Valentines Day!

So many days I am so ashamed of my frustration, anxiety and bad behavior and wonder if I will ever get better. And then I see how far we have come... My son wrote a lovely note to his teacher, sewed a valentine; I make lunches, and even a fruit tray for my daughter and class because she is allergic to everything. While it may seem standard mom stuff, I use to barely even be able to get out of bed. We are healing, we are moving forward, and I am so very grateful to those who love us unconditionally and have helped us gain strength.

I love Valentine's Day. It is just such a happily pink day that we get to make cute crafts and have fun parties in the classes. I dressed up today and was told by another mom I looked like a Valentine Fairy... where are my wings! 

For my son's class I made these raw brownie bites, but I made them really thin and cut them with heart cutters, they were a hit in third grade! 

Gluten free cupcakes with coconut milk and berry whipped topping "frosting" inside secret hearts! 

Oh and of course the lunch! An inside out sandwich with heart shaped turkey, beef, and rice cheese. Side of cupcake, yellow peppers, cinnamon sugar apples, and tomatoes. 

And for dinner, we have pasta, with a big turkey meatball heart. I made little gelatin hearts with pomegranate juice and knox gelatin. 

Spring garden

It was Mother's Day yesterday, and we had a lovely day with handmade gifts and my son making me breakfast in bed. The sun was shining, the birds chirping, the flowers blooming in abundance.

Today, I made a "Spring Garden". Rice and quinoa medley with coconut aminos, a couple of pieces of broccoli with some mini turkey pepperonis my youngest snuck into the grocery cart while we were shopping the other day!

The lunch, and some lovely flowers my girls potted for us on our doorstep.

Flower

This was just going to be a bowl of rice, but I kept finding bits here and there from the fridge so it became a little flower. The sun will come out soon, right?

International Polar Bear Day

It's International Polar Bear Day! Did you know that all polar bears are thought to be left handed? Go lefties!

Some left over ground turkey for the base, and I just used my rice molds for the bear faces. I cut up some olives for the face and sunflower seeds for ears. Super easy and turned out pretty cute I would say! 

Roses

I saw this done with ham, which is a little more pink, but, turkey will do.

I made little rice cylinders, and cut up sliced turkey into half circles and placed them around the rice to form a rose. I also made some extra turkey bacon,  and rolled them up into roses!

Placed in some greenery of spinach and some craisins on the side.

Year of the Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year! Celebrating this day is the turkey bacon breathing dragon! 

His body is made from leftover black and white rice, mixed; Eyes are rice cheese and cilantro; carrots across the body with a cilantro tail. 

Put another bird on it.

Leftover turkey meatballs turned into a little bird in a nest. Mung bean noodles nest, mayo and nori eyes, carrot beak, and celery branch.

Afternoon snacking

I was excited for Holiday break as I was going to make some snacking platters for the kids that I couldn't make into boxe-able lunches.

Another veggie Christmas tree! Veggies are so much more fun to eat when they look like a tree.

snap peas and spinach for the tree; sliced turkey, dried cranberries, carrots for the ornaments; clementine for the star. 

Turkey turkeys

Remember those construction paper turkeys that we made from our hand prints way back in school? This was supposed to be that. My daughter thought it would be funny to make turkey turkeys.

Grilled turkey strips, rice cheese for the face, sunflower seed eyes, carrot beak, and pumpkin seed wattle.

Mummies

Back to feeling a little more creative! This one took a bit more preparation. I am not great with the baking, especially the gluten free baking without eggs or dairy or anything these things are supposed to have. I used a mix and made little pie crusts, and cut them into strips. They were pretty crumbly, but worked. I had to "glue" a few pieces with ketchup. I made the eyes out of the rice cheese, cutting them with straws. I found these little turkey breakfast sausages to roll up as mummies, they were a hit!

Ninja

I was so excited about this one. We had been reading a Lego Ninjago book at bed time, and I found some  inspiration online for ninja lunches.  I was just thrilled with how it turned out. My kids thought I was awesome too which is always a great feeling. Carrots as weapons, rice balls wrapped in nori... it was so easy, yet super cool. We also had turkey burgers left over from dinner the night before for some extra protein and for the ninja's to hang out on.

I guess I started something...

 After coming home from pre-k, my little one decided that her lunch must have a face. We had to have a discussion that the nose is just a carrot..."see mom? how my nose goes from here to here and has two holes?"... that I will not be whittling the carrot to look like a real nose. She was pretty happy with the end result! 

These were mini turkey meatloaves and a curvy carrot for the mouth!