9/27

I had something different planned for todays lunches, left overs from dinner. (Mini taco salads) But there was some miscommunication and the teenagers polished off the leftovers. So I had to come up with something else.

For my 15 yr old DS -

Ham and salami. Jack-o-carrots. Pepperoni and cheese circles. Bell pepper slices. GF muffin and some lemon bumble bar. Apple.

For my 17yo DD-

Ham and Salami flower (I tried to make it look like a flower anyway, I need more practice!) green bell pepper leaves. Pepperoni and cheese center. GF muffin, lemon bumble bar, bell pepper slices, heart and flower carrots. Apple.

For my 7yo DD-

Exactly the same as her big sister. Except she gets a pear for afternoon snack.

I know my leaves are more tree leaves than flower leaves, but its the only leaf cookie cutter I have. I need to wait for some after Holiday clearance sales to stock up on more themed cutters :)

9/20

The first two lunches today are packed into our Easy Lunch Boxes  The one for my 7yo is packed into her little bento box she picked out.

17yo DD-
Ham rolls, cheese squares, red bell pepper, small plum.
Homemade trail mix, bumblebee bar, black olives, dark chocolate square. Apple.

 

15 yo DS-

Egg salad, rice crackers to dip, cheese squares, small plum, bumblebee bar, homemade trail mix, black olives, dark chocolate square. Nectarine.

7 yo DD-
2 hard boiled egg flowers, small golden plum, red bell pepper slices, 3 purple tomatoes, bumblebee bar, black olives, cheese, trail mix. greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey and some dark chocolate flakes, pear.

Farmers Market

 My husband was hosting a DnD game this morning so I headed over to our local Farmers Market. I wanted to share a typical trip to show you what we get :)

Sorry for the glare, this is in my breakfast nook and there are tons of windows, it is also quite sunny outside.
Our towns Market is pretty new and smaller than most around here. But they do have some pretty awesome vendors here! 
One of the vendors is a local farm who offers a "fill a bag" deal. I use Chico Bags and they let me fill them for $10 each. This is two bags worth. Most of this will be used for dinners around here but the fruit, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers always find their way into lunches. Usually fruit is not included in their fill a bag policy but today it was, so I put my 17yo in charge of picking out all the fruit while I got our veggies.
Sitting on my table is $20 worth of LOCAL fruit and veggies. There is no way I could purchase all of this in my grocery store for the same amount for local produce. I've priced it!
My 7 yr old is away camping with her Grandparents this weekend and she is going to be SO excited to see that we got a big bag of fresh green beans and some acorn squash. Two of her very favorite foods!

There is also a small jar of grape jelly that I got for $3 (kind of expensive for jelly yes, but organic local grapes and I sampled it and felt my knees shake, I had to get it, LOL!) and the larger jar is also a locally made BBQ sauce. Totally gluten free and beyond yummy! That jar was $6 and the seller included a package of metal skewers too.

One of the things I really like about my towns farmers market is you can purchase "market bucks" they're like little gift certificates in $5 increments, they're good all year. So from May to October they don't expire and all of the Market vendors take them. I find that to be pretty handy especially on the weeks where my funds are a little low. I go on payday and purchase maybe $40 of market bucks and on that day I may spend 15-20 of them. Then the following week when it isn't payday, I still have market bucks that I know I can use at the market when I need them. And if for some reason I don't make it to the Market for a few weeks I know I can still use them when I do make it there.

We try to stick to a cash only budget, especially for things like food and gas. Sometimes I'm not the best at math and my food budget is empty before payday. So its really nice to pre-pay for my produce at the Market and know I can always go shop there even when I don't have cash on hand.

Tell me about your local Farmers Market. Get anything good this week?