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. 

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!

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! 

A Lunch so Easy It's Scary

The girls lunch was packed in a rush last night, total surprise, right?!  Thank Heavens I keep loads of healthy options in the fridge.  The girls have a hard boiled egg; I made the spooky faces with food safe pens; a little mandarin orange, some veggie crackers, sharp cheddar pumpkins, carrot pumpkins and some grape tomatoes, and a few pumpkin peeps.  They also have a frozen yogurt tube that I threw in at the last minute (I'm obsessed with them having enough protein, but it's truly what fuels their bodies) and a box of apple juice.

 

I packed it all in my very favorite easylunchbox containers. 

For snack they both have kettle corn and fruit leather.