One of the fastest lunches yet!

I took a nasty fall off of our porch steps when I left to head to work last night. Actually "steps" isn't accurate since I hit the first one, skipped the next three, and landed in the driveway. A little scrape on my right knee, a little gash on the palm of my right hand, and my left knee (which has already been rebuilt/partially replaced once) is swollen in a couple of places, scraped all to heck, and various shades of red and purple. The idea of standing in the kitchen coming up with an awesomely complicated lunch for tomorrow? Not going to happen.  Pulled out the bread, slapped on some mustard, ham & cheese, and told John to pick out a cookie cutter and some side snacks. A Ritz Crackerful, Toy Story fruit snacks, and grapes join the giant star sandwich.

Rugrats (and a Fit & Fresh trial run!) -- @NickelodeonTV @Fit_Fresh

Before John was even a glimmer in my eye I picked myself up a Fit & Fresh Lunch On The Go set at a local drugstore. The past few years, I admit, I typically have forgotten about it with all of the other random containers and clutter bouncing around.

A few nights ago I was looking up new lunch-stuff options for John to take to school and discovered that they now have an entire line just for kids (including the incredibly awesome Pic N Mix Monster sets) and a whole lot more options for non-kids than I was aware of. (There's a fruit & veggie dish I'm just dying to try to make a bentoish lunch in for him ... or me ...)

Needless to say, I think, I fell in love all over again and this morning as soon as I got home from work I checked to make sure I still had all of the pieces for my original set -- including ice pack (which, amazingly, was actually in the freezer).

John's already aware that I'm planning on buying new containers so when he saw me with all the pieces out he got all excited thinking I already had. I told him that it was technically mine but I was thinking of getting him his own (and then showed him online that they have it in green now -- his "favoritest color everrrrrr") and asked if he would like to use mine for lunch tomorrow. Of course I got a big hug and smile! Gotta love that!

John calls the Lunch On The Go a "stack 'em up box" because that's exactly what you do. There's a bottom layer, then the ice pack, then the top layer holds two smaller covered containers. 

Tommy & Chuckie from Rugrats are mini turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread. They're joined on the bottom layer by a monterey jack cheese stick, juice box, wild berry fruit snacks, and his little silverware. The two top containers are pictured below the box with fruit salad on the left and raspberry yogurt with sprinkles on the right. (He had me put it all together before he went to school this morning so he could see and he loves how everything fits!)



All stacked and ready to go!

Of course, after taking the pictures I put the ice pack back in the freezer and the rest in the fridge ... after making sure it wasn't too big for any of his lunch bags (yes -- he has three in various sizes). It fit perfectly!

Tomorrow as soon as he gets home from school I'll give it a good scrub down so I can use it for MY lunch!

(Disclaimer: Fit & Fresh had nothing to do with this post besides making some awesome products.)

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's lunch!

John got some new pajamas this past week because he's growing like a weed.
One set has Superman so, surprise surprise, I had to make a lunch with Superman!

Superman is bologna and cheese on whole wheat with an AirHead cape.
Star crackers, grapes and apple juice finish it off!

Sandra Boynton's A to Z

I have to admit I was pretty terrified when John brought me this as his choice for lunch. Boynton is an amazing artist and some of the pictures would probably make me want to pull my hair out trying to get right.

I lucked out when he only asked for the cover!

The Aardvark & Zebra are bologna and cheese on whole wheat. The letters are cut from AirHeads. On the side is a yogurt and there will also be either apple or orange slices (as soon as he decides which).

Ruby Gloom (& friends)

I can't recall how I started watching Ruby Gloom. As far as I know it never actually aired on an American network so I must have just stumbled upon it online or heard about it through a .... a GUEST! That's what it was! It was a hotel guest who had some Ruby Gloom gear and we got talking about how awesome it was and he (yes, he) mentioned the show and I found it online.

Eesh!

It's been a looooong time.

And now Netflix has it and I'm ecstatic ... and determined to make John a fan, as well. And after only two episodes he decided he wanted a Ruby lunch with Doom Kitty and Mr Buns so here we have them!

Ruby, Mr Buns & Doom Kitty are all SunButter & Strawberry Fluff on whole grain white. We're still retesting the waters with the SunButter & whether or not he likes it with anything other than jelly (since with jelly he doesn't), so there are Beef Bites, strawberry fruit snacks and applesauce (with red sprinkles) added as sides/alternatives.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat ... Minus the Lather & Rinse

Yesterday's concoction ended up being soooooooooooooo good that I have every intention of having it again tonight! I think maybe I'll add some mushrooms just for a little extra somethin somethin ...

And since Tuesdays are my Friday I'll take some time on Wednesday and Thursday to think up what I might want for the actual Friday.

Confused yet?

Go, Diego, Go!

I was really worried that John would remember that I told him they celebrate Lunar New Year for 15 nights ... and then try and have me figure out enough lunches to fit!

Luckily, if he did remember he didn't call me on it and for tomorrow we get Diego and Rescue Pack!

Diego & RP are cream cheese & strawberry jam sandwiches.

The muffin is chocolate chip (and in a Diego wrap).

Strawberry fruit snacks are on the bottom.

Not at all what I planned ...

I had planned on picking up one of the Healthy Choice Sweet & Sour Chicken Steamers from Rite Aid for work tonight. You know, to celebrate Chinese New Year without actually ordering take-out. Of course they ended up being sold out so instead I grabbed a package of Knorr Cheddar & Broccoli Rice Sides, tossed in a can of chicken and the last of the peas. I haven't figured out the calorie breakdown yet because I haven't figured out just how much I'll take. It shouldn't be too bad, though, unless I take & eat the whole thing!



More New Years Celebrating with the Angry Birds

The peeps at Rovio are amazing. Not only do they pop out great games, but before each update we typically get an awesome cartoon teaser to get us all excited. Which we watch.
And watch.
And watch.


 
And then we make lunch.

Happy Lunar New Year -- Angry Birds Style!

The latest update for Angry Birds Seasons is Year of the Dragon. Johnny and I played it this morning and we always have to watch the credits when a new update it released just in case there's something new there, too.

Now, if you know Angry Birds you probably also know of the Eagle who can come in and make the piggies go "poof" if you're at your wits end (or if you're 5 and just really like mass destruction). Well, in Year of the Dragon the eagle has been replaced by the Mighty Dragon who, as far as we're concerned, is pretty danged awesome.

Back to the credits.

At the very end of the credits there is now a picture of the Mighty Dragon that ended up being the basis for Monday's lunch:

(Yes, I totally took a picture of my ipad in order to get a decent shot.)

Leftover Smile Bake for Saturday

Saturday's lunch all set & ready to go!

I was having a heck of a time figuring out what I wanted to make for dinner tonight for me & John. I thought maybe Tater Tot Casserole but was lacking a lot of the stuff I normally put into it, so I came up with an alternative based on what I had on hand and The Smile Bake was born!

Ingredients
9 McCain Smiles
6oz lean ground turkey or beef
4 Tbsp Thousand Island dressing, divided
1 swiss cheese slice
1 small can mushroom pieces, drained

Directions
Brown meat in skillet. Add mushrooms. Place mixture in square cake pan (abt 8"). Squirt 2 tablespoons dressing over top. Top with Smiles and broken up swiss. Bake at 350 10-15 minutes. Top with addition dressing.

Easy. Yummy. And 1/3 of the pan is only 231 calories!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ... again :)

Another repeat for tomorrow ... sort of. In October I did John's first CCBB lunch with A, B & C. He asked for another CCBB lunch for tomorrow, but with these pages instead:

It wasn't really easy for me to decide the best plan of action for it, but I think he'll be happy with the result!

The leaves are mini bologna & cheese sandwiches. The tree trunk is a Mini Slim Jim. The coconuts are grapes. The letters are drawn onto Nilla Wafers. (There are more "coconuts" on the ground at the bottom of the tree. You know, because coconuts tend to fall off once in a while.)

Phineas & Ferb ... again :)

Back in September John had a Phineas & Ferb lunch and for tomorrow he requested another one!

This time the boys are berry cream cheese & jelly on whole wheat.

They're joined by Mini Slim Jims, cheddar pretzels & applesauce.

John's lunch looked so good ...

I decided to make a "Mom version"! (To see his, click here.)

Instead of cutting my roast beef into fun little shapes I just slapped it into a Sandwich Thin. I'll also be having grapes and a colby jack stick, like John, but instead of Goldfish I'll have Harvest Cheddar SunChips and instead of apple juice the much needed coffee.

It's The Octonauts!!!

John has absolutely fallen in love with The Octonauts on the Disney Channel. Of course they had to become lunch!

Captain Barnacles, Peso, Tweak & Kwazii are featured here as mini roast beef sandwiches. Also included are grapes, Goldfish, a colby jack stick and his apple juice. (And yes, I totally had to google their names to get them right! LOL!)

Randomness

Last week I mentioned that John found unused Play-Doh cutters and added them to our stash of lunch supplies. For tomorrow's lunch more of them get used in one of the most random lunch bags to date!

Pretzel sticks, fruit snacks, vanilla pudding and itty bitty bologna sandwiches.

Not complicated, not fancy, but still fun and he loves every last little bit of it!

@Scholastic Big Red Readers

For Christmas John got quite a few books so when I asked him to pick one out for his lunch tomorrow he immediately ran to the pile of books from Mommy Santa. The book he grabbed was Winter Is Nice from Scholastic's Big Red Reader series based on the PBS Kids show. He couldn't pick out a single scene, though, as he wanted all four dogs from the books & show -- Cleo, T-Bone, Mac and Clifford!

Clifford is a cheese sandwich and the other three are pickle loaf & cheese. Add-ons are Cheez-It Scrabble Jr crackers with "wag" spelled out on the top layer, grapes and fruit snacks.

And this IS a Tom & Jerry lunch!

After being so out of sorts yesterday and incapable of making the Tom & Jerry lunch that John had asked for, I was determined to get one done...

... and so I did.

Tom & Jerry are jelly sandwiches on whole wheat (yes - just jelly. John asked for it.). I made their faces using the same transfer technique I used with the Jingle lunch/tutorial. The sides are Goldfish (because cats like fish), cheese (because mice like cheese) and grapes (because John loves grapes).

This is NOT a Tom & Jerry lunch!

That's what was requested for Wednesday but I just couldn't pull it together today. I blame the e-mail I got early this morning about John's upcoming school re-evaluation and all of the implications that may come from one simple but not-so-simple statement in it:

He is doing so well , I don't know if he will qualify for special education services next year.

I know it probably seems a little crazy that this has me in such a tizzy that I can't make a cat & mouse but the elementary school he's in with so many of his friends we had to get transferred into ... with permission from the district's Special Education Department. I hate to think that him not qualifying will mean getting pulled out of the school he's grown to love but I just don't know how stuff like that works here and, well, no cat & mouse. Instead, John will get a simple but not-so-simple statement in his lunch tomorrow:

Shark Attack!

John found an unused shark cutter from some random Play-Doh kit last night and immediately decided he wanted a shark lunch for Tuesday! Not that easy since, of course, Play-Doh cutters don't have edges sharp enough to actually make through a slice of bread ... but I pulled it off anyway!

The sandwiches are SunButter with Strawberry Fluff (even though he told me a week or two ago that he doesn't think he really likes SunButter but I'm hoping the Fluff will make it more doable for him).  At the bottom of the box are two Mini Slim Jims (which he'll definitely eat even if the sandwiches are flops). Surrounding the shark sandwiches are shark cheese crackers from Aldi's. On the side, a banana and fruit snacks.

Mac & Cheese & Veggies

There are worse things I could eat than Velveeta Mac & Cheese. Really.

I ran over to the drugstore to grab some cough/cold medicine & orange juice for the little guy and the single serve cup literally jumped off the shelf at me. Really.

It's not all bad, though. I did mix it with the rest of the steamed vegetables from last night's biscuit cups :)

Total calories: 320

Simple Cubes & Balls

I received a wonderful package in the mail the other day from BentOnBetterLunches -- FunBites of my very own!!! I didn't get a chance to use them for John yesterday since we ordered in & nothing else he ate was suitable ... so I knew that Monday's lunch would be my first shot. I'm sure at some point I'll get more creative but for tomorrow I just wanted to try my new toy!

I made a turkey sandwich for him with one slice of whole wheat and one slice of whole grain white in order to get some variety after the pieces popped out. I also cut up some cheese into cubes to go along on the side with his beloved Cheese Puff balls (a love he comes by naturally. It was one of the only things I would get messy for as a kid -- Cheese Puffs and Fudgsicles!). The mandarins in jello on the sidem will probably go uneaten at school but they'll go along in the bag anyway :)

Cheesy Veggie Biscuit Cups

I was pretty stumped as to what I might want to take to work tonight. I knew I didn't want soup again even though it's wonderful and I have a ton of it. I also knew that oatmeal (again) would probably bore me and my dear readers.
A few days ago I took a trip out to my beloved Aldi's and one of the things I got on a whim was a 4-pack of buttermilk biscuit tubes. Biscuits are yum. Biscuits, on their own, do not a lunch make.

Hmmmm....

Tomorrow's my weigh-in and I've already probably royally messed it up from my munchie-fest from the other day and the order of wings I had just a little bit ago so something on the light side sounded best.

Veggies! (And because almost everything is better with cheese, we'll add some of that, too!)

So I present to you: Cheesy Veggie Biscuit Cups!

Ingredients:

1 bag Three Cheese California Blend Vegetables (only 1 serving gets used, though)

1 tube Buttermilk Biscuits

1 slice Swiss cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

Cook vegetables according to package directions (in this case, microwave on high 5 minutes).

Pop open biscuit tube. Flatten each one in the palm of your hand and place one in each muffin cup.



Spoon veggies into each cup (1 cup of veggies evenly divided worked GREAT).

Top each with a smidge of swiss cheese (I used 1 slice for all 10 cups).

Place muffin cups in oven for 10-13 minutes.

See how pretty?

Even prettier out of the muffin cup!

And pretty dang tastey, too!!!

According to SparkRecipes, each biscuit cup is a mere 61 calories.

I could probably eat half most all of them in one sitting but then there's that whole weigh-in thing tomorrow and the fact that if I eat them all I won't have any more (until the next time I make them, of course).  So, for lunch, instead of all 10 Cheesy Veggie Biscuit Cups I'll take 2 along with a half cup of grapes and a couple of hard-cooked eggs. 310 calories all together!

Horton Hears A Who

Is there anyone who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? If there is, I don't think I want to know them.

Friday's lunch features Horton holding the clover that Whoville is caught on.

Horton is a turkey sandwich.

The clover is a Life Saver Gummie with an AirHead stem & speck.

On the side are pretzel sticks, yogurt & some more LifeSaver Gummies.

Cut The Rope's Om Nom

Amazingly enough, Angry Birds isn't the only game John loves playing on the iPad (and his new iPod Touch)!  We've both become quite enamored with Chillingo's Cut the Rope featuring the adorable candy-loving monster, Om Nom!

Here Om Nom is a berry cream cheese and jelly samdwich with mini Slim Jims, grapes and star crackers. John tried to convince me this morning that Om Nom needed to be all green like he is in the game, but I think he'll be okay with only the outline :)

Comfort Food *cough cough*

So Friday I went to PromptCare and they said I have an Upper Respiratory Infection. It might be something even worse but I refused to hang around for hours for xrays and crap. After all, I went to PromptCare for a reason ... right? Had Friday and Saturday nights off from work which provided some lovely and highly medicated rest since they sent me home with 5 prescriptions which could knock over a bull. Sunday went back to work and tonight is my last night before two more nights off.

And I need them badly.

I also feel the overwhelming need for comfort food so I'm falling back on things my Momma used to make me when I was sick. She passed in 2003 so it's all up to me, now, but I think I came up with the perfect thing to take to work for my lunch:

Maple Syrup Oatmeal (2 packs mixed with one Regular) with raisins (about 1/2 cup)

and an orange that's almost the size of Johnny's head.

Cozy, huh?



The Lunch of Awesomeness (@nickelodeontv)

One of the greatest things Nickelodeon could have ever done was have a regular series featuring the awesomeness of the Kung Fu Panda movies. Even without Jack Black voicing Po, it's still a favorite for John ... and even for me ... to watch whenever it's on.

When John asked me this morning what was for lunch tomorrow the first thing I thought of was Po. He decided we needed Master Shifu in the lunch bag, too.

Po and Shifu are pickle loaf and cheese on whole wheat and they're sitting on Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips surrounded by raisins and Life Saver Gummies.

Muffin Cup Omelets

I've been making these ever since I first discovered the wonderful world of silicone muffin cups years ago. They're so easy and fun!

Tonight for my lunch for work I made three tomato, ham & cheese "omelets".

Equipment Needed:
Silicone muffin cups, fork, microwave

Ingredients:
3 eggs (not pictured), 1/2 ounce diced ham, 1/2 ounce diced tomato, 1/2 ounce shredded cheddar
(you can use whatever fillings you want, of course, but you don't want to use too much!)

How To:

1. Crack an egg into a muffin cup & stir with a fork.

2. Add fillings & stir.

3. Repeat with other cups.

4. Pop in microwave for 2 minutes.

5. Admire how pretty ;)

6. Be amazed at the awesome meal you can make for 319 calories -- grapes included!

(The bottom right cup is what happens when you don't stir enough after filling!)

When it comes time to eat these can be reheated by popping them back into the microwave for a handful of seconds but a lot of the time I like them just as much cold!



Back to School with Alvin & The Chipmunks!

John loves Alvin, Simon & Theodore! For Christmas he got a Chipmunks t-shirt from his grandmother and I swear he's worn it for the past three days. It seemed a no-brainer to have them in his first school lunch for the new year and here they are!

Alvin, Simon & Theodore are tiny roast beef sandwiches on whole wheat.

On the side are grapes, a Rice Krispie Treat, and some yogurt.