Birthday Blahs?

With the conclusion of the stomach bug, with me, while my husband was still in NYC, there was no point posting for a few days. Really, who would want to see kid-made pbj sandwiches and granola bars thrown into lunchboxes. Not so fun.

But since Ryan was the one to bring home the lovely virus from another friend's party the week before, he of course felt fine first, very ready to celebrate his own birthday.

I keep tweaking this cake
recipe. I love it. I suppose
I should post it some time.
Ryan and his dad both
like vanilla cakes with
fruit though. So VCTOTW
frosting and fresh berries
are their favourite
topping.
I also managed to toss
a cupcake into Ryan's
lunchbox. His requested
flavour lately has been
vanilla cocount almond.
And I cut an eight out
of a Goody Good Stuff
gummy candy.

And the rain continued, making outdoor photography miserable. To top it off, my camera battery died before I managed to get any good pics, and my phone was full and needed unloading. So I had to use whatever I got...
Ryan & AJ's lunches: soba noodles w/tatsoi; carrots; baby corn; edamame; peanuts (& raisins for AJ); mini zucchini muffin for AJ; dried aprictos for Ryan; 1/2 a strawberry.
These lunches were smaller than normal because their appetites were not as yet as hefty after a couple of days of being sick.

Maia's lunch: soba noodles w/tatsoi; edamame; baby corn; a strawberry.

And today's lunch was only for AJ. Ryan had a dentist appointment. His next set of molars are cramming his other teeth so tightly the dentist can barely even floss them, so they're already getting cavities. Poor kid will definitely need braces. Some of his adult teeth can't even fit into his mouth so they're coming in totally out of line. Luckily AJ has very well-spaced teeth. Ryan got some unlucky genes. At least he'll earn himself a trip to the movies this afternoon to see the Owls of Ga'hoole.
AJ's lunch: striped apples; peanut butter sandwich squares; green beans w/shoyu; green stuffed olive; carrots.

party leftovers bento

Ryan certainly gets a good deal when AJ has a birthday...
Ryan's lunch: grapes & cantaloupe; chocolate cake; steamed broccoli; leftover pizza with spinach, mushrooms & black olives.

And here are a few more pictures of AJ's birthday yesterday evening...












Presents, and a big
chocolate cake with
vanilla frosting and
sprinkles.

Maia really enjoyed
her cake. She's been
trying to use a fork
a lot recently. Here
she is using the same
exact fork that I have
a photo of myself
using to eat my cake
with when I turned 2.

But lucky Maia gets
chocolate thanks to
her big brother!

I must say chocolate
cake is my favourite
too. Some Trader's
Joe's cherry chocolate
chip soy ice cream
went nicely with this.

Here's my hunk o' cake...

And yes I did have
cake & pizza for
breakfast this
morning!

In the bag

...or in the lunch box as it were. I do enjoy days when lunch packing basically takes care of itself. As much as I love creating fancy custom bentos, it's a happy monday when there are leftovers I can just arrange nicely and close the lid.

Ryan's
lunch:
top tier:
leftover
birthday
cake;
straw-
berries;
bottom
tier:
leftover
smiley
potatoes;
carrot
sticks;
leftover
veggie
green
burrito
from
Acapulcos
(which I
reviewed
here). They have changed their burrito filling recipe slightly to include mushrooms, which I really enjoyed, though AJ wasn't thrilled. Ryan loves adding LOTS of extra guacamole to his.
Here are the kids at the Mexican restaurant, which Ryan chose for his birthday dinner...








Ryan








AJ








Nate








Maia

Ryan's 7th Birthday

Here's
Ryan
arriving
home
from
school
on
friday.
I made
his
cake on
saturday,
frosted
it before
bed, and
chilled
it over-
night.
Sponge-
Bob, of
course,
LOL.

Like his father, Ryan prefers
vanilla cake with a layer of
vanilla frosting with sliced
strawberries inside. I am
usually a chocolate fan, but I
must admit this combo is
pretty darned good!





For breakfast Ryan requested
pancakes. One of the topping
choices was apple syrup that
I'd made the day before...

Apple Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3-4 red apples' worth of
apple peel!

Don't throw away all those
apple peels or toss them
in the compost! Bring all 3
ingredients to a boil, stir to
dissolve the sugar, then
reduce heat to medium for 10 minutes, or until apples lose their bright colour. Remove apple peels with a slotted spoon, and continue simmering until liquid has reduced about half. Remove from heat and store refrigerated until ready to use.

The kids are really eating
a lot these days. Either I
need to stop eating, or I
need to increase how much
pancake batter I make by
50%! I'll need to get out
my biggest mixing bowl by
the time they're in their teens.

short week

The weekend began
with Ryan's 6th birthday
and a party at LazerZone
--I never thought we'd
have one of "those"
parties, but 4 kids and a
messy house suddenly
makes those party places
look very appealing!

Monday:
Ryan's lunch: pink rice ball; mango & raspberries; peanut butter pretzels; edamame; cold spinach & tat soi; a pickle; leftover slice of birthday cake.

AJ's
snack:
salsa
brown
rice
snaps;
edamame;
spinach &
tat soi;
carrot;
yellow
rice ball;
a pickle.





Tuesday:

Ryan ended up with conjunctivitis, passed from AJ, who likely caught it at preschool. Since he otherwise felt fine we did some shopping together with the baby while the other boys were at preschool.
Nate's lunch: Good Dog "flowers"; rice cubes with faces; steamed broccoli; red bell pepper hearts; cucumber flowers; a carrot; a green olive; Tofutti cream cheese & grape jelly sandwich circles; a sugar cookie.
AJ's snack: rice triangle; a carrot; a cucumber flower; a sugar cookie; steamed broccoli; Good Dog "flowers" (AJ likes his with edamame centers instead of the peas or corn I usually use).
Farm share: purple bok choy; red kuri squash; potatoes; spinach; red leaf lettuce; onions; carrots; snow pea tendrils; tomatillos; green bell peppers; green tomatoes; 1/2 peck apples & pears. Not shown PYO: hot peppers; flowers; kale, collards, swiss chard.

Wednesday:
Ryan's lunch: Thermos with leftover ma po tofu w/bamboo shoots & asian greens over ramen noodles; Torchic (a Pokemon made of orange rice & soy cheese); steamed broccoli.

AJ helped to make the
snack for his preschool
class. He called the snack
"www . 3C-snack . com"
because everything
started with the letter C.
Oy, I think he's spending
too much time online, LOL.



The first letter C
came from the
Carnival squash
that he mashed.
Then I pureed
some steamed
beets and the
batter turned
bright pink.

The class snack:
cantaloupe chunks
(with frilly tooth-
picks), squash/beet
mini muffins;
cranberry juice
(not shown).

There's no school until next tuesday due to Yom Kippur and Colombus Day.

Pancakes, Picnics & Pasta Salad

Monday:

Ryan & AJ: dinosaur grilled chreeze sandwiches; steamed broccoli; grapes.

When I'm pregnant I treat myself to all sorts of goodies...like this amazing slice of carrot cake from Cafe Indigo in Concord, NH. Soooooo good. Our local Whole Foods sells it now and my husband raves about it.

Tuesday:
Ryan: marinated mushroom; Sunshine Burger on a whole wheat english muffin; strawberries.

I couldn't resist...So Delicious Neopolitan ice cream with Soyatoo whipped creme & Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chocolate chips.

Wednesday:
Ryan's preschool class had a pajama breakfast on wednesday, so I packed him his own pancakes with maple syrup and a bagel with Tofutti cream cheese. He also ate bananas, strawberries & juice, but of course skipped the scrambled eggs & cereal with milk. I use the simple Basic Pancakes recipe from The High Road to Health; they always turn out perfectly.
AJ: pancakes with maple syrup; raisins.

Both boys were too full to eat lunch after all the pancakes. So mid-afternoon I made a "picnic" plate and they demolished it. Anytime I make a shared platter of food and serve it on the playroom floor over a towel, or outside on the picnic table, they call it a picnic.
Today's picnic: Veggie Booty; almonds; dill pickle pieces; cucumber slices; baby carrots; apple slices with peanut butter for dipping; crunchy peas.

Meanwhile, I whipped up a grilled chreeze & tomato sandwich on 12-grain bread with the leftover chreeze sauce from earlier in the week. I usually use the Melty Nutritional Yeast Cheese recipe from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook with a little added cornstarch.

Friday:
AJ & Ryan: melon (& strawberries for Ryan); pasta salad.
I figured out why AJ didn't eat his honeydew melon the other day, something he normally loves; apparently "the giraffe was sad"...I explained that if he held the giraffe fork upside-down it would look like a smile, and that made him happy, but I decided not to chance it and I put in a regular fork today instead.

Italian Pasta Salad
1 box pasta (I often mix half a box of whole grain flax rotini with half box tri-color rotini)
1 head broccoli, chopped & steamed (or 1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets)
1 large tomato, diced
1 can chick peas, drained & rinsed
1/2 can sliced black olives
1/4 cup onion (I often leave the raw onion out of the boys' portions)
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 cup olive oil (or a mix of olive & walnut oil is delicious too)
1 T. dried oregano
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Cook pasta. (Add broccoli during last 3 minutes of cooking if using frozen variety. Rinse under cold water and drain. Place in large bowl.
Add vegetables & chick peas.
In a measuring cup, mix last 6 ingredients for the dressing. Pour over pasta salad and mix.

Makes great leftovers to eat over the next day or so.