The Perfect Lunch For Brandi

Brandi takes her lunch to school every day.  This isn't news to most of you.  I think I have complained once or twice before about having to pack up her lunch every morning.  It can get expensive buying juice boxes, snacks, sandwich meats, breads, yogurts, and all the things she likes to take.  There have been times when she has asked for me to buy her those pre-packages lunches, but to be honest, they never really looked like complete meals to me.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to review one of the new Lunchables selections.  I went into the grocery store with some preconceived reservations, and was pleasantly surprised when I saw the new varieties.  They are entire meals, complete with main entree, snacks, and drink.  I didn't have Brandi with me, but I knew she would love the chicken strips, so I got that one.

I was really impressed with what came in the meal.  The chicken strips came with two different dipping sauces; ranch and barbecue.  It also had two different snacks; mandarin oranges and a crispy rice treat.  I knew Brandi would love these, because I have been buying individual mandarin orange fruit cups for her since school started.  They are her favorite fruit.  The meal also came with a bottle of water, and a kool-aid partyin' punch fun fizz package to add to it. 

Brandi came home from school the day I put it in her lunchbox with a huge smile on her face.  She LOVED it!  At my local grocery store, these sell for around $3 each, which is pretty reasonable considering it is a complete meal.  I know I will be buying more for her in the months to come.  We might even try some of the other varieties.  I saw a turkey and cheddar sub on bread made with whole grain that I want to try.  That's another good thing about Lunchables...they are not just for kids!

"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by  Mom Central on behalf of Lunchables and received the products necessary to  facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me  for taking the time to participate."

Making Lunchtime Yummytime!

Brandi takes her lunch to school every single day.  Like her older brother and sister, she qualifies for free lunch, but she refuses to eat what the school provides.  She is afraid that she will not like what they are offering, and that she won't have any lunch.  So, every morning, I pack her lunch.

Sometimes, she takes a yogurt, but most of the time it is a peanut butter sandwich.  No jelly.  She says it makes the bread soggy.  And most days she brings home half the sandwich.  This has put me on a mission to find something good, and healthy, that she can take for lunch that she will actually eat.

Enter Smucker's Uncrustables. When I was asked to review these round little sandwiches, I knew my daughter would be thrilled, and I was right. These yummy little sandwiches have made her a very happy little girl.  They have made my mornings run a little smoother, too, because all I have to do is throw the frozen sandwich into her lunch box, and by lunchtime, it is thawed out and ready to eat.  There is no soggyness, and Brandi can enjoy peanut butter and jelly again.  The added bonus, of course, is that there is no crust.  The only bad thing is that my husband loves them, too, so I have to hide them from him.

I also want to tell you about the new Snack'n Waffles.  I tried the chocolate chip ones, and they were delicious.  They come individually wrapped, which keeps them from getting freezer burn, and also makes them easy to grab and go.  They can be thawed out and eaten at room temperature, or they can be heated in the microwave.  I heated mine, and had to microwave it a little longer than the instructions said.

I will definitely be buying these products myself in the future.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Smucker’s and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Lunch

The other day, I received an email inviting me to join a site called Lunch. Here are the first two paragraphs of the email:

I really enjoyed reading your posts about fishing (so much fun to do with the family), the Halloween birthday parties you've thrown (they sound like a blast!) and most importantly, your meatball recipe (I've been looking for one for a little while and will have to try yours out!) I love the style of your blog- it's informative, well written, stylish, and fun. After reading your blog, I wanted to write to you about a site I work for www.lunch.com and its parenting community!

Lunch is a place where you can rate/review topics on anything, interact with people that have similar interests, and discover unique perspectives on things you may not have known existed. The parenting community is an ideal place for sharing your thoughts and swapping information on everything related to parenting! Here’s the link: http://lunch.com/t/h2o!

I was intrigued, so I decided to check it out. After looking around a bit, I discovered that this is a very cool site, where you can read reviews on just about everything, written by real people, who are not being paid to share their opinions. You can even write reviews yourself.

I signed up.

I will admit, I have not found too much time to really discover all this site has to offer, but I have played some of their "games" where you rate things, from fast food to Stephen King books. After each "game", I am shown a list of people who have similar interests, who I can then choose to follow. So far I am following seven people, and two people are following me. Not bad for a couple of days, I guess. I think the more reviews I write, the more followers I will gain. Or at least that is what I am assuming.

Why am I telling you about all this? Because I think you should go check it out. If you decide to join, let me know. I'll follow you.

Hair, Anyone?

Junior and I decided to go out to lunch today for Valentine's Day, since he was sick on Saturday. His favorite place to eat, when we have the money, is Applebee's. So we went there. He ordered a steak, and I got their brushetta burger.

I gotta tell you about this burger. It's a hamburger, with mozzarella cheese, pesto, and tomato brushetta on foccacia(sp) bread. Talk about yummy! It is served with Parmesan seasoned fries.

And today, apparently hair.

When the waiter put the plate in front of me, there was a big, block hair near my fries. I pointed it out, and they were all apologetic. I was fine...I know these things happen. They remade my food, and took it off my bill, which I told them they didn't have to do. I wasn't looking for free food, just hairless fries.

All in all, it was a nice afternoon.