WFLW - Mr. Apple And The Worm

For this week's after-gym bento, I wanted to do another fun food face. Again with the apple, since we have loads of them. But his time with a little extra fun! And I got to use my brand new Goodbyn!

Top to bottom, left to right: Monterey Jack cheese leaves, gummy vitamin, Turkey/pickle sandwich with cucumber 'apples'; Water, caramel dip from McD's;
Broccoli and green beans, apple slices and Mr. Apple, carrots and Ranch

The "idea" was an apple theme, so I did Mr. Apple, in a broccoli "tree" with carrot "twigs" and cucumber "apples" with the sandwich to tie it all together. The gummy worm is actually coming out of a hole I cut in the apple.
I was all excited planning out our lunch the night before. Luckily I did most of the work Monday night, since Tuesday morning I dinked around until 40 minutes before class... and still had to shower, get us dressed, finish the lunches, and get to gym!
As I was figuring out what to put in the lunches and where it would all go, I realized a fatal error in my plan... the Goodbyn is bigger than any of my cooler packs! So I packed it all up with everything but the sandwich (and hadn't put the gummy worm in with the apples yet,) froze the water bottle, and put the whole Goodbyn in the fridge to cool overnight.
I cut out the cheese the night before, and put scraps in an EasyLunchbox for myself. I sliced the carrots and broccoli too. Cut the apple and carved the face, then sloshed in apple juice to prevent browning and piled them all in. I also cut a few cucumber coins and used an apple-shaped cutter. The extra coins went into my lunch. I sliced thins from the broccoli stem too, since they were such a hit last time.
I had planned on doing fancy PBJs or roll-ups or something the morning of, but when faced with no time, I whipped up some leftover turkey sandwiches on leftover potato rolls. Buttered for me, mayo for her, and I found a partially sliced pickle left in the fridge to pickle-fy them.
As I was putting hers in the box and taking pics, she came in, got a plate out of her cupboard, and swiped my sandwich off the cutting board. Argh. So I just grabbed some pita bread to go with the hummus for my lunch.

PB (for dipping apples,) cheese scraps, torn pita bread,
carrot/broccoli/cucumber/green bean mix,
and hummus in the KidsKonserve container

The gummy worm was snatched out and inhaled
before my camera was ready.
Then she actually LOOKED at her lunch!

After spitting out the first 3 bites of green bean (why she kept trying them I'll never know!) she decided she liked them after all and ate all of hers plus most of mine! She dipped the broccoli (and several apples) in the caramel sauce (ick) and ate the tops off. She kept licking the cheese then dropping it on the floor. I finally confiscated them. She had several big bites of sandwich and all of the pickle. And, of course, the gummy worm and vitamin. I'm fairly sure she ignored the carrots, but between us we finished off most of the lunch.

Bonus bento:
She slept in Monday before preschool and missed breakfast, so I packed a lunch to snack on for the way to and from school.

Sliced cheese stick, gummy vitamin (Ranch in Smidget underneath,) green beans,
half of a PBJ (with PB/Nutella sandwich rolls underneath,) sliced apples, sliced carrots.
Hummus in KidsKonserve container.

She ate most of the sandwich, gummy vitamin and a carrot stick during school before I cut her off to leave room for the school snack (it was my day in the Parent Ed room, so I brought her lunch in just in case.) After class she ate all the cheese and parts of the PB/Nutella roll-ups. I don't know if she ate any beans or carrots, but she had smeared Ranch in unlikely places, so she probably had some veggies. As far as I could tell, all the apples were left behind.

Food Play - Mr. Apple And His Turkey Sandwich

I was browsing a thrift store with my sister recently, when I came across the book Food Play by Saxton Freymann mistakenly placed in with the cookbooks.
Well. Let me tell you. His food sculptures are crazy good. He takes fruits and vegetables and uses their natural features, plus a little creative carving, to make faces and figures. You can see some of the pictures at Amazon.com, plus more from his other books. Just amazing. And inspiring!
So Saturday, for lunch, I decided to have a little fun.
Little Z wanted a turkey sandwich for lunch. (No surprise there. She's been asking for them a lot lately. Luckily, we have many Thanksgiving leftovers and can oblige!) We were low on bread as I recall, and my husband was running errands (including a trip to the grocery store for bread) so I decided to use my last little sandwich bread round, since I bought them in October and didn't want to save it until it got stale or moldy! She likes mayo and sliced pickles on her turkey sandwiches too. I prefer butter. I'm good either way on the pickles.

I also found some mini apples in our apple-and-bread basket. No clue where they came from, but probably the Farmer's Market on the way to the bus stop from my husband's work. Anyway, this tiny apple inspired me to do something fun.

Nothing too complex. And nowhere near as skilled as my inspiration, but I'd never practice enough to be THAT good, so I'll settle. I just hacked out some eye holes and put in chocolate jimmies sprinkles for pupils. made a shallow outline for the mouth and used the tip of my knife to slowly slice under the peel to cut it out, then deeper cuts for teeth and the rest of the mouth. Little Z refused to eat it. I even took it back and peeled the peel off the back side (she doesn't like peel. I'll find a pile of little bit-off-and-spit-out peel bits if I give her an unpeeled apple.) She finally took a few tiny bites, then said I could eat it, then got upset when I ate his face off. The sprinkles gave it a nice flavor though.

Tried-It-Tuesday - Nugget Gobblers!

Link up or leave a comment on something new you've done, cooked or tried this past week!

This week, despite the snow, we had a little visitor visit us for several hours on Wednesday. One of my MOMS Club friends needed an emergency babysitter, so I gave it a shot! Luckily she had no food allergies, and only managed to put one small object in her mouth, but promptly spit it out when asked. I was warned that she didn't like meat much, so I put out snacks for the girls to graze on, so she wouldn't starve if she didn't like lunch.
I had originally planned to make Turkey Nuggets with my Kids Cooking Class on Tuesday, but we were snowed out. So I decided to use the thawed, cut turkey before it went bad! I found several recipes online, but grabbed this one when I was ready to actually make them. I was surprised that it didn't call for Panko breadcrumbs, as I could have sworn it did, and had had Unka Seesee pick some up when he bought the turkey. Turns out I had bookmarked two recipes, and was using the wrong one! Ah well. I ended up changing this one anyway.

Turkey Nugget Gobblers (My recipe)

Serves 4, or around 30 nuggets.
(Approx. nutrition info available through original recipe link. The different bread crumbs and seasonings I chose may change the nutrition content somewhat, but probably around 230 calories per serving, 5g fat, 33g protein, 11g carbs, 1g dietary fiber.)

1 pound boneless skinless turkey breast
1 egg
1/4 c milk [I used 2%]
1/4 c Parmesan cheese [I used the powdered kind]
1/2 c Panko bread crumbs
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Olive oil, vegetable oil or cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450 F/Bake.

Step 1: Cut turkey into 1-inch cubes.
Unka Seesee ended up buying a regular turkey breast, since it was half the price. After I finished sulking and acting juvenile, it occurred to me that I could ask him to help [thus avoiding having to touch raw meat! Scooooore!] rather than gripe about him choosing the kind I didn't know how to cut. I documented the violation of that poor turkey breast, but can't find the pictures now. So either buy boneless skinless, or know what you're doing. (Or call Unka Seesee.)

Step 2: In a medium-to-large bowl, beat egg and milk lightly.

Step 3: Place turkey cubes in egg mixture and coat thoroughly.
You can dump all the nuggets in and mix them to coat, or, with a smaller bowl, put in several nuggets at a time and use tongs or a fork to coat both sides.

Step 4: In a separate bowl, mix together bread crumbs, cheese and spices.

Step 5: Roll or press turkey nuggets in crumb mixture to coat evenly.

It works better if you put in just a few nuggets at a time. You could also have crumb mixture and some nuggets in a plastic baggie and shake the coating on.

Step 6:  Place nuggets on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until turkey is no longer pink inside.

The bottoms turned out a little dark, but they tasted great. So great, in fact, that my husband ate everything the girls and I didn't eat, leaving none for Unka Seesee to try!

The nuggets were a big hit with the ladies too! Little Z ate 3 or 4, and Baby Weena (who doesn't usually like meat) ate 3! I wasn't sure if Weena could feed herself with a fork, or if she liked ketchup, but she did a great job and seemed to enjoy dipping her nugget bits (I cut hers into smaller pieces for her.) Little Z opted for ketchup and Ranch, plus honey when she saw me dipping mine. (I like honey best!) She mixed all her dips together though. Ew.

Muffin Tin Monday - Snack Time With A Friend

It's been a busy week! Snowed-in Monday through Wednesday, a bout of flu or food poisoning Tuesday (we're thinking flu now, weird as it sounds. Z had a night of vomiting Wednesday night the week before, I had half a day of misery on Tuesday, then 4 days later (Saturday) my husband has a day of misery. Usually we catch stomach flu faster. BAM! BAM! BAM!) Then, of course, Thanksgivings Thursday and Friday!
But I had time to squeeze in a little fun! Wednesday I watched a friend's 18-month old because her regular sitter fell through at the last minute due to snow and such. I wasn't sure how it would go, since the girl has only met me a few times briefly, and once for dinner. Plus I'm terrified of watching other people's kids. I never feel comfortable. Except for my nieces and nephews; I feel free to yell at them, or wipe their bottoms, or whatever needs to be done.
It all went better than expected. "Baby Weena" didn't fuss at being left with relative strangers, and didn't fuss when Little Bossy Crankerton grabbed her toys away. The only problem was my house. I'm not a fantastic housekeeper, and we have lots of toys recommended for older kids, like My Little Pony Ponyville and Littlest Pet Shop, with a gazillion little plastic accessories. So while I look around normally and see things to avoid stepping on, with Baby Weena here, all I saw were choking hazards everywhere. I basically kept my eyes on her the whole time, which was kind of stressful.

She arrived before Z normally wakes up, so she had some time to explore on her own. I set up my new Dr. Sears Nibble Tray which arrived recently, and I hadn't had a chance to use it yet. It's actually smaller than I was expecting, so isn't really ideal for Little Z at this point, except as a snack variety tray at home. And I usually give her larger servings, so I'd either have to put fewer foods in or be willing to do refills. I hadn't pre-chilled the sauce portion of the tray (the green 'leafy' top,) and I didn't really want to have to clean up yogurt, so I left it off.

Baby Weena's tray:
Left to right: Raspberries, sliced string cheese (top and bottom,)
mini Saltines (top) and Cheerios (bottom,) and sliced apples. 

But for Baby Weena it was perfect! I was pleased when she'd keep coming back to graze, and she eventually left her pacifier behind for the rest of the visit. [No snarky comments on pacis at 18 months, please. It's not my child, and if Z had ever taken to the paci, I can't say that she wouldn't still be on hers at 2 and a half! And, at this point, if I could get her to switch from nursing at night to a pacifier, I. Totally. Would!]







When Little Z woke up, she came out and commandeered the snacks. She kept telling Baby Weena that she couldn't have any, so I told her that those were Weena's snacks, and she needed to share. That didn't work, so we made up a new tray for Z. I used a muffin tin so she'd have all the little compartments like on the nibble tray, which appeased her. Good thing I did, since I never got around to making our fancier Muffin Tin Monday meal this week!

Little Z's tray:
Clockwise from top left: Dried blueberries, sliced string cheese,
olives, raspberries, sliced apples, Goldfish crackers

The cheese was the biggest hit. They went through 4 sticks total. Next was raspberries. I'm not sure if Baby Weena had ever had one before, since she seemed unsure at first and gave a few to me, then watched Z eat some, before trying one herself. She made a big dent in them, and I'm fairly sure I had to do a refill at some point. The mini Saltines were also a hit. Z ended up eating all of her tray (plus much of Weena's first round of food) except for the dried blueberries. Yeah, yeah. No veggies. But this was set up from 9 to 11AM, so I wasn't going to sweat it. Plus I didn't know if Weena was skilled enough for uncooked carrots. My 'grains' category is kinda weak too, but we were running low on bread due to not being able to drive out on the ice and snow (we don't have AWD.)

This is my 'weakest' Muffin Tin Meal yet, with nothing out-of-the-box creative, and no foods shaped by me, but many of the other MTM submissions are simple, healthy meals like this, and I'm proud to post mine alongside! I'll still be green with jealousy over all the great ideas I didn't think up first, though!

We Had SNOW Much Fun!

Last year it didn't really snow. Her snow boots were just used for puddle splashin'. The year before there was a little snow, but she was just a larvae still, so didn't really get to enjoy it. 

But this year... THIS year... the fun begins!

Monday 11/22/10

It had snowed a little bit overnight, but nothing to write home about. As we were piling into the car to go to preschool, big, fat, fluffy flakes began to fall. My husband urged me to stay home, and since the windshield had as much snow again as had fallen the night before, in just the short time we got buckled, I agreed. Daddy was still home because he missed the bus, and he didn't want to drive his Mustang in the snow [Pfft! Why not? I'm sure performance tires do great on icy roads!] So he worked from home, and took Z outside during his lunch break.

She made snow angels! She's been aching to make snow angels! She makes 'carpet angels' and 'bedsheet angels' all the time! I don't even know where she learned about them.

All that practice paid off!

She was also a snow-eating fiend. She ate...

And ate...

And ate!

Unka Seesee even brought in a bowl of snow for her later, and we dribbled strawberry syrup on it... she made Daddy go back out for seconds!

Daddy started building a snowman. Little Z 'helped.' And then knocked it down. And then knocked it down again. And again.

Finally I distracted her (by letting her pelt me with snowballs) long enough for Daddy to finish. She wanted to eat the carrot nose!

Krusty the Snowman Pimp

For a while she would just dead-drop backwards into the snow to make snow angels. After a while she started rolling around in it. The next-door neighbor girl came out to play, so they had fun tromping around. When I first tried to jam her into her snowsuit she cried and fought me the whole time. Now she gets all excited to put it on to go outside! My sister found me the snowsuit at a thrift store for $8, and we bought the boots on clearance for $20. Money well spent! (I found the hat (with matching gloves) super cheap somewhere... it's sized for 7-year-olds, so it fell off a lot, but she loves it!) The mittens were on clearance for $1 at Toys R Us last year, so I snapped up a few pairs of extra-small! We had to change them out when they got too wet!
I, however, do not have snow gear. My cute new rain boots just didn't cut the mustard. And I only have knit gloves. My husband walks a bunch to and from the bus, so he just got some snow boots, and had thick winter gloves. Rat fink. On day 2 of snow, I wore longjohns from when I was pregnant (I didn't ever get too hot... I was always freezing up until the last month!) and doubled up on socks. Better, but not perfect.

"Hot toh-toh" was the only incentive that would lure her back in so I could get feeling back into my fingers and toes. She has had more hot cocoa in 2 days of snow than all previous times combined! (I have used the Ovaltine in her cold milk, but I use way less than recommended. At least the Ovaltine I got works for hot drinks too! Get some extra nutriments in there!)

WFLW & Tried-It-Tuesdays

I totally forgot to post a Tried-It-Tuesdays Monday night, but I didn't really do anything awesome this week. I had a Kids Cooking Class planned for Tuesday but we got snowed out. We did do our first bento breakfasts this week. One on Monday when our trip to preschool was aborted (due to snow) so she ate the snack I had packed, and another Tuesday, since I was cleaning the kitchen just in case people were coming despite the snow and icy roads, and Little Z saw my new little bento box and asked for a lunch in it (it was breakfast time, but she calls all the meals in my special containers, or with shaped food, "beautiful lunch" regardless what meal it is.)
But here's my bento for What's For Lunch Wednesdays! Normally I make my cool bento meal for after gym class on Tuesdays, but classes are cancelled for the week due to Thanksgiving, and I had my Cooking Class scheduled today anyway! Luckily I still got to squeeze this one in!

Chicken nuggets, Sweet potato fries, Ketchup and Ranch
Greek yogurt and Raspberries (Bento box $3 at Daiso!)

She loved it. She was up super early, (she woke me up at 4, and tossed and turned until I finally gave up at 6) so she was extra crotchety. She chose the bento box and enjoyed opening and trying to reassemble it, then got frustrated at any little mishap. She screamed that she wanted the pink plate when I got out a green one to nuke the nuggets on, but she still wanted to eat her food out of the box. Whatever.
This was a meal that really could only be done at home. If we'd gone out and about, she would have had to settle for cold nuggets and fries, and I would have had to put the dips in separate containers. But she is loving the honey-flavored Greek yogurt (as am I) and despite protesting the raspberries, ate every single one. She did have me squirt some actual honey onto the yogurt, since that's how I eat mine.

Monday's breakfast isn't really a bento, since I had each food in a separate tin, but I was excited to try out my new KidsKonserve containers.

Sliced string cheese, mini-Saltines, generic Froot Loops

Normally I don't give her a whole bowl of sugared cereal - usually I sprinkle a few Loops onto her Cheerios (Or Frosted Flakes onto Corn Flakes, or Cocoa Puffs onto Rice Krispies, etc.) But we were running late and she hadn't had breakfast, and I knew she'd eat them on the ride if they were all the Fruity-Os. She ended up eating all of the cheese, most of the crackers, and all the pink Os and maybe some other colors.

Because of all the snow, we also got to do something else new this week - play in snow!

For Tried-It-Tuesday, go ahead and link up or comment on something new you cooked, did or tried this week!

Operation: McDon't. Week 2. Epic Fail

Day 1. Monday. I almost went after preschool, but I sucked it up and drove past. She finished up the leftovers from her special Muffin Tin breakfast instead.

Day 2. Tuesday. I packed a lunch for after gym class because I had to pick something up from a friend's house. We went to a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner after my cute mani/pedi with my stepmother-in law (Gramma Barp) and her friend, and her friend's friend, and my stepsister-in-law (Auntie Kinzie)!

Day 3. Wednesday. We had pizza at the mall after ballet class, which is a fail, in my book, as it isn't any healthier or cheaper than McDonald's. [I had them water down the lemon-lime soda though. And they were out of lemonade.] Plus a pretzel at Auntie Anne's, but I will always get a pretzel if I even remotely have room in my belly for one, so I'm not going to count it. :P
Then we raced off to my sister's house to spend the night. We got a large Sweet Tea for me and a soft serve cone for her at McD's on the way over, since she refused to sleep on the ride and was starting to melt down, and I kept nodding off. They got us pizza for dinner. -_-

Day 4. Thursday. Little Z had been throwing up from 11pm until 3am, so we spent the day on water, Rice Crispies and Pedialyte. Auntie Kayneen and I took Piwu and snuck out and went shopping while Tually and Z stayed with Unka Rop. Surprisingly, Little Z did very well - she even took a nap while I was gone, and only cried a little when she woke up. By then she was ready for grapes, and did just fine. Wahoo! The girls had bread and noodles for dinner, and we had leftover pizza.

Day 5. Friday. Pancakes (courtesy of Unka Rop) and Corn Chex for breakfast (I had Lucky Charms!) We raced off to try and catch the ferry in time to have lunch with Daddy (missed the ferry, but he took a later lunch break after the next ferry.) We got Cheetos on the ferry and then fish and chips (and clam strips. Yum!) at Ivar's with Daddy. So technically fast food, for another day of fail. Ah well. Not that she ate much. If you combine all the food she ate Wednesday and Thursday, it wouldn't equal the amount she normally eats in a single meal. But she had a blast feeding the clam strip crumbs and french fries to the seagulls!

Day 6. Saturday. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner planned with my mother- and sister-in-law, plus some birthday presents to buy, so we took our special 2-day sale coupons in to the new Toys R Us/Babies R Us that just re-opened near us and got us some Buy 1 Get 1 50% off Lego sets for Tay's belated birthday and save for Christmas. I also had a coupon for a $10 gift card if you spend $75, so we were scouting for stuff for Z too. Zoobles singles were Buy 2 Get  1 Free, so we got her some as potty presents (she loves the Bakugan, and can mostly open and close them herself. These are WAY cooler, since they're animals, which she totally digs.) The sets were 25% off, so we got the Under The Sea one for the neighbor girl for Christmas, since she said she wanted it from a commercial and her mom had no idea what Zoobles were! We also got Z a tricycle for $100, and I had another coupon for $10 off a purchase of $100, so that was cool. They had a perfectly fine $40 trike, but this one has a removable push bar, which makes it easier for us to help her learn to pedal (the pedals go around, so she can keep her feet on them and feel how they make her legs move.) And a sun shade. And it was pink.
Anyway, we took too long, and still had to go to the grocery store to pick up stuff to take to Nana and Auntie Keesee's dinner, so we got McD drive-thru and ate it in the car while Daddy went to the grocery store. (Our other option was the pizza-by-the-slice that the grocery store sells, or Lunchables, but I view them as akin to McD as far as cost and nutrition. Plus I hate their pizza.) (Large Sweet Tea, some fries, and a McChicken for me.) She ate none of the yummy Thanksgiving feast, preferring to play with Tay and his Legos. Then on the hour-long drive home she requested "Apples and nuggets and fries and apples please." *sigh* So we got her another Happy Meal. I don't think she ate much of it though. She kept screaming that her lips hurt, so I'm guessing the salt from the fries stung her winter-chapped lips, because they certainly weren't too hot! Anyway, a total fail for the day.

Day 7. Saturday. Cereal for breakfast, leftover Muffin Tin Meal for lunch, and a PBJ for after-nap snack, and no dinner. Well, she ate some of the mixed veggies. She hasn't been eating much dinner lately. She still chows down during breakfast, lunch and after-nap snack though! [My husband brought back an Auntie Anne's pretzel for me when he went to the mall to exchange his new shoes while we napped. Oh, delicious, empty calories!]

Well... if you don't count the second McD trip Saturday night, since she really didn't eat any of it; or the much-needed soft-serve cone, we've only gone once in 2 weeks, which is more or less my goal... Lots of pizza for me this week though. Plus the deep fried fish and chips. And pretzels. [Omnomnom] But still. Only one meal at McDonalds!

Muffin Tin Monday - Gobble Gobble!

This week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Thanksgiving! Not a huge inspiration, nor a particularly engaging holiday for me. Race around to both families' gatherings, usually a 90 minute drive apart. Feel guilty that I don't cook or really participate, but not guilty enough to help handwash my mom's fine china!
A few years ago, my sister (Auntie Kayneen) was out of town with Unka Rop's family for Thanksgiving, but it's her favorite holiday, so she wanted to do one on Friday, the day after. It was great. My other sister and I spent a leisurely day with our respective in-laws on Thursday, then everyone got to devote all their attention to our family Thanksgiving on Friday. It. Was. Awesome. So we decided to do it like that every year. Hooray!

So for this Thanksgiving-themed meal, I spent days slaving away to create all the elements of a Thanksgiving dinner.

Clockwise from top left: Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Sage Stuffing, Pecan Pie,
"Turkey" sandwich, Apples and Raspberries

Are you done laughing in disbelief?

Well, really what happened is this: Nana and Z's cousin Lynnie's birthdays were the Sunday (11/21) before Thanksgiving this year, so we decided to do an early Thanksgiving/birthday party on Saturday (11/20.) Nana made stuffing, and Auntie Keesee (Lynnie's mom and my SIL) made the turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, pecan and pumpkin pies plus probably other stuff I'm forgetting. We brought a bunch of veggies to make a veggie tray, and a variety of dips, but they were never used, as we were 90 minutes late and arrived pretty much in time for dinner. My husband made a carrot cake for Nana while we were there.

I snagged a small sampling of everything from the leftovers and saved it. I chose a sunflower mini-cake/cupcake mold I found on eBay, since it was the most Autumn-y one I could find. Plus it has a nice rust color.

The green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and stuffing were somewhat of a no-brainer, as far as being chosen for this theme. The pecan pie was delicious, but the pumpkin pie was a little burnt on the edges, and by then I was too full to try any, and quite frankly I forgot about it when I was gathering my plate of leftovers. Sorry Keesee!

I used the apples to kind of represent apple pie, which is often a Thanksgiving meal item. And the raspberries I chose in lieu of cranberry relish for two reasons. 1) I don't really like cranberries and 2) I don't have any cranberry relish, and forgot to pack some with my leftovers.

But my favorite is the "Turkey" sandwich! I used a sesame hamburger-style bun, since it was already round and would save me some bread-cutting. I had planned on using a biscuit cutter on either a slice of bread or cheese to make a round head. But as I was assembling my meal, my husband was making a turkey sandwich, and Little Z was going wild for it. He put the mayo on the bread and was pulling apart turkey meat to lay on it, and Z was snarfing it up. Then she wanted to dip the turkey in mayo, so he put out an extra blob for her. Then she said she wanted pickles on it! We do pickles on our tuna fish sandwiches, and turkey ones look very similar.

So my husband sliced a pickle for his sandwich and asked if she was going to eat it, and she said no, that it was his sandwich! So I asked if she wanted pickle on hers, and she said yes. So he sliced up a pickle for me, and it made the perfect shape for a turkey neck and head! Sliced olives for the eyes. I quartered baby carrots lengthwise for the tail feathers and then cut a slice widthwise from one to make a triangular beak, then sliced a mini tomato in half and sliced a bit off the end to make the wattle. This was my second set of eyes and beak, as Princess kept snarfing them off as I was preparing the next bit.

The blue band-aid on her forehead is from a vicious wildcat attack Cooper, Auntie Keesee's cat, who was fed up with being smothered snuggled.

"Oh! How Byoo-duh-fuw!"

Snarfing the pickle first

She ate almost all of the sandwich, all of the raspberries (and asked for more,) and all the candied pecans off the pie. She just saw Lady and the Tramp, so she put the end of a carrot in her mouth and had me take it from her with my mouth. We did this 3 times, then I told her I was done, so she ate one, then started feeding Daddy. It was adorable, but I didn't take any pics, since it's kind of creepy-looking with an adult and a child. Heck, it's kind of grody watching 2 adults do it!

The Woombie Shower

My sister's house is a fun adventure for the house guest. They don't have central heating. They have a wood stove that heats the upstairs, and use a space heater in the downstairs guest and bath rooms. To add to the excitement, each of these space heaters has foibles. Like, you can't turn one of them all the way up. Only 2/3rds of the way. And you can't use the electric blanket the same time a space heater is on. Fun times. And I can't even find the outlet in the bathroom downstairs to plug one in, so I usually leave it in the bedroom, heating it up to be ready for my mad dash down the ice tunnel hall. The upstairs bathroom has a claw-footed tub with a hand-held shower head. So you had to sit in the tub and mop up the floor after try not to spray too much outside the tub.
So imagine my excitement when I heard that they had installed a ceiling mount for the shower head and shower curtain around the upstairs tub! My sister tried to warn me about something... small space, claustrophobic, shower curtain, something-something... blah-blah... Outta my way! Stand-up shower in a warm bathroom! Here I come!

It was like showering in a womb. Or the ultimate mommy shower. And I don't mean the ultimate shower to relax a tired mommy. No. Like millions of little hands groping at you the whole time you're trying to take a moment for yourself! The air pressure kept pulling the shower curtains in, then they'd stick to my legs and hips and arms. Mostly they were warm, but occasionally I'd get slapped with a chilly one, if I had managed to avoid contact with it for a while.
If I were claustrophobic, this would have been like a horror movie. I could see the curtains slowly billowing towards me, like a malevolent force. There was no escape. Everywhere I turned - curtains creeeeeeeeping closer. Wet plastic caressing me at every turn. Break free, only to be accosted from another side!
Luckily I'm not claustrophobic. I thought it was hilarious. I even had the tough choice the second morning of my stay - freeze downstairs? Or shower in the woombie again? I chose the woombie, mostly so that Z could easily be let in if she got upset. Plus I like being warm!

WFLW - Heeeere Kitty Kitty Kitty...

This week's What's For Lunch Wednesday bento was hastily contrived and thrown together Tuesday morning. Since we don't have gym class until 11am, I usually have plenty of time to whip up something special, but I let us sleep in that day.

I decided to make an animal-face sandwich and just tossed together the rest. I opted for my EasyLunchbox because I had plans immediately after class and these are the best things I've found for eating in the car. It's big enough it stays on her lap, and no little containers being dropped all over. I did pack up some hummus in my new KidsKonserve container, since there wasn't room in the box without mashing into the kitty!

Clockwise from top left: Olives, frozen corn and edamame; Sliced stick of string cheese,
Wheat Thins and Ritz; Kitty PBJ sandwich; Carrots and grape tomatoes.
Home-made hummus in pink container to the right.

She loves frozen veggies so I grabbed some corn and what I thought were peas. Newp. Oh well. She likes edamame too, but usually cooked if shelled or room temp if still in the pods. Tossed a few olives on top. Normally I give her more olives, but in doing research for my Food Pyramid Muffin Tin Meal I discovered that olives (along with avocados) fall into the OILS category, and not the VEGETABLES. Ah well. Some baby carrots and grape tomatoes, Wheat Thins and Vegetable Ritz crackers, all left over from Saturday's party appetizers. Sliced up a stick of string cheese (it's fun to have the small bits to eat. Some of the snack moms did that in preschool last year and it's an easy way to change up a familiar food, so I adopted it for sometimes too.)

Since my whole-wheat bread rounds have been sitting there a while I decided to use one before they go bad! I was rapidly glancing through my bento cutters for cute shapes to make a face out of when I found the whale spout one and thought it would make a great kitty mouth. I initially chose a heart cutter for the nose but wasn't loving it, and found a pointy half-circle that looked perfect instead. I had planned on large mozzarella circles for the eyes and smaller cheddar for the pupils, but the mozzarella wasn't opened yet and I found the top of an exclamation point cutter and thought it would be perfect for a cat's pupils. I tried the pupils on my sliced string cheese bits and they looked great so I didn't bother with the circles.
The face looked a little small on the big circle sandwich, so I cut it in half, which meant I wouldn't have to try and fit anything under it, since it's so skinny it takes up very little space. Snapped a Wheat Thin in half and tucked them between the layers for ears. Ta-DAH!

The 'Titty Face' was a big hit.I will never tire of being amused by her pronunciation. You don't even want to know how she says 'frog'... I just about died at a group playdate at a friend's house when they put on some Jim Henson movie and Kermit appeared in the beginning logo stuff and she started SHOUTING "Frog! Frog! FROGFRGOFROG! Look mommy, FROG!"

The olives often go onto fingertips before meeting their destiny, but today she did a little finger play. "Hello. What's your name? [mumble mumble] What a nice name! It's nice-a meechoo. Let's go over dere. Otay!" etc.

We brought her new KidsKonserve water bottle as well, to rehydrate after gym instead of bringing along a juice box. It fits better in her cup holder than mine does, and she can pop the nozzle up easier than she can mine as well. So far so good, although I thought the website said this was all dishwasher safe, but when I got them they say to hand wash. Grrr... I plan on dishwashering the canisters and lids anyway. But the butterflies might come off of the water bottle, and I already have to hand wash mine. As long as I only use them for water I shouldn't have to scrub down the insides too often. I need to buy a new bottle brush just for them though. Ours is all scuzzy since we used it on moldering milk sippys stuff that went in the dishwasher so I wasn't worried about getting ucky stuff on it.

She finished her lunch after we got home, and even asked for more tomatoes. She bursts them open in her mouth then discards the 'husks.' She looks like a little tomato zombie.

"Braaaaaaaians... I mean... Seeeeeeeeedssssss! SeeeEEeeEEEeEedsssss!"

We changed her shirt before nap.