Kids Lunch Ideas

School has started and if you are like me, the hot lunches at school are just not going to cut it for your child. If you are faced with the dilemma of what healthy, fast, and kid friendly lunch to serve your child, here are some great ideas for you to try ...

Plain old PB&J, not anymore, mix it up by making a peanut butter, banana, and jelly sandwich on cinnamon raisin bread. Or try making a roll up with the same ingredients, or mix up that peanut butter completely by serving it with apples and granola on some whole wheat bread. For those of you who have daring children try peanut butter, bacon, and apple sandwiches.

Since there is not very much time to eat during lunch have your kids make their own trail mix. My son mixed cranberries, golden raisins, peanuts, and mini chocolate chips together and loves snaking on this while talking to his friends. Take your child with you to the store and have them pick out the ingredients, this will make them more likely to eat it, and it is a fun way to spend time with your child too.

Make your own lunchable, pack some deli meat, crackers, cheese, throw in some carrot sticks, with ranch dip, and let your kids make there own meal, with ingredients that you picked out and know the nutritional value of.

Instead of a plain old ham and cheese or turkey and cheese, turn them into roll ups with some fun extras added. For turkey and cheese use some cranberry butter, for the ham, add some bread and butter pickles.

Buy some reusable containers and give your kids fun snacks like red ants on a log, yogurt mixed with berries and bananas, apple sauce with cinnamon and sugar tortillas, or veggies and dip.

Have your child try something new: sushi, a Prosciutto with pesto sandwich or wrap, Chicken Cesar Pita, Asian chicken salad, or humus and veggies in a pita.

Get your child involved with the food that they will be eating for lunch. Discuss the options for their meals and let them decide what sound good to try. Making lunch together the night before is a great way to spend some family time, plus getting kids in the kitchen and teaching them new skills is never a bad thing.

Enjoy lunch and try something new...

Farmer's Market Surprise Meal

I call this a surprise meal because I was taking my son to a birthday party in Hampton, and low and behold there was a farmer's market going on right next to the museum. I found some little neck clams, shallots, and a wonderful baguette. All I needed to do was stop off at Total Wine and a meal was born. To make these great steamed clams, I diced two shallots, and cooked them for about 2 minutes with a small amount of butter, I then added a bottle of Kitchen Sink White Wine, the clams, some red pepper flakes, and cranked up the heat. The clams were open and ready to go in a little under 8 minutes, I garnished with some fresh parsley from the garden, and dinner was done. The only plus to this meal would have been if we could have gotten our 5 year old to try it, but that is probably an ambitious undertaking on our part.

4th of July Breakfast

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope everyone has plans to enjoy the holiday and eat some great food. This morning I treated the family to a red, white, and blue breakfast. Well I should amend that to a white and blue breakfast but I think that the juice from the blueberries can qualify as red. I made some lemon biscuits with a blueberry sauce. I think everyone enjoyed them as my husband had thirds, my son took seconds, and the baby even ate one. Here is the quick and easy recipe.

For Biscuits:

5 cups of instant pancake mix (see note)

1 1/2 cups of water

1/4 cup of milk

zest from two lemons

For Sauce:

2 cups of clean blueberries

1/2 cup of sugar

juice from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Using a non stick cooking spray, spray cookie sheets, using a tablespoon, spoon dough onto sheet making sure to leave some room between biscuits. Bake in the oven for 8 to 11 minutes. While biscuits are baking, in a medium saucepan cook blueberries, sugar and lemon until the blueberries release their juices, about 7 minutes. Take sauce off of the heat and place in a bowl to serve. When biscuits are done transfer to a large plate and serve with sauce and butter. Enjoy...

Note: Make an instant pancake mix or use something like Bisquick.

For instant pancake mix use Alton Brown's recipe that can be found on the Food Network website.

And now for a little preview of what is coming later...

Too Hungry

I do not know if I am the only food blogger who has this problem, but lately with my crazy schedule and two kids to take care of, but by the time I have finished cooking, I am too hungry to take pictures. I have made some great food lately too. I made some Mexican Chicken on Cinco De Mayo, a Greek grilled steak with a cucumber, tomato, and red onion salad, a grilled lemon chicken with a snow pea and avocado slaw (recipe available at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/snow-pea-and-avocado-slaw-recipe/index.html) served with a great Sauvignon Blanc, made some inari (yumm), and found a great new website for helping pair food and wine, http://www.winedin.com/. Yet each time i prepared a great meal my rumbling stomach and my five year olds "Mommy, I 'm hungry" gave me no time to take a picture. I am hoping that this does not become a habit. I love taking pics of my food, I love sharing my creations, and hoping that other enjoy them enough to try them too. So I am going to be taking a new approach to my cooking, I am going back to menu planning. I love just being hit by a craving for something and creating a meal around it, but I think that the running around to grab ingredients is getting to be to time consuming. So, for you dear reader here are some things to look forward to: Salads, lots of them, all that fit different cuisines, new product tasting, some semi-homemade meals, finger food meals for baby, and quick and simple dinners. I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts and I know you will love some of the salads that are coming up. I promise that these will be great meals that will give you something refreshing and light to serve on the upcoming hot summer days.

Perfect Kids Meal

The other night a friend came over for dinner with her two kids. I knew what I was making us, but I did not think that the boys were going to enjoy the meal as much as us. I took some chicken tenders and season them with seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper, and cooked them in a skillet until browned. I served these up with some fresh veggies and fries. This meal got three boys to sit still and clean their plates. Considering the ages of the kids, this is a blessing for any parent with preschool aged kids. I hope you give it a try on a night were you want to enjoy a later meal without the kids.