Spooky Supper

My kids used to LOVE dinner on Halloween night. We would try to eat a little early so we'd still have plenty of time to get ready for Trick-or-Treating or attending a Harvest Festival. I would come up with a special spooky menu and although the alterations to the food sometimes made it less than appealing (to Ron & I) the girls thought it was WONDERFUL!  A sample menu was:
"Mystery Meat Loaf" - which had purple food color in it.
"Monster Mashed Potatoes  - leave some of the peels on to make them "dirty" or turn them green with food color.
"Ghoulish Green Beans" - leave them alone, to the kids green beans are scary enough!
"Blue Blobs" - always a favorite, these were Biscuits made blue with food color

Of course Jello with gummy worms would be a great choice. Dirt Cups (the jello/coolwhip/oreo crumbs concoction) was a favorite for dessert. If you want to get really creepy, make sure you serve your dinner with "Vampire Blood" (tomato or strawberry juice) or "Monster Mud" (chocolate milk).

I'm sure I must have a photo or two somewhere of our Halloween dinners, but I just can't locate them! (Those days were definitely before digital cameras!) But now it's easy to find hundreds of ideas and pictures on the Internet!  Just try searching Halloween Food or Halloween Recipes. But don't forget that just being a little creative with whatever you have on hand will still be lots of fun!
Bon appetit!

Back in the School Routine

In the old days (when I was in school), the school year didn't start until the day after Labor Day.  That would have been today. But for most of us, our kids started school last week, or 2-3 weeks ago!  But with Labor Day officially behind us, we have to admit that the School Routine is now in full swing!

There came a day, a couple years ago, when I began to wonder just how many more sack-lunches I was going to have to make before I could retire from this chore!  Do you ever get sick of making those PB & J sandwiches? Ever wonder if the chips even make it to lunch time, or are smashed to crumbs long before? Get tired of adding the obligatory "fruit" into the sack (because good moms do) even though you doubt it ever gets eaten?  Well, I've been there too.

How easy it is to forget the blessing-side of having to make sack lunches!  Afterall, we make the lunches for our children - blessings from God. We pack the bread, or lunch meat, or string cheese, or fruit, or pudding cups, or cookies...out of our ability to have fresh food. We send water bottles, or Capri Sun, or juice boxes because we are blessed to have funds to pay for it! 

Even though it may seem mundane, and oh-so-never-ending, we have the opportunity to show a little love to our children, in even the littlest things we do, like pack their sack lunches.

3 RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) for school lunches:
Tuck a "love note" to your child inside their lunchbox, or lunch sack.
Use a cookie-cutter to make a unique shape out of their sandwich.
To send a cupcake (and have it survive), split the cupcake and flip the frosting side down, so that it is now in the middle like filling. It may still be messy, but all the frosting won't be stuck to the plastic bag.

Happy lunch-making!
Julie