Today is Camryn’s birthday!
I made her a super festive lunch to celebrate her special day.
I filled it with her favorite things as well as a special birthday treat.
She’s got salami roll-ups, butterfly crackers, carrot coins, yellow tomato balloons, strawberries, pineapple chunks, some tiny sugar cookies that I made last night, and a small container of vanilla frosting with a few sprinkles for dipping her cookies into.
I made individual chicken pot pies last night, complete with chick cut-outs and chicken feet on the crust (couldn’t resist):
Since I had quite a bit of pie dough left, I just kept right on cutting out chicks once the pies went into the oven. I sprayed them lightly with olive oil spray, sprinkled them with dried herbs, and baked them off.
I figured that way, Cam could mix them up into her pie filling at lunch time and her crust wouldn’t get soggy from sitting in a warm thermos all morning.
Cam said that the little chicks tasted just like crackers so she mixed a few into her pot pie filling and ate the rest plain.
Along with her chicken pot pie and chicken crackers, Cam had strawberries, grapes, broccoli, cauliflower, and a few carrots. I also threw in a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, just in case she wanted to dip anything.
Is pizza grilled cheese a thing?
I mean, is this something that people are doing?
I haven’t checked Pinterest because every time I think that I’ve come up with an out of this world original idea, Pinterest is there to remind me that everything has already been done.
Thanks a lot Pinterest.
And while we’re on the subject, did you know that yesterday was National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day?
I sure didn’t. I found out after I had already made lunch. I love when that happens.
Here’s how this particular sandwich masterpiece comes together:
Just like you would if you were making a regular old grilled cheese sandwich, you’ll need to spread butter on one side of two slices of bread. Then shake a little garlic salt and Italian seasoning over the buttered bread.
Fill the sandwich with your favorite pizza fixin’s: Italian cheese blend or mozzarella, pepperoni, ham, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, etc. You get the idea.
Cam isn’t very adventurous when it comes to pizza so the most she will let me put on her sandwich is cheese and pepperoni, but put whatever you or your kids like on yours. I’ll be cramming as much as I possibly can on mine – who’s with me!?
Once you’ve got your ‘pizza toppings’ on your sandwich, close it up and toast in a saute pan on the stove top over medium heat.
When it’s golden brown and toasty on both sides, slice it up and serve along with warm pizza sauce for dipping.
Cam thought this was genius. She was not so thrilled about the idea of taco grilled cheese sandwiches though. I still think I can make it work. I’ll keep you guys posted. 😉
Along with her sandwich she had a flapjack from our Graze box with a few chocolate chips tucked underneath, and some sliced peppers.
Any time we have tacos for dinner, Cam always gets the leftovers in her lunchbox the next day.
That kid loves her tacos.
The challenge with taco salad is that you almost always have cold food that needs to stay cold, and hot food that needs to stay hot.
Cold taco meat? No thank you. Warm lettuce? Not going there either.
So I pack all of the cold stuff in one of her Easy Lunchboxes while I’m putting dinner away that night, and then in the morning, some seasoned ground beef (and/or beans if we have them) goes into her preheated thermos.
When lunchtime rolls around, all she has to do is put the ground beef on top of her lettuce and cheese, toss those chopped tomatoes over the top, and eat it all up!
Sometimes she crumbles the tortilla chips on top as well and then mixes everything together, sometimes she eats them separately, sometimes she uses them as little scoops. She’s fickle.
In the middle-sized section, she has a mixture of rice, black beans, corn, cilantro, and lime (also leftover from last night’s dinner).
Lunch is in the Yumbox today.
I love this little box. It’s just the right size for Camryn’s appetite. I think we’ll both be a little sad when she outgrows it.
Yesterday afternoon I made some vegan chocolate chip cupcakes for the kids to snack on and to toss into their lunch boxes. More and more of my baking has become vegan because it’s cheaper, most of the time it’s easier, and everything tastes just as good.
For lunch today, I tossed two of those unfrosted vegan cupcakes into her Yumbox along with some golden butter crackers, sweet pepper rings, carrot coins, pineapple, cheddar/mozzarella cheese, and some teeny tiny pepperoni.
It’s hard to tell but the picks on the cupcakes say ‘choco’. Adorbs.
Camryn helped me make dinner last night and she helped make the pizza rolls that went into today’s lunches so I thought this Lunchbox Love note was perfect.
She loves to help out in the kitchen and I’m a firm believer in getting kids involved in cooking and baking as early as possible. She still can’t quite reach the counter but with the help of a step stool she can certainly wash and snap beans, turn on the stand mixer, add ingredients to a bowl, stir things, strip kale leaves off of the stem, add pizza toppings to dough and then help me roll it up, and so many other things.
So in her lunch today she has two of the pizza rolls we made together last night. It’s just regular pizza dough with pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on top. The dough is rolled up, sliced, and baked in a muffin tin until done. My kids love these. I actually make a version of these roll ups quite often for them using store-bought or homemade pizza dough. I just fill it with whatever pizza toppings or lunch meat and cheese I have in my fridge. Easy peasy.
Recently I came across this recipe and thought it was genius. Why hadn’t I thought of it!? I tried it about a week ago using spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and bell peppers and my kids loved it. So if you’re looking for a way to get more veggies into your kids, here you go.
Along with her pizza rolls, Cam has a fruit salad (grapes, orange segments, pineapple, strawberries), sweet pepper rings, and an apple cinnamon flapjack from our Graze box.
It’s Monday which always means that I have to pack lunch and snack.
I went with our Laptop Lunches container today because it’s roomy enough to fit both.
Last night Cam made herself a few pizza pita pockets. We got the idea from Wendy of Wendolonia.com‘s new book which we both just love and highly recommend. Cam looks through it almost every day and she has several things marked in the book that she wants me to make for her.
Wendy’s idea is actually for make your own pizzas which Cam loves to do but she takes forever to make each one and since she only gets about 15 minutes to eat her lunch, it’s better if I let her make them up the night before and put them in her lunchbox so they’re ready to go.
Her pita pizza pockets are just pita bread cut into triangles and filled with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and bite-sized pepperoni.
She also has a fruit salad that contains grapes, strawberries, pineapple, and orange segments, some vanilla yogurt with clear sprinkles on top, granola for sprinkling over the yogurt, and sweet pepper rings.
Camryn currently has three loose teeth and she is hanging on to those teeth as if her life depended on it.
She lost three of her baby teeth at the beginning of last year and here we are, just a few months into 2014 and she has three more teeth that are ready to come out.
The irony is not lost on me.
What’s even more ironic is that the last three all came out while she was eating dinner.
So now that we’ve found ourselves in this predicament again, she’s been very very cautious about how she eats.
Live and learn.
Because all three loose teeth are right up front, biting into anything is not happening so I’ve been cutting her food into bite-sized pieces so that she can just pop each bite into her mouth. It’s much easier than watching her try to gnaw at it from the side of her mouth.
That’s not pretty.
So in today’s lunch, everything is bite-sized. In her Lunchbots Trio, Cam has leftover pizza cut into flower shapes, an apple, grapes, strawberries, tiny heart-shaped carrots, a piece of dark chocolate for a sweet treat after lunch, and a little Lunchbox Love that I think goes perfectly with today’s lunch.
I recently received Lunchbox Love for kids volumes 1-4 from the very generous ladies of Say Please.
Lunchbox Love notes are cute and colorful little cards that contain a sweet and positive message on the front of each card, and a fun (and often funny) bit of trivia on the back.
Twelve cards come in each set with two intentionally left blank so that you can write your own message and each set comes in a reusable plastic case. A portion of the profits received from the sale of Lunchbox Love notes goes to help feed children around the world. Awesome!
There are several different sets available so it’s easy to find just the right set for everyone you love. They have seasonal sets, a set for tweens and teens, a set for your co-workers, your lady friends, and those who might need a little encouragement.
It’s so easy to toss these little cards into a lunchbox, backpack, binder, or notebook and brighten up your little one’s day. I think these little cards would also be a great addition to goodie bags at a birthday party, Christmas stockings, and tip jars. You could also tuck them into a drawer, leave them on a pillow, place them in a book as a bookmark, in a suitcase or briefcase, in a pocket, or anywhere you want to surprise someone and remind them that they are special and loved.
For lunch today Camryn had some veggie soup, a grilled cheese cut into small squares, strawberries, mandarin orange segments, and a little Lunchbox Love.
So far, these little cards have been a huge hit with her. She can’t wait to see which card ends up in her lunch tomorrow.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
You would not believe how gloomy it is here today. We’re expecting severe thunderstorms all day so it looks like night-time outside but that’s okay because Cam has lots of rainbows in her lunch and snack!
For snack today, Cam has carrot and cheese ‘gold coins’ (you guys will just have to use your imaginations), and a Leprechaun’s snack mix of pretzel sticks, a few green chocolate-covered candies, and a small handful of Lucky Charms.
She never gets marshmallowy cereals but I just couldn’t resist.
For lunch, she has a rainbow of veggies (tomatoes, carrots, corn, and peas) with rice, three spinach shamrocks, and the word ‘lucky’ stamped out of cheddar cheese. She also has salami and cheddar roll-ups, a dye free green cupcake topped with vanilla frosting (more on that in a bit), and just a few more green chocolate candies in the clover box.
It’s hard to see but that cupcake is green. Very green. To make it green without the help of artificial dyes I used … spinach!
Sounds crazy but it totally works and no, you don’t taste it.
Just blend 4 cups of fresh spinach with the liquid ingredients of your favorite cake mix and then mix and bake as usual. You’ll end up with bright green and slightly healthier cupcakes. 😉
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We Should Be Folding Laundry 