Alphabet Inspired Lunches - Week L

This week we are celebrating the letter L and Earth Day falls during the week so there will be a Earth Day lunch as well.




Day 1 week L:  L = Ladybug

The ladybugs are jumbo strawberries cut in half with blueberry dots and heads, Steak fries, and steak bites with ranch for dipping.




Earth Day 2014

The Earth is a waffle water color painted with food coloring to show continents in normal waffle color and water in Blue. M&M's from Easter are the eyes, and a strawberry piece for the mouth.  EARTH is spelled in organic veggie cookies (from the random letters that come in the boxes). There is a salad of pear and strawberries, carrots, and the Earth's animals are represented with animal crackers.




Day 2 Week L: L= Lion Love

Today little S has a cheese and tortilla lion - I used a circle cutter to cut the tortilla into a round for his face, and used a glass that was slightly larger to cut the circle out of cheese for his mane. I then used a knife to cutt he notches to represent fur and added a few of the pieces I removed from the edges for his bangs. I drew the face on with food coloring using a toothpick that I dipped into the color. He also has large strawberries that were decorated with a pink heart pick, and steak bites decorated with a red heart pick, and a few baby carrots.



Day 3 Week L: L = Light bulb

Today's lunch is a tortilla with cheese (it was a hit the day before) cut into the shape of a light bulb with the screw in part cut from a piece of salami and painted with food color marker to show the curves. The bulb is lit because of an additional piece of cheese that was cut to the size and decorated with the GE logo using food color and a Q-Tip. Also for lunch is corn chips and strawberries.



Day 4 Week L  L= Leis, lollipop and the letter for the refrigerator.

The Leis is mango and apple flowers alternating with the wooden letter L for the refrigerator for completing week L. He also has cheeseballs, carrots, a lollipop from Easter, and Ham rolls.

Easter Lunches

In a count down to Easter we had a week of spring/Easter themed lunches.


Day 1 - Little S has the stomach flu so he's on a brat diet (Banana, Rice, Applesauce and Toast) so this lunch is pretty plain to not upset his tummy

The bunnies are rice balls with plain Matzoh ears- They are nibbling on dried apples. He also had teething biscuits and fruit and veggie drops. The side dishes are both early eater munchies so they have added nutrients and are easy to break down and digest.




Day 2 - Little S is a little better - Spring Flower

Waffle flower with sugar free strawberry jam in the center, Strawberry applesauce squeezie, and :Super Why" Alphabits cereal. Super Why is his favorite show and this was the first time he had character recognition on packaging.



Day 3 - Little S is doing loads better back to normal foods Tulips

Mango tulips with Kiwi steams and leaves, diced chicken with ranch for dipping and a few more teething crackers to help settle his tummy some.




Good Friday breakfast we had dinosaur eggs - hard boiled eggs that have cracked shells and the food coloring is added to the cracked hard boiled egg directly before letting it dry and peeling.

Day 4: Bunnies every where lunch

Strawberry bunnies - strawberries cut in half with the other half cut to make the ears (attached with toothpicks) food coloring dotted for the eyes. A hard boiled molded bunny egg, carrot sticks for the bunnies to eat, a 18 rabbit Jr. cranberry and apricot granola bar, diced mango and pear.

Four Leaf Clover Inspired Lunch

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner. Although admittedly a holiday I have protested in my adult years due to my personal beliefs; I now have a child who I do not want to be pinched and whom I want to grow up to make his own decisions about what holidays to celebrate and which to pass on. We have decorated around the house, and today have our first St Patrick's Day inspired lunch.

Main: Taco cheese quesadilla cut into a four leaf clover. I used two mini flour tortillas which I cooked with Colby jack cheese (M's favorite) and a sprinkle of taco seasoning until melted and glued together. I then used a heart cookie cutter to cut four crinkle edge hearts and trimmed a scrap edge to form the steam of our four heart leaf clover. Sides: diced summer sausage, baby carrots, and diced green apple. I refrained from coloring anything artificially in this lunch because of all the food coloring he has already had this week with the Dr. Suess and Marti Gras lunches.

Finger food inspired lunch

This week for some reason I am just short on ideas and creativity for his lunches. Normally I have 19 ideas and I am ready to go, or I've done the research and sometimes I have drawn what I want the lunch to look like so I can lay a my drawing down to help me free hand cut something. This week I don't know if it is because of M's schedule change and now we're a hour earlier than we have been for more than a month or just wishing it would finally stop snowing that's got my creativity in a funk.

Finger Food Inspired Lunch:

Main: two dino nuggets served at lunch time with Ranch dressing on the side Little S has learned he loves ranch dressing and dipping. (Usually its best with his fingers but he enjoyed it with nuggets) he also has a kale and green apple rice bar - made with organic brown rice, kale and apple pieces. Sides: a box of yogurt covered raisins, organic plantain chips, organic carrot apple bites, and BBQ potato chips (to balance out all the organic good for you food)

Fat Tuesday Marti Gras Inspired Lunch

Today is Fat Tuesday or Marti Gras in French. This refers to the practice of eating richer, fatty foods and partying before Ash Wednesday and Lent when many religions required fasting and a period of religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. Popular practices on this day include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades and generally a party atmosphere. Today little S has a Marti Gras inspired lunch.

Main: Star shaped noodles colored during the cooking process into the three main Marti Gras colors, Purple, Gold and Green. The package of noodles was separated into three pots of boiling water each of which had 10 drops of food coloring added and cooked following the package directions. I then rinsed each batch of pasta and kept it separated in three bowls. I added a tbs of butter to each bowl of hot pasta and then spooned each color of butter noodles into the main compartment. I then added Parmesan cheese to the top of the noodles. Using a single slice of Colby Jack cheese I free hand cut a mask shape. I then used the left over pieces from the mask cut and made strips to form the mask fringe. The pasta had cooled enough not to instantly melt the cheese mask by the time I was ready to add the mask to the pasta. Sides: I made confetti from dried cranberries, sun flower seeds and a mini package of M&M's. I then made "beads" by dicing a red apple into chunky beads.

Dr Suess's Birthday inspired lunch

March 2 is Dr. Suess's birthday which this year fell on Sunday. I do not make inspired meals on the weekends for little S because we are usually out and about and trying not to be home. I decided to celebrate the birthday the next day. Although admittedly I was a bit unprepared and not as inspired as I could have been. I'll do better next time.


Dr Suess inspired lunch

Main: Taco cheese quesadillas cut using an egg shaped cookie cutter with green yolk colored on using food safe markers (to make green eggs that are not fried eggs which Little S doesn't like) and a slice of ham. I did not color the ham green as I have found Little S only allows so much food coloring before he doesn't eat items. It's better for him not to not like to eat green meat anyway. Sides: Whole wheat cheese crackers, with a cat in the hat inspired skewer of dehydrated strawberries and pressed flat mini marshmallows. I pressed the mini marshmallows flat to ensure that the stripes looked correct for the hat and the one i used for the brim of the hat is just flattened a bit more than the others. He also had a cat in the hat fruit salad, of dehydrated strawberries (the parts I sliced off when making the red hat stripes) freeze dried banana and mini marshmallows.


After stepping back and looking at this lunch I vowed to do much better next time.

Alphabet Inspired Lunches - Week E

Now that Valentine's Day is over we are continuing our alphabet exploration (notice the e word there) with the letter E.

E= Ewe

Main: A taco cheese quesadilla cut with a sheep cookie cutter into a ewe. Summer sausage slices with the letters E and W punched out to spell ewe. Sides: baby carrots, a mini silicone cup of M&M's, dried pea pods, and berry beet rice cakes.

E= Egg Head


Main: three egg shaped salami slices stacked together, mini egg shaped cheese forming the sun rays, and eyes of our happy egg head sun along with a piece of cheese for his smiley mouth. The sun is out today and it's going to be 43F (which after more than four weeks of sub freezing temps and over eight weeks since we have seen 40F is a very welcome thaw). Sides: Slices of Kiwi, baby carrots, blueberry filled cereal, and super thing ginger cookies.

E=Elmo

Main: Elmo is a open faced strawberry jam sandwich cut with a Elmo cookie cutter. I used the same cookie cutter to cut the eyes and nose area out of a tortilla and a piece of cheese for his nose. Once I had the toritlla in place I added chocolate chips for his eyes and the cheese nose and Elmo was looking good. Sides: A mini silicone cup of M&M's (the last of his from Valentine's day) dried pea pods, dehydrated strawberries and fresh banana slices.

E= Elephant

Main: Both the mommy and the baby elephant were cut from a single slice of bread with two strategically places cookie cutters, then covered with Biscoff spread and given candy eyes. Sides: Lays stack chips, and a dried strawberry, dried banana and yogurt covered raisin mix.

E=Elf

Main: A taco cheese tortilla cut with an Elf cookie cutter and decorated with food color markers, the rest of the quesadilla was turned into the ski slope he is standing on. The E is his latest refrigerator magnet letter since this is the last lunch of E week. Sides: (same as yesterday since they were a huge hit) Lays stack chips, and a dried strawberry, dried banana and yogurt covered raisin mix.

Count down to Valentine's Day

During the week of Valentine's Day I managed to sneak in a few more love inspired lunches and a couple of left overs.

Left over Monday:

Main: shredded chicken nachos - shredded chicken taco meat and Monterrey Jack cheese were heated atop corn chips. Sides: diced cranberry and pears, and a package of crispy chews purple berry carrot flavor. 

My heart:

Main: Pressed and cut out Mac and Cheese heart. The men had mac and cheese with their dinner last night (Mommy doesn't eat grain) and the left overs were placed into a plastic wrap lined pan. Fold the plastic wrap over to completely seal in the mac and cheese then add cans of whatever you have in your cabinet to press it down and refrigerate. The next day you have a solid block of Mac and Cheese that you can cut with cookie cutters (plan for the thickness of your cutter with the size of the pan you press it into). I have a deep heart cookie cutter and used that to make this heart shaped mac and cheese patty. I added a mini silicone cup of baby carrots like cupids arrows waiting to pierce a heart. Sides: dehydrated strawberries, and a package of crispy chews purple berry carrot flavor.

SWAK - Sealed with a Kiss lunch

Main: A open faced (lipped) strawberry jam sandwich free hand shaped into a set of lips. SWAK spelled with lemon broccoli cookies. Sides: baby carrots, diced Kiwi, berry beet rice cakes and a treat of M&M's. 

Love you Bunches inspired lunch:

Main: summer sausage and cheddar cheese cut into hearts, a mini silicone cup of roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds. Sides: dehydrated strawberries and apples on heart skewers, Blueberry filled cereal. 

Valentines Day:

Main: Two heart open faced jam sandwiches, a silicone cup of valentine colored M&M's. Sides: fresh strawberries and coconut, Greek Yogurt drizzled berry popcorn. 

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Day Inspired Lunch

The 2014 winter Olympic games start officially Friday February 7th 2014 and Little S has an Olympic inspired lunch to celebrate today.

Main: SOCHI spelled out in lemon broccoli cookies, a small strawberry jam sandwich decorated like the official Olympic flag. Blue, Black, Red are the rings across the top and Yellow and Green the bottom rings. I wrote these on with food color markers.  Sides: diced blueberry rice bar, and a Olympic inspired fruit salad. (which became very muddled because of the blueberry)

Blue - blueberries
Black - chocolate chips
Red- cranberries
Yellow- pineapple
Green- Kiwi

Thank a Mail Person Day

Feb 4th is Thank a Mailman day and what better way to teach Little S kindness and thoughtfulness other than showing him.


I got out a thank you card and wrote inside:

"We are mothers, and fathers.And Sons and Daughters, who everyday go about our lives with duty, honor, and pride, and neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever"

(The above is the text that appeared on the United States Postal Service commercial after 9/11.)

I continued with:

All of which would be so much easier in Hawaii rather than Wisconsin!

Thank you for being our tough and determined mail person.

We wrote Happy Thank a Mail Person Day Please Enjoy on the front of the envelope and attached the card with ribbons to a XL Hershey bar.

Then we went outside and decorated our mailbox with streamers, and a balloon sign. We put the gift inside the mailbox for the mail person.

In honor of today Little S had a mail inspired lunch:

Main: A slice of bread decorated with food color markers to look like a letter, with a freeze dried strawberry for the stamp, served with a mini silicone cup of strawberry jam to make a self serve sandwich. Sides: Baby carrot, diced pear, corn chips and a silicone cup of Mommy's Lime in the Coconut - coconut chips.

Love inspired lunches

I wanted to take a little break from the alphabet to fill Little S with love. I have started the countdown to Valentine's day with some love filled lunches.



Love filled lunch:

Main: a strawberry jelly sandwich cut into the shape of a heart with a heart window cut out to show the red jelly. The word LOVE is spelled out in Orange beet chocolate cookies.

Sides: freeze dried strawberry slices to look like hearts, I diced up a apple kale rice bar and placed the pieces into a pink silicone muffin cup, and added some dried pea pods.


Two Hearts one lunch  inspired lunch

Main: Dual hearts - one cut from a breaded chicken breast using a large heart cookie cutter, and the other made with ketchup for dipping.

Sides: Chili lime mini tortilla chips, and a fruit salad of apple, apricot, and cranberry.



Cutie Pie Lunch

Main: A small tortilla folded in half and heated with cheese and taco seasoning inside to make a quesadilla. I then cut out the side by side hearts with a cookie cutter. I colored the cut out with food coloring (1 drop red and 3 drops of water) applying it with a wet Q-tip. (if you use a wet cotton swab the fibers will not get on the food). I placed the hearts back into the quesadilla and trimmed the edges so it would fit inside the container. I added organic Lemon Broccoli cookies to spell QT (cutie) PIE.

Sides: freeze dried strawberry slices, dried pea pods, and a pink silicone cup of popcorn.





There are only 3 lunches this week because we did have a few other things we celebrated in between all the love inspired lunches.

Chinese New Year 2014 Year of the Horse inspired lunch

I don't know if I was too focused on work, or letters of the alphabet but some how I completely missed the approach of Chinese New Year. Little S is a black water dragon and I am a metal dog (I am a January birthday so if you look at the place-mat at the Chinese restaurant you need to know that Chinese new year the year of my birthday like this year fell after and I am the previous sign.) I had planned on doing his final D lunch which of course would have been dragon but today threw together a horse lunch last minute instead.

Main compartment:

Black forest ham cut into a horse shape with a cookie cutter. Free hand cut 2014 from a slice of cheese.

Sides:

A fortune cookie - luckily we had a few on hand because if little S sees one he wants to eat one they are his favorite cookie.

pita chips to eat with the ham and cheese

diced kiwi

Alphabet Inspired Lunch week D

This week we're continuing our alphabet lunches focusing on the letter D..

Day 1 D= Dolphin

Main - A pod of dolphins created by cutting crepes with a cookie cutter. I made basic crepes and dusted them with sugar and butter then stacked them and cut them into dolphin shapes. I added candy eyes to make them stand out more.

Sides - red grapes, baby carrots and pretzel sticks.

Day 2 D= Dog

Main - Cheese slice cut into a dog shape with a cookie cutter, dalmatian like spots added of free hand cut ham, and a candy eye to bring him to life. The word DOG was spelled out using zucchini, carrot ginger cookies.

Sides - red grapes, half a slice of meat loaf (left over) and a mommy and son made mini apple pie with crumble topping with a puppy pick.

Day 3 D= Duck and Dragonfly

Main- There is a broccoli pond with red grape reeds made by stacking grapes onto toothpicks or a dragonfly pick and a peanut butter tortilla cut into a duck shape using a modeling clay cutter. I added a food coloring dot blue of course to make the duck's eye. I really liked the 3D effect of the duck and pond.

Sides - the remaining tortilla sandwich, this is a 6 inch tortilla folded in half with peanut butter in the center, baby carrots in a mini silicone cup, and duck spelled out in Orange Beet Chocolate cookies. Having tasted both the carrot zucchini ginger cookie and now the orange beet chocolate cookie I'm with little S and prefer the ginger cookie. The orange beet ones are not bad they taste like those chocolate oranges that you whack on the table to get pieces off of the ginger ones were in our opinion better. (as evident by the ginger ones being gone and the chocolate ones still around days later)

Day 4 D=  Dinosaur

Main- three dinosaur buddy nuggets playing in a salad field with broccoli bushes.

Sides of disks of baby carrot, cucumber slices, and RAWR (dinosaur for I love you) spelled in orange beet chocolate cookie. The RAWR came out looking more like wrap because I didn't have another R in the package. The cookies come with random letters some of which are broken and I made due with a P and a extra piece to form that last R. Luckily little S doesn't read yet so I can still get away with things like that.



We do not have a fifth D lunch although I had one planned as I realized it was Chinese New Year and quickly switched gears to make a inspired lunch for that.

Alphabet inspired lunches Week C

This week was brought to you by the letter C.



Week C Lunch 1: C= Cupcake

Breakfast for lunch day! I took advantage of left over pancakes from my free birthday breakfasts over the weekend and used them to put together a quick breakfast for lunch with our C theme.

Using a cupcake cookie cutter I cut two large cupcakes from the left over pancakes (also great with a "pan" pancake that is baked in the oven). I then added butter to the top of the cupcake where the frosting would go just thick enough to look like frosting but if you spread it out its just enough for the entire pancake to be buttery when warm. I then added candy sprinkles and rather than a cherry on top these cupcakes have a veggie/fruit drop on top of each.  I sliced an orange and then cut the slices in half alternating how they went into the container and trimmed a banana to fit. Bananas never go to waste at our house if they are getting too ripe t we freeze them for smoothies and "banana ice cream" and I did the same thing with the trimmed parts of the large banana.

He also had a cupcake snack bowl for the day. I put out a snack for him each day and it varies from fruit, cheerios, mommy mix, pretzels, popcorn, it's usually something that needs to be eaten that will stay fresh enough all day. He knows where it is and when he gets hungry in between meals he can get himself something to eat. If it runs out and he is still hungry the bowl mysteriously ends up on the kitchen counter and mommy get's summoned to the kitchen to help unless I left the package on the counter then as I'm working I usually hear the kitchen chair being moved so he can reach it.




We did skip a inspired lunch this week Little S and M took me out for lunch on Tuesday to celebrate my birthday after having arranged for time off for me with my boss.


Week C Lunch 2: C= Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

As I have mentioned this is one of our favorite books so I used it to inspire little S's lunch today. In the large container I used shredded cheese for a beach, super thin pretzels for the tree trunk and cut coconut fronds from a quesadilla. I used a 6 inch tortilla along with taco flavoring and the same cheese that made up the beach and made the quesadilla. I then took 1 drop of green food coloring and two drops of water and applied it to the cooked  quesadlila with a wet napkin to make our coconut tree.

For A told B - I diced apples and bananas and for when B tells C I added mommy mix - cheerios, chocolate chips and coconut to help stick to our theme.

If you have never read the book it's a alphabet book that centers around the letters racing up the coconut tree and then crashing down. The first lines of which are.. "A told B and B told C. I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree. "



Week C Lunch 3: C= Cat and carrot

Today little S has an open faced salami sandwich (salami is under the bread) that was cut into a cat shape using a cookie cutter and given sugar eyes. The cat has a cat food dish of carrots and sun flower seeds for his lunch. I sectioned half an orange and cut the sections into bite size pieces and gave little S a cat fork to eat them with. The top container is Greek yogurt drizzled popcorn that is dusted with blueberry and acai berry powder. He's too little to ask but if he was older I would have gone with that being the litter box.



Week C Lunch 4: C= Cars

Three super fast salami cars are racing down the cheese highway on their way to today's lunch. I sorted through a box of Bitsy's Brain Food Zucchini Gingerbread Carrot smart snacks which are made with organic whole wheat flour, zucchini and carrots (this was not a sponsored lunch but h if they want to send some Little S loved them!) for letters to spell out cars - since we didn't have an A I used a U and a broken piece to make the A in CARS. I added a few baby carrots and diced apple that I covered with the front end of a car (play-dough cutter) and I finished his lunch with more C inspired mommy mix I made earlier in the week and topped it with his magnetic C for the refrigerator.



We have been reading our library books nonstop since we brought them home.

Alphabet Inspired Week: B

This week we are continuing our Alphabet inspired lunches and I not only tried to incorporate words or shapes that began with B but also foods that began with B throughout the week.



Day 1: B=Butterfly

Main Compartment:  one Peanut butter butterfly sandwich and one sun seed butter butterfly sandwich on a bed of corn chips.
Top Right: a few chocolate covered pretzels, and baby carrots in a mini silicone cup.
Bottom Right: Cantaloupe and Pineapple chunks with a yellow and pink butterfly pick.





Day 2: B= Boy, Balloon and Bat

Main Compartment: two ham boys stuck together cut using a clay cutter. Salami and cheese balloons tied with Parmesan cheese strings pulling the boy off the ground. I also used a single Parmesan string for his belt. Top Right: a few chocolate covered pretzels, and baby carrots in a mini silicone cup because it went well the day before.
Bottom Right: Cantaloupe and Pineapple chunks with a left over Halloween Bat pick.




Day 3: B= Bear, Broccoli and Blue

Main Compartment: One Cheese pizza bear cut with a cookie cutter, and a pepperoni pizza bear cut with the same cookie cutter, and a new bathtub squirting bear toy for use later.
Top Right: Smaller Mango bears - slices of mango were cut using a smaller bear cookie cutter.
Bottom Right: Broccoli Slaw - Cole slaw made with broccoli shreds instead of cabbage, and a silicone cup of blue M&M's.


Because today was bears and blue we also used a new fizzy tub color tablet to make Little S's bath super blue (we used 2 tablets) and gave him the new bathtub bear.

Day 4: B= Bumble Bee, Bread stick, Broccoli, Banana and Blueberry (It's a day of B's)
Everything in his lunch today is a B word.

Main Compartment: two ham Bumble bees cut with a cookie cutter and a Bread stick (Olive garden left over) cut to size.
Top Right:Broccoli Slaw - Cole slaw made with broccoli shreds instead of cabbage with a Bumble Bee pick.
Bottom Right: Sliced banana and blueberry salad - I liked this because it also fit the color scheme of a bumble bee with the contrasting colors.




Day 5 B= Boot, Berries and Blueberries

Main Compartment: Peanut butter sandwich cut into the shape of a cowboy boot using a cookie cutter, and a magnetic letter B for the refrigerator for learning about B for the week.
Top Right: Blueberries (hands down his favorite food) with a Halloween Witch's Boot pick.
Bottom Right: Popcorn coated in Acai Berry, Blueberry and Raspberry powder and drizzled with Greek yogurt.