First Day of Junior Kindergarten (Pre-K) Bento!

My little girl's first day of her last year of preschool! *sniffle*

Even though we had no morning plans, so I didn't *neeeeeed* to pack a lunch, I couldn't let this milestone go uncelebrated!

Junior Kindergarten Choo-Choo-Champion

Green beans and carrot flowers w/Ranch, apples and raspberries, CoJack cheese, WowButter-honey sandwich,
Chobani Champions Orange Vanilla Greek Yogurt

I chose the train shape because that's her school's logo. I used a Gemco train ice cream sandwich mold found for me in Mexico of all places, by my friend Lau-Raw at El Lunch de mi Enano. (She also got me the car and flower ones!)

I used my new letter cookie cutters to do the JK initials for her Junior Kindergarten class.

For "dessert" she got a Chobani Champions Orange Vanilla Greek Yogurt. I love that these kid-friendly flavors are free from the artificial ingredients that she can't have, and are still fun and yummy enough to appeal to her. I packed a spoon (Dollar Tree, baby section) but she really only used her Cool Straw.

Mama's Rainbow Lunch

1/2 Biscoff sandwich on whole wheat, organic cherry tomatoes, cheese scraps,
Chobani Champions Verry Berry Greek yogurt and Blueberry Flax Seed Granola;
red lettuce salad w/yellow and orange carrots, zucchini, assorted raisins, nutritional yeast and almonds, dressing

I had red tomatoes and lettuce tips (and berries in the yogurt,) orange/yellow tomatoes, carrots and raisins, green lettuce and zucchini, and blue/purple dried blueberries (and in the yogurt,) and raisins.

My salad got all the carrot scraps from hand-cutting Vs into her carrot coins, and I got the scraps from her cheese letters too. Her train sandwich took up just over half a slice of bread for each side, so I couldn't just use one slice. My sandwich is made from the remaining almost-half.

The Biscoff sandwich was my dessert. Yum! My granola is in a small Tupperware container I bought at a Tupperware vendor booth at a local street fair. The little blue dressing container is a Smidget, and the pink one came in a set with assorted sizes from an Asian grocery.

I didn't end up getting to eat my lunch until Z was at school, so Baby and I had time to enjoy some #chobanitime together! I mixed some of my yogurt in with her Chard-Plum "Baby Chum." And since she was just wearing her diaper and a bib, I let her explore her food and practice feeding herself. She gave up on the spoon fairly quickly, but did a bang-up job sucking food off her hands!

First Day of School

We were 10-minutes late. A... realistic start to the new school year!

Z's preschool has two different programs for 4-year-olds. There's Pre-K, and another program aimed at the older kids, called Junior-K. It's designed for kids turning 5 by February, as well as kids delaying starting Kindergarten by a year due to Summer birthdays. I think this is a great idea, since anyone planning to delay entry to Kindergarten can have their child do both, without having to repeat the same class for a second year.

In JK, they start their reading program in November, right after Thanksgiving. In Pre-K, they don't start until Spring. Since Z has been able to sound out words for a while now (although she refuses to do it when asked,) I looked into doing the JK program for her. I was worried that she might not thrive there, since with a June birthday, she'd be 4 to 12 months younger than all the other kids. And she has a few sensory/social issues. And on top of getting two completely new teachers and moving to the other classroom, only one or two students from her class were going to JK as well. This past school year was the first time in her three years at preschool where she was not only interested in her peers, but actively spoke about them and wanted to interact with them. So I was worried about ripping her away from the kids she'd grown attached to. And the Pre-K assistant teacher was the same as her Preschool class assistant teacher. Plus the same classroom. So maybe only a few new faces, and one new teacher.

I didn't want to push her into JK just for the academics, at the expense of her emotional and psychological well-being. But her teachers from last year said she was more than ready cognitively, and would, at worst, be in the middle of the class, ability-wise. They also felt that the JK teacher would work better with Z's personality than the Pre-K teacher, which was really the clincher for me.

At Meet the Teacher day, she enjoyed playing with the Gak that had been set out, and she found a stuffed frog in the puppet show/quiet corner area that she really liked. So while she complained both school days this week that she doesn't like having new teachers and a new classroom, and keeps asking where her old teachers are, going to play with the stuffed frog gives her something to look forward to. She also enjoys her personal daily Mama-packed dye-free snack. *sigh* It's gonna be a long year.

     

Barnyard Bento Bonanza

For Barnyard Bonanza week at The Little Gym, I made farm-themed lunches for all three days that we needed a packed lunch. Since I already showed off two of hers in my Lunchbox Love Notes giveaway post (ended,) I decided to "round up" all of our lunches from that week into one post.

Tuesday, 8/21/12 - She had asked for a cow-themed lunch, but I couldn't find my cow sandwich mold, so I stalled and made a generic barnyard theme.

Strawberries, SunButter-jelly sandwich, CoJack cheese, green beans

I chose my rooster cupcake pick for the strawberries, mostly to add color! For the sandwich, I chose the pig from my Tovolo ice cream sandwich molds set (because it was the only one I could find! Natch!)

Above the cut green bean "grass," I used my mini cow and pig cutters on some cheese. The mini llama came with some farm set, but I'm not finding it online, so it may have been taken out of the set.
And those animals are actually cleverly stacked cheese shapes, so all together they almost equal a whole slice of cheese!

Mama's Lunch

Lettuce salad w/carrots, raisins, and Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing;
black-and-blueberries, Special K Crackers w/cheese scraps

My little dressing container was a gift from Karen at What's In Our Lunch Bags? She also gave me a purple one! I've seen them in 4-packs hanging in various aisles at several grocery stores (including Target and Wal-Mart.) They fit in the EasyLunchboxes, and don't leak, but they're a little big for my purposes - I don't quite need THAT much dressing! But it matched the pink fork (Dollar Tree baby section,) pink heart skewer, and pink muffin cup! It would be the perfect size for holding raisins and almond slivers though, to keep them from getting moist.

Thursday, 8/23/12 - I needed to get my rear in gear and showcase my Lunchbox Love notes for the giveaway, so I went with a chicken theme next, to match one of the Fun Facts, instead of making her a cow lunch.

Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt, TJs jellybeans, grapes, cinnamon,
Sunbutter-Honey and Biscoff sandwiches, strawberries, green beans and broccoli

For a fun treat, I put a few dye-free Trader Joe's jellybeans in the little chick-shaped Easter egg I found at Target on clearance after Easter. In the chick sauce bottle is cinnamon to sprinkle onto her Chobani Greek yogurt.

I used my mini barn cookie cutter to make a SunButter and honey sandwich, and used a steak knife to cut a door and window in, just to give it some detail. My mini rooster cutter made a little Biscoff sandwich, as a fun treat.

To add some fun chicken-y details, I chose my long chicken skewer picks for the grapes, and a hatching chick pick and chicken head pick for the strawberries.

The yellow chicken spoon is for mixing in her cinnamon, and the Cool Straw (outside the box, on the right) is for slorping up her yogurt.

Mama's Lunch:

Lettuce salad w/blueberries, carrots, cauliflower, raspberry vinaigrette;
1/2 tomato, broccoli and green beans w/hummus

Friday, 8/24/12 - Still couldn't find my cow sandwich mold, so I gave up and used a regular cow cutter.

Grapes, Co-Jack cheese, chocolate, hummus, WowButter-Honey sandwich, green beans

I added my cow cupcake pick in with the grapes for fun, and used my mini cow cutter again for the cheese.

The chocolate tractor was a freebie in one of my organic produce boxes that I have delivered in the Winter. It's from Theo Chocolates, which is a veeeeery fancy chocolatier in Seattle, and one of only, like, 10 chocolate makers in the US (not to be confused with chocolates makers, who take chocolate and do things with it. Chocolate makers actually make the chocolate from the cacao nibs, and there are not many worldwide. Most companies get their chocolate from the same company, then add their fillers to lower the quality, and thus the price.) It was a hard call giving her this, since it's such good quality, and she isn't very discerning. But she's worth it! Plus it totally fit the theme. How could I not?

My cow cutter was from a thrift store, and is an older version of the current Wilton cow cutter. Mine's also a little warped. But I made it work! I used tiny bits of raisin for the eyes and the hint of a swishy tail, and glued them on with the WowButter.

Mama's Lunch

Lettuce, cabbage, and purple cabbage salad w/yellow crookneck squash,
blueberries, peas, carrots, and raspberry vinaigrette dressing w/nutritional
yeast added for protein. Special K crackers, cheese scraps, 1/2 tomato

I added some nutritional yeast to my dressing, to try and increase my protein intake. It tasted fine (don't get me wrong - I could taste it. It just wasn't too weird for me to handle) but thickened up my dressing too much. I love the vinaigrettes because I can use less dressing (I usually use roughly 1 Tbsp,) since they're so thin they spread and coat the whole salad really well, with very little tossing on my part. Because it was so thick, most of my salad went dressing-less, which wasn't as yummy. Next time I'll store the yeast separately and sprinkle it on after the dressing, or just put it on the salad when I make it.

I would like it noted for the record that I specifically designed these lunches to be nut-free to be school safe (even though she doesn't eat lunch at her school yet.) Mine are nut-free too (except the Special K crackers probably have cross-contamination warnings. So not safe for an allergic person to ingest, but usually safe to be around.)
I made sure to use SunButter, which she has been enjoying for a while, and hasn't noticed that I'm subbing it in for PB randomly, and we tried WowButter for the first time as well. Contrary to the claims on the jar, it does not taste "just like peanut butter." It tastes like dried soybeans. Not bad though.

Tools of the Trade

                 

Dye-Free August Summer Camp Snacks - Part 2

We crammed a ton of gym camps into August, since I spent almost half of the potential July camp days at my sister's house. I liked having a few hours where I could run errands without having to figure out how to fit both kids in the shopping cart (plus, you know, have room for my purchases!) Or just kick back and read my book feed the baby, and let her have a nap without a certain loudly vivacious someone turning on the lights, jumping on the bed, and wanting to give her kisses constantly.

Since we switched Little Z to an artificial-free diet, her behavior has improved dramatically. Although, to be honest, her screaming fits and belligerence weren't as bad as many other kids' "normal" Terrible Twos and Threes. Without the fake stuff, she is more cooperative, has an improved ability to self-soothe (she had zero ability before!) and her night terrors went away. Now she just wakes up and wanders into our bed, usually without even waking us, unless she needs to potty. She used to not even be able to pick up her water sippy without help, during a night-waking, much less get up and walk anywhere!

The snacks at Little Gym were deemed safe -Goldfish Crackers, organic vanilla cookies from Costco, Motts for Tots fruit snacks, and technically Cheez-Its (although they contain TBHQ, a petroleum-derived preservative that many dye-sensitive kids also react to. We don't know about Z for sure on that, so we avoid it, but I'd let her try them in a pinch.) But Z didn't trust the teachers telling her their snacks were safe. And when I asked her about them on the way home from our first camp back in June, she decided she wanted "for-sure-safe" Mama-packed snacks, like the one I had made before checking their snack stash. She requested fresh fruits and veggies, and I finally got to use all the cute little snack bento and sandwich boxes languishing away in my cupboard! Win!

Even though they're mostly not pictured, she got a juice box with most of these snacks. (My Gym requests you pack your child a water bottle, so she only had water there. And one of the days I forgot to pack a juice, but I happened to have a milk box in the car that day. Whew!)

Tuesday 8/14/12 - Little Gym camp snack.

Popcorn, organic Bing cherries

Can't remember which flavor popcorn this is. I still had some Smartfood White Cheddar, as well as Trader Joe's Organic Olive Oil Popcorn and Herbed Popcorn lying around.
Snack container came from Target's Dollar Spot.


Monday 8/13/12 - My Gym camp snack with water (not pictured.)

TJs Organic Olive Oil Popcorn, organic raspberries

Not sure which sandwich box I used. Looks like Tinkerbell or Hello Kitty, which came from either Dollar Tree or Target's Dollar Spot.

Wednesday, 8/15/12 - My Gym camp - favorite book theme.

TJ's Root Chips, seaweed crackers, Bing cherries, blackberries

Sandwich box came from Target's Dollar Spot.

We had had My Gym camps scheduled the following Monday and Wednesday as well, but Z told me she never wanted to go back. I made her go to this camp, just to make sure, but then was able to transfer the other camps we had already paid for to a friend at rock-bottom prices. Z might change her mind and be ready to try this gym again for their Mid-Winter or Spring Break camps next year, but I'm fine sticking with Little Gym for Winter Break and Summer camps, plus the occasional Parent's Night Out.

In the almost-four-years we've been going there, the teachers at The Little Gym have consistently been better at reading Z's nonverbal cues and immediately reacted to and respected her aversion to being spoken to, looked at, or touched by other adults. And they've known exactly how to work with and encourage her to participate, with understanding and compassion. Every place else we've gone to, for anything, has been more hit and miss. Her drop-off preschool teachers seemed to work well with her too, although I wasn't ever there to witness, and she did great at the co-op preschool, since I was in the building the whole time. But other than that I have to either remember to coach everyone in advance how to approach her, or else watch her shut down or freak out when someone comes at her the wrong way. (Apparently for her, a touch is akin to an assault. She doesn't differentiate between an accidental collision and an attack, or between a friendly pat and a hit. So when an adult comes to comfort her, she feels she is being attacked, unless she initiates the contact. Luckily, she no longer reacts as strongly when other kids are involved. We didn't go out socially much for a while, since I just didn't have the energy to deal with her screeching over every little imagined slight when we were with a group of other clumsy, touchy, friendly little kids.)

Tuesday, 8/21/12 - Little Gym Camp snack

sugar snap peas, blackberries, carrot flower, TJs Herbed Popcorn and juice box

Blackberries came from our backyard weed thicket garden.
In my favorite little snack bento box.

Thursday, 8/23/12 - Little Gym camp snack.

TJ's Olive Oil popcorn, Earth's Best Sesame Street 
Cheddar crackers, peas, Bing cherries and blackberries 

Blackberries came from our backyard, and the peas I shelled from some older pods starting to go wrinkly from our CSA.
Forget which sandwich box I used here. Either Hello Kitty or Disney Princesses, and came from Dollar Tree or Target's Dollar Spot.

Friday, 8/24/12 - Little Gym snack

blackberries, Earth's Best Sesame Street crackers,
NatureBox Tomato Crunchies, TJ's Lemon Cookie

She went ape over the Garden Tomato Crunchies in the July Naturebox, so I tossed some in with her crackers. She used to love the Earth's Best crackers, and asked for them again recently when we were in that aisle for something else at Fred Meyer. I told her she needed to wait until they were on sale, or until Baby was old enough to eat them. They went on sale first.

We did a make-up class that morning, and normally she asks me to stay in the lobby for class. But I really needed to restock at Trader Joe's, and as it and our regular Little Gym are near each other, and roughly 25-minutes away from home, I like to get my shopping done there either during or after class. Since we'd be racing off to the other Little Gym location after, for camp (our regular location doesn't offer Summer camps on Fridays,) Z let me leave and go shopping during her class. Which turned out to be a good thing, since I'd bought some plain milk boxes there to try (Costco only has chocolate milk and soy milk ones,) and it turns out I'd forgotten to bring her a juice box for camp snack, so she agreed to accept a "reg-a-lur milk" box that was still in the bag in the trunk.

Container is a small Take N Toss snack bowl with lid.

Monday 8/27/12 - Simple and quick snack.

TJ's White Cheddar Popcorn, strawberries, TJs grape juice box

Hello Kitty container was a gift from Candy Girl at BentOnBetterLunches. No clue where she found it. Squeee!

Tuesday, 8/28/12 - Using a mini Glit and Brillia 2-tier box I found at the Asian market for the first time. I don't know if she could open this herself, but with only 10-ish kids in the camp, I knew the teacher would be able to help her. Plus I unsnapped the sides when I left it on the snack counter, since they wouldn't need to move it around or anything until snack time.

NatureBox trail mix dried fruit, strawberries, blueberries,
Trader Joe's White Cheddar Popcorn

At first she took off just the top lid, and asked the teacher "Is this all my snack?" Luckily "Miss Bwee" was able to figure out how to take off the inner lid on the bottom half.
The dried fruit assortment in the mini muffin cup came from a trail mix in an older Naturebox (April or May.) It originally had nuts and sunflower seeds in it, but she kept swiping just the dried mango, apple, and cranberry bits, leaving the seeds and nuts scattered on her desk. So  when I accidentally ordered a second box (I was trying to switch to a 6-month subscription, but forgot to cancel my month-to-month. Doh!) I just separated out all the seeds and nuts to sprinkle on my salads, saving the fruit for her. I had forgotten about it, sitting in my "dried fruits" area, and decided that it would be a nice change for her.
Well! Her dried fruit was a huge hit. Not only did she love it and gobble it down, but the other kids all asked her about them, apparently, so she shared with some of the kids sitting next to her. Awww!

Friday, 8/31/12 - Last day of Summer camp! *sniffle*

Blackberries, seaweed crackers, Snappea Crisps, TJ's Yogurt Stars

I thought I'd change it up a bit for her last day of camp, so I put in some seaweed crackers from the Asian market and some Snappea Crisps, instead of popcorn. And as a special treat, a few TJ's yogurt-covered vanilla cookies, for my little superstar! In my new little strawberry snack bento box.

The good news is that she liked having a "special" snack, different from the other kids. The bad news is that she wants me to pack a daily snack for preschool too! Oy! Last year I just had a bag of safe snacks to sub in as needed. She was still getting exposed to something, whether it was artificial flavors, Vanillin, BHA, BHT, or TBHQ, since they were only checking for artificial colors. And while I'm still not 100% sure she's sensitive to any of those, there have been inexplicable episodes of something where we know she didn't get exposed to colors, so there's something else out there.
And for some reason Tuesdays and Thursdays, her school days at that school last year, she'd come home and get the screamies. Although it's also possible that the juice concentrates people were bringing had fake colors and the teachers didn't think to check. I know I didn't think to when we were at my sister's house, and I let her drink the Red 40 fruit punch.

     

August 2012 Farm CSA Share and Recipes

Leftovers from July:
Week 3:

• around 1 lb young broccoli [most got eaten in lunches. A few got thrown out when they turned yellow and bitter]
• around 1 lb snow and sugar snap peas [eaten in various lunches and snacks]
• 1 green garlic [I used it somewhere... Not sure... Grater Tots maybe?]

Bonus Box:

• celery (minus one rib I ate in a lunch) [I ate a few more ribs before Hubby threw it out because they were "soft." Which I can still toss into a crockpot meal. Argh!]
• 1 bunch Red Kale [smoothies]
• 1 bunch radishes [Hubby threw them out. Argh!]
• 1 bunch yellow carrots [ate in lunches and random recipes and such]
• 1 cucumber [ate it with salt. Yum!]
• 1 avocado [Fed half to Baby. Z and I shared the other half with salt and garlic powder sprinkled on top! ]
• 1 apricot [ate it]
• 2 red plums [ate them]
• 0.5 lb Rainier cherries [used in Cherry-Pomegranate Limeaid freezer pops and Cherry-Baby Mash, Week 1]
• 1 mango [used in Raspberry Smoothies for Mama, Week 1]

Week 4

• roughly 0.5 lb Rainier cherries [used in Cherry-Pomegranate Limeaid freezer pops and Cherry-Baby Mash, Week 1]
• 1 lb Summer squash [made more Squished Squash for Baby, Week 2]
• 1 head cabbage (very small head of purple cabbage) [still working on it]
• 1 Walla Walla sweet onion [still have it]
• 1.25 lb broccoli (minus a few florets that went into a lunch) [went into Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffins]
• 1 head lettuce (a little over half left) [Ate in salads]
• 1 bunch Collard Greens [made Curried Collard Greens]
• 3 containers raspberries [made into Raspberry Smoothies for Mama, Week 1]

August

Week 1:

• 1 lb assorted squash [Failure Brownies, Week 2; more Squished Squash.]
• 1 lb green beans [Butter Beans and in lunches]
• 1 kohlrabi (freakishly huge) [Orange Mashed Potatoes, Week 3]
• .7 lb carrots [lunches and various things]
• 1 bunch scallions [gave to friend]
• 1 cabbage (wibbly leaves) [gave to friend]
• 1 head lettuce (romaine) [gave to friend]
• 1 bunch greens (kale) [smoothies]
• 2 containers raspberries [smooshed ones went into Raspberry Smoothies, rest into random lunches]
• 1 container blueberries [Blueberry Mash, Week 2]

Bought: 4 potatoes, 1 lime, 4 purple yams

Made: Purple Yam Sweet Potater Tots, Cherry-Baby Mash, Cherry-Pomegranate Limeaid Freezer Pops, Raspberry Smoothies for Mama, Butter Beans (I added a little bit of water to some cut green beans, covered in a microwave-safe dish, and nuked for 3 minutes. Added butter and salt.) 

Cherry-Baby Mash and Cherry-Pomegranate Limeaid Freezer Pops

For the Cherry-Pomegranate Limeaid freezer pops and Cherry-Baby Mash, I just pitted a little over a pound of Rainier cherries, microwaved them with 1/4 c water, covered, for 3 minutes. Then I pureed them up in my food processor, but a blender or immersion blender would work.

I spooned 3-4 spoonfuls into three of my rocket pop molds (I used regular drawer spoons. You don't have to be exact. I filled them roughly halfway.) I spooned the rest into my Baby Freezer Tray in three one-ounce holes and froze them to mix with other purees for added flavor.

I filled the rest of the rocket pop molds with Trader Joe's Pomegranate Limeaid Juice, and squirted a drop or two of lime juice in each one, then swirled it around with the stick from the tops of the molds, and froze them. Yum!

Raspberry Smoothies for Mama

(The Cherry-Baby Mash is in the little ice cube tray)

No real recipe. Just tossed in the rest of the unfrozen pureed kale and squash (maybe a cup, combined,) the rest of the still-frozen thrice-rejected Raspberry-Spinach baby cubes (6-8 ounces. I forgot to count,) all the leftover raspberries from the previous weeks plus smooshed ones from this week (somewhere around 3 cups, maybe,) the rest of my Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt (roughly a cup or so,) the leftover mango from the Bonus Box (Z had wanted to try some so Hubby chopped it up, then no one ate the rest,) and a splash of soy milk since I'm not getting enough protein lately. Oh, plus the juice from one lime, to cut the "greeny" flavor from all the greens.

Go ahead. Start singing "Raspberry Puree" to the tune of Prince's "Raspberry Beret." You know you want to. Go ahead. I'll wait.

I got roughly 4 and a half cups of smoothie, so poured them into 12-ounce servings in my 16-ounce Ball Freezer Jam jars. I kept one in the fridge (for my road trip the next day to visit Candy Girl from BentOnBetterLunches!) and froze the others. I didn't figure Z would like them, since they were highly seedy (raspberry seeds have great nutrients, so I kept them in) and not especially sweet with almost as much veggies as fruit in there. So I didn't bother freezing any in Z-sized servings. 

Well, she showed me! 

Turns out she'd chosen one of my frozen jars for dessert with Daddy while I was away visiting, and chipped her way through half of it. Finished off the rest the next day for a cool-me-down afternoon snack!

Week 2:

• 2 lb summer squash [Grater Tots; Blue Smoothies, Week 3]
• 0.5 lb carrot [Orange Mashed Potatoes, Week 3; Failure Brownies]
• 0.5 lb green beans [lunches and Butter Beans]
• 1 kohlrabi [made Fennel-Carrot-Potato Baby Mash, Week 4]
• 1 bunch beets
• 1 bunch greens (kale) [gave to friend]
• 1 head lettuce [gave to Nana]
• 1 cabbage [gave to Nana]
• 2 c blueberries [made Blueberry Mash and Blue Smoothies]
• 0.5 lb cherries [ate some, more Cherry-Baby Mash with the rest]

Bought: Bing cherries

Made: Grater Tots, more Squished Squash, Butter Beans (green beans chopped and steamed in microwave, then drizzled with butter and salt!) Blueberry Mash, Curried Collard Greens. And Failure Brownies (shown in a lunch here. Will not be posting recipe, as the failure was in the end result, and not in my inept (and thus fun to read about) cooking.) [Update: I lied. Use this link to learn a lesson and try the really good recipe I flubbed up!]

Week 3:

• 1.5 lb summer squash (sliced some up on salads, still have some.)
• 0.5 lb green bean [gave to friend]
• 0.9 lb broccoli [kept some, gave the rest to friend]
• 1 head cabbage [gave to friend]
• 1 fennel [made Fennel-Carrot-Potato Baby Mash, Week 4]
• 1 tomato [ate half each in two different lunches]
• 1 head lettuce [gave to friend]
• 1 bunch greens (I chose kale, still have it)
• 2 containers blueberries (filled a 1-pound plastic berry clamshell) [mostly eaten]
• 3 shiro plums [Baby Chum, week 4]

Bought: A mini watermelon, a golden beet, Rosemary Bread, mini bananas, assorted "P is for Poopies" fruits (Plums, Pears, Peaches, [didn't get Prunes though,] and aPricots - Doctor's orders. Baby's having an... err.. "hard" time voiding.) 

Made: Orange Mashed Potatoes,  Blue Smoothies (see below,) more Cherry-Baby Mash, Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffins, Plum-Pear-Banana Baby Mash (just like it sounds - tossed a pear, two plums, and some mini bananas into my Boon Mush and whizzed it around until smooth enough!)

Blue Smoothies

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh blueberries, or 4 cups frozen
1 bunch purple kale
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani.)
juice from 1/2 lime or lemon (to cut the green flavor from the kale)
Any random fruit or veggie scraps you have lying around - I added some squash
Optional: honey or agave nectar

Directions:
In blender, food processor, or with immersion blender, blend all ingredients well! Add honey as needed to sweeten.

I was able to make four frozen ice-cream-cone shaped popsicles, three squeezy-tube ice pops, over half of an 8-ounce freezer jar to freeze for her to chip at with a spoon, and a mostly-filled re-used frosting tub for me to drink out of (couldn't find any lids for my 16-ounce freezer jars.)

Week 4: 

• 1.5 lb summer squash (still working on it)
• 0.5 lb green beans (still working on them)
• 0.5 lb broccoli (steamed and ate for dinner one night)
• 1 cucumber (Hubby stole ate it.)
• 2 walla walla onion (still have them)
• 1 kohlrabi (still have)
• 1 fennel  [made Fennel-Carrot-Potato Baby Mash]
• 1 lettuce (still working on it)
• 1 bunch greens (I chose Collard Greens, still have them)
• 0.6 lb tomatoes (ate one, still have the other)
• 1 container strawberries (Z ate them)
• 4 plums/pluots (P is for Poopies Baby Mash)
• BONUS: 1 container U-Pick cherry tomatoes for each share member (omnomnom)
• BONUS: 1 dozen bonus eggs for each share member, if you saw the email and brought your own carton. Scoooore!

Picked: a bunch of U-Pick Rainbow Chard, and Kale (free to all share members - shown top left)

Bought: Rosemary Bread, another pluot, some baking apples, (Early Golds, I think,) some potatoes (for the Fennel-etc Mash,) avocado, lime, and an apricot.

Made: Fennel-Carrot-Potato Baby Mash, Baby Chum (Rainbow Chard-Plum baby mash,) and Plum-aPricot-Pluot (or "P is for Poopies") Baby Mash (same as Week 3. Cut out the pits/seeds, and whizzed them into mash in my Boon Mush.) 

Lunch Leftovers - July and August 2012

Friday, 7/13/12 - My July lunches were almost all fun enough to have their own posts, so I saved this one for August. For that matter, my August lunches were pretty much all awesome as well...

A quick and easy lunch before Little Gym camp.

Asian sesame cookie thing, "Everything" bagel thin w/cream cheese,
sugar snap peas, Rainier cherries

She had chosen a little Asian "cookie" assortment at the Asian grocery, with flavorless wafer cookie quarters covered in a crunchy honey-tasting glaze and white or black sesame seeds, or chopped cashews or peanuts. I put one in her lunch to try, and I was surprised to find she hadn't eaten it! Ah well. She didn't eat most of her peas either.

Mama's Lunch

Very Pink Dip,  toasted "Everything" bagel thin w/cream cheese,
strawberries, regular and golden raspberries, snow peas

The berries were from a U-Pick strawberry place we went to with my sister and her kids, and her raspberry patch in her garden. The cherries (in Z's lunch) and peas (in both lunches) were from our organic CSA.

Friday 8/10/12 - Went to the kitchen to make her requested breakfast PBJ (with GWAPE jelly!) only to discover that the brand-new loaf of bread we had bought only 5 days previous, with a "sell by" date of THAT DAY, was coated in mold! Ewww! Turns out Trader Joe's bread is notorious for this. So head's up. If you aren't going to go through an entire loaf of Trader Joe's bread in 2-3 days, store half in the freezer, and the rest in the fridge.
She would accept no substitutes ("Go get MORE bwead!") until I offered her my special "wibbly crackers." The Special K MultiGrain and Savory Herb Crackers are our favorites! I can't decide which flavor I like best. We call them "wibbly crackers" because they have those scalloped edges and I was trying to ask her what kind of crackers she wanted one time, and was describing the different ones we had, and that's the description I came up with: "The ones with the wibbly edges." So it stuck.
She agreed to ham and cheese on wibbly crackers.

Since the Special K crackers are pretty small, the FunBites CubeIt! squares are the perfect size!

Tuesday, 8/14/12 - We had a dentist appointment for Z, followed by Little Gym camp, and Mama forgot to pack a lunch the night before. So I threw this together in about 3 minutes!

PB-chocolate almond butter sandwich, cheese stick, green beans,
Failure Brownies, apples 

Wednesday, 8/15/12 - Mama had an early-ish doctor appointment, so I made sure we had lunches packed to act as breakfast as well, if needed.

Mini banana, toasted ham and cheese on sandwich rounds, green beans,
blackberries and Bing cherries, Failure Brownies

The Failure Brownies were a failed attempt to alter a zucchini-carrot blondies bar recipe by adding cocoa powder and chocolate chips instead of honey. There will be no blog post, as they were not delicious. Blech. [Update: I lied. Here's the post. Check out the recipe I flubbed up and try it the RIGHT way!]

Mama's Lunch/Family Snack

Pink Dip, sugar snap peas, broccoli, blueberries,
hummus, doggie-bag rice and sweet chicken

I packed this in case we wouldn't be home in between my appointment and Z's summer camp, so I packed a spork for my leftover rice and sweet chicken (from some kind of Asian-style restaurant at the Asian food court at our mall.) But I ended up eating it at home. With some help. Since it was kind of set up like a veggie and dip tray, I laid it out in the computer room and Z and I shared the blueberries, veggies, and dips. Even Baby got in on the act, and licked hummus off a pea pod I kept re-dipping for her. She really loves the savory flavored foods!

Saturday, 8/18/12 -  Snacker box for our day at Nana's. Since Z discovered a love for mustard-covered-pretzels at Nana's (since I had okayed them thinking they were plain pretzels, only to discover they were filled with yellow #5) I packed her a safer version as a special treat. She actually likes it this way more, since she gets the fun of dipping her pretzels as well as eating them!

Green beans, sourdough hard pretzels, mustard, strawberries

Monday, 8/20/12 - MOMables Monday - Thinking Outside the {bento} Box Edition!

Strawberries, carrots, and MOMables Wafflewiches

For the first time ever, I happened to have everything needed to make this MOMables lunch recipe, so we gave it a go! Mama had some for her lunch too! I chose one of her divided plates just to make it more fun, and to keep the foods from rolling around too much.

Baby's Eats

One of Baby's favorites this month was when I made a "mash-up" [har har] of frozen cubes of Cherry Baby Mash, Squished Squash, and Pureed Kale Mash. She also especially enjoyed my Green Mashed Potatoes and some food-processored Collard Greens-Beans-and-Rice Curry.

     

Foodie Penpals - August 2012 #foodiepenpals

Since I had such fun doing this last month, I signed up for Foodie Pen Pals again this month! I received a package in such speedy-fast time from Katie from The Eight Hour Project that I suspect she is an alien or something. Who on Earth gets stuff done EARLY?

My Loot

Two Leaves and a Bud Tea Company's Assam Breakfast Tea - Mmmmm. I love me some fine, rich, strong tea. With a crap-ton of sugar! Ahhhhhh!

Whole Foods' 365 Safflower Oil - This intimidates me. It looks like it is used for cooking things. I am not skilled. It says it's good for "High Heat" cooking. Maybe next time I try the PF Chang's copycat wraps. Or I'll let Hubby try something ambitious. I wonder if this is good for deep frying...

Brad's RAW Leafy Kale Vampire Killer flavor - I barely got to try these, between my little kale chip fiend and Hubby, who was excited to see ones that weren't over-salted or burnt. Harumph.

Near East Wild Mushroom and Herb Couscous - We had fun making "hug hug couscous" jokes [get it? Hug hug kiss kiss?] all night as we ate our surprisingly yummy couscous. Z even asked for seconds! I avoid "frou frou" foods like risotto and couscous on the principal that they are too fancy and complexicated for me. But this was a snap to make. Seriously. An untrained monkey could have done it. Now that's MY kind of cooking! 

I wasn't sure about Baby and mushrooms, but Hubby and I decided to go for it anyways. Baby E loved this. LOVED IT! If I wasn't shovelling it into her gob fast enough, she'd start fussing. I had to hose her off afterwards, though, since she was coated in little couscous granules!

I even went out on a limb and bought some plain tricolor couscous to try my own concoctions. You know. For kids.

Here are the rules, if you're interested in trying this Foodie Penpals thing for yourself in the future:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

If you’re interested in participating for September, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. 

You must submit your information by September 4th as pairings will be emailed on September 5th!