Little Elliot, Big City - a Literary Lunch

This lunch is also posted over at The Little Crooked Cottage as a Literary Lunch. Head over to the fabulous blog of four children's book authors and check out the wonderful Literary Interview with Mr. Pig himself!

Meet Little Elliot, the star of Mike Curato's new book LITTLE ELLIOT, BIG CITY. He is a polka dotted elephant living in a big city. Being small in a big city has it's downsides but nothing is impossible with a friend by your side.

Nina from Mamabelly made a fun snack plate perfect for reading Litte Elliot, Big City and sharing a sweet cupckae with a friend. The snack is made of 

• a cookie butter Elliot sandwich, 
• sprinkles, 
• a bento pick showing Elliot's new friend and a cupcake
• and melted chocolate decorations 

Trader Joe's Lunches

I live too far from the closest Trader Joe's to be able to go regularly but yesterday I was near one and had to stop for a few treats. Today's lunches are filled with some fun Trader Joe's finds - and that's ok since it's Friday!

My middle schooler has in his Easylunchboxes:

• two Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's
• Trader Joe's White Cheddar Corn Puffs
• a lettuce and cheese Turkey sandwich 
• a Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Brownie & Oat bar and
• a fun Lunchbox Love Card with a joke

My Kindergartner has an Easylunchbox with:

• two Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's
• Trader Joe's White Cheddar Corn Puffs
• a bear shaped sandwich with Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter and
• a Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Brownie & Oat bar

And my 4th Grader has an Easylunchbox with:

• two Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's
• Trader Joe's White Cheddar Corn Puffs
• two sandwiches with lettuce and turkey/ham on Trader Joe's pull-apart dinner rolls
• a Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Brownie & Oat bar (not pictured since one of my kids grabbed it and ate it while I tried to take a picture. My tip: buy several packages! They are that good! I of course added a new bar to the lunchbox after the picture)
• and a fun Lunchbox Love Card with a Riddle

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. I simply love shopping at Trader Joe's and wish I lived closer to one of their stores!

Picnic at Home

My daughter is home from school today and I thought it might be fun to pack lunch for a picnic at home (it is 24 degrees outside and way to cold to actually have a picnic outside).

My daughter helped make this cute and simple Thanksgiving inspired lunch:

• a "Turkey" cheese sandwich with mayonaise in our Fit&Fresh Lunch Sandwich Pod
• baby carrots and hummus in our Fit&Fresh 2 Cup Chilled Containers and
• orange slices in our other Fit&Fresh 2 Cup Chilled Containers. 

I packed my lunch in the Fit&Fresh Soft Touch Meal Carrier:

• chocolate Chex Mix
• baby carrots with hummus
• and a Turkey, cheese and lettuce sandwich

It was really fun to pack lunch together and picnic in the living room. Plus, my daughter was so excited she wants the same lunch again tomorrow for school!

For more Fit&Fresh lunch ideas head over to my friend Kristie from Beneficial Bento! She has a great round up posted today!

Skippyjon Jones Snow What - a Literary Lunch

This lunch is also posted over at The Little Crooked Cottage as a Literary Lunch. Head over to the fabulous blog of four children's book authors and check out the wonderful Literary Interview with Mr. Pig himself!

SNOW WHAT written by Judy Schachner is the new exciting adventure of Skippyjon Jones. This time Skippyjon Jones heads into a magical snowy forest of make-believe. Can the seven Chimichangos convince him to wake up Nieve Que, the frozen princess, by kissing her? You just have to find out by picking up your own copy of SNOW WHAT.

We packed a lunch to-go in our Planetbox Shuttle perfect for any closet adventure:

• cucumber trees
• a lettuce and carrot forest
• and of course a Skippyjon Jones sandwich

New Lunchbox Fun

I love lunchboxes. Period. And I love when they make lunch packing and lunch enjoying easier.

Here are a few new ones I am trying out with the kids this week and today's lunches. Which lunchbox is your favorite lunch box currently? Leave me a comment! I'd love to know what works for you!

This lunch is for my 5 year old daughter. She loves to have a choice but really only needs 1/2 a sandwich, fruit, veggies and a dry snack. I love that the Lock & Lock bento box only takes up a little more then half of her lunch cooler so I can add a thermos or reusable drink bottle and it still fits into her small Kindergarten backpack. Plus, the two inserts are removable and you can tailor the lunchbox to your daily needs. Great for small eaters. In the bento box today is packed:

• cucumber slices
• orange slices
• a 1/2 a chocolate spread sandwich
• pretzel crackers

My daughter also brings a daily snack and this Sistema snack box works great for us. She loves applesauce and almost daily brings an applesauce pouch and a small dry snack or veggies. Today we packed a GoGo Spqeez Apple Banana pouch and some left over homemade mud buddies. To make lunch more fun I added a cute topper to make her smile.

This is our new Fit & Fresh Lunch Pak Carrier and I already love the versatility! It fits a whole sandwich for my 4th grader in the bottom of the box and the top tray fits into the same box. You can attach an ice pack to the bottom of the top tray and the lid which makes this easy to pack and your food easy to keep fresh! We are also trying out the Kids' Squeeze Water Bottle. I love that the opening is wide enough to fit ice cubes and because it is a squeeze bottle it is ideal for lunch and for using it during during school in the afternoon. Packed today is:

• a Turkey and lettuce sandwich with a fun topper
• orange wedges
• cucumber sticks and
• homemade mud buddies

Did you spot the fun bento pick? I found it at bento USA and love that you can write on it with a food safe marker. Perfect for entertaining and adding a fun element to lunch!! 

For my picky 8 year old I love using the Goodbyn Bynto right now because it just works for him. It fits just enough food and has just enough space for a little variety. Well, and it perfectly fits our favorite Zbars. That is a good reason to choose a lunchbox right? We packed for him:

• cucumber sticks and two grape tomatoes (fingers crossed the bento pick actually makes it back home today ;)
• orange slices
• a 1/2 chocolate spread sandwich
• pretzel crackers
• and a CLIF Kid ZBar Protein

Here is where I got my new lunch gear (contains affiliate links):

The Templeton Twins Make a Scene - a Literary Lunch

This lunch is also posted over at The Little Crooked Cottage as a Literary Lunch. Head over to the fabulous blog of four children's book authors and check out the wonderful Literary Interviews with Mr. Pig himself!

THE TEMPLETON TWINS MAKE A SCENE is book two of the hilarious Templeton Twin series written by Ellis Weiner and illustrated by Jeremy Holmes. If you have not read book one THE TEMPLETON TWINS HAVE AN IDEA we highly recommend you do! This book is filled with kid-friendly humor, suspense, silliness and many serious words. The narrator is as much part of the book as the reader and gives the reader a quiz after every chapter just to make sure you paid attention. This time around Abigail and John have to outsmart the Dean brothers again, rescue their father and dog and of course the important invention their father built for TAPAS. A must-read for all suspense loving readers!

We packed a suspenseful lunch for clever kids in our Easylunchboxes:

• The Narrator's Guacamole which is mostly coleslaw (recipe in the book) decorated with a few tools one needs to build clever inventions.
• An apple to stay healthy and smart with a Cryptic Crossword* and Cassie, the Ridiculous Dog.
• A very filling ham and salad sandwich with the Templeton Twins in bread, cheese and German edible paper - I know, I know you expected beef tacos** but ham sandwiches are much easier to eat on the go!

 

* Abigail loves solving Cryptic Crossword puzzles and this clearly stands for The Templeton Twins!
** If you read the book, you would know why. Go read the book!

I nearly forgot to show you our favorite page. Although nearly every page was our favorite page. But, this one was just a little more loved. It has the word "Poopyhead"on it so it must be the best page ;)

We really loved the blueprint inspired illustrations throughout the book and the enjoyed the details they added to the story. If you love guacamole or coleslaw and suspense, action and pop quizzes this book is for you! It was hard to put down for both me and my 9 year old! Go read it! You won't regret it!

Fun Halloween Fruit Parfait {with Tutorial}

There is only one day left before Halloween and with Halloween the season of treats and goodies will begin. Since I love yogurt and chocolate I thought combining the two to make a delicious fruit parfait could be fun!

  

Halloween Fruit Parfait:
~ makes four 8 oz desserts

• 4 cups of Orange Vanilla yogurt
• 1 pack of Italian lady fingers
• 8 oz of sweet fresh or frozen sliced peaches
• 8 oz of mini dark chocolate chips as is or melted.

How to make them:

First layer lady fingers into glass.

Add Orange Vanilla yogurt - about 2 tablespoons.

Add three sliced peaches.

Add either chocolate chips or melted chocolate. If using melted chocolate only spread a thin layer on the peaches.

Repeat until your glass is full and end with a layer of yogurt and chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

Best if refrigerated for at least one hour to let flavors combine.

My entire family loves this dessert so I decided to make some to give away as well.

 And of course some for my kids’ lunch boxes.

Happy Halloween!

This post was originally posted in 2012 as a guest post. Since it has been deleted from the original blog I am reposting it on my own blog today.

BBF Halloween Hop

2 more days until Halloween! Are you as excited as I am? I love fall and Halloween and I cannot wait to take the kids trick-or-treating! Today I am part of the annual Bento Bloggers & Friends Blog Hop. Click through to the next blogger at the end of each post and you will be able to enjoy 18 fabulous Halloween lunch ideas!

We packed a spooky Planetbox Shuttle bento box filled with:

• a spooky ghost vanilla yogurt with melted chocolate decorations
• grape tomatoes with spooky eye ball chocolates
• Peeps Ghost marshmellows
• eye ball grapes and
• CuteZCute chocolate spread bat sandwiches

I also added a fun Lunchbox Love Halloween Card to make this lunch extra boo-tiful!

And now please hop over to Sandra from One Crafty Thing to see what she created for our Halloween Hop:

Things I used to make this Halloween lunch (contains affiliate links):

Scratch-Off Lunchbox Note Review {and Giveaway}

My kids love lunchbox notes! There is just something special about finding a little note in your lunchbox with a reminder from home. My boys especially love jokes and silly lunchbox notes and the Inklings Paperie Lunchbox Notes add a whole new layer of fun with their scratch-off stickers! We couldn't wait to try these out!

What's in the Inklings Paperie Lunchbox Notes bag? You receive 

• 20 lunchbox notes with a fun black and white herringbone pattern on the back, 
• 20 scratch-off stickers and 
• a very handy storage back. 
• Also, included were a card with directions and idea starters.

   1. Write your message or draw a simple picture (like Wendolonia).

    2. Cover your message with the scratch-off sticker.

    3. Add a penny or something else your child can use to scratch off their message.

I have to say these lunchbox notes are really fun! My kids love lunchbox notes in general and we often add pre-printed ones with trivia and jokes. Recently, I started adding these pre-printed notes to my pre-readers lunch and she would thank me for them every day. One of the mornings when I was carefully choosing a card I asked her who read the cards to her at lunch. She told me that no one was reading them to her but she knew they said "I love you!" I was so touched but also realized that it would be more personal if I would draw her a picture for lunch instead of sending a written note. These cards are perfect for just that! My older kids loved the extra fun part of scratching the sticker off to find the written message from me but from now on I will draw my daughter a note. Besides that, I like that the design is gender neutral so they are great for both my daughter and my sons. They are also age neutral - meaning both my 5 year old and my teen like the design. And if you have different aged kids you can do both: write a short message or simply draw a picture for your pre-reader!

Love the Inklings Paperie Scratch-off Lunchbox Notes? You can win some right here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to US residents only. Winner will be notified via email and has 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is chosen.

And if you cannot wait to get your own Scratch-off Lunchbox Notes, use my code "MAMABELLY20OFF" thru December 2014 to save 20% at Inklings Paperie.

Yumbox Lunches for the week of 10/13 - 10/17

We have a new YUMBOX and my little girl is so in love with her new purple lunchbox ( a former review with tips and tricks is coming soon!). I collected all the lunches we packed this week - plus a bonus lunch from last week!!

Our first Yumbox lunch contains:

• an organic yogurt tube
• orange slices
• an egg
• 5 mini sandwiches 
• carrots with purple carrot hearts and
• a few gummy bears

This Yumbox is packed with:

• A Chobani Greek yogurt tube
• orange slices
• mini sandwiches
• cheddar crackers
• broccoli and carrots
• and a few gummy bears

The chocolate Greek yogurt was so good we packed it again in this Yumbox with:

• apple "salad"
• cheese crackers
• stamped flower sandwiches
• carrots and grape tomatos and
• a few chocolate chips

It was "PINK" day at school this week and we packed our Yumbox with lots of pink:

• a Z bar with the letters P I N K
• kiwi with a pink Hellp Kitty pick
• mini sandwiches with a pink bunny pick
• pink Goldfish crackers
• and apple "salad" with a pink dolphin pink

My daughter picked Winnie the Pooh and Piglet bento picks for this lunch:

• another Greek yogurt tube
• kiwi "salad" with Winnie the Pooh
• cheddar crackers
• left over rice with Piglet
• baby carrots and 
• chocolate chips

Can you tell I adore my mini sandwich maker? This Yumbox is packed with:

• a mint Z bar
• vanilla yogurt with sprinkles
• mini sandwiches
• Baby Goldfish crackers
• cucumber spears
• and a few peanut M&Ms

If you are ready to pack your own Yumbox lunches, you can see what I used here (contains affiliate links):

Please also check BENTO USA for bento picks. They often have sales and sell the picks at a better price :)