She Sells Seashells By the Seashore

I am SO behind on posting our lunches! I even found some from April still! Here are some from earlier this month.
Monday, 5/7/12 - We had a field-trip to the beach with our co-op preschool, and then E and I had a baby swim class after. We ended up skipping the beach, since I had a raging migraine. I did get us up and ready in time to go, but Z said she didn't want to go, and I wasn't in the mood to fight her. So I took one of my leftover post-op C-section pain pills and took a nap. (Baby was safely napping nearby. And Netflix is very good at keeping Z occupied for a little while!)
Since I had packed our EasyLunchboxes the night before, she she got to eat hers at her computer, and then we took it with us to eat on the way to and from E's swim class.

She Sells Seashells By the Seashore

String cheese nibblets, sandwiches, mini cupcake, kale chips, strawberries

I can't remember what kind of sandwich it was. Either PB-honey or PB-Nutella, I imagine. Maybe SunButter instead of PB, since our school is nut-free (even though we weren't going to school. And none of the kids in our class has an allergy. We were combining with another class for the day, so maybe I was being thoughtful. Hey. It could happen.) I chose a seashell cutter since we were going to check out tide pools and such at low tide, and it was the closest I could find to fit the theme. I put on candy eyes for fun.

The cheese nibblets are in a paper bento cup with a boat graphic (I have beachy ones somewhere but couldn't find them.)
I made the kale chips the night before, hoping they'd stay good in the fridge overnight. They did!

I am especially pleased with my mini cupcake. Unka Seesee's birthday party was the day before, and he doesn't like frosting. So I made cupcakes instead of a cake, so I could leave some unfrosted for him. I only had enough regular-sized muffin tins to make 18 cupcakes, so I used the rest of the batter for mini ones. My favorite part is that I substituted mashed banana plus some pear-spinach-pea baby food puree instead of oil. And no one noticed!
Side note: This was her last lunch that I knowingly packed artificial colors in (the sugar eyes. And possibly the frosting.) From here on out, we're dye-free!

Mama's Lunch

Spinach salad w/almonds, strawberries, dried blueberries and raspberry vinaigrette.
Pink Cookie (cut to fit,) green and purple kale chips

I am not restricting artificial colors for myself, even though I probably should. But I will try hard not to buy new artificial treats for myself, since it's not fair to her. Since I've been eating more dyed foods than normal lately to get them out of the house, I've noticed I'm more irritable, more headachy, and it's been harder to focus on things. I have also been fighting a sinus infection this past month, so it could just be that too.

I will miss you, Pink Cookies!

After baby swim, we hung out outside and Z played with her "outdoor bucket" which stays on the front porch. It's an old kitty-litter bucket that we keep her sidewalk chalk, bubbles, small bucket and some cheap plastic gardening toys in.

She drew "little me's" all over the porch. As you can see, she wants reeeeeally long hair!