Salami Sandwich

Lunch wasn't overly exciting today. Just a salami and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread thins, baby dill pickles (again) and plain Greek yogurt with a little agave and cinnamon added. It was however the first time all week he ate every bite of his lunch. So tomorrow we are having a repeat. The only difference is unsweetened apple sauce instead of the yogurt and I added a Z Rope fruit thing. The lunch pictured is for tomorrow. I forgot to take a picture for today's. Now my only problem is I used up all of my fun l(and easy to prepare) lunch ideas. I don't have a clue what I'll be making next week! Any suggestions?

Mommade Lunchable

Lunch for the second day of school is one of my boys favorites, a Lunchable style lunch made by Mom. Just as fun but much more tasty and healthy. This included; low sodium salami, cheddar cheese, wheat crackers, cucumber slices, baby dill pickles and unsweetened apple sauce.

First Day of First Grade Lunch

AJ started first grade today and will be eating lunch at school for the first time. Here is what he'll be eating: tortellini pasta salad with cheddar cheese, salami and cucumber, baby dill pickles, what AJ calls "bento crackers" and a Zrope as a special first day treat. He also has water to drink.

Last Minute Lunch

I had been planning on giving AJ more of the Waldorf chicken salad for his school lunch today. Luckily before I sent it I realized last time he took it it didn't have nuts. I added walnuts to it after I made his sandwich. His school has a no nut policy so I had to come up with something fast this morning. He ended up with a cream cheese and jam sandwich on a whole wheat bagel, grapes and a little salad. That was it, and he was thrilled! I would have liked a little more protein in there but it was the best I could do for the moment.

For breakfast this morning we had some great carrot smoothies. I used pureed steamed carrots (3 smallish ones) , pineapple juice, orange juice, plain yogurt (I discovered that the Trader Joe's brand organic is pretty good, no funny taste when you mix it into something), just a touch of honey and some ice.

They were really good and if I didn't know better I would have thought that the little bits of carrot were just pulp from fruit. We will be making them again for sure!

-Jen-

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Roasted Chickpeas

Roasted Chickpeas

Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas. Pat them dry. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Spread the chickpeas on the cookie sheet and spray them with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. Try not to scarf them down too fast because your kids will also love them and will be very upset if they don't get any.

-Jen-

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Recipes

I have been meaning to post the recipes for the "Apricot Poo Bars" and the Granola bars I made. Here they are

Apricot Snack Bars



1/2 cup cream honey (I used cinnamon flavored cream honey)
1/2 cup almond butter
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
Mix altogether in bowl with a spoon. Then stir in (you may have to use your hand)

1 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup chopped or sliced almonds
Mix all ingredients. Press into loaf pan and chill in the fridge.

I couldn't find cinnamon flavored creamed honey so I just used plain creamed honey (I didn't even know there was such a thing as creamed honey before this). And next time I make this recipe I would only put in 1/2 tsp of almond extract. 1 1/2 tsp was way too much for my taste.

And as I said before these were just to sticky for me to cut into bars so they got rolled into little logs instead. And they just looked very wrong like that but they were so good!

The blog I found the recipe on is wonderful and can be found here

Next is the recipe for The Worlds Best Granola Bars!



Homemade Granola Bars:
3 1/4 cups rolled Oats (or
combination of oats and other whole grains)
3/4 cups Whole Wheat flour (or all-purpose)
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 T. Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 cup honey, at least
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups "Stuff" (I used about a cup or so of chopped dried apricots and a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325.
In a large mixing bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, and any spices you want to use.
In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, oil, and honey.
Pour wet mix into dry and stir to combine.
Stir in the "stuff" you want to use.
Spray an edged cookie sheet or pan with cooking spray and press VERY firmly into cookie sheet. (I used a 7x11 pan that was perfect for this).
Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes until top is turning golden brown.
Remove from oven and firmly press down bars again with a spatula or similar, and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Cut into bars--they are hard to cut if you allow it to completely cool.
Allow to finish cooling completely before removing from pan.

Two notes:
1. Press the bars firmly down in the pan with the flat edge of a spatula before baking. Do this again after baking, and once more before you cut it. If they aren't packed down, they will crumble.
2. Regarding the honey, start with the 1/2 cup. If the mixture seems too crumbly, keep adding honey by the teaspoon. The amount needed seems to depend on the fillings. The chocolate chips melt a bit, which seems to require less honey, whereas the apple-cinnamon ones seemed to require more, based on the dryness of the cinnamon.

This recipe is going to be lots of fun to play with. Personally, I thought they were perfect with the dried apricots and chocolate chips but Trav requested dried cranberries and nuts so that will be my next attempt.

I also found this recipe on an amazing blog that can be found here

If anyone else knows of a great blog with good healthy kid friendly recipes please share.

-Jen-

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Day 4...I think

I guess I'll stop labeling my posts but how many days we have been eating healthy. If I can't remember if today is day 4 or day 5 I'll really have problems in a few weeks!

I just typed up a nice long post and I don't know what happened to it. I'm to tired to think it all out again so I'll just show you AJ's school lunch today.



He had Waldorf salad (with chicken added) in whole wheat pita bread, fresh blueberries and plain yogurt with pureed blue berries mixed in (left over from breakfast this morning we had it on top of whole wheat pancakes), two bite sized oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's and water to drink. In the small box he had fresh strawberries, veggie sticks from Trader Joe's and sliced cheddar cheese. Alan had all the same foods here at home. They both polished off just about every crumb. I don't know how I got so lucky as to have two such good eaters when I was so picky as a kid!

-Jen-

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