Darkness

Yesterday my world was shaded pitch black, as the turbulent seas of my emotions crashed down upon me and threatened to swallow me whole.  Today dawns a sky light gray with whispers of purple and pink that streak vibrantly through my horizons, letting me know that  the effervescent sun is ever rising and soon will  banish the shadows away…

{this moment}

(Through the looking glass)

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - Amanda Soule

What's for Lunch Wednesdays: Week 3

This week I decided I wanted to do a pizza party in Raine's lunchbox!  I recently came across this neat product called Thomas' 100% whole wheat bagel thins that are only 110 calories, low fat and packed with fiber.  These are not only a great option for making healthy breakfast combos, but also can make some rather awesome lunches while still keeping things healthy and nutritional!  Since I picked them up 2 weeks ago I have been itching to turn these puppies into pizzas.  And yes, you heard that right, they stay fresh for quite awhile and freeze well too, nothing will be wasted and you really get a bang for your buck!  I think maybe I should become a spokes person for this item the way I'm going on :)  Anyway, Raine and I are pizza lovers (who's not) but do not have it that often and I knew this would make a great surprise for her this week. 

Pizza is by all means any ones game and can be made in a million different kid friendly ways.  This one is definitely a keeper and will be repeated several times throughout the year all dressed up in different topping.  For the maiden voyage I chose turkey meatballs, steamed broccoli, and mozzarella with a Newman's tomato and basil sauce.  My kid LOVES meatball pizza and with them being turkey, I can feel good about giving them to her.

(Sorry about the picture quality, the lighting stinks at 5am)

I solved the whole hole in the middle, potential sauce disaster by just placing a piece of sliced meatball over it and then adding sauce. See below..

You can make these up ahead of time with leftovers and have them all ready to bake off the morning of.  Typically I bake them at 425 until the cheese is slightly browned. 

These are great cold but I usually bake them off right before we head out the door, wrap them in foil and put in a Tupperware container in the non cooled part of her lunchbox. To finish the meal I added some sliced carrots, cucumber, and a little broccoli with ranch.  She didn't even notice that dessert was missing ;)

Well that concludes this weeks lavish lunchbox, be sure to to check back next week for another What's for Lunch Wednesday!!

What's For Lunch Wednesday: Week 2

This week started out on a bright spot but by Monday afternoon had taken a turn for the worse.  I got the call from the school a little after noon that Raine was in the nurses office feeling terrible.  I left work shortly there after to go pick her up and she was still running a temperature this morning. I think she is starting get a little better and should be able to go back to school by tomorrow.  Poor thing!  Talk about getting the short end of the stick on that one, she only got to attend 4th grade two days this year before she got benched on the account of "flu-like" symptoms! 

I pack all her breakfasts and lunches for thew week, dad's days included and even though she won't be going in today I wanted to make sure that when I dropped her off at grandmas for the rest of the week she had some mama made goodness to get her through.  I decided to whip up a batch of my vitamin C strong chicken and vegetable soup for the next few days and loaded her to go bag up with fruit, yogurt, and some granola.  Hopefully with a little more rest and these healthy goodies she'll be up and running in no time.  Here is a snapshot of her lunch today sans lunchbox. I repeated the soup for the rest of the week and varied the fresh fruits.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - Amanda Soule

What's for Lunch Wednesday: Week 1

Tomorrow is Raine's first day of school as a brand new fourth grader and I wanted to be sure to make her an extra special lunch full of love and nutrition to get her through her BIG day.

One of the things that I have found that travels well in the lunch box and can hide a lot of nutrient filled vegetables in a healthy, but very kid friendly package, is a quiche. And since we now have an unlimited supply of happy chicken eggs right outside our back door, I thought this would be a great way to kick off the new school year.

This particular quiche was filled with shallots, spinach, brussel sprouts, zucchini, turkey sausage, and cheddar & mozzarella cheese.  So while it is packed with healthy ingredients that she may not eat by themselves, disguised this way it will make my girl very happy.  Laid out on a bed of spinach(which she loves) and accompanied by a butterflied apple and some strawberries with caramelized walnuts for desert completes the fare. 

I  may not always get this fancy, but the first day of school always calls for a little more magick to get her started off on the right foot! Well that concludes the first installment of what's for lunch Wednesdays.  Be sure to tune in next week for some new ideas...