I have....

A post I'd like you to read. It's back to packing lunches tomorrow. For now, I've written a post I'd love for you to read, which will help explain where I've been.

Field Trip Lunch

Fancy's going on a field trip with her gifted class. They're studying ancient civilizations, and taking a trip to a museum that focuses on ancient Egypt today. She loves history, so I know she's going to have a good time.

I had a choice on the permission slip: pack a lunch, or order a brown bag lunch from the cafeteria. Guess which I chose.

Whole wheat wrap holding ham and provelone cheese; applesauce with cinnamon sprinkled on top; cucumber rounds; cantaloupe chunks. Orange juice to drink.

100th Lunches!

This is it....my 100th lunchbox post! Two lunches to share with you today: Bay's and Fancy's. Here they are!

Fancy's lunch: Cubed ham on toothpicks, string cheese, and a sweet mini bell pepper; Larabar (Ginger Snap) and three strawberries; blueberry muffin; blueberry pomegranate yogurt. Milk to drink.

Bay's lunch: Natural Peanut Butter & All Fruit Spread on 15-grain bread and string cheese; cut up tomato and a couple of sweet mini bell peppers; natural applesauce; blueberry muffin. Fruit punch to drink.

Fancy's Lunch

Roasted chicken & provelone on 15-grain bread; crackers; strawberries; cheese stick. Fruit punch to drink.

Side note: My next post will be my 100th on this blog! :)

An Early Morning Snapshot of Bay's Lunch

She wanted to take hot lunch today, so I had to make it at the last minute. Here it is, a little dark because there's no natural light right now!

Tomato Soup, crackers, shredded cheddar; strawberries; milk to drink.

Fancy's Lunch

I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I didn't wake up until nearly 6:30 this morning. I had Bay make her own lunch while I stumbled around in my sleepy stupor. I think she packed a peanut butter sandwich, some fruit, some green beans, and ???

She has to get on the bus at 6:45! Who had the bright idea that middle schoolers would be best served by getting up before dawn? Obviously, they don't parent middle schoolers, whoever they might be.

Anyway, Fancy's lunch. I was awake enough by the modest 7:30 that she has to wake up, and I put together a simple, tasty lunch. Here it is...

vanilla Greek yogurt with sliced bananas in it; sliced strawberries and kiwi; babybel cheese rounds; honey-almond granola. Milk to drink.

The Laptop Lunch carrier has enough room for two small ice packs. I'm using both today to make sure everything stays icy cold. Warm milk and warm yogurt just aren't very appetizing, ya know?

Valentine's Day Lunches

This morning, my precious Fancy came downstairs, all groggy and wobbling, and said in a half chipper, half sleepy voice, "Momma! It's Thanksgiving Eve!"

Me: (blink, blink) You mean Valentine's Day Eve?

To which she nodded emphatically, came over and hugged me, and proclaimed, "I bet that NO kids will be playing outside after school tomorrow!"

Me: Why?

Fancy: Because it's Valentine's Day! That's a day you should spend loving on your family!

I just love her sweet soul. I asked her if she'd like to go on a hike through the woods tomorrow after school. She wants to. It's going to be fun.

For lunch, of course I couldn't just pack up boxes as usual. I had to make them festive while keeping the foods wholesome and as whole as possible. Here's what I came up with...

Everyone has basically the same foods. Cubed ham, heart-shaped cheddar, Babybel cheese, TLC Cherry Vanilla cereal bars, strawberries, sweet baby peppers, white asparagus. Bay has grape tomatoes and Army Man has some raspberries. Raspberry Lemonade to drink.

I found free printable cards at About.com and I printed one for each of the girls' lunch boxes.

What's Valentine's Day without a little chocolate? Ghirardelli squares in dark chocolate with mint filling, dark chocolate with raspberry filling, and milk chocolate with caramel filling end these lunches on a sweet note.

Hot Lunch for Friday

Yesterday, the girls made their own lunches. They were thrilled. I really wanted to photograph them and post them on the blog, but I was in bed with a killer headache. Fancy put cheese and dessert together in one bin and cut-up bananas and cucumbers together in another. And she thought her lunch was delicious. ;)

I hope they think that the lunches I packed them today are equally delicious. Even if I didn't do weird food combining.

My apologies for the poor photo quality. I was rushed this morning.

Bayberry's lunch was mac & cheese in the Thermos, a clementine orange, pudding, green bean "chips", cucumber, and fruit punch. Below shows how it all fits in her Lunchopolis kit.

Fancy has mac & cheese, vanilla bean Greek yogurt, granola, clementine, half of a banana, and fruit punch. Below shows how it all fits in her Laptop Lunch carrier.

Wednesday's Lunches

Three lunches for tomorrow:

Fancy: Ian's chicken nuggets & ketchup; clementine orange segments; grapes; babybel cheese, and Newman's alphabet crackers (arrowroot). Plain milk to drink.

Army Man: Larabar, cheese, orange, strawberries, and crackers.

Bayberry: Ian's chicken nuggets, ranch dressing, grapes, babybel cheese, clementine sections, and Pirate's Booty. Vanilla soy milk to drink.

Tuesday's Lunches

Peanut Butter & Nutella on 7 Grain + Flax bread; vanilla and chocolate pudding; cookies; clementine orange segments, grapes, and strawberries. Vanilla soy milk to drink.

Four Lunches and a Breakfast

Army Man's in training all week, so he'll be gone every daylight hour. I'm going to school with Fancy for a couple of days, to encourage her to try harder in class. She's quite exceptionally gifted. She's in the gifted program. She's amazing in her intelligence. But she will only do what's asked of her. Nothing extra. So, the teacher and I have come up with some different ways to get her to show her potential. One of them is for me to go to school with her and demonstrate ways she can show her thinking. So, it's back to school I go. And I'm not chancing the cafeteria. I'm packing my lunch.

Here are our lunches, and the breakfast I packed for Army Man:

Fancy: Strawberries, vanilla Greek yogurt, toffee almond granola, cheddar bunnies crackers, cheese, and a honey bun. Vanilla soy milk to drink. Packed in a Laptop Lunch System.

Bayberry: cold pizza, cheddar bunnies crackers, cheese, strawberries, yogurt-covered pretzels. Vanilla soy milk to drink. Packed in a Lunchopolis system.

Army Man (below) and Me (above): Larabar, strawberries, cheese stick, 30 grams cheddar bunnies, and fresh pineapple. Water to drink. 12 WW PP value. Packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.

Army Man's breakfast: raspberry Greek yogurt, dark chocolate almond granola, and two clementines.

New Toys! (I mean, lunch stuff!)

We're halfway through the school year. Bayberry lost her original lunch system. Fancy's outer carry case is dirty beyond what reasonable cleaning efforts can restore. Plus, it was time we had some variety in our packing supplies.

So, I bought two new systems today.

The first is another Laptop Lunch System. I can't recommend them enough. Despite the cost, and despite Bayberry losing her first set, I ended up buying a second set for Fancy.

Bayberry's new lunch system is from Lunchopolis. It comes with the cooler bag, four containers (BPA free, of course), and a drink bottle. All the containers have lids.

Here are the girls' first lunches in their new systems:

Bayberry above and Fancy below. They have the same lunch: turkey & American cheese on 7 grain + flax bread; strawberries; clementine sections; Valentine's Day sugar cookies. To drink, vanilla soy milk. I put a small amount in their drink bottles and freeze them overnight. In the morning, I finish filling them. They stay cold all morning long and thaw in time for lunch.

Wednesday's Lunch

I made a colorful, nutritious lunch for the kids today. Bayberry's was made in the wee hours and rushed out the door before I could snap a picture, but it's the same as Fancy's.

I'm finding that it's the little things that make lunch more pleasing to the eye, like the flower-shaped silicon liner in this lunch. It makes a small difference. It makes lunch fun and cute. And it's pretty much effortless. I may never be a food sculptor like some bloggers I see, but I can use small things, like liners and picks and shapes, to make my kids' lunches interesting.

So anyway, I made this lunch...

turkey & American on Rudi's organic oat bread; cukes; honeydew; mixed nuts; watermelon

And then woke up Fancy, fed her breakfast, and realized that she has a raging fever. So here she is, and here she'll stay...

And maybe she'll still want to eat her pretty lunch. On the couch.

Hot Foods Served Cold

Cold chicken. Cold pizza. Cold noodles. Cold meats.

Foods that are usually served hot can just as easily be served cold.

Using leftovers in your bento boxes saves money and time, and makes it easy to pack nutritious meals.

Here's what the girls are taking Monday:

Fancy: cooked pasta, pot roast cut into cubes, and cooked carrots, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar; apple slices covered with lemon wedges (rubbing the slices with lemon, and including the lemon in the lunch, do two things: add flavor and keep away browning due to oxidation). It's also fun for the kids to suck on the lemon wedges. ;) Also, some jello and whipped cream and a few small marshmallows. Ah, junk.

Bayberry (she has an appointment on Wednesday to discuss removing her problematic tonsils!): same cooked pasta and pot roast, sans carrots; same apples and lemons. Walnuts as well.

Have a good week, everyone!

Sore Mouth Lunch

Bay's not feeling well this morning, but still has to go to school. The poor kid has a sore throat (she's being evaluated for tonsillectomy, as we've been battling sore throats for a long, long time now, and it's never strep, always swells up her tonsils, and makes her miserable and makes her miss school). On top of that, she just had her braces adjusted. Motrin, throat drops, and a soft, comforting lunch were in order.

I love our Thermos container. It keeps hot foods hot until lunchtime. The key is to preheat the Thermos, and to over-heat the entree. Preheat your Thermos by filling it with boiling water, loosely putting the cap on, and letting it sit there for five to ten minutes. Then, drain it, and fill it with the over-heated food. Cap immediately.

Here's her lunch:

In the Thermos: chicken stock, small bits of chicken, whole wheat egg noodles, and some olive oil (for extra nutrition). In the pink container: bacon biscuits (I'm not sure she will be able to handle them, but they're her favorite, they're softish, and they add some substance to her meal). In the small container: unsweetened applesauce, topped with a bit of honey (for her throat) and cinnamon. To drink: mocha flavored milk.

I got a lot done this morning!

It was raining this morning, so I knew I would be giving Fancy a ride to school. Plus, I agreed to give rides to two other children. Also, Fancy had morning practice for sport stacking and had to be at school fifteen minutes earlier. As if that weren't enough, we lost her spelling words last night, and I found them when I woke up, so I had to wake her up to get her homework done before school. And she had a project due today, which had to be carefully wrapped for protection from the rain and transported to school with her. By me. Early. In the rain.

Oh, did I mention that I forgot to pack lunches last night? And that it's a few days before grocery shopping day, so the cupboards, while far from barren, are...interesting?

So what's a mom to do? This mom decided, 45 minutes before departure time, to bake some cookies and make some egg salad. All from scratch.

Am I nuts, or what?

I had nothing sweetish and no real entree possibilities ready. So I embarked on morning madness.

It all worked out, and Fancy has a great lunch because of it. Here it is...

egg salad (made with half greek yogurt and half mayo, as I try to wean the family off of mayo) on a toasted English muffin (it won't be crunchy at lunchtime, but it won't be soggy, either); baby carrots (with Italian dressing in a small container on the side); two pineapple cookies with glaze; a blood orange wedge; juice to drink.

Somehow, I got all of the above done, on time, with little stress, and cooked Fancy a cheese omelet and English muffin with butter for breakfast. (English muffins and pita bread are the only two bread options in the house right now, so you'll be seeing more of them, most likely.)

Here's hoping I can continue that sort of productivity throughout my day. Oh, and if you're interested, here's the pineapple cookies recipe:

Glazed Pineapple Cookies

makes roughly 2 dozen cake-like cookies

What You Need:

• 4 Tbsp butter, softened (in the microwave if you're crazy enough to tackle cookies in the morning!)
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple (drained really well, juice reserved)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• reserved pineapple juice as needed

How it's Done:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and pineapple.
3. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Slowly add to the wet ingredients. Your cookie dough will be very soft...a little thicker than cake, not quite as thick as most cookie dough.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet about two inches apart.
6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack.
7. Prepare glaze: Combine melted butter, confectioner's sugar, and pineapple juice (a little at a time) until glaze reaches desired consistency. Drop a dollop on top of each cookie. Let it slide itself around.

Boring Lunch for Bayberry

Sometimes, it's all there's time for. Last night was such a night. It wasn't that there wasn't time for fancy lunches. It was just that I felt more like cuddling with the family, watching Nanny McPhee, than packing lunches.

I did sneak in some home-baked chocolate chip mini cookies. And the ham salad is home-made (in the food processor, I combined two cups of cut-up ham, a handful of baby carrots, some minced garlic, some fresh basil, and some olive oil and gave it a whirl).

So the lunch is wholesome...just not very exciting.

But here it is.

ham salad on whole wheat bread, half a blood orange, and a few mini chocolate chip cookies. Juice to drink.

happy birthday to me :)

Friday's my 32nd birthday! The kids were disappointed to learn that Mama didn't want a birthday cake this year (it's just not worth the points to me, unless it's this flourless chocolate cake, but I can't stop at one serving with that one so I'm not taking any chances!).

So, I made them some cake. A pineapple upside-down cake. And I cut it into little squares, and stuck a square in each of their lunchboxes. I saved slices for after school snacks. And the rest is individually packaged and in the freezer for future lunchbox treats.

Here's Fancy's lunch. Bayberry is also taking lunch, but I didn't photograph it.

Cracker sandwiches filled with cream cheese; a hard-boiled egg; baby carrots with Italian dressing to dip; piece of unbirthday cake. Limeade to drink.

Lunch for Tuesday

First, thank you for your kind words and understanding last week. It made me feel much better about the whole situation. :)

On to lunch time. The kids had today off from school due to Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, so Tuesday is our first school day of the week.

I love these little containers. I found them at Dollar Tree, and they came eight or so to a package. They're perfect for holding in messy foods, like the ones I'm sending with the girls tomorrow.

Above, you see what Bayberry will see when she takes the lid off of her Easy LunchBox. Her foods are all separate and neat.

Below, I've taken the lids off so you can see the foods.

The girls have the same lunches for Tuesday: Tuna salad (with green onions for Bayberry but without for Fancy), crackers, sliced blood orange, string cheese, vanilla Greek yogurt, and chocolate delight granola (made by Back to Nature brand, and fabulous!). They'll be taking Dark Chocolate Pure Almond milk to drink.

Lunch again, after two snow days

Actually, two ice days. We had a winter storm pass through Georgia on Monday that shut down the school system for two days. School was closed not due to snow, but rather due to ice on the roads. I can't believe it, but the state of Georgia has NO sand trucks or plows to deal with poor road conditions!

I know it doesn't snow that often, but it snows often enough to justify preparedness. I think so, anyway.

If "snow" days are tacked on to the back of the school year, we won't get out of school until June now. And we started August 6th.

Anyway, Fancy is bringing lunch today. Bayberry opted to use her own money to buy junky pizza from the cafeteria. She seems to be on a brought-lunch strike lately without coming out and saying it.

Oh, and by the way: Lately, a couple of rude comments have come across my blog, demanding that I post more frequently or else lose followers. I feel the need to respond to such comments (although they have been deleted from the blog, because negativity is not welcome here). This blog is a fun venture for me. It's not a business. It's not a job. I will only blog when I have something to blog about. Over winter vacation, I blogged only once, for my lunch. Obviously, the kids don't need school lunches when they're home. On snow days, again, there will be no postings.

Family will always come first.

I hope that my little blog gives you new ideas about your own lunches for your families, despite not being done 365 days a year. I do hope you'll stay, and read, and play with me. I write for you. But only when I have something to say.

With that said (and thanks for reading it), here's Fancy's lunch:

Top section: fresh pineapple chunks, clementine orange on a bed of baby spinach (yes, she loves spinach, raw and plain, believe it or not!), apple wedges (sprinkled with Fruit Fresh to preserve color).

Bottom section: sweet honey ham, corn bread, American cheese, and baby carrots.

To drink: blueberry, pomegranate & yogurt smoothie.

Lots of Fruit

We love fruit around here. That's a wonderful thing, too, because Miss Fancy Pants is really a fussy little diner. Eating fruit helps ensure she's getting lots of healthy nutrients. I'm glad she loves fruit. She'll eat almost all fruits -- just no blueberries. Yeah, blueberries! I thought those were the most kid-friendly fruits available!

Anyway, this morning, she had a banana with breakfast, and she's taking kiwi, grapes, and starfruit for lunch.

I just bought five fresh pineapples (on sale for a dollar each!) so those will be sure to make an appearance at our meals for the next several days.

Here's Fancy's lunch:

Whole wheat tortilla with cheddar cheese and ham; baby carrots; granola is in the heart-shaped container; kiwi; grapes; starfruit

School's Back in Session!

After a lovely Christmas vacation, school begins again tomorrow. It took me a while to put together the girls' lunches, which goes to show that practice really helps streamline things.

I hope your holiday was pleasant, too, and that your back-to-school goes smoothly!

Here are the girls' lunches for Tuesday:

Crepes with cream cheese and raspberries; kiwi; ham & cheese rolled up together; a mini candy cane left over from Christmas; in the cute little heart-shaped bins: cheerios and chocolate. Juice to drink.