School Lunch Wrap-Up

Another week, another 5 lunches.  Here we go...

MONDAY:  Greek Yogurt (for dipping), Raw Broccoli, Sandwich of Whole Grain Bread, Cream Cheese, and Strawberries, Fruit-Leather & a Cheese Stick. 

- She ate the yogurt, 90% of the sandwich, and the fruit roll up.  Then finished the cheese stick in the car and munched on some of the broccoli.  The raw broccoli was NOT a hit. :)

TUESDAY:  Cantaloupe and Mac & Cheese with Broccoli
- she ate some of both but the lunch box was left at school so the left overs were trashed the next day. 

WEDNESDAY:  Mac & Cheese (the last of it), Unsweetened Apple Sauce with Cinnamon & Raisins, a Hard Boiled Egg & Cucumber
- She ate all the apple sauce and some of everything else, then finished off the rest when she got home.

THURSDAY:  Hard Boiled Egg (I learned she eats better if it's sliced), Sweet Potato, a Jam & Nutritional Yeast Sandwich on a mini loaf of my mom's homemade bread, and Cucumber & Green Bell Pepper.
- She ate the sandwich & egg and maybe a bit of the cucumber.  When we got home she told me she doesn't like Sweet Potato (that's new!) and then Frodo accidentally got the veggies (it really was an accident).  :(

FRIDAY:  WW Ritz Crackers, Cucumber & Green Bell Pepper, Dessert Humus (I used PB2 instead of Almond Butter and added some shaved chocolate for "chips"), and a Hard Boiled Egg.
-  She ate everything but the veggies, which were eaten when she got home.

There were a lot of Hard Boiled eggs this week because I'm trying to use them all up and they're a good snack that I know she'll eat. :)

Also, she has the same drink everyday.  We have a few mini/kid sized sport bottles that I fill about 1/2-3/4 full of water and then top off with juice.  For the most part, this is how she's always gotten juice so she doesn't mind it being watered down.

** And since today's August 25th I wanted to wish you a happy 4 month's until Christmas...I'm a little surprised I haven't seen anything in the stores yet! lol!!

Easiest Black Bean Soup EVER

 I was thinking (uh, oh!) it makes more sense for me to talk about the lunch wrap-up on Saturdays rather than Friday because then I'll know how she ate her Friday meal.  So let's talk about tomorrow.

I survived yesterday.  I survived despite all of Leonardo Dicaprio's efforts to bore me to death!  Seriously, I don't know why I keep watching his movies expecting to be entertained.  But the trailers always make me WANT to see it.  Maybe it's because the trailers are about a minute and then the actual movies are about 6 hours long...or does it just feel that way?

At any rate, we watched J Edgar last night.  It wasn't a bad movie necessarily, it was just so dull.  And the guy had an interesting life.  Maybe I have a prejudiced against Leo's movies.  I sat through Titanic and watched the ship sink in real time (click here for a funny trailer).  Then I saw The Aviator.  Again a seriously interesting person made dull.  Then I watched Inception.  Here's my summary of that movie.... "Is it a dream? Is it real?  Ooh, look, special effects! And no ending.  The End".  Clearly I'm not a "dramatic" film person.

But here's the real kicker.  Knowing how I tend to be disappointed with his movies I STILL can not wait to see The Great Gatsby!  I guess I'm just a Masochist.

Ok, on to food.  Yesterday I read this post on Snack Girl in the morning and then was watching the clock waiting for lunch.  FINALLY it came around and into my blender went:  1/2 can of rinsed black beans, green peppers, tomatoes from the garden, a sprinkle of cumin and some chili powder.

Then I poured that into a bowl, topped it with nutritional yeast, some greek yogurt and enjoyed it with some chips.  Hello there easiest Black Bean Soup EVER.

 OMG!  It was so good.  AND SO FAST.  I'm sorry that it's not very colorful because I do believe you'll be seeing this often. :)

For dinner I cleaned out the fridge a bit.   Into the oven at 450 went onion, broccoli, squash and tomatoes until they were nice and roasted.

 When they were almost done roasting I scrambled some eggs and microwaved some bacon for the hubs.

 For me it was just the veggies with eggs....

For the Hubs and Kai it was "breakfast wraps".  The hubs has just eggs, bacon and cheese while Kai got eggs, broccoli, bacon and cheese.

As for tonight...we also got 21 Jump Street in the mail yesterday.  Hopefully a comedy will entertain me more than J Edgar did. :)

And yes, we're that exciting!  It's Friday night and I'm looking forward to watching a movie at home. lol!

Make it French

For breakfast yesterday Kai wanted to go International.... French Toast! :)

I scrambled an egg, Cinnamon and a splash of almond milk on a plate...

 Then dropped a slice of whole grain bread on top of it.

 Then flipped the bread over so it soaked up ALL the egg mixture.

Then cooked each side on the griddle.

In addition to the French toast she wanted Cheerios, Syrup (I use agave nectar) and (Greek) yogurt with some butterscotch chips.  ...Oh and 2 crackers.  The girl was HUNGRY!

I on the other hand had a delicious smoothie.  I didn't get a picture of it, but honestly, I've posted plenty of pictures of smoothies.  In it was oats, flax seed, chia seeds, kale, banana, blueberries and peach.  YUMMY!

For lunch I made up one of my "summer salads".  Spinach, nutritional yeast, flax seed, TVP, Green Pepper, Cucumber, Blueberries, Almonds, Feta and some Balsamic Vinaigrette. 

The Hubs was planning on Brats for dinner so Kai and I had....
Roasted Kale Chips, Roasted Snap Peas, a Hard Boiled Egg, Nuked Sweet Potato, Jam and some bread my mom had made.

Those are the pretend "cupcakes" she made for dessert on the little pan. :)

Then as the night rolled on I tuned into Netflix to watch my new favorite show... The Adventures of Merlin.  The King is Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I'm pretty sure the voice of the Dragon is the guy who sells wands in the Harry Potter movies (sorry, I know no one's true name).  It reminds me a lot of the TV movie Merlin... which is still one of the best TV Movies of all time!

Anyway, as I watch the show I chowed down on a bowl of Pumpkin topped with almond milk, cinnamon, raisins and pecans.

Mac & Cheese, Slaw, Yogurt & Cleaning

Yesterday I drove up and worked in our office.  Well, I tried to work but the phones and internet went down so instead we cleaned.  I suppose we should clean every so often anyway. :)

Once the cleaning got down right boring we headed out for lunch.  There's a NEW Frozen Yogurt place that's OFF campus!  As much as I love my Boilermakers, there's something about not having to deal with students that makes every meal more enjoyable. :)

And after filling my cup with Coconut, Black Cherry & Chocolate Fro-yo and assorted toppings I discovered that this place had Nutella on tap!! 

Very Yummy!  But two of us were still hungry so before heading back to the office to meet up with the internet guy we stopped and bought some sandwiches...

I got the Veggie which came with chips and salsa.  Usually I love this place but my sandwich tasted oily this time (not sure why) and the chips were stale.  :(

 The left overs from lunch became dinner (yes, I ate it even though at lunch it wasn't the best).  I also ate the last of our cantaloupe and some left over slaw (I'll get to that in a bit)...

Oh, and for breakfast I had a smoothie....

Now, there reason there was no post yesterday was because, as I said earlier, I went to the office and had no internet.   That does tend to dampen my ability to post. :)

But I do want to share Monday's dinner with you since I actually MADE something.

It started with a bag of Broccoli Slaw I bought.  I love using this for Coleslaw when I don't have cabbage to shred myself. 

In a bowl I mixed Olive Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Raw Honey and Dijon to taste.

 Then I added the slaw, stirred it all together and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

In the mean time Kai had been going on and on about wanting Mac & Cheese.  Sometimes I just give in. :)

In my blender went some cooked cauliflower, shredded cheese, nutritional yeast and some almond milk.

Then I just stirred the "Cheese Sauce" into some cooked noodles:

My final plate was a bed of spinach topped with slaw, a left over black bean burger and some avocado.  Plus two ears of grilled corn.

While Kai had her Mac & Cheese with some Avocado on top.

Yes, I made 2 completely different meals for us but sometimes that's just life. :)

Fruit & Veggie Storage

Saw this and had to share....

Summer Smoothies

I've talked about what most of my summer lunches looked like so now I'll focus on most of my summer breakfasts...SMOOTHIES!

Here's how I build my smoothies...

1.  Oats, flax seed, chia seeds & cinnamon.  I like Steel Cut Oats because I like my smoothie a little chewy but if you like it smooth then use Old Fashion or Instant. :)

 2.  Add Frozen Fruits - 1/2 banana, blueberries, peach & cranberries.

3.  Add Greens & Liquid -  I used spinach & kale interchangeably and almond milk as my liquid.  I know a lot of people like Juice but I REALLY don't like juice.  I don't know if it's because I eat fresh fruit so much or what but juice always tastes "off" to me. :)

4.  Blend until smooth.

5.  Pour & drink. 

Pretty simple...which is probably why it's been my go-to breakfast for the last few months. :)

After breakfast and some yard work we got ready to go celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday at the Indy Zoo (we both have kids so even adult parties wind up being celebrated in kiddie-land)  BUT since people weren't feeling well plans changed.  Instead the Hubs, Kai and I, along with his parents, went to the IMA (Indianapolis Museum of Art) for a picnic lunch.

Everyone just brought what they wanted.  The Hub's parents brought KFC, the Hubs bought a turkey sandwich & a fruit plate to share from Walgreen's, Kai had a Jelly Sandwich with some veggies for a side and I had a Salad in a Jar:

Then everyone got comfortable while we visited...

Well, the adults got comfortable.  Kai and I ran around a bit. :)

One of her favorite books is Barbie & the 3 Musketeers...

Hence the Pink dress, boots & sword  (there was also a hat but it wasn't worn into the museum)...

Eventually she sat down...for about 30 seconds. :)

After a while we all headed inside.  We were looking for a painting of a musketeer but some how we wound up in the area where Kai can draw & play with the magnet board (she has her favorite spots).  :)

And in case you're worried, we did manage to get together in the evening for some birthday cake!