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.

Elvis Is In The House

Call me unAmerican but I don't like Elvis.  His music.  His movies.  Him.  Never have.  Never will.  But I gotta admit that he had some pretty good ideas about food.   We're peanut free here, but we're totally WowButter, Nutella and Biscoff friendly so our sandwiches are made with those spreads, feel free to use what ever spread your family loves.

 

We call this our WowBerry Wrap and it's delish!  I use a flour tortilla, filled with Wowbutter and thinly sliced strawberries....it's like dessert for lunch and an especially yummy treat!  Both girls have some grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, pear wedges and brownie bites.   I threw in 100% fruit juice and some whole wheat pretzels.

 

For snack they both have bags of popcorn and Stretch Island fruit leather.

 

This lunch is packed in our favorite easylunchbox containers!

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.

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.

Rainy Day Picnic

Lili requested pasta salad; something she never tires of; for lunch and dinner and breakfast.  (I'm not even sort of kidding.)  Which got me thinking about when I make pasta salads for other people; usually potlucks, picnics and family reunions.  I load it up with veggies and feta and it's really yummy and filling.
It didn't hurt that we had left over fried chicken, because what's a picnic without some cold, fried chicken?!  The only thing really missing was a three layer chocolate cake and I wasn't about to whip one of those up;)  And maybe deviled eggs.   Oh Yum! Now I want some.

Both girls got a couple pieces of chicken (they can heat it up at school if they want or just eat it cold), pasta salad with tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper, cucumber and feta, orange slices, string cheese and some crackers.  They both have lemonade to drink and some oatmeal cookies for dessert.

For snack they have dried mango and caramel rice cakes.

Superbowl Left Overs

There wasn't a lot left over because there wasn't a lot to start with.  We skipped the parties this year in favor of a quiet day at home and ordered in pizza.  It was sort of slim pickings, but it provided the makings for a really quick lunch that the girls adore!

Both of the girls have a slice of pizza and a bread stick, a clementine, baby carrots, a rice crispy treat, and a Stretch Island Fruit Leather, plus an organic milk box.  It's not fancy, but it'll do the trick!

For snack they have dried seaweed and a bag of grapes.

Mom, Where's Lunch?

Aghhhhhhh! I worked yesterday (hence the lack of pictures of yesterdays lunches) and totally spaced unpacking and repacking lunch for today.  Until, that is, when we were walking out the door and GiGi said, "Why don't we have a new lunch?".   I must have looked at her like she'd grown a second head because she gave a rather large sigh and showed me her half eaten lunch, that was in fact from yesterday. 

 Nothing motivates me to move fast then the fear of missing carpool.  Also, nothing helps like having a well stocked fridge and pantry.  (I'm working on making my lunch lists presentable) 

Today's lunches were packed in about 2 minutes, no joke!

The girls have snap peas, blueberries/cherry tomatoes, string cheese, crackers, ham roll ups, mandarin oranges, organic juice and a prepackaged rice crispy treat.  (Yes, store bought, totally processed, saved for moments just like this!)   They both got a bag of cheese nips and apple slices for snack.

Lunch is packed in our easylunchbox containers.

It's A Wrap!

Let's not get crazy here, only one of my kids will eat this wrap (LiLi), so GiGi got a deconstructed wrap, which didn't look nearly as yummy.

The girls both gave a lot of impute on this meal, we were stretching the boundaries of what they're used to.  Because we're a peanut free home we don't eat a ton of sandwiches, but we gotta be real, sandwiches are totally packable!  So this lunchlady is slowly and surely trying to introduce some sandwichy kinds of food into their diets.

 

This lunch has a wrap with ham, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, lettuce and onion.  On the side they both got a handful of grape tomatoes, blueberries, cucumber slices and 2 heart shaped peppermint patties.  I threw in an organic chocolate milk box and a banana and packed popcorn and carrot sticks for snack.  

 

The true test of this wrap will be what's left when they get home.  I'll keep you posted!

 

I packed these lunches in my favorite easylunchbox containers.

Finger Foods for Lunch

I know, I promised awesome lunches...they're coming, honestly.  I gotta ease myself back into the swing of things.   The girls were actually pretty excited about these lunches when they saw me packing them, they both said, "These look like normal kid lunches!"   You'd think I was packing them carob and gorp for lunch.

Both girls have the same lunch today!  Score one for Mom.  They each have mini corndogs; with mustard to dip in; dried blueberries, carrot sticks, a mandarin orange and a little pack of redvines (I love getting peanut free treats when Halloween and Valentines Day roll around, they're just the right size for a lunch treat.)   They also have organic milk, a homemade granola bar and some dried mango for snack.   It's not my most exciting lunch, but it'll do the trick!

As always, this lunch is packed in our easylunchbox containers.

Basic Lunches

Holy Smokes, bring back Thanksgiving Break!  I need a break from our week off...boy, did I let things slide.  Including all planning, routine and practical stuff.  I went to the grocery store this morning and I swear I walked around for an hour and left with 2 mangos, some berries, milk, a reading light, some flavored seltzer water and a pack of gum.    It never even occurred to me that I should be thinking about dinner or getting some real food to feed the people that call me Mom.

So dinner was blah and lunches tomorrow will be a little bit too.  But thank goodness I got those berries!  ;)

Gigi has a mixture of fresh berries (I knew those would come in handy), baby carrots, a cup of cream cheese and a bagel (because she only likes it if she can spread the cream cheese herself) some yellow tomatoes, a nutrigrain bar and some Junior Mints (totally Peanut Free! They rock!)...Lili has an orange instead of berries because she'll only eat berries from our garden (I have no idea why, it's the strangest food rule ever!)

They both have organic apple juice too!

For snack they have a bag of popcorn and some Stretch Island fruit leather.

But I Don't Wanna Go To School...

Anyone else have to pry kids out of bed and get them off to school this morning?  Hope they weren't as full of "I don't wanna get up" and "I wish it was still break" and "why can't we just homeschool again?"....truth be told, it was hard for me to get going this morning too. 

That included packing lunches.  I'm sure your burned out with all the cooking and cleaning and shopping from this last week and the grocery store was the last place I wanted to go.  Thank Heavens for leftover veggie trays and fruit trays or my kiddos would be living off of canned fruit and veg for the next day or two!

This lunch is a mix up of all the appetizers present at Thanksgiving dinner...I love a fridge full of appies.  In fact, I could eat nothing but bite size snacks for the rest of my life and be totally content.  Hmmm...this is giving me ideas for dinner tonight;)

This lunch has baby carrots, watermelon, slices of cheddar cheese and summer sausage, a selection of crackers and a couple gingerbread cookies.   They both have organic chocolate milk to go with lunch.

 

For snack they have homemade blueberry muffins and string cheese.

Did You Vote?

I'm a day late on this lunch, but all of America has the beautiful right to vote, so today we are celebrating Democracy and hoping it worked out the way you wanted it to.   The girls' school voted and Romney won by a landslide (which is a surprise being we're in Oregon), but they've been learning all about the 6 main political parties so I'm pleased with their turnout;)  Apparently there was a vote for Mommy, one for Daddy and one for Lauren?  Guess those kindergartners didn't understand exactly what this voting was about, or they weren't happy with their two choices...who could blame them!

This lunch is red and blue, I wish I'd thought about it before tonight and found an elephant and donkey cutter...that would have put this lunch over the top! 
 Both girls have white cheddar stars, salami stars, cucumber stars and carrot strips, cheese it like crackers, organic cut pear cups, and a couple of chocolate chip cookies.  Both girls are taking an organic chocolate milk.

Snack is freeze dried pineapple (this stuff is amazing!) and a homemade granola bar.

Blah! It's Monday

There are days when I would sell my soul to hand the girls 2 bucks to buy a hot lunch; regardless of how I feel about hot lunch; today was one of them.  We got home from a wonderful weekend in Seattle and I was so tired from all the fun, I skipped going to the grocery store to make sure we had some fresh fruits and vegetables in the house.  Probably a mistake.  But it forced me to get creative in packing lunch.

I managed to find a carrot that wasn't too limp and a cucumber that only looked a little questionable.  I always keep organic apple sauce on hand (I know, not quite a fresh fruit...but it'll do!) and we always have loads of cheese.  Thank God!

Both girls got dry Italian salami (also always a staple), aged white cheddar cheese, cucumber and carrot sticks, goldfish crackers, apple sauce for Gigi dried apricots for Lili and leftover Halloween Marshmallows.  GiGi loves to dip her goldfish crackers into the applesauce; sort of like apple pie with cheddar cheese;)

They both are getting an organic chocolate milk.

 

For snack they each have a Stretch Island Fruit Leather and a Caramel rice cake.  Sort of boring, but it's what we had in the pantry!

A True Bento

This lunch looks a lot more like a traditional bento lunch would look, if GiGi and LiLi were little school girls in Japan;)   They both love fish, so when I make it for dinner I always make extras...my girls can't get enough of this good for you, brain food!

Lunch today has some baked salmon, white rice with sesame seeds, dried seaweed sheets, cucumber slices (I wanted to make cucumber salad but ran out of time), sliced permission and juice.   If you haven't tried dried seaweed you should check it out...it has a crunchy, salty taste and it's full of nutrients!

Field Trip Lunches

LiLi and I are headed to The Rice Rock Museum for a field trip and I was at a huge loss when it came time for packing a lunch I'd want to eat too!  (I might be the pickiest eater in our house.)  Lucky for me LiLi is game for just about anything, so I decided on a trio of salads.

1.  A nice big green salad topped with turkey, swiss, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, radishes, topped with a little green goddess dressing! Yum!  
2.  Pasta salad filled with loads of veggies and topped with cheddar cheese and Italian dressing.  Enjoy!
2.  Fruit salad; grapes, cantaloupe and strawberries....Delish!  (I got the fruit salad, LiLi got plain grapes)

I've thrown in tons of extras too, because who knows what we'll feel like eating.  We have fruit leather, granola bars, kettle corn, freeze dried strawberries, cheese crackers and some corn candy as a treat.  We both get a bottle of water for the day.

Grace is taking a similar lunch, but she doesn't like pasta salad so she has some fresh mushrooms instead.

When a Kid Packs Lunch

When a kid packs lunch it looks a lot like this....

In my head, this whole packing went something like those "If You Give A Mouse A Muffin" books.  If you give a 10 and 8 year old free reign, they will start with candy.  Always.  Every time.   Then hopefully they will decide that they should throw in some fruit and maybe a veg (mandarin orange and cucumbers).  This might lead them to some sort of protein, or two.  Because salami is never enough, you probably need a bagel and cream cheese.   While a bagel may seem like enough fiber/carbs, your wrong.  So throw in a granola bar and goldfish to round it out!   When it's all done, there isn't really room for candy so you eat it right then, because who can let candy go to waste?!

That's how I imagined it went.  Even if it went another way; which may have included some arguing, bossing and a little crying...plus a lot of mess...it's packed.  I can live with it.  I can get used to these kids of mine packing a sort of balanced lunch every now and again.  It bought me a few minutes of time just hanging out on the couch, surfing Pinterest. 

Oh, and in this spirit of letting go every now and again and letting the kiddos be in charge they got to pack their own snacks too.  I'm a little freaked out about this part.  I'm fairly certain that GiGi's teacher is going to call tomorrow to make sure I'm okay, that I haven't suffered a seizure or some other medical emergency.   They have bags of sugar cereal. 

Black Cat and Pumpkins

It's official, we go to school in the dark and come home just in time for sunset.  I'm tired.  All of the time.  I forgot how Fall in the North West takes some adjusting too.  (Every year)   I'm loving the Autumn colors, the cozy sweaters and the warm roasts (I seem to be roasting something every day).  
Being cozy seems to also be making me forgetful...I need to remember to see if there is some study about the correlation.   I forgot lunches, until I was in bed and just about to fall asleep.   I knew my brain would never shut off so out of bed I climbed, down to the kitchen...I made lunch by the light of the fridge, it was sort of romantic. 

Both girls got ham roll ups, scary cat carrots, a mandarin orange, school days apple granola bar (these are made in a peanut free facility!), Stretch Island apple fruit leather, whole wheat crackers, scary cat colby jack cheese slices, and some Halloween marshmallows.  They both have organic vanilla milk.

For snack they have dried strawberries and a caramel rice cake.

Make Dinner Work Twice as Hard

I'll admit it.  This might have been the easiest (laziest) lunch I've ever packed!  It took me roughly 1 minute (and that's only because I had to cut the pizza so it would fit in the container).   Oh. My. Goodness.  I live for days like this. 
We're all busy, we all have lists that never stop growing.  Why not make dinner do double duty?  Especially when it's a dinner your kiddos really dig!  (I know, this is the second appearance of pizzaish stuff this week)  My kids would eat loads of stuff left over.  Spaghetti, chicken, pizza, stir fry, salmon...the list goes on and on and it makes your life a lot easier!

Left over pizza, salad (I literally used my hands and grabbed a handful, no shame.), a pear, apple juice and a couple chocolate chip cookies. 

For snack they have apple slices and 2 raspberry Newtons.   It's 6:30 and my list is basically done (well the stuff that I can't put off at least)...looks like I get to sit on the couch and catch up on the DVR!