Forgot to take a photo of today's lunch before I sealed up the box! The menu for today is:

• Small ham & cheese pizza (made a face w/ham strips & 2 olives for eyes)
• Apple-raisin salad
• Unshelled peanuts
• Newman-O's cookies
• Raspberry juice box
  

VERDICT:

Pizza - two thumbs up. She ate every bite. Good thing I hid the onions & red peppers under the sauce, eh? She didn't notice that it was a face, and said there were no olive "eyes" on it. Could be the olives fell off during the bumps of transport; I put them on after it cooked so the cheese probably didn't stick to them.

Apple-Raisin salad - as predicted, she wouldn't touch it. She says she scraped it out just so it wouldn't "smell." I, however, found to my surprise that it was delicious!

Unshelled peanuts - "don't ever pack those again, Mommy." "Why not, didn't you like them?" "Yes, I like them but they made a HUGE mess, and took too long to eat!" (the class only gets 30 mins for lunch).

Newman-O's - as always, she devoured them.

Raspberry juice - liked it.

PREPARATION DETAILS:

Small ham & cheese pizza (made a face w/ham strips & 2 olives for eyes). Topped a pre-made "personal pizza" size pizza crust with some spaghetti sauce, grated italian cheeses, and deli ham sliced into strips. Use the ham to make "googly-eyes" and a mouth; used a couple of black olive slices to make the irises of the eyes.

Cooked it the night before (425 deg about 10 mins) and let it cool fully on waxed paper before putting it in fridge.

Apple-raisin salad. An experiment that I suspect will fail, but at least I'll have tried to use up the green apples that BunnieB talked me into buying many weeks ago (and then, of course, she wouldn't touch!).

I peeled the green apple and sliced it very thin, then cut the slices in half. Soaked them in water with citrus saver (could use lemon juice) while I made the pizza. Drained the apples, then mixed them in gently a bowl with a handful of raisins, about 1/2 to 1 tsp sugar, and enough mayo to coat everything evenly.

I put a tiny "blue ice" pack right on top of the apple salad in hopes that keep it really cold would help her give it a try. Have discovered that she is really turned off by strong smells, such as sour cream (which she normally loves) that has come to room temp in her lunchbox.

Unshelled peanuts. Packed whole, unshelled peanuts in the same cup with the Newman-O's.

Newman-O's cookies. These are Paul Newman's slightly healthier version of Oreos. Since BunnieB does not like foods to have touched eachother, I wrapped these in a bit of plastic wrap first to ensure the peanuts they were packed with didn't somehow affect the flavor.

Juice. Stuck it in freezer the night before; that way it doubles as a cooling pack. I don't like to pack juice regularly but she didn't bring home her Laken kitty bottle so I couldn't pack fizzy water. She hates milk (the need for calcium is why I use Nature's Own "WhiteWheat" bread for her sandwiches!), and she drinks plain water all day so it's nice to give something different at lunch.