Spring Break

As Spring Break is here for us, and the official first day of spring is fast approaching, I leave for you a bright, cheery lunch idea!


White rice, pinto beans, edamame, kiwi, carrots, cucumber stars, and corn

How 'Bout Those Resolutions?

Accessorizing

My friend, Maggie, sent me an adorable dinosaur sandwich cutter.  I'm starting to accumulate a nice little collection of lunch box tools and accessories.  To (somewhat) organize my pantry and drawers, I use these large, glass, screw-top containers.  They're great because I can easily find what I'm looking for.  These were bought to separate and store the kids' Halloween candy (I've been using them for myself since before Christmas so that gives you an idea of how long it took to devour candy that acually filled these massive jugs.  See grandparents?  The children are not that deprived).  ; )  I found these at a discount store for about $5 each.  It's a great investment due to the time it saves me when searching for specific items to turn ordinary lunches into SUPERSTARS {drop to one knee, extending both arms overhead}!  You may notice one is filled with lots of cookie cutters.  For some insane reason, I can't resist a cute cookie cutter shape.  Why do they have all those shapes for every season, occasion and celebration?  Why do I have to buy them for the 'just in case' chance I think I will need it?  How often do I make cut out cookies?  Ne----ver!  I hate making them.  It takes forever and then you have to ice them and decorate them.  By then, my clothes are out of style.  My mother is the Cut-Out-Cookie Queen.  Everyone loves her cut-outs and it is her signature cookie.  I'm not going to compete with that.  As for my shopping problem, I don't know what else to say about that.

Jurassic Nutrition

PB&J on homemade wheat bread with wheat thins over baby spinach, bacon wrapped asparagus, brocolli and blueberries

I use my cookie cutters for lunches.  I'll cut out shapes from bread and cheese and I use them to shape sticky rice.  Save the scrapes for making bread crumbs or for a dinner recipe if it calls for cheese.  I also cut out shapes from fully cooked pancakes and french toast for a change of pace.  You can buy metal shapes, with handles, for the griddle to create fun pancakes.  Fortunately, I can resist those, which makes total sense, since I make a lot of pancakes *sigh.*





One way to cope with the long, winter season is by baking bread in a cozy, warm kitchen.  I found and slightly modified this recipe for wheat bread on allrecipes.com.  I like it because it calls for honey.  This bread is easy to make although you have to let the bread rise and that can takes some time.  The kids enjoy helping knead the bread.  I do too.  It's very therapeutic.

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes Ready In: 3 Hours Servings: 36

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast 1/3 cup honey 5 cups bread flour

3 tablespoons butter, melted 1/3 cup honey 1 tablespoon salt 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2.	Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3.	Punch down, and divide into 2 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
4.	Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.com

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

No wonder they wouldn't let him play in any reindeer games!  Look at him!

This guy has lunch meat features, cheese and olive eyes, a cherry nose, cheese hair and fruit leather twists for antlers.  Pretty fun!  These ideas came from parentmap.com.

Bell pepper Christmas lights!  A broccoli 'tree' with cookie sprinkles as lights.

A sleepy rice ball snowman.  He has a bell pepper nose and scarf, and a hot dog hat.

In response to a few recent questions I've received, yes I make all of these lunches myself, at home (hence the bad lighting and photography).  I get a lot of my ideas online through various websites and try to reference those sites.  There are some amazing Bento Box meals out there, much better, more beautiful and intricate than mine.  I pick ideas based on what I think my child will eat and how easy it would be for me to replicate.  What I'm really trying to say, is, if I can make these, anyone can.  I don't have much time or patience but I really do love spending a few extra minutes in the evening packing something special.  Most importantly, I want my child to have something healthy to eat and have him actually eat it! 

Happy holidays from Lexi's Lunchbox!

It's All Fun and Games.........Until Someone Acts up in a Restaurant Lobby While Waiting for a Table Then Falls on his Head and Starts Screaming and we Have to Leave Before I can Even Order a Margharita

Some advice I remember my husband giving me as newlyweds was, "You have to learn to be more flexible.  You're too uptight.  Let things go."  My response to him was, "Why?"  I should be able to feel how I want to feel when I want to.  There is no reason for me to have flexibility.

Rice topped with red bell pepper, olives and carrot sticks

Everyone says becoming a parent changes everything.  It's true.  Now, I am Mary Lou Retton flexible.  It had been a while since we took the kids out to dinner and I thought it would be a great start to the weekend.  My youngest got hurt so we headed back home.  My parents joined us, we ordered take-out and had a nice evening.  My stress was due to my son's bulging goose egg on his cute little head.  It's torture when the kids are sick or hurt.  The change of plans didn't matter at all.

Second, my schedule works around naps, around meal time, around play time, and I seem to get whatever time is left over, if any.  I try to give my husband time to get his work done and this isn't including his regular day job.  He is also flexible for me when I need to run an errand or get in a quick work-out.  He'll tell me to "take my time" if I'm going to the gym.  What is that supposed to mean?

Third, I was never a morning person.  Before kids, my husband couldn't understand why I didn't want to have long, happy conversations while getting ready for work.  My co-workers knew I didn't 'wake up' until 10:00AM.  Getting up at 3AM to feed a hungry infant isn't easy, then suddenly, I had this adorable happy baby wanting to talk and play at 6AM and I could never resist!  Now I'm all, "GOOD MORNING BABIES!  DID YOU HAVE NICE DREAMS?  LET'S PARTY!"

These rants have to lead to lunches somehow.  My son's food preference happens to be diverse.  I couldn't feed him the same dinner two days in a row even if it were Mac & Cheese.  I like to surprise him with fun lunches but truth be told I don't pack an entertaining lunch every day.  When he requests food I don't have, like pudding, I try to remember to add it to the grocery list so it's a nice unexpected surprise for him down the road.  I keep a long list of foods I can easily reference if I'm having a hard time deciding what to pack.  He told me the other day he no longer likes kiwi.  Here's the translation:  "Mom, you've been giving me too much kiwi.  I don't want to see another one for about three weeks."

I try to shop in season and local as much as possible but by mid-season those foods can get boring.  This requires a little more creative preparation and presentation.  Really it could be as easy as giving a whole apple instead of slicing it up.

A little side note:  This time of year I freeze holiday cookies.  I pack a few frozen cookies in a plastic bag and place inside his lunchbox, to help keep the bento box cool.  The cookies defrost by lunchtime.

Christmas Bentos coming very soon and they are a trip!

Outside Influences

I'm convinced my children wouldn't know a thing about McDonald's had they never been in day care.  They would eat the crust on their bread, never ask for chocolate milk, and have the perfect, well balanced diet including all the daily requirements, DAILY.  Yeah, okay.  That's reasonable.

It's easy to point a finger at anyone else in charge of my children for a portion of the week for influencing their imperfect behavior, current obsessions (Star Wars---though that may be my husband's doing), and food aversions (my baby used to love black beans, tomatoes and green beans.  What happened????)

Who knows.  Tastes change.  Kids want to fit in (no one else is eating bread crust).  Independence.  This 'village' that is helping us raise our children, either hired caregivers or family, I'm sure are doing it better than me at times (like when I should have prevented my one year old from taking a tumble down the stairs.  Carpeted stairs but still!)

There are two outside influences that have worked amazingly for me......I mean, my son.  The first had to do with potty training a few years ago.  No matter how hard I tried to persuade him with stickers, charts, applause and finally resorting to mini M & M's, I couldn't get the job done, even when I felt certain he was ready.  Seeing the other big kids at his day care convinced him he is ready to move on to the next chapter in his underwear wearing life.  Overnight, he became a professional flusher.

The second influence is in regards to academics.  Our smarty-pants two year old recognizes every letter of the alphabet but our older one has forgotten some .  We read to the boys every night as part of the traditional bedtime routine.  I could hear Alex complain and whine when my husband insisted he sound out letters and words.  Suddenly, we are worried he is behind.  On the weekends I want to work on writing letters and discuss consonants and vowels.  He insists on drawing Darth Vader and Light Sabers.

I used a food coloring marker to write on the sandwich, cheese for windows

Lima beans with red bell pepper stars

Pears

A few months into kindergarten, during dinner one night, Alex announces he can spell the word bus.  "It's B, then U, then, um, S!"  That was the first word I learned to spell!  That was the first word my husband learned to spell too!  We were so excited.  By the following week he was spelling run, bad, but and sit.  Next I hear, "Mom, I know what 2 and 3 make.  5!"  Now my mind is blown.  "You know math?!"

This whold independent thing is happening much faster than I thought it would.  I always thought the parents would get to teach their kids all the important stuff so long as they put in the effort (that it was actually our responsibility).  Our kids don't necessarily want to learn everything from us.  I guess it's a little like my professional job.  Sometimes a customer just needs to hear the same exact thing from someone else in order to be happy and move on with their life.

My son's classmates all want to have a look at what's inside his lunch box and Alex loves the attention.  This time, being different is paying off.  I also have new spelling and math ideas to include in his lunch box to keep learning fun!

Halloween Lunch Box Ideas

My favorite childhood Halloween memories are trick-or-treating in Cuyahoga Falls where my family's best friends lived and collecting massive pillowcases full of candy.  They were almost too heavy to carry.  There was this one house we looked forward to going to because the homeowner made and gave out candy coated apples.  I can't imagine how many candy apples she made each year.

We would return to our friend's house and us four kids would dump our cases and trade goodies with each other.

Once home, I would clear out a top dresser drawer and organize all my candy by size and type.  It was like having my own candy store.  I can't believe my parents let us have all those treats to ourselves to eat at our leisure.  It was usually gone within a couple weeks.  I would try to prolong the inevitable by sneaking my brother's candy here and there, later came to find out he was doing the same to me.

Now that I have kids, I'm having those feelings all over again-- the decorations, costumes, parties and trick-or-treating, their excitement makes me excited!  The only difference, really, is the feeling of my pants getting tighter just thinking about the pounds of candy around the house---boooo : (

As important as I think it is to limit my children's intake of sugar, fat and provide them with healthy meals to help them grow, learn and stay healthy, there are those holiday and special occasion exceptions where I hope they learn to appreciate and give thanks for what they have while also making their own great childhood memories.

There are all sorts of creepy cupcake, layer cake and Halloween dessert themed recipes I found and I absolutely want to make each of them.  I have to consider all the treats that are already in abundance so I've tried finding some creative ways to make some fun and scary healthy treats and lunches.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  The letters have been carved out of hard salami.  The bat and grass have been made out of a sheet of roasted seaweed.  You can use scissors to easily shape the seaweed. 

Another sandwich, sliced through to form a mouth.  I used some strawberry jam to enhance the mouth, salami and black olives to make the eyes, and seaweed for his eyebrows.

The fingers are string cheese, with a red bell pepper for fingernail.  I carved a section of the cheese out to fit the finger nail.  You can use soft cream cheese to help keep it in place.

The goblin mouths are apple slices, and sliced almonds.  Slivered almonds would have worked better but I didn't have those.  I used a pairing knife to make slits in the apple first, then fit in the almonds.  I put a little lemon juice on the apple to slow down the browning.

Ideally, the pizza mummies would have had a more 'wrapped' look.  My cheese melted together.  It would have been cute to use thin ribbons of cheese and melt slightly to keep the shape.  Black olives for eyes.  The Jack O' Lantern is a carved out orange and I filled that with grapes.  Dried fruit would work well also.

Bones and monsters.  Refrigerated bread sticks make up the bones.  I carved an octopus out of a hot dog and made monster eyes with sliced carrots, sliced red grapes and sliced black olives.

Needless to say, my son was very excited about his lunches this week.  I have to step it up a notch and find some more ideas.  His teachers have been quite entertained as well.