to know that she was down here complaining of a belly ache.  She said her class was eating snack but she didn't have one and she's hungry so I gave her some crackers."   Why do our kids go OUT OF THEIR WAY to make us look bad??  LOL The nurse was having a good laugh as I explained that D's backpack/lunchbox was full of food!  My guess is, it just wasn't food that she wanted!  She is lucky she is so stinkin' cute!

Day 222

Day 222 - No school for D today.  I had to take her to the pedi yesterday.  She has strep.  I finally had to admit defeat and call my own doctor today.  I'm pretty sure I am the one that gave her the strep.   It is probably the same at your house, any food or drink that mom has is community property.

As it turns out M needed a lunch and requested a "cute" one.  So she has a salami lunch punched sandwich, colby jack cheese flower, 1/2 an orange, babybel cheese, 2 MONstrawberries, and a string cheese.  (Hashtag swagg is something that her and all of her friends say).

Day 220 & 221

I have been sick all this week.  I didn't realize just how "out of it" I was until I just noticed that I never posted yesterday!

Day 220 - We used D's strawberry box yesterday.  Inside she has a crown ham sandwich with fruit leather heart and rolo bling, some fruit snacks, pineapple and coconut dip.

Day 221 - Today D has dinner leftovers, salad w/ balsamic vinegarette, colby jack stars, carrot container of ketchup and a chicken tender.  I also packed her a cup of Silk fruit & protein to drink.

Day 219

Day 219 - I'm still waiting for the sun to come out but we really do need the rain.  For lunch today D has chicken tortelini with a cheese, red pepper, black sesame seed hello kitty, rolled up turkey on HK picks, string cheese, pineapple and a HK container with some coconut dip that I made.

Twice a week I get one of the neighbor's kids off the bus and her and D do their homework together.  I call it "Homework Club" just to make it sound more fun than it actually is.  I always try to make them a special snack to have while they do their homework.  Yesterday I had the fresh pineapple that needed to be cut and eaten before it went too far.  I'm sure the pineapple alone would have been enough for the girls but I always like to have something for dipping.  I was going to try to come up with something with a few things I had on hand cream cheese, s/f cool whip, coconut butter and whatever else I came up with.  Well I went to the fridge and discovered that my cream cheese was expired.  So I went with greek yogurt.

I am guessing at the amounts but this is what I did...

1 C greek yogurt
1/4 C coconut butter (I later found this to be completely unnecessary but it's in there anyway)
2 T cream of coconut (like for pina coladas)

I mixed all of this together in my magic bullet.  It tasted ok but was kind of runny so I decided to add 1 T coconut flour.  This really thickend it up and improved the coconut flavor.  I put it in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to set up.  Then I folded in a small container of s/f cool whip.  It is really delicious and tastes great with the pineapple!

Day 218

Day 218 It is a rainy, miserable day here in New England.  To compound my bad weather crankiness I some how managed to injure myself getting out of bed this morning.  Getting old is terrible.  I don't recommend it!  Anyway for lunch today D has a salad with greek dressing, kiwi, coconut/carrot muffin and mini lasagnas with striped cheese "flowers".