Monster Munchies With Free Bag Topper Printable

Every year I try and create a fun Halloween themed lunch for my kids at school.  I THINK I might enjoy making it more than they enjoy opening their lunch boxes.  But I know eventually these day will come to an end.  One day they'll be buying lunch with their friends or just be too old and too embarrassed for these fun little lunches.  So I try and suck up every moment of their childhood as much as I can and do as much possible with the short amount of time I'm given.

This year I went with a monster theme and created a 'Monster Munchies' snack mix for them.  The snack mix included:

-Goblin Teeth : Candy Corn
-Bat Droppings: Chocolate Cereal Pieces
-Ghost Poop: Mini Marshmallows
-Zombie Eyes: Fruit Snacks

You just mix all the ingredient in a sandwich bag and I used double sided sticky tape to apply the topper.  It makes a really fun snack!

I made a printable to top the bag, which you can find HERE for free.  Just print it out on some cardstock paper, fold in half, and top your sandwich bag.  It's that easy!

    Download the 'Monster Munchies" Free Printable


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For the rest of their lunch, I kept it pretty simple this year.  To be honest, this week being Red Ribbon Week at school, everyday brought a new activity and something they had to participate in.  I was exhausted after waking up early every day making sure their hair was crazy enough, their socks were crazy enough, and their clothes were inside out.  I had snacks to bring in for Halloween parties at school and then the week ended with Halloween.  I'm exhausted typing this.  Excuse me while I go take a nap ....

For the lunches I included:

-Mandarin Oranges (which I drew a jack-o-lantern face on it to "spookify" it.) Made up word? Okay, then!
-Orange Scream Yogurt
-Monster Munchies
-Sunny Delight (Halloween Edition)
-1 Piece of Candy
-Monster themed sandwich (peanut butter and honey for my son and cream cheese and jelly for my daughter)  Could they be anymore opposite?

Look at these sandwiches?  Aren't they adorable?  And they're super easy to make. Normally I would drive myself crazy cutting out shapes, using cookie cutters and all different things to make eyeballs or scary teeth.  This year I wrapped the sandwiches and simply glued on some eyes, drew on the features with a marker, and taped on some pipe cleaner.  Saved me a ton of time rather than cutting out small pieces of olives to make some hair!

And there ya have it.  My spooky lunches for my little monsters.  Takes little time to prepare and I did everything the night before.  You don't have to take hours to do something special for your kids.  Just a little extra time goes a long way.  And they'll remember these times forever.

Halloween Mummy Hot Dogs

Looking for a spooky and fun dinner to feed your little ones this Halloween?  These are a great and simple way to make dinner fun.  It doesn't take many ingredients and takes very little time to prepare.

I like to "celebrate" Halloween all week by making fun desserts and treats for the kids, so I made these earlier in the week.  But this would be a perfect and quick dinner idea before taking your kids out trick-or-treating.

Ingredients:

• 1 package hot dogs
• 1 (8 oz) can refrigerated cresent rolls

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut two slits down the sides of the hot dog to create arms, and one slit up from the bottom to create the legs.

Roll out your cresent dough, pressing together to perforated edges to seal them.  

With a knife or pizza cutter, slice dough into thin strips.

Wrap pieces of dough around the hot dog to look like bandages., keeping a space for the mummy's face.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown.

Enjoy!

*side note: you can cover more of your hot dog with the dough, but I made two packages of hot dogs, so mine was a little more spaced out.  Just play around with it until you get the look that you want*

Healthy Candy Corn Fruit Cups

With Halloween right around the corner, this week is the time that I like to make a lot of festive meals, snacks, and lunches for my kids.  This fruit cup is perfect for a festive after school snack.

 Lets be honest.  With all the candy kids will be getting from trick or treating, do we really need anymore sugar or junk in their diet?  I know my kids will be loaded up on chocolate over the week-end, so I thought it would be a good idea to keep it healthy and simple, but fun for them.  This was the perfect way!

You can use fresh or canned fruit for these desserts, and fresh or canned whipped cream as well.  If you want a delicious 2-ingredient homemade whipped topping, you can check out my recipe HERE.

Ingredients:

• 2 (15-ounce) cans mandarin oranges
• 3 cups fresh pineapple chunks, or 2 cans pineapple chunks
• whipped cream
• candy corn for decorating (optional)

Directions:

In a decorative glass, layer pineapple on the bottom of the glass then top with mandarin oranges.

Top fruit with whipped cream.

Garnish with candy corn and serve.

Enjoy!

Hoping everyone has a safe and fun Halloween :)

Creamy Chocolate Avocado Shake

Waking up in the morning, getting my house in order, getting my kids ready and off to school, and getting my husband out the door for work leaves little to no time to eat breakfast sometimes.  Depending on the day, sometimes I don't get to eat breakfast until around 9:30-10:00.  Which seems like a pretty normal time, but I'm up at 7:00 am so that, to me, is a long time to go without getting something into my body to start the day.  Don't get me wrong, there are days where everything runs smoothly, everyone is where they need to be, and I'm sitting down at the table at 8:45 scarfing down some eggs and toast.  But lets be honest, being a mom is unpredictable.  Today can be very different than yesterday.  Sometimes I have the time and sometimes I don't.  But on the days where I'm the most busy, I always make sure to eat something.  I NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST.  <--- that is in caps and bold because I was yelling it.  I never skip a meal in general, but especially breakfast.

Okay, so what do you do when you don't have time to scramble some eggs and fry up some turkey bacon?  Or when you just don't feel like eating anymore oatmeal?  Drink your breakfast.  Protein shakes, smoothies, juices,...they're all delicious.  And they're all FAST.  But this particular shake is by far the most filling drink I have ever had in.my.life.  I literally have to force myself to eat lunch on the days that I drink this because I'm full for quite a while.  It's not an exaggeration folks.  This is real information.  AND it's so creamy and delicious, kind of tastes like dessert for breakfast.  How can that be wrong?  That is so right on so many levels.

I use this shake sometimes as a meal replacement as well.  I have times where my kids have a baseball game until 7:45 at night and I'm too busy before the game to remotely make anything somewhat edible and healthy for myself because I have to feed my husband and kids before we leave at 5:00.  So this shake is perfect for a replacement meal because it has enough protein, healthy fats, and calories to be considered a meal.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces unsweetened almond or coconut milk
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup ice
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter or almond butter ( can also use 2 tbsp. PB2)
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder ( can substitute 2 tablespoons cocoa powder )
• 1 teaspoon honey

Directions:

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Enjoy!

Easy Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

Well, this is certainly the complete opposite of all the skinny recipes I've been posting lately.  But it's too delicious not to share.  I made this a while back and never got around to posting it.  But I'm doing the world a favor and posting it now.

Okay, so is this the healthiest dessert to eat? I'm going to say no.  But it is better than going out and splurging on a dessert at a restaurant.  And the simplicity of the dessert itself makes it completely worth making and devouring.  I don't know about you, but molten lava cakes are one of my absolute favorite desserts.  The warmness of the cake and the gooey fudge filled center mixed with the smooth cold ice cream, what's not to love?!

I looked around all over the place for a simple recipe.  While I did find a few, most required pans that I didn't have or ingredients that I just knew wouldn't exactly be the taste I was looking for.  So I came up with a way to make it simple.  This lava cake requires no fancy pans.  No fancy expensive chocolate and pretty much no time at all to prepare.  And the taste?  Like heaven in your mouth!

Ingredients:

• 1 Box deviled food cake mix (ingredients to make the cake as well)
• 1 Jar of hot fudge sauce
• 1 Jar caramel sauce
• Magic Shell 
• Vanilla ice cream

Directions:

1.   Prepare cake mix according the package.  Grease a cupcake pan and pour batter almost all the way to the top.  (You'll probably get around 21-22 cupcakes.) Bake according to the package and let cool on a wire rack.

2.  After the cupcakes are cool, using a apple corer or a knife, cut a hole in the middle of the cupcakes about halfway down.  Don't completely cut the center out because you don't want the fudge to drip out.  Save the pieces that you cut from the cupcake because you'll be using them in the next step.

3.    In the microwave or a small sauce pan, warm the hot fudge.  Pour into the middle of the cupcakes. Place the cut pieces of cake back onto the cupcakes to hold the fudge in the center.

4.    To assemble your lava cake, flip a cupcake upside down on a plate.  Place the cupcake in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm.  Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top.  Add your magic shell and drizzle on your caramel sauce.  Serve warm.

5.  Enjoy!