Our parent/teacher conference is on Thursday evening, and I have volunteered to bring a food item to school for the teachers to snack on during the conferences. Because my mind tends to swim around in paltry waters and I want my food item to be a Memorable and Thoughtful food item (preferably containing a protein of some sort because that’s what I tend to crave these days), I’m obsessing about what to bring.
My brain is telling me to buy a 30 pack of Taco Bell tacos.
My heart is telling me to create an out of this world vegetarian taco dip casserole thing.
My daughters are telling me to bake brownies.
My husband is telling me that he’s leaving town on Wednesday and won’t be returning until approximately two minutes before our first conference.
Any recommendations?
In completely unrelated news, if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice that I’ve come out of hiding (I’m not so good at Twitter, if one may be considered Good at Twitter) and am now completing nearly every one of my thoughts with #momspotting. I’ll be telling you more about that in the coming weeks, but for now, here’s a video that will surely catapult you to the edge of your seats.
Vegetarian taco dip, right? ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>
No dip. No cupcakes. No DIP. Brownies, yes. Tacos, no. What are you, crazy?
I know: individual bowls of Frosted Flakes!
GoGurts?
I like the veggie taco dip! Why not, I say?
And if no? Send it here.
K.
Just went to a school event where there where the food table was laden with sweet offerings and one person brought a seven-layer dip with tortilla chips. It was completely demolished. So I say yes to dip.
Also, a seven-year old with an iPhone? Where? I want to mug her.
You are adooooooorable!
Now I’m having a Homer Simpson moment vis-a-vis taco dip . . . drool. This came to mind as a suggestion: http://tinyurl.com/5tn3cr . It is not protein packed and probably not practical, but it is tasty and portable and you could probably use frozen pizza dough instead of making your own.
I love 7-layer dip. Easily vegetarian but accessible to the omnivores such as myself.
Ooh! Ooh! I have a great taco dip recipe!! Mix together 8 oz cream cheese, 8 oz sour cream, and one packet McCormick’s Taco Seasoning. (I use reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream, and reduced sodium seasoning packet.) Spread in the bottom of a 2-qt serving dish. Top with layers of shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, chopped tomato, and olives. NOMMMMM.
As a teacher who has to live through conferences several times a year- here is my two cents: something that won’t make their breath smell and won’t give them heartburn. These are long, grueling nights- nothing is worse than combating biology when dealing with everything else.
Let them eat cake!
Brownies. With some more chocolate to dip them in, if you’re wedded to the dip thing.
Hummus!! Protein packed and nothing else (like lettuce or chopped tomato) to fall off the dipper item.
Cheese and crackers are always an easy and tasty offering, as well. I know it’s not culinarily exciting, but it’s easy and meets both the protein requirement and the recommendation from the teacher above…
Vegetarian taco dip casserole thing. But only if you post the recipe here too.
I agree with the teacher who suggested something that won’t give them dragon breath. I am a corporate trainer and always avoid Mexican and Chinese food for lunch on training days.
But I would go with something not sweet, and something easy to eat.
That was no help at all, was it?
tough one. i say go vegetarian, and don’t worry about vegan/lactose intolerant people. i am usually very sensitive to this, my husband cannot eat dairy, but in some cases you cannot please everyone. i usually prefer salty to sweet, but many people don’t. i’m no help at all.
Something chocolatey–brownies are always good, especially if they have a colourful icing or some sort of twist–like zucchini chocolate cake, very moist–to make them memorable–and sweets such as this don’t tend to give dragon breath or tummy issues!
When lacking inspiration, I always say spiced nuts. As in the Union Square Cafe bar nuts. Sweet, saltly, spicy, rosemaryish. Easy! And, protein!
As a former teacher who has lived through conferences (with PTA food), I vote for something savory. Maybe some mini-roll sandwiches, definitely protein. Tuna’s good, a hummus-veggie thing, chicken salad… Teachers tend to see lots of brownies (and cupcakes) all year and they cease to look good. A big assemble-your-own chicken caesar salad!
How about 2 dozen dollar rolls with chicken salad or deli-sliced turkey and cheese?
I go with the dip contingent… I’m sure there will be lots of sweet stuff, they’d probably appreciate something of substance. I was in charge of the snacks for my 3yo’s Halloween party, and I was in a fetal ball trying to decide on a healthy, festive snack that was peanut and tree-nut free as well as not TOO filling as the kids would be eating lunch shortly after the party. I just threw some cheese cubes, Ritz crackers and apple slices at them and fled.