High Tea For A Royal Celebration

With a Dad from England to say I am in love with anything English is a slight understatement. When I got the chance to share the excitement of a Royal Wedding with my two girls, just like my Mom had done with me 30 years ago I jumped on it.  I realize there has been lots of criticism over the wedding, the expense and opulence and Americans being so enamoured over it when so much tragedy is happening in our own communities...for me the two don't go hand in hand.  I think it's lovely to have a bit of distraction during a bleak time.  I think it's lovely to see two people clearly in love getting married.  And I think it's lovely that for one day things seemed right with the world (or at least the 3 hours of DVR footage that I have). It was only natural to have High Tea today to celebrate the darling couple; what a beautiful bride Kate was; and since today isn't a charter school day our tea was served on English China and not in bento boxes.  I made this tea for the girls, so it's definitely a child's tea complete with cucumber sandwiches and blueberry scones (not super traditional, but super yummy) and a bit of clotted cream.  They also have some pretty fruit kabobs, a bit of veggies and dip, some cheese and chocolate covered strawberries and finally some gummy frogs; because as all girls know; you have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince!

Miss. GiGi takes her tea with cream, very British, and Miss. LiLi prefers hers with just sugar or honey.  I hope that today is just as magical as it was for my girls and I, and of course the newest Royal Family.  Congratulations Prince William and Duchess Catherine!

Easiest Lunch With Easter Leftovers

I hope this lunch finds you feeling as happy as we are.  We had a lovely Easter with family and friends, an as always we had way to much food!  I happily packed lunches this morning (even though I was exhausted and wanted to stay in bed for at least another hour) because all I had to do was open the fridge and viola! lunch stuff, prepped and ready to go!   Lunch can be this easy all the time too, you don't have to wait for a holiday to cook more food then you'll need for one meal.  A little planning in advance and bits and pieces from last nights dinner can have a starring role in lunch the next day or two.

Today's lunches are made entirely from left overs, and they look yummy! There aren't as many fruits and veggies as I would normally pack, but that's OK for one meal.

GiGi's lunch has ham, a hard boiled egg (she doesn't like Deviled Eggs), some veggies from the crudites, a Ruby Roll (made by great Grandma Ruby) and a few pieces of Easter Candy.

LiLi's lunch is basically the same, except for she has deviled eggs.

Hippity Hoppity

Easter is getting closer, and I love this time of year.  It's filled with so much promise, new beginnings, fresh starts...so exhilarating!  First, Easter is special to our family because as Christians, we celebrate the death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, what an amazing blessing.  Second, I love any excuse to plan a fun family event.  And finally it's such a great food time of year, there are so many lovely spring fruits and veggies available and it makes cooking and packing lunches a breeze!

Today's lunches are an Italian Easter (really it was what GiGi requested) and I know it's a stretch, but they sure look yummy!

GiGi's lunch has salami, butterfly cheddar cheese slices and whole wheat crackers, a little cutie, some baby dill pickles, butterfly cucumber slices, mushrooms and carrot coins, two tea cookies and a peep!

LiLi's lunch has salami, butterfly cheddar slices and whole wheat crackers, a little cutie, mini pickles, butterfly cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and two tea cookies and a peep!

These lunches are packed in our Easylunchbox containers.  If your interested in buying some for yourself, click on the link on my main page!

Spring Has Sprung

It's sunny here in the Pacific North West and we're celebrating!  Since it's been a week since I've really packed much for lunch I was out of practice...but the girls we're thrilled with the looks of lunch, we're still a few hours away from actually eating them.  There is nothing more lovely then a spring day in Oregon; the sky is blue like a Tiffany's box, clouds that look like cotton candy, warm, golden sunshine, daffodils and tulips in bloom; it truly is a reprieve from the gloom and gray of winter.

Today's lunches are packed in our Easylunchbox Containers. 
GiGi's lunch has a hard boiled egg, flower cheese and crackers, strawberries, granola bar, carrot and cucumber flowers, mushrooms, pineapple and watermelon flowers and a juice box.

LiLi's Lunch has two egg salad bunny sandwiches, strawberries, flower cheese and crackers, carrot and cucumber flowers and tomatoes, watermelon and pineapple flowers and a juice box.

One Little Lunch

We've had a week at Chez Little Lunches.  There has been very little school happening, and very little cooking.  LiLi has been ill, so we missed charter school on Monday so no lunches!  Nama (my kids name for Grandma A) volunteered to take GiGi to school on Wednesday, THANK GOD!  GiGi needs to get out of the house, and she needs to learn something, from someone who is less distracted then me.  There was only one lunch packed this week, makes for a boring blog post and one of the quickest, easiest lunches I've ever packed.

This lunch has ham slices, pumpkin seeds, orange slices, pretzels, cheddar cheese squares, baby carrots, a banana and some juice. 

Easy Peasy Lunch

There are some days when I'm fairly certain that even the alarm clock seems to be running late.  This was just one of those mornings, nothing was done, no one was in any hurry to get going, and of course we had to be somewhere at a specific time!  Normally I'm pretty organized, I may not have lunches packed the night before, but I generally have bags packed, clothes laid out and a few hours in the morning to get the rest done. 
Not to worry, by having some basics in the pantry and fridge you can pull together a healthy, fast and easy lunch in a few minutes flat.  I made these lunches in about 5 minutes, while eating (shoving) toast into my mouth and alternately yelling at the girls to hurry up.

LiLi's lunch has a handful of snap peas, purple grapes, some cherry tomatoes, a few ham slices, a cheddar cheese wedge and a bunch of whole wheat crackers...I threw in an organic milk to bulk it up even more.

GiGi's lunch has snap peas, strawberries, carrots, some ham slices, a string cheese and a handful of whole wheat crackers and she had an organic vanilla milk to round it out.

Kid's Choice

The Kid's Choice Awards have been on a constant loop at our house all weekend, I'm fairly certain that my love of all things pop culture has created little mini-award show lovers.   I have been listening to little girl talk about who's cool, pretty, and who wore the best clothes (according to a 6 year old, Miley's dress was in fact the BEST EVER)...and it all inspired me for tomorrow's lunches!
I decided that lunch will literally be their choice, they got to create them (these lunches really are that easy to pack) and I gave them only two rules, share and pack a rainbow.   As it turns out, my fashion loving, pop culture princesses take directions pretty well, I couldn't have packed a better lunch myself!

GiGi's lunch; Carrot sticks, a string cheese and crackers, mini sweet peppers, blackberries and blue berries, some ham slices and a baby cake mini pink donut.

Lili's Lunch:  Grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese and crackers, mini sweet peppers, ham, blue berries and a little baby cake donut.

They did help each other pack, so the lunches are pretty similar and I loved the cooperation coming from the kitchen, Go Team Two Little Lunches!   And even more I love my easylunchboxes!