I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Arla Dofino. I received product samples to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

I don’t know why, but my kids announce they are starving about every hour. Usually my response is: “NO. You. Just. Ate.” Because the reality is that they will eat a hearty breakfast (and by hearty I mean eggs + cereal + a cereal bar + fruit) and then an hour later say they are starving. WHAT. I generally offer 1-2 snacks a day between their (again, hearty) meals and attempt to make them something with protein, healthy fats, and also (hopefully) including veggies or fruits. This week we tried a snack smorgasbord featuring Arla Dofino cheese that I bought at Randalls (find your cheese HERE!)  and mustache toothpicks. The goal? To find what goes well with cheese. It was a blast. AND they stopped complaining about hunger. (For at least an hour.)

To make it even MORE fun, I picked up toothpicks with little mustaches on them from a party section of a local store. They were like $2 and totally worth it! I mean…really. Give any kid a toothpick with a mustache on it and TRY not to have fun.

For this after-school snack, I set out bowls with Arla Dofino Gouda and Arla Dofino Jalapeno Havarti with olives, grapes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Even Cooper got in on the action, spending most of her time trying to spear things on the toothpick.

I have found that my kids tend to eat more adventurously when I’m not TELLING them what to eat. If I give them choices, they eat things they might not eat if I told them they should. Examples: olives. Lincoln definitely doesn’t like them, but Sawyer loves them. The boys liked this so much that I packed the cheese cubes, their favorite combinations (olives and grapes, respectively), and the mustache toothpicks.

Do YOU like Arla Dofino cheese? Enter the Snack-to-School Arla Dofino Sweepstakes for a chance to win a whole semester’s worth of cheese. I can’t even begin to tell you what I’d do with that much cheese. (Besides do a VERY happy dance.) The contest runs through October 4th.

Stressing about an after-school-snack? Give them healthy choices like Arla Dofino cheese and an aspect of fun. Then set them free to eat as they will!

Want more info about Arla Dofino? Connect with them on Pinterest, or Facebook.

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Weave Made Media® and Smithfield, but all my opinions are my own. #weavemade #GoAllNatural http://my-disclosur.es/RgFrEH

I really thought that back-to-school would help our whole family get back on schedule and bring some order to our lives. Ha! I’m beginning to realize that with four kids, chaos and loudness IS our order. That is the new normal. This means that making dinner is like trying to cook with wild dogs biting at your heels. (SMALL wild dogs, that is.) Often I try to make things simple and just put random things on a plate: have a few grapes, some cheese, a piece of meat, and yogurt. But if wild chaos is the new normal, I need to learn how to embrace it and cook in the midst of the wild dogs or maybe even (gasp!) ask for their help. Which is exactly what I did for this dinner featuring Pork Schnitzel and Spaetzle. It is a unique dinner and simple, but with multiple steps, the kind of thing I usually avoid with kids.

I hit up my local Randall’s where I found Smithfield All-Natural Pork Chops. You can use this coupon from Safeway’s Just 4U portal for $1 off (while supplies last) OR you could get lucky like me and find several great products on clearance. BOOM! I picked up both the pork chops and a pork roast since the prices were so good! I really wanted to try Pork Schnitzel and Spaetzle again, two German recipes that I really love. I haven’t made either for the kids and thought they would really love them and knew just the way to get at least one of them involved.

Pork Schnitzel requires tenderizing and pounding out the meat and what kid DOESN’T want to bang on a slab of meat?? Especially with this handy brass knuckle meat tenderizer, which was a gift from a roller derby wedding shower.  Cooper watched in confusion and horror, which kept her from grabbing onto my legs—her favorite place to be when I’m cooking.

Though breading and frying usually dirties up a lot of bowls, this recipe cooks really quickly and the pork itself is cooked as a whole chop, so you’re not having to cook things in batches. I breaded up the four chops and let them cook for 4-5 minutes per side. Normally they would be a little bit thinner, but it was Sawyer’s first time using the tenderizer, so I let it slide. The spaetzle is a little more labor-intensive, but totally worth it. Both boys ate it all, but Cooper proved a bit more finicky. Maybe next time. Also? I have been mispronouncing spaetzle my whole life. I always said SPAYT-zell. It’s more like SPET-shlee. WHAT.

Overall, this was a unique dinner that I was able to make with four kids running around. It made me feel brave, like maybe I can really make a home-cooked meal every night, even if Rob isn’t home to help wrangle. Cooking something unique like Pork Schnitzel and Spaetzle also made me feel a bit like I was getting my groove back. (Even if I needed to rent a new movie to distract the wild dogs during some of the cooking process.) Until I looked at the kitchen after the kids went to bed. Womp womp.

But it was worth it! (I say that from the couch where I’m still avoiding the dishes.) Every now and again with kids, you need to shake things up even if that means putting on a movie and letting your kid beat meat on the counter and avoiding the big mess in the kitchen. Need a recipe? Shake it up with Spaetzle and Pork Schnitzel with Smithfield All Natural Pork.

What is your favorite pork recipe? (Don’t forget to snag your coupon for Smithfield All Natural Pork!)And how do you manage cooking meals with little ones running underfoot?