Please eat something healthy lunch

The last day of school before winter break is always worrisome to me.  I know my kids and none of them do well when they binge on junk food, but Ruthie is even moreso this way.  It keeps coming back to her acting in every way like she is hypoglycemic and yet always testing fine.  Diet (not dieting... just having good eating habits) is so crucial for her, as well as eating plenty and often.

So, this is one of those days where I know I need food to be small finger foods, easy to eat, and get that protein in her to really carry her through the day and her party with all that processed sugar she'll have put in her body.

And of course, when I'm packing that kind of lunch, I go straight for my Melissa & Doug box... it's just perfect for it.

She has DOUBLE the celery she had yesterday... peanut butter for dipping, spongebob graham crackers (79c for a 8oz bag at dollar store SCORE), and a clementine (yes, we got a small crate of these FREE because of the coupon we got on produce, so my kids are loving these and eating a bunch)

This container just works so perfect for these lunches because I can put the pb right in one compartment and it's one solid piece of plastic with no seams, so cleaning out the residue later is so much easier than other containers.  I usually put in more pb and send pretzels or plain crackers, but I didn't think she'd wanna dip graham crackers in pb... so I hope I didn't go wrong, but I thought the yummy cinnamon on them would be a nice treat and she DOES have a full 2Tbsp serving of pb.

She's got water to help keep her system hydrated so hopefully any sodas/juice boxes won't affect her too much, either.

Last Christmas Bento of the Year :(

With everything going on this past month, I just haven't done as many Christmas stuff with Ruthie's lunches as I wanted.  Tomorrow is the last day of school until the New Year, so I'm concentrating on making sure she doesn't just binge on the junk food that people will be bringing in for the class.

Today, I wanted to remind my little one that she needs to remember Santa is Comin' To Town... so I pulled out my sleigh cutter... she has celery chunks (could be reindeer food) because we finally got GOOD celery in the stores again and it's a favorite and a clementine, along with 4 of those scrumptious panda cookies for a treat... cause Santa brings presents.  I put an ornament pick in the santa sandwich, which is peanut butter & strawberry jam... 

Leftovers? No problem!

Yes, I love to stick leftovers in Ruthie's lunch whenever possible... last night, we had fried chicken for dinner (the horrible greasy stuff from walmart... so yummy once in a blue moon), so the leftover thigh became our lunches for today. (yes, one thigh easily made one light sandwich for her and one thick one for me)

Some leftover wavy chips, green beans, and then for a treat, four of the delicious panda cookies that I picked up for her in the dollar section at Target.  All packed in the zip lock container simply because I just was not in the mood to use a separate one for the green beans... once I had it packed, though, I wished I had, because the cookies could have gone in the middle of her multigrain bagel sandwich and that would have been cute... and then you just don't need that small compartment... but nice when you are in a rush and just wanna grab one container.

If you like the size of these, I would recommend buying the EASY LUNCHBOXES system (available on amazon) instead, because they are much higher quality for everyday use.

The set of two ziplock ones were a score for 79c and since this is the third time I've used one (1st time was in a previous post, second time was for Jeffrey to take leftovers... it's a great size for him... filled to capacity), I am happy with them.

The box comes with what is supposed to be two servings... which is like... 12 of them... yeah... no... she got 4 for her treat and because she hadn't had them before, I let her have ONE this morning after her cereal, which (no surprise) had her telling me to buy more.  Thank goodness for lots of containers, though, since I then had to put the foil pouch they come sealed in into one of my small containers... but that's fine.

Oh, she's gotten two water bottles that are new recently (score at a thrift store for under a dollar a piece) and I borrowed an idea from a previous blog I read that I'm trying to find before I post what I did with them to personalize them.

Pizza... AGAIN

Okay, yes, if my kids could, they'd live on pizza, so whenever we have it, Ruthie has to have it in her lunch the next day... yes, we have to have leftover pizza put aside for her for this.

Salad, an orange peeled and separated, and she was thrilled.

Today was actually cold and rainy out... the weather last week was pretty mild, so that made me think of my mitten cookie cutter... and I decided to make colorful mitten sandwiches.  I did roll the bread to get two out of each slice, which made them easier to color and look more like mittens.

Under the sandwiches (which are her favorite pb & strawberry) are angry bird crackers and not pictured is a small container of green beans.  She asked to take pink lemonade because she's been having "water, water, water" lately.

Okay, so I haven't posted any lunches for two reasons.  The main one, my computer decided to break down and we had to order replacement parts for it and wait for them to come and then install them.

Second reason, I've been lazy the past few days since my computer is back up and running.

Here are the lunches that I've made in that time. (minus the super boring ones or ones made by her dad on the days where he has let me snooze)

First, a Snowman... yep, there's actually two of them, stacked... the LAST pack of the halloween pretzels, salad, and a tangerine/manderin orange (which she can peel herself.. yay!) from Dec. 4

A Christmas stocking of ham and brown mustard, sea salt pita chips, green beans, and oranges  After seeing half her lunch come back for a second day, the next lunches contained less food as she's hitting a lull in her appetite again. - Dec. 10

a handful of angry bird crackers, an angry bird pb & strawberry "uncrustable" sandwich, and 3/4 of an orange. - Dec. 11

Another Round of Sandwich Rounds

My daughter seriously loves multigrain bread, which is fabulous.  She also loves the round sandwich thins.  So I was happy when we scored some on sale this week.  We are already out of them as they are a big hit in our house and there aren't a lot in a pack.

However, I always buy them when they are on sale, so there will always be more opportunities.

Today's lunch was just plain simple, but just by arranging it carefully, it looks so yummy and appealing.... yay for bentos!

We used rubbermaid single section containers that I scored a 3-pack of at Big Lots for 2 bucks... these are great because they are smaller than the Easy Lunchboxes I was thinking of recently and talked about in my last post.  Whether you get the ones with two sections or the single section ones, they are also much more durable than the ziplock brands.  So you've probably already seen the sectioned ones we've had for over a year in some of my other posts.

With the green container from her Hello Kitty set (minus the lid) and two silicone baking cups, it's easy to make sections it to keep her food snugly packed and only have her have to open one thing.

Her sandwich in question is ham and honey mustard... which I'm pleased to say she ate every bite of... yep, her love of mustard is new, but it's instant and on things other than just tuna/chicken/egg salad sandwiches. I am pleased because it helps keep the sandwich together.  I cut it in half and stacked it.  Apple chunks are in the green container... this was a big apple, so I got the leftover 1/6 of it and it was JUICY.  She has cucumber slices again today and, as a treat, some all natural baked garlic New York Style (brand) Pita Chips.  They are so yummy.  We also got a bag of the sea salt ones (they are at dollar tree.. SCORE!) and... BONUS... I looked over the ingredients and they are allergy safe for all except those allergic to wheat or who can't have gluten.

They also do not contain HFCS, which is always important.

What's also cute is that she was using her brother's DSi and insisted on taking her own picture of her lunch... so cute.  I haven't seen how it turned out as she said she was "adding stickers", but it's cute that she notices I'm documenting her lunches.

Wonder if Easy Lunchboxes are the right size for your child that doesn't eat a lot? Take a look - using a Ziplock lookalike to model.

We scored some great multigrain rounds at the bread store this week, but what we also scored were some ziplock containers that are like the Easy Lunchboxes so many people love.  I'd figured they were too big for Ruthie, but for 79c for a pack of two, I figured they'd be good to snag and see, to get an idea of if/when we should invest in some Easy Lunchboxes (they are higher quality to be sure and worth spending a little more) in the near future.  As you will see, for us, it's probably going to be awhile.

This box so easily holds all that my daughter eats on a regular basis, but would easily hold 2-3x that amount, making it a bigger container than she needs.  So for those wondering just how much my daughter eats... this can help show you if you use the ELBs.  Her owl sandwich and pretzels in the main compartment took up maybe half the space... with regular bread that is thicker, it definitely would.  her oranges took up half the small compartment and her cucumber slices (which were nice and thin... henceforth why there were so many) took up less than half of the space in the larger side compartment.

Her sandwich is a simple peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwich.

anyway... this box is overkill for her and will be reserved for the times we picnic, when I will use it for my oldest, who is not yet 13, but already taller than me and eats like there is no tomorrow.  I would also use one for me if I was taking salad in the main compartment, otherwise it would be a bit too big even for me.

So, while I can see where ELBs would be great down the line (like in high school maybe) they are definitely not in our future anytime soon.

DIY Lunchables

okay.. everyone does these, but hey, it's a cute lunch.

Seriously, aside from the fact that my daughter can't have the cheese (can you really call that stuff in store bought lunchables cheese?), she doesn't like artificial fruit snacks (even as a rare "candy") anymore (can you blame her?), and even the "healthy" option ones don't have the right meal portions, and all the HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and other artificial additives just can't be good for you.

So... the cheaper, slightly better (hey, it's still deli meat and regular butter crackers that aren't whole grain, but everything in moderation) before the added sides becomes a super healthy lunch in the grand scheme of things when you make it yourself.

so in our rubbermaid takealongs container (I love them... seriously love them) she has 10 crackers with 4 slices of deli turkey cut into flowers and skewered on christmas/winter holidays picks (there's also one hiding in her peas... which were put in per her request)  The peas and oranges really make this a colorful lunch and I put foil in the main section to symbolize wrapping paper (and prevent moisture from spreading)... yes... Christmas is coming... and so are presents.

Panda Sandwich

Okay, so I've been totally oggling the new CuteZcute cutters, but just can't snag any yet as the holiday season is here.

This morning I pulled out one of our favorite containers - our kotobuki panda bento box - and was wishing again that I had those cutters to make a coordinating sandwich when I realized the top container was small enough at the top to cut a sandwhich that would still fit in the bottom.  Bonus, it uses almost all of the bread... I actually had to manually trim some crust from the bottom of each slice and there is crust on MY left on the ear, but it doesn't show or give the panda a beard the way the bottom crust would.

A black food-safe marker (I also used a blue one for the iris portion of the eyes because otherwise, they were NOT the same size) and I had the perfect panda sandwich for this box!

Ruthie deemed it... "cool!".. so while not super creative, it definitely pleased her.

I may use this way to make her hello kitty sandwich next time and see if I like the result better with having more set ears... I have not tried to see if it would seal the sandwich this time, but may in the future.

Her sides are celery (though I now realize they could stand for bamboo... that pandas eat) and mandarin oranges, which of course are grown mostly in China... so I didn't even realize how spot-on my theme realy was, with so little effort for decoration!

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

My girl woke up to a cold, windy, gloomy day, so I wanted to make her lunch bright and cheery.  To go with her pretty average sides of cucumber and apple slice and a bag of pretzels, I colored her pocket sandwich yellow and drew on a big smile...

Hopefully it will bring some sunshine into her day.

It is filled with yummy egg salad, which is fast becoming Ruthie's new favorite sandwich.

Another Angry Bird!

Yes, my daughter has caught the Angry Bird Fever... so with putting the time into thinking and making her lunch that she took yesterday, I decided to do something super quick and simple in thought for today's.  I made it yesterday while the egg salad was fresh and more easily spread, but that's fine, because by putting the sandwich on top of totally dried salad, it won't collect moisture.

She has apple slices and a pack of pretzels for additional sides.

Xylephone Sandwich!

This was inspired by More Than Your Average Mom - it was a fabulous idea and made me think of doing some music theme bentos.  It would be better if I had music note food picks like she does, but maybe I will sometime in the future.

For now, this is what I did (Ruthie is requesting I do DRUMS in her lunch next time... lol)

Her sandwiches are egg salad with spicy brown mustard mixed in (she tried a bit on some chicken last night and found out she likes it)

I made the rectangles by using a pizza cutter to first trim the crusts/edges off the bread, then slice them into thirds.  I paired up two of the pieces from the first slice together to be the biggest piece before moving to the next slice of bread... I paired up two more, trimmed, then the third set became the last two "keys" of the xylephone.

Food-Safe Markers were used to color the keys and make the dots for the pegs holding the "keys" to their board - which in this case is a bed of salad.

For the Mallets, since I not only don't have mini marshmallows, but Ruthie has decided she only likes them roasted, I took two peas and put them on the ends of white heart picks (100 in a pack at dollar tree)

She has apple stars and a package of halloween pretzels to finish off her lunch.

Our next musical lunch will have to be Monday, since one egg easily makes two meals for her when done in egg salad and so I already prepped tomorrow's lunch - look for that tomorrow!

Pre-Thanksgiving Bento

Okay, so I woke up totally unsure what I was going to do for her lunch today, but then I saw the deli turkey in the fridge, remembered thanksgiving was next week, and it all came together.

I had ordered the turkey pics (pack of 6) last year from amazon and this was a great excuse to use them, as well as a turkey cookie cutter that I have no clue where I got it... it's big and red and it's awesome for Thanksgiving lunches!

So she has a Turkey turkey sandwich on multigrain bread (which I had already flattened before I realized that it was not the most cutter-friendly... so it took a lot of moving back and forth to get the edges done, but, totally worth it.  I obviously don't have the proper colors to color in a turkey, but I went to color the waddle of the turkey (the red flappy thing) red and decided to do the beak... and the color scheme hit me... red/blue/white (okay, beige cause that's the color of the bread) for the USA!

It's resting on a bed of salad and she has apple slices, MORE halloween pretzels (I still had 6 bags left... so cool that halloween keeps giving two weeks after it's gone), the LAST TWO tootsie rolls, and two turkey picks walking around in her lunch.

Yes, she's been having apples almost every day, but they're AWESOME, really cheap this time of year, and she LOVES them.

Angry Birds - this time, without a fail!

Okay, so my daughter HATED the fruit snacks the last time I made her an angry birds lunch... she apparently does not like fruit snacks not made from real fruit... can't blame her on that one.  So considering that and the fact we didn't have any angry birds crackers, this lunch is all about the sandwich.

I was about to buy a sandwich press until I discovered, when using a coffee mug to cut a circle sandwich for the first time, I discovered that the coffee mug will make a sealed pocket sandwich just as easily... and then you can fill it with your coffee/tea/cocoa after you wipe the bread remnants off it!

So Ruthie has a PB & Strawberry (if you haven't figured it out yet, this is my daughter's FAVORITE sandwich... and Strawberry is her FAVORITE fruit spread) red angry bird - the red bird is her favorite, by the way.

To go with the sandwich, she has a pack of halloween pretzels underneath to help the sandwich really catch attention and make it easy to pick up.  Also, since I somehow managed to choose the pb side to color, this also prevents moisture from collecting and having the strawberry spread start soaking through.

Her other sides are apple and cucumber slices.  The lunch is packed in our Hello Kitty Containers... I'd originally thought I was going to do a Hello Kitty lunch, but then after I cut the circle, I remembered I wanted to do a second go at angry birds... the big container is perfect for holding the sandwich and with less juicy sides tucked underneath, it probably could have held all (or almost all) of her lunch... if I left the pretzel pack separate in her lunch bag.

She has orange juice to drink today... poor girl is getting a bit bound up again... so hopefully the whole grain bread and all the fiber from the apples and OJ will help.

Soup again!

The last time I packed Ruthie soup, I clearly packed too much, as she ate all of it, but ate nothing else in her lunch.  The only soup she really likes is Ramen Noodles, so we make them rarely, but when we do, we use a bouillon cube instead of the msg-filled season packet.

This time, I was careful to use one of our small 9oz coffee mugs and not pack down the noodles at all, so I made only about half of what I did last time... it's easy to forget sometimes that she only eats so much and that soup takes longer to eat, too.

With that last bit in mind, it brings me to her box of things to go with the nice hot soup (always remember to charge your food jar/thermos... it just keeps everything so nice and warm... heat some water to boiling, put it in the jar and put the lid on... you can leave it sit while you get breakfast and other lunch items ready... then heat up your soup, dump the water and replace with your soup (or other heated items you are putting in it) and it will stay nice and warm for lunch)

I put in things that I know she'll eat and I made sure that her protein was easy to eat and not messy. (that was her other complaint... that the chicken was softer and the breading was too messy to bother with at lunch time)

I cut up an apple... it was HUGE, so she had half of it with her french toast for breakfast, and the other half went into this tinkerbell sandwich box.  The silicone baking cups are perfect for holding four thin slices of deli ham (I folded them and rolled them and put two on each of the little picks to make for easy eating) and yummy sweet peas.  I tucked one long tootsie roll in there for a treat.  The other plus to the choice of using this box is that I always use a rubber band to hold the box shut (for those who also need to use them to hold cheap sandwich containers like this one closed, I have found the bands that come on celery to be PERFECT... they are just the right size and hold it really tight), so I tucked her silverware (I put both a spoon and fork in, in case she needs the spoon to help her eat her peas more quickly or wants to use it for the "juice" of her soup) in it to keep it in place.

Smile - it's simple!

Today's lunch is really simple... just salad, leftover pizza, and apples.  I stacked the pizza with toppings put together, though, and wrote a little messsage with food-safe markers on the pizza, because Ruthie woke up grumpy today and I wanted to give her a reminder to smile.  Besides, if pizza doesn't make you smile, what can?

QUACK QUACK! - what do you do with a duck?

Months ago I got a bag of 12 yellow duck cupcake toppers from amazon.com using a swagbucks giftcard, unsure of how I would use them, but determined that they were too cute and inexpensive to pass up (at the time they were $3.21 w/ free shipping).

Well, I figured out one way to incorporate them into the lunches... I did a zoo-themed lunch!

So first I put down a bed of grass, then colored a circle sandwich filled with turkey and pepperoni blue to be the duck pond/lake... I added pretzels for logs/sticks on the ground (it's fall, after all), and a silicone cup of cucumber flowers.  She also has a separate container of apple slices.  To make the theme come together, she has one duck on the pond (I had to cut the actual pick portion in half, but for a child with a bigger appetite, two sandwiches stacked in a taller container/box would work fine... it was rather easy, though... I used a regular pair of scissors), a pink "wolf cub" in the cucumber flowers, and a monkey in the apples (since they do enjoy eating fruit)  This makes me want to get another set of picks from allthingsforsale.com just to get a lion and elephant... which we have at our zoo.

To go along with this, she is taking water in her gorilla-shaped bottle that we originally got at the zoo!

Her lunch is packed in her tinkerbell sandwich box and a 4oz round glad container.

Well, Halloween is over, but the treats continue for awhile.  I said I was probably going to try a Hello Kitty bento, so I decided to do so.  Being as it was Halloween AND the end of the month, groceries are pitiful, so when I decided that I wanted to throw lunch together the night before, I knew it was a good idea, so I could figure something out.

In the main compartment is Hello Kitty (I know, she shouldn't have a mouth... I couldn't remember and instead of looking at one of my other containers, I drew one just in case.  Of course, I doubt my daughter will care, but it bothers me.  To make her, all I did was flatten out two pieces of bread, then I used a big soup cup (which is why you may notice there is some crust on one side... there was also some up top, where I scooped to make the ears) which used so much of the bread that there wasn't enough left to bother giving to the dogs... I gave it to the cats.  Inside, I put ham... now the ham was bigger than the bread, so I quartered it and layered it... 3 pieces was plenty, but you could fit in more or do less if you wanted.  Then, because the lip of the soup cups is so thick, I pressed as much as I could on one side, then flipped the sandwich to do the other... it might also be easier if you cut out one side in advance, but I wanted to ensure a good seal, and this is how I know it to work best with a cup.

I think it's a pretty good, cheap, way to do it if you think your kid might like homemade uncrustables, but you don't want to go buy a sandwich press right away.

Above the sweet hello kitty is a rainbow of sweets for my sweetie... yeppers, she loves skittles, so I put a pack from the trick or treating in there.  Her silicone cups hold sides of peas (with a kitty fork pick to be cute... I will probably pop in a spoon.. she was so busy talking she didn't eat all her peas last time) and the contents of one of MANY single-serve bag of halloween pretzels she and her brother brought home. (they also brought home 7 bags of chips, but those are just enough bigger that she doesn't finish them... and especially not if there is another treat.  So for non-messy fingers and not overloading her lunch, I save the chips for treats on weekends.

Again, I'm going to be picky... my kid tends to be stopped up pretty easily and regularly, so I like to have a fiber-rich diet for her... and what are we missing in this otherwise yummy and healthy lunch?  Yep, FRUIT... however, we do have orange juice, so I think that's what she's going to get in her lunch (watered down, but should still help keep things moving along).

Happy Halloween! This lunch has gone to the CATS!

Well, Ruthie has been back and forth on some foods, as I mentioned in my last post.  One of those things is chicken salad (chicken mixed with mayo, sometimes a mustard of some sort or other seasonings, and some people even add celery and/or relish, apples, grapes)... we do it pretty simple around here... chicken and mayo, sometimes with relish and/or honey mustard or spicy mustard... I prefer honey mustard, the hubby spicy.

Ruthie was eating it last year as long as there was nothing but chicken and mayo, but she stopped liking it and hasn't been willing to try it since.  Well, last night, after she finished her plain chicken, she came to me, asked if she could see my sandwich, and then took a big bite... she chewed, thoughtfully, and pronounced it delicious.  I asked her if that's what she'd like for her lunch and she jumped up and down and squealed yes.

So... because I'm not sure if her bite contained honey mustard, I made hers with just chicken and mayo, but I made her the requested chicken salad.  I then was left to come up with one more (and hopefully original) Halloween lunch for this year.  Well, when the begging kitties in our family came around for scraps, the answer was done.

I used a coffee mug (one with quite a large opening to use almost the entire sandwich) to make a sealed sandwich (a trick I accidentally discovered would be possible when I made her owl sandwich previously)

I used food safe markers to decorate it like a black cat.

I put a witch finger puppet above it ... which makes her look as if she's riding a giant kitty... lol.  The banana was made into a snake... ironically similar in color to a baby black snake one of our cats caught a few years ago... with the use of food safe marker to make a face on one end.  Witches fingers (green beans) are in the pink (her favorite color, even though green would have been more festive) silicone cup with a spider crawling over them and the little kitty fork pick.  Three tootsie rolls are in a ghost paper mini cupcake liner (the same one used in her lunch yesterday... sometimes they can be reused).

This lunch was packed in our betty crocker box that I scored for 50c at Food Lion when they marked them down for discontinuation.  Water is in her funtainer as there are sure to be more treats at school and so she needs to keep sugar low and protein high.

The kitty made me think of Hello Kitty, so that is what will probably start our November lunches off tomorrow.

1 Day Until Halloween!

Friday ended up being another "Sleep in and I'll get the kids off to school" offer from my husband day, so I took it and let him.  Yesterday, no school, thanks to Hurricane Sandy blowing through over the weekend.  Today, they start 2hrs late, but they have school.  I threw this together with what we had available.  We'd stocked up before the storm with lots of non-perishables, so it's not the most appealing lunch, but it's still cute and has Halloween touches.

The top container holds some low-fat, low-sodium potato chips, which is why she only gets TWO (rather than 3-4) tootsie rolls for her treat, but she was quite pleased.  She has mandarin oranges with a skull ring and peas (which she will usually eat with her fingers, like grapes, but I have included a kitten fork pick (for some reason she eats them with this... I can't eat peas with a fork, but she can)... she hasn't willingly eaten peas in quite awhile, but she said she will eat them and that she likes them again, so hey, sometimes being low on preferred foods turns out well.  Her sandwiches are pb & strawberry of course, her favorite.  I used the same ghost cutter from when I made her pizza sandwich that looked like Oogie Boogie, but I didn't press as hard so instead of the imprinted features, I gave them round eyes and round mouths to make them look like ghosts.  It worked by using softer bread and pressing the bread flat first, so it didn't require as much effort to cut and I avoided the other face.  Her tootsie rolls are in a little mini-cupcake liner reversed so she can see the ghost pattern.

Her Funtainer is filled with water since the chips, even while low-sodium, taste pretty salty.

It's packed in our favorite Melissa & Doug Bella Butterfly Snack Container

6 Days Until Halloween

With only 6 days left until Halloween that means that there will only be 4 more spooky lunches!

Today, I decided to make a batty lunch... so everything was put together with bats in mind.
This lunch was one that surprised me again (as they often do when packed in this box) with how much the Melissa & Doug Bella Butterfly Snack Container (also available as a turtle) really can hold.

In the top sections, she has mandarin oranges and green beans (cocktail fork picks from Dollar Tree are in the bottom section in front of her sandwiches)... an orange bat finger puppet is flying above the oranges and a black bat ring is in the green beans.  In the bottom section she has ANOTHER pack of the halloween pretzels that she got at her school's fall celebration (really have been loving that she got so many) that I opened so that it would fit inside to prevent crushing.  A bat ring is on the halloween pretzels.  Next to the pretzels are two pb & strawberry bat sandwiches, stacked.  In a separate container is her dessert.  Her aunt loves to spoil her and got a big pack of the individually wrapped snack cakes for a dollar, so I decided to let her have one in her lunch for a fun treat.  Having tasted one myself, I must say these are so cute, but you can FEEL the sugar in them when you eat one, so I didn't give her a drink choice and sent water in her funtainer to help dilute all that sugar.

And for anyone wondering how big she is to be eating this little amount (this is on the bigger side for her being there are pretzels and a treat), she is in the 25th percentile for height and 50th for weight... she's 52" tall and weighs about 55lbs.  She wears size 8 in pants/skirts and size 10 in shirts.  She is going to turn 9 in March.  She's healthy and active.  So when packing lunch, we have to remember that every kid is built differently and requires a different amount to fuel their bodies and pack accordingly.  With her brothers, I always worry I'm packing too much, until it all comes back emtpy... with her, I worry I don't pack enough on some days, then days like today I worry I pack too much... but again, it all gets eaten most days and days it doesn't, if she's not hungry when she comes home, I don't worry.  Appetites go up and down on everyone.

7 Days Until Halloween!

So today is totally leftovers day.  In our house, we love chili, but two of the kids don't like it... Ruthie is one of those... so with it being toward the end of the month, but still needing lunches for her, we decided to make her and her oldest brother pizza... and made enough so that she could have some leftover for her lunch.

She has three favorites for her sides - green beans, mandarin oranges (kept separate by putting the oranges in a silicone baking cup), and halloween pretzels.  I drew faces on the pizza so they can be mummies or just smile at her for the sake of smiling, I tucked her skeleton finger puppet and a skull ring in the green beans, and there is a bat ring between the bottom two pizza slices.  In her kitty silicone mini cup, there are some candy corns.

Now, I totally meant to get a picture of her brother's (the middle child) lunch as he always takes leftover chili and thought I had, but after he left, I found out I had failed.  He had the same container as she did, with oranges and a bag of pretzels in the side, 3/4 of a can of green beans (seriously, this boy EATS) and two tupperware smidgets in the main compartment - filled with some candy corns in one and cheese to put in his chili in the other.  He had his food jar filled with chili topped with a hot sausage (he loves spicy) leftover from a couple of nights ago when we had burgers and his dad made some hot sausages.

Both kids are taking water to drink.

8 Days Until Halloween - Breakfast For Lunch

Kids with allergies/food intolerance issues have to miss out on buying school lunch... sometimes that's good, because the school in question doesn't provide good lunches, but in our case, the school provides a lot of variety and options and it would be nice if she could buy on some days.  One of the times she feels left out are when they have breakfast for lunch.  So, when I can, I send her that.  Obviously, some foods simply don't work out due to her own preferences for temperature.  Eggs, for instance... she likes them HOT, not just warm, so I don't send them.  Now with only milk being an issue I know someone would think, well, why can't she have lunch at school then?  Well, because of all the milk you wouldn't even think of looking for.  Sure, she can have stuff made with milk and be fine, but not when it's in large amounts and certainly not when it's in almost every part of the meal.

Here is an example of a typical breakfast for lunch at our elementary schools - pancakes, egg OR pork sausage patty, and then whatever fruit/veggie sides they pick.  They then have the choice of white, chocolate, or strawberry milk.  They can have water (which means the water fountain.. yeah, it sucks and isn't sufficient for her) instead of the milk, but between the tempting milk flavors and how the water is available, it just doesn't work.  the pancakes have milk, the egg patties have milk.  I'm not saying the school doesn't provide safe options, I'm saying that most times, the option to have her have a milk-free lunch at school just isn't practical.  As she gets older and can remember what all of their foods have milk in them and which ones don't, it may be possible for her to get lunch at school sometimes, but it's just easier to pack it and send it.

So, since my best friend picked up a pack of 4 jumbo muffins on sale and brought them over to share, I decided to save half of one for Ruthie's lunch.  (The other half was devoured by her brother for after-school snack).

Yes, the muffin has some milk in it, most likely (when I make muffins I use a recipe that doesn't call for milk or I use soymilk or other "milk" instead), and so does the nutella on it, but again, because it is an intolerance and not an allergy, I can monitor and adjust her diet accordingly.  I can't do that when I have to trust her to tell me absolutely everything she puts in her body at school and when the milk is in such high quantities there. Since the nutella is samples, I'm using it, but in future, we're going to buy a different brand of chocolate spread that is milk-free.  Jif has to-go packs of a chocolate peanut butter spread, for instance, that are milk free.  However, that's more waste than I want when I'd be using it at home, so I'm still finding what to buy next... reading labels is so crucial.

For her breakfast for lunch today, she has a banana, cut in half, and decorated with food-safe marker to look like ghosts... between her ghosts is her treat... a snack sized bag of skittles that her brother brought home yesterday and traded in for the reward of nutella spread on his snack... she has a spider on it for fun... then she has the half muffin cut into 4 pieces with some nutella on it and a ghost coming up to go BOO!... in the small container she has two pieces of turkey bacon.  She decided to have lemonade to drink... weird child... she didn't bat an eye after having OJ with her chocolate yesterday... so I believe her that she'll drink it.

It is all packed in our kotobuki panda and one glad 4-oz round container... or, as Ruthie called it... her kung fu-panda box and a little bowl of bacon.

9 Days Until Halloween!

So my theme for today's lunch was Trick or Treating.  Going from left to right, we have two apple jack o'lanterns (we often see jack o'lanterns trick or treating) with a bat ring, a silicone cup of green beans (Ruthie has decided they are witches' fingers and we do see people dressed as witches when trick or treating) with a toy spider, a bag of Halloween pretzels (the kids got 8 at her school's Fall Family Fun Day on Saturday and I have 6 left for her lunches... SCORE!)... she often gets these trick or treating, too.  A toy spider sits on the pretzels.  She has two bat pb & nutella sandwiches (they also got two samples of nutella... I used half of the first one making these and giving her brother two pb nutella cracker sandwiches before he left for school... I'm definitely going to buy more... though I'll buy Kroger brand... because it's a big hit and you don't have to use much to taste it really easily on a sandwich... great for a treat!  She has another bat ring on her sandwiches and the sandwiches are decorated with food-safe markers by Wilton.  Finally, in a mini muffin/cupcake wrapper (turned inside out so she can see the inside) that has ghosts on it, she has 3 small tootsie rolls (another thing she often gets trick or treating... we got these Saturday, too... another SCORE!

This bento is all packed in her betty crocker container and I also sent her funtainer with OJ/water because she asked for that to drink.  She's very excited about this lunch and said she can't wait to tell her friends that she has chocolate in her sandwiches!

13 Days Until Halloween!

Today's lunch ties the spooky Halloween with other things we see in the fall.  Ruthie has a pb & strawberry sandwich on honey wheat bread (I used a coffee cup to cut a circle, then cut out the top bit with a knife)... yes, my owl is blue... yes, his eyes are green... she loves this... she wanted him to be colorful and look spooky like she might see at nighttime (like she's ever seen an owl then... or anywhere other than the zoo or aquarium).  He's resting on a nest or pile of leaves (depending on who you ask... I said he was flying over a pile of leaves... Ruthie swears he's sitting in his nest)  And a pumpkin is popping out of the bottom of those leaves (henceforth my interpretation) to surprise the owl.  He's hunting candy corn and even though I colored his beak yellow, he also has a candy corn as a nose because... well, it just looks cute.  She also has green beans and mandarin oranges (hey, it's time to go to the grocery store, I know!) in silicone baking cups... with a spider and two skull rings for decoration.

This was the first time I'd tried using a coffee cup... I found out after I'd already cut out my first circle that it's likely I could have made a pocket sandwich simply because it was a thick enough cup that it really squished the edges... but that bottom piece doesn't look as nice, so I wanted to hide it rather than make a third slice.

I added two of our favorite cocktail fork picks from Dollar Tree after I took the picture.

14 Days Until Halloween!

Okay, I skipped yesterday because I couldn't think how to make her lunch halloween-themed with what I put into it.  Of course, once she left for school, I realized it would have been so easy... so today, I cut myself no slack and even though it's a pretty normal lunch food-wise, it's a halloween lunch now.

By the way, Ruthie is totally loving our countdown... she's now asking every morning how many days are left until Halloween.  I know I'm going to have to do this for Christmas!

Today, she has a nice warm lunch, for the most part.  I heated everything up extra warm except for her fruit. In her food jar, she has ramen noodles (we make it healthier by using a bouillon cube instead of the included seasoning... and we don't have them often... everything in moderation).  In her Melissa & Doug Bella Butterfly Snack Container, she has a leftover oven baked breaded chicken leg, green beans, and mandarin oranges.  She does not like using the same fork for different foods and that's never a battle I choose, so she has two cute kitty fork picks for her oranges and green beans and a regular fork for her noodles.  a spider ring, rubber spider, and skeleton finger puppet make this a fun Halloween lunch.

16 Days Until Halloween!

Today's lunch is a Haunted House theme... featuring some of our favorite things we might find in a haunted house.  Because of this theme, the lighting of the picture is dark to give a spooky effect.

I got the food safe markers I used to color her sandwiches at Party City... they are a wilton's 5-pack and were on sale for 4.99!  SCORE!

She has a spider web and bat made from our honey oat bread and honey peanut butter (YUM)  the spiderweb cookie cutter doesn't indent much into a sandwich, so until now, I hadn't used it for a sandwich... now I think we will be using it more often in the fall.

She also has some pretzels with a rubber spider crawling on them and a bat ring flying over them.  Spiderwebs, spiders, and bats are favorites in a haunted house.

She also has a jack o'lantern with a spider ring crawling on it...and a monster's mouth with it's green rotted teeth... monsters and jack o'lanterns are so much fun in a haunted house!  They are Gala Apples, btw, which are a favorite in any house.  Also, sometimes in a haunted house, you bob for apples.  The pretzels could also be the treat (since some people give out bags of pretzels for trick or treaters) that you get at the end of the trip through the haunted house.

She also has some extra celery tucked under the apples.  She has peach mango kool-aid (because she's been needing miralax more regularly to keep her softened and prefers a flavored drink.  Juice fills her up and you get better fiber from whole foods than you do from juices, so I water down some kool aid and everyone is happy.

19 days till Halloween!

Yes, it's another halloween theme bento... lol... I just can't get bored of these... Christmas will be the same... lol... and I have ideas for valentine's day and St. Patty's Day (and two st. patty theme cutters) that you just don't want to hear about yet.

Today Ruthie has 6 pb & honey cracker spiders with celery for the features (she doesn't like raisins or carrots and I had no pretzel sticks... but she was excited... I want to try to get them more uniform), cucumber chunks, apple/pb/celery mouths, and two halloween butter cookies... she has a spider crawling on her cucumber, a ghost popping out in the big compartment (it's a finger puppet... the variety pack of 6 is a dollar at Dollar General), and a bat is hanging out by the cookies.  She has OJ/Water to drink.

Wax paper helps keep the crackers from sliding around.

20 Days Until Halloween!

This lunch is pretty simple, somewhat leftovers, and super cute in my opinion.  I know Ruthie was totally excited.

First, we have a leftover crescent roll hot dog from supper last night.  Sadly, I don't have candy eyes (MY BAD) and didn't have anything to really use for eyes, but when I put the ketchup on the way I did, I realized it's okay... instead of a mummy, it's a finger/arm that has been scratched by a werewolf!  Either way, the ketchup makes it look bloody, which Ruthie loves.  I put wax paper underneath, even though it wasn't getting moist, just to make sure the bottom stays dry.

In the big compartment she has 4 apple mouths with celery teeth... she also has extra teeth to nibble on.

Along with this she has some leftover barbecue chips (in a separate container not shown) and mango/peach kool-aid to drink (watered down)... so not the healthiest lunch, but not bad in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, now that I'm thinking of it, I probably could have made the apples stay in position more easily by putting the extra "teeth in a silicone baking cup or two... but ah, well.

My first bento!

Bento Bloggers and Friends is hosting a linky party celebrating our first bentos/blog posts, so I thought I would share mine.

This was not my first blog post, but it was my first bento lunch I made for my little girl that I took a picture of.  It is from last year in Sept.

The small compartment holds canned peaches with two fork picks for decoration and to eat them, the big compartment holds celery, pretzels, and a container of peanut butter for dipping.  I don't remember what she had to drink.

22 Days to Halloween!

Today's countdown lunch very subtly pays tribute to our good friend, Count Von Count from Sesame Street, who turns 40 today.

As the Count lives with bats in his castle, I made pb & strawberry bat sandwiches on a bed of salad.  Since he's turning the big 4-0, I put 4 bat rings in the salad for decoration to count.

Because he is a vampire, I packed mandarin oranges (the other half of the can I used for yesterday's lunch) with a white "vampire teeth" fork pick.

I did have more direct ideas, but some little girl was worried that her friends would think that it was too babyish, so I went for sublte references instead.  I did not take a picture of the label for her sandwich box, but I drew vampire mouths, bats, and a spooky cat to help tie into the theme.

I still don't have food writing pens as the surrounding stores that carry them are out, or I would have done a basic vampire sandwich.  Ah, well, I may still do one for another halloween lunch.

23 Days to Halloween!

Another week brings another round of lunches counting down to Halloween.

Today is still wet from yesterday with more rain predicted, the weather is cool enough to bring out long pants and long sleeves, so a hot lunch was in order.  We made baked spaghetti this weekend, so leftovers made this lunch really easy and quick to put together this morning.

In her food jar (I charged it with hot water first) she has spaghetti all nice and hot... it fits the halloween theme as it can be called bloody worms.  We also have some green beans (or green fingers) with a bat ring and cat fork pick and mandarin oranges (kidneys going by shape) with a finger puppet skeleton (from Dollar General) and the matching cat fork pick.  She has lemonade in her gorilla bottle.

26 Days to Halloween!

Well, I failed yesterday at making a mouth with apples and banana, but I'm happy to report that my aha moment caused a success!

I realized that CELERY could be used as green teeth... which is cool for halloween... and my daughter loves peanut butter on celery and apples, so I could use it to hold them together!

In addition to her mouth of apple slices, pb, and celery, she has BOO written in cucumber twice, on skewers (sadly, these are hearts as I am still sick and so have not made unnecessary outings for things like halloween stickers to make the picks festive)  Her jack o'lantern is half an apple and celery is used for the stalk (two pieces, placed where the core was removed).

In the smaller section (with wax paper to prevent it getting too moist from sweating on the plastic container) is what is technically a ghost (the ghost of my set of cutters), but I think looks like Boogie Oogie from Nightmare Before Christmas.  Boogie/the ghost is a pizza sandwich... I had a nice stick of pepperoni and cut some of that, spread ketchup (because I didn't want to open a jar of tomato sauce... I'm lazy), and put the (dairy free)  cheese on top of each piece... and microwaved to melt the cheese.  That is how he got a little bloody... lol... because some of the sauce and cheese discolored him a bit... but I had the face on the down side so it would show.  By putting it together warm, it will stick nicely.  The bread is honey oat and it's nice and thick, so I didn't have to toast it prior to making the pizza sandwich (other, softer, breads I do this to make sure it holds shape)

I didn't show the top of her container yesterday... but here is the one for today... 

27 days till Halloween!

This is another one of those "do I really wanna post this?" lunches, because it isn't the prettiest, but I like to be honest with my lunch making process, so here it is.

I've been wanting to do those cute apple mouths, but Ruthie doesn't like almonds or uncooked marshmallow, so I finally decided to try banana... she doesn't care for pb on her banana, so I used toothpicks to put them together.  Now this morning I woke up with this AHA moment of how I could have done it without the toothpicks, so I'll be doing that shortly... on the brighter side, Ruthie was pleased and saw them as mouths right away.  In the main section she has "BRAINS" aka... shredded chicken, then she has some bones of carrots and celery (trying to get her to eat carrots by sneaking small bits into some of her meals), and then a silicone cup of lettuces and another of cucumber jack o'lanterns... sorry that you can only see one, but there it is.

28 Days till Halloween!

Yes, it's day 2 of counting down till the day we go trick or treating in fun costumes around here, so another halloween theme lunch is in order.

As I did yesterday, I made a cover for the box I used.  Today, I used her pink hello kitty box, the largest from her set of 4 and I decided to use her gorilla bottle from the zoo for her drink... this kind of shows the size of the box compared to the 10-12oz bottle.  It is taller than the bottle lying down, though... and holds a surprising amount.

In her lunch, we have a pb & strawberry witch on honey wheat whole grain bread supported by celery "bones" (yeah, she doesn't eat a lot of raw veggies), two halloween chips a'hoy cookies because the kids' aunt bought a package on sale as a surprise for them, and a silicone cup of orange chunks with a spider ring for decoration.  She has water to drink.  Now that she's not caring if her foods touch like she used to, I can pack more tightly and use the smaller containers more often, and this also means she gets to take her favorite my little pony lunchbox more often.  This lunch could fit in even the smallest lunch bags with no problem.

Halloween Countdown Bento #1

Halloween is coming!  We love this holiday and so I decided we will do a countdown to it in Ruthie's lunches!  Today is the first bento... 29 Days till Halloween!

I made it in her Tinkerbell sandwich box which still surprises me on how much it holds.

Two bat sandwiches filled with peanut butter and strawberry fly at the top of the lunch which holds a green silicone bakign cup of cucumber chunks with a skull ring for decoration, a pink silicone cup of orange chunks with a cocktail fork pick (from Dollar Tree) because they are so juicy.  Surrounding the two cups are bite-sized celery sticks (also called BONES during halloween... hehe), and I used my BOO cookie cutter (plastic, so required both hands to push down) to make the word from orange peel.  Above the bats is a sour apple laffy taffy that I found hiding in a drawer... leftover from one day or another... so she even has her first TREAT along with her lunch of yummy tricks.  A note on the top of the box helps her count down, too (it's only held on by the bands that keep the box closed, so she can pocket it if she wants... she did that with her pirate map from our pirate day lunch)

Her other treat of 8oz (in a re-used Motts Juice bottle from an 8pack I bought last year) of watermelon/cherry kool-aid (50/50 with water) is not pictured.

The cutters used for this lunch are from a Wilton set I got from ebay

What fun things are you doing to get ready for Halloween?

First Attempt at Angry Birds Lunch - partial fail

Ruthie went to a birthday party this weekend and it had an angry birds theme, down to the invitations (the gift bag was even an angry birds drink cup holding a packet of fruit snacks, a fruit roll-up, 3 pieces of candy (snack size), and a little rubber angry bird ball you put together... all wrapped in cellophane).  So she asked for an Angry Bird lunch.

I've been sick all week with this horrible virus and have still not picked up food writer pens (the kids were sick first, so it's been two weeks of buying lots of medicines), so I saw the fail coming, but it made her happy, so it was worth it.

First, we have a turkey (bird meat) sandwich... I made a face from a heal of the loaf, but had to freehand it... that, combined with the fact my daughter rarely eats a full sandwich (I only packed a half sandwich) not giving much room for it, and the angry bird face ended up how you see it below.

In the yellow-green silicone cup she has chunks of apple and on the bottom she has a field of lettuce.
In the pink pig silicone cup she has all of the angry bird fruit snacks, surrounded by pretzels (there are two under it, too)

She was thrilled, but I am seeing that I will be going to walmart for the food writing pens this week even if I'm still sick.  I could have done so much more with them.