Sandwiches Without the Bread?

Hello Blog World!  Long time no blog!!!  We have been incredibly busy lately, and I just have not had a chance to write about our food adventures.  Plus, we’ve also had some stomach issues…which made for a few interesting days of basically not eating.  Now the boys are back with a vengeance, and my goal is to get better at posting some ideas for inspiration.  I know sometimes that is all I need to help us get through meal time with a little less fighting or bargaining!

 

The first thing I wanted to share is the boys FAVORITE snack right now.  They love, love, love apples sliced really thin, and then I cut out some shapes for the theme of the meal.  Today it was flowers, butterflies and hearts.  Very girlie sounding, but heck, these boys love them some flowers and butterflies! The favorite part is not the fun shapes, though they are fun, they love the dip that they get with them.  I mix smooth peanut butter and local honey with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a teeny-tiny bit of real vanilla extract.   Swirl together for a little bit of heaven that packs some punch.  Great protein and fiber in each bite.  Another way to get a bit of protein into the boys without using chicken nuggets or ham slices and just as easy to prepare!!!

The second thing is the sandwich we enjoyed today that really is not much of a traditional sandwich, but since they can eat it just like one, we called it a veggie sandwich.  I took two slices of cucumber and smeared roasted red pepper hummus between the slices, and voila, veggie sandwich. You can see Gus thoroughly enjoyed his!  These will be great additions for our weekly picnics out and about. 

 

In totally unrelated to food tidbits, here are the gifts we are bringing to a birthday party today.  Why am I sharing? Well, it is my favorite way to package gifts right now.  I check out the local dollar bin in a not so small super store down the street.  And pack the gifts inside the bins. Everyone who has kids knows that extra storage or organizational buckets are very handy, so it is a present inside of a present, but mostly it is great that they are reusable.  It helps me feel a bit better about the amount of trash that goes into gift giving.  I then wrote each kid’s name on the bucket and attached a home-made gift card using a tiny paperclip.  Fun and cute!

Cookie Cutters are for More Than Just Cookies

Don’t get me wrong, using cookie cutters for cookies is a great way to use them!  This week, we’ve done sandwiches out of cookie cutters (see bat shaped sammies in the last post), but how using a cookie cutter as a rice mold, or an egg mold? 

Unfortunately, the boys did not like the rice dish – I know better than try a mayonnaise based dish, but heck, I'll keep trying.  However, they were impressed to have pumpkins on their plates at lunch time.  They just love Halloween. 

Tonight, Rals asked for “eggies” for dinner, so that is what we got. In the spirit of Halloween and making food fun, I figured I would try the mold idea again.  Scrambled eggs in the shape of a pumpkin and Frankenstein courtesy of our newest cookie cutters.  Then, I stuck a few veggies on as faces, and voila, dinner!  I put the eggs in the cookie cutter hot, and let them cool a bit, and they stayed together really well.  While putting together dinner, I made up some banana ghosts, or something sort of Halloweenie.  Heck, throw candy corn in it and just about anything looks Halloweenie. I wish the pictures were better…the boys were hungry and they were not about waiting for me to take pictures of their food!