Recipe: Fruit Parfait "Cupcakes" for a Birthday Celebration

The kids' schools have put in place an "Only Healthy Treats" policy this year, which makes birthday celebrations a bit more challenging than throwing together some cupcakes.

In lieu of cupcakes, I decided to make fruit "cupcakes" - little fruit and yogurt parfaits.

I used watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, kiwi, and for fun, dragonfruit (that we have tried before and found sadly underwhelming on it's own, but nice in fruit salad!).

For the yogurt, I used plain Cabot Greek yogurt, and mixed in a package of cheesecake flavored pudding mix.  It's really yummy and I think I might use it for a fruit dip at future parties.

Watermelon circle with a ring of yogurt piped around it to start

To make the parfait "cupcakes" pretty, I layered the fruit in an attractive way.  I started with circles of watermelon on the bottom, cut to fit in the cups, and piped a little of the yogurt around the top.

I followed this with a nice slice of strawberry, and a few pieces of kiwi, then a scoop of blueberries.

I piped another layer of yogurt over the blueberries, then added grapes and a couple pieces of dragonfruit.  To top the parfaits off, I placed a strawberry sliced through most of the way several times and spread to form a fan.  For fun, I put a tiny watermelon star on each parfait.

I think they are sweet and healthy and a nice alternative to cupcakes, and I hope that the kids like them!

Lunches: 3.11.14

Happy Tuesday!

Sandwich: 50g, strawberries: 4g, apple slices: 4g, crackers: 10g

The Boy has a ham sandwich with hummus and cheese on ciabatta bread, strawberries, apple slices, and cheeze-its.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 34g)

The Girl has a turkey sandwich with hummus and cheese on ciabatta bread, strawberries, apple slices, and cheeze-its.  Her snack is also a granola bar.

Hope that you all have a good Tuesday!  As a head's up, The Girl's birthday is coming up this weekend, and I have a lot of fun treats planned... treats in honor of a certain wizarding world.  A girl only turns 11 once.. and she already got her letter....

Family Lunches: 3.10.14

Happy Monday!

The Hubby and the kids have the same lunch today.

The Hubby's lunch

Their lunches are a wrap with hummus, spinach, ham, and cheese, along with a little spinach on the side, apple slices, mini graham crackers, and strawberries.

Wrap: 20g, spinach: 1g, apple slices: 2g, strawberries: 5g, mini graham crackers: 6g

The Boy has a granola bar for snack (not pictured, 33g).

The Girl has an applesauce for snack (not pictured).

Lunches: 3.7.14

Happy Friday!

Wrap: 20g, crackers: 19g, carrots: 3g, apples: 8g

The Boy has a wrap with hummus, spinach, ham, and cheese for lunch, along with some white cheddar crackers, carrots, and apple slices.  He has an applesauce for lunch (not pictured, 15g)

The Girl (who has a chorus concert tonight), also has a wrap with hummus, spinach, and ham, and cheese for lunch, along with white cheddar crackers, carrots, and apple slices.  Her snack is applesauce (not pictured).

Family Lunches: 3.6.14

I made an impromptu chili for dinner (no real recipe, just toss and go..) and the kids adored it.  They went back for two bowls each, with cornbread that The Boy helped to make (he was so proud).

Chili: 12g, cornbread: 10g, apple slices: 6g, carrots: 2g

The Boy has leftover chili and cornbread in his lunch, along with apple slices, and baby carrots.  His snack is applesauce (not pictured, 15g).

The Girl has leftover chili and cornbread, also with apple slices and baby carrots.  Her snack is applesauce (not pictured).

The Hubby has some chicken salad and spinach on a whole wheat English muffin, a little corn bread, apple slices, and a couple Thin Mints.

Family Lunches: 3.5.14

After a nice break, the kids are back to school.

The Hubby has some chicken salad and spinach on a whole wheat bun, some honey wheat pretzel sticks, apple slices, along with some mini graham crackers.

Sandwich: 30g, pretzels: 15g. apple: 6g, carrots: 2g

The Boy has a sandwich with hummus, spinach, and turkey on a whole wheat bun, some honey wheat pretzel sticks, apple slices, and carrots.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 27g)

The Girl also has some chicken salad with spinach on a whole wheat bun, some honey wheat pretzel sticks, carrots, and apple slices.  Her snack is a granola bar (not pictured).

Lunches for an Outing: Boston Museum of Science, 3-1-14

We love the Boston Museum of Science!  If you live anywhere at all close, I can't recommend it enough.  We have a membership, and intend on renewing it for next year.  We spent the day there yesterday, and had such a wonderful time.

Wall of food!

There's a temporary exhibit that we could have spent so much more time at - Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, and Culture.  (I will have some pictures of this later - my camera died).  It was fascinating.

Another temporary exhibit features molecular gastronomy, which I have seen all over the Food Network, and as a scientist, I would love to try it.. but those molecular gastronomy kits are expensive!  It is called Innovation in the Art of Food, and made me really want to try oil "caviar" and carrot foam...

We went to a show in the planetarium all about moons (this was outstanding, and worth the trip in and of itself), and also an IMAX show about the South Pacific and coral reefs.

On top of all of that, we saw tiny cotton-top tamarin monkeys, a porcupine, a fantastic lightening show, the live butterfly garden that always makes me feel like I am communing with my father (who was an amateur lepodopterist) ... and the kids spent a really long time watching their favorite, the perpetual motion machine.

The Girl and my fabulous mother enjoying their lunches

But we also needed to eat.  So, I did what I do, and I packed us lunches.

I made some nice fresh oatmeal bread (from a King Arthur Flour recipe), and we had sandwiches with hummus, spinach, turkey, Cabot cheddar cheese, and Penzey's sandwich sprinkle, along with carrots and cucumber with some hummus (The Girl just had some carrots, as she is not a fan of cucumber), some apple slices and nectarine slices, and a couple lemon Savannah Smiles Girl Scout cookies for each of us, each in an Easylunchbox.

We are looking forward to going again, and I think next time, we will also pack dinner.  The cafe is ok, but expensive and doesn't have many options (since we stayed for an evening show at the IMAX theatre, there was only one dining option left open, and a cheeseburger and fries cost me almost $9...) If I am going to spend money at the museum, I would rather spend it in the museum store, instead of on something I could do myself.

I don't know when we will go down next, or where our next outing will be to, but packing lunches makes it more affordable to do fun things, so pack away!