Keroppi Bento

As promised, this morning the switch took place. Since two kids immediately fell in love with our new U-Konserve bento box they have to take turns taking it to school. My 3rd grader brought a Darth Vader bento yesterday and today is my middle schooler's turn. 

He likes his lunches simple and since there is so little time to eat I try to pack him a smaller lunch and he has a healthy granola bar in his backpack for the way home. All kids had a hard time getting up this morning, so I packed a chocolate pudding into everyone's lunch to cheer them up. I don't normally pack pudding but the kids seemed to need a little extra motivation this morning.

Our U-Konserve bento box is packed with:

• chocolate pudding (under the Keroppi topper)
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• strawberries and
• a ham and cheese wrap 

And if you are wondering what my 3rd grader packed since he had to switch today: 

I packed him a fun Star Wars themed bento in our Lock&Lock box with:

• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies and Luke Skywalker
• chocolate pudding
• Boba Fett sandwiches and
• strawberries

Today's lunch is brought to you by (contains affiliate links):

Darth Vader Bento

Most of the time when I receive bento mail, the only one really excited is me. This time, however, two kids immediately claimed the new U-Konserve bento box that arrived yesterday as their own. I will have to order more if they both love this one as much as they claim! My younger son won the turn and immediately went ahead and planned out his lunch. (*if you saw my Facebook post about after school snack yesterday you know that he is very specific about what he would like to have packed).

He requested to have the following food in the new U-Konserve bento box:

• two "Darth Vader" chocolate spread sandwiches
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• one kiwi, sliced
• 3 big strawberries
• and a few grape tomatoes

He loved that the lid is clear and his friends will be able to see his cool Darth Vader sandwiches even before he opens his bento box. It will be hard tomorrow morning when the turn to use this box goes to his brother.

Here is what I used to pack this lunch:



*The Funkins cloth napkin I used in this post is called Robot Factory. I am excited that limited designs are now availabe for the same price as on the website on Amazon.

Henny - 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 Henny. She is an average chicken. Well, almost. There is one tiny little thing different about Henny. 

Have you spotted it yet?

I have made it easier for you by putting our Literary Lunch on a baby chick paper. Anything you can see? Well,..., Henny was born with arms. There it is! Which is pretty unusual for a chicken. But, Henny likes being different. And she can do lots of fun things with her arms that other chickens can't. Like eating little bugs with chop sticks...

My kids loved this book and this was their favorite page so I used it for our Literary Lunch inspiration! They could not stop imagining all the other things Henny would be able to do with arms. We had so much fun imagining all the neat and silly things she would be able to do. 

We packed our ECOlunchbox with an egg-cellent lunch chock full of:

• Fruit Booty Corn Puff Worms to eat with chop sticks 
• A Henny sunflower seed sandwich with cheese, seaweed and carrot pieces
• An egg (very important part of the book. But, I can't give away everything now, can I?)
• And some spinach leaves to keep those arms strong underneath all the yummy food

If you want to see what I used to make this lunch (contains affiliate links):

Add some Lunchbox Fun in One Easy Step

Lunch should be fun! It's already squeezed in between specials and recess, often way to short to eat and takes a backseat to hanging out with friends. BUT, a little goes a long way and with a few fun bento picks you can put a smile on your kid's face without having to spend any extra time on packing lunches. Just add a pick!

Our Easylunchbox is packed with some cute face picks and:

• cheese crackers
• peppers
• cucumbers
• 4 mini peanut butter tortillas
• and a cereal bar

This nearly ideantical Easylunchbox has one of our priced Disney picks (received from a friend) and:

• cheese crackers
• peppers
• cucumbers and
• a pepperoni and lettuce sandwich

And last but not least we have an Easylunchbox with more fun face picks and:

• cheese crackers
• apples and
• a chicken sandwich 

Things I used to make these lunches fun (contains affiliate links):

Monbento for Mama - Un-Sloppy Joe

Today's lunch for Mama (that's me) is filled with left overs. The kids have the next two days off and I did not plan any lunchbox food...But, I have to eat so I packed what we had left over from last night's dinner.

My Monbento is packed full of:

• an un-sloppy Joe* pocket
• grape tomatoes
• left over pretzels and\
• a few dried cranberries

* I found the original recipe on the Pillsbury website. I simply subbed a few healthier choices and doubled the recipe to guarantee left overs. This fed 6 hungry people for dinner and for a small lunch.

Unsloppy Joes

original recipe from Pillsbury

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of ground chicken
• 2 cans of tomato paste with pesto (6oz)
• 2 cups of water
• either two packets of Sloppy Joe seasoning mix or make your own HERE
• 2 Pillsbury™ Grands!™ refrigerated biscuits
• 1 cup of shredded cheese

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook ground chicken until thoroughly cooked through.
• Add tomato paste, water and seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Roll out each biscuit into 6 inch rounds.
• Top with 1/3 cup of meat mixture and about 1 TBS of shredded cheese.
• Fold over half of the dough to create a pocket.
• Seal edges with fork.
• Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Petal and Poppy and the Penguin - a Literary Lunch

Did you see Mr. Pig's recent interview with Petal and Poppy? We love Petal and Poppy and decided to send a surprise lunch over to the cottage to celebrate Petal and Poppy's new book: Petal and Poppy and the Penguin - written by Lisa Clough and illustrated by Ed Briant.

In Petal and Poppy and the Penguin, Petal and Poppy discover a penguin in their garden! Petal is too afraid to let him into the house at first but soon this cute, friendly and very talented penguin wins her over.

I packed a Petal and Poppy lunch in our Monbento Original - of course with penguin! 

Packed are:

• a Petal sunbutter sandwich
• a Poppy peanut butter sandwich
• and a salad with carrots, grape tomatoes, cheese and cherry flavored cranberries.

Our lunch was inspired by this page from the book Petal and Poppy and the Penguin.

Make sure you go and read all of Petal and Poppy's fun adventures!

Isn't Penguin cute as he is sitting in his BabyBel Cheese and grape tomato hot balloon drifting in cherry flavored cranberry clouds and flying over lettuce and carrot fields?

Quick Lunches in Easylunchboxes

We have a short week and a 2 hour early release every day as well which means the kids are coming home right after they have lunch. I kept it simple with identical lunches and easy sandwich meat rolls.

Packed in our Easylunchboxes are:

• cheese crackers
• a tangerine
• a roll with either chicken, turkey or pepperoni
• I added a cheese stick for my middle schooler and personalized the lunches with Disney bento picks

Monbento for Mama - Deconstructed Egg Salad

After cleaning up my kitchen cabinets I found my beloved Monbento box and decided it was time to start up packing lunches for myself again! First up is one of my all time favorite sandwiches: egg salad. To keep my sandwich from getting soggy I actually deconstructed the egg salad and layered mayonaisse, sliced eggs (seasoned with salt and pepper) and lettuce.

My Monbento is packed with:

• one deconstructed egg salad sandwich with shredded lettuce
• an apple
• almonds
• dried cranberries
• peppers
• a Lärabar
• a Babybel Cheese 

Back to the Basics

It has been busy here with sports and school and I haven't had as much time for blogging and lunches as I'd like. But, lunch does not have to be complicated. Sometimes the simple lunches are those my kids love the best. Here are a few recent "Back to the Basics" lunches.

My Kindergartener has a simple Yumbox:

• a Clif Kid Zbar
• baby carrots
• a piece of banana
• two Mickey Mouse shaped sandwiches 
• wheat crackers 
• Annie's Bunny Fruit Snacks and 
• a banana apple sauce pouch from GoGoSqueez

A third garde lunch in Easylunchboxes with:

• wheat Crackers
• apple Sauce
• 1/2 a chicken sandwich with star stamps
• baby carrots
• a small German chocolate

A fourth grade lunch in Easylunchboxes with:

• wheat crackers
• apple sauce
• a chicken sandwich with star cut outs and
• a Clif Kid Z bar

Here are some of the things I used to make this lunch (contains affiliate links):

Applegate Good Morning Bacon BLTs and a Review

I love bacon! As a breakfast meat, a sandwich or on Mac'n'Cheese. I am a big bacon fan. And I know it's not that good for you. I have tried everything from Turkey bacon to vegan bacon to get  my bacon fix but also be on the healthier side. And I failed every time. Nothing can really replace the smell and crispiness of real bacon. Sigh.

And then I got an email. From Applegate. There is a new bacon in town with 60% less fat. So, of course, I HAD to find out for myself if the new bacon would live up to my bacon expectations!

I was so excited when my package arrived. BLTs here we come!

So, what's different? Applegate Good Morning Bacon is not made of pork belly like traditional bacon but from pork shoulder. It has 60% less fat and on top of that helps use more parts of the hog which helps make this more sustainable.

So, let's fry up some bacon!!

• Making the bacon according to the Microwave directions was easy and both taste and look of the bacon was identical to regular bacon.

• I also made some bacon in a pan on the stove and it fried up wonderfully. It did not release as much fat as regular bacon (obviously) and fried up more like Turkey bacon. The result however was crispy, juicy and just delicious REAL bacon!!

The only thing you need to be worried about is how much your family will LOVE it!!

I made BLTs for everyone with Applegate Good Morning Bacon, tomatoes, spinach leaves and a drizzle of Balsamic glaze. The whole family loved it!

Applegate Good Morning Bacon BLTs would also make a fun school lunch!

To test your Bacon Knowledge and get a $1 coupon head to Applegate!

Disclaimer: Applegate sent me some Good Monirng Bacon to sample. All opinions are my own. I did not receive any further compensation.