baby spinach with feta and almonds, plum, veggie chips, newmans alphabet block cookies.

Goodbye summer! - strawberry rhubarb pie

Here we have ham and cheese rolls with crackers so the kids can make their own sandwiches.  I figure my two little monkeys eat with their hands anyhow.... when in Rome, right?!  Also some orange slices and a slice of their mom's kick butt homemade Strawberry Rhubarb pie. 

Our last house on the east coast had rhubarb growing rampant in a corner of the backyard. For the two years we lived in that house, I learned to make all sorts of rhubarb dishes in the summertime, but by far, our favorite was/is this pie!  We ate it all summer long - and yes, those were not our skinniest summers on record.  Some wiggle and jiggle was added to my life around that time!

Being in Texas, good rhubarb is harder to find.  But, occasionally I do -and an occasional pie isn't gonna hurt, right?!

Farewell summer strawberry/rhubarb pie - till we meet again my love!

Oh, how I love thee....

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2 ready store bought or homemade pie crust pastry for a 9 inch pie

1 teaspoon orange zest
3 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon white sugar for decoration

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line a pie pan with bottom crust.


2.Mix together rhubarb, strawberries, orange zest, sugar, and tapioca. Spoon into crust. Roll out second crust, and place over the filling (make lattice top or cut slits in top crust) Seal the edges. Brush with milk, and sprinkle extra sugar on top.

3.Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for an additional 35 minutes.   Let cool and enjoy!

baby, baby, baby.

Nope, not pregnant.  Don't even entertain that thought....

I found these cute little organic baby grapes at central market.  I am sure they had a more sophisticated name, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were called.  So, they are now 'baby grapes' to us.  Along with baby grapes are 'baby block' Newman's own arrowroot cookies with a homemade pumpkin spice dip, and 'the crunchy lettuce' with some baby spinach added.  After the pic, I threw some feta cheese on top.

rainbow and flowers- ooops!

Most of the time I make their lunches exactly the same.  On this particular day, I had some subtle changes...  below is HER lunch.  She got tomatoes and her favorite strawberry dressing.  He didn't want either, so he got some veggie staws instead.  Her pears were cut into cutsie flowers - his left in chunks.  

OH did I get holy heck at the end of this school day!! THIS lunch went with HIM and the 'plain' lunch went with HER. OOOOOPS!

 

Grapfruit 'rainbows' with a sprinkle of sugar on top, romaine lettuce with pear slices, cheddar cheese strips, 'rain drop' tomatoes, and strawberry dressing.

fruits and veggies

I try to balance out food groups, but every once in a while a lunch is heavy in one area or another.  This was a 'friday' lunch.  We were out of meat, cheese, bread....  so, this one is a little heavy in the fruit and veggie department.  I figure that is not such a bad thing :)

Veggie straws, applesauce with cinnamon, carrot, dried black mission figs, fruit strip

chocolate zucchini

This one isn't the prettiest lunch ever, but it does include some favorite items!  Some annies mac and cheese, banana, chocolate zucchini muffin, and a fruit strip.

For the Chocolate Zucchini muffin, I used the recipe found here and tweaked it a bit following some of 'reviewers' advice to make it healthier.  I cut back a little on the sugar and used no sugar added applesauce instead of the oil. 

A little side note on the banana - you don't see these in the lunches often, which may lead you to think my kids don't eat a lot of bananas.... the opposite.  They INHALE them.  I buy about 2 bunches weekly and they eat them at breakfast time or snacks.  This isn't the prettiest banana to put in the picture, but my kids don't care. 
 I know many children (and some adults) turn into banana snobs if they see a brown spot on the peel or the banana.   In my classroom, I would gush over the student with the brown spot on their banana and go overboard telling them how lucky they are that they got the banana with the sweet spot!  All of a sudden their sad face turned into a proud beaming smile.  

The Crunchy Kind

Over the last year or so, I have continued to serve salads to my kids.  It was not well recieved at first...some tears, a few rolls of the eyes, and some down right protests have occured in my house.  I found by letting them choose the toppings,  and by trying all different types of lettuce that eventually it would not be a cry fest when I served salad.  But, I never thought that it would be requested!  

I usually ask the kids if they have any ideas for their lunches when before going to store.  My daughter asked if I would buy some lettuce but only 'The Crunchy Kind' because it was her favorite.  Took me a few seconds in deep thought to realize that 'the crunchy kind' translates to 'romaine'! 

Romaine lettuce -a.k.a. 'the crunchy kind', vanilla bean yogurt with frozen blueberries, strawberry dressing, and a fruit strip.

cowboy hat for my little buckeroo

At the start of the week, I made these puzzle sandwiches.  I made a hat and a boot.  The girl got the hat, the boy got the boot.  Turns out I messed that one up big time!  SHE had wanted the boot, HE had wanted the hat.  I had made the lunches in the morning, ( I hate when I wait!) and I just lovingly shoved one into each lunch box and sent them on their merry way. 

I used the hat cutter and piled 3 turkey and tortilla sandwiches on top of each other, added a little carrot circle and a star.  When I called him over to see his lunch he right away knew I was making up for my "mess up" earlier in the week, looked at me and grinned ear to ear.  I even got a very sincere "thank you, mommy."

Sometimes people ask WHY I take the time to make 'fancy' lunches even though they sometimes shake all over and do not look the same at lunchtime.  THAT is why.  He felt special, and all it cost me was a few extra minutes in the kitchen with a cookie cutter.

carrot 'wagon wheels', grapes, salad with feta and almonds, and cheese curds round out this lunch.

five senses

Five Senses
(Tune: Where is Thumbkin?)

Five senses, five senses
We have them. We have them.
Seeing, hearing, touching,
Tasting and smelling.
There are five. There are five.

That song was stuck in my head the ENTIRE time I was making this lunch.  I kinda wanted to jump from a tall bridge by the time I was finished.

My daughter is learning about the five senses at school, so she and I made a 'face salad' with eyes, nose, ears, mouth.  The number 5 was cut out of cheese and we added it to a hand cut out of turkey on a wheat tortilla.  A little container of 'tear drop' tomatoes and grapes and she is good to go!