Tuesday the 17th

It's Tuesday the 17th Psych-os!  So I baked some  (wait for it) ...
Boom... boom... boom... muffins!

Pineapple pear oatmeal muffins! Are you a fan of delicious flavour?
I'll share my secret ingredient... Don't tell the sproutlets, but I substitute fruit & veggie baby food puree for the oil in muffin recipes to add not only delicious flavour but a wee nutrition boost too  :)

Birdie's not a Psych fan (yet), being only 4 years old - but she can't read either, so the letters stuck in the muffin in her nibble tray might as well say anything - in fact, when I asked her what they spelled, she said "Lunch" :)

She also had some yogurt, cheddar, crackers, carrots, & pineapple chunks.
In her pineapple-shaped Zak! Dr. Sears Nibble Tray, of course!

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Some of my favorite bento bloggers are Psych-os too!
Check out what they have to share this Tuesday the 17th!

• What's In Our Lunch Bags?
• Organized Bites (with a Giveaway!)

89 days until Psych: The Musical!

Breakfast Bento for Birdie

Rise & shine, it's breakfast time! Birdie's having a summer morning bento of fresh cut strawberry flowers, carrot suns, cheese tulips, bunny grahams, apple blossoms, and yogurt with a garden of sweet sprinkles.

My friend Ludicrous Mama of Biting the Hand That Feeds You recently shared an article she had read, about a study that showed young children prefer many colours and choices on their plate. According to the study, "Children are most attracted to food plates with seven different items and six different colors." Birdie does love her Zak! Nibble Tray, which has 6 sections (9 with with the dip attachment!) Sprinkles are a fun way to add even more colour and kid appeal, and if you count them, she's got her 7 items in 6 colours :)

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Some stuff used to make this bento:

Patriotic Prechool Bento + Shake Test!

I didn't plan on making a patriotic bento today, but it evolved into one when I noticed all the foods I'd packed were red, white & blue... so I stuck a paper American flag in one of the cheese pieces and voilà! A 4th of July-worthy preschool bento lunch or sampler snack tray :)

Birdie & Sprout shared this colourful sampler for an afternoon snack:

• red, white & blue Goldfish crackers
• mozzarella string cheese
• strawberries
• blueberries
• yogurt for dipping
• dried strawberries
• yogurt-covered raisins

Packed in their Zak! Designs Dr. Sears Nibble Tray

Shake it up! 

I packed yogurt in the detachable EZ Freeze dip section of the Nibble Tray specifically so I could do a shake test with it. A reader had recently asked: "Does the attached tray travel well with the body or come unattached easily? [Her child] is a lunchbox swinger and banger, so everything has to be very sturdy!" I didn't know... so I decided to put it to the test :)

 

The "leaf" dip section attaches securely to the "pineapple" main section with tabs on the leaf that clip into slots on the pineapple. The lid of the main section actually overlaps the clips so when it is filled and sealed, the dip section cannot come unattached, even when overturned, as shown in the pic above. The lids seal well too. To see if the Nibble Tray could survive being jostled about in a schoolbag,  I filled it, sealed it, then shook it up, on video :

I just love our Nibble Tray, and so do my little ones! 

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post or solicited review. Descriptions, video & opinions are my own,  given purely in response to a reader question :) This post does contain affiliate links, because, if you're going to buy one based on what you've seen here, why not toss a few coins my way!

Personalized Preschool Lunch!

My preschooler's personalized bento is packed in her Dr. Sears Nibble Tray:

My 6 year old, Sprout, wanted her lunch in her little sister's Yumbox, and 4 year old Birdie was happy to share. Both girls had cheddar & mozzarella cheese, carrots, red grapes, strawberries, apples & goldfish crackers. I used alphabet bento picks & Scrabble Cheez-it crackers to spell their names.

Sprout also had a treat of Sunbursts candy coated sunflower seeds. Yummy :)

They'll both be excited about the new Framboise Pink Yumbox - coming soon!

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Some stuff used to make these lunches:

Colourful Lunches for my Colourful Kidlets

Today's lunch doesn't have a theme, but it was kind of inspired by the Lunchbox Love note I chose to include with it. When I got my Lunchbox Love note sets, I went through them and picked out certain ones I wanted to give certain kidlets. I chose this one for my Sprout,  who really is a terrific kid. She's so much fun! A handful, but in a good way, she's just bursting with joie de vivre :) I love her colourful personality. So, I made a lunch as colourful as she is :)

My colourful Sydney Bean Sprout:

 

Before & after we coloured her hair (at her request!)

Now, back to lunch! Sprout had 2 little heart-shaped sandwiches, carrots, oranges, grapes, strawberries cut like hearts, and yogurt with sprinkles:

We recently got some new yubo faceplate covers (including a sweet Valentine one... ooh, I totally just decided to copy Bento-ology's heart lunch for Bella to go with that one!) Sprout chose this one, she says it's her & her sisters :)

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Birdie is home from preschool today with a fever & tummy ache. When I asked her if her tummy was upset, she thought about it for a sec, then said "Yes, my tummy is crying," Awww...♥ I didn't expect her to eat much of the Nibble Tray I packed her (and she didn't) but here it is:

Strawberry hearts, grapes, carrots, peanut butter sandwich hearts, and yogurt with a little strawberry syrup stirred in, and some sprinkles. When I went to take the pic above I tripped over a mini Lalaloopsy, and thought I might get a giggle from my girl if I served her lunch with a friend:

I was right ♥

"Mummy you're silly, I can't eat Gumdrop!"

Gumdrop is the Lalaloopsy :)
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Some stuff used to make these lunches:

Big & Little Lunches for my Princesses

A princess lunch for my big girl Princess Mia Bella:

Her EasyLunchbox contains:

• A princess heart & crown dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter sandwich
• Cucumber & carrot crowns
• Grapes on star skewers
• Disney princess gummy fruit snacks
• Dried strawberry "jewels"
• Fig Newtons, her favourite

Toddler Nibble Trays are great for packing small portions for preschool & kindergarten appetites:

 

Little Princess Sprout's Dr. Sears Nibble Tray contains:

• Mozzarella string cheese
• Honey ham
• Goldfish crackers
• Grapes
• Baby carrots
• Pluots

I love the happy smiling foods on the Nibble Tray lid :)

Bunny Hop Nibble Tray

Today's post is part of a blog hop! Click the bunny at the end to take you to the next stop on our Bunny Hop :)

The sproutlets are on Spring Break, so I don't have to pack lunches this week! I like making them fun bento lunches, but it's nice to not need to have them made by a certain time, and to not have to make sure they can be packed in the lunchboxes and survive the backpacks :)

They had friends over yesterday, which made 9 kidlets total, so I did the easy thing and made soup and toasted bagels for lunch. I did make a fun afternoon snack for the 4 younger kids though. I had a bunch of egg-shaped Jell-O Jiggler molds so I put together some Spring-y nibble trays:

Baby carrots with celery sliver stems, strawberry bunnies, celery & carrot tulips, string cheese bunnies with tails, cheddar bunnies & a cheddar bird, and Annie's Homegrown Fruity Bunnies cereal.  I made 4 total - which I thought would be enough, 1 each - but maybe my girls are light eaters, or maybe it's a boy thing, because it wasn't - the visiting little boys polished off their own, finished what my girls didn't eat, and still wanted more! I just refilled the eggs with the same things, but not cut up cute :)

Pickle doesn't eat soup so he had peanut butter sandwiches:

He's not big on his food having a face so I made his bunny a rear-view :) I used the bunny head cookie cutter that came with the Wilton 101 Cookie Cutters, and added feet and a tail to make it resemble a bunny from behind - and the carrots are upside down rocket ships.

Here's a bunny bento I made for Sprout a few days ago but never posted. Most of the same stuff as in the nibble trays plus a hard cooked egg bunny peeking out of some cucumber grass. And I added a couple of Annie's Homegrown Bunny Grahams to the Fruity Bunnies cereal:

Click the bunny to hop along to the next blog, What's For Lunch At Our House?, then keep following that fluffy tail all the way back here and you won't miss any of the Spring-y Easter-y lunch fun!

   

Stuff I used for these lunches:

Shiny Happy LunchBox :)

Yesterday's lunches. I love the colours in Beanstalk's PlanetBox. Green, orange & red goldfish crackers, green grapes, orange & red blood orange, golden rice cakes, and some green coconut m&m's. Happy colours :)

Bella requested an "I Love You" lunch. I packed her some baby carrots topped with carrot hearts, a peekaboo ham sandwich heart, rice cakes, grapes on heart skewers, and a couple of Hershey's kisses.

I found the perfect Lunchbox Love note  ♥

Pickle had a Mama & Baby Cow PB made with a special Lunch Punch. You can't buy this one, it was part of a cheese promotion in Australia!  I was lucky to have a friend down under send me one  ♥

Birdie had a Nibble Tray. She requested cheddar cheese, grapes, bread & yogurt, and I added baby carrots and mandarin orange segments.

Poor little Bean Sprout, she's still feeling under the weather and didn't have much appetite yesterday. I hope she's feeling up to eating the rainbow butterfly pasta lunch I've got planned for her today!

Stuff I used for today's lunches:
 
More stuff I used, In My Cupboards :)

Blossoms & Bears

I made Sprout & Birdie blossom lunches the other day. I think these are my favourite plate lunches I've made so far! I had the idea to make apple blossoms when I accidentally sliced the apple the wrong way :)

I cut the apple rings with a flower shaped cookie cutter, added grapes to the centres, celery slices for leaves, and used a small vegetable cutter to make carrot flowers. The blossom egg was made with a smallish egg in a star egg mold (they are meant for jumbo eggs). The grilled cheese flower was made by grilling the bottom piece with cheese on it open-faced,  the top piece with the centre cut-out on it's own,  then putting the sandwich together after grilling.

 I love how they turned out, and the little girls loved eating them ✿

They look great on the Healthy Habit plates, and fit the food groups perfectly!

Don't miss my Super Healthy Kids Healthy Habits plate giveaway for a chance to win your own Healthy Habits kids plate!

This Nibble Tray snack should have been part of my Teddy Bear Picnic post, but I forgot to include it. It's so cute I had to share it anyways:

Bumblebee food picks hover over the broccoli woods, while teddy bears made of cheddar cheese, carrot, apple, and chocolate graham cracker wait to be dunked in a blue-coloured plain yogurt pond. Well, maybe not the cheese bears... no, the cheese bears don't want to be dunked in the yogurt...
I'm pretty sure they weren't ;)

Some stuff I used for this lunch & snack:


Links to more stuff I use In My Cupboards

Leap Into Spring

Happy Leap Day! My sproutlets didn't care much that today is leap day, it didn't mean much to them - but they did find it amusing when I told them that if Pickle had been born on this date instead 5 days earlier, this year it would only be his 2nd birthday :) "Whoa, close one!" said Beanstalk.

Bella wanted "a bunch of little things" in her lunch, so I made her a Spring-y assortment of fruit, veggies, cheese, and rice cakes ✿

Birdie & Sprout shared a Nibble Tray. They had Annie's Homegrown Fruity Bunnies cereal and some alphabet cookies I found in the Safeway bakery, honey oat bran muffin, grapes, carrots, and cheddar-mozzarella flowers.

The mini muffin was Birdie's; Sprout got a bigger one, just like Pickle's, pictured below. Muffins fit perfectly in the little Tupperware snack cups. Pickle also got a Frog Prince peanut butter sandwich made with a Lunch Punch.
A Leap frog :)

Beanstalk has a new lunch box, a PlanetBox! He is so thrilled with it :)
The stainless steel is very cool...

His PlanetBox contains a honey oat bran mini muffin, raisins, grapes, Cheez-its, carrots, an orange, and a gummy fish treat. The many separated sections are perfect for my picky boy who doesn't like his foods to touch.

Stuff I used to make these lunches:

Cute picks All Things For Sale