Lunchbox Idea: Pizza Bites and Menu Plan

Around our house, we're trying to get back in the routine of school.  I'm sure its similar around your house. In the next couple weeks, soccer and piano lessons will begin.  After school has been pretty mellow with homework and downtime.  My 7 year old has been really helpful over the last week, helping with chores and doing a great job being responsible with homework.  I've seen him grow up so much in the last couple weeks!

This year, for school lunches, I thought I would try to make a few things on the weekend to store in the fridge and make lunch prep quicker on school days.  Over the next couple weeks, I will share some of these recipes.  

Pizza Bites

(modified from Dishing the Divine)

1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)

2 eggs

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup mozarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup pepperoni, finely sliced

1 small can sliced olives

1 TBSP fresh oregano, finely chopped

1 TBSP fresh basil, finely chopped

1 TBSP grated parmesan

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin cups with cooking spray.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add wet ingredients and spices.  Add toppings. Mix together until combined.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 of the way and bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Allow to cool and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Serve with pizza sauce, if desired.   Place in lunch box, they will defrost by lunch time!  My son ate them every day for lunch last week!

Breakfast:

yogurt

bagels

english muffins

cereal

Lunch:

Chicken Salad

cheese and crackers

Sandwiches

Dinner:

Monday: Portabella Mushroom Sandwiches and baked asparagus fries

Tuesday: Greek Gyros

Wednesday: Cheese Spaghetti with broccoli

Thursday: leftovers for the boys, I will be doing Back to School Night

Friday: Pizza Night

Dessert: Peach Cobbler

I'll be linking to Menu Plan Monday, Mouthwathering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday,  Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits,  At the Table Tuesdays, What's on the Menu Wednesday, This Chick Cooks, Full Plate Thursday, and What's for Dinner?

Ham and Cheese Pockets and Menu Plan

I thought I'd share one of my latest creations.  I made these last weekend, and they were delicious!  Such a great lunch for cold, rainy days.  I froze them and enjoyed a couple for breakfast this morning.  Yum!
                                      
Ham and Cheese Pockets

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup water, warm (100-110F)
• 1/2 buttermilk(100-110F)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and unbleached flour)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp butter, room temperature

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or in a large bowl if you prefer to mix by hand, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. Add in bread flour and salt and mix well with a dough hook. Cut the softened butter into three or flour pieces and drop them into the dough, letting the mixer blend them in.
Knead (with a mixer or by hand) for about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl and let rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.

Filling:

6-8 slices deli ham sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

2 green onions, sliced 

1/3 cup Greek yogurt (you can use cream cheese too)

1/4 cup grated cheese (I used a combination of mozzarella and sharp cheddar)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick.  Using a cutter, cut into 3 inch diameter circles.  Drop 1tablespoon of the filling onto half the cut rounds, then fold over and seal the edges with your thumb.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until outside is browned and crisp.  

Breakfast:

english muffins (homemade) with peanut butter or nutella

cereal

granola

Lunches:

quesadillas

sandwiches

spinach salad

Dinners:

Sunday: balsamic marinated flank steak with tomato and chorizo salad, asparagus

Monday: BBQ turkey sandwiches with caesar salad

Tuesday: It's Little Man's 7th birthday.  He wants Mommy's Mac n Cheese

(gives me warm fuzzies that he could have anything he wants or go out, and he asks for this!)

Wednesday: Spicy Chicken and Rice Noodles

Thursday:  leftovers or take-out

Friday: Homemade pizza with Beer Battered Pizza Dough

I'm linking up with Menu Plan Monday, Mouthwathering Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday,  Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, What's on the Menu Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, What's for Dinner?  and This Week's Cooking.

More lunch ideas

It seems on most of the mom blogs I read, I'm finding lunch ideas lately.  Must be back to school time!  I went to familyfun.com and found so many ideas under the recipe section.  With Halloween approaching soon, I love Hot Dog Mummies, and with football season, Mini Footballs are so cute!  (I even have teriyaki meatballs from Costco in the freezer!)  I'm going to have to try this snake with cucumbers from our garden!  I hate snakes and my son will get a kick out of me putting one in his lunchbox.

Last night, my son and I made these together, and he loves them!  He wanted to make sure he has them in his lunch again tomorrow.

For hubby and I this week, I made pasta salad as a change from sandwiches.  He says he likes it!

OK, off to make our lunches!

What are you making for lunch tomorrow?

Lunchbox ideas

My son and I sat down tonight to make a list of things he'd like to have in his lunch.  Here's what we came up with...

Tortilla wraps with cream cheese, salsa, cheddar and lettuce

mini bagel pizzas

cheese, salami and crackers

mini bagels with cream cheese

turkey sandwiches

quesadillas

pasta with parmesan

leftovers

almond butter sandwiches

tuna salad and crackers

cream cheese/walnut spread


Do you have anything else your kids like?

Quick lunch

Yesterday, we had a busy afternoon, but our morning was lazy.  I started making my son's lunch and realized that if we were going to get to his playdate on time and I was going to get a couple errands run, I needed to pack lunch for the car.   I didn't want to stop anywhere and spend money and eat junk!  So, this was my quick throw together lunch for my son while we were on-the-go!  Its in his laptop lunchbox, which I have raved about before!

Peanut butter and honey sandwich, proscuitto wrapped cantaloupe (toothpicks left over from last spring), carmel corn (hubby and I couldn't resist it last week at Costco) and carrots.  Like I said, it was quick and easy!

Lunch- woohoo!

I love packing lunches for my husband and my son. My husband laughs at me because he says I take so much care and time to do it. My perspective is that I can tell them both how much I love them during the day by taking a couple minutes to make their lunches special. My son is with his dad all week. When I went up to visit him today at lunch, he asked if I'd make his lunch on Wednesday. Sure! So, alas, I want to come up with something fun and special. I think I'll be doing a little extra lunch browsing this week to see what I can come up with! Let me know if you have any ideas for me. I think homemade brownies or cookies may be involved!

Busy elves!

Yes, I was busy tonight! In addition to making snickerdoodles and Craisin white chocolate chip cookies, I also made an extra special lunch for my 5 year old. I was really excited by how it turned out so I wanted to share!



I made a gingerbread man cheese quesadilla with craisin buttons on a bed of shredded carrots, a snickerdoodle made by me, broccoli steamed in the microwave for 30 seconds with a little cheese, and honey bunny crackers with craisins. The note says, "Hi John Christopher, your mommy asked me to tell you she loves you! Gotta run, here comes the fox! GM" His kindergarten class has been doing their gingerbread man theme the last 2 weeks, so I wanted to do something to go with that. I can't wait to hear what he thinks!