throw and go

Today is 'one of those days'.  I was up at my school last night helping sort the fundraiser and also getting last minute touches ready for our Christmas program and party today. 
I came home and it looked about how I left it - my dining room table is covered in 'school stuff', there are piles to walk over, and the dishes in the sink are starting to talk to each other and become old friends.
AFTER TODAY things calm down (deep breaths, amanda).

So, upon request here is a quick pic of one of our throw together lunches.  The laptop lunchbox was in the sink under who knows what so I grabbed his LL bean bag today.
salad with raisins and cranberries (he is anti-dressing all of a sudden), a few banana chips, annies cheddar bunnies, a little blends yogurt and a baby bell cheese.  The water bottle is in front.... it is the one with the pink cap.  His sister's was the only clean one!  Dishes are FIRST on the list when I get home today!!

nativity lunch

I had this lunch planned out (in my head) for my daughter's lunch today... but she was still recovering from a weekend attack of the sniffles and didn't go to school.  When your name comes out as BOBBY instead of MOMMY, it's not a good thing.
She has a class party planned for thursday and doesn't need a lunch brought to school, so I went ahead and made this one for my son tomorrow.

Sliced chicken and cheese sandwich with a crust stable roof, and crust manger. Granola sprinkled in the manger as hay, sliced chicken ground, chicken and cheese angel, cheese star and a raisin backdrop as the night sky.
The other containers have cranberry, raisin and peanut butter ants on a log, carrots, and blue cheese dip.

The crazy week!

Oh, so much to catch up on... I was going through pictures and realized I need to post the last three weeks worth of groceries, catch you up on the latest of the lost lunchbox saga, and I have a few recipes to share.  BUT first I have to get through this week! 
Between this kids party, that kids program, my turn for providing breakfast for the monthly work meeting, wrapping all the teacher gifts, my husband working late hours, teaching my own class, my class party, the class christmas program..... and on and on. 
Is my head spinning?!

I hope to do some catch up posts soon! - just not this week!

snowflake quesadilla

Have I mentioned how much I love the ready bake tortilla dough?  Since it is dough, it is pliable enough to fold many times to cut into .... oh, something like a snowflake.  how cool is that?  
I use these a lot in the lunches because
A.  my son has a wierd freaky thing for quesadillas.  Even plans to open a quesadilla restaurant one day (be on the lookout for a 'quesadilla house' opening near you in.... oh...... say 15 years).  
and B.  It is SO versatile. 

This lunch has two quesadilla snowflake sandwiches, one on top of the other, tortilla stars made from the dough scraps, half an apple, carrots with blue cheese dip, and ants on a log.

santa, snowman, and lights.

As asked, my son has been getting very plain lunches lately.  I haven't posted them because they started to look the same.   Usually a sandwich, applesauce or yogurt, cheddar bunny's and an apple.  No fancy cutting or anything.  I think he's been missing his special lunches a bit.  As soon as his new lunchbox arrived today, he asked if he could get a santa hat sandwich like his sister did yesterday. 
I was so thrilled that I threw in lights and a snowman too!

Actually, the lights were planned for my daughter's lunch tomorrow but her class earned a pizza party so we were told not to bring lunch. 

The snowman.... well... just kinda happened.

The lights and santa hat are just peanut butter and jelly and plain cream cheese sandwiches.  the lights have almond halves at the bottom.  I wish I had a black licorice string to be the wire, but oh well.   The lights are on a bed of lettuce.  The santa hat is sitting on top of sweet couscous (raisins and cinnamon added to couscous).  The snowman is vanilla yogurt with frozen blueberries for eyes and mouth and a carrot nose.

It's here! It's here!

If you've been following this blog, you know my son has had a love/hate thing going on with his lunches all year.  He has loved his home made lunches, wanted to buy, and wanted a normal 'bag' lunch all in the four months of the school year so far.  A few weeks ago, he lost his laptop lunchbox.  I went back and forth as to whether or not I should order a new one.... 
Every time I made up my mind, I changed it again.   I couldn't tell if he didn't like the lunchbox or the food inside.   He insisted he liked the lunchbox and the food but wanted a "normal" lunch.   Well what the heck does that mean? 
Then, the makers of the laptop lunchbox read my post and offered me a free buddy set (which has the wonderful large container I had packed the day the lunchbox vanished) and a discount on the rest of my purchase (How awesome are they?!!).  After long discussions with my son, WE decided to go ahead and buy a new lunchbox but we agreed he would get more 'normal' lunches in them. 
His idea of normal lunches meant "not decorated".   I didn't like it, but I faked a June cleaver-ish smile and agreed on it.

Well, dag on....  you know what the first thing out of his mouth was when we opened the new set?? 

"Can you make ME a santa hat like you did for my sister?"

hee hee... I think we are back in business! 

his new lunchbox!

Homemade granola

We made our first batch of homemade granola this week.  It was super easy and makes a pretty large batch.
The kids have eaten this as a cereal, on yogurt and just munched on it plain!  Side note - the serving sizes on most granola is less than regular cereals, so use a little less than you would for boxed cereal. 

The original recipe came from  my Earthbound Farms Organic cookbook - Food to live by.  by Myra Goodman.  (LOVE this cookbook btw!)  I tweaked it just a little...

Maple Cranberry Raisin Granola
makes about 8 cups.


4 1/2 cups (18 ounces) old fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shelled, raw, unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup slivered raw almonds (or coarsely chopped)
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnimon
1 1/4 cups pure maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup dried cranberries.

Preheat oven to 325F
Place oats, seeds, almonds and cinnamon on a large (12x17) baking sheet with sides.  Stir gently to combine.
Add maple syrup and oil.  Mix with hands till dry ingredients become moist.

Smooth out mixture on baking sheet to an even layer.  Bake on center oven rack 40 minutes, stiring with a flat spatula a few times while baking.  Watch closely during the last 5-10 minutes to prevent any burning.

Place cookie sheet on a cooling rack and stir in raisins and cranberry.  Let cool completely.  Transfer to an airtight container and store up to 1 month or frozen for up to 6 months.