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