ABC Lunch

Since I missed letter A and B to do specific letter lunches, I figured I just wrap up with an ABC lunch today. Enjoy.

Apple, avocado, bananas with a bow pick, blueberry bagel with butter, cucumber, cheese, and chicken!

In this lunch...

Recipe Review - Butter Bars

Here's another recipe that we all enjoy, so thought I'd share. These bars are delicious straight out of the oven hot and ooey gooey, but they are equally delicious at room temperature or chilled. I know you can make these bars with a chocolate cake mix instead of yellow, but I've yet to try that version.

Ultimate Butter Bars 

Ingredients - 1 box yellow cake mix, 1 stick butter, 3 eggs, 8oz cream cheese, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups powdered sugar (plus more for dusting)

Beat room temperature butter. Add 1 egg and cake mix. Combine until all mixed and stuck together. Press this mixture into a 9x13 glass pan.

Beat room temperature cream cheese. Add the other 2 eggs, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Mix. Pour this on top of the cake mix layer in the pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 - 35 minutes. The center won't look set, but it's done! It's supposed to be gooey! Just sprinkle with powdered sugar while it is still hot, and you're ready to enjoy. Refridgerate leftovers if you have any! 

Lions.. Raarrr!

Of course this didn't turn out quite how I had envisioned, but cute nonetheless and was a hit with the kiddo, so that's what counts in the end!

This plated lunch has an American cheese and fruit leather lion head with macaroni & cheese mane, salami, cucumber, red bell pepper, ranch in the container, and graham cracker bones.

In this lunch...

The Letter C And 'C' Lunch

Today, we talked about the letter 'C' and this time I actually got a 'C' Bento lunch together too. This one was easy because we have so many 'C' foods already in the house. And there are so many more we thought of that we didn't have on hand. Maybe to make up for not doing an 'A' or 'B' lunch, I'll do an ABC one to wrap up these three letters. That should be fun too. In the meantime, here is our 'C' lunch for today and the worksheets to go with it!

The 'C' lunch as crackers, American cheese, smoked chicken, carrots, cucumbers, cashews, dried cranberries, car shaped egg, fruit leather 'c's, and a piece of candy!

 

Would love to hear from anyone that homeschools or follows certain curriculum for preschool age or younger. Our little one is just barely three, but I struggle to not repeat activities and to keep her engaged and interested, yet challenged. With 'C', we also did a crayon sorting activity and this week we'll be doing specific activities with clouds, so we can talk about the letter 'c' and about weather. Works because we also have a weather station that we use for the weather each day. I'll have to post a picture of that as well. It's pretty neat. Anyways, ideas are always welcome!

In this lunch...

Recipe Review - Broccoli Swiss Egg Bake

I think I'll try to incorporate a recipe once in a while here too... maybe some forgotten old ones, favorites that I use all the time, or some new ones that have been sitting around and haven't been tried yet. Might as well start somewhere! This one happens to be a frequent favorite for our whole family. Posting a recipe like this will be a learning curve for me, so I'd love some feedback if you happen to come across this post!

Broccoli Swiss Egg Bake 

Ingredients - 2 English muffins, 1 bunch broccoli, 1 shallot, 6oz shredded Swiss cheese, 5 eggs, 3/4 cup half and half, 3 Tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Tear up the English muffins. Heat 2 Tbsp butter in skillet. Add muffins and cook until golden. Wipe out skillet.

Melt 1 Tbsp butter over medium heat. Add chopped shallot, salt, and pepper. Cook until soft. Add chopped broccoli, cooking a couple minutes. Add 1/2 cup water, increase heat and simmer to evaporate water and cook broccoli until crisp-tender.

Pour mix into buttered square baking dish. Top with 1 cup of the shredded Swiss cheese. Mix together eggs and half and half. Pour over broccoli in baking dish. Toss English muffins with the rest of the Swiss cheese and put on top of egg mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 325 degree oven until eggs are set and top is browned.. 30-35minutes.

Slice and serve! For some reason, although delicious right out of the oven, to me this always tastes better reheating it later, so obviously you can make it ahead and just microwave portions the next day too. Fabulous! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's finally Valentine's Day, so of course, it has to be themed as such, right?  I tried peanut butter and jelly again but my little one avoids it like the plague for the most part. Today was no exception, and I ended up eating them and handing her a half slice of toast with butter instead. Ah well..  Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Have a wonderful day with your families!

Mini heart peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, vanilla pudding w/ fruit leather letters, Babybel cheese, red pepper, salami, smoked turkey, strawberry, and in the candy container is a few M&M's.

In this lunch...

Hole-y Hearts!

So, this was mostly about what to do with leftover rice and shrimp from chinese last night. My hubby says the shrimp looks disgusting, but he doesn't eat shrimp, so what does he know, right? Looks yummy to me! I will say that while the rest was polished off, the little one sided with dad this time on the status of the shrimp. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Shredded carrots, swiss cheese, cucumbers, salami, shrimp, and a fortune cookie in the top half. In the bottom half, there is a mix of steamed and fried rice, wonton chips, and strawberry fruit leather letters.

In this lunch...

Lovebirds

I bought these cute picks at Joann Fabrics (is it even called that anymore?) and knew I had to do something to compliment the sweet little lovebird. This is what I came up with and the lunch was a big hit with the little one, which made it all worth while. Enjoy!

In the bottom tier is egg salad, potato chips, a strawberry, smoked turkey and salami lovebird on rye toast. In the top tier in front is provolone and salami hearts, red bell pepper and cucumber skewers, and ranch to dip.

In this lunch...