Throwback Thursday - Bynto Bentos

It's Throwback Thursday,  (the internet says), so I'm throwing back (is that right?) to a Thursday last February, almost a year ago! My bento blogger buddy Beau - aka The Lunchbox Dad - had just begun hosting a weekly Throwback Thursday lunch link-up :) That week I had linked up this heart-filled Goodbyn Bynto from the previous Spring.

Sydney Bean still loves her Bynto lunchbox, in fact she took lunch in it yesterday. No pics of that lunch though - it wasn't anything creative. I'm still trying to find my groove again - life just seems a whole lot more hectic now than it was 3 years ago when I began this blog. I thought this parenting thing would get easier as the sproutlets got older and more independent, but it seems like the more independent they are, the more involved I find myself having to be! Gone are the days when I could gate them safely in the playroom to amuse each other while I accomplished something. Lately I'm just not finding the time I used to have for my blog :( Oh well, at least I'm making them lunch, right? And it was a bunch of her favourite fruits & a granola bar in a colourful container she likes, so she was happy with it ;)

Here are some more throwbacks to Bynto lunches she's loved:

That rainbow bento was one of my favorites too.

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I don't think I ever blogged this one!

 

 I love how happy she is with her lunch :)

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We both liked this one because it goes with a book!

How Did That Get In My Lunchbox tells about the journey foods make from where they begin until they get to us. Read more about it in this post :)

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And I love this one because my little Bean Sprout made it herself!

Domo Bentos

When Pickle came downstairs wearing his Domo t-shirt I decided to put a Domo cupcake ring in his lunch, & since I have several of them, I did the same for his sisters' lunches - adding cupcake rings are an easy way to make them fun. But even though the lunches weren't fancy, I was still rushing to get them ready on time! I'm so out of practice.

Bella's EasyLunchbox contains sunburst & grape tomatoes, baby carrots, grapes, a ham & cheddar burrito, string cheese decorated with a Domo ring, a granola bar (tucked under her cloth napkin), & a Lunchbox Love note.

Sprout's appetite has been small lately. Her Goodbyn Bynto contains strawberries, a mozzarella string cheese through a Domo cupcake ring, lemonade (cloth napkin tucked underneath), Triscuit minis, & honey ham, in silicone cups the perfect depth for the Bynto.

Pickle's Goodbyn Hero contains peanut butter sandwich spirals, cookies, lemonade, yogurt, ice pillows to help keep that section cold, a napkin & spoon through a Domo cupcake ring, & a Lunchbox Love note from one of the joke volumes. He was very pleased with his lunch matching his t-shirt :)

I'll be doing a Goodbyn Hero review & giveaway soon, but for now, check out Mamabelly's Lunches with Love for her Hero review & giveaway - there's still a day and a half left to enter!

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Some stuff used to pack these lunches:

Goodbyn Bento Box Round-up

Here's Birdie's last preschool lunch ever! More of a snack, really. The school had a cookout on the last day, so she didn't need to bring anything, but I didn't think she would eat a hot dog & chips (she didn't) so I packed her some applesauce (sprinkled with heart quins), a granola bar (broken in half) & a cheese heart, packed in a Goodbyn snack box.

Since the school year's over, I might as well share the rest of the Goodbyn lunches that never got posted for whatever reason :)

Our Goodbyns are some of my favourite containers to reach for in a rush - they're so colourful they make the lunch look fun even if it's just random things practically thrown in it, so I don't need to take any extra time to be creative or add accessories, unless I want to - see:

Ok, so the hard-cooked egg is shaped like a teddy bear head - but that didn't take any extra effort since I cook & mold eggs in batches ahead of time.  

Pancakes are always a favourite. They can be made ahead & frozen, or purchased that way. Add some fruit, a little dipper of syrup , & a yogurt (not shown), & my little one's lunchbox comes home empty.

Here's an Instagram pic I shared but forgot to blog! I had nothing in mind for lunch that day & was not feeling at all creative so I asked Sprout what she wanted & packed exactly that - ham, grapes, a Go-Gurt, crackers, & iced tea (with reusable CoolStraw), in her purple Bynto, an oldie but goodie :)

Another oldie, from way back in October! This one was for Bella - as the note says - and it appears I swapped the purple Bynto lid for a pink one, maybe for fun, or maybe I was just in a hurry :)

I don't remember what was tucked under the mini bagel! Being October, it might have been a Hallowe'en candy...

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I just bought one of the new Goodbyn Hero lunchboxes, a red one, for Pickle to take to school next year. He's pretty excited about it - he loves red. He's pretty hard on his lunch gear, so if it can hold up to his abuse, it really will be a hero! I'm pretty optimistic;  if it's anything like our other Goodbyn containers, it won't disappoint. I wonder if it will fit in the Goodbyn lunch bag... if it does, I might get one for Birdie too... she loves her blue birdie bag :)

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Some stuff used to make these lunches

   

One Bunny Lunch

You'd think that with half the sproutlets out sick and only one lunch to pack that I could make it a fun one! Nope, with half the sproutlets out sick, I'm just too tired - I stuck a pink bunny pick in Sprout's ham and called it good :)

And I snapped the photo with my phone, at the kitchen table, didn't even bother picking out a piece of scrapbook paper for the photo background! But I think it's a decent lunch, even if there are no veggies in it (she nixed the carrots I was about to put in). She has a Goodbyn Bynto packed with ham, yogurt, grapes, a granola bar, & iced tea (with a GreenPaxx Cool Straw).

Some stuff I used to pack lunch:

I really like those silicone cups in the Goodbyn, they reach right to the top so even if it's carried sideways, nothing spills out.

Rainy Day Monday

Have you ever forgotten it was a holiday and made school lunches?

It's raining this Memorial Day Monday, perfect day to make umbrella sandwiches for Pickle, using the sticks I saved from the Lindt chocolate carrots the sproutlets got in their Easter baskets: 

One of Bella's favourite rainy day lunches is soup & veggie sides.  She has cream of potato soup in a Thermos Foogo (really keeps it hot all day!) and a Light My Fire spork, cucumbers, sweet peppers, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and Ritz crackers.

Sprout loves hearts in her lunch. Her Goodbyn Bynto is packed with cheddar hearts, peanut butter sandwich hearts, baby carrots, and strawberry hearts.

Little sister Birdie wanted the same thing as her big sis. I gave her triangle shaped cheese made from the scraps of Sprout's hearts.

The adorable cloth napkins are from The Red Poppy on Etsy. 

Other stuff used to make these lunches:

Linked to Bento for Kidlet's last Meatless Monday of the school year:

Salad & Sandwich, Soup & Sides

Where did our Spring go? We woke up to a gloomy damp day, boo. The girls wanted hot lunches, but they didn't want the school lunch, so I got out their Thermoses. The boys opted for the school lunch, so I had a few extra minutes to add some cutesy touches to Sailor Boy's lunch :

He has a ham & cheese flatbread wrap atop a salad (with radish heart cutouts), some Gala apple wedges, carrots, & dressing for the salad. I used my alphabet picks to add a love note to his sandwich.

Sprout has hot leftover noodles in her Thermos. In her Bynto she has a Goodbyn dip cup filled with grated parmesan - she likes to sprinkle it on her noodles - and some Gala apple wedges, carrots, & parmesan garlic Triscuits.

Bella has potato soup in her Thermos, and sides of cucumbers, radishes, baby carrots, sunburst tomatoes, Triscuits & string cheese. Bella likes her string cheese to be very cold, she says it "strings better" that way, so I put some reusable ice cubes right next to it. Both girls have iced tea to drink.

Stuff used to make these lunches:

 

Bunny Food

For the last day of school before Spring Break I packed Bella a special Eastery lunch in her Laptop Lunches bento box:

She had turkey & cheddar flatbread roll-ups, an Easter egg filled with spiced almonds, a ginger carrot bran muffin, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, radish rabbits, & cantaloupe with candy picks. 

Bella loved this lunch so much she asked to have her picture taken with it! I included a Lunchbox Love note with a fun fact about eggs on it. The flip side of that card says "Share", which is perfect, because she took a jar filled with a bouquet of eraser-topped pencils to share with her classmates :)

Pickle got bunny & baby bunny peanut butter sandwiches. I'm not very good at making faces on food, so I made the other end instead:

To make the bunny bum, I used my CuteZcute animal face cutter, but turned upside down, over a bunny head cutter, with a scalloped circle for the tail. I made the body with an extra layer of bread for a 3-D effect. I made the baby bunny with a bunny head cookie cutter and a little circle.

When I tried to put the lid on Pickle's sandwich box, I found that it had warped in the dishwasher and wouldn't go on easily. It's fixable - I can put it through the next cycle and work the lid back on while it's still warm and let it cool with it on, that usually works - but I couldn't send it to school with him in the meantime, so I popped it in the Bynto instead.

He also had yogurt decorated with bunny & chick shaped sugar sprinkles. I love that there was a Lunchbox Love note with s fun fact abour Hershey's, that's his favourite. For snack I added a muffin decorated with cupcake picks:

Some stuff used for these lunches: