Lunch in Less Then Two Minutes

Okay, I admit it I was running to pack this in under two minutes, but I did it! I had GiGi and LiLi cheering me on and counting down, the pressure was really on!

Lunch is basically the same for both girls with one exception, LiLi gets a School Day Granola Bar because of her peanut allergy and GiGi can have a traditional Granola Bar.  (We don't often have these in the house, but LiLi is going through a treatment called OIT and we are cleared to have cross contaminated items in the house now!) 

For lunch they have these little turkey pepperoni bites, crackers, Stretch Island fruit leather, Tillamook Cheese, snap peas, Oreos, granola bars and  an apple.  GiGi has organic apple juice, LiLi has organic chocolate milk.

 

I set a timer to keep me honest and I finished this with seconds to spare.  It's possible to throw together lunch right before you walk out the door, or for the kiddos to put together a decent lunch pretty easily. 

 

Stay tuned for a lunch in 5, 10 and 15 minutes and one packed from the pantry!  We used our favorite Easylunchboxes and you can see they hold A LOT of food!

 

Back To School The Easy Way

      How is summer vacation done, Labor Day passed and lazy days lolling in the sun gone for another nine months?!  Don't get me wrong, I love a schedule and a routine.  But more than that I love being with my girls.  Sending them back to school is always a little bittersweet.  That being said, I'm a firm believer in being organized, not reinventing the wheel and doing every thing the easiest way possible; including packing lunches. 
      I've been perusing all the other fabulous lunch blogs; darling, perfect, so stinkin' cute!  My girls are getting bigger and I've been told not to make too many cute lunches because it's just not cool in the Jr. High set.  It's a sad day at our house, at least for me!   I'll still be making cute lunches, but mostly now they'll be practical, yummy and filled with healthy options.

       I hope all of you Mama's are finding the start of this school year filled with new adventures, a break and hopefully lots of kiddos trying new and whole foods!

Lunch for the first day of school is full of fuel!  Turkey roses (just roll up slices of organic turkey breast), green grapes, cheddar cheese, stretch island strawberry fruit leather, pretzel crisps, carrots, rainbow tomatoes, a plum and a couple of Oreo type cookies.  They both also have an organic chocolate milk to add a little protein.

 

 

 

Leftover Lunch

I haven't posted my leftover lunches because I didn't really think you'd want to see what we had eaten for dinner the night before...but we gotta make our kitchens, fridges and pantries work for us! So I'm gonna post them, hopefully it'll give you some ideas on ways to make lunch prep easier for you.  I do realize that not every school has microwaves available to your kiddos to use at lunch time, so you gotta invest in some good Thermos products.  They're the best! But you have to "charge" them before you use them.  For hot foods, pour boiling water into the thermos and let it sit for 5 minutes, at the same time heat the food your sending as hot as you can get it.  I promise it'll still be warm at lunch time! (don't pack ice packs around your thermos)  For cold foods, do the same with ice and those foods will stay chilled through lunch as well!

So the girls have left over baked chicken breasts, green beans, strawberries, pretzels, 2 Thin Mint cookies and a NutriGrain bar.  (total cheat on the bar, but it's just an extra)  We did have cornbread and salad with dinner too, but there wasn't any left!  They also have organic chocolate milk to drink.

 

For snack they have a small plum and whole wheat crackers.

Little Italy

My girls love little bites, they would graze all day, snacking here and there...making messes and eating me out of house and home.  So they love it when I pack a bunch of little bits, a collection of foods that they can sample and snack on throughout the day.  It's not uncommon for one of them to open their lunch box on the way home for a little nosh.

Today's lunch is just kind of like a meal you might buy at an Italian Deli, fresh, yummy foods that you can just pick up with your fingers and enjoy.

Both girls have the same lunch today (Win!), they have little hard salami bites, cheddar cheese squares, whole wheat crackers, some heirloom tomatoes, sliced orange bell pepper, a little apple (I've said it before, Trader Joe's has the best small fruit, EVER), 100% juice and a few oreos.

I bet this is one of those lunches that comes home empty!
I've packed the lunches into our favorite easylunchbox containers!

Comfort Food at it's Finest

My girls love comfort food; warm, cheesy, buttery goodness.  Actually, so do I.  Really, who doesn't?!
When I got up this morning I had to pack lunches (mostly because I was a slacker last night and didn't plan very well), it was cold and the forecast called for rain; another big surprise for Oregon; and thought, "these girls need something that'll warm them from the inside out!".  I had a big bag of potatoes, lots of cheese (a staple in our house) and butter...perfect! Baked potatoes, filled with butter, cheese and sour cream on the side.   Throw in some fruit, a hard boiled egg for some extra protein and a granola bar for something extra, some organic apple juice...and viola lunch. 

This was an easy lunch to pack, but it did take a little longer to prep then a normal lunch.  I baked the potatoes in the microwave while I fed the girls breakfast, split them and topped them, the girls can heat them up at school for the perfect, filling meal.

 

For snack they both have an applesauce squeezer and a caramel rice cake.

Tell Me That You Love Me....

It's here, that controversial day where those in luuuuuvvvvvvv are so excited for roses, dinner, romance and those not in love are ready to punch couples in the throat.  I'm kind of indifferent. I'm totally in love with my Husband, but I'd rather he show me he loves me 365 days a year rather than just one.
However, he is romantic and fun and our girls LOVE anything "romantic" so the three have been celebrating since the First of February.  (I'm not even sort of joking about this.) They made Valentine's Envelopes (think 2nd Grade) and every day they have been giving one another little tokens of affection...I was included too, but truthfully I was sort of bah humbug about it.   It's always been our tradition that "The Love Bugs" bring little treats on the 14th, and we have a big, fancy dinner at home, as a family. 

Anyhow, you don't really care about my issues with Valentine's Day, right?  So here are our festive lunches, sort of festive lunches, I worked yesterday then rushed to finish the Valentine's for school and all the family chore stuff.  I had big plans.  None of which worked out just as I'd planned.

Like weddings, the girls have no idea what ideas I was picking from, they are only seeing the final project and they will feel totally and completely LUUUUUUUVVVVVVVD  ;)

LiLi is suddenly becoming picky with fruits, she's decided she doesn't like any of them.  Fabulous news.  So she has two egg salad sandwiches, heart shaped carrots and cucumbers, a kiwi, a slice of cheese, chocolate covered heart shaped pretzels, and a chocolate treat. 

GiGi has a heart shaped hard boiled egg, heart shaped cheese slices, crackers, strawberries, heart shaped carrots and cucumbers, plus the chocolate treats.  They both have apple juice.

 

For snack they have a mix of dried fruits, a rice cake and they will be getting loads of treats at parties.

 

We used our fave easylunchboxes!

Something's Fishy

I've got a couple sushi lovers in this house.  One would eat it every single day if I let her, and she likes the cheap sushi train sort of places, not the yummy high end restaurants.    I'm not complaining, I love sushi too.  Last nights dinner was a great combo of spaghetti and sushi (Daddy surprised us by bringing the sushi home), it was actually a really gross combination, I don't recommend it.  Ever.  Really.  I just had a shiver thinking about it.

But it makes for a great lunch!  This lunch has California Rolls, snap peas (we were out of edamame), a Little Cutie, and dessert sushi.  This stuff is really fun to make and your kids will get a kick out of it! I was out of Swedish Fish, because those things are amazing and I eat them.  All.  Normally, I would stick a swedish fish in the center of a very flat slice of rice crispy treat, then I roll it up, sushi roll style and finally roll a layer of fruit leather on the outside of all that.  These just have rice crispy treats and fruit leather, still a fun treat, minus the fish.



They both have lemonade to drink and a package of dried seaweed to round out the meal. 
For snack they have homemade granola bars and dried cherries.

Lunch for Mom

I'm going to be at school all day today and a Mom's got to eat too! It got me thinking about all of you who work outside the home too, what do you do every day for lunch?  Every once in a while I'll be featuring some lunches for the older set.

Lunch for this Mom almost always includes a salad. I LOVE salads!  It's a sickness, sort of, because it's sort of healthy. 
My salad today is piled high with all sorts of goodies.  Swiss cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, turkey, orange bell pepper.  I have a little container of vinigrette to top it with.  I threw in a couple of whole wheat crackers, a few starburst (because I like a little sweet too) and some freeze dried strawberries. 

I'm having a hard time waiting till lunch to eat this!  Just knowing it's in the fridge waiting for me is making me a little bit crazy and hungry!

Lili's Turn

LiLi's turn.  She was a little jealous that GiGi is big enough to pack lunches (use a knife), so with some help she made these healthy little meals.   We worked on packing a lunch for a kiddo with some food allergies, hope this fits the bill. 

 

 

 

 

Lili packed some "Mystery Meat" Ghosts (Chicken breast sliced thin and puckered up a little to look like little ghosts, she added the mystery meat part, but there is absolutely no mystery!)  Mwahahaha Mushrooms (no idea how to spell her maniacal laugh), Toad Eye tomatoes, Snake Scale snap peas, Goblin Smiles (orange slices) and some candy corn and creme pumpkins made in a totally peanut free/nut free facility.  (Our little food allergy friend may not be able to have those, but his Mom can switch those out for another sweet treat.)

 

Not pictured but included are a box of organic chocolate milk and a little bag of pirates booty.

 

For snack they both have some banana bread and a little pear.