Lunch Lady Friday - Gingerbread People Sandwiches

    Sorry for the long absence, but I'm back, problems hopefully resolved......

    

    Today's lunch for the kids was not woo woo.  Maybe that's the whole point.  It does not have to be bells and whistles every time, it's more about breaking up the monotony for them and for you the lunch maker.  You don't have to take an hour making radish roses, just making an effort should be enough.  Sometimes I question when I go all out if I'm doing it for them or for praise for myself.  I guess either way the kids win.

    Last night I did not have a lot of time to commit to the lunches, so I went with fun and simple.  I pulled down my giant bin of cookie cutters (that's a lie, I made Christopher get them down because they are on the top shelf and he's tall).  I decided on gingerbread men shape.  For Riley and Rowan I cut out two and a cheese Christmas Tree.  For Elly I went with one sandwich and used the silicone cupcake mold that I bought at the Dollar Tree to make Ritz Bits and cheese a little more fun.  All three got a fun little ring game (the teachers are just going to love me).

    For their junky snack I gave them each powdered doughnuts.  I found these neat little ziplock bags at the dollar store.  To add that extra fun I put snowflake cupcake picks in the top.  It's fun and it's easy.

    I try to include all of the food groups in their lunches.  I am not always successful, but I try.  I added applesauce.  To make it more fun (and possibly cause my children to choke) I added little candy Christmas Trees Sprinkles.  I don't know why, but those dollar store sprinkles just seem to make everything more fun.

    I was in Micheals the other day and spotted the neatest things.  It was little pads of paper with the Hangman game printed on them.  I just thought how much fun would it be to play that with a friend if you were done your lunch?  I put one sheet each in the big kids lunches.

     So there you have it, Friday lunches!  Fast and fun, and anything but boring.

Lunch Lady Fridays #3 - Ciabatta Tree

    Today's lunch selection is not really that difficult, but maybe that's the whole point.  This has been the week from Hell (o.k. maybe the last two have been).  I have had really sick kids this week.  They have had high fevers, vomiting, rash, and as if that is not good enough, followed by open sores (I just made you feel a whole lot better about your week didn't I).  It was a bit of a crap shoot to see who would be going to school on any day.  I have pretty much just been in survival mode.  I have been seriously considering running away from home.  As I sit here and write this you will be glad to know that I have three down, and one on the go (apart from Christopher and I).

    Basically what I am saying is that time has been at a premium this week.  Although time has been at a premium, the above lunch only took a few seconds more to make than a plain Jane sandwich.  I have been so busy running after sick kids, that the "well" kids have been a little neglected.  I don't for one second think that by turning their sandwich into a Christmas Tree it makes up for my lack of attention, but it reminds them that I still remember them, that although I can't take the same amount of time for them that I usually do, or would like to, they are still important.

    The theme for the lunch started on my trip to Costco.  I saw these 9 grain ciabatta buns.  They were triangle shape.  Healthy, and fun.  I had made a turkey on Monday, and had turkey meat left.  I chopped up the turkey, and some celery.  I then added a little salt and some mayo.  I discovered that adding a little stuffing to the mix gets me rave reviews.  I used my trusty tiny cookie cutter to cut out the angel, and then some little cheese scraps for the decorations.  It really didn't take much extra time.  I poured some strawberry yogurt into one of the lunch compartments.  Some dollar store Christmas tree sprinkles added some fun to the yogurt.  Although you don't see it in the picture, I also cut up an orange, yup that's right, all the food groups (do I get a prize for that).

    So that was today's Lunch Lady Friday.  I'm hoping that next week is a better week, but with four kids it's a snot crap shoot.

Lunch Lady Friday #2

    Here we are Friday already.  Where did the week go?  Oh wait I know the answer to that... Strep throat hit my house, and I have been wiping tears, emptying vomit buckets, and checking frighteningly high temperatures and then giving doses of Tylenol and Advil, that is where my week went.  I say good riddance to this week!  Now that that little whine and cheese party is over......

    I have to tell you that when I started posting the pictures of the kid's lunches I expected eye rolls and the under the breath mutterings of either "She has finally lost it!", or "Man she has wayyyyyyy too much time on her hands!"  Instead I have been met with approval and encouragement.  This week a few friends (you know who you are, you nice ladies) have sent me pictures of fun lunches for inspiration.  That is a nice pat on the back, so I say thank you.  To those of you who are muttering, that's o.k. too, you may be right, I may very well have lost my mind, but I assure you, I do not have wayyyyyyyy too much time on my hands.  I was inspired by the amazing Bento blogs out there.  It honestly only takes a fraction longer to make a fun lunch, and I find it as much fun to make as the kids do to eat.  The other up side is that the other kids in their class crowd around their desk at lunch time to see what they have today.  It gives the kids mini-celebrity status.  More than anything else, it's kind of like a little love note to my babies.  You know that someone loves you a whole lot if they go to that much trouble for your lunch!  No one is asking you to be a food artist, just give it your best, and fill it with love.

    For today's lunches I decided to swap out the sandwiches for hot dog rolls.  Pilsbury Crescent Rolls were on sale for $.99 this week, and so were chicken hot dogs.  It works out to be cheaper than sandwiches, which in this penny pinching Mom's opinion, is a good thing.

    I know that everyone knows how to make these bad boys, but humour me will you?  I discovered after a few failed attempts with whole hot dogs, cutting them in half gave the best results.  I also cut a little bit of cheese and placed it on the top of the hot dog.

    Then I rolled.  In my head it was a thing of beauty, in reality, not so much.  I discovered that I had too much left at the ends, and so I was struck with genius, or so my poor sleep deprived mind thought.

    To make those little bundles look adorable, I would pull the loose ends into the middle and make it look like a tiny little bow.  In my head it was darling.  In reality I believe that Grace would call it "An Epic Fail".

    They looked pretty good when they came out of the oven, the cheese had melted and rolled out of  the wraps.  It took most of my strength to fight those kids off (especially the big kid that I am married to).

    I have this huge basket full of cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes.  I was looking for my snowflake cookie cutters, but they seem to have vanished.  I did find a few different sizes of snowman cutters.  I have tiny little ones that were perfect for using to cut the cheese.  I then used my tiny tree cookie cutters for cutting the apple slices.

    Elly got the wrap that I demonstrated for you.  I added a cup cake pick that I got from my girls at Sweet Temptations (o.k. it came in the peanut butter ball that I have become addicted to.  Ummmmmm peanut butterballs).  I added tiny carrot sticks for arms.   You cannot tell this, but that weird looking thing in the right hand corner is a Rice Krispie Square I cut using the snowman cookie cutter.  I then added sprinkles to make the sad looking face.  Elly loves yogurt, so I added yogurt.  To make it a little more fun I added a few snowflake sprinkles.

    For Grace and Riley (notice I did not say for Rowan.  He's home sick).   I went with more hot dog wraps and added a fun gingerbread man cupcake pick.  I also added some larger squares of cheese to go with the cute, but very tiny snowman cheese.  The above picture is Grace's lunch.  Riley hates ketchup.  Grace on the other hand would slather everything with ketchup if I let her.  I'm thinking that I should be buying shares in Heinz.  The big girls also got yogurt topped with snowflakes, and they got a Rice Krispie Square , just bigger.

    To those of you who have sent me pictures for inspiration, I say thank you.  I hope that my insanity will encourage you to make a fun lunch too.  If you do, I'd love to see them, or drop me a line and let me know how they turn out, and what kind of a reaction you get.  Happy Friday!

Lunch Lady Friday's #1

   As you may recall I made a vow to make lunches more interesting for my kids this year.  My plan had been to make at least one interesting lunch once a week, probably Fridays.  I found myself last fall becoming obsessed with Bento (obsessed might really be to strong of a word, interested in).  Bento lunches are so cute and so much fun.  I have not purchased any of the way cool but hard to come by in Canada, and expensive to order from the States Bento products (although when I grow up I totally plan to).  I have adapted everyday items from my house.  I use cookie cutters, and little toys and anything else I can get my hands on.

    A funny thing happened when I made the vow to make their lunches more interesting, wait for it, because it's weird.... I began to enjoy making lunches.  I actually had fun making their lunches.  I have fun thinking about what their faces will look like when they open their lunches, I know I have problems.  It really does not take very much more time to make than boring lunches, but it is no longer drudgery, it's art.

    I have decided in my infinite wisdom to make Fridays "Lunch Lady Fridays".  What that means is that I will brag about my favourite lunch that I made this week.  Hopefully you will be as inspired by my easy fun lunches as I am by the ladies who create the beautiful Bento blogs.

    For this lunch I used flat bread that I had picked up at Walmart.

I added pizza sauce.  Man my cookie sheet has seen better days.

I then was lazy because I happened to have a bag of shredded cheese in the fridge ( I would never buy this expensive product, but I received it in my Samplicous pack).  I topped it off for 3 out of the 4 with olives.  Three of the kids really like olives and they are pretty healthy.  Of coarse not all of the kids could ever possibly like all of the same things.  I need a giant book to keep track of who hates what.

I then stuck those little bad boys in the oven on broil. 

 I just wanted to melt my cheese and brown it up a little.

    While my pizza was cooling I made a batch of Jello.  For some added fun I sunk toys into the Jello.  Poor Christopher kept rolling his eyes and making weird faces at me.  I was absolutely charmed by myself.  I just kept letting out little giggles thinking about their faces when they saw the petrified creatures (maybe I should be on medication.  I think that Christopher would agree with this statement, but not to my face.  He's smart enough to not say it to my face).  I should add at this point that the little basta@#s did not even comment on their lunches.

    So everyone got a different toy.  I kept thinking that the ninja reminded me of Hans Solo in the Empire Strikes back when he gets frozen (once again I freely acknowledge that I am a bit touched in the head).

So this was the inaugural Lunch Lady Friday.  Let me know what you think.  Do you want me to have certain days of the week to discuss certain things, or do you like it all hodge podge?  Let me know.

Spooky Kid's Lunches

Salami with a pumpkin face, a dollar store
mini-treat bucket filled with rainbow Goldfish
crackers, a Mott's applesauce
 and El Cheapo cookies (That's not the brand).

    I promised myself that I would make school lunches more interesting this year.  So far I have been true to my word.  I really have been seeking inspiration from the Bento blogs that I now subscribe to.  Those ladies have a lot of time on their hands and come up with some amazing stuff!  I told myself in the beginning that I would make one interesting lunch a week.  One a week is not a huge time commitment.  I find that I am really enjoying the creativity involved in making them fun and interesting lunches.  It's more like one lunch a week isn't fun, at least for now.

 

    Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year.  I do not enjoy being scared, but I take sick delight in scaring / scarring others.  I have been having a blast making their lunches with the Halloween theme ( I know I really do need a life).  The dollar store is a veritable cornucopia of delight when it comes to Halloween lunch extras.  I made one lunch and put in plastic eyeballs.  I giggled the whole time I was making their lunches.  Christopher looked at me like I had lost my mind (there is a good chance that he was onto something.)  The next afternoon when they came home I asked them "So did I freak you out to day?"  They gave me a blank stare.  "You know the creepy eyes in your lunch?"  "Oh yeah, really scary Mom, you'll have to try much harder than that to freak us out." My little smart alack Rowan replied, rolling his eyes.

    The next day I made them wraps for their lunches.  I hid a gruesome plastic severed finger under their wrap.  I gave a slightly sadistic / some may say evil giggle making their lunches.  Christopher gave me that look like he knew his earlier suspicions had been confirmed, he was married to a lunatic.  When they came home the next day I could hardly wait.  I was pretty sure that they were going to congratulate me on "Freak'in them out".  They said nothing.  "So, how was school?"  "o.k."  Finally I could take the suspense no more.  "So did I freak your out?"  This time it was Grace's turn to roll her eyes at me.  "Do you mean the lame plastic finger?"  I nodded.   "Epic Fail!" She said with a smile on her face, a smile that said "Oh my mother has lost it."   This "Epic Fail", is a new term I have not heard before. Maybe tomorrow I will cut off one of my own fingers and put it in their lunch.. maybe that will freak them out!

I have problems.