Happy Little Lunches: October 2016

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

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!!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

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.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

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!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

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. ;)