Hello, Monday

After plenty of coffee and some baguette with various toppings (butter, almond butter, peanut butter or triple berry preserves), my morning got food productive.

I mixed child a serving of mango Noosa yogurt and mixed in some frozen blueberries for her school snack.

Then I read her the school menu and got, "Mommy, can I pack?"

Which is exactly what I was not prepared to hear.

But she didn't want to eat hot dog, turkey sandwich with cheese or PB&J and really I don't want her eating that. But it's cheap and easy. Which makes me ashamed that my family relies on it so much and I'm disturbed that our country doesn't put more effort into school lunch.

So I reheated last night's spaghetti and meat balls, dumped it into a thermal bowl and gave her a side of calamata olives that can go into the spaghetti or be eaten alone. Threw in a small tropical fruit cup too.

While the water was still hot (from heating the lid to the thermal bowl), I tossed an egg into it for the tortoise. Must have hit too hard because it cracked. But I salvaged enough quasi-cooked egg for our Blue. Egg (with shell for calcium), romaine lettuce and sliced pears.

Hard Boiled Eggs

I realized today that I haven't given my tortoise cheese or eggs in months. So I'm making her a hard-boiled egg.

I hate hard-boiled eggs so I was fairly certain I remembered how to do it-- eggs in water, boil, cover and let sit 15 minutes.

But just to be sure I googled it, and found this:

http://m.wikihow.com/Hard-Boil-an-Egg

Pineapple picnic

This house certainly operates on the feast or famine principle. This week will be the famine menu. It started yesterday with a breakfast meeting of the Northampton County Penn State Cooperative Extension advisory board, where my daughter and I each had an order of cinnamon raisin French toast. Of course, my daughter also had a banana before we left home.

After the meeting, my preschooler visited her grandparents while I went to work. I think my husband ate the last piece of quiche for lunch and I received the last of the macaroni and cheese which I didn't get to eat until 3 p.m. Yesterday was the first day of class for my new undergraduate degree (like I need a second one). So by the time we got home, I wasn't hungry so my husband and daughter had a simple dinner of nachos with refried beans and mango salsa.

Today my husband and I had my homemade oatmeal-almond-apple cookies for breakfast, but the child wanted a granola bar with her apple juice. We took my husband to work and came home where we then gave the tortoise a bath and gave her some fresh spring mix. She didn't touch it (only I could have a picky tortoise) so we offered her some canned chunk pineapple. That was a hit. My daughter joined the tortoise for a picnic on the dishwasher. Pineapple for everyone!

Today is day two of class, the first day of my senior history seminar at 11 a.m. My husband and daughter have lunch planned at Lafayette College's student center. He packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and raw broccoli with blue cheese dressing. As for me, I know I have to eat but who knows what or when.

We're supposed to get snow today and I'm scheduled to do a site visit at one of my middle schools for work and then attend a board of trustees meeting for our local library. I'm thinking dinner may be leftover pork or maybe something like soup with the funky spinach and feta peorogies. I hope to make a pizza crust Thursday a.m. and bring hot artichoke heart/black olive pizza for my daughter and husband to munch on while I'm in class.

Fruit Salad

We have a pet tortoise. Tortoises eat a lot of leafy greens, fruit and the occasional protein source. They also loves peas and will usually devour tomatoes and bananas. My tortoise is picky. She loves meat and cheese, which is not typical for a tortoise; spring mix, bananas and peas. But she gets moody (and picky) and turns her nose up at even her favorite foods. Today I decided to make something different, both for my daughter and the tortoise. I sliced bananas, added maraschino cherries and canned apricot halves (packed in their own juice not syrup). I served some to both the child and the pet.

The tortoise walked away leaving the meal untouched. The child ate hers.