It's Turkey Time

     I am so happy to say that I am officially on break from school for 10 whole days!  Other than studying for a test we have when we go back, I plan on doing nothing school-related for a week.  That is, until I realize that I'll still have to pass boards before too long, hyperventilate, and start studying extra for the NCLEX.  Until that happens, though, my focus will be on many other things but school.  After today, Monkey will also be on break, so I have been planing a few projects to keep us both busy over the holiday.     We will be learning all about water and it's various properties.  Today we started with a project about why things sink or float.

    I started out by expelling to Monkey that to float means to stay on top of the water, and that to sink means to fall to the bottom of the water.  Then we pulled out a book that's been around since before I was born.  In fact, it was a hand-me-down from when I was a kid.  It's called "Why Does it Float?", and in spite of it's age, it explains displacement and buoyancy in a way that kids can understand.  I found a copy of it on Amazon for only a penny, if anyone is interested.

     Next I had Monkey run around the house to find items she wanted to experiment with.  Then she grouped them into the ones she thought would float versus those she thought would sink.  She got several miniature plastic toys, a leaf, and a cork.

 
    Next, I had her drop each item one-by-one into a bowl of water.  We used a glass bowl so she could see the bottom of the water.

     Next, I had her find differences between the items that floated versus those that sank.  She determined that heavy objects sink, and light object float.  We then tested a few more items, and she had to rethink her hypothesis when a pair of tiny Barbie shoes sank.  That's when we referred back to the book about buoyancy and displacement and determined that the Barbie shoes didn't have enough room in them for air in order to float.

"Weighing" floaters vs sinkers

     Finally, I had her record her findings in a journal.  And as a way to lead into the next set of experiments about freezing and melting, we put our bowl of water into the freezer to see which items will freeze on top, and which will freeze on the bottom.  Monkey also drew her hypothesis for that project.  Tomorrow we'll find out if her hypothesis was correct!

 
     Before she was out of school, I was getting Monkey ready for Thanksgiving by packing her a few festive lunches I'd like to share.  Let's start simple, shall we?


Turkey Sandwich...Literally

     This little guy was super easy to throw together.  He's a turkey sandwich that I cut into a circle.  For feathers I used pretzel sticks and bits of sliced carrots.  I cute out a little bowling-pinned-shaped body for the turkey, and I made a face using my food markers.

Turkey Taco

      This was another simple creation using a tortilla filled with turkey, lettuce, and cheese.  I folded it in half, quesidilla-style, and I drew a turkey using my food markers again.  I added some sides, including yogurt raisins, broccoli, and a "pumpkin" made from a bit of celery and a Halo orange.

Egg-cellent Pilgrims and Indians

      These little guys took a bit more work, but they were fun.  I started with two boiled eggs, cut in half.  I sprinkled a bit of paprika on two of the eggs (these would be my "indians").  Next, using sheets of Nori, I cut out the shape of eyes, noses, and mouths, and arranged them on the yolks.  Then I cut out the hats for the pilgrims, and the headbands for the indians.  Finally I added a "feather" for each indian's headband using a bit of celery leaf.  Then I cut the buckle of the pilgrims' hats out of ham.

Turkey Lunchables

     I decided to spruce up our usual DIY lunchables by making the crackers into a tiny turkey.  I cut out another body from ham, and this time I cut eyes, a beak, and a waddle from a sheet of Nori.  I then arrange some cut up carrots to resemble feathers.  I put the extra ham, cheese and crackers in another container for Monkey to assemble her own.

     Needless to say, I've had a lot of time getting ready for the week off, and I'm looking forward to all the fun I have planned for Monkey, J, and I.  Of course, I'm also looking forward to the whole no school thing.  Needless to say, I'm thankful it's turkey time :-)

The Best Ruined Soup Ever

     I love this time of year!  It's starting to get chilly here in the South, and it puts me in the mood for warm soups, gumbo, freshly baked bread, and savory desserts!  C'mon, y'all have known me too long to be surprised by the fact that I ended that sentence with food.  Which brings me to the reason I'm writing tonight.  It was chilly earlier this week, so I decided it would be a nice change of pace to make some grilled cheeses with some tomato soup.  I started following this one recipe before realizing that it was not the same one I had used to make my grocery list.  I quickly switched over to following this recipe, convinced that I had ruined the whole thing, but too stubborn (and cheap) to throw the concoction out.  I'm glad I didn't, though, because what resulted was what J deemed, "the best tomato soup I've ever had!"

Ruined Tomato Soup

1/2 onion

1 medium-sized carrot, peeled

1 celery stalk, end trimmed, but leaves still attached

1 garlic clove, peeled

2 cans diced tomatoes

46 ounces tomato juice

3-6 tablespoons sugar

3 chicken bouillon cubes

black pepper

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

shredded Mozzarella, optional 

In a blender, combine onion, carrot, celery, and garlic.  Puree until smooth.  Add diced tomatoes.  Pour contents of blender into a large pot over medium heat.  Add tomato juice.  Next add the sugar.  (This is to contrast the acidity of the tomatoes, start with 3 tablespoons and taste your way to the right amount.  I wound up needing 5 tablespoons, but it just depends on your tomatoes.)  Add chicken bouillon.  Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.  Stir to combine and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and add heavy cream, stirring to combine.  Add basil and parsley and stir.  Top with mozzarella if desired.

     As I said, this was the best soup I had ever tasted!  J polished off three bowls of it, and I enjoyed dunking my grilled cheese in it like I was a kid again.  The only one not too impressed was Monkey, but that's okay.  I had plenty soup left over to freeze and some for lunch the next day.  J downed another bowl that day before heading back to work.  That's when I decided it might be a good time to clean out the refrigerator.  As I was getting rid of certain items I found an extra bottle of heavy cream in the corner.  I checked the date and was surprised to see that it hadn't expired yet.  In fact it still wouldn't be expired for another month.  With a sick feeling in my stomach, it began to dawn on me that perhaps I should have cleaned the refrigerator out sooner.  I quickly grabbed the bottle of heavy cream from the night before and checked the date only to find that, sure enough, I had mixed up the expired one with the new one.  The cream I used in the soup had expired September 9th.  I was mortified.  I don't know how none of us got sick, especially after I got brave enough to do a sniff-test.  There goes my world's best tomato soup....

     My dear husband wasn't nearly as horrified by this discovery as I was, but maybe that's for the best, considering how much of it he ate.  He just shrugged and said, "Well, it was still delicious!"  

Cookies and Cocoa

     Today I am enjoying my first official day off of school in about 3 months.  I just ended another trimester, so that makes 3 down, and 3 more to go.  Monday I start studying Labor and Delivery and Pediatrics, which are the two subjects I've been looking forward to since the beginning.  I'm not sure which field I want to go into, but I know it's going to be one of those two, and that excites me.  In the mean time, however, I've been catching up on a bit of housework.  Yesterday, Monkey brought home a 100 A on her big sight words test that covered all the words they've been learning since the beginning of the year, so we celebrated by turning some of her Halloween candy into yummy cookies.  So here's a recipe that is a classic:

M&M Cookies
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups M&Ms, plus extra for topping

Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease the baking sheets.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a KitchenAide mixer, blend both sugars, shortening, eggs, and vanilla until mixture is well blended and fluffy.  Add flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix until well incorporated.  Add M&Ms, and gently stir.

Gently roll dough into small balls, and press onto the prepared baking sheets.  Add a few M&Ms to the tops of each pressed dough ball.

Bake at 350 9-11 minutes, or until edges are golden and middles are set.

     Now, what goes better with cookies on a chilly November evening than a nice warm mug of hot cocoa?

World's Best Hot Cocoa
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half-and-half

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Blend in the boiling water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously.  Once it begins to boil, simmer and stir for 2 minutes.  Don't let it burn.  Stir in milk and hear until hot throughout, but don't bring mixture to another boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Distribute evenly among 4 mugs.  Add 1/8 cup half-and-half to each mug.  Top with mini marshmallows if desired.  Enjoy!

Well, That Didn't End Well

     Does anyone remember when Monkey and I made an ecosystem back in June?  That thing has been growing ever since!  We lost the fish after about a month, so we opened it up to remove them, and then allowed everything else to keep growing.  It was doing great!  We had tons of grass, and the algae and water plants were thriving.  The crickets died out one by one, and we never really could see the earthworms, but overall it was a good project.  I had it placed in the window above the staircase, and I kept thinking I should take it down and take it apart, but honestly I forgot about it.  That is, until J would complain about it being in the way of the blinds every night when he would try to lower them as it got dark.  You see, the window on the staircase is in a rather awkward position.  It's almost too high for us to open and lower the blinds, yet I'm a sucker for sunlight, so every morning I lean forward over the steps and stretch out on my tip-toes to reach the cord that will raise the blinds and let the sunlight in.  Then every night, J has the hard task of stretching out over the staircase to slowly bring the blinds back down.  Since adding the ecosystem to the mix, you also have to be careful not to let the cord get wrapped around the bottle or let the blinds down too quickly to avoid knocking the ecosystem off the windowsill.  Every night I would hear J complain about the darn blinds being open, and how stupid it was for the people to design the stairs the way they did.  So, the other night to be nice (and to avoid hearing the complaints) I decided to lower the blinds myself.  I grabbed the cord, and stretched out over the staircase to begin lowering the blinds, but I forgot something.  I forgot the ecosystem.  So, as I tugged the cord and looked down to check that my feet weren't going to slip off of the stair I was standing on, I felt something rather heavy smack the top of my head. Next thing I knew I was covered in nasty, smelly, fishy water, and there by my feet was the ecosystem, leaking it's foul-smelling contents all over our staircase.  Needless to say, I'm very glad I didn't leave the dead fish in there so that Monkey could learn about decomposition.  Regardless, I immediately jumped in the shower after scrubbing the stairs to wash the dead fish remnants away.

     Not all of my attempts at doing something nice for someone else has ended in utter failure.  I think these Halloween-themed lunches I've been packing for Monkey have come out rather well.

Monday: Spider Sandwich with Monster Apples

      This box contains a ham and cheese sandwich shaped to look like a spider.  I used a round cookie cutter to cut circles out of two slices of bread, a slice of ham, and a slice of cheese.  Next I sliced 4 long pieces of carrot super thin.  When I assembled the sandwich I laid the carrot sliced across that sandwich before placing the bread on top.  I used sliced olives for the eyes, and voila!

     The second half of this was the monster apples.  I quartered and apple, and I cut wedges out of two of the quarters, and I soaked these slices in a mixture of 1TBS lemon juice and 3/4 cup water for 5 minutes to keep them from browning before lunch time.  After they had soaked, I wiped them dry, and added almond slivers for the teeth.  For the eyes, I used candy eyeballs "glued" on with Nutella.  (You could use any type of nut butter, but Nutella is the only kind my daughter will eat).

 Tuesday: Celery Mummies

      For this lunch I made my own Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese (recipe to follow), but you can use the pre-made kind.  I spread a little on each celery stick.  Next I took a slice of ham and cut it into thin strips lengthwise and wrapped those around the celery sticks.  I used bits of black olives for the eyes.  I sent these to school with some grape tomatoes, pretzels, and an orange.

Wednesday: Spooky Sandwich

      I took the easy route Wednesday by simply making a ham sandwich and then cutting it into a ghost shape with my spooky little ghost cookie cutter.  I made a little face for him using my food markers.  Next, I added a bit of celery, and a few orange "pumpkins" for dessert.  These are simply peeled Halo oranges with a bit of celery wedged in the top to resemble stems.

Thursday: Mummy Hotdogs

      Now, I normally don't do hotdogs, but every once in a while, I figure it's okay to let my kid be a kid.  This box took a bit more prep work, because you have to make the mummies the night before.  I followed the instructions on the Pillsbury website to make the mummies, adding eyes using my food markers, and then I served them with a bit of ketchup, celery, and a couple "pumpkins".

Friday: Gravestones and Ghosts Bento Box

     This box included two mini sandwiches cut to resemble gravestones (the RIP on the left headstone is spelled out with little strips of ham).  Next I added two banana "ghosts" to the box to make it look like they were coming out of the graves.  I threw in some grape tomatoes, celery, and some of that garden vegetable cream cheese for dipping, and sent Monkey on her merry little way.


 Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese  
8 oz block cream cheese
1 medium carrot, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4-1/2 onion, minced (start with less and add more to taste)
1-2 cloves garlic, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients into a food processor, and blend until smooth.  Let sit in the refrigerator until flavors have melded.  Serve with crackers or veggies for dipping, or use as a spread.

Best Birthday Present Ever

      I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am a huge fan of The Bloggess!  She's hilarious, and awesome.  Not to mention about a year ago she wrote a book, and it was one of those rare books that had me laughing and crying.  Anyway, in the book she devoted one whole chapter to my favorite blog post of hers entitled "And that's why you should learn to pick your battles".  You should go check it out.  But a brief overview (seriously, go read the whole thing, this summary is a pale shadow of the awesome humor you'll be missing out on.  Still here?  Fine!)  so in the post she talks about how her husband sent her to the store with a warning to not come home with any more towels.  Well, she obeyed that particular order, and instead came home with a $100 giant metal chicken.  At least it wasn't towels.

     

     My big sister was the first to introduce me to The Bloggess, so when I bought the book I was quick to ensure that she was the first to borrow it (after I had read it, of course).  Next I spread the awesome around to my mom.  She loved it too.  In fact they both appreciated it so much that they hatched a brilliant scheme.  Not long after my birthday, I managed to escape to Louisiana for a day, my first trip home in a few months, and so my sister promised to have my belated birthday present waiting for me.  She had prefaced this gift with a few hints of, "I'm so excited to give you this", "Mom and I went in on something awesome", and "You're gonna love it".  I had no clue what to expect, so when I opened my mom's front door I was in utter shock.

     Around my chicken's neck was a sign that said, "Knock, Knock....." and a birthday card that introduced this chicken as being Beyonce's less expensive little sister, my very own Star-Spangled Solange.  The laughs alone were worth the price my mom and sister paid for this present, and I was excited to bring it home and put it in my garden.  The problem was, Solange wouldn't fit in my tiny Saturn Ion, so we had to leave her with my sister.   This Saturday we went to Louisiana again for my godson's birthday party, and we were finally able to bring Solange home in my husband's car.  It was a tight fit, and Monkey was given many warnings not to touch the tetanus chicken on the ride home, but we made it back without event.

     This morning J was sweet enough to give me a day off by waking up and bringing Monkey and her friend we carpool with to school.  I didn't get out of bed until around 8:00 this morning, and after I brushed my teeth and opened my door to go downstairs in search of food, I was greeted, yet again, by this familiar face:

     I was really worried that the chicken joke would wear off after a while, but after about five minutes of giggling this morning, I have to say it's still funny.  And I have to give J props for lugging Solange all the way up the stairs this morning.

     So there was point a to this post, other than showing you how awesome my family can be when it comes to carrying out an epic joke, but whatever the other reason was is gone now.  I'm actually just hiding out here in blog-world to avoid studying again.  I have my final exam in Gero/Psych Nursing Friday, and as usual, "I don't wanna!!!"  Instead, how about I show you some more of my Halloween decor?

     No, J is not part of the decor, but this awesome mummy is:

   
     I found these giant glow-in-the-dark eyes at the Dollar Tree, and I decided to use them to mummify our back door.  J and I used white crepe party streamers for the bandages and taped them to the door until is was mostly covered.  We only had to do the top portion of the door, because the screen door blocks the bottom part from view.  Not to mention we were getting tired of tape.  And streamers.  And each other.  ;-)

     This next decoration is a spin off of one of my favorite garden decorations.

     I took an old pallet and had J bust it up.  I used the various broken pieces to make the different signs by painting them all black.  For "Pet Sematary" and "'Salem's Lot" I used a copy of Stephen King's novels as a guide to get the handwriting the same.

     After designing the different signs, I screwed them to a post I had also painted black, and voila!

     The final bit of Halloween decor was something so simple, yet it may just be my favorite.  I made a spooky sort of set up by my front door with a vase, a skull, and a pumpkin.  The plan was to have my cauldron set out there filled with candy for trick-or-treaters, but I have something else in mind for that now.

     This vase is my favorite part of the set up.  It's just a bunch of sticks Monkey, J,  and I gathered after one of our family runs.  I painted the sticks black, and I put them in this old vase.  I added a bit of the cheesy "spooky cloth" you can buy at any dollar store at Halloween time to the inside of the vase, so you wouldn't see the ends of the sticks.  Next I propped a black raven from Michael's on one of the sticks.  Finally I used some leftover ribbon from my new wreath to finish it off with a pretty bow.

     I really like it.  Now all that's left is to set up my cauldron for trick-or-treaters and carve the pumpkins we got yesterday at our local pumpkin patch.  Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?

It's That Time of Year

     I love October!  It's one of my favorite times of year.  The weather begins to get cool; the leaves are changing colors; the last little bit of summer is fading away.  The birds begin to fly south.  The night comes a little sooner, and the general mood seems a little more relaxed.  There's something about this time of year that still holds a bit of mystery, something that is rare in this day of the internet where connections are made and lost in the blink of an eye.  Even with the soaring rate of information that's within our grasp, there is something still slightly haunting yet alluring about this time of year.  I feel as if I'm awakening from the long dream of summer.  My spirit comes alive this time of year, and I relish the feeling.  Perhaps I'm being a bit mystical and eclectic at the moment, but what can I say?  It's that time of year.

     To celebrate the being of October, and in preparation for one of my all-time favorite holidays, I've been feeling a little crafty.  I decided to make a new decoration for my door, since my old wreath has begun to fall apart.  After finding one I loved on Pinterest, I decided to make it my way.

     I got these letters from Michael's, which is awesome because if you go to their website, you can usually print out a coupon.

I preceded to paint them black, orange, and I left one white.

    I used the lid of the paint as a template to trace circle on the letters for polka dots, and then I painted them the various coordinating colors.

     I sprayed them with Rustoleum enamel to keep them from getting moldy since they'll be hanging on the outside door.  I tied them together with orange polka-dot 3/4" ribbon.  I topped the B with a pretty orange bow, and voila!

     I love it, and it makes me smile every time I come home!  

I've Come to Terms With the Fact That I'm Annoying

     Over the years, I've had to come to terms with the fact that some people find me annoying.  It's cool.  Not everyone can handle my brand of cheeriness.  I'm no stranger to being told that my happy-go-lucky morning-person attitude is revolting.  Probably because I heard it every morning from my mom as I tried to serenade her out of bed.  Friends at school would groan when I would be bouncing around at 6 am.  Coworkers would roll their eyes and keep walking when I would exclaim "Good Morning!" at 6:30 am.  My own daughter tells me to "go away" when she hears her door squeak open on a typical weekday morning.  I get it, but these days I have managed to find a whole new crowd of people to piss off with my happy.  I now have patients!

     This past week while working at the nursing home for school, I was asked to help feed one of the dementia patients who was not feeling too well that day.  I walked over to this sweet-looking elderly woman, who was holding her head in her hands and not even acknowledging that her food had been getting cold for the past 15 minutes.  I pulled up a chair next to her, sat down, and introduced myself.  The introduction was met with a groan, which was expected.  The woman clearly wasn't feeling well, so I gently asked her if she wanted to eat.  She shook her head no.  I prodded a little more, gently of course, and said that she needed to eat to feel better.  To that she snapped, "I'll eat when I'm darn good and ready to eat."

     Now, this was the first time my happy smile had been met with a grumpy retort, but I shrugged it off and walked over to the worker at the facility and told her that the woman clearly didn't want to eat.  She told me to go see if I could get her to at least pick her head up.  I steeled myself for more combat and return to my chair by the lady's side.  I asked again if she would like to try a little bit of her food.  She merely groaned at me.  That's when I was struck by a stroke of brilliance!  I would get her chatting with me, gain her trust, and then get her to eat!  Yeah, that would work.  So I began enthusiastically asking about her BINGO game I had seen her partaking in earlier in the evening.  That was met with more groans.  I asked about her family: more groaning.  I asked about her roommate, how long she'd been there, what she liked to do, anything to get the woman to acknowledge me and stop groaning.  Well, it sort of worked.  She stopped groaning.  In fact she stopped acknowledging me at all.  She just sat there with her head in her hands, ignoring her food.

     At this point I started to feel really bad for her.  I knew she needed to eat, but I knew she was probably getting sick of me flitting around her like an annoying fly, so I decided to quit beating around the bush and tackle the problem head-on.  That's when I asked if she wasn't feeling well, to which she replied that she wasn't.  I asked if she wanted to go lay down, and she said she did. That's when I offered a proposition: if she would eat a little bit I would help her to her room to rest.  I thought I had finally convinced her because she finally picked her head up and looked me in the eyes!  Then she said, "Would you just shut up?"  My classmate, who was sitting nearby feeding another patient, busted out laughing, as did the worker.  Not missing a beat I replied with a grin on my face, "I'll shut up if you eat for me."  (Yes, I was desperate at this point.)  To which, the patient simply put her head back in her hands and sighed.

     After my dismal failure with that particular patient, the worker rescued me, laughing that I would probably get hit if I kept trying to make her eat, and asked me to go feed another patient.  Something about the twinkle in her eye when she told me which patient I should feed next made me think I was being set up to fail again.  Then I saw my next patient.  She looked like she had led a rather rough life, and her wild eyes suggested she was a scrapper, so I knew I was in for it when I sat down next to her.  I introduced myself to her, and she looked at me like I was crazy when I offered to help feed her.  The guy across from us confirmed my fears about her when he said, "Now, don't go fighting this one, she's here to help you."  Great!  Well she couldn't communicate verbally, but I could tell right away by her body language the last thing she wanted to do was patronize me by eating that nasty-looking, foul-smelling, glorified baby food, but then I had another stroke of brilliance.  Eyeing the ice cream on her tray, I made her a deal:  eat your baby food, and I'll give you some ice cream.  Expecting the same reaction I had gotten from the previous patient, I was so relieved to see this patient break out into a huge grin and nod her head in agreement to my deal.  From then on out we were the best of friends, cracking up and laughing at each other, even when she threw her water across the table just for giggles.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

     Well now that you've sat through another silly story of mine, I'll share some lunch ideas :-)

Monday: Ballerina Bento Box

      This idea is straight out of Everyday Bento, which I love!  It has such cute ideas for be not boxes for your kids, and even a section about adult bentos.  The ballerina slippers come with a side of carrot sticks, cheese cubes, raisins, grape tomatoes, and cucumber "wands".

Tuesday: Sandwich on a Stick
(or if you're Jose Jalapeño, "Sandwich on a steek!")

     I don't know why, but every time I try to pack my daughter a simple ham sandwich, she won't eat it.  She complains that by the time she gets it at lunch the bread is soggy.  So, I decided to send her to school with these little "sandwich on a stick" kabobs, and she loved them!  She told me the bread wasn't soggy at all, which makes no sense to me, but whatever, she ate it.   Simply thread some bread cut into cubes, some ham rolled up, and some cubed cheese onto a skewer, and there you go.  I added some pickles (her favorite), some tomatoes and broccoli, half of a banana, and a bit of Ranch to dip her veggies in.  Typically I'm not big on Ranch for her veggies; I feel like it defeats the purpose of eating healthy veggies if you douse them in preservative-filled, saturated-fatty, creamy sauce, but she asked for it specifically, and I knew it would gather to eat more of her veggies than usual, so what the heck!

Wednesday: Princess Quesadillas

      This was a super simple lunch.  I made ham and cheese quesadillas for her that morning, and use cookie cutters to make the different shapes.  I cut some cucumbers into cute little hearts, added some grape tomatoes, and gave her half of an apple to go with it.  She ate all of this one too.

Thursday: Breakfast for Lunch

      I love breakfast for dinner.  We have that at least twice a month.  I like it because I typically have more time in the evening to make all the things I really wanted to eat for breakfast.  Plus, J's more awake, and more likely to help.  Well, this is the same basic concept.  I took a waffle, and cut it into strips for Monkey to dip in the syrup I provided (I only gave her a little bit, so her teacher wouldn't kill me for giving her a sugar rush at school).  I added some turkey bacon, a boiled egg, half of a banana, and some edamame.  Yes, the edamame has nothing to do with breakfast, but you know I like to throw a little green into her lunches.

Friday: Asian Chicken Salad

      This one is actually used some leftovers from the previous night's dinner of Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps from SkinnyTaste (recipe to follow).  I chopped up some lettuce, added the leftover chicken, and supplied the homemade Spicy Hoisin Dipping Sauce in these adorable little sauce holders to use as a dressing.  I then packed Monkey some crackers, tomatoes, and half of a banana as sides.  This was another one caused her to clean out her box, which makes Mommy happy :-)

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 TBS soy sauce, plus 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce (or more of the regular soy sauce)
1/2 tsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 TBS rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
pepper to taste
8 oz boneless, skinless chicken thighs, ground
1/4 cup water chestnuts, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 TBS diced scallions
6 iceberg lettuce leaves, rinsed

Spicy Hoisin Dipping Sauce
4 TBS Hoisin Sauce
1/2 tsp chili sauce (I use Sriracha)
1 TBS warm water

Place dried mushrooms in a bowl filled with hot water to soften a few minutes.  Remove stems and chop fine.  Set aside.

Combine soy sauce(s), oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, rice wine, sugar, and pepper in a separate bowl.

Combine ground chicken, mushrooms, and water chestnuts in a new bowl.  Add soy sauce mixture.  Mix and let marinate for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix ingredients for Spicy Hoisin Dipping sauce, and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat.  Add garlic, cook until fragrant, about 10 seconds.  Add chicken mixture, stir fry until brown, breaking chicken mixture up as it cooks, about 4-5 minutes.

Serve by spooning 1/4 cup of chicken into each leaf.  Top with scallions and hoisin sauce.

Enjoy :-)