What's In John's Lunch Bag?

Leprechaun Trap!

2012-03-15T16:10:00.001-04:00

Today's lunch got posted Tuesday for the Blog Hop and no lunch for Friday since John will be buying his lunch at school (it's Pizza Day), so today we're sharing with you John's Leprechaun Trap that will be set out before he goes to bed ~~Friday~~ tonight! (We decided to set the trap out tonight because the leprechaun will probably be home tomorrow night getting ready for all of the festivities on Saturday. He's far more likely to be out and about tonight!)

He told me that he wanted a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow with a door that the Leprechaun will go in but not be able to get out of. Hrmph. How in the world was I supposed to pull that off?

Off to the Dollar Tree!

plus

plus some gold glitter glue and a gold marker makes

The "Magic Door," of course, only opens for Leprechauns.

Of course.

Some gold coin chocolates, green packing popcorn glued to a piece of cardboard

and a rainbow colored onto cardboard and attached to that gets us:

Daddy had the brilliant idea of setting the trap up on our porch with a "double trap" of our recycling pin propped up with a stick (which I believe came from a horseshoe set):

Looks perfect!

I wish I could show you now what it'll look like after the leprechaun has been by ... but John's still up for a few more hours so check back later tonight or tomorrow if you want to see. I can give you a peek at what's going to be left, though!

And he's also leaving behind his hat (caught on something during his escape?) since I cut this find from Dollar Tree apart:

Post-Bedtime Update:
He came! He came!

Linked To:

Wednesday's Lunch: Zoo fun

2012-03-13T23:39:00.000-04:00

With all of the excitement over the St Patrick's Day Blog Hop I completely forgot to post John's lunch for tomorrow. It's pretty simple and uses more of our new cutters and is exactly what he asked for right down to the Easy Lunchbox!

The monkey and hippo are whole wheat jelly sandwiches (yes, just jelly). The monkey is hanging from a Mini Slim Jim. They're joined by a monterey cheese giraffe and "zoo" in the large container. In the top left is the aquarium section of the zoo with two different types of Goldfish Crackers (pizza and sour cream & onion) and a small handful of tiny Swedish Fish. The top right has grapes ... which don't really have anything to do with the zoo, but John loves his grapes!

St. Patrick's Day Ideas! It's Blog Hop time!

2012-03-13T03:48:00.001-04:00

The Bento Bloggers & Friends are hopping again!

This time we're following the rainbow to get great ideas for St Patrick's Day.

With St. Patrick's Day being on a Saturday there's no school lunch, but I thought up an idea that could be fun at home or taken along to enjoy while watching a St. Patrick's Day Parade if packed in an Easy Lunchbox (or other box, of course)!

In the large compartment we've got good ol' mac & cheese (from a box) with a cheese shamrock and Irish flag (with Slim Jim flagpole). The top left has mini orange and green cupcakes and the top right has cut Rainbow Twizzlers.

For a smaller lunch, here's a leprechaun peeking out of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with two shamrocks on the side. The sandwiches are cream cheese & jelly on whole wheat and colored with natural colors. The rainbow is, again, Rainbow Twizzlers (this time cut into strips to fit better ... and because John isn't a HUGE fan but likes them in small doses), and the gold coins are cheddar cheese.

Now go check out the awesomeness over at Zoe's Lunchbox

and then follow her link to the next participant ... and the next ... and ...

(posts should be "live" anytime after 9am Pacific ... or so ...)

When Alligators Attack

2012-03-12T14:57:00.000-04:00

We added to our cookie cutter stash recently - including an alligator! After I got John's ham and cheese sandwiches made and the word "Alligators" cut out with my little alphabet cutters we were trying to decide what else to put in the box for his lunch tomorrow. I still had the box of Annie's Gluten Free Snickerdoodle Cookies on the counter from my Killer Rabbit lunch so he asked for some of those...

... for the alligators to eat!

Are the gators getting revenge for the Killer Rabbit's carnage? Hmmmmm ....

Pets at play!

2012-03-11T10:13:00.001-04:00

We have two fur-kids in the house. Aura became part of the family shortly before I became pregnant with John and then this past summer Cheerio moved in. At first the two weren't quite sure what to make of each other ... Aura the half lab/half greyhound princess who was here first and Cheerio the cat who rules the kingdom of us just because he's a cat. They get along pretty well now, though, and John loves them both and really loves it when they play together (which usually involves fur flying across the house because they're chasing so furiously).

Anyway, when I asked John what he wanted for lunch tomorrow he said "Cheerio and Aura playing."

Great.

They may not look like they're playing yet in the lunchbox, but you can tell that Cheerio's about to whether Aura likes it or not (which is typically how it works).

The sandwiches are ham & cheese. The containers on top hold ranch dressing and carrots. A package of Sixlets (or whatever they're called) round it all out in a Fit & Fresh Lunch Pod.

Yet another Angry Birds lunch!

2012-03-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

John stayed home sick from school today but has picking at the lunch that would have gone with him off and on all afternoon so a new lunch for tomorrow ... just in case he's feeling well enough to go. At this point I'm really not sure since he's only gotten off of the couch 3 or 4 times all day ... but I'm hoping!

He hasn't had an Angry Birds lunch since the end of January so I figured it's about time for a new one -- this time colored with the natural powders from Chocolate Craft Studio and packed in his Lock & Lock. The sandwiches are bologna and cheese on whole wheat with cheese for the pig eyes and beaks and Yellow Bird's eyebrows. In the top left (and as a barricade for the pig) are pretzel sticks. The top also has Angry Bird Gummies and grapes.

Citrus Lunch - entirely picked out by John!

2012-03-07T09:34:00.002-05:00

When I got home from work this morning I told John to go ahead and pick out a cutter or two and a box from the cabinet for tomorrow' lunch. He grabbed what was purchased as a monkey head for a cutter and a yellow Fit & Fresh container and said the head looked kinda like a lemon so he wanted a lemony lunch. I remembered that I had gotten some lemon & orange fruit snacks for him that were still sitting in the cabinet and he decided that those would be perfect to go under the lemon "cookie butter"* sandwich .... and an orange jello bowl .... and a Mini Slim Jim (which they've been out of at the store so we're doing pepperoni bites instead). Even with cutting & coloring the bread (it's a very light yellow even though it's hard to tell in the picture), I think it took me less than 5 mintues to throw it all together. I think I can handle that once in a while :)

* "Cookie butter" is what he calls Biscoff.

Cheating

2012-03-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

John really wanted to use one of his Pic N Mix Monster sets for tomorrow's lunch. It's supposed to have fruits in the head, main entree/sandwich in the torso, veggies in the feet.

We only have frozen veggies. All of the celery and carrots that John kept not eating went uneaten for too long and had to be chucked.

He suggested broccoli but, again, we only have frozen and I don't trust him to eat it at room temp. (We'll do a test run at some point, I'm sure).

So we're doing Bugles in the veggie section. Hey, they're corn chips. Corn is a veggie. Right?

The sandwich snowflakes are cheese with honey mustard. The fruit of the day will be grapes. Again.

Big Foot Monster Truck

2012-03-05T10:24:00.002-05:00

In mid-February I used one of our new cookie/sandwich cutters to make John a Monster Truck sandwich when he was home sick from school. I pretty much threw that one together just to try and get him to eat something so I decided this time I would actually put forth some effort.

It's a Big Foot 4x4 pepperoni sandwich with peppermint patty tires rolling over rubble of grapes and pepperoni bites. I'm sure he'll have carrot sticks or something in a side container even though the last three times I sent them they came home mostly uneaten.

Agent P from Phineas & Ferb

2012-03-04T11:02:00.001-05:00

John asked to have Agent P for lunch tomorrow. I know he's having a pretty substantial in-class snack (since I'm providing it), so lunch is a bit on the small side.

Agent P is a bologna and cheese sandwich with added cheese for his feet, tail and bill. "Agent P" is also spelled out of cheese. Also in the container are some Bugles and an orange gelatin with mandarin oranges cup on the side.

Yep. For once I actually spent more time on my lunch than I did on John's!

Seuss Week All-In-One, Snack Day & Blog Hop Fun!

2012-03-02T08:03:00.002-05:00

This week was Seuss Week but John couldn't wait!

Instead of having five bentos, we ended up with EIGHT!

From The Lorax to The Cat we've sure had fun ...
but since Snack Day is Monday we're still not done!

Fun cups, fun napkins, One Fish Two Fish Gummies and more...

(I changed all of the packages - you can't buy these at the store!)

And you know what else I have to say?
There are other bento blogs Seussing it up today!

Now hop on over and take a look

at What's In Mom's Lunch Bag

based on Dr Seuss books!

Bonus Snack: Bar-ba-loot & One Fish Two Fish Etc

2012-03-01T16:21:00.001-05:00

I thought I was just throwing stuff in his Lock & Lock box to satisfy John's "I'm soooooooooo hungry" when he got home from school. I had just noticed that the next theme for Bento Blog Network is "bears" so I grapped a bear cutter and a "B" and made a "B is for Bear" box with Swedish Fish Aqua Life because, well, bears eat fish.

Or so I thought.

John, of course, has been so wrapped up in all things Seuss that he took one look and thought it was one of the bears from The Lorax combined with the gang from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. If it makes him happy, who am I to disagree? (The carrots & celery? Didn't really make him happy but I'll keep trying and maybe some day he'll change his mind!)

Seuss Week Day 5: Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

2012-03-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

Friday brings Seuss Week to a close as it's the 108th Birthday of the amazing Dr Seuss!

What would be better, then, than a birthday party in a box?

I started out by Seussing John's Hawaiian Punch box:

And then the lunch in an Easy Lunchbox:

In the top left is a Super Simple Cupcake with alternating red & white stripes in the batter, red frosting & sprinkles. Under the cupcake is white cheddar popcorn tossed with red sprinkles. In the large compartment "Dr Seuss" is cut out of colby cheese (painted red with natural color) using mini cupcake cutters for the D and S and little letter cutters. The Cat in the Hat cupcake sandwich is ham and cheese cut with a large cupcake cutter with the top slice italian and the bottom slice whole wheat. In the rectangle container is alternating wild berry and plain applesauce.

Come back to tomorrow for a roundup of all the Seuss lunches, a peek at what John will be taking to school Monday for a belated Seuss birthday snack day and a very Seusstastic Blog Hop!

Super Simple Cupcake Recipe -- For The MICROWAVE?!?

2012-02-29T20:42:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I stumbled upon a recipe for single-serve microwave cupcakes and proceeded to put it on Pinterest thinking it might be something good for John and his lunches. This afternoon I mixed it up and to my amazement they were actually really good ... even though I don't seem to be able to follow directions and did my own tweaking to make three cupcakes instead of one. After we devoured those and John went to bed and Tom to work, I decided to make another batch as a test run for Friday's lunch .... and this time I took my camera phone with me!

Mix 45 grams (about 5 Tablespoons) cake mix, 1 Tablespoon yogurt (the first time I used Yoplait Splitz Rainbow Sherbet -- this time Dannon Toasted Vanilla Coconut) and 3 Tablespoons soda (the original called for soda water ... I found a bottle of Sprite that was purchased accidentally and used that).

I scooped about 1/3 of the batter out of the bowl and added some red coloring to it.

I started layering them in the cupcake papers in my silicone (and badly stained) muffin pan. First white, then red, then white. Instead of the three I got the first time I only got two this time. Shrugged that off, microwaved on high for 90 seconds, let them cool a couple of minutes before popping the microwave open and realized why I only got two .... and here's why:

DO NOT FILL THE CUP!!!! The bottom one was filled just over half full ... the top? Obviously too much (about 3/4 full, probably). Once I removed it from the pan and got it frosted, though, you would never know what a mess it was.

And once John unwraps his at school Friday he'll see the fun stripes (just like the Cat's hat ... more or less)!

(Sorry about the whacky coloring differences!)

This is definitely going to be a regular recipe in our house now.

Can't wait to try it out with different flavor combinations of soda/yogurt/cake!

Linked up to Momtrends

Seuss Week Day Four: Yertle The Turtle

2012-02-29T08:45:00.002-05:00

Is it just me or has this week been flying by for anyone else?

Tomorrow is ALREADY Thursday?!? Seuss Week is almost done?!?

I think I'm going to be suffering from separation anxiety, but first....

Yertle The Turtle!!!

Yertle and friends (?) are bologna and cheese on whole wheat.

Yertle's name is colby cheese.

The top left is fruit salad.

The bottom left is celery & carrots with some Biscoff in the small container.

I kept it pretty simple because I've got big plans for Friday and I need to store up my creative juices as best I can. I'm thinking big thinks for the birthday lunch ... and hopefully I'll be able to pull at least a couple of them off! Come back sometime tomorrow (quite possibly late afternoon or evening) :)

Seuss Week Day Three! Fox In Socks

2012-02-28T08:53:00.002-05:00

John became a fan of Fox & Knox not because of the book Fox In Socks, but from watching The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss! (Jim Henson's son takes after his daddy quite well! I'm still bummed it only lasted two seasons but VERY thankful that Netflix has those two!) Originally our Knox & Fox lunch box was going to based on the characters a la the tv show, but then John saw a picture from the actual book of "Knox in box" and "Fox in socks" and decided he would rather have that. So here it is!

The sandwiches are Biscoff and jam on whole wheat. The names are cut from American cheese with the mini alphabet cutters. The side container has LifeSaver Gummies and grapes.

Seuss Week Day Two: The Sneetches!

2012-02-27T09:58:00.001-05:00

Thanks to finally finding a lunch bag big enough for the Easy Lunchbox but small enough for him to take it to school in his backpack, tomorrow John will get to take one for the first time! The bag in question is Built NY's Tasty and while it's a tight fit, it's a fit! He's even practiced taking the box out without dumping it all over. Reuseit.com only had it in black and a "girl" pattern so he got the black and decorated it with some Silver Sharpies (because plain black was too boring):

So, the ELB will get to make it's kindergarten debut in all of it's artistic bagged glory with my favorite Seuss characters:

The Sneetches!

The Sneetches are drawn on American cheese with natural food color with stars cut out along the side using one of the bonus cutters from the little alphabet cutter set I mentioned yesterday. They're joined in the large compartment by star shaped cheese crackers from CVS. The top right holds a clementine with a star drawn on it and a mini York Peppermint Patty (just because). The bottom right has cocktail weiners skewered with pretzel sticks for the Sneetches' frankfurter roast! Yes, John actually likes them cold (he's his daddy's boy!). I will be nuking them a little bit before the final lunch packing tomorrow morning, but only enough to make me feel better. (I know they say they're already fully cooked in the package ... it still skeeves me out a bit to watch the male half of the household actually eat them right out of the package!)

And the natural food colors winner is ....

2012-02-27T09:20:00.002-05:00

CONGRATULATIONS, KRISTI!!!

I'm sending an e-mail to the address on your profile.

If I don't hear back from you with a mailing address within 48 hours I'll draw again.

Okay, now anyone who didn't win & wants to "unlike" or "unfollow" ... go for it! ;)

Seuss Week! Green Eggs & Ham in Lock & Lock!

2012-02-26T15:10:00.002-05:00

It's the start of Dr Seuss Week!!! Theodor Seuss Geisel's 108th birthday is Friday and we're doing an entire week of Seuss lunches to celebrate (plus two from this past week because John didn't want to wait)!

For Monday we've got Green Eggs & Ham in John's new Lock & Lock box from the greatest bento store online: AllThingsForSale (he even got the Lock & Lock water bottle which he insists on taking, too, even though he'll need a teacher to help open it!). It's a nifty little box with two removable compartments each divided into two so it can be used in a couple of different ways:

As soon as we opened the box and I started showing John the different configurations he immediately laid out how his "Sam I Am" lunch needed to go ... and here it is (with water bottle on the side)!

On the top left is the "green ham" which is actually Hormel's Pizza Style Canadian Bacon and below that is the green egg. They were colored by being soaked in some water mixed with all natural green powder. The egg is actually already cut in half and devilled with some ranch dressing mixed into the yolk and also colored with the powder so when he takes it apart ...

The sandwich is cream cheese and jelly (and, yes, he had me color the cream cheese green, too) with Sam I Am punched out of colby cheese with cute little alphabet cutters, also from AllThingsForSale!

Tomorrow: The Sneetches! (It was originally supposed to be The Lorax, but he had that this past week so wanted something new and we love The Sneetches!)

Another Pre-Seuss Week Special: Thing 1 & Thing 2

2012-02-24T09:47:00.002-05:00

John is SO excited about Seuss Week coming up. He's been off school for the week which would normally mean slacking off on the sandwich art for the lunches but thanks to the new natural colors (have you entered the giveaway yet???) and John's "pretty pretty please"s, slacking isn't on the menu this week. (Maybe the weekend ... we'll see ...)

Today John's having Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat In The Hat in one of his Fit & Fresh boxes.

Thing 1 & Thing 2 PB&J with cotton candy hair and Goldfish (Krinkelbein, Norval, whatever).

He'll also get fruit and probably carrot sticks when it comes time to eat!

WARNING: The cotton candy used for the Truffula tree tops yesterday and the hair today? Don't try sending it to school! I had his lunch for today sitting out since this morning -- hair and all -- just like it would be if it was a school day and by the time lunch rolled around it wasn't hair anymore but a pile of sugar dust. REAL glad I tried at home before I tried sending!!!

Sharing the natural color love (my first giveaway!)!

2012-02-23T14:41:00.000-05:00

It's rare that I become so excited about something that I'm willing to buy it for someone else just so they, too, can "ooooh" and "aaaaah" with me over it's awesomeness. That's exactly how I feel about the natural color powders, though, and exactly what I'm going to do. Peggy from the Chocolate Craft Studio has agreed to ship on my behalf to someone else .... but first we need to know who that someone else will be!

What's being given: the same 6 pack that I ordered for myself and reviewed here

Why it's being given: because I love them ... and you :)

When is it being given: entries will be accepted now through Monday, February 27th @ 9am ET. I will pick a winner (well, random.org will) and announce it once I get home from getting John onto the school bus. The winner will then have 48 hours to claim it so I can get it ordered and shipped out. In order to let the winner know I'll need contact information so unless we already talk regularly, please make sure that you leave your e-mail address in at least one of the entry comments.

Who is eligible? Unfortunately since this is coming out of my pocket and overseas shipping is outrageous I have to limit entries to addresses from the United States or Canada. Sorry!

How to enter: I asked John how many entry options there should be and he said 5 (since he is 5, I'm assuming). Please leave a different comment for each one you do in order for random to count it accordingly! And the 5 entries will be:

* Follow this site via Google Friend Connect (on the right under "Followers")
* Like What's In John's Lunch Bag? on Facebook
* Like Chocolate Craft Studio on Facebook
* Follow What's In John's Lunch Bag? on Pinterest
* Pin or repin a lunch from What's In John's Lunch Bag? on Pinterest (must be a new pinning -- some of you have pinned before ... those won't count)

Easy peasy, right?

Dr Seuss' Lorax (a pre-Seuss Week special!)

2012-02-23T11:22:00.000-05:00

After we were done at the museum yesterday we stopped in to the drugstore by the bus stop to grab a couple of things. Mostly, we went in for Angry Bird Gummies that we noticed earlier when we ran in to grab a pack of pocket tissues for a little boy's runny nose ... but then I saw something I knew would be perfect for Truffula tree tops:

Of course, John knew immediately what I was thinking when I picked up the bag and he agreed ... and asked for The Lorax for today (even though he had already put it on the schedule for next week!).

I put together the body last night with the new natural food color and finished it up this morning. I made sure it was done by the time John would normally be heading for his school bus so we could see how everything held up being left out like it would be on a school day. The love for the natural colors continues!!! In fact, no new powder was used today ... I just added a drop of water to yesterday's that had dried up and it sprung back to life!

Clockwise From Top Left (in an Easy Lunchbox):

* pretzel sticks (for Truffula trunks)

* pepperoni bites topped with colby cheese painted with "I speak for the trees!"

*The Lorax bologna & cheese on whole wheat with American cheese mustache standing on a pepperoni bite log, Truffula Trees and tops, and grapes

Natural Coloring -- I'm in love!

2012-02-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

I feel like I need to start out by saying that I wasn't put up to doing this by the company in question. A bunch of us got talking on Facebook about natural food color options and I decided to dig around and see what was out there and stumbled upon chocolatecraftkits.com and ordered their mini assorted pack of water-based natural color powders. I was wary. I was a little terrified. I was a whole lot of excited.

As you probably know, I use color. Sometimes a lot of color. The natural colors are a bit more expensive upfront than the cheapy gels I've been using .... but note the "upfront" part and keep on reading.

Thanks to a fellow blogger letting them know that I had told her about them when she also placed an order, I received 8 jars in the mail instead of 6 since they included 2 jars of "shimmer paint" as a thank you. John and I had to see what they looked like!

Clockwise from left: shimmer, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black

Today John was finally feeling well enough that we had plans to go down to the Museum of Science & Technology here in town. Before we left, though, I decided to work on the top slice for today's lunch to try out the new colors. I had looked but couldn't find any sort of guidelines anywhere for using powdered color (natural or not) for sandwiches so this really was winging it at it's utmost!

The first thing I did was layout the jars (except for the shimmer) and a silicone cup with 1/8 teaspoon of water in it for each one.

Then a teeny dab of color and stirred each up with a toothpick (because you know I can't survive without toothpicks)...

I opted for a rainbow on Italian bread so it could be fast, use all of the colors, and the bread was chosen because I figured the white would show off the colors better.

Used a watercolor brush for the rainbow stripes. Note to Self: Buy more brushes!

Wrote John with a toothpick (with the point snipped off) using the black.

Decided to give the shimmer a try and added a cloud to the rainbow!

John wanted to help paint the "sparkly cloud" and hit the outline a couple of times which is why there's some smudge going on.

My initial reaction? "I'M IN LOVE!" Even though the consistency is a lot different than what I'm used to, a little powder goes a super long ways and the colors really pop. The black came out more a very dark brown but I'm totally okay with that since we've been using brown for about 95% of our outlining anyway.

Popped the slice of bread in a ziploc bag in the fridge and headed off for the museum at about 9:30am. We got home just after 1:30pm and I took the bread out to make lunch. The rainbow was still a little damp (I'll have to work on the water-to-powder ratio), and amazingly the cups still had some color waiting to to be used ... so I took my handy-dandy toothpicks and wrote numbers at the bottom before drying the bread by popping it in the toaster at the lowest setting (a nifty trick I used sometimes with the gel).

1-Blue, 2-Black, 3-Green, 4-Orange, 5-Red, 6-Yellow

And then came lunch. Of course, in an Easy Lunchbox.

John loves knowing that the colors are all made out of plants (as do I). He's always been quite the environmentally conscious little boy and even more so since watching the original cartoon version of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. In fact, when he saw that there was still some color left in the cups after he was done eating he asked if he could have The Lorax for tomorrow's lunch (even though he's already planning on having him next week as well). I told you a little powder goes a long way and it's also why I made the comment about the upfront cost being more. These jars are going to last a lot longer than the gels!

So here's a preview for tomorrow:

And ... Mardi Gras lunch!

2012-02-21T09:27:00.001-05:00

For Mardi Gras lunch John has a Jester hat in an Easy Lunchbox (with the green lid, of course)!

The sandwich is ham and I actually did the top slice of this at work using a picture I found thanks to Google and then threw the rest of it together while waiting for the breakfast to be done. The bells on the hat were cut off of the colby jack stick separating the sandwich from the LifeSaver Gummies (yellow, green and purple ... of course). In the top right corner is applesauce with some of the sprinkles leftover from the biscuits and in the bottom are purple & green grapes.

Mardi Gras Breakfast! (with a recipe! kind of...)

2012-02-21T09:15:00.005-05:00

Today, of course, is Mardi Gras!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

I've been looking at tons of recipes for King Cakes, pinning them on Pinterest, looking some more ... but none of them really screamed "MAKE ME" to me. I came up with this idea at work, though, and couldn't wait to get home to make them!

First, I preheated the oven to 400 and popped open a can of buttermilk biscuits.

I added yellow, green and purple coloring to some cream cheese and placed about half a teaspoon in the center of each biscuit then rolled them into balls, making sure they were well-sealed.

I sprinkled some yellow, purple and green sprinkles into a small dish and plopped each ball in before placing them into a round pan.

After baking for about 10 minutes and letting cool for a few, it was time to see if they were edible! They were wonderful AND fun after finding the cream cheese inside. In fact, John ate three in hopes that he would end up with all three colors and he did! He also says they're "cool" and "super deeeeeelicious" :)

I know these should have a cute name but we haven't come up with one yet ... so if you have one, let me know. They can be made any time for any occasion, which is also pretty cool. Just change the colors around !

Life's A Beach!

2012-02-20T10:52:00.004-05:00

The best thing about being on break for John isn't getting to play all day (today he's been re-writing and acting out The Lorax with Legos, Cowboys and Indians and this time the trees all survive ... or at least grow back quickly). It isn't wearing his pajamas 'round the clock. It isn't even watching and playing pretty much anything he wants to on my iPad...

It's getting to have lunch in the ELBs!

He may still be fighting off the horrid cold he caught and it may be the middle of February and a blizzard could hit any day in central New York, but for John? Life's a beach ... and so is his lunch :)

Top left: Star crackers because he may decide this should be a night scene.

Top right: Vanilla yogurt with yellow sprinkles in a "sun yellow" silicone cup.

Bottom: PB&J on whole wheat island with palm trees and a sailbot in an AirHead ocean with a school of Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish Grahams swimming underneath (trees and sailboat cut from itty bitty cutters purchased from cookiecutter.com -- same place I got yesterday's Monster Truck!)

Easy Lunchbox Monster Truck Lunch

2012-02-19T13:18:00.002-05:00

John has still been a bit under the weather. He made it to school Wednesday-Friday, but we're all very glad he has this next week off to rest up and recuperate. Part of his blahness yesterday and today has included a rather diminished appetite ... but that went flying out the window when I showed him what I put in our (as I'm no longer to claim them as just "my") Easy Lunchbox:

Clockwise from top left:
Fun Size Oreos
Spaghettios
Monster Truck italian bread & butter (well, Country Crock)
and grapes.

Very simple and hopefully very easy on his stomach!

More Bubble Guppies! Molly & Mr Grouper

2012-02-16T14:03:00.001-05:00

John asked for Mr Grouper and "one of the girls" for lunch tomorrow. Here Mr Grouper is cut from colby cheese with swiss cheese for eyes. Molly is a pepperoni & mayo sandwich on whole wheat. They're joined by some Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish Grahams, some original Goldfish, and pepperoni bites. (There will also be fruit of some sort -- an apple or pear, most likely.)

Gil & Bubble Puppy from Nick's "Bubble Guppies"

2012-02-15T17:05:00.004-05:00

John made it to school today! Not so sure if he will tomorrow, but I made lunch just in case he does (and, of course, he can eat it at home if he doesn't).

Gil & Bubble Puppy are bologna sandwiches on whole wheat. Gil is surrounded by Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish. Bubble Puppy is surrounded by grapes. In the side container is celery, carrots and french onion dip.

More lunch love

2012-02-14T14:30:00.001-05:00

John's home sick from school again today. Of course, we're hoping this is the last of it as he seems to be going a bit stir crazy and really enjoys school.

If he does go back tomorrow, his lunch will be based around the balloon I got him at the drugstore this morning for Valentine's Day:

Ahhh distraction thou name are The Simpsons.

Bottom: Turkey sandwiches with an AirHead kiss on the face (just like on the balloon), Colby hearts
Top Right: Applesauce with sprinkles
Top Left: LifeSaver Gummies and a Heart-shaped York Peppermint Patty

Valentine's Day Lunch Take Two

2012-02-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

Make sure you visit the first Valentine's Day Lunch and follow the BBF Blog Hop at the bottom! You really don't want to miss the awesomeness!!!

John stayed home sick from school today for the first time all school year. In fact, I think for the first time since his tonsils came out this past June! When lunchtime came around today I gave him the option of the Dinosaur Train lunch or the Valentine's Day lunch I had for tomorrow.

He loved the cubed heart and pepperoni (and ate about half of the watermelon -- saving the rest for later), but then I needed something for tomorrow in case he goes to school which I'm seriously hoping he does. Not only is it his turn at snack day and he loves doing snack day, but also who wants to miss giving & getting Valentines in school??? Not my boy, that's for sure!

The Valentines he picked out to pass out are from the movie Rio (and, of course, the Angry Birds tie-in game). I had planned on using the extra card in the box and leaving it in his lunch as a little surprise ... but then he surprised me and left it for me last night! Such a sweet boy! So instead, now, he'll still get a Rio Valentine in his lunch box -- but in food:

Blu & Jewel are turkey on whole wheat. The hearts are colby cheese.

All together with his Valentines to pass out, Splitz yogurt, and YogaVive Apple Chips.

Valentine's Lunch in Fit & Fresh ... PLUS snack! (and the first ever BBF Blog Hop!)

2012-02-13T01:54:00.000-05:00

Simple hearts for John for Valentine's Day in some of his new Fit & Fresh containers.

His sandwich is plain cheese cut first with a heart-shaped cutter and then with the FunBites cube thingie just to make it more "John-ish." It's sitting on a pile of pepperoni slices:

On the side in a half-circle container is some watermelon. Rather than use the melon baller on the slices I cut them into various sized hearts:

Add a strawberry milk box and a Strawberry Sundae Splitz yogurt and we've got a Valentine's Lunch!

Valentine's Day is also John's turn to provide snack for the class. I found some festive zipper seal bag at the dollar store and places a pack of Ocean Spray Berries & Cherries Fruit Snacks and a raspberry cereal bar (store brand of NutriGrain) in each one:

NOW be sure to head over to Crystal's Ramblings to see what fun she's packing up for Valentine's Day! It's our first ever BBF Blog Hop!

Lunch with @pbskids Dinosaur Train's Buddy & Tiny

2012-02-12T13:51:00.001-05:00

Please forgive the brevity of the post. We went to the 6th birthday party this morning for my future daughter-in-law (so says John) and I hardly had the energy to make lunch much less write a terribly witty or even semi-interesting post to go with it! I had to work last night, got out at 7:15am and the party went from 9-11am. No nap. No wit. I'm lucky I can still manage to trace pictures with toothpick in hand :)

Buddy & Tiny are John's favorites from "Dinosaur Train" so I drew them onto ham & cheese Wonder Smart White sandwiches. Included are grapes, LifeSaver gummies, and Goldfish (since they eat fish on the show).

Neverland/Pixie Hollow Wrap-up

2012-02-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

I decided to put all of the pictures from the past week's theme together... just in case anyone missed one and doesn't want to be bothered backtracking ;)

A 100th Day of School DINNER in @EasyLunchboxes

2012-02-09T16:38:00.002-05:00

Apparently today was the 100th day of school for John as made evident by the "100" hat he came home wearing. Since I missed making him a 100th day lunch, I made him a 100th day dinner. He asked for it to be in one of my new Easy Lunchboxes with the green lid (even though it was only travelling from the kitchen to his little table in the living room).

Bottom: 100s made out of mini Slim Jims and Pizza Bagels
Top Right: 100 made from a cut gummy worm and LifeSaver Gummies
Top Left: not quite 100 apple chunks ;)

Pointing out the 100s -- still wearing his hat!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates! (in his new @Fit_Fresh containers!)

2012-02-09T14:45:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Friday which means the end of Neverland/Pixie Hollow Week.

We're wrapping up with the newest friends of Peter Pan and Tink -- Jake and the Neverland Pirates (Izzy, Cubby and their parrot, Skully). This isn't the first appearance of Jake in one of John's lunch bags, but it's soooo much better than the one back in early October. I'm rather impressed with how much better I've gotten!

The kids are all ham and cheese on wheat. Skully is drawn onto a Nilla Wafer. Pixie Hollow fruit snacks are scattered about. The Fit & Fresh half-cup has clementine slices and grapes (and it fits perfectly in his new Fit & Fresh Lunch Pod if we leave the ice pack out of the lid).

I've had so much fun making this week's lunches ... but I've just about burnt myself out with them all at the same time. They have, without a doubt, been my most complicated and detailed lunches yet. I hope you all have enjoyed them as much as John has!

Our Stash

2012-02-08T19:35:00.001-05:00

Our big box from Fit & Fresh came today and after John spent a good amount of time oohing and aahing over it all it was time to get them into the freshly cleared out cupboard space in the kitchen!

Before the hard work began... (sorry for the lousy lighting!)

John's Sliding Shelf. There are also some Thermos FUNTainers in the next cupboard over (they didn't fit & he never uses them), as well as itty bitty snack containers in our snack cupboard. Sometimes those end up in a lunch bag but they'll probably mostly be used for at-home snacking now.

The Abyss under the sliding shelf. It goes all the way back with containers. Some of them are "just Mommy's" like the ELBs and a couple of the Fit & Fresh containers, but most of them are community property.

The cookie cutter/food gell drawer above the cupboard. Toothpicks, scissors, a massive amount of AirHeads, and print outs for the next lunch all included!

Mr Smee!

2012-02-08T10:14:00.000-05:00

Mr Smee was quite a bit harder than I had anticipated. I blame the bread. Because so much of his detail is white (his hair, the stripes in his shirt, HIM) I used "Wonder Smart White" instead of the usual whole wheat. It just doesn't work as well with the whole "trace & transfer" technique. I basically had to redraw the entire thing because the transfer was so faint. Live and learn, right?

Anyhoo, Mr Smee is a pepperoni sandwich and he's joined by some Whole Grain Pringles, grapes, and a cheddar stick.

And he definitely looks like he's up to something . . .

Wonderful Quote

2012-02-08T03:51:00.000-05:00

Myra from Mommy + Me Lunchbox shared this quote earlier and I loved it. It fits so well with what we bento moms try to do for our kids (and sometimes even ourselves). There's been quite a lot of negativity bouncing around about us spoiling our kids or having too much time on our hands or other snarky blah blah blah. Jenn over at Bento for Kidlet even wrote an amazing post about the topic.

Sharing this quote here in no way means that I think that moms (and dads) who don't do what we do aren't doing great things for their kids ... it's just my way of highlighting the greatness that we're doing. There are so many great examples that could have been added to the collage. Unfortunately, Smilebox has an 18 image limit for their freebies.

This free digital collage customized with Smilebox

Peter Pan & Tink (the NEW lunch for Wednesday!)

2012-02-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

John decided that he really really wanted the "We can fly" lunch for dinner tonight, so on to Plan B ... or P ...

Peter is bologna and cheese on whole wheat with a sliver of a Cherry AirHead feather in his cap.

He's joined by TinkerBell (of course) drawn onto a Nilla Wafer.

Also in the box are Pixie Hollow fruit snacks and two more wafers.

On the side, a clementine and Yoplait Splitz Rainbow Sherbet yogurt.

I'm real glad I had already started the top of the sandwich so it was pretty easy to pull it together! Of course, now I'll have to rack my brain trying to figure out Thursday's Plan B :)

We can fly! We can fly! We can fly!

2012-02-07T09:02:00.002-05:00

Peter Pan Week continues with Wendy, John & Michael flying over the rooftops of London!

The trio are chicken breast and honey mustard on whole wheat flying through star shaped crackers over colby rooftops! John has yet to decide whether he wants a pear or apple in his bag, but one of them will be added to the lunch bag along with a pouch of flavored water (thank you, Capri Sun!).

TinkerBell and Terence

2012-02-06T15:33:00.001-05:00

For Tuesday's Peter Pan Week lunch we'll be visiting Pixie Hollow -- where TinkerBell and her friends live.

TinkerBell is joined by her best friend, Terence, in one of the new KlipIt boxes we found at Old Navy. (If you haven't seen any of the new Tink movies, Terence is a Pixie Dust Fairy.) The sandwiches are pepperoni & mayo on whole wheat with swiss cheese wings. Tink's side has Pixie Hollow fruit snacks, Terence's has more pepperoni. Also included will be an applesauce cup (either Wild Berry or Peach Mango) and juice.

Tomorrow? Think happy thoughts and get ready to fly!

Captain Hook & Tick Tock Croc

2012-02-05T10:43:00.001-05:00

To celebrate John's recent love/obsession with all things related to Neverland and Pixie Hollow, we'll be having a week-look theme of Peter Pan/Tink lunches!

Monday features Tick Tock Croc trying to, once again, devour Captain Hook!

The sandwiches are cheese on whole wheat (with an AirHead hook).

Sides are pepperoni bites, grapes, and baby carrots.

And no, Kendra, you still can't hate me.

Story Time Friday: "Henry and Mudge and the Long Weekend" (@scholastic)

2012-02-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

When my Great-Great-Grandfather came to America from Germany with his brother their last name was Motsch. Whoever did their intake apparently couldn't understand Motsch so wrote down the closest English name they knew -- and my family became Mudge. Not surprising, then, was my delight when John came home with his latest book gift from Reading is Fundamental : Henry and Mudge and The Long Weekend!

This week's Story Time Friday lunch only features Mudge. I don't have anything against Henry ... Mudge just ended up being larger than I had originally anticipated and rather than reprint the picture I was using, decided to just go with it!

Mudge is a bologna and cheese sandwich on whole wheat. With him are grapes and Nilla Wafers (one with a bone drawn on it). John will also get a yogurt tube on the side but I didn't bother pulling it out of the freezer for the picture :)

Happy Groundhog Day!

2012-02-02T08:34:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning feeling just awful that John wasn't getting a groundhog in his lunch today. Luckily, I also woke up with my knee feeling a lot better thanks to keeping it elevated all night so I grabbed the groundhog he had made at school yesterday and went to work!

The school version:

(The groundhog spins up out of his hole ... if he hadn't lost the little metal spinny thing!)

And the lunch version:

The groundhog & his shadow are SunButter & Fluff on whole wheat.

The ground is made out of pretzel sticks. The grass is cut AirHeads!

Up for some more cute groundhogs? Check out:

Bent On Better Lunches

What's for Lunch at Our House

Just Stuff

2012-02-01T15:50:00.001-05:00

Including unwrapping food items, placing them in the box & taking the picture this took 3 minutes ... and it probably would have taken even less if I didn't have to yell at the cat & grab another box not full of cat hair ;)

The Super-Simple-Mommy's-Still-Broken Lunch!

* monterey jack cheese stick

* Scooby-Doo fruit snacks

* 2 Mini Slim Jims

* Raspberry NutriGrain Bar

* Banana

* Capri Sun Tropical Fruit Water Pouch

He's such a sweet boy. I asked him if he was sure it was okay that I didn't make fun shapes for tomorrow.

"But the Scooby Dooby Doo gummies are fun shapes, Mom! That makes it a real live lunch!"

@HBO Family's "A Little Curious" - the NEW lunch for today!

2012-02-01T07:59:00.003-05:00

John decided to help me out with the whole knee issue yesterday when he got home from school & got his own food when he was "sooooooooo hungry." Of course, that ended up being the star lunch that was supposed to be for today. Eep! I had thought that I would just end up tossing some random stuff in his bag at the last minute this morning (with his blessing, of course) but it ended up being a pretty quiet night at work, though, and I just happened to have a small bottle of AmeriColor Ivory in my bag .... so I made his sandwiches there while watching Netflix on my iPad.

And when I showed him this morning when I got home (while he was actually watching "A Little Curious") he said it was awesome. He didn't even seem too disappointed that Bob The Ball, Pad & Pencil were the only characters I made :)

The sandwiches are bologna and cheese on whole wheat. Fruit snacks and grapes and a tub of mandarin oranges in gelatin (not pictured) will join them and his juice box in the lunch bag.

Now tomorrow I'll probably just randomly toss some stuff together ...

One of the fastest lunches yet!

2012-01-31T07:51:00.002-05:00

I took a nasty fall off of our porch steps when I left to head to work last night. Actually "steps" isn't accurate since I hit the first one, skipped the next three, and landed in the driveway. A little scrape on my right knee, a little gash on the palm of my right hand, and my left knee (which has already been rebuilt/partially replaced once) is swollen in a couple of places, scraped all to heck, and various shades of red and purple. The idea of standing in the kitchen coming up with an awesomely complicated lunch for tomorrow? Not going to happen. Pulled out the bread, slapped on some mustard, ham & cheese, and told John to pick out a cookie cutter and some side snacks. A Ritz Crackerful, Toy Story fruit snacks, and grapes join the giant star sandwich.

Rugrats (and a Fit & Fresh trial run!) -- @NickelodeonTV @Fit_Fresh

2012-01-30T09:33:00.000-05:00

Before John was even a glimmer in my eye I picked myself up a Fit & Fresh Lunch On The Go set at a local drugstore. The past few years, I admit, I typically have forgotten about it with all of the other random containers and clutter bouncing around.

A few nights ago I was looking up new lunch-stuff options for John to take to school and discovered that they now have an entire line just for kids (including the incredibly awesome Pic N Mix Monster sets) and a whole lot more options for non-kids than I was aware of. (There's a fruit & veggie dish I'm just dying to try to make a bentoish lunch in for him ... or me ...)

Needless to say, I think, I fell in love all over again and this morning as soon as I got home from work I checked to make sure I still had all of the pieces for my original set -- including ice pack (which, amazingly, was actually in the freezer).

John's already aware that I'm planning on buying new containers so when he saw me with all the pieces out he got all excited thinking I already had. I told him that it was technically mine but I was thinking of getting him his own (and then showed him online that they have it in green now -- his "favoritest color everrrrrr") and asked if he would like to use mine for lunch tomorrow. Of course I got a big hug and smile! Gotta love that!

John calls the Lunch On The Go a "stack 'em up box" because that's exactly what you do. There's a bottom layer, then the ice pack, then the top layer holds two smaller covered containers.

Tommy & Chuckie from Rugrats are mini turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread. They're joined on the bottom layer by a monterey jack cheese stick, juice box, wild berry fruit snacks, and his little silverware. The two top containers are pictured below the box with fruit salad on the left and raspberry yogurt with sprinkles on the right. (He had me put it all together before he went to school this morning so he could see and he loves how everything fits!)

All stacked and ready to go!

Of course, after taking the pictures I put the ice pack back in the freezer and the rest in the fridge ... after making sure it wasn't too big for any of his lunch bags (yes -- he has three in various sizes). It fit perfectly!

Tomorrow as soon as he gets home from school I'll give it a good scrub down so I can use it for MY lunch!

(Disclaimer: Fit & Fresh had nothing to do with this post besides making some awesome products.)

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's lunch!

2012-01-29T09:19:00.000-05:00

John got some new pajamas this past week because he's growing like a weed.
One set has Superman so, surprise surprise, I had to make a lunch with Superman!

Superman is bologna and cheese on whole wheat with an AirHead cape.
Star crackers, grapes and apple juice finish it off!

Story Time Friday: Sandra Boynton's A to Z

2012-01-26T10:29:00.000-05:00

I have to admit I was pretty terrified when John brought me this as his choice for this week's Story Time Friday lunch. Boynton is an amazing artist and some of the pictures would probably make me want to pull my hair out trying to get right.

I lucked out when he only asked for the cover!

The Aardvark & Zebra are bologna and cheese on whole wheat. The letters are cut from AirHeads. On the side is a yogurt and there will also be either apple or orange slices (as soon as he decides which).

Ruby Gloom (& friends)

2012-01-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

I can't recall how I started watching Ruby Gloom. As far as I know it never actually aired on an American network so I must have just stumbled upon it online or heard about it through a .... a GUEST! That's what it was! It was a hotel guest who had some Ruby Gloom gear and we got talking about how awesome it was and he (yes, he) mentioned the show and I found it online.

Eesh!

It's been a looooong time.

And now Netflix has it and I'm ecstatic ... and determined to make John a fan, as well. And after only two episodes he decided he wanted a Ruby lunch with Doom Kitty and Mr Buns so here we have them!

Ruby, Mr Buns & Doom Kitty are all SunButter & Strawberry Fluff on whole grain white. We're still retesting the waters with the SunButter & whether or not he likes it with anything other than jelly (since with jelly he doesn't), so there are Beef Bites, strawberry fruit snacks and applesauce (with red sprinkles) added as sides/alternatives.

Go, Diego, Go!

2012-01-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

I was really worried that John would remember that I told him they celebrate Lunar New Year for 15 nights ... and then try and have me figure out enough lunches to fit!

Luckily, if he did remember he didn't call me on it and for tomorrow we get Diego and Rescue Pack!

Diego & RP are cream cheese & strawberry jam sandwiches.

The muffin is chocolate chip (and in a Diego wrap).

Strawberry fruit snacks are on the bottom.

More New Years Celebrating with the Angry Birds

2012-01-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

The peeps at Rovio are amazing. Not only do they pop out great games, but before each update we typically get an awesome cartoon teaser to get us all excited. Which we watch.
And watch.
And watch.

And then we make lunch.

Happy Lunar New Year -- Angry Birds Style!

2012-01-22T14:12:00.001-05:00

The latest update for Angry Birds Seasons is Year of the Dragon. Johnny and I played it this morning and we always have to watch the credits when a new update it released just in case there's something new there, too.

Now, if you know Angry Birds you probably also know of the Eagle who can come in and make the piggies go "poof" if you're at your wits end (or if you're 5 and just really like mass destruction). Well, in Year of the Dragon the eagle has been replaced by the Mighty Dragon who, as far as we're concerned, is pretty danged awesome.

Back to the credits.

At the very end of the credits there is now a picture of the Mighty Dragon that ended up being the basis for Monday's lunch:

(Yes, I totally took a picture of my ipad in order to get a decent shot.)

Story Time Friday: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ... again :)

2012-01-19T10:10:00.002-05:00

Another repeat for tomorrow ... sort of. In October I did John's first CCBB lunch with A, B & C. He asked for another CCBB lunch for tomorrow, but with these pages instead:

It wasn't really easy for me to decide the best plan of action for it, but I think he'll be happy with the result!

The leaves are mini bologna & cheese sandwiches. The tree trunk is a Mini Slim Jim. The coconuts are grapes. The letters are drawn onto Nilla Wafers. (There are more "coconuts" on the ground at the bottom of the tree. You know, because coconuts tend to fall off once in a while.)

Phineas & Ferb ... again :)

2012-01-18T13:37:00.000-05:00

Back in September John had a Phineas & Ferb lunch and for tomorrow he requested another one!

This time the boys are berry cream cheese & jelly on whole wheat.

They're joined by Mini Slim Jims, cheddar pretzels & applesauce.

It's The Octonauts!!!

2012-01-17T10:08:00.000-05:00

John has absolutely fallen in love with The Octonauts on the Disney Channel. Of course they had to become lunch!

Captain Barnacles, Peso, Tweak & Kwazii are featured here as mini roast beef sandwiches. Also included are grapes, Goldfish, a colby jack stick and his apple juice. (And yes, I totally had to google their names to get them right! LOL!)

Randomness

2012-01-16T14:44:00.002-05:00

Last week I mentioned that John found unused Play-Doh cutters and added them to our stash of lunch supplies. For tomorrow's lunch more of them get used in one of the most random lunch bags to date!

Pretzel sticks, fruit snacks, vanilla pudding and itty bitty bologna sandwiches.

Not complicated, not fancy, but still fun and he loves every last little bit of it!

Story Time Friday: @Scholastic Big Red Readers

2012-01-12T11:53:00.001-05:00

For Christmas John got quite a few books so when I asked him to pick one out for his lunch tomorrow he immediately ran to the pile of books from ~~Mommy~~ Santa. The book he grabbed was Winter Is Nice from Scholastic's Big Red Reader series based on the PBS Kids show. He couldn't pick out a single scene, though, as he wanted all four dogs from the books & show -- Cleo, T-Bone, Mac and Clifford!

Clifford is a cheese sandwich and the other three are pickle loaf & cheese. Add-ons are Cheez-It Scrabble Jr crackers with "wag" spelled out on the top layer, grapes and fruit snacks.

And this IS a Tom & Jerry lunch!

2012-01-11T08:01:00.001-05:00

After being so out of sorts yesterday and incapable of making the Tom & Jerry lunch that John had asked for, I was determined to get one done...

... and so I did.

Tom & Jerry are jelly sandwiches on whole wheat (yes - just jelly. John asked for it.). I made their faces using the same transfer technique I used with the Jingle lunch/tutorial. The sides are Goldfish (because cats like fish), cheese (because mice like cheese) and grapes (because John loves grapes).

This is NOT a Tom & Jerry lunch!

2012-01-10T10:00:00.003-05:00

That's what was requested for Wednesday but I just couldn't pull it together today. I blame the e-mail I got early this morning about John's upcoming school re-evaluation and all of the implications that may come from one simple but not-so-simple statement in it:

He is doing so well , I don't know if he will qualify for special education services next year.

I know it probably seems a little crazy that this has me in such a tizzy that I can't make a cat & mouse but the elementary school he's in with so many of his friends we had to get transferred into ... with permission from the district's Special Education Department. I hate to think that him not qualifying will mean getting pulled out of the school he's grown to love but I just don't know how stuff like that works here and, well, no cat & mouse. Instead, John will get a simple but not-so-simple statement in his lunch tomorrow:

Shark Attack!

2012-01-09T09:04:00.001-05:00

John found an unused shark cutter from some random Play-Doh kit last night and immediately decided he wanted a shark lunch for Tuesday! Not that easy since, of course, Play-Doh cutters don't have edges sharp enough to actually make through a slice of bread ... but I pulled it off anyway!

The sandwiches are SunButter with Strawberry Fluff (even though he told me a week or two ago that he doesn't think he really likes SunButter but I'm hoping the Fluff will make it more doable for him). At the bottom of the box are two Mini Slim Jims (which he'll definitely eat even if the sandwiches are flops). Surrounding the shark sandwiches are shark cheese crackers from Aldi's. On the side, a banana and fruit snacks.

Simple Cubes & Balls

2012-01-08T09:54:00.001-05:00

I received a wonderful package in the mail the other day from BentOnBetterLunches -- FunBites of my very own!!! I didn't get a chance to use them for John yesterday since we ordered in & nothing else he ate was suitable ... so I knew that Monday's lunch would be my first shot. I'm sure at some point I'll get more creative but for tomorrow I just wanted to try my new toy!

I made a turkey sandwich for him with one slice of whole wheat and one slice of whole grain white in order to get some variety after the pieces popped out. I also cut up some cheese into cubes to go along on the side with his beloved Cheese Puff balls (a love he comes by naturally. It was one of the only things I would get messy for as a kid -- Cheese Puffs and Fudgsicles!). The mandarins in jello on the sidem will probably go uneaten at school but they'll go along in the bag anyway :)

Story Time Friday: Horton Hears A Who

2012-01-05T13:04:00.001-05:00

Is there anyone who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? If there is, I don't think I want to know them.

Friday's lunch features Horton holding the clover that Whoville is caught on.

Horton is a turkey sandwich.

The clover is a Life Saver Gummie with an AirHead stem & speck.

On the side are pretzel sticks, yogurt & some more LifeSaver Gummies.

Cut The Rope's Om Nom

2012-01-04T15:28:00.002-05:00

Amazingly enough, Angry Birds isn't the only game John loves playing on the iPad (and his new iPod Touch)! We've both become quite enamored with Chillingo's Cut the Rope featuring the adorable candy-loving monster, Om Nom!

Here Om Nom is a berry cream cheese and jelly samdwich with mini Slim Jims, grapes and star crackers. John tried to convince me this morning that Om Nom needed to be all green like he is in the game, but I think he'll be okay with only the outline :)

The Lunch of Awesomeness (@nickelodeontv)

2012-01-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest things Nickelodeon could have ever done was have a regular series featuring the awesomeness of the Kung Fu Panda movies. Even without Jack Black voicing Po, it's still a favorite for John ... and even for me ... to watch whenever it's on.

When John asked me this morning what was for lunch tomorrow the first thing I thought of was Po. He decided we needed Master Shifu in the lunch bag, too.

Po and Shifu are pickle loaf and cheese on whole wheat and they're sitting on Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips surrounded by raisins and Life Saver Gummies.

Back to School with Alvin & The Chipmunks!

2012-01-02T15:31:00.000-05:00

John loves Alvin, Simon & Theodore! For Christmas he got a Chipmunks t-shirt from his grandmother and I swear he's worn it for the past three days. It seemed a no-brainer to have them in his first school lunch for the new year and here they are!

Alvin, Simon & Theodore are tiny roast beef sandwiches on whole wheat.

On the side are grapes, a Rice Krispie Treat, and some yogurt.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

John's lunch for New Year's Day:

2012 out of pb&j

Apple slices

Pretzel sticks

2 Pepperidge Farm cookies

Lightning McQueen - Quick & Easy

2011-12-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

No school this week but that doesn't mean boring food (at least, not all the time!).

John got a Lightning McQueen PB&J lunch thanks to race car & numbers cookie cutters.

In the little side compartment are Cars 2 fruit snacks.

The pretzels are cars & lightning bolts from Utz's Cars Pretzels.

Christmas Highlights

2011-12-27T09:19:00.000-05:00

I don't think I need to tell you all how odd it's been to not be planning & making lunches the past few days ... but we've been having so much fun (in spite of me being dreadfully sick)!

Christmas Eve was spent at Tom's grandparents' with his side of the family. We took Johnny's big present from us (as opposed to "from Santa") so he could open it there. He got an iPod Touch and STILL managed to pay attention to his family and other gifts ;)

Christmas Day we spent at home and after almost every package (and there were a lot that aren't pictured here) John would say something along the lines of "Wow! Santa must've thought I was REALLY good this year, huh?"

The day after Christmas is when my side of the family gets together. There are a lot of us. A whooooole lot of us. We weren't all there (some would say we aren't all there even when we are), but fun was had by all!

A long few days. I think we're all more than a bit worn out from it and I'm still sick and had to work Sunday night and Monday night. In fact, I won't have another night off until Thursday but then it's a long weekend (3 nights off) and it's back to our regularly scheduled lunch-making program after that!

Santa's Almost Here!

2011-12-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

Only TWO DAYS will be left until Christmas when John will get this for his lunch tomorrow.

I was thinking of putting my own twist on one of the awesome Santa & Chimney lunches I've seen so far this season.

Like Keeley's ...

or Sherimiya's ...

but we don't even have a chimney to peek out of or fall down.

We have a front door...

with a Santa key.

Yep!

When the Big Guy arrives he can just let himself in using his very own pewter key that gets hung with pride every year. Normally we wait until Christmas Eve but John decided we could put it out early. No one else will be able to use it, after all. You see, it's magic and the right-sized keyhole only appears for Santa.

So, no chimney for John this year. Or for Santa. Instead they both get the key.

(Close-up of the actual key.)

Mixed berry cream cheese sandwich for the key, Cherry AirHead ribbon,
with Star Cheese Crackers & mini Slim Jims on the side!

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or something else or nothing at all except for the week (or two) off from school, I hope you have a truly blessed whatever. We'll probably take a couple of days off for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ... and my extended family typically gets together the day after ... but it's highly unlikely that John will let me go the entire week he's off from school without something blog-worthy going into his belly!

A Snowflake Pizza Quesadilla Thing!

2011-12-21T08:23:00.000-05:00

Out of curiosity I wanted to see if I could successfully cut a snowflake out of tortillas much like one would do with paper.

Luckily I cut two sets since John's first idea of what to do with them (cream cheese and jelly) turned into a soppy mess. Then I grabbed a skillet, pizza cheese, sliced (and cut up) pepperoni, and turned the remaining snowflakes into a sort of pizza quesadilla type thing!

A little container of spaghetti sauce for dipping (especially since by the time it gets to school it'll probably be more like a chessy pepperoni snowflake chip) and some yogurt raisins are included.

3 more days!!!

Rudolph!

2011-12-20T07:47:00.000-05:00

Way back when there were 19 whole days left until Christmas the marvelous Keeley made a reindeer lunch for Little Miss and I loved it! I don't have any mini-gingerbread man cutters so John is only getting Rudolph.

Rudolph himself is pickel loaf & cheese on wheat with a Holiday Skittel nose. There are some more Skittels on the side with some grapes and a cheese "4" for the countdown.

I can't believe it's almost here!!!

5 Days To Go! The elves are getting ready!

2011-12-19T08:20:00.000-05:00

As of tomorrow there are only 5 days left until Christmas!!!

I bet the elves are feeling as overwhelmed as the parents ... and as excited as the kids!

One elf in particular was busy getting his hat and slippers laid out and ready to go when somehow they ended up in John's lunch. Whoops! Hopefully he has a back-up set!

The cheese sandwich hat & slippers are joined by pepperoni cut into the word "ELF," some extra pepperoni slices, and a small piece of gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.

@Snoopy at Christmastime

2011-12-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

If you hadn't guessed when Thanksgiving was upon us, I love Snoopy & Woodstock. Luckily, it didn't take much for John to appreciate their awesomeness as well so of course they need to make another lunch bag appearance!

Snoopy and his dog house are bologna and cheese sandwiches with an AirHead (of course) for the wreath.
Woodstock is drawn on a Nilla Wafer.
Also included will be a few more Nilla Wafers, a small handful of holiday Skittels, an apple and the always present juice.

Last week of lunches until 2012! Well ... last week of school lunches. I'll probably let him eat from time to time when he's off for the week, too.

BONUS: Gingerbread Fun!

2011-12-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite purchases for baking has been the square muffin pans I found on eBay years ago. They were originally rather large and held 12 per pan, but I've had to cut them in half so they would fit my Easy Bake Oven On Crack. After Tom went to work & before John got home from school I decided to bake some goodies. Cracked open the box of Betty Crocker Gingerbread mix, got it mixed up & then realized that there was room in the gizmo for 6 muffins and one of the small toaster-oven pans I just got!

The small sheet cake just got frosted with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles ... but the muffins?

First I cut two of them in half on the diagonal ... then I placed one triangle on top each of the remaining squares:

I bet you can guess where we're going now, huh?

I gathered together some candy bits, sprinkles, frosting, and John.

It's a Gingerbread Muffin House!

And, yes. I let him eat it as part of his dinner.

Sometimes you just need cake for dinner.

Story Time Friday: Mooseltoe (Palatini/Cole) @Scholastic

2011-12-15T11:50:00.000-05:00

Friday's Story Time lunch is another favorite thanks to the Scholastic orders from school -- Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Henry Cole.

I have to admit I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, but I think it came out pretty well!

Mooseltoe is pickle loaf & cheese on wheat with food gel decorations

and a star-shaped cheese cracker on top (thank you, CVS!).

The number "9" was written on the cracker for the Countdown.

Also more star crackers, Gummy Life Savers Collisions, & an Andes Peppermint Candy.

<Lunch got repacked in a new KlipIt Sandwich Box with some added grapes!>

The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas

2011-12-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

This is such a sweet book -- especially for a 5 year old boy who loves dinosaurs! It's pretty much a cross between Night At The Museum and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and is the perfect snuggle and read and giggle book!

The last time we read it, of course, I knew John was looking at each picture trying to see if it was lunchable.

And then he found it:

Of course, the snacks the dinosaurs had at their late night Christmas Eve party would be perfect!

The sandwich is cream cheese & jelly with a mini candy cane, peppermint nougat and applesauce on the side. It really did turn out well, if I do say so myself .... but John noticed already that there's significantly less candy in the lunch than in the picture. Oh well :)

John's Dream Lunch

2011-12-13T11:02:00.000-05:00

This took a lot longer than some lunches.

Not because of it being complicated in detail because it's not ... but because I stood there for a long time trying to figure out just how to do it.

John loves helping come up with ideas for his lunches. Most of the time it's picking out a book or character he would like. Monday as we stood waiting for his bus, though, he said he wanted "the earth and sun in Santa hats with smiles just like in (his) dream."Uh-huh.I was asked to put his dream into a lunch.

The sun is cheese and the sandwich is pepperoni & cheese. The Santa hats are cut out of pepperoni slices. Gummy Life Savers surround the two.Hopefully it comes close to what he was thinking!

(Although unpictured, there WILL be the countdown. Probably written on the fruit cup or applesauce cup ... whichever one he chooses!)

The @Hallmark Stowaways: Hoops, Yoyo & Piddles!

2011-12-12T09:14:00.000-05:00

One of our favorite new holiday specials this year is Hallmark's Hoops & Yoyo Ruin Christmas. I won't tell the whole story in case you haven't had a chance to see it with (or without) your little ones yet, but it's very much worthy of a lunch!

Hoops, Yoyo and their pal Piddles are made out of AirHeads, of course. I'm telling you I love the stuff for small bursts of tasty color.
They're peeking out of Santa's bag made out of a ham & cheese sandwich.
Also included are some SunChips and, not pictured, a small container of grapes & the always present juice pouch.

The Polar Express Lunch

2011-12-11T14:34:00.001-05:00

This was not the original plan for Monday's lunch but I was getting so frustrated with the other I gave up and threw this together in a matter of seconds thanks to a train engine cookie cutter and quick thinking.

And John loves it!

It helps that I brought home from work a jingle bell VERY similar to the one from the story/movie thanks to the groom from last night's reception who said I could take one of their gift bags home because I oohed and aahed over the bell.

The train is cinnamon raisin bread with pumpkin cream cheese riding on a track made of Turkey Bites. The jingle bell is a Nilla Wafer with a ribbon cut from a Cherry AirHead, Pretzel sticks are on the side just because.

And now we have to go watch the movie!

For the trillionth time ;)

Saturday Stocking

2011-12-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

One would think that having my birthday fall on a Saturday would somehow get me out of making a fun shaped sandwich for lunch for Johnny. And it did because we went out for lunch ... but it didn't get me out of making one for him for dinner!

The stocking & gift and good ol' peanut butter & jelly. A mini candy cane, gingerbread cookie, and fruited strawberry jello with green sprinkles round it all out.

No countdown pick because I totally didn't even think about it until the food was already devoured. I don't think he even noticed!

Big Yellow Bird

2011-12-08T08:10:00.001-05:00

John has a half day tomorrow so will be eating lunch at home. Think that gets me off the hook? Not a chance!

Yesterday he brought his giant stuffed yellow Angry Bird and said he wanted it in a Santa hat. So here he is with grapes and a gingerbread cookie.

Cheerio the Christmas Cat

2011-12-07T02:55:00.001-05:00

Last night John proclaimed that Thursday he wanted his cat, Cheerio, in a Santa hat.

I'm real glad he clarified that he wanted a sandwich and not his actual cat!

The sandwich is ham. Also in the box are grapes and Cinnamon Cheerios, all separated by sticks of colby jack cheese.

Snowball Fight!

2011-12-06T03:12:00.001-05:00

John can't decide if he likes marshmallows or not, but maybe he'll have a better idea after Wednesday's snowball fight lunch :)

The kids are bologna and cheese.
The snow is made up of mini marshmallows.
Go-alongs are pretzel sticks and cheddar twists and a clementine holding the countdown pick!

Santa & Snowman

2011-12-05T04:24:00.001-05:00

Two little cheese sandwiches for lunch tomorrow with Turkey Bites, raisins & a jello/fruit cup on the side.

John picked out what he wanted for the sandwiches from the Advent calendar my Momma made for me when it was time for me to head off to college based on the one that we used when I was growing up. It's very much a family tradition as she made them for her siblings, as well, and then when it came time for my cousin (now John's godmother) to head to college we worked together to make her one of her own. After my mom passed I made them for some of my other cousins and I'm sure the day will come when I'll have to remember how to make John his own. Maybe I should start on it now!

In case you couldn't guess, the ornaments John picked for Tuesday's lunch:

Countdown Dilemma Solved!

2011-12-04T22:00:00.001-05:00

No more worries about forgetting the countdown or trying to fugue out how to fit them in!

Thanks to some paper, frilly toothpicks, and packing tape I made a pick for each remaining day. If worse comes to worse I can just plop one in his box and voila! Instant countdown!

Snowy House

2011-12-04T09:57:00.001-05:00

Simple lunch for Monday. We've had a busy weekend & I'm just not in a super-complicated mood.

The house is a Ritz Crackerful.
The snow is swiss cheese.
The tree trunks are Mini Slim Jims and Turkey Bites, with a watermelon AirHead cut for the branches.
Cinnamon Applesauce on the side for lunch!

(No countdown numbers because I initially forgot & John said we're just skipping it.)

BONUS: Snowman for Friday night

2011-12-02T12:49:00.001-05:00

Too cute not to post :)

Story Time Friday: Hallmark's Jingle All The Way

2011-12-01T06:05:00.001-05:00

Several weeks ago in our quest for fun holiday apps for the iPad, John and I came across an offering by Hallmark called Jingle All The Way. John immediately opened the app, read the book, played the games, and fell in love with Jingle.

As soon as the tv version hit the air we DVRed it and have watched it at least half a dozen times since. Hallmark really hit it out of the ballpark with this one!

Of course, it had to be made into a lunch.

I've had quite a few comments about how I get things so detailed and true-to-character. Well, here's how.

I start by finding and printing an image for whatever story/movie/whatever I want to make:

I cut out the most important parts (in this case we're focusing on the faces & the cardinal), and trace the outlines using food gel. I have been using mostly AmeriColor gel but just got some great jars of gel made by LorAnn Oils and used those for the majority of this lunch.

After the image is traced, transfer it on to the bread by flipping it onto the slice and pressing down.

(John almost NEVER has white bread but since Jingle is a white pup I decided to go a little crazy.)

After the transfer, fill in whatever details you want or that may have not transferred completely. For Jingle I used some watered down grey on a paintbrush for his fur detail and the red collar. (Watering down the gel not only stretches it out, but also makes it easier to dry and therefore less likely to get all over your little ones hands/face/everything!)

Since I already had the white bread out for Jingle I decided to also use it for Andrew's face:

I then cut the face part out of the picture and went to the normal whole wheat for his hair.

After detailing Andrew's earmuffs I placed all of the painted bread into the microwave for about 10 seconds on level 3. Heating the bread helps make the gel set and makes it a lot less messy for me.

I cut all of the individual pieces out of the bread and pieced them together on the slice of wheat that would be the bottom of the mini sandwiches.

I then cut each shape out using normal scissors (a lot easier than trying to do it with any kind of knife), cutting Andrew's head as a whole.

It's a Strawberry Cream Cheese sandwich day, so I smeared the bottom slices with the cream cheese and placed the tops, well, on top.

John really wanted me to include the cardinal that helped Jingle, so I grabbed a pack of AirHeads and molded the cardinal out of a cherry one using the picture I printed as a reference. (AirHeads are amazingly handy and versatile on top of being inexpensive! John also loves getting the little bit of candy since he really doesn't get any at home except of very rare occasions.)

Placed all together with some baby carrots that will probably go uneaten (a Mom's got to try, right?), here's the lunch:

(The 23 for the countdown ended up being drawn onto the bell on Jingle's collar -- also made out of a little piece of AirHead.)

How The Grinch Stole ... Lunch?

2011-11-30T06:21:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite aspects of blogging John's lunches is the amazing community made up of other moms who get creative with their kid's food. A lot of them have more experience than I do. A lot of them do more traditional bento style boxes. All of them have amazing ideas.

Keeley makes lunches for her Little Miss and does some of the cutest lunches out there! This past Monday she posted about how she was going to do a countdown to Christmas in each of Little Miss's lunches. I loved the idea and asked if I could use it with John. In her awesomeness, she said I could.

I decided to start the countdown with tomorrow's lunch since it's the first of December and also the day we'll officially start the Wintery/Christmasy lunches ... and put up the actual Advent calendar!

We're starting with the classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas from Dr. Seuss.

The entire family loves the tale and both the cartoon version and the modern live-action movie with Jim Carrey get watched repeatedly each year. What better way to start things off?

The Grinch and Max are small bologna and cheese sandwiches (Grinch on white, Max on wheat).

Max's reindeer antlers are a broken up Rold Gold Cheddar Tiny Twist Pretzel, which he'll get more of on the side in a separate container.

Cindy Lou Who is made out of a cut Nilla Wafer with a Pink Lemonade AirHead for her pajamas and the bows in her hair.

An Orange AirHead was used to make the 24 for the big countdown!

As usual, I used AmeriColor Food Gels to do all of the coloring and detail work. (Which reminds me, I'm running low on white. VERY low. Santa? If you happen to glance at my blog at all you can take that as a big ol' hint! Actually, just get me an eBay gift card so I can stock up on gels and other lunch goodies. Mkaythanksbye.)

@Disney's Wall-E finally makes his lunch bag debut!

2011-11-29T03:20:00.001-05:00

Here's Wall-E, Eve and the boot plant!

The boot is a turkey sandwich.

Wall-E is a colby jack cheese sandwich.

Eve is American cheese.

All 3 are sitting on a bed of Twizzler Nibs, corn chips, and Slim Jims.

Mister Maker & Shapes

2011-11-28T05:29:00.001-05:00

Somehow John discovered the wonder that is Mister Maker on YouTube. He instantly fell in love with the characters & activities!

Here is Mister Maker with his friends, the Shapes. (They do one of John's favorite segments on the show.)

The sandwich is SunButter and jelly. The shapes were cut Nilla Wafers. On the side will be yogurt and either an apple or clementine.

Christmas Card Angry Birds

2011-11-27T11:27:00.001-05:00

John wanted our Christmas cards this year to be Angry Birds, of course.

It came as no shock that he also asked for part of it to be turned into a lunch!

The bird and pig are roast beef sandwiches. They're sitting on Rice Krispie Treats with grapes. On the side is chocolate pudding with sprinkles.

BONUS: Early Holiday Fun

2011-11-25T10:02:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is done so in John's mind it's time for Christmas-themed everything. No school until Monday but why wait?

The gingerbread man is pb&j (another bonus of being off from school), with a mini Slim Jim, a couple of Christmas cookies, and all of the green items (tree, package, gingerbread details) are cut from a watermelon AirHead.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

BONUS: Angry Birds for Dinner!

2011-11-22T11:13:00.001-05:00

There was absolutely no reason for this but to see the huge smile on John's face!

(I painted the chicken nuggets while still frozen, in case you were wondering!)

Mayflower & Pilgrim Boy

2011-11-21T09:06:00.001-05:00

I'm so pleased with how this turned out it almost negates the fact that I cut the bejeebers out of my left index finger while cutting the cheese for the flags!

Thanksgiving has always been particularly special for me. My mom was our family historian for years before she passed and she was especially proud of our Mayflower families (especially Edward Doten in spite of him being a bit of a trouble maker!). I've told John a little about who he came from in those regards but I don't know how much he paid attention. He is 5, after all :)

The pilgrim and ship body are bologna sandwiches. The masts are swiss cheese on toothpicks. The ocean is a cut blue raspberry Airhead strip with cheese cracker sharks swimming underneath. Grapes make it lunch!

Happy Turkey Day ... Almost :)

2011-11-20T05:20:00.001-05:00

Monday the parents have been invited to go have lunch with their kids! Tom & I will have pretty boring lunches in comparison to John's. Same food for the meal, but Tom would rather not have his mini turkey subs cut & colored like a turkey ;)

The turkey legs are pretzel sticks, his tail are clementine slices. On the side are more sticks and slices and in the top corner is some pumpkin pudding.

BONUS: Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T07:36:00.001-05:00

Tonight we're back to Tom being stuck on second shift on Thursdays & Fridays so I decided to make a special treat for his dinner. I had originally planned on doing it for one of his 2 school lunches for next week, but didn't want to wait!

Snoopy & Woodstock are toasted turkey sandwiches and the sides, of course, are jelly beans, popcorn & pretzel sticks!

I've got the show loaded onto my ipad so we'll do a dinner & movie & have an early Thanksgiving!