Back To School with yubo for my Bigger Boy!

This Back To School lunch I made for Pickle may be the last one of his that I blog! He's decided that now that he's in middle school, he's too old for themed bentos & shaped sandwiches, and wants plain lunches.  But I packed him this one (possibly) last special lunch anyways :)

He has a Babybel cheese with a check mark carved in the wax, Oreos with a chalkboard pick stuck in the frosting of one, yogurt with chocoladehagel (sprinkles), a notebook paper peanut butter sandwich embellished with food markers, stacked atop a second plain sandwich, & a Lunchbox Love note.

Everything pictured plus a drink, napkin, & spork is packed in his new, more grown up, yubo tote. It's less bulky than the yubo lunchbox, but still the perfect size for all the yubo containers, & more:

The yubo ice pack fits perfectly in the new soft-sided Tote, along with the same container combination as can be packed in the hard-sided yubo, as well as additional yubo container(s), accessories and/or a drink.

Something else that's new for middle school is that Pickle doesn't have an aide sitting with him,  encouraging him to eat tidily & helping him pack up when he's finished.  He likes to squish his food - it's an autism/sensory thing - plus he's neither the neatest of eaters, nor very good about remembering to put the lids back on his containers, & frequently brings home a messy lunch bag covered inside & out with smushed Oreo smears & spilled yogurt. So I was pretty thrilled with the ability to completely unsnap the yubo Tote & wipe it down, or even machine wash it. No scrubbing crud out of seams, yay!

I really like that when the yubo tote is completely unsnapped it becomes a placemat. Having a messy kid myself makes me more than a bit squeamish about eating on shared surfaces... who knows what germs are lurking there ready to leap onto my lunch, heheh... so this is a great feature for me :)

See all the lunchboxes & accessories yubo has to offer at getyubo.com

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Just in case anyone's wondering about the bottle in Pickle's lunch, it's this:

It's called Bot-L, by Fred & Friends, & it's one of his favourites.  I like it well enough - it doesn't leak - but it's not insulated, & I have to hand wash it...
so I don't love it quite as much as Pickle does ;)

Disclosure: I received no monetary compensation for this post. I was offered a complimentary yubo tote to review with no obligation to endorse. This post does contain affiliate links to products I used. All opinions & images are my own. 

Awesome Autism Day

April is National Autism Awareness Month in America,  & April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.  Pickle calls it Awesome Autism Day :)   I packed him an awesome autism lunch with a special message:

I used tiny alphabet, heart, & puzzle piece shaped cookie cutters to say "I love you to pieces" with his peanut butter sandwich, & filled the heart shape with cupcake sprinkles in the colours of the Autism Awareness ribbon.  I froze some yogurt in a puzzle piece mold & nestled a piece in some plain yogurt - it holds it shape pretty well as it thaws. And I topped one of his favourite oatmeal muffins with some blue cupcake sprinkles - they're meant to be flowers but I think they look kind of like puzzle pieces :)

If you aren't a regular BentOnBetterLunches reader,  you might be thinking: Cute lunch, but so nutritionally unbalanced!  Maybe you even want to ask: Where are the fruits & vegetables?  The answer most days is:  On his dinner plate, pureed in pizza sauce. Rarely in his lunch box.  Why not?  Pickle has autism, & like many kids with ASDs, he takes picky eating to an extreme.  

Eating issues are very common among kids on the autism spectrum. 

The reasons for this are as diverse as the kids themselves.  Pickle has difficulty with food textures*. Graduating from purees to solids was a slow process that took patience, & help from his speech-language pathologist. And he still prefers softer solids - like peanut butter sandwiches :)

But a peanut butter sandwich every day ?!

Autism challenges us daily, turning simple tasks into a battle, so we try to choose our conflicts carefully.  Pickle's diet is just not something worth fighting over.  If he wants to have the same thing for lunch every day, that's okay.  I personally find it boring, but he seems to find it reassuring*.  So, to make packing the same thing every day less tedious, fun even, I challenged myself to make his sandwiches as many different ways as I could, & set a goal of 101 - and I did it! See all 101 peanut butter sandwiches here :)

I like to think that Pickle's lunches are something he looks forward to during his school day.  He loves to learn, but autism can make some aspects of going to school difficult. Sitting still, working quietly, & transitioning from one subject to another take a lot of effort for him, & the noise & crowds at recess & lunch can be overwhelming.  A familiar lunch is comforting :)

Pickle's Autism Awareness lunch is packed in our new Bentology containers. If the bento box design looks familiar, that's because Bentology is the evolution of one of our longtime favourite brands, Laptop Lunches! Bonus - we already had a spork that matches the new turquoise coloured lids :) And last but never least, I tucked in a Lunchbox Love note. I can always find one with the perfect sentiment ♥

                   

* Sensory Processing Disorder has a higher prevalence among children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
* Many people with autism have a strong preference for routines and sameness. - Autism, routines, & resistance to change.

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.

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):

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 :)

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 :)

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!

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

  

Have you seen my keys?

Last week I was a guest on my friend Stacey's blog,  Student Bento. Stacey & I have something besides bento in common - a family member on the autism spectrum - so I decided to make my post about my Pickle's lunch. Here's my little man waving hello as he eats that very lunch. Can you guess what it is?

If you follow my blog you probably already know that Pickle has autism & is quite stuck on having a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, every day, which inspired my 101 peanut butter sandwiches challenge. When I began that challenge I made a list of creative sandwich ideas, & I still haven't gotten around to making all of them. Piano keys is one from way back, I'm so glad I finally made it! Here's Pickle pretending to play his piano sandwich:

Piano keys was an idea that I kept putting off because I thought it would be a bit time-consuming. And it was, especially since I don't play piano,  so I had to keep checking a photo of one to be sure I got the key shapes right! But hooray, it's summer, I had plenty of time! And Pickle helped! Read how in my post at Student Bento :)  And in case you don't care to read more & just came here to look at the pictures, here's Pickle's piano peanut butter sandwich:

FYI: No scraps were wasted in the making of this sandwich. Pickle stood beside me while I made it,  happily snacking on the bits I cut off ;) 

Pickle's Pick & Sandwich Cutter Storage

Pickle has been making some of his lunches himself this summer! He's been enjoying taking as much time as he wants picking out a sandwich cutter, most of which are stored two deep in a drawer with a spice rack insert:

For this lunch, Pickle chose one of the dinosaur sandwich cutters, and put them in a Dyno Dips snack box, with some apple wedges:

Pickle didn't want to pour yogurt in the dinosaur dip well like I thought he would, he wanted to fill it with apple wedges. He's asked for apples several times now, but he has yet to actually eat them. Still, I don't like to say no when he asks for a food he doesn't usually eat - one day he may surprise me! This was not that day though - the apples went uneaten, and he asked for a Go-Gurt after finishing his peanut butter sandwiches. Ah well, maybe next time :)

Stuff Pickle used to make his lunch:

2 Airplane Lunches

These last few weeks of school are flying by! It'll be summer break in no time, and I'm way behind in blogging school lunches :) Here's one of Pickle's peanut butter sandwich lunches that I posted to Instagram but forgot to blog:

I used the airplane Lunch Punch sandwich cutter but instead of cutting the shape out, I stamped the image into the top bread, then traced it with a food marker. On the side he had mozzarella string cheese embellished with alphabet picks, & yogurt sprinkled with sanding sugar. And I found the perfect Lunchbox Love note to tuck in with it, as seen in the Instagram pic :)

And while sorting through unposted bento pics I found this one from the 2011-2012 school year, made using the same Lunch Punch, the way it's intended :)

Hard to believe Pickle's been going to school for nearly 7 years now and he's still eating practically the same thing for lunch every day! I stopped counting how many different ways I've made his PB sandwiches after I completed my 101 Peanut Butter Sandwiches Challenge :)

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Some stuff I used for these lunches:

World Autism Awareness Day

April is National Autism Awareness Month in the USA, & April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.  We're well aware of autism in our family;  our Pickle is one of the 1 in 54 American boys on the autism spectrum.

If we were home with our sandwich cutters I'd make my little man a puzzle lunch, but we're in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada, for Spring Break, so it will have to wait. I do have all month to make an Autism Awareness Lunch :) And look at all these fun puzzle piece tools I could use when I do!

   

   

• Lunch Punch Match & Munch Puzzle Shape Sandwich Cutters
• 4 inch Puzzle Piece Cookie Cutter
• Puzzle Piece Bento Food Picks
• Puzzle Silicone Baking Mold
• Munchkin Puzzle Piece Silly Sandwich Cutter
• Puzzle Bites Crustless Sandwich Cutter

       

 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to items I own, use & like!