Week 4 Day 2 - Pasta Salad

Baby #2 arrived on Sunday at 3:10 AM and we got home from the hospital Monday evening.  Spent all Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday in the hospital and probably had a total of 5 hours of sleep.  The hospital we delivered at had 4 labor and delivery rooms.  It was just our luck that all 4 rooms were taken when we were ready.  We had to wait for over 2 hours to get a room which was fine since it gave me a chance to get some sleep.  Still, I was exhausted!  Glad that experience is over with.

On Tuesday, I did end up packing him a lunch for school but I was way too exhausted to snap a photo of it.  I made a pocket sandwich with sunbutter and jam (love this combo when I'm in a pinch) and some fruit and apple sauce.  I do want to share with you this pocket sandwich maker I found called Krust Buster.  I accidentally found it while looking for a Japanese pocket sandwich maker and a toast stamper.  It's pretty much a combination of both tools.  Love the Krust Buster!  You can make sandwiches ahead of time and freeze it (I haven't tried yet).

Anyhow, for lunch today we have pasta salad.  It's actually 'Suddenly Pasta Salad' that I've added baby plum tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced olives, mini pepperoni and feta cheese to.  There's a baby plum tomato on a mini veggie pick for him to use to eat the pasta.  Although I doubt this will happen.  We have 3 Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese animal cut outs and yogurt covered raisins.  For fruit I have sliced oranges and blueberries on food picks.  I threw in a few pretzels too.  I doubt he will eat all this but at least there is a variety and hopefully he will eat some of everything.  These Easy Lunch containers are a bit big for preschooler portions in my opinion so perhaps I shall look for other container options.

I had a little time before my next feeding with baby #2 so was able to do this blog.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up.  Husband is able to help out this week and is mainly in charge of older brother so we'll see how it goes when we get in a regular routine on our own.  I'm exhausted so good night!

Happy New Year! The Year of the Rabbit

Happy New Year!  Today is Lunar New Year and it happens to be the year of the Rabbit.  I just learned this morning that in Chinese it's the year of the Rabbit while in Vietnamese it's the year of the Cat.  Go figure. 

This lunch was way too cute to not make for Little Man today even though he doesn't have preschool and his nanny was here.  They had a nice time at the park so I thought I'd whip up a cute little lunch for him when they got back.

As you can see, the Rabbit is today's theme!  I made quesadilla with cheddar cheese and a whole wheat tortilla.  After it cooled down I cut it with a rabbit shape cutter.  Then I added cheese eyes and mouth.  I made smaller sized rabbits as well as cheddar cheese rabbits.  He had fun picking the eyes and mouths off the rabbits and asked why they were winking at him.  I also wanted to add some protein so I cut up some turkey slices and speared them on little rabbit food picks.  For fruit we have a clementine and blueberries on rabbit food picks.  For dessert, it's a bite size oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from Trader Joe's which is fantastic!  I can probably eat the whole container.  Surprisingly, he ate his entire lunch today!!!  Mission accomplished!



Week 3 Day 2 - Vroom Vroom!

I wasn't kidding when I said I was tired yesterday.  I completely forgot about packing Little Man's lunch until I was on my way upstairs to bed!  I had to quickly come up with something which isn't so creative or pretty but is better than the little boy in his class who had his lunch in a left over Styrofoam container.  I over heard his mom saying "Oh I see you didn't have any of your lunch" when she picked him up.

I bought this cute sandwich cutter in the shapes of vehicles at All Things for Sale.  They are much smaller than I thought.  I think they crammed too many vehicles into one cutter.  The sandwich shapes didn't turn out so well but I think it works great on cheese!  It would probably work well on thicker pieces of lunch meat too. 

I made sunbutter and strawberry jam sandwiches and added the cheese on top so he can see the shapes better.  The top right hand corner I have a dried cranberry and sunflower seed mix.  For the fruit we have 2 clementines, which he loves.  Served on a food pick in the shape of a subway train, I think.  And 2 pieces of rice crispy treats in the shapes of a penguin and rabbit (for Lunar New Year today: Year of the Rabbit).

I wish his preschool didn't throw any leftover food away.  I never know how much of his lunch he eats.  I'm so glad there isn't preschool tomorrow.  This mama is all tired out tonight.  Good thing he only has preschool 2 days out of the week.  How am I going to keep up when he starts going 5 days a week?  I still need to try out the rice molds I bought but we haven't had rice for quite some time.  Maybe next week!

Week 3 Day 1 - Turkey & Cream Cheese Rolls

Little Man was very excited about going to preschool this morning.  Then all of a sudden the excitement came to a dead silence in the car.  By the time we got to the school's playground, he was starting to tear up and wanted to hug and love on mommy.  Go figure.  After I got him settled in the classroom and sitting down for a snack, he was a little better.

Believe it or not I can remember my first days of daycare as a young child.  I even remember the 2 teachers names - Lavern and Shirley.  Seriously, those were their names!  And I can remember exactly how they look back then.  I was terrified and everything was so overwhelming.  There were all these news kids, different teachers and rules to follow.  And back then teachers weren't very nice and were allowed to wack you on your behind!  Remembering all these emotions made me a little emotional to think Little Man was having the same reservations and made me a little sad thinking he'll have to do things alone that I usually help him with at home.

Let's talk bento.  For lunch today we have turkey and cream cheese rolls.  I cut these up in 1" pieces and stuck 2 to a food pick.  I thought 6 rolls would be sufficient for his lunch.  I added a side of dried cranberries.  For fruit I chopped up some apples and added blueberries with a little red bus food pick to eat with.  Can't go wrong with veggie straws!  And for desert a piece of rice crispy treat in a shape of a bear.

I used a Yubo lunchbox today.  I love it because it's so easy to clean.  But the big complaint I have about it is that it doesn't have room to hold a drink.  I had to forgo a container space to fit the small box of apple juice which is fine.  However, I don't like to give him apple juice with lunch since it's right before nap time and he gets enough juice with snack time.  They do make a separate drink holder that attaches to the outside of the box now. 

Now what to pack for lunch tomorrow??  Little Man needs a bath, my back is killing me and daddy is out for a business dinner.  What to do, what to do...

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.