It's Spring Break - Microwaved Peanut Butter and Jam

Microwaved peanut butter and jam. Husband assures me it could catch on.

I don't think so.

Tuesday I worked all day at the library. Usually S4 is with me and packs a cooler full of food (in case starvation may set in, you know, it could happen) but all the boys were over to my parents for a day filled with fun.

Usually I have leftovers for lunch the next day (thus the reason I have a tiny part in Rachael Ray's Every Day May Make Over issue)

But on this particular day the pickings were few because we had had spaghetti the night before and I am not a big fan of spaghetti.

But, I had a little bit more of the home made mac and cheese I had made a few nights before. It fit in half a jam jar. And since I am a huge fan of peanut butter and jam, I figured that would make a pretty good lunch.

However, we had run out of sandwich bags and since we are on spring break I felt no need to invest in more. That plan had been brilliant until I made my sandwich and suddenly didn't know what to put it in.

Then the sheer brilliance hit me.

A cool whip container.

I mean, how perfect? My sandwich wouldn't get crushed and would stay all nice and fresh.

Yes, brilliance does occur with me from time to time!

My day progressed at the library and when lunch came I popped the mac and cheese in the microwave for a minute and a half and went back to work for a bit.

When I came back to retrieve my lunch, it popped and hissed at me as I pulled it out of the microwave. I didn't have that much mac and cheese and I couldn't believe it would be that angry and hot sounding because I really hadn't left it in the microwave for very long.

I lifted the lid and was shocked to see...

My peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam sandwich.

The jam was oozing out. The peanut butter was popping. The bread was this weird form of soggy hardness.

I covered it back up in the cool whip container and tossed it in the garbage.

Genius I so am not.

Starving I so was. But without S4 to help me ward of starvation, I suffered through the day.

I sent a message to my husband telling him what I did.

I never should have done that because he can't stop teasing me about it. He keeps telling me I may be onto something brilliant here. He mentions the magazine and how they thought I was cool enough to be in there, surely I may have found a new cool HOT sandwich.

I offered to make him one. He declined.

I feel that was a genius move on his part.

How I Ended up on Page 134 in Every Day with Rachael Ray

About a month ago I was sitting at the table, eating lunch, sad about the snow and ick outside and decided to see what was on Facebook.

Rachael Ray was asking what we were eating for lunch. Well, I just happened to be eating a superb lunch! I had made a yummy cream of asparagus soup the night before for dinner and it was my lunch today. Sue had stopped by the day before and, knowing my love of sourdough bread, had dropped off a loaf for me from our favorite restaurant after I had watched Lauren while she spoke at a MOPS group.

And so my lunch was yummy.

I wrote I was having cream of asparagus soup from our own canned asparagus and bakery sourdough bread.

Apparently, that answer peaked their interest.

A couple days later I got an email asking if Rachael Ray could contact me. I figured it wasn't spam so I let them contact away. They were really interested in what I had for lunch.

I had forgotten I had said anything on Facebook.

They hadn't.

I told them I normally just eat leftovers so they reminded me what I had written and it all came back to me. They sent me a bunch of questions to answer and I did my best to give them all the info they seemed to need.

Then the needed a picture.

The day they needed the picture the boys had off of school. I had worked that morning (with all four boys) then drove to Wayland for Chicken Feed and a few "had to be done" chores, grabbed a pizza at Little Caesar's and took off for my sister's to see her newest little baby - a boy.

By the time I arrived home I was EXHAUSTED. And then I seen they needed a picture.

Those first pictures.........they were scary, people. I have not worn my hair in a barrette since this day.

My husband was snapping pics, talking to his buddy on the Nextel, the boys were thinking I had gone crazy and I was in a desperate need for coffee...or, actually, sleep.

And you have to realize, to get a picture, we couldn't find a clean place in the house. I moved the mountain of laundry to a new place and stood in front of the only blank wall we have in our house.

Finally, around nine at night, I was curling my hair, standing in all sorts of weird ways so my husband could get a picture that didn't make me look sleepy and we sent it all off.

The staff at Rachael Ray was as nice as could be, friendly and efficient. They said it looked promising that I would be in May's issue and they would let me know if I made the cut.

I'm on page 134.

Really.

All because I was eating lunch and posted it on Facebook.

Hurry out and get a copy!!!!!!!!!

Mom Competive Sports, Part One

Can you make a lunch in 30 seconds flat?

I can.

It's a talent I did not know I even had.

Here is how I found I did have the amazing ability to make a FULL school lunch in 30 seconds flat.

The night before S2 had made his lunch along with his brothers. If I stock the house with some goodish choices (notice, goodish. I know every little Debbie snack, really) and make sure they make a sandwich, they are happy to make their lunch and eat it MUCH better. I figure I can let lunches slide a little since I am in control of breakfast and dinner and that if they are starving the fridge is filled with apples at any time.

Anyhow...

S2 made his lunch. We all seen him do it.

In the morning, S2 had lost his lunch. He swore he left it on the bench in the porch. It was not there. He stared at Sadie, sure she had gobbled it up somehow. As in, gobbled up the lunch box, food, any smidgeons that would prove her guilty.

S2 cannot eat school lunches. He has no idea at all who makes that food and you just can't trust someone you don't know to make the food you are going to eat. His thought....thought it up all on his own.

So, we are late (as usual) and he is looking up at the ceiling and wandering in circles, bawling. “My lunch, I can't find my lunch.”

Good grief, he could have made a gourmet lunch in the time it was taking him to search it out!
So, I threw together a lunch with a peanut butter sandwich, juice bag, hard boiled egg, little Debbie snack, chips and we were done. Thirty seconds flat.

He was happy. I was a hero.

When we arrived home, I found his lunch. On the outdoor porch.

He was very glad to find it, smacking his forehead in his “oh, yah” fashion, and happy he got a night off from making his lunch.

The next morning, we ALL reminded him where he had left it so we had a much smoother morning!

Mom Competitive sports, I have you beat in the lunch department, I do believe!