10.30.13 National Candy Corn Day inspired lunch

Today is national candy corn day and I used that theme for today's inspired lunch.

This is a candy corn (pumpkin spice flavor of course)

I used this as my color and shape inspiration. 

Main Compartment:

Candy corn pizza quesadilla- ill toast this before serving. This is a folded tortilla, swiss cheese and American cheese cutvto fit and slices of pepperoni.  

Top Right Compartment:

Yellow veggie straws

Cheetos 

Red veggie straws 

Bottom Right Compartment:

White - 1/2 a string cheese

Yellow - pineapple chunks

Orange - sliced carrots

10.29.13 National Visit a Cemetery Day inspired lunch

Since today is visit a cemetery day I made Little S a cemetery themed (breakfast for lunch) lunch.

Main Compartment:

Coffins - pumpkin freezer waffles hand cut into coffin shapes. A bat and a ghost pick with the stick snapped off as decoration. These are resting on two paper ghost muffin cups.

Top right compartment:

Headstones - fresh pineapple slices hand cut

Bottom Right compartment:

Graveyard - chocolate whipped yogurt with candy bones and bats. The headstones are whole wheat blueberry crackers.

10.28.13 Frankenstein Inspired Lunch.

Today is National chocolate day but as we are on the final count down to Halloween; I made Little S a Frankenstein inspired lunch.

Main compartment:

Frankie is an open face cheese sandwich, with romane lettuce covering. He has salami hair, cheese stitches, and cheerio eyes. Frankie also has carrot bolts and mouth.

String cheese is under Frankie.

Top Left Compartment:

White monster eyes - slices of banana with chocolate chips.

Red monster eyes - halved grapes with chocolate chips.



Bottom Left Compartment:

Spare nuts and bolts - cheerios, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and diced red and green veggie straws.

10,25,13 Pouncing Kitty Inspired Lunch

Today I decided to make homemade biscuits and used my Halloween cat face and pumpkin cookie cutters to make a pouncing kitty for Little S's lunch.

 

Main Compartment:

Kitty- this is two biscuit peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - pumpkin shape used for pouncing kitty body, and a cat face cookie cutter was used for his head. I attached the candy eyes with peanut butter and drew the whiskers on with edible marker. 

Mouse - the mouse is made of one whole and one half of a mini marshmallow. I cut a piece for the tail and rolled it out and cut two smaller pieces for the ears. Marshmallow is great in that it sticks to itself so the tail and ears are stuck in place. I did add eyes and whiskers with food coloring as shown in this image:

Top Right Compartment:

veggie straws

Bottom Right Compartment:

halved grapes and baby carrots quartered the long way into sticks. 

10.24.13 United Nations Day Inspired Lunch

United Nations day marks the anniversary of the five permanent member of the security council accepting the charter to form the UN. The five members were: France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Since 1948 the event's anniversary has been known as United Nations Day. It is an occasion to highlight and celebrate what can be done when you and I come together to make the world a better and happier place. I want Little S to know that we're all invested in and dependent on each other to form a better future. I want him to know that one person can make a difference, and a group of people can make big changes. We all need to work together to make positive changes for our future.

I was inspired by the logo for UN day and the whole world coming together:

I decided to make the Earth so I drew out my version on a Piece of Paper in permanent marker.

After some thought and head scratching wondering what I could make it out of that he would eat. I decided on Fresh pineapple and dried mango.

I found a circle cookie cutter that happened to be about the same size as the Earth I drew and used that to trim off the edge of the pineapple slice.

Then I began the task of cutting the dried mango into shapes that matched my continents.

I then cored the fresh pineapple with a veggie punch and placed on the dried mango continents.

I'm pretty thankful Little S is small and has no idea what I was trying to have it come out looking like. I think it looked better before I cut out the core but I forgot the before pictures.


I then assembled the rest of his U.N. Day Inspired Lunch:

Main compartment:

Fresh pineapple planet Earth cut using a circle cookie cutter and a start shaped veggie punch. .

Dried Mango continents cut free hand.


Top Right Compartment:

Broccoli Slaw with coleslaw sauce separated in the mini silicone cup. (I chose the flower shape to match the flower I punched out of the center of the Earth - because we are coming together to make the world a happier place)


Bottom Right Compartment:

Chocolate Chip cookie

Chicken Nuggets

1/2 a string cheese

10.23.13 Swallows leave San Juan Capistrano Day

As a California native I grew up hearing about these birds and celebrated their return each year. If you are unfamiliar with the birds this is their story:

 The miracle of the "Swallows" of Capistrano takes place each year at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, on March 19th, St. Joseph's Day.

As the little birds wing their way back to the most famous Mission in California, the village of San Juan Capistrano takes on an air of fiesta with visitors from all parts of the world  gather to witness the "miracle" of the return of the swallows. Each year the "Scout Swallows" precede the main flock by a few days and it is thier chief duty to clear the way for the main flock to arrive at the "Old Mission" of Capistrano. Early dawn on St. Joseph's Day, the little birds begin to arrive and begin rebuilding their mud nests. These nests cling to the ruins of the old stone church of San Juan Capistrano. The arches of the two story, high vaulted Chapel were left exposed, when the roof collapsed during the earthquake of 1812. This Chapel was once said to be the largest and most ornate in any of the missions,and now has a more humble destiny to house the birds that St. Francis loved so well. After the summer spent within  walls of the Old Mission in San Juan Capistrano, the swallows take flight again. On the Day of San Juan, October 23, they leave after circling the Mission bidding farewell to the mission of San Juan Capistrano, California for another year.

Today is the Day of San Juan when the swallows leave. In honor of this continuing miracle of mother nature I made Little S a swallow lunch.

Main Compartment:

Swallows: Peach slices cut with a cookie cutter, the candy eyes are sitting on cheerios so they didn't start to melt.

Grass - diced kiwi and unsweetened coconut


Top Right Compartment:

Ham and cheese roll bites - 2 slices of black forest ham rolled around a string cheese and sliced into pieces.


Bottom Right Compartment:

Nesting: although the swallows create mud nests I have a regular nest for Little S made with veggie straws, cheerios and a spoonful of the almond, peanut, pumpkin and sunflower seed mix I made yesterday.

10.22.13 Caps Lock Day Inspired Lunch

Caps Lock Day campaigns for the removal of the caps lock key from the standard QWERTY keyboards, due to people accidentally hitting that button while meaning to hit another and inadvertently shouting in text. I personally do not feel it needs to be removed however it could be moved away from the A key I am apparently not able to hit without it. Little S has no idea what a caps lock key is or how it works but he's getting a lunch inspired by the movement.

Main Compartment:

Quesadilla - tortilla with melted Mexican cheese cut using cookie cutters to spell CAPS in all capital letters to represent the function as well as the name of the key. 

Top Right Compartment:

Rolled Salami - Genoa salami cut in half and rolled up

Goldfish puffs - one of his favorite treats

Bottom Right Compartment:

Diced Orange pieces with all the seeds removed

A mini silicone cup of almonds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds.

10.21.13 Reptile Awareness Day

Reptile Awareness Day was created to bring thought to habitat loss, ad threat of extinction that many species of reptiles face. It was designated as a day to learn about different types of reptiles, their natural environments and ecological challenges. Today I made little S a lunch with several types of reptiles represented.

Look away now if you can't handle plastic reptiles.

Main Compartment:

Two open face dinosaur ham and cheese sandwiches cut with different dinosaur cookie cutters - the ham and cheese are just layered differently to give the different dino species different looks. They also have different eyes as the candy eyes used for the top dino was too big for the bottom dino's head so he has a royal icing eye instead.

Top Right Compartment:

Diced plum and apple with a pink plastic gecko - I have a stash of animals, insects, and creepy crawly things for occasions like this.


Bottom Right Compartment:

Diced cucumber in a mini green silicone cup

Peanut Corn Puffs

This compartment was topped with a plastic orange snake these colors were chosen to tie into those of our ham and cheese dino's.

10.20.13 Rice discovery

Little S and I have played with colored rice before, we've made rainbows, we have shaken our colored rice in reused water bottles like maracas. and we have rolled them around the house. With the sensory dough not engaging him in play I tried again. I quickly put together a pan of plain rice, added in some orange and green rice (Halloween/fall colors and the same colors our two dough attempts had been), added a baby spoon and fork then I hid inside some dinosaurs.

I set the pan down and little S came over to check it out. He started moving around the rice and was quite surprised at finding a dinosaur. My usually neat child (the kid has clean freak ocd's) spent the next twenty minutes playing with me and flicking the rice out of the pan with either the spoon or the fork, then picking it all back up. He watched me pile the spilled rice and then put it back into the pan the first time then he repeated the steps for himself to clean up. This activity worked on gross motor skills, using a utensil, focus and discovery of dinosaurs, mimicking and fine motor individual rice grain pick up. While I got thirty minutes watching my child learn through play and mimicking. This one I deem a success!

10.20.13 Sensory dough

Today I wanted to revisit playing with dough and see if Little S would be more inclined to play rather than eat a different type of dough. Instead of making the marshmallow dough again I created more of a bread dough for us to play with.

This dough requires only a few simple things I had around the house:

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
3-5 cups flour
optional - two packages of drink mix

I added the wet ingredients to a large bowl and then slowly added the dry ingredients until the dough was no longer greasy from the oil. It took me 5 cups of flour to get mine to not be sticky or greasy. I had two packages of Lemon Lime drink mix left in the cupboard from a few months ago when I was doing another sensory project and mixed those in to give our dough a great green color and fresh sent. I wanted this to be a very sensory experience for him.

This is how our dough came out after mixing:

I tossed it into a pan and started to play with little S. He was more interested in watching me roll balls of dough and trying to lick it when I wanted him to smell it than he was in playing with it himself. He very quickly abandoned me to playing with the dough by myself.

I think we're going to wait until after the holiday's when Little S is getting closer to two to try again. Right now he just has too many other things he would rather play with and explore than dough.

10.18.13 National Chocolate Cupcake day -

Today is national chocolate cupcake day and I see no reason why we should not celebrate :) so I made little S a special lunch.

As it is national chocolate cupcake day I made the cupcake the focal point of the lunch because let's be real it's the first thing the child is going to eat anyway.

Main Compartment:

Triple Chocolate cupcake with fudge center, I added sprinkles to give it a celebration feel. This is actually half a cupcake its cut down the middle which has two beifits: 1. he only get's half a cupcake and 2 it keeps it below the lid line so the frosting doesn't mush.


Top Right Compartment:

Carrot - this is one baby carrot cut into disks and served in a mini silicone cup

Mini Apple- this is one of the last mini crab apples we got a few weeks ago while apple picking. The spicy flavor will cut some of the sweetness of the cupcake and also tie together the flavors in the ravioli.



Bottom Right Compartment:

Two cheesy chicken nuggets

Two pumpkin, ricotta and cinnamon ravioli left over from national pasta day yesterday.

10.16.13 Going Batty Lunch

Going Batty lunch

Main Compartment:

Batty mac and cheese - Mac and cheese cut with a cookie cutter with candy eyes.

To make mac and cheese able to be cut with a cookie cutter follow the package directions leaving the pasta aldente. While the noodles are cooking prepare a pan by lining it with plastic wrap leaving an overhang on all four sides. Pour the prepared mac and cheese into the pan fold over the plastic wrap to completely cover the top. Press down the mac and cheese then weigh it down while it cools.

I used canned food but you could also use bottles of wine or canned soda to add weight to the top. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or until cold. Once cooled you end up with a solid block of mac and cheese that still separates into individual pieces but you can cut it with a cookie cutter.

Top right compartment:

Homemade trail mix in a bat muffin cup liner. Trail mix is a random combination of pumpkin seeds, banana chips,  sunflower seeds and almonds.

Bottom right compartment:

Diced plum on a bat pick mixed with blueberries.

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10.15.13 I Love Lucy 62 anniversary inspired lunch

10.15.1951 I Love Lucy aired for the first time on television. I used this as inspiration for little S's lunch today.

Main Compartment:

Five peanut butter sandwich hearts - I make the sandwich then flatten it with a rolling pin and use a cookie cutter for the shapes. Little S doesn't like a huge mouth full of bread so smashing it makes the bread to peanut butter a better ratio for him and lets me get more room for the cookie cutter. 

Swiss cheese heart I love Lucy inspired logo - Lucy was changed to read You!. Although little S doesn't read yet I still wanted it to be about him. 

Top Right Compartment: 

Goldfish puffs - these are his favorite Mega Cheese ones

A Lindt truffle - inspired by the Candy conveyor belt episode

Bottom Right Compartment:

Cauliflower in a mini pink silicone cup

Mango and Pear alternating hearts - I used the same cookie cutter that I previously used on the sandwiches. 

10.14.13 Spiderman Day Lunch

Today is Spiderman Day

Main compartment:

Pumpkin waffle- I got a  great deal on waffles at Target 10 waffles instead of 8 in the other packages. The waffles were 1.50 a package but with the mobile coupon and cartwheel I psid .47 silicone cup.affles.

Hardboiled egg for his eyes which are outlined in grape fruit leather.

Top right compartment:

Peanut butter sandwich crackers

Peanuts and sunflower seeds


Bottom right compartment:

Crab apple with Swiss cheese eyes

Cauliflower

Carrot disks in a mini blue silicone cup.

Marshmallow Dough- perfect for toddlers

I wanted to introduce little S to play dough so we can make things together but he's 17 months old and puts things in his mouth still so I needed something edible. I found on Pinterest a marshmallow dough made with all things that are edible and thought SCORE!!!

I gathered the materials/ingredients needed:

4-5 cups of Marshmallow
2 Tbls of water
3 Tbls of cooking oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
4-5 cups of corn starch

I used a combination of pumpkin spice marshmallow and mini white marshmallow. First melt the marshmallow with the water like you are making marshmallow treats.

Once it is all melted, mix in the vanilla and the oil make sure you are mixing it very well together. Slowly add in the corn starch until you have a dough. You may need up to 5 cups of corn starch to ensure your dough is not sticky.

Because half of the marshmallows I had used were pumpkin spice our dough ended up being the color of silly puddy really more of a human skin tone color; which could be a really happy accident with Halloween being around the corner.

This is little S exploring the dough at this point it was still a little warm.

Every time I took my eyes off the boy for 10 seconds he tried to eat some of the dough. I grabbed my camera to take a picture and suddenly little S got shy.

10.11.13 World Egg Day - Fish lunch

World egg day started for little S with egg in a window toast. I used a fish cookie cutter to cut a window in the bread and then fried it in butter and added scrambled egg. Normally these are made by cracking an egg into the hole then cooking until the egg is to your liking and the bread is toasty but little S doesn't like his eggs fried so it ends up more like french toast for him.

At the same time I was making his breakfast I was boiling eggs for lunch. Later I used the fish egg to put his lunch together. 

Main Compartment:

Ham fish- a single slice of white bread flattened down and cut with two fish cookie cutters. Two slices of black forest ham were cut with the same cookie cutter and placed on top of the fish bread. Each was given a sugar eye. 

Fish Egg- once the egg was released from the mold it was given a sugar eye and placed in the box. 

Top Right Compartment:

Goldfish Puffs

Bottom Right Compartment:

halved red grapes

How to use an egg mold:

Spin a few raw eggs and place the eggs into a pot of cold water and bring to a boil, When the water begins to boil carefully spin the eggs so that the yoke is centered. Boil for eight minutes and then drain out the hot water replacing it with cold. Under cold running water peel the egg as fast as possible. Run the egg mold under the water to just get it a little wet it helps getting the egg out later. Put your egg into the mold and press firmly. Latch the mold closed and place in a bowl of ice water to stop the eggs from cooking. Leave the mold in the cold water for a minimum of fifteen minutes the longer the better. The mold works best with a large or extra large egg. 

10.10.13 World Porridge Day sea turtle lunch

Sea turtle lunch

Main compartment:

Ocean - Unsweetened coconut tinted  blue with 2 drops of food coloring.

Sea turtle - maple brown sugar oatmeal that is sugar free. The red turtle is from his baby bathtub set as soon as I saw it I put it away for other uses than the bath.

chocolate chips on each limb and sugar eyes complete the turtle.


Top right compartment:

Banana puffs - they are from our car traveling with a baby bag and needed to be finished.

Carrot disks - a baby carrot cut horizontally.


Bottom right compartment:

Diced oranges and plum with a green turtle play dough cutter I found at Target.

10.09.13 National Take your Teddy Bear to work/school day.

Today little S is taking Teddy Bears to pretend school.

Large compartment:

Three peanut butter teddy bears with royal icing eyes and carrot mouths.

Grape fruit leather chalkboard

Carrot frame cut by hand from one baby carrot along with the teddy bear mouths.

Swiss cheese math problems cut by hand and put in place with a toothpick.



Top right compartment:

Diced pear with a green teddy bear pick.

One mini chicken spinach meatball in a pink silicone mini cup


Bottom compartment:

Peanut puffs

diced drief mango

1/2 string cheese leftover from yesterday.

10.08.13 National Pierogi Day Haunted graveyard lunch

Today is national Pierogi day. I made little S a haunted graveyard lunch with mini cheesy potato pierogi.

Large compartment:

Iceberg side salad

Four mini mini pierogi- cheesy potato decorated like gravestones with edible marker.

Top right compartment:

Mini silicone cup of diced ham

1/2 a string cheese with with edible marker eyes.

Peanut puffs

Bottom right compartment:

diced plum on a ghost pick

Mini silicone cup with a single pumpkin spice marshmallow. 

Sliced carrot disks

10.07.13 Muffin Tin Monday: Blue Shirt Day Lunch

The first Monday of every October, this year it's today October 7, 2013 is World Blue Shirt day. Where kids, teens and adults are asked to wear a blue shirt to show solidarity to stop bullying and cyberbullying. Whether you order an official "STOMP out Bullying" shirt or wear one of your own you will be sending a message to everyone to end bullying and cyberbullying.

Little S is sporting his Blue shirt today and so is his Muffin Tin Monday lunch.

Top Row:

Egg Noodles - left over from last night's dinner

String Cheese with a boy in his blue shirt - I chopped up a string cheese and topped it with a little boy cut from a piece of Swiss cheese wearing a blue provolone shirt. The shirt was painted using a drop of food coloring, water and a Q-Tip.

Lindt - Chocolate Truffle - Everyone get's along better with chocolate.



Bottom Row:

Diced plum

Chicken Nuggets

Apple - the apple is whole so it didn't turn brown because I put this together at breakfast time. I'll dice it while I heat up his nuggets.

10.04.13 cinnamon roll taco lunch

Today is national taco day and cinnamon roll day. I thought each of those are great on their own so the combination would make an interesting lunch. I don't think it turned out as good as it looked in my head.

I started by making no yeast cinnamon rolls from scratch.  Before baking them I rolled one flat and formed it around aluminum foil to make a taco shell shape. Once baked I let it cool before removing the foil. All that worked ok but in stuffing it things went a little sideways.

I stuffed the cinnamon roll "taco" with diced breakfast sausage which cracked the shell some and it needed some color. I diced up some red apple and sprink to look like tomato or salsa in top. Then I tried adding some crushed corn flakes.to look.like cheese but it was even more brown/beige color. When I tried moving the stuffed taco it broke open a little where the crack happened from the sausage.

I got it into the container and added the lunch meat spirals, apple and squeezie to the side compartments before deciding it could use something else in the main container.  I added the string cheesr to the bottom of the shell to help hold it in place.
I added the second cinnamon roll to fill it out some. This was definitely not my best work.

10.03.13 Haunted Pumpkin Patch Lunch

Today I made little S a haunted pumpkin patch for lunch.

Large compartment:

Provolone Ghost- cut with a cookie cutter
His face is made from 2 craisons (one is cut in half to make two eyes) but you could also use chocolate chips.

Pumpkin patch- romane lettuce leaf torn into pieces to make pumpkin leaves.

Pumpkins- cross sliced baby carrot.



Top right compartment;

A single pumpkin spice, pumpkin shape marshmallow in a green mini silicone cup

Diced steak left over from dinner on a  ghost pick.


Bottom right compartment:

Halved red grapes-  little S still get's his grapes cut.

Crab apple that I carved like a jack o lantern.

This is a closer picture of the carved mini apple.You can see it really is pretty small as here its sitting in a teaspoon.

10.02.13 A Simple Star lunch

For the record today is world balloon day and national farm animal day.  I didn't have the time to free hand either a balloon animal or a cow so little S got a super simple star sandwich lunch.

Large compartment:

Flattened black forest ham and cheese sandwich cut into various size stars with three sizes if star cookie cutters.

Peanut Butter sandwich crackers.

I flatten the sandwich so I could get more stars cut out of it and because little S doesn't like a mouth stuffed with bread. I put the sandwich between two reusable flexible cutting boards and roll with a rolling pin.

It looks like this before I mash it:

It looks like this after it is mashed before I use the cookie cutters.

Top right:

Diced pears are in the small section next to the carrot.

Carrot sticks are in a mini silicone cup to add color and keep the pears from getting juice on them.

Bottom right:

Fruit burst blueberry fruit and veggie squeezie

10.01.13 World Vegetarian Day Lunch

World Vegetarian Day takes place on October 1 and is the celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977. It was created to show the joy, compassion and life enhancing properties of vegetarianism. World Vegetarian Day initiates the month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month which ends on November 1, World Vegan day.

Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat - red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal; it may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter. Many object to eating meat out of respect for sentient life, others its a matter of personal health, vegetarianism can be adopted for a variety of reasons.

Today little S has a vegetarian lunch in honor of vegetarians everywhere.

Left compartment:

• Corn on the cob- little S decided the last time we had corn on the cob that he was a big enough boy to eat one.. so he took mine and finished it. Today he's having his own for the first time. 
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• String cheese - used to separate the veggies from the noodles 
• whole wheat angle hair pasta left over from dinner last night 

Top right compartment:

• mini crab apple
• mini orange silicone cup of sunflower seeds and lightly salted roasted peanuts

Bottom right compartment:

• pink mini silicone cup of red cabbage - little s loves red cabbage
• veggie straws