Happy Little Great Pumpkin and Happy Little Elephant Lunches

Happy Little Great Pumpkin and Happy Little Elephant  Lunches 

These lunch:

packed in EasyLunchbox container

pumpkin sandwich with fruit leather face

carrots w ranch dip in rectangle silicone liner

apple slices

spider web chips

melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin candies 

The Peanuts character stuff is actually a cake decoration.  Lucky me, I happened to be grocery shopping on the day the bakery department was clearing out their cake supplies.  These babies and some random football guys were on the clearance shelves in the back of the store!  There was only one Peanuts set, unfortunately, so the kids will have to take turns but I think I can use it somehow at Christmas too!  Not to mention just the everyday Charlie Brown lunches!  $2.59 well spent!  

Talking about the bakery department brings me to another TOP SECRET tip for acquiring cupcake picks.  So...ya' know how the bakery department sells cupcakes?  Some have the decorative picks or plastic rings already on them while some are just plain cupcakes.  Sometimes I'll buy a set of the plain cupcakes and oh-so-nicely ask the bakery worker if I could please have picks for them?  Then I'll explain that I'm actually just after the picks themselves to use in my kids' lunches to poke onto things like grapes or cheese cubes, so could I please choose 12 different picks?    As long as they're not busy I've never been denied and it's a fairly cheap way of getting a few different picks without buying packages of each of them.   

The bottom photo shows a spider ring decoration and a cat cupcake pick.  The pumpkin candies are in a silicone food liner purchased from an online bento supply website.  The Halloween chips are from Aldi.  My kids know pretty well to just leave the toys or decorations in their lunch containers and bring them home.  I can't think of a single lunch thing we've ever lost at school in the whole time I've been doing this.  Since there is very little to no trash from bento lunches, most days they don't even need to visit the trash can at all.

This lunch:

packed in an EasyLunchbox container

mama and baby elephant cut with sandwich cutter

heart cut from fruit leather

Trader Joe's cereal bar (cut in half)

sunflower seeds in heart shaped silicone liner

carrots w ranch dip

grapes w elephant fork

Who doesn't love elephants?  The elephant sandwich cutter is adorable and it cuts the baby in a way that it can come out whole apart from the mama.  SO adorbs!  My eldest had a stuffed elephant as his lovey since he was a baby so they've always held a special place in our family.  I purchased the elephant bento fork in the grapes several years ago and haven't seen them lately so I think they're probably out of stock.  I linked below to another set of animal forks that comes with an elephant.  They're not the exact same but I actually also own this set and they are very cute!

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

Happy Little Lunches for Your Happy Halloweeners

These lunches:

packed in jack-o-lantern containers

pumpkin sandwich with fruit leather face

Halloween theme Goldfish crackers

cucumbers cut into mini leaves in rectangle silicone liner

diced cheese stick

raisins

melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin candies in silicone mini-muffin liner

Oh, melt-in-your-mouth pumpkins!  You are my kryptonite!  ;)

Tell me this jack-o-lantern container isn't just darling, right??  It's from an independently owned dollar store in my area.  I love the Dollar Tree chain but if you have an independently owned dollar store near you I recommend checking it out frequently.  First, you're supporting a local business which is so vitally important and, second, you'll often find the more unique items in their kitchen and cookware sections.  We have two locally owned dollar stores in my area and I have found silicone food liners (heart shaped!!), more unique cupcake picks, and containers like these in various themes.  I think it's because in these stores, while everything is still only $1, some of their stock comes from Dollar Store Supply places and some comes from remainder distributers (like things that maybe didn't sell at regular stores.)  So be sure not to write off the "little guy"!  They might have something unique!

A word about fruit leather.  I've tried many different brands (including making my own--there are recipes on Pinterest) but my favorite is the Archer Farms brand from Target.  It seems softer and easier to cut through than other brands I've tried.  I'll use Aldi brand in a pinch but Archer Farms is my favorite.  These shapes were just cut free hand with kitchen scissors and "glued" on with a dab of peanut butter.

These lunches:

packed in EasyLunchboxes

apple slices w jack-o-lantern ring

lentil pasta salad in small plastic food cup

Ritz crackers

clementine

turkey meat sticks

melt-in-your-mouth pumpkins

Babybel cheese round

spork

Actually...I got the little food cups from an independent dollar store too!  They 

came 4 in a pack with tiny spoons and are the perfect height to fit in the ELB's.

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

Happy Little Salads and Happy Little Fall Lunches

Happy Little Salads and Happy Little Fall Lunches

These lunches:
packed in an EasyLunchbox container
salad mix
grilled chicken
tortilla strips
Babybell cheese
whole grain cookies
Ranch or Thous. Island dressing with emoji stickers (2 each bc the containers are fairly small)
spork

Pretty easy lunch, really.  Besides the stickers there isn't anything cute.  Just sayin...it doesn't always have to be about all the fancy cutters and things.   A simple style still totally works!

Guess whose is whose?  Poop emoji goes to the little bother, ahem, brother.  That's always what I ask him when he's being a stinker to his siblings.  "Are you being a little BROTHER or a little BOTHER?"  My kids love salads in their lunches.  It's filling and since the salad itself has so few calories or fat they often get some delicious full fat dressing and/or cheese to go with it.  It's a satisfying meal.  I'll often write notes or drawings on clementines or bananas with Sharpie.  The skin is protective so I don't worry about it.  

These lunches:

packed in ELB containers

turkey & cheese on whole wheat bread/tortilla cut with acorn and leaf cutters

whole grain cookies

clementine

mini cucumbers and peppers

dressing to dip (Ranch or Thous. Island) w/ Fall themed sticker

The autumn themed cutters are from the Dollar Spot at Target.  #yolo

Haha, I just got done saying I write notes on clementines and then here's one without a note.  

Fall themed lunches are some of my very favorite.  Especially Halloween.  More to come!

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

Happy Little Sandwich Stacks and Another Great Use for Scraps ;)

I remember eating lunch with my mom at the Hudson's near where I grew up and they served sandwiches with little toothpicks.  I always felt like that was so special.  I'd get half a shrimp sandwich with their amazing Canadian Cheese soup with the little carrots.  I've tried to replicate that recipe but can never get it quite right.  Mom would always order the Maurice salad.  So good...I bet I could find that recipe online somewhere...ah memories.  Sometimes I wonder what my kids will remember about me from their childhood days.  #lunches  (Or probably that I wear pajamas whenever we're at home, haha!)

This lunch:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock

pb&honey on whole wheat cut with flower cutters and stacked with flower picks

blueberries in silicone liner

home canned peaches

cheese stick 

spork

This lunch:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock cut with star cutters and stacked with panda & China flag picks

blueberries in panda liner

home canned peaches

cheese stick

spork

So by now you know my best and most favorite use for scraps is for the toddler child's lunch.  It's true; I love that I can serve her a healthy, fun, lunch the next day while on auto-pilot.  My *other* favorite use for them is snacking!  Usually it's the 2nd grader hovering around the kitchen when I'm making lunch and he asks if there are any scraps for him?  Especially if it's pb&honey.  Especially with a big glass of milk.  He's always been a fan of Second Breakfast...so why not Bedtime Lunch?  ;)  I typically eat salads for lunch and also will save any meat or cheese bits to throw on my salads the next day.

This child.  Oh my heart.  Go on 

with your little scrap loving self.

So, to sum up.  These are all things I personally do with scraps:

1) Make a scrappy bento for my toddler.
2) Eat them as a bedtime snack.

3) Save meat and cheese in a baggie in fridge for salad toppings.

4) Save bread scraps in a big baggie in freezer.  You could make homemade croutons.  Or when you go to a park that has a duck pond your children will be delighted to feed the ducks.  Ducks eat frozen bread just fine.  ;)

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

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Happy Little Shopkins and Happy Little Car Lunches, How to Make Custom Picks, and It's Good to Have Friends (In Low Places?)

This Lunch:

packed in an EasyLunchbox container

pb&j on whole wheat tortilla cut w a cupcake cookie cutter

Wilton XL sprinkles

Wilton candy eyes

strawberries and blueberries with a crafted Shopkins pick

broccoli, pea pods, and carrots

Caesar dressing with Shopkins sticker

My kids love pea pods and my son could eat his weight in broccoli.

  So Stir Fry Mix works well for us.

This cutter is one of my favorites because it's so unique.  I found it at Goodwill!  I don't have quite as much time for thrift hunting anymore (I'm looking at you Bonus Baby) but thrift stores can be a great place to find cookie cutters and kitchen treasures like this!  More on that below.  Candy eyes are a staple of mine.  They can cute up just about anything and NOW is a great time to scope out where to buy them.  Stores like Meijer and Aldi will sometimes carry them in their Halloween baking supplies and they're often some of the items left the day after Halloween at 50% off.  Otherwise I'll include an Amazon link here as well.  The little Shopkins lipstick (um, I mean "Lippy Lips") decoration is from the packaging on some Shopkins my daughter received for her birthday.  It's only just slightly touching is the tortilla so I don't worry about it.  I wouldn't use it near any wet food though.  Sister Bear knows to just leave it in her lunch container and bring it home.  I've included a link to the jumbo sprinkles but Michael's is also a good place to buy these.  I "glue" them onto the bread with a tiny bit of peanut butter.

One tip about the veggies.  These are all from a bag called "Stir Fry Mix".  I like it because it gives a variety of veggies already cut up at a reasonable price.  Located by the bagged salad.

This lunch:

packed in an EasyLunchbox container

toasted turkey and cheese pocket sandwich

cheddar car

strawberries and blueberries with a crafted car pick

stir fry veggies

Thousand Island dressing w emoji sticker

candy treat in a silicone mini-muffin liner

This little pocket sandwich makes me all kinds of happy.  When I posted last time about the Uncrustables a reader linked in a comment to a Pampered Chef tool that I didn't know existed!  It's called the Cut-N-Seal and it's amazing.  What's more amazing is that a friend with MAD thrifting skills had an extra in his family's stash and gave it to yours truly!!!  You know who you are...and I say thank you, thank you!

I'm very impressed with this Cut-N-Seal gadget.  Cuts cleanly with very little effort and is a great size, not too big and not too small.  I will definitely be using this.  Just imagine!  Homemade Uncrustables, mozzarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni, perhaps a breakfast sandwich with eggs and cheese!  Be still my heart.  

I toasted the sandwich in a Toastabag.  That's another little invention that has made my lunchy life easier!  It's a little reusable bag that you put sandwiches in and put the whole bag into your toaster.  Then machine wash on the top rack!  The package contains 2 bags but I've been using the same one over and over for at least a year now and haven't even needed to get the second one out yet.  Grilled cheese is sooooooo much easier in a Toastabag!

The crafted picks are a fun addition.  Picks are fun, useful as a tiny fork, and pack a cuteness punch but sometimes you can't find one in the theme you want.  But if you can find stickers in that theme you can make your own!  Just take an appetizer pick and two stickers that are similar in size!  I like to add a dot of hot glue in between the stickers but you probably don't have to.  My favorite place to buy themed stickers is Party City.  Dollar Tree occasionally has certain characters too.

My favorite place to buy plain appetizer picks is Dollar Tree.  See the picks in the box?  These are from Dollar Tree but my local store actually hasn't had those in a while.  I like the little heart on top.  The two prong ones I've seen at my local store quite often lately back by the kitchen stuff like serving spoons and spatulas.  I've seen sandwich cutters there sometimes too!  You never know!  So I like to swing through the kitchen aisle whenever we go to Dollar Tree.

Bonus Baby's Scrappy Lunch

packed in a two tier hamburger bento box

sandwich scraps

strawberries and blueberries

turkey scraps

cheddar scraps

So...what do you guys think?  Should I keep posting 

Bonus Baby's scrap lunches?  Or just the big kids? 

Thrift stores can be a great place to find kitchen goodies and cookie cutters for cheap.  All of these   great cutters below were purchased at thrift stores!  I'm not sure the red plastic stars are actually for food?  They may be for Play Doh.  IDK?  I use them for cutting dry food so I don't worry too much about it.  The big cutters are so unique!  I couldn't find exactly the same cupcake cutter on Amazon but I linked to one that's very similar.

A word about metal vs plastic.  When I first started Bento lunches I used to think that metal cutters must be superior to plastic.  But now I don't think that's true!  In my opinion plastic cuts just as well, is usually cheaper, and doesn't rust after washing.  Awwww.  Poor plastic cutters.  Misjudged their whole lives.  

Some fun thrift store finds.

Pampered Chef!  From a thrift store!   #madskills 

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

SaveSave

Happy Little Not-always-cute Lunches and Sometimes I Need to Grocery Shop.

Probably not my best work but this is what happens when I'm out of bread and the kids have activities til late and I'm making lunches at night like a Mombie (Mom + Zombie!)  But at least the photography is terrible!  ;)  Haha, but this gives an idea of what happens for lunch on the crazy days.  We're in the first full week of school now and the lazy days of summer surely made a quick exit!

This lunch:

packed in a 2-tier Bento box from Aldi

sweet peppers

pretzel nuggets

Wow! butter to dip them in

yogurt tube

crusty bread leftover from Panera dinner

This lunch:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock

cottage cheese

mandarin oranges

cheese crackers packed in a Lunchskins reusable bag

spork

A word about the Lunchskins reusable baggies.  We love them and use them all the time!  If you've ever been concerned that they'd be hard to keep clean, don't worry.  I just dump out any crumbs when the kids get home and they're ready to go.  I do still buy regular plastic baggies for certain things but I probably only buy a couple boxes per year now.  We have the sandwich size Lunchskins, too, but use the snack size the most.

This fella loves his cottage cheese!  

And I am loving these leakproof lids!

Aaanndddd...I still need to grocery shop!  Ha!  But managed to do these up with what we had on hand.  It's my baby boy's 8th birthday tomorrow!  He loves these little Uncrustable sandwiches and I like to have them on hand occasionally for making my life easier.  These come on wheat bread and are a "less sugar" variety.  Since they come frozen I put a little circle of parchment paper underneath to protect the popcorn from moisture.   My kids always give a little whoop of joy when they learn I'm sending popcorn in their lunch.  Popcorn is fun!  And naked air-popped counts as a healthy whole grain in my book.

These lunches:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock

Uncrustables on whole wheat with "less sugar" jam  

air-popped popcorn

watermelon

turkey roll-ups

Bonus Baby's lunch all made up for the next day.  

We're usually at home for her lunch but it's just so easy to grab this.

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!

Happy Little Dino and Happy Little Rainbow Lunch, plus I do feed the other kids--I swear!

This lunch:
packed in an EasyLunchbox container
pb&honey on whole wheat cut with a double dino sandwich cutter
Thousand Island dressing
raw green beans
cantaloupe with a dino pick
yogurt tube

This lunch:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock

pb&honey circle pockets made with a mini-pie pop press

raw green beans

Ranch dressing

homemade applesauce

yogurt tube

spork

Well, it looks like I may enjoy using those lids after all.  I did a little water test over my sink and despite vigorous shaking, they didn't appear to leak!  This is huge news!  I thought they were just extra plastic parts but it appears that they will serve a fantastic purpose.  I've been looking for a leakproof container for quite some time now and haven't been thrilled with what I've purchased in the past.  Oh happy day.

You'll see I packed the dips for the green beans in little disposable containers.  We have some cute reusable dip containers but there is just a special kind of yuck involved in cleaning them out.  One day it dawned on me to use disposable and I haven't really looked back.  Our lunches are so green most of the time I allow for this little bit of trash now and then.  A little sticker on top cutes it up a bit.

This lunch:

packed in a rectangle Lock & Lock

tuna salad

tortilla boats

pretzel sticks

apple slices

cantaloupe

spork

Not quite as fun but still worth mentioning are my other two lunch eaters!  We have a precious little toddler with us through foster care and a 7th grade son.  I swear I do feed them ;) but their lunches aren't quite as fun so haven't posted before.  Andrew's cantaloupe is packed in a "leakproof" container that I purchased last year.  I'll put wet-ish things in there but that's about it.  The seal is stronger than a normal food storage container but not to where I'd trust it with anything leaky.  Did you notice the sporks I packed?  Cool, right?!  We've used these for the last several years and they've worked great.  My kids often choose them for eating regular meals at home too.  (And they tell me that other kids at school always comment that their sporks are cool.  Not that I'm trying to be cool but...you know...I'll take the Mom Points where I can get them.)  ;)  

Andrew's lunch is maybe a little bigger today than what I'd normally pack him.  He is an athlete and his appetite lately with fall sports starting is HUGE.  I'd rather fill him up with healthy food while I can or he'll come home from school famished and seek out junk.  My kids are pretty healthy eaters in general but school is my favorite place to get healthy food into them because they're my captive audience there.  There literally is no other food to eat.  There go my Mom Points.  ;)

This lunch:

packed in a Dory container from Dollar Tree

pb&honey scraps cut into toddler size bites

cantaloupe in a silicone flower cupcake liner 

homemade applesauce in a plastic cup

Little Lady was soooo cute eating this lunch.  She's newly turned two.  

She said, "ALLLL-most!  ALL-most ALL gone." 

Just one of the things you can do with the scraps left from cutting sandwiches is to feed them to your toddler.  I got this little Dory container at Dollar Tree!  Isn't it darling?  And the plastic has a nice hard feel.  A dollar well spent.  I just pack a little bento for her after I pack the big kids' lunches.  See the little doggie fork?  That's the type that's included in the giveaway.  If you'd like to have some of your very own be sure to enter before Sunday, Sept. 11!  See below for details.

And now a reminder about my very first GIVEAWAY!!!  Who would like to enter to win a 4 piece set of sandwich/cookie cutters AND an adorable set of animal bento forks???   You know you do!!!  There are two things I am asking from you in order to enter: 

1) Go to the fb page for Happy Little Lunch and make sure you have "liked" my page.

2) Find the post there that links to the Back to School 2.0 lunches blog post and make a comment.  I'll be drawing a name from the comments on that fb post so please make sure to leave a comment on that fb post if you'd like to be entered!  

The drawing will take place on Sunday, Sept. 11.  Thanks for reading and Good Luck!!!  

As a reminder or for new readers, I get a very small percentage of anything purchased through these links and I will donate 100% of this to charities related to foster care.  You can click on the links to purchase those items.  If you click my links here and search around and find other things to buy I (ahem, kiddos in foster care) will receive the percentage on anything you buy that day and not just the items in the link!  So thanks!!!