Last Week of April Lunches

Monday, April 28, 2014

More of trying and trying and trying to put a food in Squirrel's face that she isn't a fan of to try and get her to at least try it. Slight success today:

Squirrel got two toaster waffle PB sammies, a hard-boiled egg flower, salt in the pink tub, cantaloupe, carrot sticks, white chocolate-covered pretzels, her smoothie, and juice in the thermos. I say sort of a success because she slightly nibbled on the egg! Better than completely ignoring it, right? Surprisingly, she didn't eat her cantaloupe, and she loves that. I tried some later, though, and I don't think it was quite ripe. Boo.

For lunch today, big sissy KK got a turkey and cheese mini sub on a hawaiian sweet roll. Those things are so stinking good. She also has three sweet peppers, cantaloupe, a tulip-shaped hard-boiled egg with a little twist of salt and pepper underneath, and a bag of her favorite spicy chili-lime tortilla roll chips underneath. Incidentally, neither this lunch box nor last weeks have come back yet, so I think I'm going to have to start going even more disposable than I already am :(

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I had this super-awesome idea of surprising Squirrel with a dino sammy today (using the heels - if you put them heel-in, she can't ever tell), only to put the PB&J on the wrong sides! The two dino halves are sort of traveling different directions, I guess. She also got a greek yogurt tube, grapes, strawberries, celery, carrots, and broccoli w/ ranch. OJ in the Thermos. Unfortunately, only the yogurt, strawberries, and OJ were consumed. Not even the confused-dino sammy!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Hairstyle Appreciation Day!! I think this might be one of the most random 'holidays' I've seen on my list, but it sounded fun to roll with. She also requested to use a bag that was not insulated, on an 88 degree F day because her friend has the same bag and they want to match. Bah. 

She got a pretty not-healthy lunch, but oh well. Squirrel had a PB sammy on a hotdog bun with yogurt tube hair. This particular kid is not a red-head, but they don't sell dirty blonde yogurt tubes so I had to improvise. I cut a mini-donut in half (damn grocery shopping hungry), and decided to use them as arms. Very beefy, scary arms, but she bought them! Well, ate them at least. Ms Hotdog also had a tortilla chip skirt, some random grapes tossed around, and her normal Wednesday meal replacement shake on the side. I was pretty worried about the lack of insulation in her bag, so I froze her yogurt tube and the shake, and snuck in an ice pack anyway. She said everything was still cold so, win for me!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Happy May Day! And Mother Goose Day!

A few weeks ago Squirrel's kindergarten class had little faux-plays about Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and Squirrel played Little Miss Muffet. It sounded like a good lunch theme to me! Miss Muffet is a PB&J sammy with a fruit leather dress and smile. Her hair is crust that is glued on with honey. Her spider is a mini cupcake from the freezer with pretzel legs. I used the sprinkles that came on it for a face, and decorated two of them (and Miss Muffet's eyes) with food-safe markers. The spider is sitting in mozzarella-shred 'curds,' and her tuffet is made from broccoli. She also got strawberry and celery flowers for May Day, celery grass with ranch in the shamrock tub, and a few pretzels on the side. Her 'whey' (milk) was in the Thermos. Another hot day, so I had frozen some milk to keep her milk cold. She'd been complaining about water ice cubes watering down her milk, and this seemed to work great!

Friday, May 2, 2014

She again begged for the non-insulated Miss Piggy bag. Curse that thing!

It was a bit cooler today, but I still got a bit creative with the cooling for her lunch as I completely forgot about the no-insulation thing until I'd already made her cream cheese and orange marmalade sammy sushi and it occurred to me that an eighty-degree day + cream cheese = not awesomeness. So I used reusable 'ice cubes.' I found them 5/$1 (one bag) at the Target Dollar spot. They're jewel-shaped. She also had carrots and celery, popcorn chex mix stuff, and strawberry and banana skewers. She got milk with frozen milk cubes in her Thermos on the side. Which she left at school! Luckily, there was still one teacher still in her classroom that had a door to the outside when I picked her up at 5pm that let us in. Can you imagine if that was in her classroom all hot weekend? Ick.

See ya next week!

Lunches 4/21 - 4/25/13 & an addition!

Monday, April 21, 2013

I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday! Here's KK, Squirrel, and CQ at grandma's house, with our baby niece after celebrating their Nana's 80th birthday yesterday afternoon.

What silly kids!

Happy National Kindergarten Day! As my little Squirrel is a very avid kindergartner, I definitely incorporated this holiday into her lunch today! 

She got a 'K' turkey sammie, held open with carrots, a leftover cupcake from her Nana's 80th birthday celebration the afternoon before, leftover fruit salad from Easter, a yogurt tube, and club crackers with kindergarten-y things written on them. They're a bit hard to see, but I wrote 1, 2, 3 on some, K & ROCKS on two others, and drew others to look like crayons with the colors written on them as well. I used food markers for the decorating.

We take my step-daughter KK to school most Mondays, and I'm honestly not a fan of the food their school serves them. She doesn't take a lunch from home. Her school doesn't even have a kitchen! It's all just shipped to them, pre-packaged, and the cafeteria workers merely open it and put in on hot- or cold-tables. Narsty! So I decided she'd get a good lunch at least one day a week. She's thirteen, but she likes foofy things, so I figure I can cutesy them up a bit and she'd allow it. 

 So, not the healthiest lunch ever, but not completely awful. KK got a turkey and cheese pocket sammie, a sweet pepper, a leftover cupcake, and popcorn down below. She had a string cheese up top to round it out a bit. Her sammie was also decorated with food markers. No complaints, so green light, I guess!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

 Earth Day! Squirrel's class planted some seeds and cleaned up their school grounds a bit. She was very proud of them :) She got an earthy lunch to go with it, and the debut of one of her new napkins!

For Earth Day Squirrel got PB&J roll-ups, with a PB&J tortilla Earth sammie on top, applesauce decorated with stickers, with cinnamon & sprinkles in the blue tub, a carrot sun, popcorn, and a few blue and yellow mint chocolate candies under the cloud baran. She had milk up top. Incidentally, that reusable juice box is the reason I bought her a Thermos Funtainer - it was upright in the fridge all night, and still spilled it's milk all over the shelf by morning! She did not end up eating the candies, which is almost a little funny to me. She says they're too 'spicy.'

Loving her new napkins! I went a little nuts at the fabric store. Fat quarters just call my name! I picked a few out, then she insisted on a few herself. When we got to the comic section, she was dying for some villain fabric - she wanted Poison Ivy or Catwoman, but she told me she'd 'settle' for Wonder Woman and Batgirl! Hahaha! Isn't that watermelon one just the cutest?! Here's just the six I made that afternoon, but I have quite a few more in the stack waiting for me to cut and put together. I'll put them up as I do them.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

National Zucchini Bread Day! Squirrel sort of celebrated it in her lunch today. She got a grilled cheese on sandwich thins underneath everything in the yellow box, and tomato soup in the fat Thermos. Apple hearts with pumpkin pie dip, zucchini bread hearts, and milk in the skinny Thermos on the right. She also took a little tub of cheddar fish crackers for her soup. That girl can tear up some tomato soup and grilled cheese! Her spoon came from the Dollar Spot at Target. It also has a matching fork. She has several spoon & fork sets from there, and I love them for cereal and soups in her lunches because the wide bowls make it easier for her to eat in her twenty-minute lunch period.

I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to make her a lunch for Thursday, because it was Pig in a Blanket Day. We'd made wiener wraps the night before specifically so I could send one in her lunch Thursday, but it was also Take your Daughter to Work Day, so she got to go with Bear since she can go now that she's six! He works for our local cable company as a tech, and they always have a fun event for all the parents and kids at their shop that she had a blast at. They feed them all day, but she came home and told me that she wished I'd packed a lunch for her :(

Friday, April 25, 2014

This lunch brought to you courtesy of mama falling asleep on the couch the night before and having to scramble to throw both my and Squirrel's lunches together in the span of about fifteen minutes Friday morning! I normally pack our lunches the night before, so I'm not in a huge time crunch and I usually have the chance to be creative. It typically doesn't take me any more than about fifteen to twenty minutes to make our lunches anyway, but I don't like to feel rushed. 

Squirrel got pretzel crackers with ham rolls and cheese flowers. The scraps for the cheese are underneath. Along the bottom are mandarin slices, carrots, and white- and milk-chocolate pretzels separated by rainbow baran. Accompanied by strawberry-banana juice in the Thermos, and her typical smoothie. My lunch was pretty much the same, but in place of the pretzels and carrots I had sweet peppers. And no smoothie or juice. 

More next week!

*all opinions in this post are my own. I am not sponsored, nor do I receive any affiliate benefits or anything free for review of these products. I purely saw them in other places, and purchased them for my own use.*

A Warren of Easter lunches 4/14 - 4/18/13

Bentos are back with a vengeance! Woot woot! Got lots of time to recoup, lots of new ideas, and made some new napkins, which make an appearance next week.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies!

Squirrel got a bunny PB&J sammie, grapes and strawberries on Easter pics, a carrot heart, club crackers under the carrot cup, and three mini sandwich cookies in the turtle egg. She has a smoothie and juice box on the side. Her smoothie is about 2/3 carrots and broccoli, with fruit and yogurt added to disguise the veggies and creamify it. I fill the large mixing cup of my Magic Bullet, blend it until it's smooth, then fill it again because there'll be more room at this point. I only fill each food pouch about 1/3 - 1/2 full because they're given with other food and they hold a lot of smoothie! One cup is enough for 4 smoothie pouches, or 3 pouches and 1 little cup that she'll drink in the car Monday for breakfast. The other days of the week she has breakfast at daycare and they take her to school. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

It's bunnies and bunny food everywhere! A turkey sammie carrot. She got a bunny-shaped hard-boiled egg w/ salt in the bunny pot. She's not really been a fan of hard-boiled eggs in the past, but I've heard that a child needs to be introduced to a food something like twenty times before they'll eat it, so I'll still try. I have a few different egg molds to try to make it more enticing! She also got strawberries with a bunny fork, applesauce in the Easy Lunch Boxes Little Dipper w/ cinnamon and springtime sprinkles in the carrot container up top. Accompanied by her standard smoothie up top!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Here's the first appearance of the meal replacement shakes that I'd photographed. Not a fan of them, so of course she loves them. Until she starts eating more produce willingly our agreement is that she can have one once a week. Today she got a turkey dog cut into bunnies, ketchup to dip, grapes, popcorn in the carrot egg, with a yogurt tube on the side. 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

This lunch was a little blah because I didn't feel all that fantastically,but I still think it turned out pretty cute. Unfortunately, she only her smoothie and a few carrots. I guess if she's only going to eat part of her lunch, she ate the healthy parts, right?

She got a chick grilled sammie, with turkey under the cheese. The eyes were sprinkles from a fall bottle, and the beak is a little bit of crust pressed into the cheese while it was still melty. Grapes and carrots with her smoothie. I'm sure I stuck a drink in there, just not sure what it was :)

Friday, April 18, 2014

Happy Easter! I've been so excited to do this lunch all week, since I saw this post from Biting the Hand that Feeds You. Time for an Easter egg hunt! So stinkin' cute!!

I think this is one of my favorite lunches ever! She got PB&J sammies (cut with a Funbites cutter), baby carrot slices, bunny apples, popcorn, and a marshmallow bunny. There's an ice pack wrapped in a napkin underneath, and her cloth napkin tucked to the side. The rings came from cupcakes from an alumni party for our dog training classes the previous night. Perfect timing!

Hippity hoppity happy Easter this Sunday!

*all opinions in this post are my own. I am not sponsored, nor do I receive any affiliate benefits or anything free for review of these products. I purely saw them in other places, and purchased them for my own use.*

First bentos of 2014

Pretty sparse for pics for 2014 thus far, but I found a few from Valentine's Day. Not sure what happened, but somehow pics got distorted and appear square rather than rectangular like they actually are.

Squirrel got a marshmallow fluff and Nutella fairy sandwich, with sanding sugar in the hole, strawberries cut into hearts with a cute kitty fork (she's been obsessed with kitties most of her life), a carrot heart, and applesauce with a cinnamon heart. To make the heart, I held a cookie cutter on top of the applesauce, and sprinkled the cinnamon inside with a spoon. I was afraid it would be too much, but she loved it. There's a few heart-shaped jelly beans in the pink tub.

Bear normally packs his own lunch, but for today I did. He got a turkey and cheese pocket fairy sammie w/ provolone and a smaller bread heart secured with mayo in the hole. He also got mandarin segments, heart strawberries, carrot hearts, and heart-shaped jelly beans.

The two containers are actually mine and Bear's, they're typically a bit too big for squirrel. We got them from Uwajimaya. I don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like to because it's quite a ways away from my house, but we're out on that side of town a few times a year, and I end up going a bit overboard when I'm there, so it may be a good reason we don't live closer!

*all opinions in this post are my own. I am not sponsored, nor do I receive any affiliate benefits or anything free for review of these products. I purely saw them in other places, and purchased them for my own use.*

Tuesday, December 17 2013 Birthday lunch!

My baby turned 6 on this day!! As I mentioned in this post, December is suuuuuper busy for us, so pretty much all other lunches were 'normal.' My birthday was actually the day before this lunch, and Squirrel shares this birthday with my MIL!

For Squirrel's lunch, I made a three-layer sammie 'cake.' I cut the bread with a flower cookie cutter, and it had layers of peanut butter and chocolate frosting, the top layer has peanut butter securing pink and purple sanding sugar, with toothpick 'candles,' and the six made out of pearl sprinkles. We did have a discussion before-hand about pulling out the toothpicks before eating the cake. She did not have an issue, so don't worry! Sliced peaches, applesauce, and grape balloons. I'm pretty sure there's sprinkles in the pink tub.

I wrapped the containers with peaches and applesauce in her wrapping paper from her party the previous weekend. I hand-cut the ribbons and bows from fruit leather. 

After searching for weeks I finally found this fabric to make her napkin for her birthday lunch! Every fabric store I went to had lots of cake, ice cream, and cupcake fabrics, but none that actually said 'Happy birthday.' I found one, single fat quarter on ebay, and it was shipped in about three days. I'm hoping to use it for each birthday lunch for as long as she lets me!

Everyone have a happy New Year! Hopefully 2014 will be full of magic for everyone :)

Friday, November 1, 2013

I only took a pic of the one lunch in November, apparently!

Squirrel got a Hello Kitty sammie, white cheddar cheese crackers, grapes, carrots, a piece of Halloween candy up top, and a yogurt and juice on the side. The sammie was decorated with black decorating gel, and I diluted some food coloring in water and painted the red and yellow bits on. 

Here's a link for the cookie cutter I used, it's part of a two-piece set. I didn't get it from Amazon, tho. I think I got it from a local craft store. Not sure why there's not more, I apologize!

*all opinions in this post are my own. I am not sponsored, nor do I receive any affiliate benefits or anything free for review of these products. I purely saw them in other places, and purchased them for my own use.*

October 2013 lunches

It appears I only took pics of five lunches in October, so I'll just include them all in one post for your reading pleasure.

I can't find a date for this lunch, so it's a bonus! Turkey and cheese jack-o-lantern sammie w/ ghostie facial features, grapes, and probably a few candies in the green tub. The apples/ peanut butter/ marshmallow conglomeration was my attempt at making a 'monster mouth' apple sandwich. Fail. The picks are actually stir sticks from the Dollar Spot at Target, they say 'Drink me' on the other side, which was a bit odd for a lunch so I pulled that sticker off and replaced it with a pumpkin sticker. The ghosties were cut with two different sizes of tulip cookie cutters, used upside-down.

Friday, October 4, 2014

Squirrel got a kinda black-cat sammie attempt. Used peanut butter to secure black sugar sprinkles to it, but I've got to figure out a different way as I'm not happy with how it turned out. She loved it, so it worked :) She also got dried cranberries, cheese balls, and yogurt. Not sure what's in the tubs, but I'm thinking sprinkles for the yogurt, and maybe a few Halloween candies? I sent the rest of the bag of rings in with her for her class, I guess they had a blast with them!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

I plan the potlucks for my team at work, so I tend to work themes into so I can incorporate part of what I make into lunches. For our Halloween potluck, I made mummy dogs (weiner wraps, but I made eyes of mustard on the ones for work) and left a few at home for us.

Squirrel got a mummy dog, ketchup in the panda pot, and a Halloween sandwich cookie cut in half on the right. On the left is 1/2 a cheese stick, grapes, and leftover corn (that she didn't eat, if I remember correctly). Applesauce with cinnamon on the side. The pink container is made by Sistema. They are a company out of New Zealand, and I love their products. I have multiple containers all over my house of theirs. We use them for lunches as well as all my baking supplies. Funnily enough, I got this one from Old Navy, but have found them at World Market and the Container Store as well. Angus ended up eating this pink one, but I happen to have purchased an identical one (just clear plastic w/ a pink gasket) for myself that she sometimes uses now.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

This lunch was a bit sweet-heavier than I normally pack, just as a treat for Halloween. Her sandwich was a peanut butter and Nutella fairy sandwich, with Halloween sprinkles in the holes, grapes, carrots, and Jell-O 'blood' in the coffin. She got an applesauce packet and chocolate milk on the side.  

Here's a view of the Jell-O 'blood'-filled coffin, with sprinkles. I broke down that 4tsp Jell-O powder + 1/4 cup boiling water + 1/4 cup cold water was great for making just a small amount. I think it filled the coffin, and a few silicon baking cups. I had purchased one package of the applesauce pouches, then tried to refill them with my cake decorating tips and it just never worked, so I ended up buying refillable food pouches. I also no longer use those reusable juice boxes as they either leak or we lose the straws. She uses a Thermos or water bottle.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!! My monster was Princess Merida from the movie Brave, but it rained here so she didn't make out too hot :(  Loved her lunch, tho!

She had some sort of sammie, supposed to be a black cat. Used decorating gel after my disastrous sprinkle cat earlier in the month. Also a fail. She got caramel corn, apple ghosties (upside-down tulip cutter) with pumpkin pie dip (made for a potluck, haha), grapes, and carrots. Also had cranberry juice 'blood' in the juice box. 

*all opinions in this post are my own. I am not sponsored, nor do I receive any affiliate benefits or anything free for review of these products. I purely saw them in other places, and purchased them for my own use.*