First Full Day of 4th Grade!! {How to Pack Little Man's Lunch}

How cute is he?!?!? I cannot believe he is a 4th grade! He looks so big!

Anyway ... back to school means packing lunches for Little Man!! 

Little Man eats like a grown man. When I used to allow him to purchase hot lunches from school he would end up buying 2 lunches because 1 never filled him up. So now I make sure I have a bunch of lunch foods so that he is filled up. 

{Just remember he only gets 25 minutes to eat everything}

This year I finally gave in and bought him a new lunch box. {He may or may not have gone to school with a SpeedRacer lunch box since 1st grade}

This lunch box is Chicago Bears colors so it wins bonus points for me!

Mom of the Year Award goes to me!

Little Man's lunch includes ...

a wild cherry juice box

cucumbers

ranch dressing

goldfish crackers

a peach cup

&

a peanut butter and strawberry sandwich

Here I have it all packed away in his lunch box!

Lastly ... I leave my Little Man a sweet note telling him how much I miss him and to have a great day!

His first lunch for his first full day of 4th grade. 

What kind of items do you put in your child's lunch box?

Chicken Bam {Recipe}

Dan is an amazing cook! He can have a few ingredients and make a gourmet type meal for the entire family. I, on the other hand, need a recipe of some sort in order to make something.

This is Dan's recipe. He calls it Chicken Bam. It is light and delicious. A perfect summer time meal.
{Sorry the photos are not great ... I took them with my IPhone 3G}

You will need ...
* a box of Fettuccine noodles
* 3 Roma tomatoes
* 1/2 a red onion (diced)
* 1/2 of a red pepper, orange pepper, and yellow pepper.
* 1/2 a stick of butter
* 1 tbsp of minced garlic
* 1 small can of sliced mushrooms
* Juice of 1 lemon
* 1 pound of chicken tenderloins
* salt and black pepper
* 3 tbsp olive oil
* 1/4 cup of water

First, you will need to slice the peppers. I sliced the entire pepper for each color and placed the half not needed into a baggie to use for my Pepper Steak recipe. {I will be making it later this week!}

Also slice the tomatoes the same way as the peppers and dice the red onion.

Throw all the ingredients into a skillet except for the fettuccine noodles.  Allow everything to cook down and the chicken to cook thoroughly.

While this is all cooking, get a large pot of water and bring it to a boil to cook the noodles. 

Once the chicken has been cooked. Take the chicken out of the skillet and let it rest while the pasta is cooking. Take the skillet off of the heat.

Once the chicken has rested for a few minutes. Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and place the chicken back into the pan.

After the noodles have been cooked and drained pour the chicken mixture over the hot noodles.

That's it ... all done!

You can top the pasta with parmesan cheese.

If you do make this ... let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Easy Summer Dinner

I don't know about you but making dinner during the summer can be difficult. My husband does not work a typical 9 to 5 job and sometimes {like last night} comes home around 10:30 p.m. Little Man loves to play outside and will often only come inside when it is too dark to be out any longer.

 With that being said ... I made Italian Noodle Salad. This salad can be made earlier in the day, placed in the refrigerator, and then brought out whenever someone is hungry and ready to eat.

 To make the Italian Noodle salad you will need ...

1/2 pound of spaghetti noodle {or whatever noodle you have on hand}

1 bottle of Italian dressing

Lemon pepper

3 scallion onions

Cucumber

Broccoli

Green Pepper

Tomatoes

A large bowl

 Begin by quartering the cherry tomatoes and tossing them into bowl.

 Then quarter the cucumber and toss that into the bowl {See how easy this already is!}

 

Chop the rest of the veggies and throw them into the bowl as well.

  

When the water boils ... put in your pasta. You want your noodles al dente because the italian dressing will soften them up as well as it sits in the refrigerator.

 Once the pasta has been cooked. Drain and rinse with cold water. {This stops the cooking process and also will not wilt any of the veggies already in the bowl.}

 Throw the noodles in the bowl and top with a lot of italian dressing. You think that it will be a lot at first but the noodles and veggies will soak up the dressing.

 Mix everything together. If you made this in advance cover your bowl and put in the refrigerator. If you are starving like I always am ... eat right away.

Yum Yum!

We make this dish as the main course for dinner ... a lot! But you can make it as a side with grilled chicken or fish.

So there you have it. The easiest summer dinner!

Enjoy!!