Day one:
Meal: Turkey, tomato, and cream cheese panini, apple wedges
Overall rating: 4 1/2!!!
Pros: Delish! Different! I can't say enough about how much I loved this lunch.
Cons: I hate cleaning my panini maker
Benton and I were heading in from playing outside for lunch and I spied the panini maker that didn't sell in our yard sale sitting in a box by our garage door. We hadn't used this sucker a SINGLE time and were going to get rid of it, but I decided on a whim that today was the day. As I was reaching for the american cheese to throw together a few croque monsieur's, the cream cheese fell out and I was inspired. The final creation was a turkey, tomato, and cream cheese panini. Friends, I have a new favorite sandwich. Seriously, go to your fridge right now, get out the ingredients and make one. IT. WAS. AWESOME. So easy, so tasty.The only reason I am only giving this one 4 1/2 stars instead of 5 was that Benton didn't finish his apples and I LOATHE cleaning the panini maker (uh, hello, who makes things that can't be put in a dishwasher?!?)
Day two:
Overall rating: 3
Pros: Easy
Cons: Processed
Frozen chicken fingers, applesauce, and baby tomatoes. Nothing exciting here, but I didn't promise wonderful creations everyday, I just promised different food every day. The fact of the matter is, I'm a working mom with 2 little kids and a busy life, I don't always have time to *COOK* and *CREATE.* Today my brain was shutdown and Benton got his way when it came time for the "What's for lunch" dilemma. On the plus side, Benton ate his whole meal.
Day three:
Meal: Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce, grapes, strawberry yogurt
Overall rating: 4
Pros: Healthy (somewhat?)
Cons: Slightly time consuming
For some reason when I'm cooking for lunch (I rarely if ever eat what Benton's eating) anything that takes more than 5 minutes is too much work. However, for his sake, I'm trying to invest a little more. I have learned a few tricks that I'm going to use to make mealtimes easier without being from a box. Example: cook up a pound of ground turkey (or beef) and freeze into 8 small portions for mixing into recipes. Suddenly, spaghetti with meat sauce takes less time than mac and cheese. Add some fruit and yogurt and it's a meal Benton and I both agree on.
Day four:
Meal: Chicken and Biscuits, chocolate chip cookie
Overall rating: 2
Pros: Easy.
Cons: Cheating
I'm calling this one cheating because even though it't not a lunch repeat, it is a dinner repeat. Leftovers from the night before. I'm actually a fan of leftovers from time to time but I always feel guilty serving them to TBenton. He gives me the "Aww mom, not again" almost every time. I also didn't add any fruit or healthy veggies so this meal really was a flop in my opinion. The only reason the meal didn't get a one is because Benton ate it without complaining.
Day five:
Meal: Chicken nugget happy meal with fries and apples
Overall rating: 5
Pros: Who doesn't love a happy meal???
Cons: Half my readers just decided I'm a bad mom for feeding my kid McDonalds
When I was a kid, I LOVED going to McDonald's at Halloween time to get the Trick or Treating pail Happy Meal. I looked up nutrition facts and a chicken nugget happy meal comes to only 300 calories (not counting the milk, forgot to add that in) so I honestly don't care what you say, I don't feel guilty at all letting my kid have one from time to time. Additionally, I'm sure he burnt half those calories off running through the play place.
It has been a great week. As I'm sitting here with Benton down to bed, cuddling with Jude under my cozy quilt, I can't help but feel thankful for all the blessings in my life. Thanks for being my virtual accountability partners in this meal challenge!
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