another lunch

Muffin Tin Monday - it's Halloween!

2013-10-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

Hey there...long time no see!

It's Monday. It's Halloween week. Let's see some muffin tins.

A creepy muffin tin of yesteryear:

* details for this muffin tin can be found here.

I have been dreadfully absent from blogging for many months. It's maybe a little long of a story to share (and really, not interesting either). In a nutshell, I was very sick and took a long time to recover (boo!). I'm better now (yay!). But struggling to get back into old routines, like blogging. And laundry. And showering. (kidding...kinda).
To all who have emailed and sent messages, I am sorry I didn't get back to you! Email was overwhelming for awhile. I'm lame. I'm sorry.

Now, onto the Halloween muffin tins!

Summer: camp bento lunch & craziness

2013-07-23T13:23:00.001-05:00

Hello!
I am waving to you under a pile of various house debris! That is only a slight exaggeration, too. In addition to the normal messy mayhem my little crew inflicts upon our residence, we have added to it a whole bunch of home repairs and it is Complete. Chaos.

I'm taking a break from ripping out rooms of carpet & padding (and the accompanying task of prying up tack strips and staples) to write this post. Wood flooring begins installing tomorrow. All of our furniture is piled up in the garage and kitchen. I honestly don't know what the heck we were thinking taking on all this stuff while the kids are out of school and under our feet. We are obviously crazy and a trip to the looney bin is in order (that actually sounds like a glorious retreat at this point). As soon as the floors are done, a new roof and exterior is being replaced. And after that dust settles and is swept away, painting will begin. Hold me.
It will be so great when it's all over and done though! So, so good. If I make it that far.

What was I here for again? Oh, a lunch! A camp lunch of Ethan's:

In the top container on the left is a mix of organic strawberries & grapes, with a little lion bento pick fork to eat it with. The bottom container holds rolls of peppered turkey and pieces of cheddar cheese, cut with a bear- shaped bento cutter.
The large box holds two Super Pretzels and there is rock salt in the little mini Lego cube box. On the far right is a homemade chocolate chip granola bar, wrapped in wax paper and held closed with a cute piece of washi tape.

This is packed in a Laptop Lunches bento box, with the big box being from a set of Bento Buddies (it takes the space of two middle sized inner containers).

If you've been a reader of this blog for any length of time, you know that Ethan became pretty obsessed with soft pretzels this year. And they have been appearing in his packed lunches frequently since. Up until now I have been baking/heating up the pretzels beforehand (usually the night before) and letting them cool so they were room temp when getting packed in the lunch box. But then I had this "duh" moment when I realized the Super Pretzels are already pre-baked and and there was really no point in heating them up just to cool them back down. So I tried just packing them frozen, knowing they'd have time to thaw out before lunchtime... and it worked like a charm. Ethan didn't even notice a difference at all in the taste or texture, and it was definitely much easier on my end. Just a tip if there are any other soft pretzel fans out there! :)

Lastly, I'm really, really, really bummed out at my lack of blogging this summer. I was totally looking forward to a bunch of fun summer bentos, but this summer has just been really tricky and difficult. I am flying by the seat of my pants here. I hope to get back to a regular posting habit soon!

Supplies used to pack this lunch:

Flash Back 4th of July lunches | stars, stripes, & paninis

2013-07-03T11:44:00.003-05:00

In celebration of Independence Day, I'm digging in to my archives to share past lunches that honored the 4th of July. Beyond the obvious holiday theme tying these all together, they all have something else in common too. Red, white, and blue is a given. Stars and stripes are to be expected. But... how about paninis? :)

The title of each bento is clickable and will take you to the original post with more details about that lunch's contents.

Bento lunch for Independence Day

Stars & Stripes bento lunch

Muffin Tin Monday - Independence Day!

Happy Birthday, USA!
Have a fun and safe weekend everyone! :)

Supplies used to make these lunches:

Muffin Tin Monday - Independence Day!

2013-07-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Summer, guys!

And welcome back to Muffin Tin Monday!

Independence Day is the theme of the week here. Happy birthday, USA!

Curious about Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it.

Muffin Tin Monday - Summer!

2013-06-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Summer, everyone!

SUMMER is the theme of the week for Muffin Tin Monday! I hope by now everyone's school is out for summer vacation!

We have been out of school for over a month already. I am in full-blown chaos mode with my crazy crew and the days are flying by faster than I imagined. It's Monday again already? Seriously?

I am curious if anyone would mind (or notice?!) if Muffin Tin Monday went on hiatus until fall. If you have an opinion, please speak up in comments! I don't mind posting the link-up so others can share their muffin tin meals, but at this point I'm not sure if I'll be able to participate myself this summer. My intentions are there, but my follow-through is suffering. These Mondays just keep sneaking up on me!

Curious about Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it.

Muffin Tin Monday - the swanky 70's!

2013-06-17T10:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the 70's! This week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is another stop in the decades series, the swanky 70's!

I'm hoping someone worked some shag carpet into their muffin tin. ;)

Curious about Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it.

Nibble Tray | preschooler's snack to go

2013-06-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

Summer greetings, everyone!

While I am very much enjoying not having to peel myself out of bed super early every morning, it still doesn't seem like we've hit that lazy summer days groove yet. I feel like I'm still waiting to catch my breath! Maybe that's just life with a houseful of crazy kids...

Speaking of them, the younger two never. ever. slow down.
Unless they are eating. Then they sit still for at least a few minutes at a time. Unless we are on the go, which is a lot. But even then they gotta eat. This is one of the recent on the go snacks I packed.

Packed in a Nibble Tray:
- veggie chips
- small bit of granola bar (a flapjack from a recent Graze box)
- a mix of peanuts, chocolate sunflower kernels, organic yogurt covered pretzel
- cheddar cheese
- pistacios
- salami roll-ups

The green leaf section has a built in ice pack, so it stays chilled for a while. The area held hummus (for the veggie chips) and a couple nibbles of kiwi fruit.

I had intended this nibble tray to be a shared snack for both Paige and Tyler. That was sorely short sighted of me. Those two were at each other's throats, each trying to snarf down as much food as they could before the other could have it. Maybe it would have worked out better had I made duplicate compartments of each food. But I don't think I'll test the the theory any time soon. Sigh.

Supplies used to make this snack:

Big Kid Summer Camp Lunch

2013-06-11T10:47:00.003-05:00

We have enjoyed over three weeks of summer vacation so far and this week Ethan gets to go to a summer enrichment program at school. Five full days of fun classes he got to pick out himself. A couple of the courses he opted for: Outdoor Games and Lego Mania. Totally rad!

Yesterday he insisted on packing his own lunch (it was my birthday and he didn't want me "to work too hard" - ha!) and I didn't grab a picture before he left. This is today's lunch:

Packed in a Laptop Lunches Box:
- multi-grain tortilla chips
- an individual portion of packaged Wholly Guacamole
- cheddar cheese
- organic strawberries & grapes with a fun cocktail fork to eat them with
- homemade granola bar (wrapped in wax paper and tucked in the side area)

Supplies used to pack this lunch:

Muffin Tin Monday - the ocean

2013-06-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday!

The theme of the day is The Ocean.

And to be totally honest, I totally cheated and am recycling a muffin tin meal I made almost three years ago!

- a sand pail (mini bento bucket full of vanilla yogurt and topped with graham cracker crumbs)
- a school of fish crackers
- octopus (hot dog shaped octopus!)
- strawberries... just because
- lobster shaped quesadilla
- fish shaped boiled egg

More details about the making of this muffin tin meal are in the original post.

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. The schedule has been updated and themes are now listed through the end of July! If you have some theme ideas, please share your ideas in the comments!

Snacks, snacks, lots of school snacks!

2013-06-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

At one point during this last school year I thought I'd make a real effort to start documenting our packed school snacks. The problem is it wasn't a habit and therefore kept slipping my mind in the crazy getting-ready-for-school morning rush and 97% of the time I forgot to do it.

So these are just the random handful of snacks I happened to take pictures of. They spread over a long time period, and bridge a transition in Paige's diet (the more recent ones being lower in simple carbs and sugar and are artificial dye-free).

This snack was packed in our newish strawberry bento box. This is a 2-tier (stacked) box, but I just used the top box this time, so it was a single tier. It holds a homemade banana walnut muffin (with lots of chia seeds and flax meal added), and there are pumpkin seeds in the lidded Mini-Dipper container:

This is 1 of 2 new little bento boxes Paige got for her birthday in March. This one is divided into three sections. On this day she had Goldfish crackers, roasted almonds, and a Babybell cheese. That larger section was big enough to also hold one cell of a Goodbyn icepack blanet also, which helped keep the cheese nice and chilled until snack time:

The super cute lid... it's Hello Kitty! The lid snaps on like a Lock & Lock box. I found this bento set on ebay (from this shop).

This snack was packed in the 2nd box from that Hello Kitty bento set, this one doesn't have built-in dividers, but is the same size and has an identical lid. This snack contained a clementine, turkey jerky, and in the tube (an old mini M&M holder) are sunflower kernels:

Same box again, the tube also has sunflower kernels. And two mini granola bars ("flapjacks" from our Graze Box subscription):

Packed in a Goodbyn snack box, this snack is mini organic peanut butter cracker sandwiches (from Trader Joe's) and almonds:

Packed in a small Lock & Lock snack box, fishie crackers and pumpkin kernels:

The Goodbyn snack box again, mini saltine crackers and a mini muffin (I have no earthly memory of what type of muffin that was):

...my memory struggles again...this snack was some sort of granola bar (maybe an organic Clif's Zbar?) with what looks like graham crackers under it? And grapes:

The same snack sized Lock & Lock box as above, but I slid one of the included trays to the middle to make 3 sections. This one holds a granola bar, fishies, grapes. This was Ethan's snack, I'm pretty sure:

Some sort of crackers and itty bitty mini Hello Kitty sandwiches. Those tiny kitty sandwiches were made using larger "scrap" pieces of bread from leftover cut-outs. I used HK fruit & veggie cutters to make those (#5 from my Hello Kitty cutter round-up post):

Supplies used to pack these snacks:

The last school lunches of the year

2013-06-04T10:44:00.001-05:00

We are already in the thick of our summer vacation, so no school lunches have been made in awhile. But I did have a few stray lunches that hadn't been posted yet, and here they are!

One of Ethan's last lunches of elementary school, ever. (Sob!!)...

Packed in an EasyLunchbox container:
- soft pretzel roll
- cheddar cheese in a silicone muffin cup
- organic baby carrots
- grapes

Because this soft pretzel was unsalted I added a little car-topped shaker bottle holding pretzel salt for Ethan to add himself. This lunch is basically an exact replica of the Mickey Mouse pretzel lunch he had had the prior week. Because, why not? :)

One of Paige's last lunches of Kindergarten. Sniffle....

This lunch is packed in a Laptop Lunchbox:
- two slices of her favorite garlic parmesan chicken pizza
- a bounty of cucumber slices, cut with a flower shaped mini cookie cutter
- fruit: clementine, grapes, strawberry
- hummus in the small dipping container

I used the large container from a set of Laptop Lunch Bento Buddies to hold the large pizza slices. This container comes with a lid, which contained the loose parmesan bits from spreading over to the other side foods.

Interesting (to me) discovery: Paige did not eat the hummus. Despite being on a mega hummus kick. Why? I asked. She said, "I only love hummus on cucumbers if they have the crust on them. Without the cucumber crusts I like to eat them plain with nuffing on them. And I didn't have anything else to eat the hummus with."
Well, okay then! Good to know. By "cucumber crusts" she means the skin, of course. :)

And lastly, a long time ago lunch of Ethan's...

This one is packed in a Lock & Lock Lunch Set.
- soft pretzel
- strawberries
- cheddar cheese
- dry roasted chickpeas

I'm preeeety sure this concludes the last of the lunches from the 2012-2013 school year. Gosh this year flew by in a blur!

Supplies used to make these lunches:

Muffin Tin Monday - Perfect Picnic

2013-06-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

What? It's Monday again, already?! We are beginning week 3 of summer break and it's safe to say my brain is officially on summer schedule. I'm no longer capable of keeping track of days of the week.

Tah-dah! My ultra simple picnic time muffin tin meal:

Top row:
- watermelon, carrots and cherries, mini sealed bite-sized sandwiches with a few pretzels*,
Bottom row:
- *repeat, grapes, more watermelon!

Pretty boring, right? Yep. :)
Paige and Tyler shared this for a light lunch. Tyler stole Paige's watermelon, but she ate all the grapes. Seemed fair to me, but there was a lot of squawking involved. A brawl didn't break out and they remained unscathed. So, win.

Confession: I feel like I'm in the trenches of summer already, and I'm scared.

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

Muffin Tin Monday - Down on the Farm

2013-05-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

What does Memorial Day and Muffin Tin Monday have in common? Today!

Totally lame joke? Yes!

Also totally lame? My muffin tin meal!

The scheduled theme for today is Farm, but mine is not themed at all. Actually there is a little secret theme imbedded here, it's called "leftovers" and it's what Tyler had for dinner last night:
- rice pilaf (lots of mushrooms, celery, and onion packed in there)
- steamed broccoli
- bratwurst
- ketchup for the sausage
- strawberries and carrots

Supplies I used to make this muffin tin meal:

I'd love to see what muffin tins you whipped up this week! Please share!! The more, the merrier. :)

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. The schedule has been updated and themes are now listed through the end of July!

PlanetBox preschool lunch: fantastic firetruck fun for my fabulous & feisty four-year-old

2013-05-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

A couple days ago I had this fun lunch all ready to greet my youngest,Tyler, when he got off the bus from preschool. This little guy loves fire trucks a lot. And then yesterday that little guy turned 4. Four years old! I'm still wondering where the last four years have gone. Sigh.

Packed in a PlanetBox:
- Fire Engine #4, a sandwich cut with the truck Lunch Punch. I fashioned a little ladder out of havarti cheese, along with the number four. The siren is a little organic jelly bean. :)
- waffle pretzels with a few firetruck cheese crackers (homemade recipe here).
- kiwi fruit and strawberries, with the helpful firehouse dog bento pick
- cucumber fire stations and a bunch of carrot coins
- the middle treat section holds some five-alarm spicy jalepeno almonds

Because I am afraid someone will ask: the tiny firetruck cutter is from a set of transportation vehicle mini cutters I bought several years ago from an online bento shop that is no longer in business. I haven't seen any similar in a very long time. :( The way they are designed makes them really hard to use on cheese (which I originally intended using them for), but they have been really cute for cracker making.

Supplies used to make this lunch:

Lunchbots bento boxes | a little of this & a little of that

2013-05-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

These bentos are on the small side, but there is a lot of variety packed into these small spaces.

This bento is in a Lunchbots Quad (divided into 4 sections):
- two mini blueberry muffins with some pecans tucked in the corners
- butterfly crackers with organic cream cheese
- mini BabyBel cheese and slices of salami
- grapes & strawberries with a couple cute flower bento picks

Packed in a Lunchbots Duo (made with two sections):
- deli roll-ups, made with Applegate all natural ham & havarti cheese*
- cucumber slices, cut with a flower shaped mini cookie cutter
- tiny strawberries in a small silicone corner cup, with a cute bento fork to eat them with
- wheat crackers with organic cream cheese
- pumpkin kernels in the little corner cup, topped with an organic yogurt covered pretzel
- a couple strips of turkey jerky
- a few organic chocolate teddy cookies

I packed this Duo box with the wet stuff on one side of the divider, and dry foods on the other. Within each of these sections I used silicone grassy baran to further separate some foods: the deli roll-ups from the cucumbers, and then the teddy cookies from the turkey jerky.

Supplies used to pack these bentos:

* Applegate recently sent me a variety of deli meat and cheese to try out and enjoy with my family. :)

Muffin Tin Monday - Nursery Rhymes

2013-05-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday!

Today's scheduled theme is Nursery Rhymes. :)

I totally phoned it in this week and whipped out this super simple muffin tin in mere minutes.

Top row:
- Little Miss Muffet's spider, creeping up on her ~~tuffet~~ zucchini muffin
- Jack & Jill's pail full of dry roasted peanuts
- Mary's little lamb, waving from the top of a grape heap

Bottom row:
- Baa Baa Black Sheep (olives)
- Old Mother Hubbard's bare cupboard. Poor puppy. :(
- Twinkling Little Star, up above the world so high

Those are dye-free organic "M&M" type candies in the star cup, the globe is a little piece of chocolate wrapped in earth-print foil. Both these treats were found at Whole Foods in the bulk bins.

My intent for this muffin tin was to have Paige guess what nursery rhyme each space represented. This was a huge flop as it turns out Paige doesn't know the nursery rhymes!!! What what what?!! I was flabbergasted. After talking a while about them, she says they sound "kind of familiar", but definitely not second nature, not by a long shot. Yikes! I guess we have a summer project on our hands: Nursery Rhyme Boot Camp.

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. The schedule has been updated and themes are now listed through the end of July! :)

An Amazing School Lunch For My Best Girl

2013-05-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe it's not amazing, but Paige said it was "fantastic and delicious" and I'm pretty sure that's basically the same thing.

Packed in a PlanetBox:
- kiwi fruit pieces and strawberries, packed in the PlanetBox Big Dipper
- veggie chips
- two cute animal silicone cups hold peanuts (in the elephant, naturally) and pistachios
- deli pinwheels made with Applegate ham & Applegate cheddar cheese*, secured with simple bento picks
- a square of organic dark chocolate

That little orange fork tucked alongside the Big Dipper is from a set of bento forks I bought a few years ago. They were made by a bento company I never see around any longer called Caio (or something like that). There were a lot of bento accessories from that line that all coordinated, color-wise and with the same little animal characters. I think the line was called "Farm", though the animals featured were a bear, elephant, and bunny. It's unfortunate miniature sized utensils aren't more available for bento, they are really such a great little size. Not as tiny as a bento pick, but much more compact than a full sized utensil!

Supplies used to pack this lunch:

* Disclosure: Applegate recently sent me a variety of yummy meat and cheese to try out and enjoy with my family. :)

Kindergarten school lunches (times three!) - piggies, pinwheels, & puzzle pieces

2013-05-15T09:39:00.000-05:00

A few of Paige's Kindergarten lunches. I won't be able to say that for long...only one week of school for us to go! My little girl will soon be a big 1st grader! This year has flown. Like a turbo jet.

All these lunches are packed in EasyLunchboxes.

First, a lunch from last month that I forgot to post. :)

- sandwich cut into puzzle pieces with a Lunch Punch, cozied up in a large silicone cup
- veggie chips
- roasted chickpeas
- blackberries with a piece of organic fruit leather, cut with a small heart cookie cutter

Next, a lunch packed in a super big hurry. This lunch was no-nonsense. Put things in a box, apply the lid. Done.

- Applegate ham & Applegate havarti cheese rolls* with a bit of mustard, secrured with bento picks so they didn't unravel
- an apple cereal bar
- ripe organic strawberries & frozen blackberries
- pistacios

I left the cereal bar in the wrapper so it didn't get little crumbs all over the deli rolls, but cut one end open so Paige could slide it out easily.

Last lunch, TODAY'S lunch!

- a sandwich on multigrain of organic peanut butter & fruit preserves
- veggie chips
- sunflower kernels in the little piggie cup
- clementine wedges with strawberries
- cucumber slices, cut with a small flower mini cookie cutter (faster than peeling!)

The bread stamp that made that cute piggie face was a gift from a friend and I don't know where it came from, but the pig from this stamp set is similar. :)

Supplies used to make these lunches:

* Disclosure: Applegate recently sent me a variety of yummy meat and cheese to try out and enjoy with my family. :)

Planetbox | Ladies Who Lunch - a Mother's Day brunch box :)

2013-05-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last Friday Paige's Kindergarten class hosted a little Mother's Day tea at lunchtime. The kids and moms shared home packed lunches picnic-style.

Packed in a Planetbox lunch box:
- homemade hummus with waffle pretzels
- cucumber slices
- cutie orange, kiwi fruit, and two gorgeous grape gemstones on ring bento picks ;)
- girly girly mini sandwiches of peanut butter and fruit preserves
- naturally colored chocolate covered sunflower kernels in the middle treat section

The Mother's Day lunch event was the perfect ocassion to break out my new "fancy lady" mini cookie cutters. :)

Supplies used to make this lunch:

Muffin Tin Monday - In the Garden

2013-05-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday!

This week's scheduled theme is "In the Garden".

In my super simple garden muffin tin:
- grape tomatoes with cute pea pod bento picks
- homemade ranch dressing in an adorable carrot-shaped silicone cup
- cucumber pieces on more cute veggie-topped bento picks

- Annie's organic bunny fruit snacks in a bunny shaped silicone cup (we lost so many tomatoes to rabbits in our garden last year! Boo to the garden bunnies!)
- mini sandwiches, one shaped like a bell pepper, one like an eggplant
- farm fresh strawberries (Owen and I went berry picking this weekend - fun!)

I picked up the veggie shaped mini cookie cutters on ebay a couple months ago. I discovered I can get them practically dirt cheap from there, even with shipping. I loaded up on a few others sets I didn't have yet in my collection too. :)

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

Now I'd love to see what muffin tins YOU cooked up this week. Please share!! The more, the merrier. :)

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. The schedule has been updated and themes are now listed through the end of July! :)

Peace, Love, & Mickey Mouse - more Mickey bentos :)

2013-05-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

More Mickey in the house...and in the lunch boxes. :)

Ethan got some Mickey fun this time.

Packed in an EasyLunchboxes:
- soft pretzel
- cheddar cheese
- organic baby carrots
- kiwi fruit & a strawberry on a puffy Mickey head pick

That cute little Mickey Mouse container next to the pretzel is called a furikake shaker bottle. Furikake is seasoning flavor/spices that is sprinkled on rice in traditional Japanese bentos and food. I have it filled with pretzel salt since this soft pretzel was unsalted. Ethan could add a sprinkle of salt to the top as he wished.

Peace, Love, & Mickey Mouse!
- multigrain peace sign pretzel chips
- kiwi fruit and a strawberry heart
- Mickey Mouse crackers (they are from Disney World)
- little Mickey Mouse sandwich of organic peanut butter & local honey

This lunch is packed in a 4 square Lock & Lock box. :)

Supplies used to make these lunches:

EasyLunchbox bento | Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse lunches

2013-05-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Big huge puffy heart love for Mickey Mouse. Also? Big puffy heart love bursting open when seeing how thrilled little Tyler was with his special lunch yesterday.

Packed in an EasyLunchbox:
- two Mickey Mouse sandwiches of organic peanut butter & fruit preserves
- Wheat Thins & a BabyBel cheese circle
- organic yogurt covered pretzels
- Mickey Mouse crackers (picked those up on our trip to Disney World)
- organic strawberries with a SUPER CUTE Mickey Mouse glove bento pick

I spied those adorable Mickey picks on ebay a month or so ago and about jumped out of my skin from the excitement of them. So stinking cute! I've had them sitting on my counter all these weeks because the package of cuteness just made me happy to look at. I decided it was finally time to put them to use. They just make me smile. A lot. :)

While Tyler was enjoying his lunch I decided to busy myself by making a similar one for Paige for the next day's lunch (that's today!). I don't usually make lunches ahead of time, but if this works out (no sogginess or staleness) it would be fabulous.

Paige's Minnie Mouse bento is also in an EasyLunchbox:
- cucumber slices (with a sprinkle of pepper)
- organic yogurt covered pretzels
- Mickey crackers
- Minne Mouse sandwiches, also pb&j on multigrain
- organic strawberries & grapes with a marvelous Minnie Mouse bow bento pick :)

The Mickey and Minnie sandwiches were both cute and stamped with a pair of cookie cutters. Incidentally, these are the same style (and maker) of my favorite Hello Kitty ones. The bow pick was also scored on ebay, as part of a cute 12 piece Minnie themed bento pick set. {insert more smiles}

Supplies used to make these lunches:

2 Laptop Lunches for my Kindergarten girl

2013-05-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

A couple Laptop Lunches here! These are both school lunches made for Paige.

- cucumber sticks with a schnazzy handstanding bunny bento pick
- mini-dipper full of hummus
- organic strawberries and a talented dancing bear bento pick
- three mini sandwiches on multigrain, cut with this little cutter set
- Snap Pea Crisps
- black bean quinoa tortilla chips (from Trader Joe's)

A couple random notes:
#1 - Paige only likes those Snap Pea Crisps if she can dip them in hummus.
#2 - Those tortilla chips from Trader Joe's are fantastic!
#3 - I absolutely love those little EasyLunchbox mini-dipper boxes, and stoked they fit in the Laptop Lunches. While the Laptop Lunches do come with a tiny dip box, the mini-dippers are a bit bigger and the lids are easy for my littles to handle independently. I'm a fan.

- two clementines with cute leaf picks and a handful of grapes
- Paige's most favorite, garlic chicken pizza with parmesan
- veggie chips
- turkey jerky

I've been trying to limit the amount of sugar Paige gets in her lunches. Packing two sugary fruits (clementines and grapes are both high sugar fruits) is not ideal, but I tried to counter it with higher protein sides. She also had a higher protein snack for her afternoon snack time. :)

Supplies used to make these bento school lunches:

Muffin Tin Monday | Classic TV & Cartoons

2013-05-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Howdy ho, muffin tin makers and lookers!

Today's theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Classic TV & Cartoons!

Here we go, my mish mash of classic tv and cartoon hits:

Top Row showcases...
- I Love Lucy: Vitameatavegamin crisps (Eat Your Vegetables chips)
- Lassie: a mini-dipper of homemade hummus
- Flipper!: cucumber & baby carrots with a dolphin bento pick

Front Row entertainment...
- The Flintstones: no-bake "energy balls" with bone bento picks
- Land of the Lost: dino sandwich made with Applegate turkey & cheddar cheese
- The Jetsons: homemade robot crackers

Let's take a closer look at what's going on in Lassie's neck of the woods...

Oh no! That's Timmy, and it looks like he fell in the well again! ;)

Ah, this muffin tin brought back a lot of memories for me! These are all tv shows I watched obsessively as a kid. Any other Land of the Lost fans? Did you ever think Timmy couldn't find his way out of a paper bag without Lassie to lead his way? Anyone else marvel at how Flipper could solve mysteries, catch bad guys, and rescue those boys week after week? Oh man, not pictured in this muffin tin, but I also loved Ben. That big bear? I wanted him to be my friend. I swear, those tv kids had the coolest pets....

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. :)

pssst! The schedule has been updated and themes are now listed through the end of July!

Kindergarten Field Trip Lunch & hearty snack bento

2013-05-02T13:20:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week Paige had her last field trip of the year. Unlike most field trip lunches, this one did not need to be disposable (yay!).

The field trip was to see a performance of Go Dog Go. So naturally I tweaked a little of that heme into her lunch that day.

Packed in an EasyLunchboxes container:
- pb&j sandwich on multigrain, cut with a dog in a dog house Lunch Punch
- two dog bowls (according to Paige!), with Goldfish crackers and a few grapes
- Wheat Thins and some Applegate Farms havarti cheese, cut into bone shapes with a mini cookie cutter
- cucumber slice "frisbees" ;)

Because the class ate lunch earlier than normal, before leaving for the field trip, parents were asked to send in "a hearty snack" for the afternoon, when they returned back to school. No problemo! It was the perfect occasion to break in our new strawberry bento box:

This berry cute snack bento holds:
- a bunch of hummus in a mini-dipper box
- "Eat Your Vegetables" chips
- two organic strawberries
- deli roll-ups made with Applegate Naturals uncured slow-cooked ham & natural Havarti cheese*, with a bit of mustard

This strawberry box is crazy cute, all stacked up ready to roll. :)

Paige was so excited over this strawberry bento, and I really enjoyed packing it up. It was a reminder that I really need to reach for those lesser-used fun bentos in my cabinets.

Supplies used to make these bentos:

* Applegate recently sent me a variety of delicious deli meats and yummy cheese to sample and enjoy with the family. :)