School Lunches: Week 2 Review

We had another successful week of school lunches!

Two more boxes came in and they work much better.  I will be sending the one we've been using up to this weekend back to the GoGreenLunchbox company.

The food all went really well too.  I did have one little issue though...I made this banana hotdog thing.  It was a hotdog bun, spread with peanut butter, jelly and sprinkled with sunflower seeds.  Then I laid half a banana on the bun.  It would have been PERFECT for an eat at home meal, but traveling in the box to school it didn't fare so well.

Payton has been really happy with his notes too.  I've had a few friends who have even sent me a list of new fun facts for the white board.  His teacher has started asking him what the fact of the day was and he's sharing it with the class after lunch each day.

If you are on facebook, you can see our lunch pictures each day.  Thanks for all the support and encouragement!!

School Lunches: Week 1 Review

We survived our first week of eating all "cold" lunches.  It went rather well and Payton enjoyed them.  I had a lot of smiles from him when I asked about lunch and some of the lunch aides said the wanted to know where I got that box he was using.  :)

He had pizza pockets twice this week and that was fine with me.  I know what's in them!  He also had peanut butter rollups.  He really liked those.  I cut a lot of fruit and veggies into shapes and it's just what he'd normally eat, but it looked like more fun I guess because it was all gone when he came home.   He is still really diggin' the ABC Grahams and the chocolate chip granola bites.  It's Saturday, but I'm still experimenting with lunch ideas, so today we had peanut butter and jelly burritos.  The kids loved them!

I've found the making of the lunch isn't so hard, it's the deciding what to pack that's difficult.  I've decided this week I will make a menu for the week.  Then when it's time to pack, I don't wonder...and I remember what he's already had! 

Overall, the GoGreen Lunchbox is a success.  He loves using it, but we have a lot of trouble closing just one of the sides.  I have tried it repeatedly at home and it's very difficult even for me.  I assume it's a defect of some kind.  We have two more trays on order and they should be here mid-week.  If those are easier and don't have any issues, I'll be contacting the owner of GoGreen to trade in my not so good one.  But even with this one issue, it's still amazing.  I love the size.  I love how much I can fit in a box and I love that it's easy to clean!

This weekend, we'll be trying two new recipes for our school lunches.  We'll be making these healthy and tasty looking Balls of Energy and Peanut Butter-Cinnamon Hummus.   Payton has also decided he wants me to make him a "banana hotdog" for lunch.  Hopefully he actually eats it instead of just thinking it looks funny.

I'll keep you posted!  Thanks for following along on our journey to healthy, happy lunches.

Did ya hear?

I'm co-coaching middle school girls volleyball starting tomorrow.  I'm crazy nervous and excited.  And part of me is wondering what in the WORLD was I THINKING???!!!  I hope it's as fun in real life as I dreamed it to be. (P.S. I know close to nothing about volleyball.)

Back to School

After only two days, it seems we are all falling into our school year routines.  I'm in charge of laying out clothes for me and the boys and packing lunches and bags.  I wake and get out of the house before anyone else is awake.  Matt wakes the boys, feeds them, dresses them and gets them to school and our babysitter's house.  It all seems to be coming together.

Payton really likes his new teacher, Mr. Asper (Az-purr).  He is making friends and really likes his table mates.  He was upset today when Mr. Asper announced again that they do not have homework this week.  Payton loves homework.

Maxwell is really excited about being homeschooled by our friend Liz.  She's full on creative ideas and a great curriculum, so I'm sure he'll do well and learn a lot there.  He gets along great with her 4 kids and it should be an easy fit for them all.

It all seems to be going well here.  But it is only day two.

A cool end to summer

This Labor Day Weekend, the official end to summer vacation, was a cool one.  I don't believe the temperature ever got out of the 70s even.  We had planned to take the boys to Matt's family cottage for a great last dip in the lake and to enjoy the beach.  We went, but no one got in the water. 

The boys enjoyed playing on the beach in their jeans and sweatshirts while Matt fished shells out of the water.  MaxTheDog and I enjoyed just laying on the beach. 

 

Baking Day

Tomorrow is the end of summer - the first day back to school here in the great state of Michigan. With all my obsessing over school lunches and making them fun, yet healthy, we spent our day baking and prepping for the week.

We made some great dishes including pizza pockets and chocolate chip granola bites. I also made a breakfast dish that was so-so. But the boys had a BLAST making ABC Grahams. The cookie recipe comes from Parents magazine. I've never used any of their recipes before, but these were good, so maybe we'll try some more sometime. The boys worked together to measure and pour and took turns pushing the "on" and "off" buttons on the food processor. The dough was really forgiving in the making process. Making the letters or shapes in the cookies went pretty well too. There were only a few that I had to go over again once they came out of the oven.

Through our multi-recipe baking day I learned two things. 1) I need more storage containers (all the same so there is less lid confusion!) - and 2) my kids are pretty darn good helpers!