Unlunchables

Kidney beans for the win. Plus gluten-free chocolate chip cookies - made with only almond meal, honey, vanilla, butter and chocolate chips.

Birthday Cake Bento

Halloween Lunch

Not fancy, but she'll love it. Pumpkin-shaped cheese sammy with an extra slice on top, honeycrisp apple, carrot "chips" (purchased cut like that), and the Green Goddess dressing I make that is currently M's fave. I tucked in one pouch of "Fruit Snacks" in Halloween shapes, which is our hand-out this year. Those things are just glorified gummies. Happy Halloween!!

Ready!

Let the lunch-making begin! We're ready for September 2nd. We love our Easy Lunchboxes (http://www.easylunchboxes.com/) that I learned about five years ago from my friend Erin, and they are available on Amazon right here. I use my silicone heart-shaped cupcake molds (too fussy otherwise) for separating items like cheese, meat, crackers, and veggies in the large section of the boxes sometimes.

Erik likes his as "Lunchable-type" meals, where Madeline is pretty happy with a PB&J or a salad. We like the Mini Dippers containers for sauces and dressing in the lunchbox containers since they are not leakproof. One of my favorite dipping containers are simply reused dressing containers from Starbucks salads (also used to nuts and dried fruit in their Protein Boxes). 

We always use reusable snack containers of various types too, are trying the Fuel brand this year. And, we've got some Wrap-N-Mat wraps for sandwiches that were a gift... we'll see if those work for us. I might pare down a bit more, but I'm looking forward to taking baby steps to involve the kids in making their own lunches on a more regular basis this year! Here we go!! 

And, that's a wrap...

... final lunch of the school year! 

Avocado & cream cheese sammies on Dave's Killer Bread, fresh local strawberries, carrots with sesame-miso dressing, and Jungle Animal cookies... she loved it all.

Creative Lunches... For The Win!!

Back when M was in preschool, I packed her glorious bento-box lunches three days a week, filled with fun, funky, amazing things. Fast-forward a few years (filled with preschool lunches for brother too), and a full year of 1st- and 2nd-grade lunches (minus the three times she bought lunch), and I'm pretty tired of making lunch every single day. 

And, while sometimes I wish that the girl would just buy lunch, I've visited her cafeteria during lunch a few times this year and tried to eat a healthy, semi-appealing lunch from the lunch line and it's very challenging. So, I understand why she doesn't want to buy lunch. I wouldn't want to eat it either.

While I was away for a week in Hawaii earlier this year, M packed her own lunch every evening, for the next day, and she did gain a real appreciation for the lunches I send with her daily. She's also developed a taste for the simple - PB&J or bagel with cream cheese, fruit, a small treat, and veggies with ranch. Pretty easy. 

But, as we neared the final two weeks of school, and everything seemed to pile up (as it always does at the end), and I was so tired of lunch-packing, and we all just wanted summer, I decided to buck the system because this is the finish line! So many parents just seemed to be celebrating "giving up" on caring about school, and stopped packing lunches, volunteering, or making sure kiddos get homework done. Even one of the kids' teachers shared that she was "done" with the year, and it didn't matter anymore... everyone was doing it (or so it seemed, since so many were paying lip-service to it), and I just had to step away from the crowd and get away from the negativity. 

You don't peter out when you're about to cross the finish! That's a terrible lesson for kids. We're all excited for summer fun, but endurance is the name of the game when it comes to kiddos, life, and a healthy attitude. And, so I got really creative with lunches for the final two weeks of school to pump a little fun into the final miles... here are a few of M's favorites, and you know what? It totally worked - flipped all our attitudes around and we've had a fantastic final two weeks full of in-class fun, field-trip and field-day and party chaperoning, lots of reading and art-lesson teaching, Girl Scout fun, and Thank-You gift coordinating! Attitude makes a world of difference. 

Rainbow Lunch with M's favorites, including fresh pineapple and fresh English Peas. What? No protein you say? She bought white milk, and took cheese & crackers for her snack. 

Flat Stanley party lunch today... flat Stanley PB&J on Dave's Killer Bread, flat-sliced apple with cinnamon cream cheese, flat-sliced strawberries, Stanley cheddar slices, Big Cheezits, and Flat scottie-dog shortbread cookies. Fun!

M's faves lunch... salami, carrots & homemade ranch, roasted Yukon Golds and ketchup, Brussels cookies and fresh Bing Cherries.

And, another rainbow lunch with carrots, orange supremes, and canned pineapple.

First Bentos...

Fairly uninspired for me, but I'm short on time, and it's what they like at the moment, so...

Super-star Bento!

"Miso Blocks" Bento

Erik's lunch on Thursday. He calls tofu "miso blocks" because it's the yummy little blocks in miso soup. This bento took about 3 minutes: Organic baked tofu (teriyaki flavor) from Trader Joe's, hoisin sauce, sliced pear and carrot (from the Farmers Market). Mmm...

Last Lunch

M's final packed lunch for a year — half day Kindergartners don't take lunch, and neither do summer camp kids. So no school lunches until first grade...

Happy Earth Day!!

Happy Earth Day tomorrow! Just one of the ways that we do our part to make this a greener world to live in...School Lunches!

Reusable lunch sacks

Bento lunch boxes with reusable picks and dividers

And, reusable cotton sandwich and snack bags (and I made a new stash today with fabric scraps and Velcro strips that I had on hand). And, if you don't have time to make your own, and have the cash, the folks at ReUsies make some beautiful reusable sandwich and snack bags. Just click here to buy online from their site or find a retail store near you!

Madeline's Choice Bento

Dill tuna salad, cheese Sun Chips, a "really big" carrot, and banana.

Surimi Bento

Speedy, Healthy, Fun!

Bento for me: I take what I have and get creative with it—it's all about making M's little preschool lunch boxes fun and appealing. With a choice of faux veggie sushi (tortilla wrap with cream cheese, carrots and arugula), quesadilla, rolled lunch meat, leftovers, peeled shrimp, Inari sushi (from QFC), and fresh fruit and veggies tossed in (or just a tossed "Rocket" arugula salad) on any given day... all in a fun one- or two-tiered bento box (and picks, food cups and dividers) from Daiso in Lynnwood, M's out the door with her school lunch in no time!Seriously, packing lunch takes me between 5-10 minutes, depending on what I'm doing with it. I mix things up with slicing fruit in different ways (mandarin orange "flowers" with dried cherry centers, or vertical slices of apple cut into shapes with cookie cutters), and tossing in some dip for veggies. I occasionally toss in a couple maraschino cherry for a treat with her fruit... Easy for me, fun (and healthy) for her, which is excellent all around.

PB&J Pancake Man bento...

Mini pancake PB&J sammies (organic natural PB with strawberry jam), Honey Crisp smile (double layer), and grape Stretch Island Fruit Leather accents cut out with my oval fondant cutters. Lunch made in 5-minutes, max.

Packing Lunch for School

Bento-style lunch really is the best thing ever. It's so fast and easy. This morning I packed Mads' lunch in about 4 minutes (including the time it took me to dash outside to pick the raspberries).

She usually gets whatever we have on hand (so it stays interesting), and since the garden is still producing, tomatoes and raspberries are common right now. I haven't taken pics of lunches in awhile, but if the camera is around I snap a shot so I can remember what I've done!One of these lunches was all about dinosaurs, and the octodogs were in the first back-to-school bento (the eyes are black olive that we had in the fridge from making pizza).

Her fave lunch so far this year (not pictured) was all green: rocket salad (arugula), fresh green beans, green grapes, peas, and celery filled with peanut butter—OK, almost all green, veggie booty, and even the container of dressing dip (Green Goddess) was green! Just what I had on hand, but made it fun. Another day (no pic) I did hummus, pita wedges, cherry tomatoes and carrots with sliced Honey Gold apples on the side.

And, on a side note, I am sorely tempted by the new Goodbyn lunch boxes... "green" and it would certainly eliminate the need for so many teeny tiny boxes and containers.

Three Minutes, Flat.

With some new sea life cookie cutters from Sur La Table, this fun bento lunch took three minutes, start to finish.

While the Octo-dogs were in the microwave (cut one hot dog in half, then cut eight "legs" in the bottom of each half-dog, toss them into hot water and microwave for about 2 mins or until legs curl), I cut out the cheese shapes, layered with "Rocket" (Arugula) "seaweed" and tossed in a handful of washed cherries. Rinsed the dogs in cold water when done and added them to the box. Done!

Dino-Mite!

I picked up two of these DynoBytes sandwich cutters at QFC a couple weeks ago (one to add to Gavino's birthday package too) and these little dinos have been a hit in Madeline's lunches. She requested only dino sammies both days of this short school week.

The cutter is very easy to use, and makes a neat sandwich whether you cut the bread first and add toppings (I just do one slice when I want one dino sammie), or if you make a sandwich first and then do the cutting (which sort of "seals" the edges of both sandwiches along the cut).

Overall, I like this little gadget, and at $2.50 each at the grocery store, it was well worth the investment.

A Day Off...

Friday this week, we have the "day off" for packing a lunch since there's a big Valentine's party at school (including pizza and other healthy - and sweet - snacks).

They're also reading Pinkalicious by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann this week, and we decorated cupcakes today (just like in the book). After we did ours, Madeline wanted to know about the extra mini cupcakes I made (to use up the batter, really...) to see if we could decorate more, and I encouraged the idea of sharing with her classmates. She thought that sounded great. So, I e-mailed her teacher to ask about treat-bringing protocol. She thought book-inspired treats would be fabulous, so tomorrow the afternoon preschoolers are going to get a fun treat (one day before the big treat-filled party day).

K is for Kumquat...

and Kiwi, D is for Dinosaur, A is for Apple, and G is for Goldfish... Madeline had a hand in making her lunches again this week and as always, had big fun with choosing which items went in the box!