"Fun Dinner"

Fall break = kids sleeping in = late breakfast = late lunch = not so hungry for dinner! Plus I wasn't in the mood to cook a meal last night. When these sorts of things happen then we have what we like to call "Fun Dinner" but of course you know that is my attempt at getting my kids excited about eating whatever I can find around the house quickly without cooking. So here is what it looks like.

It looks kind of fun, right?

It is mainly snacky kinds of foods and anything I have leftover that needs to get used up put in small containers on a tray. I do this for my kids more often in the summer for lunch and put it in a muffin tin. Sometimes they each get their own muffin tin and sometimes they share one. It is incredible what you can get them to eat that way! Like I say everything tastes better in mini form!

If you are wondering if this is what I fed my husband too then the answer is you bet! You get what you get and you don't throw a fit! It is all pretty healthy food and it is surprisingly easy to fill yourself up this way. Plus I had a little helper in the kitchen.

Now I will admit I am not one to accept "help" in the kitchen very often like I should but she was actually being quite helpful fitting everything onto the tray and telling me what else I should put on the tray and suggesting other green foods we could use! This is her kind of meal...no meat and she gets to choose whatever she likes.

So we  had some English Seaside Cheddar I needed to use up from Whole Foods and some reduced fat Monterrey jack the kids like. Then the last of my Trader Joe's sesame almonds (sad) and some organic raisins. These were not the ones from Whole Foods that I am desperately missing! I ate those too fast! Then Faith suggested we could have some cucumbers and I had just a couple leftover small yellow peppers to throw in there. I usually give the kids some kind of cracker or pretzel they can eat their cheese with or dip in something like hummus so pretzel thins it was. Those almonds and raisins tasted pretty darn good together I must say!

Then we had the last of the grapes, bell pepper and celery sticks, the most delicious orange (they are starting to get really good), and some veggie straws! If you haven't tried Veggie Straws or Apple Straws you need to do so now! That is some light ranch for the kids to dip their veggies in. I don't think either one of them ended up using it which is making me really happy. I am glad that they don't feel like they always need to dip their veggies in something all the time. Sometimes it is good to just eat them plain plus I was short on hummus!

We definitely needed to use up the apples because the fruit flies are about to get out of control! And we had these crackers. These are the BEST CRACKERS EVER MADE! I actually feel like I have been holding out on you a little bit. These are the only crackers I eat. I missed crackers when I changed my diet. It is very hard to find healthy crackers. These are made by Crunchmaster and are just called Multi-Grain Crackers. We buy them at Sams but I have seen smaller bags at the grocery store. They are a little different in those bags and I prefer the ones from Sams. They are actually gluten free and made with brown rice flour, sesame seeds, quinoa seeds and a few other ingredients. Come over and I will share some from my pretty little jar on the shelf I keep them in!

Then Faith managed to cram some salsa on the tray for me (mainly for Miles) and she hollered down the stairs that we were having "Fun Dinner" tonight and it was time to eat at the boys. She also told them we were all coming down to watch a movie while we ate. She likes to be bossy. I don't know where she gets that!

So that was my fantastic dinner last night! All eaten on paper plates in front of a very old and somewhat lame family movie streamed from Netflix called, Baby Geniuses. We managed to graze our way through and only a few veggies remained on the tray.

I did better tonight though with homemade chicken noodle soup! I will share that recipe soon. Now here's hoping you get to have a "Fun Dinner" sometime soon too and close up your oven and stove for a night! Sorry if you have no kids to blame it on!