Back to School!

It is that time folks.  The time most kids avoid thinking about all summer.  The time most kids dread.  That's right, whether we like it or not, its time to get our brains out of summer fun time mode and into learning mode.  But have no fear we're not talking math on here, we are all about fun food for school!

Breakfast Bites

We will start with healthy, fast, and easy breakfast ideas.  We all know most families do not have a seemingly endless amount of time to fix a large breakfast Monday-Friday, so I have made it a mission to create what I call JBistro's Breakfast Bites.  I take many components of everyone's favorite breakfast items, and perfect a muffin recipe out of them (pictured below).

Starting from the top: fruit stuffed pancake, mini frittata, pastrami popper, and egg & potato muffin.

The common denominator of all these dishes is the muffin pan.  My muffin pan is my best friend in the kitchen.  You can cook almost anything in the muffin pan, and the best thing about it is that you can put your hearts desire into it, stick it in the oven and walk away.  Intrigued yet?  Recipes can be found here.

Lunch Essentials

Let's move on to lunch packing essentials.  Best advice: keep it simple, healthy, and fun food!  You do not have to send sandwiches and chips every day.  My first and most important rule for lunch making is include the kids!  They always love having input into their own lunches.  My second rule, little food for little fingers.  I have found with my daughter that she loves anything that is bite sized.  Personally I think this is because it doesn't seem so overwhelming like a big sandwich.  I noticed a few years back that she would never finish an entire sandwich and that just added to the wasted food.  My last, and one of the most important, rules is keep the food fun.  If you're going to make a sandwich, try using a cookie cutter to make shapes.  Both of my kids love it when I take the normal sandwich fixings and roll them up in a tortilla.  The sky is the limit on what you can put into a tortilla, and when you slice them up in fun size bites it makes them even more enticing!  Here are a few of my substitutions ideas:

• Sandwich bread: hot dog bun, tortilla, pita pocket
• Chips: "french fry" style veggies, small tossed salad, make your own mix & match trail mix
• Cookies: fruit salad, fun-cut fruit, fruit skewer (kids love anything on a stick!), animal crackers

Snacks here, snacks there, snacks everywhere

You remember always looking forward to coming home from school and having some great after school snacks, and that is still the case with our kids.  Even if your kids go to after school care and not home to you doesn't mean you can't give them a great snack.  If you have to pack their snack here are some fun tips:

• use a dark colored storage container and put a "Top Secret Snack" post-it note on the top of it.  Tell your kid(s) not to open until school is out.
• Provide the daycare or sitter with your snack and put a "made with love" or "scavenger snack" note on it.  Tell the sitter to have the kids "scavenger" for their snack to make it fun.

Now if you're able to be home for your kids, the after school snack ideas are almost endless.  Here are some easy and fun food ideas:

• pizza bites, pictured to the left: wonton wrappers, fill with your favorite toppings, and bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

   

• keep it old school with "ants on a log." Celery stick, filled with 
• peanut butter and topped with raisins or update with mini chocolate chips.
• my kids personal favorite, "smore bites" pictured to the right:

If you follow these easy rules, your kids will start to love their school lunches again, and get excited about healthy food!  Be sure and share your pictures and/or ideas with us on our Facebook page.

Keep following the food with JBistro Style!