Smile - it's Friday

Today's lunch is a quick and simple again :)

A sandwich decorated with Nutella and white chcocolate chips to make a face, three yoghurt star cookies, 1/2 an apple with letter cinnamon cookies that spell HI and a mini cereal bar :)

One of my other kids wanted kid shushi. So I made Nutella, Jelly and Turkey with celery and carrot ones. All you do is roll a piece of bread flat with a rolling pin or glass, fill, roll and cut in about 1/3 :)
There is a great How-To make Kid Sushi over at MommyGoggles :)
I also backed a muffin cup with granola and decorated it with white chocolate chips, Nutella and a carrot mouth. There is also a kid energy bar, veggie sticks and cinnamon cookies. A snack lunch with a smile :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

I am so glad it's Friday ;)

To Each Their Own

My kids figured out very quickly yesterday that sandwiches decorated with melted chocolate are something very yummy and asked last night what else I can make besides faces.

Well, I decided to make everyone their very own special sandwich after hearing all their suggestions.

Son #1 who plays the cello got this Cello Lunch. I cut the cello shape out of bread and decorated it with strings by using melted chocolate and a sandwich bag. I cut one of the edges off the sandwich bag, filled it with melted chocolate and decorated away. After the chocolate set I pasted it with more melted chocolate onto a separate sandwich and sealed the edges with more chocolate. I also packed a lunch box size cereal bar, a Jo Jo cookie from Trader Joe's and a white yogurt star cookie. To balance off all this chocolate I also added 1/2 an apple stenciled out with a small moon shaped cheese cutter. Not shown in the picture is ice water and a yogurt :)

Son #2 is a huge Batman fan and got this Batman lunch. I used more of the melted chocolate to draw on the Batman sign and he brought just as his brother a cereal bar, two cookies and 1/2 an apple. Ice water and a yogurt were in the lunch bag.

Son #3 loves trucks and I made him a Recycling Truck Lunch. After drawing the Recycling truck, I added a robot bento pick to make sure the truck had a driver :) He also has the same cereal bar, two cookies and apple and of course ice water and yogurt.

For my daughter I made a Flower lunch. I drew the flower with the rest of the chocolate and added an unpacked cereal bar at the bottom of the sandwich for soil. She brought also some yoghurt star cookies and loved that they were pink and purple :) The cookies are from Trader Joe's and have no artificial food coloring which I love! To round up her lunch I made her apple fries with a cute flower and bee pick :)

Happy Thursday to all of you!

Faces

I made two different face lunches today. One very simple and one healthy.

This one is just very simplistic. I cut out the bread with a wide rim glass but a round cookie cutter works great, too. Then I drew on the face with some left over melted chocolate I had and let it dry for about 2-3 minutes in the freezer. I also packed strawberries and Veggie Straws :)

The lunch here has also Veggie Straws and Strawberries but I added blueberries on some simple bento picks and a lunchbox size cereal bar. The sandwich is cut with a square sandwich cutter and the face is held together with more bento picks. The eyes are blueberries, the hair Veggie Straws and the mouth is a piece of carrot :) I did not intend this but you can see some salad peeking out on the side that nearly looks like the ears of the face :)

Let's Go to School

We were running late this morning and a school bus lunch seemed to be fitting :)


The first lunch has little school bus sandwiches and Trader Joe's Schoolbook cookies to spell BUS, grapes with car bento picks and peanuts with white chocolate chips.

The second lunch has little school bus sandwiches with Trader Joe's Schoolbook cookies spelling ABC, Trader Joe's cheese puffs and Trail mix. Both kids also have ice water and yoghurt today :)

Happy Tuesday!

The Princess and the Cat

My daughter had been asking me for a while for a Princess Bento and I finally found some cute crown bento picks and today was the day. She helped me in the kitchen and told me all about the princess. Her beautiful hair, her crown, her lipstick and of course the royal cat. Mhmm ;) I love talking to my daughter and hearing all her cute stories!

So I tried hard to make the princess - and her cat. The sandwich is a Nutella sandwich cut into a circle with a glass. Her hair are carrot shavings and she has a fruit strip and sprinkle hairclip. Her eyes are food gel and her lips (of course she is wearing lipstick) are made out of fruit strip, too.

 I am not really good at making animals so I added some Trader Joe's Cat Chocolate cookies to represent the royal cat and some grapes with carrot and fruit strip flowers to make a garden.

Enjoy your Friday! Happy Weekend!

First Day of Spring

Hooray for the first day of Spring!

We only packed snack today since two of the kids are home but I got to use our new butterfly snack box :)

 There are ladybugs and bees and of course lots of flowers. I used the garden bento picks which included bees, ladybugs and daisies to decorate the blueberries and strawberries. Of course we needed a jelly bunny sandwich which is nestled on some butter salad grass with carrot and cheese flowers inmidst more jelly flower sandwiches, making the snack box look like a spring garden.

Enjoy the weather today and Happy Spring,

Under The Sea

I found some cute Underwater creature cupcake picks and some new cookie cutters at the store this weekend and had to of course try them out today :)

I packed some Vanilla Goldfish cookies with a cute Turtle pick, some Strawberry Fig Newtons sand dunes with a Octopus pick and made a Whale Nutella Sandwich with a blueberry and bread crust eye and a bread crust smile on blueberry waves.

Happy Monday,

P.S. I have to apologize for the picture quality. I used my phone since my camera has gone missing ;)

Spinach-Parmesan Muffin

I dropped a whole carton of eggs yesterday when I got home from the store and decided to quickly salvage what I could and make some healthy and maybe even green muffins. I decided on spinach muffins since my kids love spinach. I found a great recipe from Sugarlaws and went to work.

I did not have all the ingredients so I tweaked the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
8 whole eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
110-ounce packages of frozen spinach
2 TBL spoons chopped onion

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup grated cheese of your choice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Microwave spinach acording to directions and stop a couple of minutes before cooked through.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add onions, fry until translucent. Add spinach.

4.Sautee spinach and onions for about 5 more minutes and season with salt and pepper

6. Beat eggs in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper

7. Grease muffin cups generously.

8. Divide spinach mixture and cheese into ten muffin molds. Fill to 3/4 full. Pour egg mixture over spinach so that each cup is nearly full.
8. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, or until eggs are set and browned on the tops.

These muffins rise and crisp up nicely in the oven. Plus, they are absolutely delicious.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For more St. Patrick's Day themed lunches click here for our Blog Hop :)

Stars and other things

The lunches today are lunches I made this week but never got posted. Above is my 5 year old's wish to have a Nutella man sandwich :) So we made a Nutella sandwich and cut the Nutella man out with a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. He has mini chocolate chip eyes and a pretztel mouth. My son also got strawberries and blueberries, peanuts with some more chocolate chips and a small silicone muffin cup filled with Goldfish crackers in star and moon shapes :)

This lunch I made for my 6 year old who wanted a Star Wars lunch on a busy morning, so I just made a chicken and salad sandwich, placed two star crackers from the Goldfish Adventure Mix on it after drawing on eyes with food marker and of course we needed light sabers. Luckily, I found two and done was the Star Wars themed lunch. We also packed more Goldfish crackers in star and moon shapes and  Strawberries with carrot stars :)

Happy Friday and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

If you need some ideas... check out Tuesday's St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop

Simple and Fast Lunch

I did not have a lot of time this morning but I still have a child that is undergoing CMT testing (Connecticut Mastery Test) and a finickey eater, so the lunches above were a quick and healthy way to make sure they get a good lunch today.

My oldest got the lunch at the top. A thin Deli sandwich bread filled with lettuce, ham and cheese. I also packed Goldfish pretzel cracker and applesauce and some cinnamon letter cookies from Trader Joe's that spell out Math :) Not shown is a yoghurt and a waterbottle that also were packed in his lunch box container :) Quick but filling and refueling after a test :)

My youngest son had rice shapes on salad with carrots, also applesauce and peanuts with a couple of mini chocolate chips. On top of the peanuts is a small container with sprinkles that he can sprinkle on his applesauce when he opens it :) He also had a yoghurt and waterbottle in his lunchpack :)

The rice shapes are just rice pressed into cute shapes. You can find them in many places but I got mine here. You scoop the rice into the shape, press down and press from the other side to release the shape. The great thing is that it takes no time, especially if you have left over rice and the rice is a little compressed and so easy to be picked up by little hands and eaten like finger food. You can also season the rice or even put food coloring in it to make it more fun :)

Happy Thursday,

Happy Pi Day!

I could not resist and had to make a special lunch for Pi day (3/14) today! π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any Euclidean circle's circumference to its diameter. π is approximately equal to 3.14. The area of a circle is equal to π times the square of the radius of the circle. ~ Wikipedia

I made an open faced waffle sandwich with Nutella (inspired by BentOnBetterLunches) representing a circle and topped it with cinnamon number cookies from Trader Joe's. I also packed strawberries and a Lime Jello topped with more cinnamon letters :) 

For more Pi lunches come and check out BentoForKidlet, MommyandMeLunchbox, DianaRambles and BentOnBetterLunches. 

Enjoy Pi Day!

St. Patrick's Day Lunch Idea

Here is an early St. Patrick's Day Lunch to give you some ideas for Saturday :)

I made a Leprechaun Cheese Sandwich out of Whole Wheat bread cut with a glass into a circle. I carved the hat out of a piece of bread but you can also use food markers to first trace a shape and then cut it out with a vegetable knife. The shamrock is carved out of a Granny Smith apple. I traced it first with food markers and then carefully followed the lines with a knife and then gently lifted the skin off the apple. The rim of the hat is made from aforementioned apple and the belt buckle is a piece of Mango with a smaller piece of apple skin. I made the Leprechaun's eyes out of cheese and food marker and his hair and beard are carrot shavings. The only other thing I added were green grapes with shamrock bento picks and a fruit rainbow. I used thinly sliced strawberries, oranges, mango, green apple and blueberries. I only had two shamrock bento picks so I used shamrock shaped confetti I found at the supermarket to decorate the fruit rainbow.

I think it is cute and my kids are used to not eating any of the picks, so I can be sure they won't accidentally eat them ;)

I hope you got some ideas for making your own St. Paddy's Day Lunch and for more inspiration please hop over to BentOnBetterLunches and see her great lunch ideas. From there you can follow our St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop all the way back here :)

Enjoy and have an early Happy St. Patrick's Day!

P.P.S.: And for more Rainbow Fun follow the Rainbow to the Rainbow Conncetion and many more Rainbow Ideas :)

The Results of the Funbite GiveAway are in...

.... and the Winner is: Liga

Please email me your information @ luncheswithloveblog@gmail.com

Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected :)

Today feels like Spring

It felt like spring was in the air this morning and the sun seemed to have gained in strength. I was so in the mood for a summer picnic lunch.

So we packed banana and strawberry picks, chocolate chip Goldfish, a healthy muffin with banana, applesauce and chocolate chips  with a blueberry on top held by a pick and a star shaped Nutella sandwich. Ok, I admit. I was in the mood for chocolate, too :)

So, soak up the first rays of promising sun and Happy Monday, everyone!

P.S. Stay tuned for the FunBites GiveAway Winner

CMT Lunch Part 2

Today's CMT Lunch is packed with healthy refueling food: trail mix, strawberries and blackberries, yogurt, a whole grain chicken and salad sandwich with cheese letters and a Goldfish star cracker, a healthy muffin and our new family favorite: No Bake Bites. I originally found them on Pinterest and then here. They are easy to make with ingredients from your pantry and are perfect for a testing week like this.

Don't they look delicious?

Happy CMT Week and two more days of testing :)

We Heart FunBites and GiveAway!

I am excited to say that FunBites asked me to review their product the Luv It! food cutter. I found that the food cutter is very easy to use and fun if you have little ones that want to help you.

It works best on tougher surfaces like pancakes, toast, melon, carrots and quesadillas. My kids loved to get involved and actually helped create some fun lunches with our new FunBites Luv It! Just place the cutter on the food, rock the cutter from side to side, insert the popper top and pop out come the cute shapes as seen above :)

We of course made the heart shaped sandwich first but discovered very fast that it is fun to play around with the shapes and puzzle together new creations. Besides the heart, the favorites were sailboats - what else can it be in a Navy family ;)

Once they discovered the possibilities everyone was involved and we even broke out the food markers. It was really fun and one of my kids even asked to pack his own lunchbox tomorrow if he can make his own sandwich (results not typical ;)

 And the best part: FunBites offered to give away one Luv It! to one of my readers, so here is how to enter and GOOD LUCK!

The GiveAway is open to US residents only! 

Each person has SIX chances to enter and a winner will randomly be drawn using random.org.

To enter you must leave a comment on this blog post for each entry requirement.

1. Like Funbites on Facebook

2. Publicly join my blog by clicking on the link of the right side of the page. If you are already a member just leave me a comment saying you that you are already are a member. :)

3. 'Like'  Lunches With Love on Facebook. If you have already done this just leave a comment that you are already a fan.

4. Share my giveaway on Facebook.

5. Follow me on Twitter

6. Tweet about my giveaway and don't forget to mention me @luncheswithlove

The GiveAway will end at 11:59 Pm EST on March 11th and a winner will be announced on March 12th. Please email me at LunchesWithLoveBlog at Gmail Dot Com to claim your prize.

Please leave seperate comments for your entries or they won't count! GOOD LUCK!

To triple your chances check out Bentorrific, Bobbi's Bentos and Veggie-Bentos for other FunBites Giveaway!


... and check out all my friends who are having GiveAways, too:

FunBites Luv It! GiveAway @ Bobbi's Bentos

FunBites Luv It! GiveAway @ Bentoriffic

Healthy Habits plate GiveAway ends 3/9  @ BentOnBetterLunches

MOMables Subscription GiveAway ends 3/9 @  Family Fresh Meals

MOMables Subscription GiveAway ends 3/10 @ Crazy-Maybe

Coach purse ends 3/11 @ BentoSchoollLunches

CMT Lunch

It is CMT week this week in Connecticut (a standardized test for grades 3-5). So, I wanted to make a fun lunch for my oldest son...

He had a chicken and salad sandwich with cheese on whole grain bread, trail mix with a few chocolate chips Goldfish cookies and strawberries, blueberries and a couple of strawberry stars. Not pictured is also a chocolate chip muffin with banana, applesauce and flax seeds (for extra mind power) added. I made the letters on the sandwich out of thinly sliced carrots and used alphabet cutters to stencil them out. I then pressed them into the bread so they would not move :)

Happy CMT week, CT!

Fruity Lunch

Inspired by Meet the Dubien's Smoothie 101 I made us all Smoothies this morning and they were a big success!! I used frozen Bananas, Strawberries and Mango, Berry Kefir, Pomegranate Berry Yoghurt and Orange Juice, mhmmm.

Check out her post here if you are like me and hate to measure or just want to be spontaneous and use what you have but need some ideas! Plus, she has great tips on how to make big batches and freeze for those hectic mornings :)

I made lunch sticking with the same theme of fruity breakfast and included blackberries, strawberries, Goldfish crackers and a toasted waffle :)

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Happy 108th Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We love Dr. Seuss at our house and to celebrate his birthday I wanted to incorporate our favorite books, well, and the upcoming movie ;)

The Cat in the Hat

This sandwich is a Dr. Seuss inspired inside out ham and cheese sandwich. The filling is on top and the top of the sandwich on the bottom. I filled it with cream cheese so my kids can eat it as is :) The Cat in the Hat hat is made with American cheese and ham slices and there is also Goldfish crackers on a Fig Newton to represent Red Fish, Blue fish. Green Eggs and Ham is a piece of cheese with a cucumber egg yolk that I colored in with food coloring. The green egg is resting on turkey mini pepperonis since the kids prefer that to ham :)

And this Cat in the Hat inspired lunch is a round Nutella sandwich decorated with cheese eyes and food markers. The hat is made out of a Gala apple and I removed the peel to create the red and white stripes. The bow is also made out of the other half of the apple. On the side is a Fig Newton with two Goldfish crackers to represent red fish, blue fish and the grapes and apple were my sons idea. He thought it looked Dr. Seuss-ish ;)

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

The one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish lunch is a half a peanutbutter sandwich decorated with Goldfish crackers and food coloring to resemble the book cover. I also added a Fig Newtown with the letters READ stencil out of fruit strips and popcorn. I originally posted this lunch on Wednesday for Read Across America :)

and of course The Lorax

My two older kids wanted to have a Lorax lunch. The Lorax sandwich is cut and shaped out of bread, and the eyes are cheese and food coloring. I added the Lorax trees made out of carrot shavings and celery and all Dr. Seuss lunches need the red and white stripes so I made little cherry tomato and cheese picks. :)

Have a great Read Across America and Dr. Seuss Birthday - Day!

And now hop over to Shannon's blog and check out what she did for Dr. Seuss Day :)



This blog is part of the Dr. Seuss Blog Hop by Bento Bloggers & Friends :)

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

For more Dr. Seuss ideas click here: