Hello Kitty Soup & Sides

Warm soup makes a super lunch on a foggy & chilly winter day.

Fresh fruit, crackers, & cheese nestled in colourful cups & embellished with Hello Kitty details make cheerful sides. Packed in a LunchBots Quad.

The blossom in the Babybel cheese was made using a flower cutter to cut a piece of wax out and a circle cutter to cut a piece from it to put back on.

Happy Friday!

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:

 

iHeart Spaghetti Tacos

No, this is not déja vu, I've made this lunch before. Mia Bella loves iCarly & spaghetti tacos. Not an iCarly fan and wondering what spaghetti tacos are? Basically, you replace the meat in a taco with spaghetti! It might sound strange, but it's actually really good - and a yummy way to use up that little bit leftover spaghetti that's not quite enough for a meal :)

Bella has her iCarly Thermos Funtainer packed with hot spaghetti & marinara sauce. I chopped the pasta a bit to make it easier to fill the taco shells, which I packed in her EasyLunchbox. The big gummi bear is actually a plastic container (from a McDonald's happy Meal!) filled with shredded cheddar cheese to top the taco with :) On the side she has dried strawberries topped with random dancing bears, and cantaloupe "gummi bears".  For protein she has almonds in the EasyLunchboxes Mini Dipper. Bella ♥'s this lunch!

Stuff I used to make this lunch :

 

A Beautiful Lunch

Bella has a Thermos Funtainer of cheese ravioli in tomato sauce for lunch today, and a LunchBots Trio packed with her choice of sides - cherry & sunburst tomatoes, Ritz crackers, & a carrot stick. I added flower bento picks & a little rainbow container with a few dried strawberries in it :)

Stuff I used in today's lunch:

Skipped Over Soup 'n Sides Lunch

Somehow this colourful little soup & sides lunch of Bella's from before the Winter Break got skipped over and never posted :(

I *think* it was chicken noodle soup in the Thermos. And I forgot to ask Bella but I bet she & her friends had a laugh over the trivia on that Lunchbox Love note! And no, I didn't know that... did you?

In the Lock & Lock divided bento box she has a snacky side dish for the soup: cucumber slices, snowflake Ritz crackers, carrots, celery, tomatoes & grapes. Not many of each... I'm thinking this may have been the day of her class party when I knew there would be lots of treats later.

Winter Break hasn't ended yet here, my kidlets don't go back until Monday. This has been a long break, I'm probably out of practice packing lunch... I'd better get back in the habit of getting up earlier if I don't want to start the 2013 school year in a scramble!

Happy New Year!

Happy Monday!

I packed a smiley apple half in my Beanstalk's LunchBots Quad. The X's for eyes don't mean anything, I was just playing with my v-cutter tool :) He also has grapes, peppered beef jerky, & cheese crackers.

The folks at Fiber One sent us some boxes of chewy granola bars to try. Both Beanstalk & Bella liked them, and we've tried all the flavours now.  I only wish I could buy them unwrapped so they'd be trash-free, but they are convenient for Beanstalk to stick in his pocket for an afternoon snack between classes.

♥   ♥   ♥

For Bella, I packed a thermos of tomato soup, and a LunchBots Trio of fruit, veggies, crackers & yogurt pretzels.

Her cantaloupe cubes are skewered with a pink flamingo cupcake pick, and the Sunburst & Cherub tomatoes with a pink flamingo cocktail pick. Both flamingos were gifts from fellow bento bloggers Lori of Pink 'n Punchy Lunches & Bobbi of Bobbi's Bentos, respectively - as part of a pick swap - fun!

Also fun - I found a Lunchbox Love note with a bit of flamingo trivia on it!

It's Cyber Monday! Lunchbox Love is offering 60% off everything on their site! Use coupon FB60THANKS at www.sayplease.com

Stuff used for these lunches:

Soup & Sassy

After all the candy she consumed Hallowe'en Night, Bella wanted a healthy lunch to take to school yesterday, and said tomato soup sounded good.

I also packed her a Sassy box full of veggies & crackers, and little cup of shredded cheddar to sprinkle on the hot soup in her Thermos Funtainer. 

And of course, a Lunchbox Love note ♥ Her whole lunch table enjoys them :)

I'll be posting a Lunchbox Love review & giveaway on Monday! 

Look, Horizon Organic milk boxes are a perfect fit in Sprout's Bynto! And there was just enough room to fit a string cheese in there too, perfect, the cold milk box would keep the cheese cool too :)

I was running behind by the time I packed Sprout's lunch so quickly cut her sandwich into hearts and added baby carrots & Hallowe'en Oreos. Pickle had Oreos in his lunch too, and a sandwich & yogurt, but there was no time for a pic of his. We were dragging our feet the morning after trick-or-treating!

Stuff I used for these lunches:

iCarly-Inspired Spaghetti Tacos!

If your kidlet is an iCarly fan, you're probably already aware of the deliciousness that is spaghetti tacos. We had them for supper the other night, and today Bella has the leftovers in her lunchbox. These are leftovers she's excited about eating!

Bella has mini taco shells to fill with spaghetti at lunch time. I stuffed her folded napkin into the end one to help keep it from breaking. I filled a gummy bear container (a gift from Biting The Hand That feeds You, originally a fast-food meal toy) with shredded cheddar for topping.  On the side she has cherry tomatoes & baby carrots with bear picks (random dancing),  Fig Newtons, and in the little pink lidded cup, a few gummy bears for a treat.

I packed the hot spaghetti & "meat" sauce (ours is made with veggie protein crumbles) in her iCarly Thermos Funtainer. I chopped the noodles up a bit so she'd have an easier time filling the shells with her spork. The gummy bear container holding the cheese was filled with gummy bear-shaped notepaper and stickers so I wrote her a note and stuck it to the lid of her EasyLunchbox :)

Bella was so looking forward to lunchtime today!

Stuff used for this lunch:

Soup & Superhero

Beanstalk's lunch was inspired by another member of the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk! It's hard to do a theme lunch when A) your kid is super picky, B) cute is not allowed, C) you didn't plan ahead and have to use what's on hand, and D) one of the colours is purple! Fortunately I had some Annie's fruit snacks in a purple pouch and some alphabet biscuits :)

The grapes, silicone muffin cup, & pick the ham is skewered on are green like Hulk, and the fruit snacks, blueberry pomegranate fruit leather, & the muffin cup it's in are purple like his pants. The alphabet biscuits spelling HULK are not stuck to the fruit leather with anything so they will just be in a jumble when he opens his lunch, but that's OK, destruction and the Hulk go together :)

Bella has tomato soup in her iCarly Thermos Funtainer today, with sides in a small Lock & Lock, and her special pink Spork:

Her sides are grapes, tomatoes, whole wheat fig newtons, and roasted vegetable Ritz crackers. Bella wouldn't want the seasoning from the crackers on her cookie, so I used little silicone "walls" called baran to separate them:

Pickle took a plain "not creative" peanut butter sandwich today, again. I hope he lets me make him a "creative" sandwich again soon, I still have unused ideas from when I was doing my 101 peanut butter sandwiches challenge!

Stuff I used:

Silicone Baran

from BentoUSA 

by AllThingsForSale