T.G.I.F.!!!! Eva had a field trip to the zoo today, so she's brown bagging it with a pb sandwhich, carrot sticks, grapes, and a few oreo's.  Gerald got yesterdays French Toast Cupcakes and a breakfast sausage patty for breakfast and last nights dinner for lunch.

I couldn't wait to make breakfast for the trips because I got my new egg fry pans. One is shaped like a star, one like a flower, and one like a bear with a happy face. First, I made pancakes in the pan, then I made the eggs and boy did they turn out cute (if I do say so, lol). This was the first time the kids had a fried egg with a runny yolk, so I made toast triangles and showed them how to use the triangle to mop up the yolk first. Surprisingly, they took to it quiet well.

         It was a beautiful day today and we spent as much time outside as we could. Gerald had to go over to his mom's house as the hot water heater decided to die, so he had to hurry over there and fix it (and he's still there!)  Was kind of dragging my feet on dinner since Gerald wasn't home, but I made the German Apple Pancakes anyway, since I was really hungry for them. This time, I decided to make them in the Skookie pans that I have and it turned out ok. It was the first time that I used the pans for this batter, so it was a little trial and error. We didn't sit down to eat until 7 (oops!), but I'm smarter for the next time!!
Baked Puff Pancake
Maybe you know this as a Dutch Baby or a German Pancake or as Yorkshire pudding. In our house we call it Baked Pancake, and we make it all the time. The yummiest way to eat this is to sprinkle it with lemon juice and sieved powdered sugar, but we usually eat it in big hand-held wedges, utterly plain or spread with jam.
Hands-On Time: 10 minutes
Ready In: 35 minutes

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (2% and whole both work well)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons butter, cut into a few pieces

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 425ºF, then put the pan in to heat while you prepare the batter. A 10- or 12-inch oven-proof skillet is ideal, but you could use a comparably-sized baking dish (Pyrex, say).
2. Now use a whisk to beat the eggs in a medium-sized bowl, then beat in the milk, then the flour and salt. We tend to beat the mixture until it's just smooth.
3. By now your pan should be very hot. Add the butter, then remove the pan from the oven and swirl it so that the butter is melted and sizzling wildly. You need to do all this quite quickly because you don't want the oven to lose its heat, you don't want the pan to cool off, and you don't want the butter to burn.
4. Now pour the batter into the buttery pan and return it the oven. Set your timer for 15 minutes. We bake it for 20, but I think it's worth peeking at it at 15 because your oven might be different from ours: you want it to be puffed and golden and quite brown in places.

*Ingredient Tip
The only trick here is that the pan be very, very hot before you melt the butter and pour the batter in: that's what will make the pancake puff.

What I did: I tripled the recipe (to make it for 6 people). I lightly oiled my pans and placed them in the oven to preheat. I then cored, peeled, and sliced into slices, then quartered, 3 Granny Smith apples. I put 3 tablespoons butter in a skillet and when it was melted, I added the apples, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1/4 cup brown sugar. I cooked it on med heat until the apples were starting to get soft.  Now came the "fun" part. I took my bowl of batter, got a spoon for the apples and opened the oven door. On two of the pans, I spooned some apples onto the pan, then poured the batter over it until it came to the top of the pan. The other 4, I poured the batter into the pan until it came to the top. I VERY carefully slid the oven rack back in, closed the door, and let them cook until they smelled right - about 12 min's.

                                                                                                                                                                                        The one on the right is the one without apples, and the one on the left is the one with the apples. I sprinkled powered sugar on it and served it to the kids, but they like it with maple syrup. With the apples, it was VERY filling and VERY yummy!!             
                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                             

Today is Thursday and I'm pretty excited today. Had a winner at breakfast and I'm looking forward to dinner! But first, what did I pack for Eva's snack?  Today she got: strawberries, colby cheese cubes, yogurt, goldfish, carrot sticks, fish grahm crackers, and a home made chocolate chip cookie.  For Gerald's lunch, I didn't have leftovers and I'm out of soup in the freezer!! (gotta get crackin' on that, lol) So poor Gerald got: a Market Day turkey and cheese on pretzel sandwhich, whole wheat cheese and crackers, applesauce, grapes, and carrot sticks. I packed for breakfast in his Fit & Fresh: Kashi's 7 grain flakes, milk, and sliced bananas.

     Breakfast:  French Toast Cupcakes
     Lunch: left overs
     Dinner: Chicken and Italian Sausage Bake, spaghetti noodles

Breakfast was VERY yummy! I used blueberry bread instead of the cinnamon swirl bread, but the next time I make it, I'll use that. The one thing that I would do different is - I would whip up the egg mixture, then toss in the bread cubes, let them soak, THEN fill the muffin tins. My eggs kept running off of the cupcakes (the bread didn't soak it in fast enough). (I used those cute little tinfoil bakers as I could not, for the life of me, find any tinfoil cupcake liners! I know I have some SOMEWHERE!!)  Also, I doubled the recipe since this made 4. Each child ate 1 and I ate two, along with a breafast sausage patty. Guess what Gerald's getting for breakfast tomorrow?

French Toast Cupcake

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons pure Maple Syrup
• 4 slices Cinnamon Raisin Bread
• 4 Eggland’s Best Large Eggs
• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• --TOPPING--
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Place 4 foil cupcake liners in cupcake pan.  Place 1 teaspoon maple syrup in each of the four cupcake liners.
• Tear 1 slice of bread into smaller pieces and place in one of the cupcake liners.  Repeat for all 4.
• Mix eggs, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract well with wire whisk.
• Pour equally into each of the 4 cupcake liners.  Let sit 5 minutes so that bread can absorb the egg mixture.  While this is standing, mix together the topping and sprinkle ½ teaspoon over each cupcake.
• Bake for 25 minutes until puffed and golden.

Notes and Suggestions

Save valuable morning time by assembling the night before and placing in the refrigerator.  You can also bake ahead and simply warm in a toaster oven when ready to serve.   

Makes 4 servings

Nutritional Facts

1 Serving: Calories 213; Fat 6g (25.5% calories from fat); Protein 10g; Carbohydrate 28g; Dietary Fiber 1g; Cholesterol 213mg; Sodium 186mg.

Chicken and Italian Sausage Bake

Hands-On Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 head of garlic, cloves separated, but still in their skins
1 pound of sweet chicken Italian sausage, each link cut into thirds
¼ cup olive oil
Juice from one lemon
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup dry white wine or chicken broth
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken (skin side up), garlic and sausage in a roasting pan. Season each piece of chicken with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with the herbs.
2. Squeeze lemon juice over the chicken, then drizzle the olive oil over everything in the pan. Shake the pan to distribute the oil a bit.
3. Place pan on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for one hour, or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Place chicken, sausage and garlic on a large platter and cover with foil. If desired pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the drippings from the roasting pan, then place pan on a burner over medium heat. Add ½ cup of dry white wine or chicken broth and simmer until mixture is reduced by half. Serve alongside the chicken.

 

                                                                                                      

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

It's Wednesday - yeah!! For Eva's snack, I packed: colby cheese cubes, carrot sticks, go-gurt, strawberries, and whole grain goldfish.  For Gerald's breakfast, I packed in his Fit & Fresh: Kashi's 7 grain cereal, milk, and Schwan's Golden Fruit Blend. For lunch, I had leftovers from last weeks dinner, the Cranberry Chicken on Rice with Green Beans. (I had frozen it when I realized he wasn't going to eat it the next day for lunch!)
Breakfast:  Sausage Breakfast Sandwhich and strawberries
Lunch:  Chicken nuggets,potato chips, and grapes.
Dinner: FINALLY! The Slow Cooker Chicken. This was sooo good! Eddie and Gerald ate it as a burrito. Ella and Joey ate it as a taco salad. Eva wouldn't eat it at all (no surprise - I made her a cheese quesadilla). I spread refried black beans on my plate, then the taco chicken meat, then some cheddar cheese, then some diced avocados, tomatoes, and olives. Then I scooped it up with blue corn chips. YUMM-O!!


Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 jar of green or red salsa of your choice
1 can of diced green chiles
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili
1 onion chopped  (I used 3 tablespoons dried onions)
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Directions
1.  Place chicken in the bowl of a slow cooker. Top with salsa, diced green chiles, cumin, onion and garlic. Cover and set on low. Cook for 8 hours.
2.  Remove chicken from pot, shred, and return to juices.
3.  Spoon chicken into taco shells, with whatever toppings your f amily likes. Or use the meat to make burritos, tostadas or as a filling for enchiladas.                                                                                                                               

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

       Eva didn't have much time to eat her snack, so I didn't pack her very much - whole wheat crackers and cheese, carrot sticks, string cheese, go-gurt, and some grapes.  For Geralds lunch, I had leftovers from last nites dinner, the Zitti Skillet. I also packed Gerald's breakfast in his Fit & Fresh - Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, some sliced strawberries, and milk. For his snack, I did some grapes, carrot sticks, and some garlic triscuits.

     Breakfast:  Breakfast Burritos
     Lunch:   Chicken Nuggets and carrot sticks
     Dinner:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

     The breakfast burritos were a hit with Eddie, who ate 2, and with Joey. Ella only took 3 or 4 bites and then she said she was done. I was excited to make this as I found mild chorizo at the Mercado. All I did was: brown some chorizo in a pan. While it was browing, I cracked 6 eggs and whipped them up in a bowl. When the chorizo was brown, I threw in the eggs, some cheddar cheese, and some salsa and just let it cooks until the eggs were done. I took some whole wheat flour tortilla's and put them in the microwave for 30 secs.  I then put some of the egg mixture on the tortilla and folded it up like a burrito. I made 6 of them out of this. VERY YUMMY!!
     By 11 o'clock, Eddie and Joey said they were hungry! So I microwaved some chicken nuggets for them and served it with some carrot sticks. (Ella said she wasn't hungry!)
     Joey had to bring the snack for his class, so he brought in apples and peanut butter (I included my apple corer/quarter cutter).
     Dinner was suppose to be chicken tacos, but at 5:30, I could see the chicken wasn't done, so I had to scramble. I figured that might happen because I forgot to put the chicken in after breakfast. I remembered after I put the kids on the bus, but the crock for the slow cooker was still dirty (grrrrr). So I had to soak it, then wash it, then I sterilized it with bleach water (just to be safe, especially after last week!) So by this time, it was 1:30. Oh well, we'll have it for dinner tomorrow.

     So what did we have? Well, we had Salisbury Steak dinner from our Angel Food order. I had left over mashed potatoes and corn in the freezer. So, whew! there was dinner! I only had half an hour to pull it together as Eva and dad had choir practice at 6:30. They left at 6:20, so I did good, lol!!

Well, we're back to normal this week. Didn't do much cooking last week with some one being sick every day! So here we are on Monday and this is what I made for Eva's snack: Goldfish, strawberries, colby cheese cubes, carrot sticks, and an Easter Brownie. For Gerald's breakfast, I packed in his Fit & Fresh: Kashi 7 grain cereal, milk, and sliced strawberries.  For his lunch, I packed some leftovers we had - chicken drumettes with spaghetti sauce and noodles (these were REALLY good!!). For his snack, I packed grapes, carrot sticks, and some cheese with crackers.

  Breakfast: One eye jacks (egg in a hole in the toast) and some sliced strawberries
  Lunch:  Half a cheese sandwhich (not grilled), carrot sticks, grapes
  Dinner: Skillet Ziti With Chicken & Broccoli

(I didn't have any broccoli, so I used the green beans we got from our Angel Food order. and I didn't use the red pepper, because my kids do not like that) Well, Eva didn't like it at all. Ella only ate the green beans and the noodles. Joey only ate the chicken (with 2nds!) and the noodles, but no beans. Eddie ate everything, but didn't have 2nds and said he was done and he didn't like it!! lol, well, at least he ate it!! Good luck with your kids!!

Skillet Ziti With Chicken & Broccoli
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1″ pieces
Salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter  (I used olive oil)
1 onion, minced (I used dried onions)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes  (didn't use)
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces ziti (2 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream (I substituted this with half & half)
1 bunch broccoli (1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed and sliced 1/4″ thick (we omitted these due to personal taste)
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (optional) (I used grated lemon peel)

1.  Pat the chicken dry, then season with salt and pepper. Melt 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a 12″ skillet over medium heat.
2.  Add the chicken and cook until it is lightly browned, but not fully cooked, about four minutes.
3.  Transfer chicken to a bowl. Add 1 more tablespoon of the butter, onion, red pepper flakes, basil, & 1/2 teaspoon salt to the skillet. Cook until the onion is softened, about five minutes.
4.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
5.  Sprinkle the ziti evenly into the skillet. Pour the broth and cream over the ziti. Cover and bring to a boil, about five minutes.
6.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the green beans and roasted red peppers. Cover and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta begins to soften and the green beans turns bright green (approximately eight minutes).
7.  Stir in the chicken and any accumulated juice. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about three minutes longer.
8.  Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, the Parmesan, and lemon peel (if using). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

                                                                                                                                                

Feeling a little better today, but still no energy. I packed Eva her snack (left) and Gerald his breakfast and lunch (right). For Eva's snack: Goldfish, string cheese, carrot sticks, some colby cubes, a hard boiled egg bunny, and strawberries.  For Gerald: a Schwan's Chicken Quesadilla, carrot sticks, Schwan's Golden Fruit Blend, some colby cheese cubes and some garlic Triscuits.
     Breakfast:  Cinnamon Swirl Toast (playing it safe this morning!)
     Lunch:  Chicken nuggets and fries
     Dinner: Cranberry Chicken on brown rice with green beans. (Oh my gosh was this good!!)

I found this recipe on Hannah Help Me's website. LOVE her show, LOVE her website, LOVE this recipe!!

Cranberry Chicken

2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup orange juice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 lbs. chicken (about 4 breasts)

Melt butter in microwave, but let cool slightly before dumping in the bag. Dump all ingredients except chicken in a gallon-size zippered plastic bag and smoosh it together. Add chicken, seal completely and smoosh some more to thoroughly coat chicken. Empty into a casserole dish and cook at 350º for 40 minutes or until done (juices run clear); cook in a slow cooker for 4-6 hours; or allow to marinate for two hours and toss on the grill.
    What I did: I mixed it all together, then tossed it into the fridge. I then cooked it at 450 degrees for 45 mins (my pieces were still a little frozen, thus the longer time). While it was cooking, I made up some brown rice (threw in a little chicken bouillen to give the rice some flavor) and steamed some green beans.
     When Gerald served it, he cubed the chicken and then poured some of the sauce over it. It was VERY yummy and the rice absorbed the sauce too!

Monday, Monday....
It started off great. I packed Eva her snack and Gerald his breakfast and lunch. For Eva, I packed: Goldfish, grapes, yogurt, a chocolate cupcake, and carrot sticks. For Gerald, I made his breakfast in his Fit & Fresh (Kashi 7 grain, sliced bananas, and milk). His lunch was leftovers from last night's dinner - steak, company potatoes, peas, and a dinner roll. His snack was grapes and carrot sticks with a cupcake in it's own special holder. Everything was fine, until after I ate lunch and became VERY ill!! So needless to say, Gerald reheated some spaghetti for the kids. Unfortunately, I didn't have any alfredo sauce for Joey, so he ate a peanut butter sandwhich.

Wow! It's Sunday already!?!  Time sure flies! Sunday morning always finds us scurrying to get out of the house so we can get to church in time. I usually have something made up from the day before so we can eat in the car on the way to church. Yes, It takes us 45 mins to get four kids up, dressed, and for us to take showers and get dressed. And we're night owls, so we're usually getting up at 9:30 and rushing to get out of the house by 10:10. Well, we made it to church on time today - whoo, hoo!!
     Breakfast:  Reheated Vanilla French Toast

     Lunch: Bagel dogs 








Dinner: Steak, Company Potatoes, Peas, Chocolate cupcakes

    

Cracker Barrel Potato Casserole

---

   1 cup onion, diced    

   1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter, thinly sliced    

   1 (8 oz.) container sour cream 

   1 (8 oz.) pkg. Kraft Cracker Barrel sharp cheese    

   1 can Cream of Chicken soup    

   1 (2 lb.) bag frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed   

   1/2 to 1 cup corn flakes

   1 stick butter, melted

Stir together well the diced onion, sour cream, grated cheese, thinly sliced butter, and Cream of Chicken soup. Add the hash browns and mix well.Spread this mixture evenly in a casserole dish.
Mix melted butter and cornflakes. Top with the crushed corn flakes.
Bake at 350°F 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Makes 8 to 12 servings.

     Saturday mornings are crazy. Eva has choir practice at 9am. Meanwhile, I dress the trips and feed them breakfast. Then Eva comes home, grabs a bite to eat, and then we're all off to the Y - Eva for Hip Hop class and the trips for swimming class  at 11.  Dad has choir practice at 11, then he's free to do those items on his To Do List while the kids and I play in the pool during Family Swim, which is from Noon to 3.  We come home and eat a late lunch, then the kids goofed around in the back yard while Dad was cleaning the garage and I was cleaning the living room while making pizza dough in my bread machine. Every Sat night, we try to have pizza and I usually make it from scratch. Since our harddrive crashed, I haven't been able to find the recipe that I usually use. I tried a new one tonite, but it just didn't work out. And the kids were naughty in the backyard - for whatever reason, Eva and Eddie were without shoes (even thought it's in the 50's!!) running around in their socks!! And they put water in both the water and the sand table!! grrr So Gerald's in the backyard, trying to find Eddie's other shoe and I'm giving time out's. So we decided, ENOUGH! and we ordered pizza from Nick & Willey's.

     Breakfast:  French Toast with Peaches
     Lunch:  Chicken Fries, Parmesean Noodles, Carrot Sticks, Peaches for the kids, Parmesean Chicken Noodle salad for Gerald and I.
     Dinner:  Pizza

Breakfast:                           
Vanilla French Toast

Ingredients
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoon vanilla extr act
Pinch salt
1 loaf of  day-old bread
Maple syrup

Directions
In a bowl, beat eggs; add milk, sugar , vanilla and salt. Soak bread
for 30 seconds on each side. Cook on a greased hot griddle until
golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Serve with syrup or
cinnamon-sugar . Yield: 6 servings.

Lunch:        The kids had Schwans Chicken Fries, Parmesean Noodles, carrot sticks, and peaches.



I made Parmesean Chicken Noodle salad from leftovers for Gerald and I.  I took the meat off of the chicken legs from last night, added the rigatoni noodles that I had made up for Gerald's lunch, grated some carrots and cut up some celery and grapes. Added Kraft's Fat Free Ceaser dressing and Voila! lunch was ready!

     

T.G.I.F.!!! Today was a bit cooler than yesterday, but who excepts 80's in April in WI? Eva has a makeup class for Irish Dancing tonite, but other than that, nothing else is planned. Practice is at 5:45, so I'm hoping we can eat at 5. Here's what I made today:

   Breakfast: Pancake sandwhiches with strawberries
   Lunch: Trips had school
   Dinner: Parmesan Chicken and Potatoes with green beans. Sounded yummy and looked super easy to make!!

What I packed for Eva's snack:  An Easter brownie, string cheese, Hello Kitty shaped hard boiled egg, apples, animal crackers, peanut butter for dipping. Eva LOVED the egg!!

For Gerald, I packed his Fit & Fresh breakfast container with Kashi's 7 grain flakes, milk, and sliced bananas (I used Fruit Fresh to keep the bananas from browning.)

For his lunch, I took two of the leftover italian sausages from last night and sliced them up. Then I cooked up some rigatoni. Mixed the two with some sauce and some mozzerella cheese. yummm!  I had a seperate container with grapes, carrot sticks, pretzels and fig newtons in it.

Parmesan Chicken and Potato Recipe

With four ingredients, this chicken recipe is the ultimate in easy. The potatoes add the heartiness a meal needs while the parmesan cheese and Italian dressing give it the flavor of much more complicated recipes. For a busy night or a relaxing weekend, enjoy a great meal with no hassle.

Ingredients:

4 whole chicken legs
4 large potatoes, cut into wedges
1/3 cup Italian dressing
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place potatoes and chicken into 9x13 baking pan.
3. Pour dressing over chicken and potatoes.
4. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over chicken and potatoes.
5. Bake for 1 hour, or until chicken is cooked through. Serves 4.

Note: If you cook it at this temp, you need to eat it right away as it dried out on Keep Warm. The next time, I'll cook it at 325 for 2 hours if I need it to wait.

 

ahhhh Thursday. No after school activities for the kids and it's suppose to be beautiful. Guess that means we'll be going to the park! So what's on the menu today??

     Breakfast: Chedder and chive frittata with strawberries and cinnamon swirl (whole grain) toast or brown sugar cinnamon whole grain mini bagels with cream cheese.
     Lunch:  Trips will be at school and I have a lunch date at Tazinos! Can't wait!!
     Dinner:  Ravioli, slow cooked italian sausages and breadsticks
And I solved the problem of my little people whining about the spaghetti. I made an alfredo sauce and a spaghetti sauce and let them choose which one they wanted.

And the alfredo sauce was easy to make. After I found this recipe, I make it more often (and I use light cream cheese and 1% milk so it's not so fattening)

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese 2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 cups milk 6 ounces grated Parmesan cheese 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1.

Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. Toss with hot pasta to serve.

What I packed for Eva for her snack:
an Easter brownie, strawberries, string cheese, blocks of colby cheese, yogurt, grapes, carrot sticks,and goldfish.


What I packed for Gerald's breakfast in his new Fit & Fresh Breakfast Container:  Raisin Bran, milk, Schwan's Golden Fruit Blend.
















What I packed for his lunch:  the leftover Carribean Chicken on Coconut rice (yummo!!) I had a separate box with grapes, carrots, and some cheese.
    

So that was what I cooked/made up today. We had a good time at the park, then came home and played some more in the yard. Really wish this warm weather lasts!!

     Ok, I promised I'd blog more, and then Murphy's Law happened - our hard drive crashed and I lost the majority of my recipes and menus!! I hadn't back up my stuff because I wanted it to be a certain way, blah, blah. Well, I've learned my lesson and I'm saving to our server often!!
     Now, back to the food!! lol  I am crazy ga-ga over Bento. I came across this and said, "OMG! I already do this!" I just don't have all those fancy containers and doo dads, but I'm building a wish list, lol!! So I decided to take some pictures of the boxes I make for Eva's snack and Gerald's breakfast and lunch (he never gets up in time to actually eat at home, so now I pack him a breakfast too so he can eat SOMETHING for breakfast!) So without further ado, here they are:

This is Eva's snack box. She has a tropical fruit cup, green pepper strips, goldfish, fruit roll-up, yogurt, and an Easter Brownie. And it's all gone when she comes home!! LOVE that!

I had no leftover's for Gerald, so I dug in the freezer and found I still had some soup left. So he got some white chicken chili, lemon cookies, carrots, apples, a Market Day Turkey and cheese pretzel sandwhich, and saltines for the soup. Oh yeah, and some chocolate that I hadn't eaten yet, lol!! I forgot to take a picture of his breakfast, but I had blueberry pancakes (dollar size), 2 sausage patties, maple syrup, and Schwan's Berry Blend (strawberries/blueberries). I had made the pancakes ahead of time and threw them in the fridge. I used my Pampered Chef's medium scoop so they'd all be the same size. What I didn't use for Gerald, I gave to the trips for breakfast. And speaking of that, here's today's menu:
     Breakfast: Eva - cheerios and a banana. Trips, dad and I - blueberry pancakes and breakfast sausage patties.
     Lunch: Trips had turkey and cheese roll-ups (whole wheat tortilla, spread with cream cheese, then turkey lunch meat, then american cheese slice, then roll it up!!) and some cut up apples. I was naughty today and stopped at Kwik Trip because it was Dollar Wednesday and it was on my way to Joey's therapy session. I had a bbq pork sandwhich, with carrot sticks and grapes (I tried to balance it out, lol)
     Dinner: Caribbean Chicken with Lime Coconut Rice. This was AWESOME! I had every intention of taking a picture of it, but I had to get Eva to CCD. I DID have leftovers, so you can see a picture of it as Gerald's lunch! For the kids, I just made plain rice. Here's the recipe:

Crock Pot Caribbean Chicken Recipe # 148388

5 ½ hours cook time | 30 min prep  SERV ES 6
      Ingredients
3 lbs ch icken pieces (I used thighs)
salt and pepper
2  t ablespoons oil
2  t ablespoons butter
2  la rge onions, chopped  (I was in a hurry and used 3/4 c dried onions)
1-2  tablespoon minced garlic
1  large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used frozen cut up green pepper)
1  teaspoon dried thyme
1 -2  teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes (use only if you prefer extreme spicy ) (I didn't use,I
         used a couple of shakes of  tabasco sauce)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ginger powder (can use more)  (I used a full tablespoon)
3 large tomatoes, chopped (or use a 28 -ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
      Procedure:
1 .  Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
2 . In a skillet, saute onions, garlic, brown sugar, green bell pepper, thyme and chili flakes 
      (if using ) until soft (about 4 minutes).
3.  Stir in the chicken broth to the skillet and stir with a wooden spoon on low heat, scraping up 
      any browned bits in the skillet .
4.  Pour half the broth/veggie mixture in the crock pot. Then transfer to the crockpot along with  the chopped tomatoes. Then pour the other half over the chicken.
5.  Cover crock pot and cook on high heat for about 3 -4 hours (adding in the coconut milk and season with salt and pepper the last 40 minutes of cooking).
6.  Serve over coconut rice.
© 2 0 0 9 Recipeza a r . A ll Rig h t s Reser v ed. (where I got the idea from)

Coconut Rice
I saw A LOT of recipes out there and they were all pretty easy. Basically, just make your rice the way you normally do, but substitute the water with coconut milk. I then added 4 packets of True Lime (since I didn't have any lime juice) Subtle, but nice.
Don't have any? Or does the stuff in the can look suspicious (like mine did tonite!)? Well, here's how you make coconut milk from scratch!

Home made Coconut Milk
     Ingredients
2 cups grated fresh coconut  (I used the shredded, bagged stuff)
1¼ cups hot water, or as needed
     Procedure1. In a blender (or food processor fitted with the metal blade), process the coconut and hot water for about 2 minutes.  Let  cool for 5 minutes.
2. Strain the mixture through a coffee filter into a small bowl, pressing down hard on the solid grated coconut flesh to squeeze out all the liquid. For thinner milk, add a little more water.
3. Use immediately in any recipe calling for coconut milk.