Sh....Don't Tell My Hubby

I've been organizing the whole house (it really, really, really needed it!) in an effort be ready for school to start, including my lunch making supplies.   I had no idea, NONE, that I had sooooo much stuff.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much I have.  The girls kept coming into the kitchen and looking at me like maybe it was in their best interest to call that show "Hoarders" and report me.

It's done now.  I got about half way through and wanted to quit, I wanted to turn on "Dance Moms" or something equally outrageous and forget Mt. Bento in the middle of the kitchen. I'm better for it.  All the containers have their tops, or were recycled.  All the bins are sorted and labeled.  Lunch creating can happen easily now.

 

What are you slightly obsessed with? Come on, comment. Make me feel better.

Drum Roll Please....

And the winner is CARRIE BAIRD!  Congratulations Carrie, email me your address and I will get your prize mailed off to you asap!  Thank you all, and I look forward to sharing lunch with.

2littlelunches@gmail.com

Celebrate! It's Back to School!

How is it possible that we are talking about back to school already?  Didn't we just start summer vacation...sure seems that way to me!  I love having my kiddos around, but there is just something about the start of a new school year that gets me excited.  I'm not sure if it's the shopping opportunity, the organizing, or the smell of fresh supplies, but I love Back to School time, and I love a chance to celebrate!  What better way to celebrate then to include my friends in the fun.

There is so much to be excited about this year, lots of changes and new adventures.  GiGi has asked; and we decided it was for the best; to be in traditional school.  Which means lunches 5 days a week! And lunches geared more towards a tween and not a grade schooler.  LiLi will still be home with me (homeschooling), but will be at school on Mondays...so cute lunches for her!

I've been going through all my lunch making supplies and adding more then a few things, but I always seem to go back to my favorites.  That's what this giveaway is made up of, some of my favorite bento creating tools.

 

This includes 2 sets of re-usable silverware, green silicone liners, multi colored picks, Neapolitan silicon liners, three easy lock containers, 2 re-usable ice sheets, apple, star and scalloped cookie cutters and 2 re-usable snack bags.

 

These are things I use really every time I pack a lunch, things that are kid  tested, and Lunch Lady approved!

 

You can enter by:

Commenting here on this blog post

Commenting on the Two Little Lunches Facebook page

Or sharing the blog/FB page with friends...just comment that you shared on either the blog post or FB

 

 

This contest is open only to residents of the Continental US.  It will end 8/27/12 at 9:30 a.m. PST.  Package will be mailed by 8/30/12, through USPS.   Winner will be generated by RandomPicker.com

 

Good luck friends, can't wait to see who will win!

Happy Halloween, A Lunch That Raises The Spirit

It's here, Halloween is here!  I may be more excited then my kid's.  I love any reason to celebrate and today is no exception!  I've been up early baking and creating and I can't wait for the girls to come downstairs and see their little lunches, I know their going to howl with delight.

Today's lunch is so sweet; I mean spooky, filled with black cats, bats, spiders and ghosts.

This little lunch has a Halloween Pasta salad, filled with veggies and a vinaigrette, a few pieces of smokey salami, speared with my cute Dollar Tree picks, a handful of cheddar cheese bats and cats, two bloody black cat (I mean cherry) hand pies, some trick or treat candy and finally some snack mix.   I also threw in an apple and a thermos of warm and spicy cider.

Just a shot of our full lunch

This pasta was too cute not to share...I get lots of fun shaped pasta from Cost Plus World Market.  Even my Hubby loves it!  Next time your in the store you'll have to check out their amazing selection of lunch stuff! 

As always, I packed our lunches into our easylunchbox containers, I cannot say enough how amazing these little boxes are!

For My Little Pumpkins

You may find this hard to believe, but I really don't like carving pumpkins.  The innards just gross me out...which is fitting for this spooky time of the year.  Of course, my kiddos love it and we all love freshly roasted pumpkin seeds! (Which by the way are totally healthy, yummy and easy.  I'll put the directions on the bottom of this post.)
This little lunch is about all things pumpkin.  Given my aversion to sticking my hand into the gooey mess, pumpkin may be my favorite fall ingredient so we've been eating loads of pumpkin bread, donuts, muffins, pie...and then a friend shared a recipe for pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, and Oh My!

This little lunch was so easy to throw together and the girls loved it.  We have a little pumpkin bar, a half of an orange with a face drawn on in food safe marker, a variety of tomato's (I drew a face on one), a hard boiled egg, 4 cheese quesadillas and some little pumpkin candies.

I used my easylunchboxes, as always and my Wilton food safe pens, I packed the girls thermos with apple cider and they were in heaven...I would have packed some pumpkin seeds but they have already met their demise.

To Roast Pumpkin Seeds

Clean seeds in water, make sure all of the pulp is removed (pumpkin guts)

Oil a baking sheet and spread the seeds in an even, single layer

Sprinkle with salt (I use sea salts) you can add any other seasoning too

cook for 2 hours at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes

No need to wait for them to cool, they're delicious warm!

There's A Mummy In My Tummy

No really, there is!  Actually, there are a few in there...chocolate ones, butter ones...yummy in my tummy ones!  (Wait till you see these cupcakes)  With Halloween just around the corner I've been inspired to make all sorts of spooky, sweet filled lunches.  
GiGi, my oldest, really wanted to be a Mummy for Halloween, but my Hubby and I weren't sure we were ready to venture into the dark side of costumes.  We sort of view Mummy's as a gateway costume to the icky, gory, bloody costumes (we're a little overprotective).  So I gave her a Mummy lunch she could really sink her teeth into, she very pleased to have been given a treat and not a trick.

In the top corner we have our Mummy cupcakes (this one is chocolate cake, and I used a flat tip and just spread the frosting in ribbons that overlap and crisscross, and added two chocolate chips for eyes).  Some spooky owl carrot pieces in our haunted graveyard, two biscotti spread and jam sandwiches, some bat and cat cheese bits, a little bit of scary trail mix and a sliced apple.  
I attempted to write RIP on the bread with strained strawberry jam, but it absorbed into the bread really quickly...I should have used my letter cutters and fruit leather (next time), and I used sushi grass to line the graveyard.  I added a can of blood, I mean V8 juice, to bulk up the fruits and veggies and because it sort of went with the theme.

Bento Heaven!

In the heart of Seattle, is a mall...a fabulous little spot located right on the monorail.  Inside this mall, on the very bottom floor, right by the parking garage elevator is a glorious store for all you lunch packing families.  Everything in this store is $1.50 (unless otherwise marked, but frankly it was in Japanese so I had no idea if it was otherwise marked), and they have everything! Literally.  My dear Husband; who doesn't always really understand my obsession with cute, healthy lunches; was throwing stuff in my basket like no body's business.  He hates shopping.  But he got into the groove in Daiso.  I had to go back through the pillage and pull out the animal care products and the cleaning products (in his defense, everything was in Japanese...well except the pictures). 
I came home with so many wonderful things, and a new excitement for packing lunches!  Plus a few things for the next giveaway.  And as promised, I'm posting some pictures and sharing all the information about Daiso, and giving up mad props to one of my best girls.  Alisha, you rock!  Our next girls weekend will include a drive North and hours in this store.

A three pack of cute little containers (and I asked the saleslady about it being BPA free...she said, "I don't speak English")  and some great cutters.  Classic bird and bunny shapes that are really popular in traditional Japanese bentos.

More little cutters, with face shapes too! I have maybe never been so excited.  And flags that my DH thought were cute, so we had to get them. Plus some beautiful crystal like picks, all sorts of cute shapes, but the little bird is my favorite (we call our little one LiLi Bird).

More picks.  Can you ever really have enough?  And the plaid! Could it get any better? 

And more picks....The ones on the right are pretty classic Japanese style picks with cute little shapes, based on a vegetable farm.  The ones on the left are a mix of picks and flags.

Cute little containers for sauces and dips (and I found these in the health and beauty section) and you guessed it, more picks!

Daiso Japan is located in The Westlake Shopping Center in Seattle, WA.  Their phone number is

(206) 447-6211

If you're lucky enough to live in or around Seattle, I am so jealous.  If your planning a trip there add this to your list of "got to do", it's on the monorail, so you can start at the mall and end at The Space Needle!