Friday, July 25, 2008

The Meal That Keeps On Giving

I went to a neat little store yesterday called Making Thyme Kitchen. It's located on Cherry Street in Grand Rapids. It a little store that prepares ready-to-cook meals that are available to pick up, take home and pop into the oven (or microwave, or stovetop). Last night I picked up Mexican lasagna, quinoa fruit salad and mashed sweet potatos for the kids' dinner. Quite an ecclectic mix, I know.

The Mexican lasagna and sweet potatos didn't go over well with either kid, but I think that's because Bodin knew he was going to get to drive his new car after dinner and just wanted the whole ordeal to be over with. They both ate the quinoa fruit salad and really loved it. It contained quinoa, pecans, dried cherries/apricots, orange juice, and other stuff that I can't remember.

So, because I've read that you need to present a food 10 times to a child to get them to like it, they got that meal in their lunches for Friday, along with a baggie of red grapes.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Pizza, pizza!

My husband came home last night from a two-night work trip and the kids were really excited to see him. Bodin wanted to play with his new sprinkler and then wanted to play with his Spiderman slip 'n slide. As they played, I made dinner and lunch for the kids.

Here's what they had in Thursday's lunch:

*Pizza wrap: Sun-dried tomato wrap (from Sister's Natural Foods in Byron Center), mozzarealla, organic tomato sauce and turkey pepperoni (Hormel. Yes, it has sodium nitrate). I heated the wrap in a saute pan with a little bit of coconut oil. Then I added the rest of the ingredients, let the cheese melt and then wrapped it up and slice it in half.

*Broccoli (again, from Sister's Natural Foods in Byron Center) satueed in coconut oil and celtic sea salt.

*YoKids yogurt tube, strawberry

*Cashew rice treat for Bodin and an organic breakfast bar for Reese.

*HonestKids juice box for Bodin. Reese gets organic milk (Stoneyfarm) at school.

Mmmm, now I'm hungry!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Day late, but worth the wait ...

This past weekend was a busy one!! On Thursday, our neighborhood association put on some decent fireworks, so we kept the kids up straight through their bedtimes to watch the fireworks. Bodin ended up being a wiggly worm throughout the whole show and Reese turned into a zombie. It was still fun, though, sitting out on our deck watching the fireworks. Holidays are so much more fun with kids.

On Friday, we took Bodin to see his first movie, Wall-E. He did really good, didn't talk out loud a whole lot. But he also asked if we could go home near the movie's end. I think it was just a tad too long for him.

Sunday was Bodin's birthday; my baby boy turned three! Can't believe it. Justin and I got him a power wheels car that ended up not working the morning we gave it to him. It's currently in the shop (i.e., at Toys R Us) for repairs. I'm sure there's a life lesson in there about owning your own vehicle, but I'm just ticked that he couldn't drive it on his birthday morning. We'll get it tomorrow.

So, thanks to my mom and the birthday party she had for Bodin at her house, we scored some leftovers. Here's what was in their lunches for Monday:

*Turkey hot dog

*Mandarin oranges

*RiceWorks chips

These are from Costco and are SO good, especially with hummus

*Bag of carrots

Thursday, July 3, 2008

It's almost the weekend!

We bought Bodin and Reese a sandbox/picnic table combo the other weekend. It was one purchase I didn't think all the way through; along with their mac 'n cheese (organic), they also consumed sand and grit. Didn't seem to bother them, though.

For today's lunch:

*Brown basmati rice, chicken, pine nuts, pesto and parmesan

This is way easier to make than you think. I bought a rice cooker from Meijer that cooks rice/pasta in the microwave. I make a large batch and it lasts for a few days in the fridge. Chicken is from a rotisserie chicken from Costco, along with pre-made Pesto (Kirkland, from Costco), pine nuts and parmesan.

*YoKids yogurt

From Stonyfield, organic

*Baggie of grapes

*HonestKids juice

Thanks again Aunt Ellen!