Krisitin left a comment last week asking me to post what I make for school lunches. Three days a week I work and so I pack 7 lunches, and 2 days a week I pack 4 lunches. At some point I am going to start having the kids make their own lunches but for right now I can do it faster and cleaner so I don’t mind.

I am sure that many of you have a better system and better ideas for what to make, I would love to hear them! I am out of ideas!

I always make sandwiches, we rotate between peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and honey and ham or turkey. This is how I do the ham or turkey, I use dinner rolls in the 6 pack style.

I slice them once through the middle and flip the top off, then I add the mayo and mustard.

Next, comes the ham and cheese.

Then I flip it over and cut 6 sandwiches.

I have not found any good deals lately on pudding or jello so I have been making my own for almost nothing. I have a bunch of the small ziplock containers, I make either jello or pudding the night before and toss them in their lunches the next day.

The trick is getting them to remember to bring back the container, or not leaving it in their backpacks!

This day we had grapes, juice, turkey and cheese sandwiches and rice krispie treats or a 100 calorie bar.

Today they had Capri Suns, clementines, ham and cheese and pudding.

Tuesday the had Juicy Juice, apples, granola bars, peanut butter and honey and a couple kids grabbed rice krispy treats.

I try and stay under $4-5 dollars a day for all lunches, about $20 – $25 a week on lunches. I buy bread and rolls on sale and freeze them. In August and then again this week at Randalls I bought 13 packages of string cheese for under $.75 a bag, then I freeze and pull out every few days. I also freeze lunch meat and load up when I get it on sale.

The snacks are always very cheap at Kroger mega events. We go through an enormous amount of fruit, I always try and price match it at Wal-Mart. The kids eat fruit for breakfast, lunch, snack and after dinner… I actually have to hide any kind of berries and the little clementines. They can eat 5 lbs of clementines in one sitting.

I would love to hear what you make for lunches!

This is our favorite way to prepare acorn squash. It is sooooo good on a cold night and goes with anything!

Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. The end that has the tip or pointy part (technical term!) I cut off so that they sit flat. Cover a baking sheet with foil.

Cover a baking sheet with foil. Set the squash on the tray, add a slice of butter, 1T or so of brown sugar and a piece of bacon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake at 375 for about 30 min. Or until the yellow flesh seems soft and pulls apart with a fork.

They are beautiful when cooked. The kids will even love these and they are so easy!

Oh BABY! But look how these bad boy’s turned out! I am a rock star at my house right now!

They are awesome! If I can make them anyone can. I also made a slow cooker ribs recipe that I will also post to go with these. My husband actually just made a sandwich out the ribs ( that were falling off the bone) and these rolls. He is still singing my praises! So give them a try! I followed her directions exactly!

Roll recipe from Taylor Clan a.k.a A Musing Mother I’ll play a game and you see if you can follow along. It’s called “If I Really Had to Use a Recipe and Instructions.” Here it goes. Dump in a scant T of yeast into large bowl Decide how sugary you want it. Yeast eats sugar so it rises better. I usually add between 2 -6 T. How many rolls do you want? Let’s go for about 15. Add 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Watch it “proof.” It will form bubbles for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add a cup or two of flour and mix in with a wooden spoon. Mix the crap out of it. Now add about a teaspoon of salt and another cup or two of flour. Mix the crap out of it again. If it’s looking sticky but like you can almost handle it (but not quite), add about a little oil to it. Eyeball it. I usually pour in between 2 T. to 1/4 cup. For every cup of water, plan on adding about 2 and 1/4 cups of flour. If you’re using a bread mixer, if it’s a little sticky, no biggie. If you you aren’t, get your hands in there and start pushing it, away from you, rolling it, rolling it back, adding flour, getting all floury. Make sure it’s still tacky but not sticking to your hands with vigor. Mine is still pretty sticky but it’s not necessary. If your dough is looking stringy and web-like, the yeast and gluten are working. Technique time: Clean out your bowl, spray with Pam, put your blob of dough into bowl and cover with sprayed plastic wrap. Let rise until it’s 2 and half times its original size.. Punch it down. Second rise is optional. The way Julia describes the rolling is interesting. I’ve tried it and it works and comes out pretty. I usually squeeze off a piece of roll dough like you’d choke a chicken (if you are so inclined), then set it on my other hand and scoop the underside towards me until I have a nice little ball. Then I roll it out until it’s oblong and put it on sprayed pan. Slice the top about a quarter inch across. This gives the roll room to grow without splitting the bottom sides. Let rise until almost double. Turn on oven 450 degrees. Spray your rolls with water. Put old gross pan on bottom rack and let it heat up at the same time. Once it’s heated, throw in a bowl full of ice cubes into the gross pan and put in rolls. The ice cubes add steam and make the rolls crisp on the outside. I also spray the rolls every three minutes for the first 9 minutes. After 15-18 minutes, the rolls will be dark gold color. Let them cool for a half hour and you have very chewy rolls on the inside and crisp on the outside. Plan B – Follow Betty Crocker’s cookbook recipe….