Showing Your Spots

Today's lunch brought to you by LiLi's favorite leopard print shoes.  She asked me to make her a matching lunch and I was so disappointed that I didn't have a leopard cookie cutter, I need to be shopping for one!  So I did the next best thing, polk a dots!

LiLi's lunch has grapes, fruit leather dots, round cucumbers and carrots, a cucumber sandwich with cheddar dots, granola bars cut in circles and a few girl scout cookies because some one other then me needs to eat them!

GiGi has the same thing...but she has a jam and cream cheese sandwich.

The shoes that inspired a lunch!

Always Be Prepared

Here is a list with some of the things I use...I may post pictures (but I don't want my Hubby to know just how big the collection actually is).  I will try to include links to as many things as possible, but pictures at the very least.

First, and most importantly, you need good containers.  I would recommend starting with containers from http://www.easylunchboxes.com/.  These are hands down the best, easiest to use lunch boxes ever! Besides you can get a lot of food in them!   Lunch Bots are great too, and come in a variety of sizes and compartments. http://www.lunchbots.com/    The Container Store carries a large variety, but none of them are favorites here.   Sanrio (the makers of Hello Kitty) make wonderful bento boxes, and most include silverware!  http://shop.sanrio.com/hello-kitty-lunch-case-with-utensils/59810-201008,default,pd.html  Finally do a search on EBay and Amazon for bento boxes, you'll find some great, genuine bento boxes.   And don't forget to shop at local Asian and Japanese markets.

You'll have lots of choices and you'll want to experiment.  Some days you'll want to pack a smaller lunch but include a thermos for soup or pasta.   If you don't have a way to heat hot foods, you'll want to invest in a Thermos as well.

Separating foods might not be important to every one, but my girls really prefer things not to touch.  So I use a lot of silicon holders.  I initially bought the Wilton brand, they are readily available, but expensive.  http://www.wilton.com/store/site/department.cfm?id=DA7CB637-423B-522D-F493CCF30B9364A2&fid=DA7CB657-423B-522D-FA96208D65BFD2EA

I've found that Cost Plus World Market has some great options; lots of colors and shapes and they are very reasonably priced.  I believe your get 6 holders for about $2.50.  Also the Japanese Grass that is used in sushi trays is fun to use and changes up the look of your lunches!  http://www.japanbargain.com/servlet/the-1570/Sushi-Balan,-Sushi-Baran,/Detail


Cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes will add to the fun in your lunches and will have your little ones wondering what lunch will look like each day!  Use them to create a theme, and to cut veggies, fruit, sandwiches, cheese...the possibilities are endless.  I think that the metal cutters work best, and you'll want a variety of shapes and sizes.  For example I have about 15 different heart shaped cutters, they range from about a half inch to 5 inches.

Food safe pens will allow you to draw faces, add details and write notes to your kids on their food! They'll really get a kick out of it and so will their friends.  Your child might not love cheese, but what if the had a little Baby Bell circle colored like a soccer ball?  That might make them brave enough or interested enough to try a bite or two.

Picks and decorative forks are the final layer of fun.  If you do a search for bento picks on Amazon hundreds of these darling little guys come up.  The selection is amazing...from zoo animals to stems and leaves...if you can imagine it, they sell it.   Don't overlook The Dollar Tree and your neighborhood grocery store.  Holiday cupcake picks are a great addition and they're generally pretty inexpensive.    The Dollar Tree sells holiday tick tack toe games, I buy them then throw out the game board, your left with 10-12 darling holiday picks that I can use over and over again.   At the grocery store you can find frilly tooth picks, pirate swords, bamboo sticks, and Wilton cupcake picks.

And finally, make it fun for you too! You have to pack these little cuties, so make sure your enjoying it.  Love notes on a not very fancy lunch go a long way in dressing it up, treats that are holiday themed will bring squeals of joy, just cutting things into little pieces and using picks can dress up a lunch, and as I find great things I will always share where I've found them!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Well, the snow is finally here.  It's just not sticking.  But the freezing temps inspired today's lunches, I really wanted a lunch that would warm the girls from the inside out, and that had lots of fiber to keep them full.  We still have our fingers crossed for a good storm tonight and in the meantime we'll enjoy the charming feeling of living in a virtual snow globe.

Today's lunches are packed in Lunch Bots, they are great metal containers if you don't want to use plastic.  They come in all sorts of shapes and configurations, and are color coded.  I'm using the orange box, it is medium in size and has a center divider.  We also have the blue, which is the same size, but not divided.  The medium size isn't huge, but it's the perfect size to go along with a cup of soup or a thermos of pasta.

I also used 1 cup sized Klip It containers, you can find these containers at major retailers and The Container Store for about $4.00, and they are made of BPA free plastics.  Also, on a side note all of my containers go in the dishwasher on the top shelf, I haven't got time to hand wash a bunch of stuff...I need it to make the lunches!
Today's lunch is Chicken Noodle Soup, carrot flowers, cucumber butterflies, orange wedges, a granola bar and some chocolate bear cookies.  Both girls have an organic chocolate milk to drink.

Little Italy

I was really in the mood for pasta salad, so I created a whole lunch based on this yummy, veggie loaded treat!  It was such and easy and fun lunch to throw together, I would have loved to put in a few more fruits but I couldn't find any berries or melon that looked very good at the store. 

I also used a new Bento container.  You won't believe this, but I got these at The Container Store (my idea of Heaven) for only $6.00!!!!  You heard right! And look at all the food that I've packed in there, more then enough for any child, more then enough for me, probably enough for my Hubby.  If you were using these for your Husband and you wanted to put a sandwich, don't worry there is tons of space.  You could fill this full of all sorts of great eats, and pack an apple or banana separately to bulk up the meal.
Both girls got the same lunch, and they were both so excited for these new bento boxes.  Gigi's is blue and LiLi's is pink, everyone is happy with their favorite colors!   This lunch has salami ribboned on toothpicks, tomatoes and carrot slices, pickles and olives, and cheese cubes...the toothpicks and little bits really do make the food taste better.  They got a half a banana, a handful of raw almonds, and that yummy, colorful pasta salad, plus two samaos cookies! 
We've been selling Girl Scout cookies for the last few weeks and I finally broke down and opened a box.  Now to just eat two a day.

I Really Wanted A Snow Day

This might possibly be the worst lunch EVER.  No, really.  We had a really late night at Chez Little Lunch, and I woke up to big, fluffy, white stuff, falling gently from the sky and promptly melting as soon as it hit the ground.  I was so disappointed, I just wanted to cuddle in and do school at home today...not get motivated to pack a fancy, cute, healthy lunch.  Let me just say, I failed on all three counts today, but alas we all have these days.  I promise to do better next time!

Lunch is the same for both GiGi and LiLi, it has apple sauce, goldfish crackers, a little cutie, some carrot sticks, almonds and craisons, some summer sausage (homemade) and a little bit of brownies.  My lunch has a big bit of brownies, it's helping to cheer me up.   Gigi eats her applesauce by dipping her crackers in it...sounds totally gross to me, but she swears by it.  If your brave enough to try it, let me know what you think! 

The Lunch List

I've gotten a lot of requests for a list of lunch ideas and some links to some of my favorite bento supplies. My plan is to divide this into two separate posts, one today and maybe one on Thursday.  I'll share with you that my lunches tend to be a variety of things the girls love, left overs and things I'd like them to try.  And I would really encourage you to get the kids involved in meal planning and shopping.  They will be so much more adventurous if they get to chose a new fruit or vegetable to try!

Another bit of advice, try out new things in small doses. Your only sending little bits of each food type, so if your child doesn't eat the mashed sweet potato but does eat all of their carrot sticks they'll still be getting a good source of vitamins.  The next lunch you can try something different!   Don't be discouraged.  My girls don't like sandwiches, which happen to be a great platform for really cute bentos.  So every once in a while I'll sneak in the sandwiches they will sort of eat, and if they only eat a few bites of each sandwich, well, thats ok because they've probably eaten all their fruits and veggies! 

Some of my favorite lunches include;
Tea Time; cucumber sandwiches, little scones or muffins, fruits and veggies cut into tea pot and tea cup shapes, a few tiny treats like little cookies or cakes.
Italian Picnic; pasta salad, salami slices, cheese wedges, lovely crackers, melon cubes, marinated artichokes and bell peppers, and a stick of biscotti.
Indian Platters; Hummus, pita wedges, cucumber slices and carrot sticks, mango, grape tomatoes and a little cookie or other sweet.   (You can whip up your own hummus, or buy those convenient containers are Costco.)
NY NY; homemade pretzels or a bagel and cream cheese, a little container of mustard for dipping, a little apple (for the big apple) or apple slices, dill pickles (deli food, right?), some sour apple rings, anything cut with a Statue of Liberty cookie cutter (think cheese or deli meat).
A Basic Lunch:  Pick your theme using cookie cutters...sandwiches or meat and cheese, cucumbers, carrots, kiwi, melon, apple, bananas...these are all easy to cut.  Think of themes like flowers, holidays, sports....
Summer Picnic; Baked or fried drumstick, potato salad, fruit kabobs, a bit of cobbler or pie, deviled eggs, coleslaw and olives.
Soups On Chowda; (Fill a Thermos with very hot water first to heat it up) fill with clam chowder, in a side container add fish crackers, fish shaped cucumbers and melon slices, and a fish shaped cookie or granola bar.
Soups On Lil' Chick; Fill a Thermos with some Chicken noodle soup and a side container with crackers, chicken shaped carrots, egg shaped cheese slices (decorate with food safe pens), and a cute brownie cut like a little chick!
Italian Feast; Spaghetti in a Thermos and a container with some garlic bread, a green salad, some fresh berries and a little cupcake.
Sushi; Throw together a few California Rolls, some dessert rolls made by rolling two organic fruit leathers together (use two different colors), add a little roll up sandwich with turkey, lettuce and cheese if you need more protein, I'd slice fruit in rounds and stack them with cute picks to finish it off.

It might be easier to just list all of the great food items I like to have on hand, so that throwing together lunch is easy...maybe another post! I have oodles of lunch ideas, so I will continue to post them but these are a few to start you off.  Just build a lunch based on a variety of colors, textures,  and tastes...a bright lunch will equal a healthy lunch!

LoveBugs Brought Lunch

The Love Bugs are big at our house, big like Santa or the Easter Bunny. Really it's just an excuse for me to create a little magic while the girls still believe...just like every other Valentines Day the girls woke up to little baskets filled with all sorts of little treats. What the girls will soon find out is that the Love Bugs also created some magic in our lunches.

Both the girls have the same lunch today and I had them packed last night! Yippee, a small feet at our house! For this Love filled lunch I pulled out my Wilton Valentine's Day Cookie Cutter collection, it's filled with all sorts of hearts, arrows, x's and o's. Lunch includes carrot and red bell pepper hearts, cheese and ham cut with a variety of shapes, a little cutie with a heart pick, some cinnamon graham crackers, some chocolate and gummy hearts, and a little chocolate Gnome. Hope this lunch warms their hearts and fuels their little bodies!



The little Gnome is made out of a Hershey Kiss, he has a little hat and the heart says, " I hope you Gnome how much I love you!". We used large kisses to make Gnomes for our teachers at the charter school and Awanas.

We've passed out 5 Gnomes so far and so far everyone LOVES them...this is perfect, it sets the scene just the way I had hoped for our little Family Valentine's Day Celebration tonight...don't tell GiGi and LiLi, but we're going to see Gnomeo and Juliet!   Happy Valentine's Day, hope your feeling the love!