Lunches: 3.31.15

I packed salads for the kids again today, since they liked them so much last week.

Salad with dressing: 15g, chips: 5g, sandwich: 12g

The Boy has a salad with yellow cherry tomatoes, blueberries, sunflower seeds,
and ranch dressing, along with some veggie chips, and a small sandwich with turkey and pesto.  His lunch is packed in an Eco Lunchbox.

The Girl has a salad with yellow cherry tomatoes, honey goat cheese, and some blueberries and sunflower seeds in the small containers (elephant and egg).  She has a vinaigrette in the covered container.   She also has a sandwich with turkey and pesto, veggie chips, and a juice.

Lunches: 3.30.15

It's almost the end of March - I'm not sure how much energy I'm going to have for April Fool's Day on Wednesday, but I'll try to pull something off... planning stages now, in my head.

Sandwich: 30g, veggie chips: 5g, raisins: 16g, apple slices: 10g

For this Monday, The Boy has a turkey sandwich, veggie chips, raisins, and apple slices.  (As a note, I recently realized that our carb counts for apples are a bit low - so you'll notice that the counts are different than normal.  Oops!  We haven't noticed any changes in his blood sugar due to miscounted apples, but who knows?  It's good to be as accurate as possible when it comes to managing Type 1 diabetes.  We do a lot of estimation, due to homemade things, so adjusting things like apples in our counts might help.)  His snack is some homemade granola (see, estimation here: 16g)

The Girl has a turkey sandwich, raisins, veggie chips, and apple slices. 

Lunches: 3.27.15

We got pizza for dinner last night, and I ordered extra pizza roll-ups for the kids' lunches.

Pizza rollers: 50g, raisins: 18g, fruit leather: 13g

The Boy has two pizza rollers, along with raisins and a fruit leather.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 26g)

The Girl also has two pizza rollers, with a kiwi and fruit leather.

Lunches: 3.26.15

It's Thursday, and we'll still trying to convince spring to come.. it's warmer today, but it still has a way to go.

Sandwich: 40g, sesame sticks: 6g, fruit gelatin cup: 24g

Today, The Boy has a sandwich with cocoa almond spread, and a cut out with a tiny bit of leftover graham cracker crumbs (colored green) from The Girl's birthday party.  He also has a fruit gelatin cup, and some sesame sticks.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 26g)

The Girl has a cocoa almond spread sandwich with a cut out dusted with green graham cracker crumbs, along with a fruit gelatin cup, and some sesame sticks.  She also has a granola bar for snack (not pictured).

Lunches: 3.25.15 - Waffle Day!

It's Swedish Waffle Day!

I've talked about the day previously, and I try to not miss a chance to celebrate such a fun food-based holiday.  I love a holiday started from a mispronunciation.  So, for Waffle Day, the kids have waffles in their lunches!

The also loved yesterday's salads, so I used the waffles as a vehicle for a little sandwich on top of salad..

Salad with sunflower seeds and ranch: 6g, blueberries: 5g, waffles and turkey: 16g

The Boy has salad with sunflower seeds, blueberries, and some ranch dressing (he didn't care for the vinaigrette), along with a couple whole grain waffles and some turkey.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 26g).

The Girl has salad with sunflower seeds, honeyed goat cheese, and some homemade vinaigrette (which she loved), along with blueberries and a couple whole grain waffles and some turkey.  She also has a granola bar for snack (not pictured).

Family Lunches: 3.24.15

I pack lunches for myself and for The Hubby nearly every day, but don't always blog them.  I'm blogging today's to show you how I take a variation on the theme of the kids' lunches for my own lunch.  (The Hubby has the day off, so no lunch for him).

Salad & all the fixings: 12g, raisins: 15g, crackers: 12g

The Boy has a build-your-own-salad with a lovely mescalin mix, blueberries, sunflower seeds, cucumbers, and a little homemade vinaigrette (with a note on the mini dipper to "shake gently" - we'll see how that goes), along with some raisins, and some crackers.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 26g).

The Girl has a build-your-own salad with the mescalin mix, blueberries, sunflower seeds, honeyed chevre (The Boy doesn't like goat cheese, so I left this off of his), bell peppers, and a small container of the vinaigrette, along with some crackers.

I have a build-your-own salad with mescalin mix, blueberries, sunflower seeds, honeyed chevre, cucumbers, and bell peppers, along with some vinaigrette.

Lunches: 3.23.15

These lunches are brought to you by the fact that Friday was the first day of spring, but it is 8 F outside right now.  Maybe I can lure spring out with spring-like lunches.

Sandwich roll-ups: 35g, sesame sticks: 5g, strawberries: 6g. carrots: 3g, fruit cup in gel: 24g

The Boy has sandwich roll-ups with cocoa almond spread and just a couple sprinkles, along with strawberries, fruit cup in gelatin, sesame sticks, and carrots.  He has a cereal bar for snack (not pictured, 24g)

The Girl has sandwich roll-ups with cocoa almond spread and a few sprinkles, with strawberries, fruit cup in gelatin, sesame sticks, and carrots. 

I think later this week is supposed to finally be seasonably warm - before it plunges down to wintry temperatures again for the weekend.  Joy. 

Lunches : 3.20.15

We had some fish tacos for dinner last night - frozen breaded tilapia, shredded cabbage mix,  avocados,  avocado salsa (store bought,  like a thin guacamole), and I added some chili dusted dried mango to mine. The Girl lived them and especially loved the fish, so we're trying a fish sandwich for her lunch.

She has a fish sandwich with avocado salsa and cheese, along with some leftover shredded cabbage that she can pop on her sandwich or eat on it's own.  She also has some freeze-dried raspberries, and a clementine.

Crackers & pepperoni: 15g, carrots & hummus: 6g, strawberry applesauce: 14g, grapes: 6g

The Boy did not love the tacos (though he did eat them - sans the avocado), so he opted out of leftovers for lunch.  He has some mini crackers, pepperoni, carrots and hummus, grapes, and strawberry applesauce.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 24g).

Lunches: 3.19.15

It's Thursday, and still unseasonably cold here.. waiting for Spring to finally spring...

Sandwich: 42g, grapes: 5g, sesame sticks: 5g, apple strawberry sauce: 14g, carrots: 1g

Meanwhile, The Boy has a sandwich on honey wheat bread with cocoa almond spread and raspberry jam, along with grapes, sesame sticks, apple strawberry sauce, and carrots.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 24g).

The Girl has a cocoa almond and raspberry sandwich, along with a plum, sesame sticks, apple strawberry sauce, and carrots.  She also has a granola bar for snack (not pictured).

Lunches: 3.18.15

Pizza burger: 28g, spple slices: 4g, cherry tomatoes and cheese: 3g, pie: 15g

For this Wednesday,  The Boy has a veggie pizza buger, apple slices, cherry tomato & mozzarella "mushrooms," and a tiny piece of berry pie leftover from Pi Day.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 22g).

 

The Girl has a leftover Irish banger from our St. Patrick's day dinner, a clementine,  apple slices, tomato & mozzarella "mushrooms," a piece of leftover berry pie.

Lunches: 3.17.15 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have a bit of Irish in me (I am 1/8 Irish), so I like to do something fun for St. Patrick's Day.  However, with The Girl's birthday the day before St. Patrick's Day, we don't have time or energy to go all out for crazy St. Patrick's Day fun.

Therefore, I packed simple St. Patrick's Day lunches for the kids.

The Girl has a sandwich with cocoa almond spread, with a cut out sprinkled with some leftover green colored graham cracker "moss" from her birthday cake.  She also has some sesame sticks, grapes, and tomato mozzarella "mushrooms".

Peanut noodles: 45g, tomato mozzarella "mushrooms": 3g, grapes: 7g

The Boy has some leftover peanut noodles (he's been begging for them in his lunch since we had them for dinner last week!), along with tomato mozzarella "mushrooms" and grapes.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 22g).

Lunches: 3.16.15

The Girl's birthday is today and she has a specially decorated lunch.  She has some mozzarella tomato mushrooms, grapes, a clementine, kiwi, a fairy sandwich with cocoa almond spread and sprinkles, sesame sticks, and some pesto perlini pasta.
 

mozzarella cheese and tomato "mushrooms": 3g, grapes: 8g, crackers: 12g, pasta: 12g, pizza: 20g

The Boy has some mozzarella tomato mushrooms,  grapes, pesto perlini pasta, crackers, and a small piece of pizza.  For snack, he has a granola bar (not pictured, 24g)

A Fairy Nice Birthday Party

The Girl is 12 years old today, and yesterday we had a grand birthday party for her, with a fairy theme.

We had lots of finger food "because fairies are little."  The Girl made fairy sandwiches with cocoa almond spread and sprinkles.

We also had "mushrooms" made of string cheese and cherry tomatoes.

The cake.. the cake I am amazingly proud of.  I made a side-by-side tiered chocolate cake with cookie dough filling, with Swiss Meringue buttercream, and decorations made out of piped chocolate (fairies and ferns), marzipan (roses and the fairy door), and meringue mushrooms.  The base of the cake plate (I just used a cutting board) was covered with graham crackers crushed up and colored green to look like moss.

The cake itself was made using a modified Duncan Hines mix.  I mixed one cake mix with 1/2 c oil, 1/2 c water, 1 c sour cream, 3 eggs, and one box pudding mix.  For the size cake that I made, I used 2 cake mixes.

The cookie dough filling I found on Instructables.  I made a double batch, but it wasn't all needed... oh dear, what shall I do with leftover cookie dough filling?  I'm sure I'll come up with something... I refrigerated it overnight, and it was a little stiff in the morning - but this actually worked out, because I was able to roll the filling out into circles to fit exactly on the layers.  I rolled the filling out between layers of parchment paper, and then added to the layers of cake with a border of buttercream.

The buttercream I used was Swiss Meringue buttercream.  This is my favorite buttercream to make - it is simpler than French, requiring less whisking and heating, then subsequent cooling.  It is very forgiving and comes together in less than 30 minutes (whereas French Meringue buttercream took me abut an hour and a half to make - it was amazing, and I'd eat it with a spoon, but this is much easier).

To pipe the chocolate fairies, I traced some fairy silhouettes I found online onto parchment paper, and then used melted chocolate in a piping bag with the smallest possible hole cut into the tip to pipe the shapes.  I dusted them with edible gold shimmer dust when they were dry.

For the marzipan roses, we pressed out tiny balls of colored marzipan between layers of plastic wrap with our thumbs, then lined them up and rolled into roses, folding down the edges and dusting with gold shimmer dust.  The Girl helped with these.  The marzipan fairy door was just made with marzipan - no special technique there.

I've made meringue mushrooms before.  I made some with long skinny stems and some with short stems.  I piped them, but The Girl put them together.

The Girl was very happy with her party and with her cake.  I was thrilled that what I had sketched out was not that different than what ended up coming together in the end product. 

Lunches: 3.13.15 (Early Pi Day!)

This week has been insanely busy, and the weekend looks to remain so.. but we had to mark Pi Day (of the century) in some way.  If you want to see past Pi Day posts, you can see some of them here.

The Girl's classroom is having a whole Pi Day celebration today.  I can't wait to hear about it this afternoon.

Mini pizzas (22g), mini pie (24g), apple slices: 6g, strawberries: 4g

So, in honor of 3.14.15, The Boy has some mini pizza (pies), a mini fruit pie (these I bought frozen - no time to make them this year!), apple slices, and strawberries.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 22g).

The Girl also has mini pizza (pies), a mini fruit pie, half a plum (it's round!), and strawberries.

Lunches: 3.12.15

Sandwich: 40g, strawberries: 5g, carrots and ranch: 2g

On this Thursday, The Boy has a sandwich with cheese and ham, along with carrots and ranch, and strawberries.  His snack is a granola bar (not pictured, 22g).

The Girl has a sandwich with cheese and ham, baby bell peppers with ranch, and a plum.