0 Avoiding Sugar: Halloween Handouts - Treats without the Sweets

Like me, some of you might be scrambling to assemble homemade costumes, and purchase treats to handout Halloween night. We have to avoid chocolate (see previous blog entry here), unless we want to deal with buckets of barf.

Here are some suggestions for things you can hand out as treasures and "treats" without the sweet. Some are salty snacks, some are toys, some are just silly. All of these are on Amazon, and most are eligible for Prime shipping - so you can get them before 10/31.

Enjoy!

0 Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday, Oct 3, 2012


Our son's teacher told us this is opposite week, and the kids would meet Ms. Wacky W. Today is wacky opposite hair day. My son is blonde, so we found a purple hairspray (purple is opposite yellow on the color wheel). Also, my son has not yet adopted any gender color bias yet.

We styled his hair in a purple faux-hawk. We shrouded him in towels and sprayed the purple stuff, then ran out of the bathroom because the smell was so noxious.

Lunch: Opposite sandwich - ham on outside. Cream cheese spread instead of mayo. Cut into wacky W.

Snack: Wrong Way Car on Carrot road. Wrong way sign cut out leftover from sandwich.

Snack: Hard Boiled Egg Car, some Rotisserie Chicken, Grapes.

YumLunch?
Yep. All Gone

0 Happy Anniversary!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Lunch: a slightly less successful tamago omelet (I tinkered with the recipe, and added too much oil to my pan) in heart and birdie shapes, topped with American cheese to cover up the slap-dash tamago. It tasted fine, but didnt hold its shape as well as the last batch. Strawberries in heart shapes, peaches in flower shapes, and Cheerios. (I know - O's seem like a lame lunch item, but the boy has been begging for them lately).

Snack: more heart strawberries, tamago heart, Annie's bunny pretzels.

Snack: hearts, cheese with cute flower picks, more bunnyzels.

YumLunch?
All gone - but... This was not enough food. For a second I wondered as I was packing it all up, and now it seems more obvious looking at the snap shots from this morning.  Insert appropriate maternal guilt here.

Consequently, Boy very hungry and less than cooperative by the time our family sat down to celebrate my husband's and my wedding anniversary.

Thank you to the patient staff at Fin Sushi who did not bat an eye, when we asked for a small soy sauce container filled with water so my son could water-paint his anniversary card. Nor did they flinch when we asked for more napkins, more chopsticks, more rice, more napkins, more napkins again, please, and would they please be so kind as to box pretty much everything we ordered for the boy.

Thanks also to my wonderful husband who kindly and patiently explained to our son why he shouldn't sing at the top of his lungs, rock and dance like a person with no spine, and why laying like a drunk frat boy, on the shared bench seating, so that his feet were touching the couple seated next to us - well, why that was in bad form.

Thank you also, kind husband, for cupcakes, milk, pie, clean dishes, banjo music, putting tired boy to bed, cuddles, helping with snacks and other morning chaos.  Also, thanks for constantly exposing me to funny pop culture things that I would otherwise miss, and making me laugh every day.

0 Peachy Chicken Salad on Bun (Sailboat), 5th Wk of School

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bought delicious batch of peaches (7 for $3) from Trader Joe's. Also, we have left over chicken.

We do not like Mayo in our house. Sour Cream  is used instead. It has more protein, and fat, which we think is a good thing. If you want to know why, watch this 89 minute video here.  Dr. Lustig has informed and hardened my resolve to eat less processed food and sugar, and not get too hung up about fat.  Despite my avoidance of sugar, corn syrup, and processed foods, I added a tiny baby spoonful of sugar to the chopped peaches, and then chilled them, before adding them to the chicken, so as to get a bit more peach juice. Despite the "spoonful of sugar," I think I am still on track to hit a goal of 15 grams of sugar a day, (or less), for my son.

Lunch: Peach Sour Cream Chicken Salad Sandwich, Colby Jack Cheese (sails) tomatoes, and peach sliced.

Snack: Cute Hard Boiled Egg Bear, Grapes. Peaches.

Snack: Cute H. B. Egg Bear, Tomatoes, Pretzels.

YumLunch? 
My son ate one huge bite of sandwich. He said he didn't like the texture, but it was OK. He did not declare it Yucky - see new favorite book below.  Mommy ate it, and Daddy too, and we thought it was yummy. We have many more peaches, and will try again.

Michelle writes: Yum / Yuck

Yummy Yucky (Leslie Patricelli board books)

0 Sick Day (It wasn't the food).

September 28, 2012

We called in sick today. It was not the food. My son has CVS - Chronic Vomit Syndrome. No, I did not make that up. Yes. That is a thing. Think of South Park character Stan.

It starts upon wake up.  I roll up rugs and lay down towels. We cuddle. He pukes. We cuddle some more. We watch Phineas and Ferb. He eventually acts as if nothing is wrong, and eats normal food again. Doctor has ruled out gastro-issues, and allergies. It's related to sleep disorder or chocolate. Chocolate is on lockdown, so maybe it's the new nap situation at school?  Not sure. Sigh - could be worse.

0 Rocket Man! To Mars and beyond....

September 27, 2012 

I bought these super cute Robot Egg Containers (from Japan) on Ebay. There are 4 in the pack, all different Robot Shapes. They operate much like the cute Egg Molds -- you must boil egg, peel while still warm, and place into Robot, then chill.

By accident, (I got distracted shopping on Ebay for more cute lunchy things) I left my eggs cooling on the stove longer than as prescribed in the how to make cute egg molds video. How long? Let's just say, I was afraid they would be cold.   Although I'd turned off the heat long ago, I'd left the lid on the pot, and to my surprise, the water was still very warm, and the eggs were warm to the touch-- thank goodness -- but they were not scalding hot, as they were the last time I tried making egg molds. The end result was the same, and I got to keep my fingerprints intact. Yay.

Lunch:  Rocket Hard Boiled Egg, Half a peach = Mars. PB Sandwich with cute stars. (I used cute Japanese tools to cut out stars in white American cheese). Cheese and PB?  not sure this will fly.

Snack AM: Geometric Colby-Jack.

Snack PM: Sad Grapes and Cheddar Bunnies.

YumLunch? 
Absolutely. Space theme prevailed over weird Cheese-PB combo.