Five Little Monkeys and Friends!

Monkeys and pizza men are on the menu today. I even threw in a Winnie the Pooh lunch too! It was easy peasy to throw these together and they are super fun. I must say sorry for not posting a Dr. Seuss lunch this week. I really just drew a blank when it came to doing one. Maybe next year.

My youngest girl has monkey bread, grapes, cucumbers, broccoli and sweet pepper rings. Animal cookies and mini deli pretzels.

 

This is lunch for the boy. He has a pizza man, grapes and a clementine. He also has pretzels and two chocolate muffin rounds. The middle girl also had a pizza man.

 

 

This is lunch for the oldest. She took our Planetbox today. She has two peanut butter cinnamon bread sandwiches, broccoli, sugar snap peas, sweet pepper rings and grapes. She also has Annie's bunny mix, apple Newtons, and trail mix. I also slipped in a apple muffin heart. She sometimes snacks before lunch and this lunch is big enough for snacking.

 

A special thanks to my friend Grace from Eats Amazing for giving me the idea for the minion grapes. I hope you all have an amazing day!

Here is the recipe for my chocolate milk used in yesterdays lunch!

 

Homemade Chocolate Milk Mix (Powder)

 

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

Just a pinch of salt

 

Mix all ingredients in an airtight jar(I used a mason jar). When ready to make chocolate milk dissolve a teaspoon of mix in a little warm water. This helps the mix to dissolve in the milk. Sit back, enjoy and be amazed at how yummy it is!

 

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

It only seems fitting to bring in the new year with my very first crockpot/freezer recipe. My family started making our own spaghetti sauce about a year ago to save money and cut out unwanted ingredients in our foods. My husband and daughter have developed a recipe that my family loves. Until yesterday the recipe was never recorded on paper only done by memory by one of them. So my sixteen year old daughter decided she would record it and get the measurements so I could bring it to you! I have always froze the leftover sauce for another time. We always made it on our stove top until yesterday when we used both of our new crockpots.                                                                       Now I can't take the credit for the idea of using the crockpot to cook the sauce. I got that idea from my friend Laura at Momables . Laura has awesome recipes and lots of homemade recipes and tips for meal planning. She even offers a subscription for meals at a great price!
So here it is my family's recipes for Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce.

This recipe is for 5 quarts of sauce. We used a 5 quart crockpot to make the sauce.

Ingredients:
1- 105 ounce can of tomato sauce
3 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. onion salt
4 tsp. basil
4 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoon on fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp. of red pepper flakes if you like it spicy( may omit)

Instructions:
Turn crockpot on low and add whole can of sauce. Add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Let cool. Put in gallon freezer bags. Lay flat and freeze. When you are ready to use the sauce defrost in fridge the night before.
It's that simple. Each pot of sauce should yield two bags of sauce. We have a large family so that is what we use. You can divide it anyway you want. Their really is no rule for how many bags you use.

We used two 5qt pots and ended up with four gallon bags and a quart bag of pizza sauce.

 

Here is the finished product. My daughter browned a pound of ground beef, made noodles, and added it to the sauce. This plate was for my youngest girl. She had mozzarella Italian bread, homemade spaghetti and a side salad. Yum! It was delish!

 

I hope you all bring in your New Years with positive thoughts and goals. Happy New Years!