Shamrocks and lunchbox shenenigans

Yes, even at $7 a day our daycare provides a full lunch and two snacks (usually fruit with either cheese or cereal in the morning, and either veggies and dip or a homemade treat in the afternoon -scones, today). But a few times a year for special occasions, we have to pack LP's lunch. He's always pretty excited about it, using his pirate lunch bag especially (we bought it while shopping on Larchmont in LA with Rebecca Woolf, so I can't help thinking of her every time we use it).

Probably since I don't have to do it for him every day, I'm always excited, too, and try to make it fun. On the day we were supposed to do it last week, it occurred to me that their special lunch (eating in the park) fell on St. Patrick's Day, although I'm pretty sure it was a coincidence. But hey, it doesn't matter, I thought he would still have a kick out of it.

St. Pat's lunchbox for a three year old:


Whole wheat sandwiches with homemade ham filling, cut with my clover leaf cookie shape. (I found a recipe for peanut butter filling -with smashed peas and a little syrup- that apparently has a great texture and glorious natural green color, but I couldn't do it because of allergy restrictions).

Homemade potato salad with hard-boiled eggs, scallions, dill pickles, radishes and bell peppers, as well as tangy paprika-mustard dressing.

Green-tinted roasted onion hummus, with cucumber, green pepper and broccoli florets (he doesn't like celery much)

Loose green grapes and honeydew melon balls

Low-sodium V8

Needless to say since I was already making all of this, we all ate the same thing for lunch that day -M got the inverted sandwiches (with a shamrock-shaped hole in them; he e-mailed me to tell me how cool his lunch was), and I made myself a plain one, then decided to cut a shape into it anyway! My co-workers made fun of me a little, but I really enjoyed being a kid too that day.