Preschool Snacks - May and June 2013 Stragglers

The last week of May started with Memorial Day, so no school. Then I totally forgot snack for Thursday, apparently. She probably got a bag of PopChips and an apple.

The next week was my weekturn as Snack Parent. I shared her birthday snack already, but the others are still in the queue here. The following week was the final week of preschool, and I apparently had ANOTHER brain fart on that Monday, and had to send another bag of chips or something. Doh! And then that Thursday was their little last-day-of-school pageant and ice cream social, so no snack. 

So here are both weeks, shoved together.

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Tuesday, 5/28/13

Organic strawberries, gluten-free pretzel rings

 

A friend hound this snack box at an Ichiban-kan store and sent it to me (along with a large box of other stuff! Thanks! Muah!) It doesn't have snap-closures, so I had to dig up a bento strap to hold it closed.

Wednesday, 5/29/13

Chobani Champions Tube yogurt, Van's Gluten-Free "Say Cheese!" crackers

 A quick and simple snack. Since she takes a while to slorp down a yogurt tube, I didn't pack a lot of other stuff. Just some crackers in a small snack box from a set that a friend in England sent me.

Tuesday, 6/11/13

Organic sugar snap peas, gouda, kale chips, popcorn

 

Because I had totally blown it the day before and forgot to make a snack, I made sure to make this one special!
Because it would have plenty of room, I packed everything in a Lunchbots Duo (the red lid came with a Trio. They're interchangeable - ie: I grab whatever's clean!)
I used a mini fish cutter to cut some cheese fishies to go in a fish muffin cup (from Christmas Tree Stores. You might be able to find someone selling them on eBay) swimming with some snap pea seaweed.

More kale chip seaweed below, in the "dry stuff" compartment, with some popcorn "sandy ocean bottom."

Wednesday, 6/12/13

Organic raspberries with Enjoy Life chocolate chunks, Mini Pops popped sorghum

For her final preschool snack, I used the pink kitty snack box, one of her favorites. 

For the Mini Pops, I used a Wilton Silly Critters cup - the feet make it enough taller to be flush with the lid to keep the smaller stuff in without needing to pack a napkin on top.

As a special treat, I stuffed each organic raspberry with Enjoy Life Mega Chunks - they are free from gluten and the Top 8 Allergens (which includes dairy, nuts, and peanuts.) Plus no artificial ingredients! Yay! It's hard finding chocolate without fake vanillin, which Z happens to react to as well. And dairy, which makes my tummy unhappy (lactose - yes. It's in the milk that goes into chocolate. And apparently it's enough to bother me. Butter too. *sigh*)

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Food for Thought

  

Cooking with Kids: CSA Veggie Soup

Including kids in the food process really increases their chances of not only trying new things, but it predisposes them to like it as well. Little Z has been telling me for over a year now that she hates soup. And not just my soups, but canned ones as well. 

But when Little Z came to the farm with us to pick up our weekly CSA farm share, she was excited to help select and measure the veggies for our share. And she'd exclaim "Oh, this will be perfect for my soup!" Wait, what? So that night, we made soup! 

Random Veggie Soup

1 leek (green part at top and root bottom trimmed off)
1 head broccoli, florets only (you can peel and chop up the stalk if you like, but the stalk causes extra gas, Have fun with that.)
1 lb carrots (4-5)
1 lb potatoes
1 lb random root veggies (rutabaga, sunchoke, parsnip, turnip, radish, kohlrabi, etc.)
1/2 bunch greens, stems removed and leaves torn into pieces (kale, collard greens, radish/beet/turnip greens, dandelion leaves, chard, etc.)
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, minced (3 tsp minced)
3 c vegetable (or chicken) stock (or enough to almost reach the top of the veggies in the soup pot)
1 tsp salt, plus more, to taste
pepper, to taste
any other seasoning you like, to taste (several Tbsp Italian seasoning or fresh herbs usually works well)

Optional: 1-2 cups whole grains, such as brown rice, rinsed quinoa, wheat berries (if you aren't gluten-free!) millet, etc. (Make sure you add more liquid than required for the grains!)

[Really, several pounds of any savory veggies will do. Squash, leeks, cauliflower, peas, corn, celery, etc. Whatever you've got on hand. You can also add meat, if you like, but I would either cut it really small, or pre-cook it, just to be safe. Or hack up a brick of extra firm tofu.]

Peel any veggies you plan on peeling. I tend to leave the potatoes as-is, but my sous chef was keen on peeling them as well. (Sunchokes I sloppy-peel and break apart to wash all the dirt off, and carrots, turnips, and radishes I leave the peels on. All other root veggies I tend to peel.)

Trim and toss carrot and root veggie tops (if applicable) or save in a freezer bag with the peels to make veggie stock later!
Chop all veggies. You might want to chop the onion smaller, if you're like me and hate getting a mouthful of onion. More kid-friendly that way too. Hint hint.

*I let her cut the softer potato for a bit, highly supervised, until I couldn't handle the stress anymore

Toss all veggies (and grains, if using) into a large pot. Add salt and desired seasonings, then pour veggie stock evenly over the top. Bring to a boil, then turn to low (2,) cover, and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
*Note: If you have a super picky kid, you may want to cook 35-40 minutes to make everything all mushy. Harder to pick stuff out, or you can blend it all into a soupy mash to disguise what's in it!

Show off your war-wounds from all that peeling.

Aaaaand dinner!

How Kids Can Help

Choosing ingredients at the store/farm

Planting, watering and harvesting veggies and herbs from your home garden

Selecting which veggies will go into the soup

Peeling (if they're old and strong enough. You can let them try their best, then finish when they're satisfied.)

Cutting softer larger veggies like carrots, potatoes, and celery (cut them first into long pieces with a flat side to make it easier.)

Adding cut veggies to pot (this one's fun for them to do as you're chopping. Just be sure they can wait until you tell them it's okay, so you don't chop any little fingers!)

Measuring and pouring the veggie stock and seasonings.

Stirring (at the beginning, for younger kids, before you turn on the heat, and supervised during cooking, for the older ones.)

Selecting bowls and spoons for each family member and bringing them to the table.

The Verdict

She didn't love it, and she'd refused to let me season it with anything other than salt, so it was fairly bland (and I forgot to use veggie stock and just used water. Doh!) But she ate her whole bowl without complaint! Win!

Random Lunches for the Toddler

These lunches weren't posted with Little Z's or mine for one reason or another. And now I'm almost done sharing all our lunches from April. I mean, it's only, like, July now. So not too far behind right?

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Thursday, 4/4/13

1/2 GF PBJ, mandarin orange, dairy-free cheese, organic sugar snap peas, Snikiddy Ketchup Fries, Van's GF crackers

 

Before anyone gets all up in my craw, that processed-looking cheese is a dairy-free soy-based cheese, and not "American" cheese. Still individually wrapped in plastic though. We're testing different brands.
I used a flower veggie cutter to make it more appealing, and tucked the scraps underneath. And it looks like some white cheddar or mozzarella scraps underneath too.

Thursday, 4/25/13

Organic strawberries and frozen peas, cheese and GF pizza scraps, organic brown rice and quinoa

 

Some scraps and leftover rice mix for Baby. Yum! I had made heart-shaped pizza bites and cheese for Z that day, and these are the scraps. Plus some leftover brown rice and quinoa mix (I make a large batch once a week or so and portion it into smaller containers and freeze all but one. Then I keep one thawed in the fridge to pull out as a quick and easy side to add to lunches or dinner! I can toss it into stir-fry, canned soup, leftovers from an Asian restaurant, or just heat it up with some shredded cheese and a little salt for the girls when Dadda and I are eating leftovers that they didn't like.

Monday, 4/29/13

I used my FunBites Cube It cutter to make PBJ sandwich bites for Baby, in the green silicone divider cup. She tends to eat the bites better than larger sandwiches.

E loves little tomatoes, but tends to just suck out the juice, vampire-style. But if they're starting to go soft and wrinkly, she eats more of the flesh too. And then her leftover carcasses get tossed into my salad. Unless she's got a runny nose. Ew. Pass.

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Happy Independence Day! Red, White, and Blue Round-Up

These are our most recent Red, White, and Blue lunches; from Armed Forces Day and Flag Day. I was too lazy/busy/uninspired to do any before the 4th this year. Enjoy this little revisit.

You can check out all my past Red, White, and Blue lunches - but be warned. The photography gets progressively crappier the further back you go!

One Prep, Ten Salads!

The more times I've prepped my salad base in advance, the more I grow to appreciate not only the ease and simplicity of packing lunches, but also the speed. I almost never have to pack my lunch the night before anymore. Unless we're leaving fairly early (any time before 10am *cough*) or I know I'll be busy doing other stuff the next day, I can pack before we leave the house for the afternoon.

These lunches were from March and April of this year, and around then I was getting a head of lettuce and a head of cabbage each week in my weekly CSA farm share, along with carrots and beets and broccoli. When I first joined a few years ago, I was either giving away my greens or watching them rot in my fridge. But last Summer when I joined back up, I challenged myself to let nothing go to waste. I haven't been able to quite get there yet, but I'm close. It means that instead of my favorite spinach salads all year, I'm stuck with lettuce and cabbage roughly September through May (I don't eat it fast enough to buy spinach at the grocery as well, and add it in too,) but I'm a big girl, and I can eat things that aren't my favorites. Plus I can make them yummy with my add-ons and dressing! Or reward myself with a treat for after!

I usually prep my salad base on a weekend, when Hubby can keep the kids off of me, since I'm waving around sharp objects. It lasts me somewhere around one to two weeks, depending how big the heads are and how fast I eat through it. I chop up a head of lettuce, some cabbage (a small head, or half, depending if I've used some elsewhere,) and my carrot and beet scraps from making cute shapes in our lunches. If I have broccoli that's been sitting around a while, or if it's building up from getting it for several weeks in my share, I chop the florets into smaller bits and add them in too. But I don't think I had any in this batch. 

While I'm prepping the salad, I can also create more scraps by prepping some beet and carrot cut-outs for the following few days, and storing them in a sealable container with a bit of water. This saves time later, since I can whip up an attractive salad in no time by just plopping on a carrot mouse and some flowers! Plus I don't have to get out my toothpick and spaghetti noodle and fondant shaper tool thingy to pop the shapes and scraps out of all the nooks and crannies of the more detailed cutters every. single. day.

You can also pre-fill dressing containers and your add-ins (mine usually include hemp hearts, sunflower seeds, and raisins, although I've been known to change it up a bit.) And maybe a pile of forks... in case you're forgetful like me!

Having a large container of salad base in my fridge not only makes packing my lunches easier, but can help out at dinner time too, if you eat salads frequently, or need a quick meal idea at the last-minute!

Spend 15-minutes Chopping, Have 10 Salads Ready to Go!

You may have seen all these particular lunches already, but here they are again. All from one big container of prepped salad base I keep in the fridge plus some artistic details, when I had the time. And different sides on a day-to-day basis, depending on what needed to get used up first, or if I was feeling I needed more of a treat!

3/26/13

Taco Salad

3/27/13

Birdie Salad

4/1, 4/2, 4/4/13

Three flower-y salad lunches

4/9 and 4/18/13

Sweet pepper salads

4/15/13

Rabbit Salad

4/22/13

Mama's "boring" lunch

4/23/13

Koi Salad

MOMables Monday - Leftover Pizza Dippers!

 

For us, summertime is the best time to try out new foods for lunch, because I'm there to answer questions and can see their reactions in person. So it's the perfect time to test out some different stuff from my MOMables lunch menu subscription!

That being said, I'm still relying on old favorites, like the MOMables Pizza Dippers, until I get my summer mojo!

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Leftover GF pizza w/ham, olives, Ranch; organic carrot shreds and coins, cucumber flowers, and strawberries

Little Z's favorite pizza is just black olives, but we only had ham left over. So I enticed her to eat the leftover "wrong" pizza with Ranch dressing in a Mini Dipper plus some loose sliced olives.

I used a flower veggie cutter to cut some cucumber and carrot flowers, but she doesn't like cucumber, so I didn't have high hopes.

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