Teddy Bear Picnic

Today's lunch theme was "Teddy Bear Picnic".

I started with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and used a simple circle cookie cutter to punch out a round.  I then used two different kinds of cheese (cheddar and provolone) to make triangle shaped rays.  He has a celery smile and fruit roll up (green apple) sunglasses.

Next I used a celery stalk and grapes (cut in half) to make a tree.  There is also "grass" (chopped lettuce and spinach) and 2 little bunnies (Annie's organic fruit snacks - strawberry).

For the picnic I used 2 Teddy Grahams and an apple slice cut into a square (with strips of it's skin) as the blanket.  There are also "ants" on the blanket (protein bar crumbs) because no picnic is complete without ants invading the area.

The boys also had homemade watermelon popsicles for "dessert".  We made them last night with our popsicle mold (found at Walmart for three dollars), Minute Maid watermelon juice, little chunks of watermelon and a splash of lemon juice.

They were very refreshing and according to my 4-year-old, "delicious".

Happy kids!

-J

Shrimp and Bacon Zucchini Boats

My newest cooking experiment turned out great!  I was making salmon and needed something to go with it, so I came up with the following recipe for yummy zucchini boats!

I didn't actually expect them to turn out as good as they did so unfortunately, I didn't take pictures as I made them, but I do have a few pictures of the finished product.

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Shrimp
Carrots
Garlic
Onion
Red Pepper
Green Pepper
Bacon Bits
Tomato
Spinach
Mozzarella
Provolone

• Cut zucchini in half and use a spoon to carve out the center area, leaving a "boat" (keep the part you carved out, you'll be using it for the stuffing)
• Grate carrots, garlic and zucchini center (from last step) into a bowl
• Finely dice shrimp, onion, red pepper and green pepper and add to bowl
• Toss everything from the bowl into a pan and saute with a little bit of butter and your choice of seasoning (I used McCormick Perfect Pinch Vegetable).  When done, drain (if needed) and add back to the bowl.
• Finely dice spinach and tomato (de-seed first) and toss in the bowl
• Grate mozzarella into bowl
• Mix well (the cheese should melt and help the mixture to stick together) 
• Spoon mixture into the zucchini boats and sprinkle top with bacon bits
  * Note:  I had extra stuffing so I baked it in a little stoneware ramekin

• Bake at 425 for 20 minutes 
• At the 15 minute mark, pull them out and place thinly sliced provolone to top, put back into the oven to continue cooking for the last 5 minutes

You'll love these!  They went perfectly with our lemon herb salmon, butter parmesan pasta and sweet corn on the cob.  It was an all around hit with everyone from the 2-year-old all the way up to the Grammy (we won't mention her age).  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!