This lunch was so fun and easy to make! Lime green yogurt with sprinkles, baby bels with snowmen cut outs, spinach wraps and some red and green peppers with dip! For more fun lunch ideas visit What's For Lunch Wednesday
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The Most Wonderful Time
This lunch was so fun and easy to make! Lime green yogurt with sprinkles, baby bels with snowmen cut outs, spinach wraps and some red and green peppers with dip! For more fun lunch ideas visit What's For Lunch Wednesday
Friday, December 17, 2010
Snowman Lunch
Snowman sandwich made with fruit leather accents and royal icing eyes, popcorn with snowflake sprinkles, pepperoni and cheese picks and a Christmas wrapped orange. It's getting so close to the big day!!
Christmas Cuteness
Today's lunch was holiday pasta salad with tiny holiday cheese shapes, gingerbread, a sandwich wrapped up like a tiny present and some candy cane inspired apples.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Christmas Lunch
Finally a Christmas lunch! I started by making spinach tortilla tree sandwiches, candy cane apples some cheese cut up and a couple of maraschino cherry sticks for fun. The little green container is holding some peanuts. Feel free to check out many more creative lunch ideas atThursday, December 2, 2010
What's for Lunch Wednesday
It's a hodge podge of a lunch today. We have pumpkin pancakes, greek yogurt, ants on a log, mandarin orange and a peanut butter muffin. For more great lunch ideas check out
What's for Lunch Wednesday
Monday, November 29, 2010
Dog Food Cake
I haven't taken very many pics of lunch lately due to a broken camera. We now have a new camera and I'm getting back in the old habit but until the next lunch I thought I would post a pic of my son's birthday cake. He had a dog party so we made this chocolate cake covered in cocoa puffs. It was a big hit and actually the cocoa puffs were a nice addition-very yummy!Thursday, November 4, 2010
Pizza Lunch
Cheese pizza today with almonds, mini muffin, strawberries and kiwi and carrot crinkles.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sandwich Thins
We love sandwich thins! They seem like just the right amount of bread to me. Back to regular lunches after all that scary sugary stuff we did last month. Today we have sandwich, cheese cubes, wheat crackers, mini muffins and applesauce.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Happy Halloween
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Today the boys are having oatmeal orange scones, apple with "teeth", meat & cheese fingers and little chocolate tortilla ghosts. Happy (almost) Halloween!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Jack O' Lantern Sandwich
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So looking back at this attempt at creating a jack-o-lantern sandwich, it probably could have done without the cheese hair. I don't know why I did that because it sort of turned my Jack into a Jill O' Lantern, less is truly more sometimes. I added some grape eyes, orange pepper picks and of a piece of Halloween candy. Tomorrow is the biggest and best of my Halloween lunches!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
So Cute it's Scary
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Here is another spooky lunch! We have ghostly pears, mummy wrap cheese,bat carrots and some ham on a ghost pick, snack mix and a couple of pumpkin muffins. I could do halloween lunches all year long! For more great ideas for creative lunches check out:
Friday, October 15, 2010
Ham & Cheese Crescents
Easy lunch today! Crescent rolls(from Trader Joe's-they are delicious!) filled with ham and cheese, red plums, carrot crinkles, peanut butter muffin with apple full of dark chocolate spread. Perfect!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Cheese Balls
Another wonderful Monday and thank goodness for Trader Joe's! These are fried rice and cheese balls found in the frozen section of Trader Joe's. Also we have blueberries, grapes, carrots and a homemade protein bar topped with dark chocolate-yum!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Welcome Fall
It feels like fall! This is my very favorite time of year and to celebrate I made the boys a welcome fall lunch. We have different color tortilla leaves filled with pumpkin cream cheese, a baby bel cheese, oranges and apples, pumpkin muffins and some delicious roasted sweet potatoes. For more fantastic ideas for lunches check out
What's for Lunch Wednesday
Friday, October 1, 2010
BLT Wraps
I love the already cooked bacon Trader Joes has! It is a once in a while purchase that is nice to have on hand for side dishes, salads and a sandwich topping of course. So these are not actually BLT wraps because they are missing both the L and the T (due to a couple of I'm not going to eat it if it has crunchy stuff or ewww tomatoes comments). The boys had a whole wheat tortilla with bacon and cheese, watermelon cubes, mini sweet peppers (how cute are these?!) with hummus and a football filled with yogurt cookies.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
What's for Lunch Wednesday
Today we have a a sandwich on flat bread cut into triangles, some pasta salad, a couple of homemade mini muffins and the ever popular checkered apple. For more great lunch ideas go to:
What's for Lunch Wednesday
Lunchbox Yogurt Parfaits
Today's lunch is vanilla yogurt with berries, rice crispies, wheat crackers and dry salami. One of the reasons I like laptop lunch systems is for this lunch. It is great to buy the large containers of yogurt instead of wasting all those little containers- not to mention the savings!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Layered Lunch
Today's lunch is cheese stars layered with whole wheat pita stars, layered strawberries and kiwi, mini muffins, snap peas and a cherry tomato balloon with a side of hummus dip. For more great lunch ideas go to
What's for Lunch Wednesday
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday Lunch
Today's lunch includes a basic sandwich, fruit, pub cheese with wheat crackers and some coconut cake balls I made.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
First Day of School 2010
So it is finally here! The boy's first day back at school and my first day of catch-up, clean-up and don't stay up again tonight or tomorow will be crazier than this morning was! Here's what we are having for lunch:
Turkey on flatbread, melon picks, crayon pretzels, carrots and star cookies from Trader Joes.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Pizza Pockets that Rock
This time of year I always try to get a head start on lunches for school. I try to make a little every day to build up my freezer full of easy to grab lunch options for the boys. Today I made my own pizza pockets. These turned out great and I even managed to include step by step pics on how to make these yourselves. Having something without a bunch of preservatives and other junk that you can pull out of your freezer for lunch-rocks! So lets get started.
The best part of this recipe would have to be the pizza dough. This is the best tasting dough -trust me it's delicious and easy too!
Pizza Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
3 Cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup finely ground cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 T. olive oil
Filling:
2 cups shredded mozzarella
2 cups shredded cheddar
chopped pepperoni or sausage, veggie etc.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast in the warm water and stir well to dissolve. Set aside the yeast for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile place flours, cornmeal and salt together in bowl of kitchen aid. Using the paddle attachment mix the dry ingredients together. Start slowly pouring yeast mixture into bowl while it's mixing, add the olive oil into mixture and let mix until blended. Switch to the hook attachment and knead briefly until dough is smooth. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.
When dough is ready proceed with instructions for pizza pockets.
Dust a pan with cornmeal and place pizza pockets on it 1-2 inches apart. I used a fork to lightly poke two holes in top of each pocket to prevent exploding pizza pockets. Brush the tops with beaten egg or olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. This recipe makes about 12-15 pizza pockets depending on the size you make them. We enjoyed a few for lunch and then they went straight into the freezer. There you have it, pretty easy right? Of course if you don't have a kitchen aid then it may be a bit more work for you- but so worth it! For more great ideas to make lunch time easier this year visit
Life as Mom
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sloppy Cars
A friend brought us dinner the other night and brought these awesome little cars! They are made by hollowing out a hot dog bun and filling it with sloppy joe filling, a pretzel steering wheel, cucumber carrot wheels and olive headlights. My kids have never really been huge fans of sloppy joe's but sloppy cars were a different story-they loved these!
Friday, July 23, 2010
New Crayons
I have seen people make these chunky crayons before but never felt like destroying a bunch of perfectly good crayons to make them. Until now. At the end of the school year the boys bring home all their not-so-gently used school supplies including a ton of broken crayons! It was finally time to try recycled crayons. We decided to break them into color groups which was fun. These are super easy and probably best for my three year old who isn't concerned with precise lines and colors yet.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Macarons
I have been wanting to try making macarons. So I searched for the very best recipe and came up with something between Tartlette's and Martha Stewart's. After three tries and a lot of frustration I think I came close. I went with an easy chocolate ganache for filling. I still want to make these again but honestly it is a lot of work and I'll need a rest first. Hats off to all you expert macaron makers out there-you know who you are!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Star Wars Always Rocks
So when I saw these Star Wars cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma I had to have them. When I saw how
Bento for Kidlet used them I thought it was the coolest idea ever. I had to try them and this is how they turned out. I think I need better food markers but pretty good anyways. I also love incorporating the Star Wars Easter candy holder for blueberries. I can't wait to actually make cookies with these awesome cutters!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Last Day of School 2010
I try to make the last lunch of the year special and give the kids the choice of something they really want in it. They chose chicken in a biscuit crackers. So along with those awesome crackers we have happy sandwiches, some veggies and a homemade cupcake to celebrate the end of another school year. This year was great but we are definitely ready for summer!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Star fruit
We are trying star fruit for the very first time today! Not only is it so cute but it tastes great too- a lot like a pear I think. So with that wonderful fruit we have a basic sandwich, checkered apple, chocolate zucchini muffin and smiley potatoes.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Just a Few More Days
We are wrapping it all up here for the 2009/2010 school year. This lunch is a simple pb&j all wrapped up and sliced with watermelon, cherries, lemon raspberry muffin and carrots.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Finally Ambrosia
Every time my oldest son sees fruit ambrosia in the deli case he asks if we could get some. I sympathize with him because I too longed for something at the grocery store when I was little. I wanted those molded jello and whipped cream desserts. I still have never bought one. So I decided he should get some ambrosia and it probably wasn't that hard to make my own. After looking online for some recipes I came up with this complete with cherry on top. Also in the lunch today is prosciutto filled pasta, carrots with olives, crackers and a babybel cheese.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Summer Please
Well it seems that everywhere we look summer is on it's way. There are berries at the grocery stores, shorts at Old Navy and promises that school will be out soon. The only problem is the weather here. It has been cold and rainy for the longest time! Maybe late start means it will last extra long?
Today we had yaki onigiri, apples, apricots, cherries, pancake roll-up, celery with cream cheese and carrots.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Can You Spot the Nugget?
Okay so I know what your thinking. What's that chicken nugget doing in there? Well in defense of the nugget, I believe it is an actual chicken piece breaded and fried from a small local restaurant here in town and no I don't mean Mickey D's. Not that it's a big deal to have a nugget every now and again, but in light of current events nuggets have become an issue. Sometimes my kids ask for junk food/ fast food as if it's a treat. I wish they didn't view it as some kind of reward but they kind of do. I like for them to eat real food made by me most of the time but certain times call for junk food such as driving on long trips, visiting grandparents, friend's house. Maybe it's those mentioned special occasions that have caused them to make the connection between special times and junk food. Hmmm... just something to think about. Well anyways, hopefully all that other stuff in the lunch will counter those big bad chicken nuggets.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Star Cutters
In an effort to make the boring not so boring I am once again drawn to simple tools such as the star cookie cutter. Everyone hits that day of the week where there isn't much to choose from for lunch. Today we have cheddar cheese sandwich, cottage cheese, pineapple rings with complimentary maraschino cherry and Dad brought home a little donut treat(thanks Dad). So not the greatest but not the worst right?
Friday, May 14, 2010
Taste of Summer Party
I recently found out about
House Party. This is a website that offers the opportunity to try some new products by offering to host a party with their particular product in mind. It was very easy, I applied to host a party and was selected as a host and the next thing I knew I received a big box of party favors and freebies to host a party for Kraft. I decided to make it a lunch for some of the moms I know and make it very kid friendly. Kraft supplied their new home style deluxe mac-n-cheese along with pizza, breadsticks, crackers, drinks and some turkey pastrami that I made into small sandwiches. The best part was I was able to give all the moms coupons for the products and some fun free stuff which they loved! This is a very fun thing to do and I would definitely host again. Besides it's a great excuse to get together for some food sampling and playtime with friends.
House Party. This is a website that offers the opportunity to try some new products by offering to host a party with their particular product in mind. It was very easy, I applied to host a party and was selected as a host and the next thing I knew I received a big box of party favors and freebies to host a party for Kraft. I decided to make it a lunch for some of the moms I know and make it very kid friendly. Kraft supplied their new home style deluxe mac-n-cheese along with pizza, breadsticks, crackers, drinks and some turkey pastrami that I made into small sandwiches. The best part was I was able to give all the moms coupons for the products and some fun free stuff which they loved! This is a very fun thing to do and I would definitely host again. Besides it's a great excuse to get together for some food sampling and playtime with friends.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Pie and Star Wars
One of the things I look forward to when Easter rolls around in the stores is finding candy containers to use in lunches. These Star Wars candy holders work great as a small container to fill with whatever and they're really cheap too! So we have some wavy ham picks, pita bread and cheese, homemade sweet potato pie and a few small pickles. Thursday, May 6, 2010
Lunch Slump
I started taking pictures of the lunches I made to keep a photo record of lunch ideas and also remember what works and what doesn't. Sometimes I still feel like I could get a little more creative with lunch. This is an example of that. Ham and cheese cubes on picks, strawberries with yogurt dip and ants on a log. An advantage of putting food on picks for kids is that it is easy and accessible to them. When your kids only get about 15 minutes to eat(sometimes less) they need all the help they can get. I'm glad my kids can sit down, open up and start eating rather than stand in a long lunch line and be left with only 5 minutes to eat!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Onigiri Strikes Back
So we are having yaki-onigiri again with meatballs and the ever popular ants on a log. Amazing-they ate this whole lunch-even the cold meatballs!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
A Blog Award for Me?
Refashion, Recycle,Reuse sent me the Beautiful Blogger Award!
Here are the rules behind the award:
1. Thank & link to the person that gave you the award. Thank you Refashion, Recycle,Reuse I love your blog!
2. Pass this award onto 10 bloggers.
Here are my ten favorites:
Bento for Kidlet
Disposable Aardvarks
Finding Joy in my Kitchen
Moms in Need of Mercy
Obento Baby!
Sprinkle Bakes
Three Pumpkins Little
Retro Mod Girl
Strictly Homemade
lollychops
Contact Blogs to let them know they’ve won.
4. Tell seven things about yourself:
1. I am one of seven children.
2. I like to bake something every day.
3. I won the state-wide Reflections art contest when I was 9.
4. I used to design my own clothes when I was a teenager.
5. If I could eat whatever I wanted without consequences, I would choose a hot dog with the pump cheese.
6. I do not know how to swim.
7. I love playing video games with my kids.
Have fun!!!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Hello Spring!
I keep saying spring is coming and it must be taking it's time. We have had such unpredictable and generally cold weather lately. Well today is sunny and I am hopeful it won't be long until I can pull out the shorts! I found some after Easter clearance items that I grabbed for lunches such as these plastic carrots. The carrots were filled with jelly beans but I just dumped them out and refilled them with some delicious cashews, almonds and macadamia nuts (I'm lucky my kids really like nuts!). The rest of the lunch is almond butter sandwiches, snap peas, clementine and peanut butter muffin.
Realistic Expectations
When I started packing lunches for school almost two years ago I though every day needed to be unique and artistic and wow. This year when I started to pack more than one lunch a day I found that I still wanted to do those kind of lunches but sometimes I would have to just pack a decent lunch. Most often this is what lunches at my house look like. Nothing outstanding just trying to pack a healthy homemade style lunch. This is Yogurt with peaches, almond granola, cheese crackers, ham pick, cheese and brownie. See? Nothing fancy. I wish I could do amazing creative lunches everyday but I also wish my house would stay clean and I'd never have to wash another living thing again, and we both know that isn't going to happen. So here's to keeping it real and maybe getting a maid someday...I can dream.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Basic Cute Lunch
Okay so we had our spring break and some company staying with us, so I've been a bit of a slacker with making any unique lunches this week. I will share this easy but cute lunch though. We have a basic sandwich using dark rye and white star cut outs, mandarin oranges, muffin and some sesame crisps. Sometimes even the most basic lunch can look more interesting with some sushi-grass and cookie cutters.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Easter Lunch
This is what the boys had for their Easter lunch. Basic bagel with ham and cheese, Annie's bunny crackers, pineapple cherries on picks, carrots and bunny pop made from dipping an Oreo in melted white chocolate and decorating a face.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Colored Carrots
This lunch isn't that exciting except that it has colored carrots in it! Red chile quesadillas, peaches and colored carrots. These carrots not only look beautiful but each carrot has it's own unique healthy feature. For example yellow carrots contain xanthophylls, a substance that supports vision and lowers lung cancer risks. Red carrots contain lycopene, which helps prevent heart disease and some cancers. Purple carrots contain anthocyanins, pigments that act as powerful antioxidants to neutralize harmful free radicals. White carrots lack pigment, but may contain other health-promoting phytochemicals. So now you know. Stores around here carry these carrots every couple of weeks so they really are a treat.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Yaki -Onigiri and Hot Dogs
Believe it or not as much as I love bento I've never given my kids octo-dogs. So I bought some nitrate free hot dogs from Trader Joe's and thought I would try it. Also at Trader Joe's was frozen yaki-onigiri. Now I've always just made regular onigiri or rice balls, so being as these were different and already made well I figured why not? Turns out my kids loved them! Also they even ate the cold octo- dogs. This was a pretty successful lunch overall but definitely an occasional one. A great recipe for yaki onigiri is found at
lunch in a box. I think I will try making and freezing some myself.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
St. Patricks Day
Happy St. Patty's day! Last night I thought I would get lunch started for today by making bagels and mixing in some green candied cherries. So here's how it went down. Problem number one: apparently candied cherries are a Christmas only item. I only tried two stores but that was enough. So I thought I would substitute green jelly candies. Okay so this is where that rule "read the whole recipe first" comes in. I have made these before but it's been awhile and I ended up adding baking soda to my bagel dough that was only supposed to go in the boiling water. I didn't give up hope right away, but yes they were are disaster. So at this point I realize I'm out of eggs and it's too late to go out. So fortunately I had a vegan recipe for pretzel dough, and out popped these green pretzel shamrocks. So there you have it. Whipped up some green pudding, snap peas , crackers and cheese-voila! St. Patty's day lunch!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Pirate Lunch
I have been trying to find a way to use these skull baking cups for awhile. So I decided to give the boys some pirate muffins, grapes on swords, pirate flag stuck into an orange and these scrumptious pomegranate vanilla flavored cashews(wow are these good). Of course I felt like it needed a little something more so I found a silly pirate joke and threw that in there too.
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