Thursday, February 5, 2015

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.
 
I don't think I ever blogged this one!


 

 I love how happy she is with her lunch :)
 
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 :)
 
And I love this one because my little Bean Sprout made it herself!


Thursday, January 8, 2015

Pizza Burrito Hero Lunch

If you've followed my blog for some time, you may remember that most of my posts used to include fun peanut butter sandwiches for Pickle, who ate them every day. If you're wondering why you haven't been seeing them this school year,  it's because there is a peanut allergy in his class. 

Peanut lunches aren't banned - the 5th graders have been educated about their classmate's allergy & know not to share food - but I'd personally feel terrible if Pickle had some peanut butter on his hands & touched something that student might later touch & have an allergic reaction to, so I've been making his lunches peanut-free this year.

Pizza Burrito Goodbyn Hero Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches - Peanut-Free

So, what have I been sending? Well, most days, cereal & milk! We've just swapped his breakfast & lunch :) He has his beloved peanut butter sandwich in the morning,  at home where I can supervise his hand washing, & takes nut-free Cheerios or Life cereal & milk to school for lunch :) He's a creature of habit, so he hasn't been bored with this, but every now & then I like him to try something new - like this pizza burrito (I drew on it with food markers):

Pizza Burrito School Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches

The only vegetable Pickle eats willingly is tomato, in the form of ketchup, marinara dip, or pizza sauce.  I'm trying to introduce more variety into his diet though. He likes pizza Hot Pockets, so I suggested we try making something like a hot pocket by wrapping pizza toppings in a tortilla, & happily, he was willing! He even helped make it :) We spread marinara sauce on a burrito size flour tortilla, sprinkled it with turkey pepperoni, mozzarella & cheddar, folded it into a burrito, & heated it in the microwave. 


He liked it! And it's something he can make himself, which I like :)

This is the first time I've packed a pizza burrito in his lunch. He likes it heated until the cheese is melted, & students don't have access to a microwave, so I heated it to hotter than he would be able to eat it & wrapped it in foil,  hoping it would still be warm enough to be appetizing to him at lunch 3 hours later. I also stuck some funny face & "Eat me first" stickers on it for good measure :)

Pizza Burrito Goodbyn Hero School Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches

I stuck stickers on everything else just for fun :) His lunch is packed in a Goodbyn Hero, the newest addition to the Goodbyn lunchbox line.  The Hero is divided into 3 sections with space between them (see below). I hoped that gap would keep the hot burrito section from warming his Trix yogurt, which fit perfectly packed upside-down in one of the smaller sections. In the other, in the lidded Dipper container, he has his favourite cookie, Oreo. The spoon for his yogurt is wrapped in a cloth napkin from Beneficial-Bento.

 

Before putting the Hero's transparent lid on, I added a Riddle card from one of the newest Lunchbox Love for Kids volumes. Between the riddle, the silly stickers, & his newest favourite food with a friendly face drawn on it, this lunch is sure to bring a big smile to his face :)

Pizza Burrito Goodbyn Hero School Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches

I do still make fun peanut butter sandwiches for my Pickle, he just enjoys them at home. And he makes them for himself too! Nothing I've made recently hasn't been blogged before, but when I do make him something new I'll share it :)  I do have some fun new cutters to try... stay tuned!

       

Click to buy some of the stuff shown in this lunch:
  

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

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!

       

Some stuff used to pack these lunches:

Friday, August 15, 2014

Shark Week Sharknado Hero

Birdie's my mini-me in so many ways - one of which is our taste in TV shows. She's been enjoying Discovery Channel's Shark Week with me, and she loved Syfy's Sharknado 1 & 2,  and Sharktopus vs Pteracuda. Science or science fiction, it's all good to her :)  Monday we watched Discovery's Monster Hammerhead, after which she asked me to make her a shark lunch, with a hammerhead pick. Here she is with it, making a shark face, she says:


The sproutlets loved yesterday's Sharknado cinnamon rolls & wanted me to bake more Sharknado rolls today. Well, I did bake rolls, they're just not cinnamon... they're pizza rolls! And I used the rest of my shark cupcake picks to make them Sharknado Pizza Rolls :)

Baking is not my forte.  I use premade Pillsbury crescent roll dough, roll it out but don't separate it, brush with marinara sauce, sprinkle with cheese, roll up again,  slice, & bake at the temperature & time suggested on the package.

Birdie's shark lunch contains:

I packed Birdie's shark-themed lunch in one of our new Goodbyn Hero lunchboxes. We're loving this addition to the Goodbyn line! It's comes with 2 sizes of leakproof lidded inner containers, & there's even enough room to fit the Goodbyn drink bottle inside :) And there's always room for a Lunchbox Love note Especially one with trivia that goes with the lunch!

 

Stuff I used to make this lunch:


Birdie & I had fun playing with SyFy's Go Shark Yourself App. She made this pic of herself about to be attacked while sunbathing on our back porch :)

Thursday, June 26, 2014

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...


       

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 :)

       

Some stuff used to make these lunches

   
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