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.

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. ;)

Gopher Guts

*First, my apologies for no posts Thursday and Friday. I see I actually lost a couple of followers when I didn't post for several days, and that makes me sad. :*( However, my oldest, Bayberry, got her third HPV vaccine (Gardasil) and immediately went into a full-blown seizure, had loss of feeling in her leg, and has been dizzy and headache-y ever since. Nothing like this has ever happened to her. We have a pediatric neurologist visit this week to see what's going on. I would advise anyone considering this vaccine to read up on it online. That's all I'll say for now.

Onto lunch! Do you remember the song about gopher guts from childhood? There are so many versions, but this is the one I was raised with:

Miles and miles of greasy, grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Chopped up parakeet
Eyeballs, eyeballs, floating in my bloody soup
Me without my spoon

So that's what the kids are taking, in honor of the month of October and Halloween, for lunch this Monday.

Miles and Miles of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (Chilled Peanut Butter Pasta Salad)

Mutilated Monkey Meat (Cut-up chocolate chip cookies and Halloween theme mini marshmallows)

Chopped Up Parakeet (Kiwi)

Eyeballs Eyeballs Floating in my bloody soup (pomegranate seeds)

Peanut Butter Pasta:

Cook 1/4 lb of whole wheat spaghetti al dente. Drain and toss with a bit of olive oil.
In a small sauce pan, combine 1 cup beef broth, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 cup green peas, 1/3 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, your choice)/ Cook and stir until thickened. Toss with pasta. Serve warm or chilled, with sesame seeds on top.

Fancy's Lunch for Wednesday

Bayberry and Fancy are taking the same lunch, so I'm just posting one picture. Wednesday, it's a peanut butter explosion. This lunch is definitely NOT safe for schools with nut allergy kids. Thankfully, my school isn't one of those. Peanut butter is practically its own food group in my daughters' minds.

Whipped peanut butter & muscadine grape jelly (locally produced) on whole grain white bread; apples with whipped peanut butter for dipping (sprinkled with Fruit Fresh to keep from browning); homemade peanut butter cookies, cut up. Milk to drink.

For the cookies: combine 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1 egg. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Flatten with fork dipped in sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned. Three ingredients. Simple and delicious. :)

Tummy Pleasing Autumn Menu

I just noticed my front yard tree's leaves changing color, and the leaves on my wild rose bushes are changing, too. There's a slight crispness to the morning air: Autumn is coming. Last week, I made beef stew and bought ten pounds of apples. The girls' lunches for Monday reflect my mood's shift from summer to autumn.

The same lunch with one difference. They both have sweet potato rolls, rotisserie lemon-pepper chicken (I have a George Foreman rotisserie that's wonderful! But deli rotisserie chicken is great, too, and usually a good grocery bargain.)with dried cranberries, slow cooker cinnamon apples, bacon-ranch bites, and apple cake with brown sugar glaze. Bayberry also has lettuce and tomato.

Bacon Ranch Bites:

Finely minced 2 carrots and 1 cup steamed broccoli and 1/4 cup red onion. Stir in 3 oz softened cream cheese and 8 oz ranch dip. Add 4 slices cooked, crumbled bacon. Spread on 8" round flour tortillas. Roll tightly. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Slice into pinwheels. (Mine got flattened a bit).

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apples:

Peel, core, and slice 12 tart apples into 8 slices each. Place in slow cooker. Drizzle with the juice of one lemon.

Combine 1 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 cup flour. Sprinkle over top, stirring to coat all the apples.

Drizzle 3 Tbsp melted butter over top. Cover and cook on low about 4 hours, until apples are soft but not mushy.

These are great warm or chilled.


The apple cake recipe -- I'll share it later in the week and post it here.

Lunch for Thursday

I love that Bayberry gets to use a microwave. That really opens up lots of possible lunches for her. Picky Eater can't use a microwave (imagine the chaos and dangers of letting elementary school students as young as four years of age use a microwave unsupervised!). However, I do live right across the street from her school. It's occurred to me to deliver her some hot lunches throughout the year. I think that would be fun, and parents are encouraged to eat lunch with their children when they can.

But for today...

For Bayberry: In her large main compartment, she has Coconut Black Beans & Rice and Steamed Broccoli, which she'll heat up at school. She has a corn muffin, grapes, and a small sweet potato/butternut squash pie (More about that in a minute). She's taking water to drink.

Picky Eater is taking a corn muffin, some grapes, a mini pie, carrots, cucumbers, orange segments, and a small bit of salad dressing for dipping her veggies. She's taking lemonade to drink.

For the mini pies, here's what I did (Shhh...the kids think it's pumpkin pie!)

For the crust:

Combine 1 1/3 cups flour (1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 unbleached all purpose is great!), 1/2 tsp sea salt in your food processor. Add 8 Tbsp butter (or coconut oil, which is wonderful in baked goods) and pulse 12 times. Slowly pulse in 2 to 3 Tbsp ice cold water. Remove to a lightly floured surface and form a ball.

Divide your dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Flatten each ball into a round miniature pie crust.

Place each crust into a mini muffin cup. Set crusts aside so you can prepare the filling.

For the filling:

Steam 2 cups of peeled & diced orange vegetables. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, even carrots are fair game! Drain any water away from the cooked vegetables.

Process until smooth, then stir in 1/4 cup maple syrup, 2 Tbsp flour, 2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon, and 1 beaten egg (I used Ener-G egg replacer, though).

Fill mini pies to 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees until puffed up and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure they don't overcook.

Friday's Lunch for the Kids

Today was Picky Eater's birthday, so tomorrow, the kids get to take leftover homemade strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows). Here are their lunches for Friday:

Both kids have the same lunch today: Two small round peanut butter & honey sandwiches on Rudi's Organic Honey Sweet Whole Wheat Bread; Pasta Salad made with sweet banana peppers, shredded carrots, shelled edamame, and shredded cheddar & mozzarella cheese; Leftover Strawberry Cake; Kiwi, Strawberry, and an orange. Berry punch to drink.

Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes one 10" square or round cake

What You Need:

• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup pureed strawberries
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

for the frosting:

• 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 to 4 cups confectioner's sugar

How it's Done:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your cake pan.
• Beat butter and sugar on medium-high until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla and milk. Beat in the strawberries.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet ingredients. Beat on high two minutes.
• Pour batter into cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a pick inserted near center comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
• To make frosting, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Gradually add confectioner's sugar until the desired consistency is reached. Spread on cooled cake.
• Top with sliced strawberries if desired.