Preschool Snacks, Week 1, November 2012

Monday, October 5 through Thursday, October 8

Monday

Grapes, NatureBox Southern BBQ Sunflower Kernels

I used a little Hello Kitty snack container with a flap in the lid for this snack. I didn't need a ton of room. The NatureBox Southern BBQ Sunflower Kernels, which she loved (I still had some from the July box. I think I was getting two boxes a month because of a deal I'd gotten!) To keep them nice and dry, I put the seeds in a little heart box I found at Dollar Tree around Valentine's Day.

Tuesday

Dried cranberries, Goldfish

I had TOTALLY forgotten to pack a snack on Tuesday (Bad Mama!) but the snack parent had made these cute butterfly snack baggies for Monday, and since the teachers weren't sure if they were safe, they sent one home. Sadly, it's hard to tell. Some dried fruit products are dyed. I'd have to know what brand these were, or if they were from a bulk bin.
I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, since if I hadn't found this at the bottom of her school bag, she would have gone snackless!

Wednesday

Apples, home-made Pumpkin Bread, mini gummy worms, drink powder

I found this cute Tinkerbelle snack box at the Disney Store a few years ago. They no longer carry it, but have a CARS one, and Skully from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. They aren't too expensive either, at around $6. I like these because she can open and close them herself. The down-side is that the snap closures often pop off. An adult can easily pop them back on, but it's still frustrating.

I was snack parent for Baby E's preschool class this day, and woke up at 1am and realized I had bought the mix at Trader Joe's for snack day, but hadn't baked it yet! Then Baby E proceeded to wake up every 30-minutes, until around 3am, when Hubby took pity on me and finished mixing (I had measured the water, added pear puree instead of most of the oil, a little oil to make up the difference, plus cracked the eggs. Oh, and poured the powder into a mixing bowl.) He also poured it into my greased bread pan and popped it into the oven.
I was able to get up and check on it later, and I saw some crazy-long amount of time left; around 35 minutes. Hubby must have done it wrong. Let's check the box... WHAT?! 60-minutes to bake?! Muffins would only have been 25 minutes. Ughhhh. I could have been done and back to bed already! So I tooled around until 4am waiting for my bread. I popped it out of the oven, laid a towel over it, and got a few more hours of sleep before it was time to get up. Oog.

Since I no longer have to pack Z's afternoon preschool snack the night before, I was able to use leftover pumpkin bread and apples from Baby's class snack. (We're up early now to catch Z's AM preschool bus, then Baby and I have to be home to meet it when she comes back at lunch time. Then I have an hour to let her eat her lunch while I feed Baby and check emails pack her snack.) I added a few all-natural mini gummy worms, since she had recently requested a wormy-themed lunch, and I haven't quite figured out how I want to do it. So I hoped this would tide her over.

Since she can't be trusted with a full packet of drink powder to measure out into smaller quantities of water, I sent her with 1/4th of a packet (designed for a 16-oz bottled water) in a little bento sprinkle container.

Thursday

"Rainbow Grapes," home-made roasted salted pumpkin seeds

I have been getting a ton of various winter squash in my CSA box, so I cooked up a few of the Delicata squash, and roasted and scooped the sugar pumpkin to prep for puree. I saved all the seeds, then salted and roasted them up the night before. Yum! I put some pumpkin seeds in an EasyLunchboxes Mini Dipper to keep them dry and fresh.

The snack box is discontinued one from Paperchase that I got as a hand-me down from a friend.

Tools of the Trade