guest post

Angela at 'I Love these Products' asked me to do a guest post about my experience with using the laptop lunchbox system.  Check it out here!

spring butterfly

My daughter's class is continuing with their Spring unit this week.  I figured a cute little butterfly would be a good addition to the kid lunches for tomorrow.

Cheese quesadilla butterfly with celery center and carrot antennae.  Back to nature brand 'cheese -its', strawberries, carrots sticks  (he got ranch, she got hummus to dip), and a banana.

missing blue

Here is my daughter's lunch from the other day...  I almost made a lunch with every color of the rainbow!  Red cranberry, orange carrots, yellowish pear, green spinach, and purple dressing.... just missing blue!~

Spinach salad with feta cheese and raspberry vinegrette, carrot sticks, half a pear, vanilla yogurt with homemade vanilla almond cranberry granola. 

back from spring break

Back from spring break.... and back to school!  It was an ODD week.  We all got sunburns one day and two days later, we had a few inches of snow!  Now we are back in short sleeves.... crazy Texas weather!

This was a 'race against the bus' morning lunch.  I made and photographed in a hurry so sorry about the blurry salad.

Strawberries (yay, organics are on sale at all the local stores!!), yogurt with a strawberry on top, spinach salad with almonds and feta (the kid is on an anti-dressing kick - ?!), and carrot sticks.

BUGS!

My daughter's preschool class has a bug theme this week.  In honor of that, I made some large ants.  They are made with three tomatoes on a toothpick, celery eyes and legs.  I tried antenaes but I couldn't get anything to stick to the tomatoes.  The legs are just loose, so I am sure they will rattle around by lunch time, but my daughter actually wanted it to get mixed up so that "the ant legs would be everywhere".  ok.   Made my job easier!

Also added are 'ants on a log' and a container of 'worms' aka, organic whole wheat noodles.  Also, applesauce with little brown things (cinnamon). 

score with the hot dog

Leftover hot dog from the night before. He likes these cold.  To me, blah! BUT oh well!  These are all beef, nitrate/nitrite free usda organic hot dogs from central market.  The small container has organic ketchup, an apple, carrot sticks and cheddar bunnies finish it off.

secret garden

Orange slices, romaine lettuce with tomatoes and feta cheese, almond butter and jelly flower sandwiches, some dried cranberries, carrot sticks with hummus.

Someone asked me a while back if I make my own hummus - I can, and I have, but I have found that buying the large container of organic hummus (at costco) is about the same price as buying organic chickpeas for one batch.... so it is one item I have decided to go with the 'already ready already' route!

Oh yeah, why is this titled the secret garden?  I thought one little flower sandwich wasn't enough, so I did the 'cutsie' part and then covered it up with another flower.  I showed little miss last night and I think she loved it.  My kids can be so easy to please sometimes!
Here is a pic of the 'hidden' design...

MYOAL - make your own ant logs

This is my son's lunch from yesterday.  Purple potatoes are in the bottom right corner, lightly salted.  Also in this lunch are orange slices, cheddar bunnies, and the makings for ants on a log.

throw and go

I may have mentioned, we have both children in soccer now.  So with practices and games, work, etc., my lunch making/posting routine is a little out of whack right now.

Here is a morning 'throw and go' lunch from last week.

PB&J halves, more of the tiny oranges, a banana and some carrot slices.

fruit and veggie 'Spring' lunch

This is my daughter's lunch from today.  I found these cute little Kishu Mandarin Oranges for lunches.  I usually buy all produce organic except for bananas and avocados.  Oranges are one item I will bend on occasion and buy conventional because of the thick skin.  This was one of those cases, so the oranges are the only non-organic item today.

Apple slices, carrots, celery - all to dip in either almond butter or hummus.  Also, tomatoes and butterflies made from the Kishu orange slices and celery.  Her class is learning about Spring this week, so the little butterflies seemed fitting.  I used  a little almond butter to 'stick' them into place, BUT she told me they rolled around a bit :(  Honey is a better 'glue'.

sick week

My son has been home all week.  My daughter went to school on Tuesday, and had a pretty nifty lunch, but in my 'out of it'state due to an upheaval in my routine, I neglected to get a picture.

She went to school today, and I will post that lunch in a minute.

I have to say, we've been sick more this year than ever it seems, but there has also been a LOT of crud going around - more than normal.  So really, in perspective it hasn't been too bad.  And even though a few bugs have crept their way into our home this year, we've gotten light cases of everything and no one has been really miserable. 

One thing for sure...
Tomorrow is back to normal around here!