Dippin' and Snackin'

Hey there, parents! So we all know that good food doesn't just have to come at meal time... that's why God invented snack time, or at least the person who had the genius idea to snack in between meals. This quick post is just to share a bit with you about what goes on not just at lunch time, but before and after... oh yea, we have just as much fun!

SMOOTHIES!

A most perfect snack for all ages. We've dabbled in all sorts of fruits and flavors from mixed berries and yogurt to spinach and mango to banana and apricot. I try to switch up the fruits every few weeks so the kids not only get a variety of fruits in their diet, but a variety of colors to inspire their inner (or outer) artist.

DIPS!

I've introduced all sorts of dips to the kids including green pea guacamole, white bean and olive dip, black bean dip, and a wide variety of hummus. This is a great way to pack in nutrition and get an explosion of flavor. Everyone knows that crackers were made purely to serve as vehicles for a good dip. I won't name any names, but I have caught a little fellow literally licking his plate to get every last bit of dip... waste not, want not... my kind of guy. 

Here is one of my favorite recipes for hummus. It's a kalamata olive hummus, which can be substituted for other olives or spices. I use the olive juice instead of water to give it more flavor. Leave the olives out all together and you have an amazing basic hummus. The fresh lemon juice really makes it refreshing and hard not to eat by the spoonful. Seeing as how I love the Lord, I should probably be honest and not take the credit for this recipe, but it's so good it's hard not to lie about it. Oh well, thank you, Pintrest. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Chickpeas (or 1 15.5oz can)

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

1/4 Cup Tahini

2 Tbsp. Water

3 Cloves Garlic

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Cumin

1/2 Cup Pitted Kalamata Olives

Process:

Put all ingredients into the food processor.

Blend until smooth.

Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy! 

FRUIT!

I love serving the kids fruit, but more so I love when they eat it! I like to present the fruit in a way that makes it even more fun to eat...

Fruit Flowers

Mini Yogurt Parfaits

My favorite remark upon distribution of these: "this is better than McDonald's Yogurt!"

YES! 

Lunch Lady: 1 McDonalds: 0

Apple Cars

The ooo's and ahh's this got was worth the time invested in it. Most of the kids yelled "VROOM, VROOM!" but one kid in particular remarked "Oh, I wanna drive that!" His clever classmate responded very matter of factly, "No, I wanna eat that!" 

Limited amount of decals available.

SNACK TIME!

I recently polled the after school kids and asked them what sorts of snacks they would like me to start making. After everyone shouted all sorts of things all the same time, one suggestion stood out above the rest: "SHAVED ICE AND BACON!" I laughed out loud, but made no promises to deliver such a snack. I did however promise to make it fun and to include more options. 

From pizza crackers to homemade sunbutter granola bars (vegan recipe) to muffins of all sorts, snack time is definitely getting more exciting. 

Okay, not as exciting as shaved ice and bacon, but I would say it's quite a few steps above Cheerios on the excitement scale (not that anything is wrong with Cheerios, I basically cleaned out Costco's cereal isle last week and looked cool doing it).

COOKIES!

Don't be fooled, these ain't your keebler elves cookies. When I serve up cookies they don't come from a box, they come straight from the oven... after being packed full of nutrition, of course. That's right, nutritious cookies. Rest assured that when you see cookies on the menu, it's not your typical junk food cookie. One of the biggest hits was the chick pea cookie...

That's right, no flour, butter or refined sugar was involved in the making of this cookie and despite what it "lacked," the kids LOVED them. With a base of chick peas, blended with sunbutter, honey, vanilla, cacao chocolate chips, a dash of salt, baking powder and love, these are a close second for my personal favorite cookie (though I make mine with peanut butter at home). You can substitute or add in all sorts of things from dried fruit to nuts or extra chocolate chips and satisfy that sweet tooth, or if you're like me, sweet teeth... I have at least six. 

Well, that's it for snack time, at least for this post... there will be plenty more to come when it comes to snacks. I shall close out with one final story. During afternoon snack a few weeks ago I served water to drink. When one of the boys was given his water he asked his teacher, "teacher, who made the water?" The teacher responded, accurately I might add, "God made the water." A girl at the table spoke up very quickly and somewhat defensively, "NAH-UH, JJ MADE THE WATER!" I like that girl. The teacher very graciously responded, "well, JJ prepared the water, but God made it." 

A humbling reminder for the lunch lady, I only prepare what God has already made and I do so only because He has gifted me to. Once again, I'd like to take all the credit, but it is to Him, my creator, that I owe all the glory.

Lunch lady signing off.