Tuesday: Wrap Trick, Snacks for a New Mom & Oreo Milkshakes

Got up this morning and kept breakfast quick with bacon, bagels and some fruit, and then we got to work.

This was a big homeschool day for us. We’re officially back to the point in the year where there’s real work that needs to get done, but the weather has also been beautiful and the kids want to be outside. So we’re finding that balance—reading, math, schoolwork, and then get yourselves outside and play.

Lunch and My Favorite Wrap Trick

For lunch today, I made wraps, and I actually filmed a quick reel because I realized I’ve never really shared one of my favorite tricks for making them.

Cream cheese is basically edible glue for a tortilla.

I spread a thin layer of cream cheese over the entire tortilla before adding anything else. You don’t need a ton—just enough to give the tortilla something slightly sticky to grab onto when you roll it.

Keep the filling toward the middle. You want plenty of exposed tortilla on both sides so that as you roll, tortilla can actually touch tortilla instead of trying to stick to a pile of filling.

I’m Team Dipper. I don’t put much sauce inside the wrap because that’s when things start getting soggy and sliding around. Roll it up tightly and serve the dressing or sauce on the side for dipping.

I made wraps for my kids for lunch, but I was also making a batch of pinwheels because one of my friends just had her fifth baby girl.

I wanted to bring her something, but rather than bringing another dinner, I thought I’d take care of afternoon snack for her kids one day.

The pinwheels were simple: flour tortilla, cream cheese, deli turkey, pickles and cheddar cheese. Roll them tightly, slice them, and they’re ready to grab straight from the fridge.

And because one of my kiddos didn’t want a wrap, I made a quick pizza quesadilla too.

Tortilla, mozzarella, pepperoni, more mozzarella, tortilla. Crisp it in a pan until the outside is golden and the cheese is melted.

We’re using the Costco tortillas one way or another.

A Snack Box for a New Mom

While I already had everything out for lunch, I went ahead and assembled the rest of the snacks for my friend.

I made five containers total:

• Pinwheels
• Fresh fruit
• Fresh vegetables
• Babybel cheeses and little mozzarella balls
• Pretzels with hummus

One little produce-storage trick: put a paper towel in the bottom of the container. It absorbs that extra moisture and helps everything stay fresh and crisp instead of getting wet on the bottom.

For this kind of thing, I love the Glad Takeaways containers from Costco. You get 35 containers with lids, and they’re inexpensive enough that I can give them away and absolutely do not need the recipient of a new baby snack delivery worrying about returning my containers.

I stacked everything into my travel cooler and added a little card plus some Trader Joe’s flower cookies for something sweet.

Done. Afternoon snack for the girls is handled, and my friend doesn’t have to return a single dish to me.

My New Lunchtime View

After lunch, we still had schoolwork to do.

That’s one of the changes now that we’re back into our regular school year. Sometimes lunch is also me eating while sitting next to one of my older kids working through school.

I made myself a taco salad with some of the taco meat from Sunday.

And sad news: the avocado salsa is officially gone.

I know.

So for my dressing today, I improvised with salsa, a splash of rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

And you know what? Still good.

Apparently We Needed Milkshakes

My four-year-old woke up this morning with a very clear agenda:

Milkshakes.

Milkshake. Milkshake. Milkshake.

I told her we could have them when everyone finished working, which turned out to be fairly decent motivation.

So once school was done, I made Oreo milkshakes.

And I have opinions about milkshake consistency.

A milkshake should not be milk with ice cream in it. I want it THICK. Almost spoonable.

Here’s how I make ours:

First, put Oreos in the bottom of the blender and blend them up.

Then add heavy cream and blend again. The heavy cream actually starts whipping in the blender and gets thick and creamy.

Then add the ice cream.

At this point, I use the blender tamper to push everything down because I purposely don’t add a bunch of liquid. Keep blending and pushing until it’s thick, creamy and just barely drinkable through a straw.

Or eat it with a spoon. I’m not judging.

Daphne, naturally, needed to be in charge of the blender tamper.

Milkshake mission accomplished.

Tuesday Night = Violin Night

Then I dropped off the snacks for my friend and we moved into our new Tuesday afternoon routine.

Violin lessons have officially moved from mornings to afternoons.

My mom is so kind and takes the kids to violin, and the violin studio happens to be right across the street from Chick-fil-A.

You can probably see where this is going.

She brought Chick-fil-A home for the kids for dinner.

I wasn’t mad about it.

My Five-Minute Mom Dinner

I made myself a really quick dinner using some of the grilled chicken thighs I cooked yesterday.

I sautéed whatever fresh vegetables I had and added pieces of the grilled chicken. Then I seasoned everything with:

• Ground ginger
• Honey
• Rice wine vinegar
• Liquid aminos
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Pepper

I heated some frozen riced cauliflower alongside it and tossed everything together.

So, so good.

This is exactly why I cooked that big batch of chicken yesterday. Tonight I wasn’t “cooking chicken.” I was turning already-cooked chicken into something completely different in a matter of minutes.

And then, after dinner, the kids went back outside to play.

And that was Tuesday: lots of schoolwork, a whole lot of little meals and snacks, almost no complicated cooking, and one very happy four-year-old.