Doesn't it seem that part of nearly every holiday celebrated in the United States involves candy? Whether it's Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter...there seems to be a tradition of C-A-N-D-Y with each and every holiday. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for allowing my kids to indulge in sweet treats every now and again. After all, we are trying to teach them that candy/sweets are to be enjoyed in moderation and reserved for special occasions like holidays, birthdays, etc... It's just that I'm hoping we can establish a few traditions of our own that involve more than just candy. I found some non-candy goodies to include in the boys' Easter baskets this year and I thought I'd share them with all of you in case anyone is stumped for ideas.

Wham-O Superball, Wham-O Hacky Sack, Dragon Kite, Hand Buzzer, Water Arcade, Scrabble Fridge Magnets, 6-color pen, Peg Game, Auto Bingo

Today's lunch is a "quick-and-easy" lunch as our week has been a little on the hectic side. It includes: scrambled eggs (thermos), strawberry mini muffins, grapes/blueberries, orange pepper, peas, cheese curds, macadamia nuts

We're not Irish, but the boys still think it's fun to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! This year my 10 year old was asking a lot about the "Why" behind the holiday so we did a little reading about Ireland and how some of the traditions came to be. We discovered some interesting facts about St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, along with how St. Patrick's day celebrations spread around the world over the course of time. We also learned that some of the traditions as we know them today were actually politically based as Irish immigrants used the holiday parades as a venue to express their discontent with their status in America. We had a lot of fun sifting through information together and I think it helped my son see that the holiday is about much more than wearing green and eating corned beef.

Today's St. Patrick's Day lunch includes: clover leaf peanut butter sandwich, grapes, cheese curds, orange slices, celery, cauliflower, carrots, pumpkin mini muffin, hard boiled egg

Tomorrow is Read Across America Day and if you've been following my blog for a while, or if we happen to be Facebook friends, you probably already know that I'm a big fan of books. Children's literature is such an important topic for me so it only seemed fitting to do a lunch to celebrate this fun nationwide event. I also thought I'd share a few books my kids (two boys ages 7 and 9) have been really excited about so far this year!

1) Seekers 2) Ragweed 3) Martin's Mice4) Dive 5) Everest 6) Garfield(Both of my boys are working their way through the entire collection of Garfield comic books...very quick and easy reads!) 7) Gregor Series

Today's Read Across America Lunch includes: peanut butter sandwich on lavash bread, strawberries/blueberries, hardboiled egg, snap peas/tomatoes, string cheese, chocolate covered almonds, Trader Joe's letter cookies

Well...today's a big day for the boys as we are headed to Madison, Wisconsin to watch the Badgers take on the Minnesota Gophers in what should be an exciting hockey game! This was the boys' big Christmas gift from their grandparents and they've been counting down the days ever since. They woke up bright and early today and came down the stairs ready to go in their jerseys. Something tells me this will be a loud and energetic car ride to Madison! Today's Badger-themed lunch includes: peanut butter sandwich, snap peas, Ellsworth cheese curds, strawberries, hard boiled egg, almond flour blueberry muffin, & a letter cookie from Trader Joe's.

It's that time of year where we, as a family, start dreaming of our summer travel plans. Traveling together is something we look forward to all year long and now that the boys are getting older it's fun to include them in the planning process. Over the past few days we've been scouring books and web-sites looking for ideas and as of right now our list of "must see" places is 5 miles long. We haven't decided on anything specific just yet, but I sure am enjoying the brainstorming phase. I'm excited to see where we end up going this year and the boys are beyond excited to add some more pins to our family travel map!

Today's "map lunch" includes: peanut butter sandwich, strawberries/blueberries/, cheese curds, celery/peanut butter, and oatmeal-free "oatmeal" cookies.

Just in case you hadn't heard...the NHL Lockout is over! We received the news early one morning last week and oh, how I wish we would have videotaped our boys reactions. It's hard to describe just how excited they were, but what I can tell you is that it felt like Christmas morning all over again here at our house. One of the only things on my oldest son's Christmas list were Wild Hockey tickets. Since the lockout was still on we did our best with tickets for him to go watch one of his favorite Junior A players and he loved it, but it just wasn't the same. He wanted more than anything to take a seat at the Excel Energy Center to watch the Wild take the ice and when we got the news about the end of the lockout the first thing out of his mouth was, "When can we go to a game?!". Tickets go on sale today at noon and we are going to try our best to surprise our boys with tickets to the Wild's first game back on Saturday night! (If you're reading this and you know my boys personally...please don't say a word.) Before I sign out I'd like to thank the NHL & the Player's Association for coming to a contract agreement! You've made two boys VERY happy in this house!

Today's NHL lunch: peanut butter sandwich, white american cheese, cheese curds, strawberries/grapes, oatmeal-free "oat"meal cookies, cucumbers, hard boiled egg

You may have noticed that I haven't been writing as much as I have in the past. Let me explain...as some of you know I work full-time as a photographer and graphic designer. Traditionally Fall is a busy time of year for me and I've learned to adapt my schedule accordingly. This year I had the busiest season in my studio's history and I found myself needing to pull back in certain areas of my life to accommodate the increase in my workload. Combine the hectic season with both boys' homework, school activities, hockey schedules, and other everyday life happenings and you'll understand that I was pretty much stretched thin. At times I found myself wanting to force time out of my day to photograph and write about some of the lunches I've made. However, I knew it not only would take time away from the kids, but would also add undo pressure onto an already overloaded schedule. At some point during the chaos I came across a quote by Anna Quindlen and it served as a good reminder that the blog could wait.

Now that my busy season is winding down, I'm very excited to get back to blogging. This is definitely something I enjoy doing and I love sharing healthy food options that have gone over well with my kids with other parents. So without further ado...today I thought I'd share what I made the boys for breakfast on this VERY cold morning here in Wisconsin (our forecasted high temp for the day is a whopping 10 degrees)! It seemed like a perfect day for a two-egg & cheese omelet with homemade mini gingerbread loaves and homemade hot chocolate (recipes below).

First up in the mini gingerbread loaves...this is a very quick and easy recipe and it smells oh, so yummy while baking! This was passed along to me from a friend of a friend so I don't know who to credit for the recipe.

Mini Gingerbread Loaves:

1/3 c. coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Then add the following wet ingredients and blend with hand mixer:

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 c. xylitol or other natural sweetener

1/4 c. canned coconut milk (I use full fat)

Once combined well slowly add 2 TBS of melted coconut oil and continue mixing until blended. Let batter stand for 5 minutes before pouring into greased mini loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Makes 2 mini loaves.

Homemade Hot Chocolate (recipe from Against All Grain)

2 cups unsweetened chocolate or vanilla almond milk
1 can coconut milk (I use full-fat)
1 vanilla bean, split the long way (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
3 ounces dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup xylitol or another natural sweetener

Directions

Place the almond milk, coconut milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.Strain then return the milk back to the pan.

Turn the heat to low and whisk in the chocolate, cocoa powder and honey. Heat for 5 minutes, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and the hot chocolate is thick and creamy.

It's been a while since I've posted here on the blog as it's been an incredibly busy season for me. Last Friday I made it a point to snap photos of the lunch I made for my little first grader for "Polar Express Day" at school. As soon as I sat down to write the blog post I heard about the tragedy in Newtown, CT. Needless to say, I sat in horror and watched as details emerged. It was a sad day for our nation and I'm sure many of you can relate to how anxious I was for my kids to get home from school that afternoon! Never has the sight of my boys stepping off the bus and hearing all about my son's special day at school seemed more precious as it did that day. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy.

Having said that, I thought I'd come back and post the lunch I made for Polar Express Day. The teachers make this such a fun event for the kids so I thought a themed lunch would only add to the excitement. Today's lunch includes: peanut butter lavish bread sandwich, string cheese, chia seed cookie, almonds, kiwi/strawberries/blueberries all packed in an Easy Lunchbox

My boys are going through a puzzle phase right now and very rarely is there a time when our kitchen table isn't covered with puzzle pieces. See what I mean....

While it's hard giving up space in the kitchen, I have to admit I'm kind of enjoying this puzzle phase. I find that all of us tend to wander over to the table at various times and just work on the puzzles bit by bit. There have been a few times when all four of us are sitting at the same time working on a puzzle together and I just love that it gives us a chance to do something together as a family. From what I hear, Santa's elves have been hard at work looking for puzzles for under our tree this year. Here are a few I think Santa might think are a good fit for our kids!

1) Ravensburger Globe Puzzle 2) MN Wild Puzzle 3) The Solar System Puzzle 4) World Map Puzzle 5) Diary of a Wimpy Kid Puzzle

Today's puzzle themed lunch includes a peanut butter puzzle sandwich (made using these lunch punch sandwich cutters), peas, grape tomatoes, blueberries, almond flour chocolate chip cookie, string cheese, almonds.