Another Painted Lunch

Thanks to an extra crazy schedule this fall, and the 6yo's love of hawaiian rolls with PB&Honey I simply have not had time or the need to make any elaborate painted lunches. This week the 3yo had extended day at preschool and needed launch. To welcome our first week with rain and cooler weather I went with a fall theme. The sandwich was filled with the peanut butter and honey mix I make each monday and I used a rolling pin on the bread before I put any spread on it so that it would be easier to cut and also take the paint better.

This is about 1/2 of a sandwich. If you are using cookie cutters,  especially if you want the details to show up, be sure to press or use a roller the bread. 

detail of the painting process

Little owl, leaves, and acorn. Hand painted with food coloring. 

Final product with sides. 

As I myself search for Work Life Balance...

I started reading this article Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life Balance and Income Equality by Stephen Marche for The Atlantic  yesterday evening, and finally finished it this morning at 5:30am. It's a good read about the state of parenting, if you are not feeling the continued economic pinch then I congratulate you for being one of the few, here Marche points out several false and some oh so very true conflicts in parenting.  Enjoy! http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/the-masculine-mystique/309401/?single_page=tru&&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=520863 

Making Agua de Sandia

The other day I got a wild hair and decided to take the left over watermelon in our fridge and make the sort of watermelon water you find at Mexican restaurants.

It's amazingly easy and you can use the pure for loads of yummy stuff.

So essentially what you need to do is this:

1) Cut that watermelon off of rind and into small cubes

2) Stick in a food processor and pure (don't worry about the seeds)

3) Pour liquid through a strainer (this is a good time to allow your kids to help!)
4) Put the strained liquid in a container to drink later. You can also pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze or a larger container to freeze and eat later.

5) To make the Aqua de Sandia pour some of the pure into a cup and add water. I liked a ratio of half to half but you can add more or less water to taste. Lime is a nice addition as well. I like using sparkling water. A friend came to dinner recently and we tried it with Absolute Citron for an adult drink that is crisp and fresh tasting.

You can also use the ice cubes in water! Here are the ice cubes with some lime in sparkling water. YUMMY! Btw: We buy sparkling water by the case at Costco so I hardly ever run low on the stuff and it's the reason I use it so often when playing with drinks.