Minion Mayhem

The begining of this school year has been a joyride for sure. My son has missed both Monday and Tuesday of this week to being sick. Which he was pretty much all weekend. I am not amused. I am however glad he is now feeling well and we can continue with our normally scheduled program.

So with Kinder-Minion making cookies he wanted to be sure to take them in his lunch so we had to make that happen. Instead of making something planned we went with leftovers and tamagoyaki minions which are really nothing more than a simply flavored super duper thin egg omelet that has been rolled tightly in an oval shape and then sliced into ovals. The stir fried cauli rice and beef was season in mexican rice flavors, cumin and black pepper and salt and a pinch of oregano and fried up with beef. Which of course requires ketchup. In the center there are a few gummy hearts and i large gummy bear that i made with beef gelatin and some syrup for making big red zero. and last but not least his fruit which was green and black olives.  Thankfully everything came home empty this day.

Raspberry Rainbow Dash meringues, carrots sticks, ketchup squeezy, home made Big Red Zero flavored gummies, black and green grapes, Tamagoyaki minions with ham, seaweed and cheese face, and cali-rice and beef stir fry in  a planet box.

the mouths show up better with seaweed than with ham

Tools used:Rover  Planet box which i ordered on at a super discount from pottery barn kids when a pattern was discontinued and i actually got one for my daughter as well when i found one on ebay that i won for about $15. i think I got both of them together for about $35 total. Sometimes it pays to bargain hunt in this case. The squeezy for the ketchup is actually one of my awesome finds and I find I am using these constantly anymore as they are good for so many things. I got a set of 3 from World Market which has 1 red, 1 yellow, and one clear for about $2 and I believe i found a set of all clear from walmart for about the same or maybe a dollar more.  I have used them more often than not for peanut butter and jelly which allows both of my kids to make their own sandwiches without help. Or to make cracker sandwiches. i have them filled with, ketchup, pizza or spaghetti sauce, lemon curd, SF chocolate frosting or chocolate nut butter, SF syrup for pancakes, for my daughter mayo or mustard since my doesn't like them. They have allowed my kids to be alittle more independent, and less messy while doing it. Plus it is fun for them so that makes it easier for me on so many fronts. I like not having to make for them sometimes and since i keep them filled in my fridge in the "butter" dish they can fend for themselves and it buys me a few more minutes in the morning of sleep time. I can't recommend them enough.

My Son the Baker

Today I would have to say was a good day despite not being able to breathe most of the day. kinder-minion had a great day at school. They had a fundraiser at our school to raise money for a playground since the school just had the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new school 3 weeks ago they are still working on the outside for now. Their goal was to hit 15,000 and they raised 20,000 so that is huge. He had fun running laps plus it wore him out and I am always a huge fan of that. Even better is since school has started we have moved from a 2+hour pickup (school is drop off and pick up only since there are no buses) to about 20ish minutes and that's awesome.

Lunch today was another make it yourself meal which he seems to totally love. I honestly think it is just the idea he has control over what and how he wants to eat his lunch. The only think he came home with was his cucumbers and broccoli which he ate in the car ride home. And his Apple the second we walked in the house.

Lunch: 3 mini pizza crusts, squeeze bottle of pizza sauce, shredded cheese, green and black olive slices, pepperoni, cucumbers, broccoli, grapes and blueberries and strawberries and for snack an apple and 3 small cookies we made at home. 

Because I got a lot accomplished at home and I have a few plans for some design ideas for soap I had the idea of practicing with my piping tips. Rather than just piping icing or wasting fresh soap batter, I decided to make meringues and to make kinder-minion help by showing him how it's done. He picked his colors and I mixed and showed him how to color the bag. I showed him how to pipe 2 and he did the rest. He did such a great job. I was so proud of him. I just had to keep reminding him to slow down. When he worked slow his cookies came out perfect. I was impressed. Others came out crazy wonkey which made him laugh which was hysterical.  Before he even knew we were going to be baking cookies today he said after his book when he got home he wanted to watch the kids baking cook off show. A boy after my own heart. :) I got to practice of my piping which came out just ok. But the tip I wanted to use just didn't work with this medium. So back to square one. The flavor he picked was strawberry but I think they taste like cotton candy. What better way to blend that strawberry flavor than using chocolate though yum! Tomorrow he want to sandwich his with lemon curd for strawberry lemon meringue cookies. This boy has some great tastes! He picked all his colors too for a Rainbow Dash cookie. His sister is gonna love the my little pony bites. It indeed was a great day and I am looking forward to the last day of school week tomorrow.

 I have to say, when he was paying attention he was spot on. But his giggles on the blobs we the best thing on making these!

Tiny Strawberry Rainbow Dash Meringues

Seriously!?! how perfect did some of these get?

How do I heart my Kinder-Minion, let me count the ways...

 Practicing my piping, just with the wrong tip :(

 Despite my original tip I had planned to practice with not working I at least got to practice with this one and I don't think they turned out half bad.

Especially when sandwiched with CHOCOLATE ganache!

Insta meal and sleep

It seems that Kinder-Minion is finally back to his old self. He is doing amazing and wants to take care of me since he got me sick, he is too sweet. He originally wanted me to make him tomato soup and grilled cheese but I am lucky i even got up this morning. I run through the daddy back up plan of PB&J and an apple and cheese stick for him in the event i didn't wake up. Fortunately everything worked it self out and I did wake up. 

Sandwich pepperoni wrapped around cheddar and ham slices wrapped around mozzarella. thinking back I prolly should have paired that different. snap peas, pickles, carrots, cantaloupe and blueberries

not pictures is a serving of maria cookies and a squeezy bottle of peanut butter served in a lock n lock container.

I am not anticipating leftovers since this is a normal quick lunch that I think of a lunchable where i don't care nor want to do anything even though i know it is much better and cheaper than an actual lunchable. After making lunch I headed back to bed. I am clocking out for the day and will make his lunch tonight if I am feeling up to it. Goodnight everyone and have a super day!

The Plague!

 Well I was super exciting knowing that we planned on dropping off my son today at school and then going to pick up his sister. Of course we all know what happens when you make plans right? I woke up this morning and felt like i was swallowing razor blades. Awesome. I didn't want to but i made lunch anyway and the new plan was to drop of my son and head to urgent care. This was brought to you by me preplanning meals from complicated to crazy easy and not wanting to make food.

Lunch: Ikea meatballs, red and yellow watermelon balls and cantaloupe balls, 3 crackers and cubed cheese and some snap peas. served in a Beaba multiportion babyfood container. All of the cups are 5 oz. Not shown snack was a mini bag of animal crackers

I am ever so thankful that i prepped all the fruit and cheese on Sunday when I wasn't sick because i definitely did not want to be doing it today. When he got home we found out this meal was another success because he had Zero leftovers today.

Going to the urgent care found out I have a severe case of strep. The white blisters go all the way down my throat and some are bleeding. On top of it I also have a sinus infection so I can breath out of one side of my face while the other side is runny. Seeing as how I use a CPAP machine at night to breath. This is proving to be a challenge. Not a happy camper. I know it does no good to whine about it. So I am gonna do it here. Damn you Plague... *shakes fist in the air* GRR, ARGH...

Monday and back to school YAY!

 So hooray it looks like Kinder-minion is feeling well enough to go back to school today and I am so happy. We wanted to wait till end of day before deciding on when we were gonna go get mini minion in case we got a call from the school again asking for us to go and pick him up. He seemed to be doing fine but was a bit spacey so we are erring on the side of caution.

Lunch today was a bit of a rush since we have been going to bed so early.

left to right. celery sticks, bread rounds, apple rounds

apple rounds, homemade peanut butter, cheese rounds

grapes, bread rounds and carrot sticks in a 

Kiddo Feedo 9 section silicone mold

So i learned something today. Unless i have something to secure a sauce, it isn't recommended in this container. Apparently his peanut butter exploded everywhere. It was a mess to clean at that point however he ate everything except half a round of apple slices and half of his celery which i expected anyway since he does not like celery unless it has peanut butter on it. Despite the peanut butter fiasco I would call this a success.

Happily since we haven't picked up mini minion yet I had a chance to work on and clean up after a soap project today and I am very happy with how it turned out. I have them scented in a Fragrance called Spanish Fly and it smells oh so sexy. And despite dropping my squirt bottle in the middle of the wet soap and messing up the design i think i was still able to salvage it decently.

I cannot wait for the cut. These will be my dragon egg soaps. These are also 100% olive oil so they are my castile soaps and will be super moisturizing. I have only made one other castile and it cured for just over a year. It is wonderfully bubbly and makes my skin feel nice and soft.

1st week of school and strep throat.

So i made lunch for a total of 3 days. 1st day half day, they fed my minion Chic Fila. Awesome. @nd Day, he ate everything except maybe an ounce of his thermos of homemade spaghetti Oh's and was still hungry. So his first week turned out to be a day and a half. That makes me soo sad. So obviously instead of blogging during this time I have spent it will the sick one. Thankfully he is on the mend though he is still not at 100%. I am just hoping he is well enough before end of tomorrow so that he can return to school on Monday. I did take photos of the 2 other days he did go to school though.

  Day 2. I packed for him his favorite Homemade spaghetti Oh's. Sometimes he even helps me shape the Oh's, that take forever doing by hand but they are a nice mindless activity to do while watching television. I like to make them as thin as i can get. Sauce has cottage cheese, ground beef, spinach, zucchini, squash and mushrooms. In his Zoli Sumo, I used 3 tiers. 2 for lunch and one for his snack. 1st tier had green and black olives from the deli, snap peas and cherry tomatoes, the 2nd tier had pitted cherries and his snack or 3rd tier had boiled eggs, ham rolls and cheese chunks and the tiny pink tupperware under the egg was filled with crunchy shriracha peas. In his thermos i used a Reduce thermal insulated jar for his pasta.

I love his Zoli Sumo. Honestly I had thought I would get rid of some of the things i had gotten for them both when they were babies. But happily I have found that many things I purchased are still proving thier usefulness to me. They are great for snack or mini meals when stacking them up. The thermos I got at Krogers on visit to my mom's house and found them on sale for $5 each.

I was also super excited he had an awesome 1st full day of school and the teacher sent him home with a note.

On Wednesday before he was sent home I packed him leftovers in his Planetbox. and snack in one of his Zoli tiers. Sesame and Soysauce steamed edamame, Meatballs and cheddar, Blueberries and strawberries, leftover stir fried rice triangles and hearts with soy sauce fish bottles and for dessrt was a homemade BigRed (soda flavor) gummy bear and a mint chocolate date ball.

for his snack he had a boiled egg car and cheese stick with a side of mixed dried fruit and nuts (walnuts, almonds, pepitas dried cranberries, blueberries and raisons)

this all came home with him because he was sick. He ate some of it but the strep was already starting to really bother his throat. Hopefully next week he can go the whole time and feel much better. He is missing the whole getting to know you and your school week of the school. I haste when my baby is sick.

First Day of School!!!!

So Today was my kinder-minions 1st day of school and I am soo happy it was a success! He loved it and it was super nice spending a half day with my pre mini minion. Last night we did some prep work in the kitchen for lunches with proteins and some precooking and leftovers for this weeks lunches. we made his favorite pasta in bulk and i portioned it all out to fit inside his thermos so that he has a total of 6 meals ready to go in the freezer. Then we made a batch of corn dogs in a cake pop maker. We mixed a batch of corn bread up and then separated enough batter for 2 "cakes" of batter and then added a chopped up cooked hot dog and a half. It made 3 cakes. it also made a total of 6 servings of said cakes, Awesome.

     So after filling out our weekly menu I needed to figure out what lunch box i planned to use and since the one I originally wanted to use had not come in yet I decided that the plane box would work fine since it is all dry foods in the box anyway. Here is what the weekly menu looks like.

     Now obviously all of this is likely to change. But this helps me dramatically when budgeting and grocery shopping. Today's menu was corndog balls, carrots and broccoli, cheese sticks, strawberries and grapes, pickles and olives and date balls were snack. Which laid out nicely in his planet box. I even added a small squeezy pouch of ketchup. Which my non sauce or dressing child had very recently now accepted as an ok thing to have as long as it is a small amount and he can do it himself. WINNING!

     now of course after seeing all of this mind you I started thinking maybe I packed too much food and began to wonder how much of this was he going to be bringing back home with him. I was very very upset to find out he would be bringing home ALL of it.  SO, first day of school we received a notice saying that lunch would be offered free for the first day as it was being catered from chic-fila. Now while this is exciting for some people and back in the day i would have been excited too, however. I am proud of the fact that our kids at the age of 4 and 5 have never eaten at a fast food restaurant before. We have never taken them. We do not feed them processed junk, we try not to even buy it. I normally make for my kids and they enjoy eating TONS of fruit and veggies because that is all they have ever had as options. Sure i make special treats for them, I am not a monster, But i enjoy cooking and making things from scratch and knowing what goes in it. They do not melt down for wanting to live off fries or chicken nuggets because those have never been an option to them. So when I heard that it was fast food take out (i was really excited to finally get to make my son his lunch and get to use all the boxes i have been collecting for this very day) i gladly still packed his lunch. When picking him up, honestly i was looking forward to finding out how i had done for him and what he had left. so when he ran and jumped into my arms and I asked him how his day was, he immediately asked me. "mommy, can I please eat my lunch?" I asked him if he had any left and he told me he was not allowed to eat his lunch because they gave him chicken nuggets, chips and a juice box. Livid was an understatement. I felt so bad and also so angry that the 1st time my kids were exposed to this was at school. i am not naive that my kids will eventually trade food with other kids, or that there will be parties and i cant control what they eat. But I packed him food. Just cus it is free doesn't mean that it is ok if i still pack him his lunch. What was very eye opening is he had eaten only 2 hours prior and within 10 minutes in the car, this was his full container of lunch.

He ate like he had never been fed. He drank so much water from all the fast food salt. and then told me he loved me and he LOVED LOVE LOVED his lunch. Today as we were getting ready for song before bed I asked him what we would like me to put in his lunch and told him his options i had written down for the week,. He crawled into my lap and hugged me and whispered in my ear "Surprise me." Seriously. I love my lil minion. He made my heart melt. I planned on sending a note to school with him to his teacher. I obviously don't know if he was told he could not have his lunch, or if he didn't tell the teachers he had brought his lunch or if he just followed and never said anything since he can be very shy. But since I can still walk him to his classroom till labor day. I plan to just let her know, if i send him with food. please feed it to him. Please don't give him unapproved crap without permission from either my husband or I. Am I wrong for feeling this bent out of shape over this? 

Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge Club.

One of my great joys is making soap. I love to craft with all sorts of mediums but none bring me this imense satisfaction of making soap. I have entered quite a few times and even been successful in placing a couple times., Though I will stand by beginers luck. This challenge was the Dancing funnel pour and I attempted this design 6 different times, only one had come close by my 5th time and I was going to attempt to enter my only successful one that was still not what it was supposed to be as shown here:

But at the last possible moment I thought I would try one more time. Every previous batch got so thick that it was impossible to do what I needed it to. It was like scooping shortening. I even had one harden up so bad in my squeeze bottles that I ended up throwing them away because they hardened so badly I had to go out and buy new bottles.  This final batch used 6 colors (because i am a glutton for punishment) I used activated charcoal for the black and Nurtures soap Neons. I scented in Avobath since I am down to my last bar and went to work. I was soo happy I tried one more time. It stayed super smooth and fluid, smelled fantastic and most importantly let me do the layers I needed to have done for the design. I have no idea why it worked this time and not the others. Possibly my lard was too cold at room temperture, but regardless, this batch came out beautiful. Now I am praying that letting it rest in the dehydrator will let it harden it up fast enough to let me cut into it and get photos before the deadline. I am writing this in advance so that if i am able to cut in time I wont have to write out a blog post and then end up cutting through the skin of my teeth to make it in. I figured if I can have everything ready until the cut then I might have a fighting chance. I look forward to seeing the cut, I love the colors and am just thrillled that it actually turned out. I really got lucky on this one.

sorry for the bad lighting on this one. It was well after midnight and we have pour lighting.

So hooray I got my entry in with literally 2 minutes to spare. It was so soft to cut that I was tearing my soap and I had to wash it to get it to not looked ripped for photos. So unfortunately I think it came off as slimy and I had no time to dry them off or even take a new set of photos. With my computer running slow motion unfortunately that is the way the cookie, or soap in this matter crumbles. I am super pleased with how it came out though and having the house smell like AvoBath is an added bonus. I cant wait to look at everyones entry and good luck to everyone!

Hubby and the kids dubbed this soap Dance of the FireFlies.

I am happy to be back home. Now that we have visited most of my family and hubbys, I can get back on track. I have not made anything special for lunches but I have been doing quite the overhall on getting everything organized and still waiting on an item or 2 to come in the mail I believe on the 2nd day of school. Looking through old photos I have also found that i have lunch boxes and supplies that I dont even remember getting but sure enough i have photos of them with meals i made for my minions so I have been questing questing questing, looking for that box. I was happy to have found 2 of them so I am excited to get to use some of them now that school is underway. 

Before I left my parents house in WV I did find a few new gadgets in the reduced rack at a kitchen store so that was exciting and I cant wait to use them as well. Here is one of them.

 Bananas, homemade yogurt, grapes, cherry tomatoes and peanut butter jelly in a push pop mold.

ice sphere mold made with mexican rompope gelatin. (visual fail)

SO i got 4 push pop molds for $1 and i found a sphere mold to make giant ice cubes, or raindrop cakes. you should totally google that if you don't know what it is though i do plan to make them since i found said molds. The first thing i did was try to make jello to see how easy it is to release. It releases very well. However at the top of the mold are little holes so that you can use the funnel to insert to fill the spheres when the case closes. Note: avoid using flesh colored jello. We could not stop laughing. They are oh so jiggly...

i don't have a photo of the snack cases but I will once i make something for them. I cant believe just 2 more days till the 1st day of school!

Starting Fresh

     Today is a new Day. It has been a very long time since I have sat in front of the computer to blog. I do find that I have missed it. My little minions were possible only new arrivals and now my oldest will be starting kinder in a few weeks and I am overjoyed with the extra time I will not only have for myself but also for also to spend with my daughter.

my Pre mini-minion

   
     With the buzz and excitement going around my son getting ready to start school, this has presented all sorts of "challenges". The biggest one being I am not a morning person. I have been spoiled in the fact that my son is also not really a morning person and that he would happily stay up till 9 and wake up at 10 in the morning each day. I was all to eager to let him. So trying to get him to bed earlier and all of us waking up early has been, well...lets just say, we are still trying. I am determined to have all of us in a routine, a healthy one. So i sadly wave goodbye to my late mornings and my 3 am bedtimes for myself. Moving onward.

my kinder-minion

     For the fun part now. For those who know me know I am a foodie and my husband is a converted foodie. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love love love to travel and taste food and eat and learn to make even more delights. I think while this blog will likely cover everything from daily life so that I can have something to look back on, to my love and joy of crafting. I have a feeling when all is said and done this will be mostly a blog on food and our travels for it. While searching for ideas for school lunches for my son and starting school. I was reminded of my love of collecting lunch boxes and set,  about to researching the boxes I already own (some since I was little) and new ones. I found I had trouble finding alot of inspiration. Yes I was able to find some pretty amazing blogs that helped greatly, but not for specific boxes. This clicked the light bulb in my head that I used to do fancy fun lunches for a long time and I really enjoyed doing it. Why not kill some birds and do some reviews on boxes I already have. And post photos of lovely ideas for them.

     If it can help one person make a decision then I am ok with that. If anyone wants to leave tips or ideas I am definitely ok with that. And I can save one person from "wasting" their money on something that simply does not do what they want it to do Then HOORAY for saving money. Here are some photos I had taken 3 years ago when I was taking pics for my then almost 2 year old and lunches for me. I will also include some photos of things i use that are not a lunch box and food ideas i used for myself that may be helpful. especially for varying appetites and how long lunch or food needs to last. I am interested in how I will vary and make alterations since my son is my picky eater while my daughter is my garbage disposal and I cant thing of anything at the moment that she wont eat. My son does not like sauces or dips or dressings. It has only been very recent we have gotten him to taste and eat ketchup. Sometimes we forget and that makes it hard when we have some things like casseroles or slaws or dressed pastas and salads. Though I am grateful he does spaghetti ok. Things have changed a bit since he was two.

These are a few of his old lunches:

This is not even a lunch box, this I found in tackle fishing section at Walmart for about $4, You could also use a bead sorter container as long as it has movable slots to make it the size you want. This was spiced apple slices with stevia, the middle was the snack section with a chocolate truffle, almonds and a couple orange esscence prunes. Peanut butter jelly sandwhich slices, cucumber and radish salad, cheese chunk, snow peas.

boiled egg and cheese, watermelon grapes, rolled peanut butter jelly, "baby cabbage" or brussels sprouts, carrot stars. Plates from Target.

Planet Box lunch box, Fish cakes with sour cream and guac for dip, mixed fruit with cream cheese. boiled eggs, steamed broccoli and purple cabbage, roasted radish and purple potato carrot, asparagus and corn on the cob. 

segmented oranges, grapes (uvas) feremented carrots and steamed sesame snow peas,

lemon orzo with roasted veggies and tomato and seaweed rolls. this whole meal was to use up leftovers in the fridge. Plate is Mothers Corn baby made from recycled corn.

Kangovou plate with grilled cheese and roasted red pepper hummus hearts,

grapes and strawberries, veggie chips and homemade coconut dates

Tovolo extra large ice cube tray, serving cheese sticks, snap pea chips, turkey and Roni roll ups, strawberry and orange with olives

     These are just a few that I have found I saved photos from. I will be doing reviews of all the ones I have posted as well as the ones I have not yet posted. Stay tuned and I hope to here from you all soon :)