Week 2 Day 2 - What's Puzzling You?

We had such a grumpy morning yesterday with Little Man whining and crying for about an hour before daddy left for work.  Then he said he was tired and that his ear hurt so he wanted to take a really early nap.  No fever and the pediatrician's office was booked for the entire day.  Really?!  This is at the hospital I might add.  He didn't get to enjoy his "special" lady bug sandwich lunch at school but was able to have some during lunch and some for dinner.

So for lunch today we have a sunbutter and strawberry jam sandwich.  I found these super cute sandwich cutters in the shape of puzzle pieces on Amazon by Lunch Punch.  It came in a set of 4.  I was hoping it would be a cleaner cut like I saw in the pictures but still cute and you can still make out the puzzle pieces.  I cut out his name with cheddar cheese and added some edamame.  He had mentioned that he wanted some in his lunch =)  In the top right hand corner I have a mix of goldfish crackers, mini pepperoni and cranberries.  In the lower right hand corner we have some grapes and blueberries that he can eat with the airplane food pick I included.

I think we need something different next week.  Roll-ups?  Mac and cheese?  I do have some rice molds in a couple of different shapes I can try out.  Any suggestions?

Week 2 Day 1 - Lady Bug Sandwich

I finally got the lunch containers and insolated lunchbox I ordered so I'm very excited about trying it out.  The one I ordered is from Easy Lunch Boxes which will hold the lunch container flat.  This minimizes the chance of the food being tossed around while in transport.  I also got a lot of my cookie cutters so I'm anxious to start using it.

I found the cutest sandwich idea at Cute Foods for Kids!  It's in a shape of a lady bug.  My attempt doesn't look as perfect as the one I found on the website but I'm still happy with how it turned out.  Mine is missing the little legs but the turkey I have it too thin to use for that.  I think pretzels would look cute but unfortunately the bag I have are the traditional shape and not the pretzel sticks. 

My lady bug is a turkey and cream cheese sandwich.  I used a round cookie cutter for the bread and the cheddar cheese wings (see link on how to cut the wings with the same round cookie cutter).  My lady bug is actually "winking" if you look closely ;-)  I also used Sweet Hawaiian bread which I found at Costco.  Yummy!  I used a straw to punch out the little "dots" on the wings.  Lastly, I used cream cheese to "glue" the wings and eyes to the bread.  On the website where I got this idea, she used candy/icing eyes which are really cool!  I just haven't gotten around to ordering those yet.  I'm hoping to find those at a store here but that's not likely to happen.  I'm not sure why Michael's wouldn't carry it in their baking and cake decorating section.

Then for fruit we have a clementine and blueberries.  In the top right section I have a cracker mix with Cheez-It, dried cranberries and a few chocolate covered raisins.

This sandwich is so fitting since I call him my "little bug" =)  I'm already excited about what I'm going to make tomorrow with one of my new cutters!

Under the Ocean Dinner

OK so maybe I'm getting a bit obsessed with making these meals for my preschooler.  2 in one day!  Little Man isn't feeling well today so I thought I'd make a special dinner for him.  Plus I'm not sure how much longer he'll be getting these "special" meals with baby #2 arriving anyday now. 

We have 2 octopus and 2 mini crabs made out of mini hot dogs.  I sliced the octopus tenacles and crab legs and put it in the toaster oven for a few minutes, enough for a slight curl.  I used a straw to cut rounds from cheddar cheese for the octopus mouth and glued it on with cream cheese.  For the eyes, I didn't have black sesame seeds so I used the regular ones and glued them on with syrup. 

I toasted a waffle and used a fish cookie cutter for the fish shape and used edamame as "bubbles" coming from his mouth.  The little thing next to the "bubbles" was my attempt at a sea enemy.  I used a piece of string cheese and shredded the top and used blue and green Food Writer markers for some color.  The cute little orange container holds syrup for dipping.

Saturday Lunch in the Car

We had to make a Costco run this afternoon so I made a quick bento lunch for the Little Man to eat in the car. Sunbutter and strawberry jam sandwiches in the shapes of a cowboy boot and a foot ball. I made some quick detail designs on the sandwiches with a Food Writer pen. The letter 'A' cut out of cheese and some grapes and blueberries. Got a "wow" out of him as he gobbled up the fruit first =)

Dinner - Chicken in Bread Cups

Since Little Man can be picky during mealtimes, I decided to make something fun tonight for him.  I made little baked bread cups with chopped chicken, mixed with cream cheese.

I flatten 2 pieces of bread and cut them with a round cookie cutter.  Then I chopped up some chicken and mixed cream cheese into it.  Scooped them into the bread cups and put a couple of string cheese slices on top.  I put it in my toaster over for about 10 minutes and topped them with mini plum tomatoes.  For the antennas I strung peas on toothpicks and used the left over peas for the mouth.  And a blueberry for the nose.

The blueberry was eaten first then the peas.  The bread cups required coaxing and he still didn't finish them.  Oh well.  It was fun to make!

Week 1 Day 2 - Fun Shaped Turkey Sandwiches

Little Man did amazingly well for his first day at preschool!  We started the day playing in the playground.  Then I helped him get settled in his classroom.  He sat at the table with the other kids for snack time then I told him I had to leave but I'll be back later.  He got up, gave me a big hug and said "I love you mommy".  Then took one of his teacher's hand and headed to circle time all by himself without crying.  I was amazed and a bit sad to see how much he's grown up.  Not long ago, he would have never let me out of his sight without crying hysterically.

Got a great report by one of his teachers that he did great for his first day and they couldn't have asked for anything more.  He ate his lunch, and they mentioned how impressed they were with his lunch!  Then he even napped!  I guess he was more ready for preschool than I expected him to be.

My bento supplies still have not arrived yet so I'm going with what I have on-hand for day 2.

For day 2 we are having

• Turkey and cream cheese sandwiches.  I spread the cream cheese on the bread, put one slice of turkey (it was a pretty thick Costco slice).  Then I flattened the sandwich out to make it easier to cut with the cookie cutters.  It also makes it easier to eat for Little Man.  I made fun shapes by using mini cookie cutters.  2 stars, 2 chickens, 2 teddy bears and a giraffe. 
• 1 clementine
• Blueberries
• GoGo Squeez apple sauce
• Chocolate milk
• And for something a little sweet, 5 Raisinettes

I also ordered some reusable lunch containers from EasyLunchBoxes.com which look great for bento style lunches.  Hopefully it will come by the end of the week!  But for day 2, I'm using the Klip-It Lunch Cube again.  The food did get all tossed around so the presentation wasn't great once it was opened at lunch time but it will have to do.

It's finally time for the FIRST day of preschool!!!

After moving from Frisco, TX to West Hills, CA it took us over 3 months to finally decide on a preschool for our son.  Sadly to say, the determining factor that pushed us to make a decision was that I'm due with baby #2 any day now and I wanted him to start before the baby came.  Although I still don't think the school compares to what we would have picked in Frisco, we're going to give it a try.

I think I was more excited to put together his first lunch for preschool than he is about starting school.  I decided to go with something I thought would be easy to make and what I already had on-hand in the refrigerator/freezer.

• Octopus from mini weiners - I cut the tenacles and put it in the toaster oven for a few minutes to let it curl up a bit.  I used nori for the band around each octopus and a paper punch to punch out the nori for eyes. Some of the tenacles turned out better than others but I'm sure he won't mind. 
• I sprinkled some edamame around the octopus
• Grapes and cheese on tooth picks
• A clementine
• chocolate milk
• Mini oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate coin

I can already tell you the first thing he will eat is the chocolate coin!

 


This is definitely more than what he would normally eat for lunch but since it's his first day at school, I'm not sure how hungry he will be at lunch time.
I'm still trying to figure what containers will work for us so for today I just used a Klip-It Lunch Cube from The Container Store.  They now have really cute colorful ones at The Container Store but the nearest one to us is almost 20 miles away.  Let's not try and translate that into hours on the road from here =)  I also used paper muffin cups to separate the food items.  One thing I don't like with this container is that the "sandwich" part folds over and all the items in it will be shuffled around.
Not bad for my first attempt.  I think it only took me about 30 minutes.  Hopefully the lunches will start looking better and taking less time.  But most importantly, I had fun making this for him and I hope he enjoys it!