Creative School Lunches: Snow Day Themed School Lunch

While my family traveled over the holidays, my kids had one request – they wanted to see snow.  It was same request that they made just weeks before when they went to visit my sister-in-law in Philadelphia and several times before that.  So for our trip, we packed our mittens, hats, coats, and we hoped for the best…but it just wasn’t meant to be.  Although we were away for nearly 18 days, and we did experience freezing temperatures from time to time, we didn’t get to see any snow.  My kids were a little more than upset…  Only to arrive home to sunny South Florida and watch temperatures plummet and snow start to fall in some of those very same places that we had just visited a week before.

At that point, my kids were really upset.

But all of that gave me an idea for my monthly school lunch series…how about a “snow day” themed school lunch complete with snowflakes, snowmen, and maybe even a penguin or two?  Because let’s face it, my kids have absolutely no chance of seeing snow here in South Florida.  This lunch is it.

So I started with a sandwich cutter that my sister gave me for Christmas a few years ago.  Lucky for me, we are a family that likes unconventional gifts, but if you’re looking for one of these, this Munchkin Green Penguin sandwich cutter from Amazon appears to be identical to mine.

Since penguins hang out near the water, I decided to get some blueberries to act as my blue water background.  I don’t know about your kids, but my younger daughter could eat an entire pint of blueberries in one sitting (if I let her).  The more I buy, the more she eats, which is just fine with me.  So I lined the main compartment of my lunch container with blueberries, placed my penguin PB&J on top, and cut a blueberry in half for the eye.If that looks like an excessive amount of blueberries to you, I can assure you it’s nothing to my 3 year old!

The snowman face consists of low fat vanilla yogurt, raisins, and a small wedge of cheese for the nose.  The key to making sure the face looks right is selecting raisins that are all approximately the same size for the mouth, and then selecting slightly larger raisins for the eyes. The final step for this lunch was the snowflake cheese and crackers that I made with this Snowflake cookie cutter from Wilton.  Admittedly my snowflakes look a little more like asterisks, and I might select another snowflake cookie cutter in the future for that reason, but my daughter didn’t seem to notice.  Not one bit.  She was too busy eating everything.I timed myself when I made this lunch and it only took about 12 minutes, which is just a little more than one of my ordinary school lunches, but short enough for a school day or afternoon stuck at home because of real snow outside.  Although, we’re not going to hold out for a real snow day down here anytime soon!

So that’s it for this month, be sure to check out my other creative school lunches and stay tuned for February’s “LOVE” themed school lunch in February!