Halloween Treats

Among countless amounts of candy, punch and other junk food we consumed on Halloween this year, we made these cute little brownies. Guess what? We made about 24 of them and we ate probably 5 of them, we just had too many treats. It was just fun to make these!

Halloween!!!

This has to be on of my favorite days to make lunch. This year I made my own chocolate graham crackers and sandwiched them together with some peanut butter for spider sandwiches. I made some cinnamon sweet dough into creepy fingers with almond fingernails. I found ghost potato chips at world market and threw in some bat shaped carrots and cheese cubes. I also include a Garfield Halloween comic strip and milk for the cookie sandwiches of course! Tomorrow is the real party!

Back in Action

So we got hit with "The Flu". Whatever kind of flu it was we don't know. All I know is it was gross and I'm glad we're done. So here is just a picture of a really simple lunch thanks to the pokemon bread craft sandwich press thingy. Baby bel, grapes, carrots. Now to get busy with ideas for Halloween lunch...

Just Another Lunch

Not so fancy today. I am really trying to give the boys better breakfasts and it's taking up some of my lunch time. I generally only really spend about 10 minutes on lunch unless it is a special day and then I would do some prep the night before. So today is pretty basic. Dry salami, olives, babybel, grapes, carrots wheat crackers and hummus.

Veggie Stuffed Pastries

This is something I've wanted to try for a long time. Because I love all things fall, these barley crust veggie pockets sounded adorable. I couldn't wait to make these. Here is how it went:





First I oven roasted some vegetables. Potatoes, parsnips and carrots with some garlic. I then rolled out my barley crust and cut it into some cute leaf shapes. I placed some veggies on each leaf.




I covered each leaf with a matching pastry leaf and sealed the edges.



I baked the leaves until golden brown. They look cute right?

Conclusion: We had some yummy corn chowder to eat with these little pastries and I tell you what-we needed it. In the end these were pretty dry and not such a treat. They were okay with the wetness of some soup to go with it but probably not worth the effort and I most likely will never make these again. Why is it sometimes the cutest kinds of foods are just not the best tasting?

Super Easy Lunch

Ahhh...I love when mornings are easy. Today I packed some corn cakes with a packet of almond butter, banana, cinnamon bagel bites and a couple small containers of extra peanut butter and jelly.

Green Lunch

It's Friday! Last day of color lunch week at school. Last night I made some pizza dough and tinted it green. I used that dough to make some rolls for sandwiches in today's lunch. along with the green sandwich there is kiwi, broccoli and snap peas(chips) green m&m's for a treat and a small kiwi container of ranch. Oh I almost forgot they also had a green goodness smoothie that they really enjoyed!

Yellow Lunch

Hooray for Yellow day! I filled today's lunches with triple decker corn cakes with peanut butter and peach jam, cheese cubes, lemon muffin, cheese puffs and a couple of painted marshmallows, some extra corn cakes and extra nuts and cream cheese. These colored lunches have been pretty wacky! Only one day left!

Red Lunch

It's Red day! This one was a hit! We have red tortilla chips, raspberries, red peppers, baby bel cheese, salsa, apple and white ranch dip-oops! Both boys ate all their lunch today-yay! Tomorrow is my favorite color- yellow!

White Lunch

Today was White day. So we made coconut sushi, yogurt raisins, montery jack cheese cubes, pears, cauliflower and some popcorn. Not such a hit with the boys-they brought half of it back home. Apparently it doesn't just look boring it tastes that way too. Oh well onto RED!

Purple Lunch

Today is Purple day in the cafeteria at school so I thought I would participate at home as well. This was not so easy and I really don't think any of this looks at all appetizing. We have purple tinted cream cheese on an english muffin with dried blueberries on top, next to the muffin is actually beet chips which look to me like bacon-hmm, boysenberry yogurt, grapes some grape jelly and purple yogurt melts and yes grape juice. I'm glad we only do purple lunch once. Tommorow is white.

Who Knew?

Believe it or not my kids are not huge meat eaters. So I was so surprised when they told me they loved the mini chicken kabobs in their lunch today! Who knew right? So along with the "chicken kabobs" is some dipping sauce, cheese cubes, raspberries with kiwi, peppers with carrots and a treat-fruit snacks! They both told me they wanted this again so that is good news because this was also super easy.

Monkey's Lunch

This was a fun lunch to do. Middle P was getting a little bored with his lunches and wanted to buy hot lunch today. They do occasionally buy hot lunch but we aren't set up for that right now so I decided to step it up a bit for him today. We have peanut butter banana sandwiches, pretzels with a monkey container of chocolate peanut butter, banana mini-muffins, and some tropical cereal. I also sent a monkey card with a banana joke (I'll spare you the corny joke) written inside. Hopefully they will enjoy this.

Catch-up Lunches

Whew! I have not posted any lunch pics since the start of school. So here are some of last week and this week's lunches. They are all pretty self-explanatory. We are definitely coming to the end of summer fruit and berries and so we are getting as much as we can while we still have them!

First Day of School Lunch

Today was our first day of school and my first time packing two kid's lunches. Pretty standard lunch today. The apple is a cake pop from

Best Chicken Salad

I enjoy something cooler and easy for dinner in the hot summer. However the kiddos don't always appreciate salads and such. This recipe is THE best recipe for chicken salad I have found and even the little ones will eat it. I got this recipe from Taste of Home. I don't actually serve it in a cantaloupe ring but I'm sure that would be lovely. We eat this with some bread or croissants and maybe a nice fruit salad. So if you need a make-ahead grab out of the fridge dinner one summer night try this! For more recipes to make in these last few summer months visit

The Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom.

Best Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup green grapes
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 cantaloupe rings
Toasted sliced almonds

Directions: In a large bowl, combine chicken, celery, grapes and parsley. Combine the next seven ingredients; mix well. Pour over chicken mixture and toss. Chill for at least 1 hour. To serve, place 1 cup of chicken salad on each cantaloupe ring; sprinkle with almonds. Yield: 4 servings.

Forgotten Lunches

Summer is coming to a close and that can only mean one thing, school is just around the corner. Along with getting the kids ready for school with supplies and clothes I have started to think about lunches again. I came across some pics of some lunches that I had forgot about and decided to post them. So here they are-enjoy!

Last Day of School Lunch

Well here it is, the last day came and went and this is how we decided to go out this year. We have a cheese sandwich, dry salami, strawberries and apricots, chips w/ salsa and a bit of rhubarb crisp for dessert. Along with this last lunch was field day in which the boys had a great time of playing games and just having a real party of a day at school. So ends the first grade and bento type lunches until next september when there will be 2 lunches every day-yay?

Almost Done

As this week comes to an end, I have mixed feelings. I am glad to take a break from my morning routine for awhile, but I think I will actually start to miss thinking up new things to throw in a lunch. So today's lunch was ham & cheese whole wheat roll-ups, celery, pesto pasta salad, fruit salad, banana muffins and some almonds. This is probably way too much food for big P, but the leftovers work as an afterschool snack for him a lot of times. Tommorow...The Last Day!!!

Pretty Basic Lunch

This lunch needs something...more color! We have a

basic ham & cheese sandwich, grapes, peanut butter

wafers and these crunchy lentil potato curls I found

at Trader Joes. I like them a lot, not too salty and a

unique flavor. Well if I was on the ball I would have

known today was Hawaiian day at school and planned

lunch accordingly, but I found out this morning so not

even so much as a pineapple went into this lunch.

Two Lunches down 3 to go!

Today's lunch was a whole wheat tortilla filled with black beans and cheese, some carrots and celery, pub cheese(sooo good!) with crackers, a plum and cherry pie with a reminder note stuck in it.

5 Days Left!

I can't believe there are just 5 days of school left. That also means 5 school lunches left. I wanted to make sure this week had great lunches since we won't be making school lunch again for awhile. So this is day 1. Includes bagel with cream cheese, dried cherries, jam in the penguin, corn chips w/ black bean dip, kiwi and cheese cubes.

Homemade Pie

This is not the best picture. It is however the best mini

raspberry pie made by a 7 year old. This was a throw together

little pie tart that big P made for his lunch.

I thought it was adorable. This lunch also has a

turkey "sub" sandwich, crackers and

some hummus in a car shaped container.

Catch-up Lunches

I haven't posted lunches in awhile so I thought I would post
a few of the things we've been eating lately. The top lunch is
peanut butter roll-ups with some blackberries and peaches,
banana, a few chocolate chips in a fishy cutter and a couple of
mini muffins.



Next we have ham & cheese sandwiches, applesauce,
some chips, carrots, blackbeans-why not?, mini muffin,
carrots and for a treat yummy wax sodas!




Lastly this lunch includes rice balls, wasabi snack mix,
olives, broccoli, pineapple cherry picks and a homemade
energy bar.

I Should Eat this Myself

So this lunch for is for big P and I love how colorful it is! I think it's safe to say that sometimes my kids eat better than I do. Anyways this lunch includes kiwi fruit, dry salami wedges, baby bel, carrots, almonds, dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts, PB&J semi-circle sandwiches and in the green container are some dried blueberries which the boys are loving right now!

A Little Circus of Treats Lunch

So this lunch includes mini pita stuffed with peanut butter

and kiwi, yogurt with sprinkles, meat cheese rolls, crackers and skittles.

Almost done with the Easter candy-yay!

Pokemon lunch!

So here is my first attempt at a Pokemon lunch. It seems that Pokemon is quite popular with the 6,7,8 year old crowd so hopefully this will make for a special lunch treat today. Lunch includes Pikachu marshmallow peep, cheese Charmander which I found the idea from

Bento For Kidlet, cheese Pokeball, random yellow pepper star all sitting on top of a sandwich. All I seem to notice when I look at this is the giant glob of yogurt in the other large container, hmmm. Oh and I found mini persian cucumbers that are on picks with olives- look how cute!

Happy Spring Lunch

I've wanted to make this lunch for a while now. It is another great idea from

Vegan Lunch Box.
The real treat is theHoney Bee no-bakes, they are delicious!

Another Monday for Sure

Today was so totally a monday. We kind of all got up on the wrong side of the bed but thankfully it got much better as the day went on. It could have something to do with the 80 degrees and sunny-you think? Littlest P had a playdate in the morning and biggest P had one in the afternoon. We had a great dinner together and it is also the first softball game of the season tonight-all good. So grocery shopping tommorow but I managed to find enough odds and ends to make a lunch. I'm realizing ham is the only meat big P really enjoys, but not so appetizing in this photo!

Easter Eggs

So we started with these

Then we got these

And we were especially proud of this little guy!

So this is big P's easter lunch for school, I definitely liked the addition of sweet to the rice balls with the use of fruit leather but it did not stick on very well and the colors bled by lunch time. Also the ham and cream cheese roll ups don't exactly look appetizing. Middle P even had a special easter snack for kindergarten which included rice bars, marshmallow bunnies and some cheese cubes.

Panda Bear Lunch

April Fool's Day

Well, this was a fun one. I started off the day with surprising Mr. P with a little purple kool-aid in the shower head( I thought it was pretty crafty) next I had frozen the boys' cereal the night before and just added a touch more cereal and milk to the top-really funny, this was probably the best prank of the day. By dinner time they had caught on and so when I brought out the meatloaf "cake" they knew right away. I still went ahead with this dessert though. It is a grilled cheese sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy or toasted poundcake with orange frosting, ice cream with caramel topping. In the end only one retaliated on me. Big P played a joke on me by asking me to go outside with him and he had put ice cubes in my shoes, well played.

Rainy Day Bento

This doesn't really even warrant a picture except that our spring break has been cold and rainy and we have mostly been hanging out at home. This day we thought we might go to the park and bring our lunch but as it was pouring outside I thought at least we could have a sort of special lunch inside. So this is what we had: leftover chicken, ham "flower", strawberry kiwi, rolled spinach and a few baked cheddar chips. So there you have our excitement for the day, yep.

St. Patty's Day lunch

Well this is what big P had for lunch on the greenest day of the year. Contents include: Pea-nut butter sandwich(yes there is peas in the peanut butter), honeydew melon, cucumber slices a shamrock petit four and some green gatorade. The results? Big P forgot where he put his lunch when he got to school and it was lunchtime so he just bought lunch...yeah. Oh well, middle and little P enjoyed having it at home for lunch.

Happy Heart Cake

This is the cake we had for Valentines Day. It is a chocolate cake with cherry whip cream frosting. I really only needed the frosting but the others prefer to have cake with theirs-go figure. It was very good and came out pretty close to the picture. Mmmmm.

Valentine Lunch

So I tried to make an all red lunch for Valentines day-because red is big P's favorite color. Here's what I came up with: Strawberries, tomato balloons, red pepper hearts, coconut heart muffin, ham & cheese sandwich red heart jello and little pink cookie. Valentines Day is a hard one for boys you know, no matter what-it still looks girly.