It's Back to School Again!

After a week off for Thanksgiving, the girls are back to school tomorrow. So, it's back to lunch packing for me. And what am I going to put in their lunch boxes? What else? Turkey!

I made turkey salad with turkey, feta, walnuts, and mayo, and added shredded carrots for color and texture. The salad is on Flat Out wraps. They both have caramel corn and half a small orange. Bayberry has a couple of small tomatoes and some apple crisp with whipped cream.  Fancy has crustless pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Both girls are taking raspberry lemonade to drink.

Saturday is Bayberry's Birthday

My firstborn child turns twelve on Saturday. We're having a slumber party tomorrow night.

Since her birthday falls on a weekend, I'm sending her birthday lunch a day early. Here it is, followed by Fancy's lunch:

Can you read it? The main compartment has round peanut butter sandwiches, topped with Nutella and marshmallows. The marshmallows spell out the word HAPPY. I wrote on the mini bananas with food coloring pens. And there's an oatmeal cookie. She also has yogurt, and is taking juice to drink.

Fancy has bread rounds topped with peanut butter and marshmallows spelling out I (heart) U. I also wrote on her banana. She has a pumpkin pecan bar cut in half. She's taking a yogurt and juice to drink.

I feel a little guilty when...

...my kids' lunches aren't something spectacular to share with you. A lot of the time, they're just ordinary. I would like to be more creative. I think I'm going to set a goal for myself to make artsy lunches at least twice a week. For now, here's Fancy's not-so-fancy lunch:

Peabut butter & Nutella, grapes, popcorn, and pudding, with milk money tucked away in her box.

PS If you care to, please check out my new, personal blog. I've only posted there twice so far but it will be my off-topic, ranting, raving, sharing, fun blog. I'll share some of my photography, too. I'm trying to improve it. :)

I can't believe this

Apparently, when a kid leaves his or her lunchbox behind in the school cafeteria, one of the lunch ladies takes it home with her. And then fails to come back to school for several days in a row. Bayberry left her $40 Laptop Lunchbox at school last week. Now, it's nowhere to be found, one of the other lunch ladies told her that another lunch lady takes them home when they're left behind, and no one will do anything about it.

I'm livid. And too sick to storm the school demanding my belongings.

So for now, I pack creatively.

Here is Bayberry's lunch for today:

Peanut butter & Nutella on Whitewheat; two baby bananas; mini saltine crackers; Boy Scout cheddar cheese popcorn; Chicken & Stars soup; orange juice.

"Mom's Sick" School Day Lunch

Boy oh boy, am I ever. I'm trying to get in to see the doctor today. I've got a fever and terrible cough. So lunch is....processed today.

Fancy has a Thermos full of ravioli, two baby bananas, an oatmeal cream pie, and a bottle full of apple cider.

Lunch for Friday

In case you didn't pick up on it by now, I love using tortillas in lunches. They're like little blank canvasses, ready for me to imprint them however I want. Not to mention how cheap they are. I can buy a package for just over a dollar, or make them for pennies.





I used them again for Friday's lunches.

This time, it was Bayberry's turn to leave her lunch box at school, so she's taking the EasyLunchBox.

Both girls have the same lunch: Tortillas cut into pizza crust rounds, pepperoni cut into little pumpkin shapes, mozzarella cheese, and a small sauce container full of pizza sauce; green grapes; Pumpkin Mousse; graham crackers (in plastic wrap to keep them from getting soggy). Bayberry's taking orange juice and Fancy is taking purple grape juice. And wearing dark colored clothing. ;)

No School Today

It's Veteran's Day. Thank you to all who have served and all those who continue to serve, especially my hero, my love, my husband, who's a combat veteran and has served the Army for over 12 years.

No school means no lunch boxes. However, ever since I started packing the girls' lunches and sharing them with you here, the Muffin Tin Monday blog carnival has attracted my attention. I don't do muffin tins because my kids go to school. It's not Monday, but I decided I'd give it a go anyway and my girls' faces lit up in big smiles -- even the almost-12-year-old had a smile on her face! This is a fun trick I'll pull out of my hat on no school days in the future.

Mac & cheese with turkey dog, carrot sticks (tomato for Bayberry), cucumber rounds, creamy Italian dressing, cheese, and two mini chocolate bars. Orange juice to drink. Small piece of flat bread on the side.

PS An update on Bayberry: She has a seizure disorder of unknown origin and is staring on some anti-seizure medication. Iloved her neurologist and we have a plan in place to overcome these episodes. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Fancy's Lunch Today

Pizza! We didn't go to school today. It was homemade individual pizza, red grapes, and apple cider for lunch today, with kid-created chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Gingerbread Men for Monday

Not the traditional ones, though. I used my gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut sandwiches into little gingerbread men. I used Wilton food color markers to draw their faces and shirts.

Fancy (above) is taking her lunch in an Easy LunchBox since she left her usual bento at school over the weekend. That's going to be fun to clean...

Bayberry (below) is taking her lunch in her usual Laptop Lunch System.

The sandwiches are flour tortillas, honey ham, and cheddar cheese, with a smear of mayo. They both have grapes. Bayberry has a tomato and Fancy has cucumber sticks. They both have a couple oatmeal raisin cookies.

Fancy will take a water bottle. Bayberry will either take water or juice.

Fancy's Lunch for Friday

It's back to packed lunches! I took a simple approach to lunch for today. I love the concept of Lunchables. One of my favorite lunches is bread or crackers with cheese and fruit. So that's what I packed for Fancy.

Mini saltine crackers (aren't they cute?), deli roasted turkey and honey ham and cheddar cheese, red & green grapes, and chocolate animal crackers. Orange juice to drink. Whatever I send to drink always comes back home hardly touched, so I've started filling the drink containers only partially. Fancy is taking less than half a full bottle (pint size bottle) so we'll see what happens.

School Thanksgiving Luncheon

So...no lunch boxes today, I'm afraid. It was Fancy's school's annual Thanksgiving Luncheon and Fancy and I bought the lunch.

I appreciate the sentiment. I appreciate the invitation. But the food? It's horrible. Here's a picture of my tray of food. It was $5.00, by the way.

Turkey (admittedly moist and normal). Cornbread dressing that had the consistency of grainy pudding. Yellow gravy. Green beans that tasted nothing -- NOTHING-- like green beans. An orange with quite a bit of it still green. Mashed (overcooked?) sweet potato. Very bitter cranberry sauce. Dinner roll. Strawberry milk.

I couldn't eat most of this food. And, no surprise, Fancy ate only her dinner roll, mashed potato (the parents didn't get mashed potato), and the inside of a few green beans. She drank her vanilla milk and half of my strawberry milk.

Let's look at the positives:

1. This was an opportunity for parents to come in and share a school meal with their children. Not all parents realize that we're welcome to join our children at any meal, any time. I try to join Fancy once a week. Meal sharing is an important part of being a human. It draws us together. This is a good opportunity for bonding.
2. There are lots of colors: maroon, yellow, white, green, orange. Colors are good!
3. The foods are traditional family Thanksgiving foods. They tried.
4. Those lovely women who work in my daughter's cafeteria worked really hard to make this happen. They don't cook the food, but their work loads tripled today. Instead of serving 300+ children, they served all of those plus their parents. Thank your cafeteria workers. They deserve some praise. It is NOT their fault the system is flawed. Remember those lovely ladies at holidays and year's end.

I'm thankful that the meal is done and I won't be subjected to it for another year. And next year, if we're still stationed here, I'll go, and I'll buy a plate of food. And I'll nibble. Because there are other important messages in play: sharing a meal with my daughter is the most important.

Lunches for Tuesday & Wednesday

Did you get out and vote yesterday? I did. I even have a sticker to prove it. :)

Here was Fancy's lunch for Tuesday:

Cheese and crackers, grapes, and cookies. Juice to drink.

And here are the girls' lunches for today. Note the puzzle pieces? I made them with Lunch Punch. Aren't they cute?

Peanut butter & Nutella puzzlewich; cookies; pudding; and grapes