BACK TO SCHOOL LUNCH IDEAS

Let me just start by saying that my lunches are not crazy healthy, because, well let’s face it, if I prepared the super healthy, out of this world lunch, my 2^nd and 3^rd grader would simply not eat them, however I try my best to pack whatever healthy things they do like and be creative. Just the other day my son said that some kids from his class asked him why he always eats healthy snacks.

Why don’t I let them by lunches at school? I do, on occasion. But one of the reasons I don’t let them buy lunches at school is because I have no control over how many sugary items they would get. In kindergarten my son told me once that he picked chicken nuggets, with a muffin, mandarin oranges (in sugar juice) and chocolate milk. Now to me that is a bit too much for him. When I pack their lunches I try to make sure that I don’t make a carb/sugar overload kind of a lunch. We also buy a lot of organic foods, and I like the idea of them eating homemade food and getting into a habit of realizing that eating ‘out’ (even if that means school lunch) is more of a treat and a special occasion.

School is back in session and coming up with healthy foods and snacks for our little ones can sometimes be tricky. Either we have no way to pack it, or the kids are simply just too picky to eat what we would prepare. There are many ideas out there for how to pack healthy foods for the kids, however if you have picky ones like we do, fresh veggies with ranch and a turkey sandwich on a whole wheat bread loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, and other good things for you, just won’t work. So what’s a mom to do? I prepare things that I know they love and make sure that their days are balanced.

One of the best investments we did was purchase a thermos. They are wonderful and are great for packing different hot lunches. They stay nice and warm trough the day. (http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-FOOGO-Stainless-Steel-Ounce/dp/B0025Y6742/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&srs=2530615011&ie=UTF8&qid=1411061065&sr=1-1&keywords=foogo+thermos)

Here are some of the items I pack in the thermos:

• ·         Soups and stews (side of sliced bread or crackers)
• ·         Pot roast (with gravy or BBQ sauce)
• ·         Grilled chicken/ or chicken tenders (with choice of dipping sauce)
• ·         Hot dogs/ Mini corn dogs
• ·         Veggie burgers
• ·         Mac & Cheese
• ·         Pastas
• ·         Spaghetti
• ·         Sliced turkey in turkey juice
• ·         Casseroles

What is so fun about packing things like veggie burgers and occasional hot dog is that they get to build it themselves. On the side I will send them off with a bun and all the toppings they like, so they get to put it together nice and hot for lunch. Since they like most of the fruits, I will pack them fruit instead of chips. When I make the pastas and Mac & Cheese I will cook it with broccoli, peas, or cauliflower and mix it all together. They don’t mind it that way, and it’s a nice way for them to get the veggies in with their noodles. But if you have an extra picky one try mashing the cooked veggies and making them part of the sauce. It works really well with marinara sauce.  I also toss in a little bit of turkey, or grilled chicken for the protein.

Since their lunch is so late in the day they have a snack time at school and one of my favorite things to make for them is the parfait yogurt. It’s not only my favorite but theirs as well. We use Quaker granola with almonds and raisins; top it off with fresh cut strawberries, vanilla yogurt and a little more granola. Sometime I use frozen berries instead of fresh strawberries. It works if you don’t want to pack an extra ice-pack as the frozen fruit thaws just in time for snack/lunch time. Use any fruit your little one likes.

Another favorite snack for them is cheese, crackers and grapes. They tend to eat those up every time.

I make crapes from scratch and I always add extra egg whites to my crapes to load them up with a little extra protein. I use crapes to make them turkey and cheese wraps and on Fridays with Nutella as a special treat. Another yummy snack I make for them is a banana with almond butter. You could use peanut butter too, but my 3^rd grader has a peanut allergy so almond butter works great. If you’ve never had almond butter with bananas you’re missing out on something amazing. I use Almond Natural More brand, definitely my favorite.

http://www.allstarhealth.com/de_p_ref/21203/pla21203/SNACLite_Almond_Naturally_More.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=GPS&utm_campaign=21203&gclid=CjwKEAjwheqgBRD5vOfR45az5AESJABy4m8-PmEDM3ABHEXmJLIhOFVT5yDWWnvujDuUSnQdSlsVmRoCcBDw_wcB

I send them off to school with water every day. We use metal water bottles by Klean Kanteen. (http://www.amazon.com/Klean-Kanteen-Stainless-Steel-Bottle/dp/B0092ZW6FG/ref=pd_sim_hg_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XFKSDBJAATTE2E1HEF0)

They are wonderful and don’t smell after a few sips.

Fridays are treat days, so they either get chocolate milk, apple juice, homemade crapes with Nutella, or some other sweet treat like pudding, or a Clif bar.

Now if you are wondering what we eat for breakfast it is eggs. Every day we have scrambled eggs with cheese, side of fruit and a toast. If I don’t prepare fruit then I mix in diced spinach, onions, tomatoes, mushroom, or some kind of mix of veggies, in with the eggs. Sometimes I make egg muffins. (recipe to follow). We also have oatmeal a couple of times a week with fruit and granola, in addition to the eggs. Our kids just don’t stay full if they only have oatmeal. Cereal is more of a treat for them, so if they eat their entire breakfast without any complains they are welcome to have a small bowl of Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Multigrain Cheerios or Honey Bunches of Oats.

As they get older their taste buds change, and they tend to love new things and not like things that they loved before. My goal is to keep feeding them things that are good for them, without being too restrictive.

FLOWER PEDALS LAMP SHADE

I feel bad for not being on my blog as much, and I have so many projects to share with you. Here is one small completed item that I can share with you for now.

The kid's elementary school was doing an auction to raise the money for the school and each class did a project that got auctioned off. The class project that I had the privilege to do was a lamp shade with the pre-schoolers. I wanted to make sure that the kids were included in the project and still make the item look chic and not too colorful or childish. We made flower pedals and I glued them to the ribbon and to the lampshade I picked up at a local Target store. I already had the lamp so I wanted to make sure that the colors all worked together.

Here is a quick run of what we did.

I cut out two different size fabric circles and taped them on a paper for the kids to color. Each child got one large and one small fabric circle. To stay within the color theme I let the kids chose from the earthy colors like brown, yellow, white and red, and each child got to be creative with their fabric circles. They were allowed to mix colors as they desired.

After the paint was dry I layered the fabric circles with one other fabric circle and one circle cut out from a book page. Everything was put together with a button in the middle. I squeezed each pedal so that it got more of a 3D shape and more realistic look to it and hot glued them on the lamp shade.

There are other ways to create the flower pedals this was just one way that worked for me this time.

SWEET VALENTINE'S

Wow! How fast has time gone by. Last time I checked it was still 2011 and today I am making little valentine's for my kids school. I was lucky enough to find these cute key covers with chains for only $0.05 each at a local Office Depot (on clearance). They are adorable. I bought everything they had - about 70+ for under $5.00. I figured the kids in the Pre-School and Kindergarten can use them for anything. My daughter has them hanging on her backpack and they are adorable. So since they already come in a bag all I had to do was add a little chocolate to sweeten up the deal.



For the teachers I had the kidos do their part and make the cards. We cut a paper plate into a heart shape and glued on the back heart shaped doilies for more layered and detailed look. Afterwards I let the kids get creative with gluing on hearts and anything else they thought would be fun. It was all their little project. All supplies are from the dollar store. And there you have it: a fun and detailed, proudly made by the students a Sweet Valentine's card.

I MUST SHARE- Kindness Ranch

I love animals and I would really love to share with all of you a very special ranch out in Wyoming. It's called Kindness Ranch and is the only sanctuary in the US that takes in all kinds of research animals. While new, it is the result of a decade of work, saving, and planning.

From the site:

Laboratory animals have long held a special place in the heart of Dr. David Groobman, Founder of Kindness Ranch. Successful in business, Dr. Groobman first saved enough to provide for his family into the future. Once this was accomplished, he dedicated all the profits of his business for ten years to the ranch. He searched four years to locate the perfect 1,000 acre parcel near historic Hartville in Wyoming.

Groobman’s passion attracted caring board members to the cause. Together, they began planning for a sanctuary with the expectation that the residents will always receive the best in animal care and that dogs and cats would be rehabilitated in a home-like environment. Ground was broke in 2006. After building four guests yurts, a dog yurt, a cat yurt, and a managers’ yurt, construction was finished in the summer of 2007.

The benefits to the animals are obvious: they are well-cared for in every aspect of their lives.

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Kindness Ranch- my heroes all year long.

MY NEW TREASURE- 1982 Charisma Cane Chair

I am so excited to show you my next project. I found this beautiful Charsima Chair in amazing, mint condition for $13. Even the fabric is in such a great shape that I feel bad ripping it off.
This chair even came with the original receipt- how neat. Now I am thrilled to go shopping for fabric. One thing that I'm certain is that I will not be painting the chair. It has very neat detail on the legs and the stain is in great shape.

Some of the fabrics that I have been looking into are shown below. Such a hard decision. Opinions are encouraged.

FIXING BROKEN CHRISTMAS TREE TOPPER

Christmas tree toppers are not always, and only, for Christmas trees. Just like not all ornaments are meant to be hanging on the tree. Mine is being displayed as a decorative feature in a vase.


It's a snow day here in Denver. That means more small projects are going to get done. Well maybe at least one.

I got this super cute $30 Christmas tree topper for free. Yes, for free, but that's because it was broken. The top of this wonderful yet fragile ornament broke off. Everything else was intact so I thought what an easy fix.


I hot glued the top back on, but it wasn't a perfect fit and the glue was showing. So to fix the problem I added small rhinestones around where the glue was to hide it. To spruce it up a little more I added more larger rhinestone to the middle tier. And now for the price of FREE a cute little holiday decor.

QUICK UPDATE REGARDING THE PARTY

So I tried to do a contest giveaway but since I am still very new at this I had to cancel it. Things were already going wrong. Live and learn I guess. For now I will try to create a party for everyone to show off their Holiday Decor. Please hang in there with me as I learn this process. I do plan on reinstating the contest in the very near future.

So here it is. A Show Off Party- share with is us what have you been working on.

1. The contest should be holiday theme decor.
2. Please grab my button and add it to your post or the sidebar and become a follower if you would.
3. Please take time to check out what others have been working on.
4. Make sure that your URL is to the actual items and not your blog URL.
5. Have fun and enjoy.

Anesa