Better School Lunches the Weelicious Way

We’ve been back to school for a little over two weeks now. Let’s see, it’s been exactly 13 school lunches that I’ve packed, and I’m bored already. In comes a great new book of inspiration, Weelicious Lunches: Think Outside the Lunch Box with More Than 160 Happier Meals,by Catherine McCord. Just in time.

This books has so many creative recipes in it — and they are all easy to make.  Many only have two or three steps in them. I tried two of the recipes to see if my kids would like them. First was the PB&J pop tarts. This recipe seems difficult because you have to make pie crust first, but it was easy. Trust me. I’ve never made pie crust in my life before this recipe. If I can do it, you can too. OR you can just buy pre-made pie crust. I won’t tell.

First I rolled out the pie crust (the author includes a separate recipe for the crust) to about 1/4 inch thick. It ended up being a bit too thick so next time I’ll roll thinner. Then I cut 2 inch x 3 inch squares. Kind of looks like a house. Note the protractor in the background. I did have to rummage through my kids craft bin to find a ruler for this recipe. Note to self: get your own ruler for the kitchen.

Then I placed the cut squares on a baking sheet and put a dollop of peanut butter and a dollop of jelly on each one. On some, I just used jelly. These ended up being my favorites.

Then I dipped my finger in some water and traced the outside of the bottom later of crust, put a top layer on, and crimped the sides with a fork.

Don’t they look cute? In the oven they go.

Here’s the finished product.

And, the inside. See how thick the crust is. Not only will I make the crust thinner, but I’ll use more PB and more J. These things made great snacks for the kids and went inside the lunchboxes for a few days. And, the possibilities with these are endless. I really am dying to do some with nutella and marshmallows. Doesn’t that sound great?

I also made the avocado honey dip. It’ just a ripe avocado mashed up with whipped cream cheese and honey. Can’t get easier than that. It tastes great. My 4 year old loves it, but I left it on the counter with a bag of tortilla chips and my husband thought it was guacamole. Way too sweet for guac. It’s a different twist.

This is getting sent in lunches with pretzel sticks.

My only complaint is that there aren’t more photos of the food in the book. I like cookbooks with photos for every recipe. There are wonderful color photos throughout the book, just not on every page.

There are so many other recipes that I want to try from this book. It’ll make a great addition to your cookbook arsenal when you just can’t seem to make one more school lunch. It sure is going to make preparing my 14th lunch tomorrow a bit easier.

Get tons of family-friendly recipes on McCord’s website: Weelicious.com.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book. Opinions are my own. Affiliate links are used which means that if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you, a tiny percentage will go to help run this website.