Busy season...

Hello! I should be back to posting lunches on January 3rd. School is out and DH is practically living at work right now so he has been eating at the cafeteria. The last couple lunches I packed he did not get a chance to eat because he was so busy. He is really just snacking and drinking pop ( yuk!). Luckily he will get January 1st and 2nd off and then be back to a regular work schedule.

See you soon!

Thursday

Layered beans, rice and cheese with chips and salsa, lettuce and tomatoes.

2 chocolate carrot cupcakes.

Wednesday

DD- Meatballs with barbecue sauce, salad, cornbread and a chocolate carrot muffin.

Early birds are having the same but pineapple instead of salad.

Tuesday

DD- Salad, potato salad, graham crackers and peanut butter and a small pack of nerds

Early birds- Bologna sandwich, chips and pears

DD- Ramen noodles with chopped broccoli and chicken. Marinated carrot salad.

The chicken and chopped broccoli were leftovers from the fridge. Luckily the chicken went well because it was cooked is a soy-Teriyaki marinade on Saturday.

I did not feel well last week so lunch was easy- mostly sandwiches. Lots of hot tea has helped immensely so I hope to be back to daily blogging.

Monday

Early birds- PB&J, chips and carrots

DD-Stuffed potato, veggies, cut up leftover hot dog and granola bites.

A week off or a "off" week..

Sometimes things get hectic and lunch becomes self serve so I dont have any pictures but here are some of the things we had over the last week...

twice baked potatoes from the freezer ( more then once)
leftover mexican food with chips and salsa
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ( more then once)
enchildas from the freezer
canned fruit ( pears or pineapple)
chips
fruit leather
granola bars
yogurt

I don't need to pack another lunch for the kids until Monday. DH will probably take leftover Thanksgiving food on Friday and Saturday. He has to work Sunday also but will probably get something with his friends at work.

So see you next week!

A few days off...

I will be busy for a few days so my blogs will be quiet until then. Please feel free to email me if you have any comments, questions or tips you want to share :)

erratichomemaker@msn.com

Tuesday

One of the early birds works today. The other took leftover kielbasa and beans, salad, bread and applesauce.

DD had bruschetta, a mini cheese ball with crackers, veggies and a fruit leather. I did a bunch of prep yesterday so I made her something a little different.

DH had chili, a twice baked potato from the freezer, sun chips and fruit. We were going to have chili stuffed baked potatoes yesterday but it got bumped until Wednesday. The chili was also from the freezer.

Monday

On Monday the early birds took sandwiches,chips, fruit and granola bars

DH took Kielbada with white beans and tomatoes, salad and bread. He also took a apple and butter for the bread. I made it early so he could take it to work and it is what we had for dinner monday night. DH works nights.

DD had salad, pretzels and a cupcake. I did not make the cupcake, they were a day old bakery special. 12 mini dulce de leche cupcakes for 1.67.

We have found a lot of specials for convience food and I bought bulk chip bags from Amazon.com so there will be more prepackaged foods then we usually have.

I have not managed to post daily this week. We woke up late Monday so I don't have pictures for that day. It was a run out the door lunch so it was a uncrustable, chips and granola bar day. I'm sure they loved it :)

Tuesday I had leftover spaghetti to use up so the early birds took it as spaghetti and DD had it as a pasta salad. She also had a cookie broken in thirds to fit in box, some cheese for the pasta salad, a hard boiled egg and granola bites. She also had a organic fruit leather and a salt packet for her egg.

Oldest DS had a can of pork and beans with some smoked sausage on top, pears, salad and some puffed crackers. ( Wednesday)

DD loved her lunch on Wednesday. She had a bluberry bagel with cream cheese, salad with italian dressing, puffed crackers and orange slices ( packed in a sandwich bag to prevent leakage).

Today I made ramen noodles and added chicken and green beans from last night dinner. The kids also had pineapple and granola bites.

DH took the items I prepared for dinner for lunch everyday this week. I did not get any pictures of his lunches.

A funny story about Ramen noodles. When my daughter was in 2nd grade ( she was still attending public school at the time) they had to make a project for Mothers day that started out

"My mother is.....". She wrote "my mother is a great chef because she makes me Ramen noodles" :)

This weeks lunches...

One of the early birds works today ( free lunch), one is eating soft foods because he just had his braces adjusted. He took spaghetti hoops, pudding and a banana.

Miss Sydney had PB&Jelly, pudding with crushed graham cracker, puffed wheat crackers and vegetables.







DH took pork burritoes yesterday with shredded pork, red skinned potato, monterey jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado and cilantro. I also packed salsa on side.











Burrito and salsa, salad, pretzels, and candy.















Egg salad and crackers, vegetables, oatmeal bites













Leftover pulled pork, potato salad and coleslaw

Laptop lunches

Most of the comments I seem to get are mostly about the laptop lunch containers so I thought I would share some links that contain lots of info on them. They are expensive but they can be very helpful.

laptoplunches.com -this is the site for the company and has great info, lots of pictures and a newsletter focused on their lunchboxes. FAQS including some great info if you are worried about plastics and food. Most of the lunchbox is made in the USA.

Great pictures of laptop lunches at flicker

Top tips from lunch in a box

A google search will probably turn up more great sites if you need more inspiration. If you have a grandparents asking for ideas for a practical Christmas gift, this might me a good item to suggest.

If you are getting one for yourself, I think it really helps you to balance your food since when you look at those boxes they just scream for a variety of food and help with portion control. It takes a little practice to figure out what works for you but its worth it. If you like the ideas but don't want spend the money on a laptop lunch a lot of these ideas can be used with tupperware or other bento style lunchboxes.

I accidently posted lunch on my other blog, please click here if you would like to see a update on our lunches. :)

This is supposed to be a kitty. My husband could only picture a lobster but my daughter thought it was cute. It was really just a snack because we were out running errands in the morning and she loaded up on samples at Whole Foods. She still likes to eat during her break so I made this when we got back.

Lunch for DH and DD. I was making both right before the time DD was about to eat so I just put the soup in a side cup. If I was packing ahead it would need to go in one of the main cups that has a lid. These were use'em up lunches. DD had a salad with feta, chicken, olives, dressing some of the soup I made for DH and some M&M's

DH's soup was a bean soup made with a can of white beans, a brat sausage and some cooked chicken with seasoning. I needed to use of the last of the salad mix and there is always a big pile shredded carrots in the bottom that I added to the soup.

I think this lunch was from Friday. I made it while I was making breakfast for the older 2 kids. They leave before she wakes up. Banana pancakes, bacon, strawberries and pineapple and pretzels with M&M's

Lunch for the older 2. Burritos from the freezer, salad, chips and salsa

Mexican rice with black beans and cheese, corn bread, grapes and M&M's

I want to get back to posting these everyday, instead of doing it every few days, its easier to keep track of what I made when.

Easy week- Random lunches

Leftover Asian noodles
Cut up vegetables
Cantaloupe and strawberries
M&M's







Cheese Sandwich
Smart puffs
Carrots

Leftover cream cheese chicken
Cut up vegetables
Bread and margarine
Pretzels
Mini candy bar




Meijer spaghettios
Cut up veggies
Fruit
Lego fruit snacks



The pirate booty was from one of those Amazon sales. I bought 2 cases and have been good about saving them for when I have little time. Meijer spaghetti hoops are on sale this week. My daughter would happily eat these every day but they look so yucky to me.LOL

I am a sucker for anything Lego so I bought the Lego fruit snacks as a surprise. Boy did that co-branding work on me :)

Monday

Lunch #1 ( 2 of these) Enchiladas from the freezer ( cut to fit) over rice, chips,salsa, sour cream, grapes and a Resse's cup

Lunch #2 Mexican rice, chips, salsa grapes and a mini Hershey bar

Lunch #3 ( Not pictured) Meatloaf, southwestern mashed potatoes and green beans. I made dinner in the afternoon and packed a lunch for DH from what I made and then I will just reheat it later for dinner for me and the kids.

Wednesday and Thursday

Green beans with smoked sausage
Salad
Bread and butter
Cookie

BLT

Carrots

Pretzels

Chocolate pudding with berries and choclate chunks

Monday and Tuesday

Monday- Hummus and pita bread, Greek chopped salad and fruit















Tuesday- Meat and cheese with crackers, vegetables with curry dip, chocolate pudding with chocolate chunks and bananas with berries. The curry dip is the dressing for the chicken salad for tonights dinner. The chocolate pudding is just from one of those snack packs from my cheap/ free after coupon stash with a few chocolate chunks on top. I did splurge this week by buying a pach each of raspberries and blueberries since they will be gone soon and my daughter loves them. The boys don't like berries so they will probably last all week.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday- We went for chinese :)

Friday- A ham wrap ( cut up)

Canteloupe

Tomato and pickle slices

Fruit leather

2 cookies ( they were wrapped in plastic wrap till lunchtime)

Sydney's lunch- Hummus with vegetables dippers, cheese and a deviled egg. Sydney prefers to graze when she eats so I think she will really enjoy her lunch today.

Jason choose the quick turkey lunch ( again) but he is more concerned with speed then variety :)

Marcus is working again ( free lunch).

DH has been taking mostly leftovers and a few freezer meals but he wants to start taking low carb lunches again. I will need to plan better for that next week.

Links and Lunch

I added some links on the side to great lunch ideas. I hope you enjoy them!

Please forgive the terrible picture. Today the boys did a repeat of yesterday ( quick turkey sandwiches) and Sydney had breakfast for lunch. She really is not much of a eater in the morning so this worked out nice for her.

Little pancakes and syrup

Smoked sausage

A hardboiled egg

Applesauce

We were not going out today so I did not worry about putting lids on anything, I just placed it in the fridge until she was ready to eat.

Do you have any lunch sites or blog posts that you want to share?

Mondays Lunch

No picture today. Everyone woke up late. I woke up at 6:37 and realized no one was up ( the boys usually get up at 5:30) and they needed to be at the door by 7:00.

So we quickly grabbed 2 turkey sandwiches from the freezer, opened a can of pineapple and grabbed some smart puffs and a cookie for the 2 early lunches when son #2 came down the stairs and said he did not need a lunch today since he was working in the cafeteria. So the second lunch got bumped to my daughter. At least lunch was quick today :)

Tuesday -Pizza Pasta

Wednesday -Leftover noodles, wonton chips, sesame seeds and dum dums

Thursday- Ham salad and egg salad on lettuce with crackers, marinated veggies and grapes

Monday

Miss S-1/2 turkey and roast beef sandwich on wheat, watermelon and pineapple and snack mix with peanut butter.

DH-Club sandwich, doritos and grapes

J and M- Pizza day at school

Thursday and Friday Lunch

Thursday-

Sydney- Chicken Curry salad with crackers

DH took the chicken salad as a sandwich

Friday-
Sydney-Quesadilla with salsa, sour cream and watermelon

DH took a wrap made with smoked sausage, banana peppers, leftover veggies and cheese with watermelon and a side of chips.

The boys packed there own lunch from the freezer stash. One of my boys has started working in the cafeteria at school 3 days a week and gets free lunch when he works.

The winners are.............

Congratulations to:

Anne Marie

and

Jenn

Please send your address to:

erratichomemaker@msn.com

Monday-No school or work

Tuesday-Leftover pizza,applesauce,crackers and peanut butter

Wednesday-

S-Salad

Wheat bread

Pineapple

Snickerdoodle

J & M- Bologna sandwich

Pineapple

Chips

DH-Enchiladas and rice

Chips, sour cream,salsa

Easy day..

Todays lunch:

Bagels with cream cheese
Pretzels
Carrots
Grapes


No picture today but we should have our fridge working by the end of the day. Woohoo!

Wednesday-

For my husband:

smoked sausage and potatoes with green beans, bread ( leftovers)

Kids:
Smoked sausage and pineapple skewers
rice
fruit leather
cracker pack

Thursday-

Chili over spaghetti
shredded cheese and diced onions
salad with ranch
cookie
fruit leather

First Day Giveaway!

We made our first lunches of the school year today. We made them tonight for tomorrows lunches to save time in the morning.

On the menu:

Turkey mini croissants

Pasta salad

grapes

brownie

Please leave a comment for a chance to win a pack of American Girl Level 2 Readers with a craft kit and a chore chart. These are new and would be great for your young reader or to give as a gift. I have 2 sets to give away so make sure you sign into blogger or leave a way for me to contact you if you win. We will pick 2 winners next Friday!