First Day of School!

Already?! Where did the summer go?! 

Ah, back to school. Back to schedules. Back to early nights and earlier mornings. Back to homework and reading logs and the stacks of papers to sign.

And back to lunches packed every day!

Today Princess (who will henceforth be known as Lulu, as she has decided that she is much too grown up to be called Princess anymore *sniff* ) started second grade. 

To kick off a whole new school year of lunches, I packed up this cute meal in a Laptop Lunch box:

She has little star crackers with dried apricots, a small bit of chocolate doughnut for dessert, a peeled and segmented Cutie orange with cherry tomatoes from our garden, carrot discs, and a turkey and cheese kitty sandwich. Cheesy letters spell out her grade. You know, just in case she forgot. Just kidding - it was totally for cuteness factor!

Crispy stars for my super star! She loved these little star crackers. Apparently not so fond of the apricots though. Or the tomatoes. Or carrots. She liked them yesterday, but they came home untouched today, and I was treated to a little lecture from Lulu about Why I Don't Like These Anymore. Sheesh. 

Miss Bean started fifth grade, moving up to the middle school. Her first experience with lockers and changing classes! Ah, she's going to be great.

She wanted DIY mini tacos for lunch, which was way easy to pack since we had shredded beef tacos for dinner the night before.

A little doughnut dessert is tucked in next to a peeled Cutie and some grapes. She also has tortilla rounds to dip in the homemade guacamole and salsa, with leftover shredded beef and mini soft taco rounds to make into little lunchy tacos. She also took a little dish on the side with some carrot sticks and sunflower butter for an in-class snack. And ate almost everything packed, too! I thought it would be too much food, but apparently it was just right for the first day.

For a special little boost, I packed Lunchbox Love notes in their lunches for the first time. Bean was totally thrilled with hers. Especially the little fact on the back:

Lulu's was a little sweeter, with a factoid about number of times a heart beats per day on the backside.

And G-man started seventh grade today! No lunch for him, as he wanted to buy for the first day. 

And today was Brick's very first day of high school, but no picture of him. He left way earlier than my eyes were open! Apparently freshmen are too cool for their moms to take pictures of them in the front yard...

So here is a gratuitous picture of Beaker, who starts pre-K in a few weeks, instead:

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Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

One of my favorite recipes! It's simple, delicious, makes plenty, and very versatile. The recipe came to me from my friend Sunnie, who generously gave permission for me to share it here.

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

3 - 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 jar salsa or picante sauce (I use Pace Picante, medium)

1 packet taco seasoning

Place chicken breasts in a crock pot. Mix together salsa and taco seasoning, then pour over chicken breasts. Cover with crock pot lid and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 6 hours.

Shred with a fork and serve with your favorite taco toppings.

I like to serve these on flour or corn tortillas, with a delicious homemade pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole or avocado slices, and shredded cabbage or lettuce. A Southwestern style rice and refried beans or black beans are excellent sides to compliment the dish. Chicken taco bar is a favorite meal in our family. It's delicious and requires almost no effort to make.

Mild Pico de Gallo

4 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

juice of 1-2 limes

Mix ingredients together and add a generous pinch of pepper. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep ingredients well mixed. Add diced peppers and garlic if you want it spicy.

We LOVE this recipe for chicken tacos. It also works very well for beef (using a basic roast cut) and pork (with cheap carnitas or a loin roast).

My favorite part of this recipe is the versatility. Especially with the leftovers! The above recipe will make enough for 2-3 meals, and the shredded meat freezes very well. I've used the leftover shredded chicken to make enchilladas, quesadillas, taco salad, sandwiches, tortilla soup, and more. It's good on rolls or bread, tortillas, lettuce, pasta, even rice!

I used leftovers from our Chicken Taco Bar dinner to make lunches the next day.

For the Dude, I put together chicken taco salad. Lettuce forms the base, and is topped with the shredded chicken and pico de gallo, with black beans and a sprinkle of shredded colby-jack cheese, garnished with a few grape tomatoes. On the side he has a small container of guacamole and some crushed tortilla chips to mix in with his salad. He also has an orange slice and a few strawberries.

Brick's lunch was pretty close to the same, but with a few less toppings. 

He prefers his salads to be a little less fancy. His is just the lettuce and chicken with shredded cheese on top. He has pico de gallo and ranch dressing on the side, as well as the crushed tortilla chips to add a little crunch.

A couple of orange slices and strawberries add a little vitamin C to the lunch, as well as a bit of sweetness.

For Princess and Bean, I turned the leftover chicken into quesadillas.

Princess has a kitty cat chicken and black bean quesadilla with pico de gallo on the side for dipping and scooping. She also has grape tomatoes (her favorite) and an etched banana, with a small salad on the side.

I also put in a little bit of sweet strawberry yogurt topped with cranberry-raisin granola for a delicious dessert.

And what goes with a cat? Why, a squeaky little mouse, of course! Bean has pretty much the same lunch, with a little chicken and black bean quesadilla mouse.

Etching bananas is easy. I used a toothpick to scratch a message into the banana skin. By lunch time the message was nice and dark, very easy to read.