Bent On Better Lunches Big Birthday Giveaway!

It's my little lunch blog's birthday! My 2nd blogiversary :)

And, I have gifts! Not to keep, to give away! Hooray!

• From EasyLunchboxes, a set of EasyLunchboxes containers in your choice of Classic or Brights & a cooler bag too!
  I ♥ our EasyLunchboxes: A Rainbow of Lunch Possibilities  
• From BentoUSA, a $25 gift voucher to pick out the bento accessories of your choice! ♥ You could get everything I used in this lunch that isn't included in this Giveaway, and more!
• From The Lunch Punch, makers of my favourite sandwich cutters, the Sweet Set, which includes the birthday cake I used today, plus a cupcake, bubblegum machine, & ice cream cones!
• And, in case you could use a little help deciding what to make for lunch, from MOMables, a 3 month MOMables menu subscription PLUS a $25 Amazon.com gift card to buy lunch gear!
  Go Back to School with MOMables!

Pretty much everything you need to pack lunch, except food!

Thank you EasyLunchboxes, BentoUSA, Lunch Punch, & MOMables!

You've been a big part of Bent On Better Lunches since it's beginning and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share your awesomeness :)

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To enter, simply leave me a blog comment. Say anything! 

Then check it off in the Rafflecopter widget below. Like the giveaway sponsors for bonus entries, & tweet daily for even more chances :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pin this image for a bonus entry!

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Lunch is an almond butter on honey wheat birthday cake sandwich with sugar sprinkles, carrot sticks, strawberries, raspberries, & grapes.

Stuff used to make  this lunch:

 

Giveaway open to residents of Canada & USA only. One entrant per household please. Thank you!

Go Back To School with MOMables!

Happy Labour Day! I've got more than yummy lunches to share with you today;  I've also got a chance for you to win a 3-month subscription to MOMables! Just in time for Back To School!

But first, a yummy lunch pic. I made a batch of these MOMables mini quiches yesterday, don't they look cute enough to eat? Everyone but Pickle tried and liked them, which makes them 4 out of 5 picky Sproutlet-approved :) 

Sprout called them "eggie muffins" and pronounced them "yummo!"  

Here's the recipe, courtesy of MOMables:

We only had Gluten-Free Bisquick, and I used ham instead
of pepperoni, but like Sprout said,  "Yummo" :)

MOMables and BentOnBetterLunches go way back...

Near the end of last summer, not long after I began this blog, I was scouring the internet for healthy school lunch ideas, and discovered this blog post by MOMables Chief MOM Laura aka Super Glue Mom. I immediately signed up to be notified when MOMables went live! And wow, it's already been a year since I first tried out and raved about MOMables!  I've since joined the MOMables team myself, as a contributor! I'm also still a fan, and I still think they provide a fantastic service for busy families who want to eat fresh & healthy :)

Want to learn more about MOMables and how they do that? 

Read on...

What is MOMables? In short, MOMables is an affordable, convenient, simple, customizable school lunch menu subscription service that takes the guesswork out of making a nutritionally complete lunch, fast. For the long answer, visit the About page at MOMables.com

What do the menus look like? Very much like a cookbook! You can view the menus online, or save them to your computer, even print them out for future reference. Then if there is ever a lunch item your kidlets don't care for, you can look through past menus for something they did like and substitute :)

Here's an example, and one of MY favourite MOMables menu items:

Example of a MOMables menu item + recipe

Why subscribe to MOMables when there are free menus & recipes online?  MOMables subscriptions include more than just a menu! MOMables also provides a shopping list, full colour photos of each lunch, and the recipes have been kid-tested and specially planned to take 10 minutes or less to pack.

Example of a MOMables printable shopping list

Is it worth it?  I think so! A MOMables subscription fee comes out to less than 25 cents a day. Less than a quarter to never have to stare into the fridge or cupboard asking yourself "What am I doing about lunch tomorrow?" That's only $1.25 a week. Who doesn't waste more than that on food they bought but didn't use, or on fuel going back to the store for things they didn't think to get? MOMables gives you 2 weeks of lunches in advance plus a shopping list for the items you'll need, saving you from unnecessary purchases and trips back to the store. Pays for itself right there!

My version of the MOMables Wafflewich lunch shown above:

Now, here's your chance to WIN 

a FREE 3-month subscription to MOMables! 

Enter via Rafflecopter below :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And while you wait to see if you win, click on the cloud to visit the MOMables website! The MOMables blog has heaps of fabulous FREE recipes & ideas, and not just for lunch. And be sure to sign up for the FREE weekly MOMables newsletter full of additional recipes & kitchen tips, plus a chance to win a Starbucks gift card every week :)

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Bella's yummy heart-shaped homemade chicken nugget lunch is part of my latest This vs That post at MOMables!

Just posted today, Lunchbox Wars : Chicken Nuggets is a fresh, healthy remake of a boxed chicken nugget convenience lunch - and includes my recipe for the homemade chicken nuggets :)

Make Your Own Pizza Lunches!

Recently, I contributed a post on MOMables' blog, making my own healthier, fresh version of a packaged DIY pizza lunch. My girls loved my version and have been asking me to make it again just about every other day since.

Here's Bella's pizzable. She has ham, whole wheat sandwich thins for crust, marinara sauce in a little leak-proof container (lid not shown), a sweet mini pepper, shredded cheese, and a side of grapes.

Sprout & Birdie had a muffin tin version of the same thing:

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I overslept this morning, so we were running way behind, and I didn't have time to pack lunch for everyone or we'd be late for school. I packed Beanstalk's Lock & Lock (ham, grapes, Clif Kid Z bar & Gala apple wedges), but told Bella & Pickle to have the school hot lunch.

Tuesday is breakfast for lunch day at school - they sometimes do want that - but of course, not today. *sigh* I said I'd try to drop off some home made ones before their lunch periods, but if I didn't, to just have the school lunch.

After running some errands,  I did have time to make lunch for them. I made Bella's, then got out the peanut butter for Pickle's sandwich - but where was the bread? Sailor Boy had bought bread the day before... where could he have put it? Unfortunately he was on an airplane so I couldn't ask him. We did have hot dog buns, so I made Pickle some peanut butter dogs instead:

I dropped off Pickle's lunch in time, but I must have been confused about what time Bella went to lunch (she's at a different school) because when I got there, she was already at a table with a school lunch tray (and apparently they get to pump their own syrup, because her pancakes were swimming in a pool of it).

As soon as she saw me, Bella shoved her tray away. "Hang on," I teased, "you don't even know what I brought, how do you know it's better than what you have?" The girl next to her piped up "Anything is better than the school lunch!" The rest of the table agreed, and Bella excitedly opened her EasyLunchbox, squealing at the sight of her pizza lunch :

Way better than Lunchables...  it's Pizzables!

I wished I could have brought lunch for her whole table :)
My friend Keeley of Keeley McGuire Blog did just that today - brought lunch for everyone ♥ You have to read her heartwarming post - when you're done with mine of course :) Pay It Forward - Bento Blessings 

Back at home, it was Sprout & Birdie's turn to make their own mini pizzas:

Sprout piled half the shredded cheddar beside her plate right away, before spreading her sauce - she was worried her sister would eat all of it before she got any - a valid concern, Birdie's a cheese fiend!

Birdie took some ham! She rarely eats any meat - but sometimes likes ham (thanks to Ponyo!) Nobody touched the yellow pepper - not even cutting it to look like little flowers enticed them today.

After eating half her pizza, my funny little Birdie decided what it needed was a grape on top, "like a cherry".  Silly sproutlet :)

The DIY Pizza lunch that inspired today's was just one of a series of healthier lunch remakes I'm collaborating on with MOMables for our Lunchbox Wars series - a this vs that of the lunchbox.  If there's a packaged lunch you'd like to see remade,  head over to MOMables and let us know!

Brunch Bunch

Today the girls' lunches are kind of brunchy. Beanstalk's would have been as well if he hadn't spotted me packing the waffle sandwich and vetoed it. Ah well, it didn't go to waste - breakfast for me!

Bella has a cream cheese and strawberries and whole wheat waffle sandwich (open-face for pic), one of my favourites from our MOMables menus. So - Bella says she doesn't like strawberries, but I'm being a mean mama and pretending I forgot... because she likes all things strawberry flavoured, I'm sure she'd like the berries themselves if she just gave them a chance! And she can always pick them off right? On the side she has apple wedges, celery sticks and my new love, Justin's Maple Almond Butter, for dipping.

Beanstalk's PlanetBox is packed with yogurt (This is new, woohoo! Just got him to try it yesterday!), raisins, yogurt pretzels, half a Clif Kid Z Bar, and apple wedges.Usually his cloth napkin is tucked into a pocket of his lunchbox but since he vetoed the waffle I had an empty space so I wrapped it around his spoon. Can't have an empty space! :)

Pickle has a Pac-Man peanut butter sandwich. The bread dots are stuck to the bottom of the sandwich box with daubs of peanut butter. He has this game on his iPod and was excited to see it as his lunch. The bread had a bit of an air bubble and he insisted I turn it into an eye for Pac-Man :)

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Sprout & Birdie have brunchy muffin tin meals of waffle & cream cheese sandwiches, yogurt, sunshine juice, apple, cheese omelet, and strawberries.

Don't think Birdie even noticed all the heart shapes. Cute lunches and mums with cameras can't compete with Pingu & Shaun the Sheep! Yes, I’m letting them watch TV while they eat - but how else would I get this post written? :)

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Oh, one last thing! Congratulations to Nina of Mamabelly's Lunches With Love, she won my Super Healthy Kids Giveaway! Nina chose the original Healthy Habits plate - maybe we'll see it on her blog!

Some stuff in today's post:


More stuff I used In My Cupboards :)

Baby Love

A couple of my favourite "lunch ladies" have recently welcomed some sweet new wee mouths to feed ♥ Congratulations to Ludicrous Mama of Biting The Hand That Feeds You, on the Christmas-time arrival of her adorable daughter Little E, and to Super Glue Mom Laura of MOMables, on the birth of her sweet son, born yesterday!

Last night I thought it would be fun to say Congratulations to Laura and Welcome to the World to her little man on the MOMables Facebook Wall with a cute little snack made in their honour... but it turned out to be another one of those things that looked better in my head :) See for yourself:

Sailor Boy said it looked a little creepy... so of course I had to eat it in front of him - I think he flinched when I bit into it, heheh. It's just half a mozzarella string cheese stick wrapped in a piece of ham for a blanket, with cupcake sprinkles for eyes and a mouth, yummy, but I had to admit he was right, it didn't seem right for posting on anyone else's wall :)

I've made baby bundle snacks before... I made "Babies in Blankets" - turkey Lit'l Smokies in crescent roll swaddling blankets - for our Labour Day Lunch, that looked cute and not at all creepy... I don't think. Maybe I should have skipped the sprinkle face.

Anyways... Welcome to the world new little babies! You picked some good families to be born into -  and you've got some great meals to look forward to!

 

Fall Lunch, Time Crunch

It's a really good thing I had most of the lunches made up last night, because my alarm did not go off this morning (since I forgot to set it) and I only had half an hour to get 5 sproutlets fed, ready, packed, and out the door. It was close, but we made it!

Bella took pumpkin shaped pizza quesadillas, with little pumpkins and oak leaves cut from the scraps, oak leaf cheese and cucumber slices, and golden sunburst cherry tomatoes on shamrock picks - meant to look like pumpkins with stems - close enough right? :) We'd never tried the sunburst tomatoes before - they taste just like the red ones but they are orangey-yellow, fun for a change. For a treat, she got butter cookie leaves, and a few little Halloween themed marshmallows that are supposed to look like ghost shapes (the white ones do, saved them for later this month) but we both thought the orange and brown ones looked more like leaves.

Yep, I'm still on a Fall theme kick - it IS my favourite time of year :) Oooh, and I got some Fall-themed muffin tins this weekend - we went to Party City for some Halloween stuff and Sailor Boy saw me eyeing them and laughed and said "Oh just get them, you know you want them" ♥

Anyways, back to today's lunches... 

Bean Sprout & Birdie took snacky bento lunches in their Sassy boxes. Scrabble Cheez-It crackers (I have to say, these crackers are cute but they are not very tasty, we won't buy them again) plus pretzels for Birdie, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, red grape tomatoes and sunburst cherry tomatoes, and baby carrots.

Pickle has his usual yogurt and peanut butter sandwiches of course - a puppy in his doghouse (Lunch Punch) and a bigger dog and bone (Wilton cookie cutters). The bigger dog is a bit muddy, heheh (peanut butter smears, I was messy in my haste this morning).

Beanstalk took a MOMables lunch. No, you don't get to see it, MOMables lunches are for subscribers only :) If you're not familiar with MOMables, check out their website: http://momables.com/ or visit their page on Facebook for more information on this time-saving service. If you've been thinking of trying out a subscription to MOMables, now is a great time to do it! All of October’s subscription fees will be donated towards the Cancer treatment of young Joseph Scott. If you're already a MOMables subscriber but want to help this brave little boy and his family, please join me in donating directly. ♥