Stegosuraus Sandwiches

Stegosaurus sandwiches for all! (Except Beanstalk who wasn't home).  
I made each one unique by using different things for the spikes on the dinosaurs' backs :)

Sprout's Stegosaurus is made of peanut butter, with raisin spikes. Beneath her dino sandwich she has baby carrots, and above it, a cheddar cheese sun & stars. On the side she has dried strawberries, and red plum wedges.

Birdie's dinosaur has goldfish grahams for spikes. Love the smiles :) The rest of her lunch is much the same as Sprout's, but she has fewer dried strawberries, and a Fig Newton. 

Bella's sandwich is honey ham & white cheddar cheese on wheat, and her Stegosaurus's spikes are made from the Garden Tomato Crunchies almonds from our July NatureBox. I didn't give her any dried strawberries because she still doesn't like strawberries, but guess what? She tasted one of Sprout's, and she loved it! Hooray for trying something new!

None of the girls questioned why there were stars in the sky at the same time as the sun either, haha. I had wondered if they would :)

I actually made Pickle's Stegosaurus peanut butter sandwich before I made the girls', and without thinking, cut it from the centre of the bread, making a lot of waste. So I pieced the sandwich scraps together into a rocky landscape for his Stegoasurus to climb :)

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I made the dinosaurs with a cookie cutter from my Wilton 101 Cookie Cutters set. When I made the sandwiches for the girls, I didn't want to waste any like I nearly did with Pickle's, so I cut the bread out first so I could try and fit 2 dinosaurs per slice, and was able to just do it, with the bottom slice having a bit of crust that wouldn't show.

Then I spread the peanut butter on the bottom slice, added the "spikes", spread a little more PB along the underside of the top piece where it would overlap the spikes, and put the Stegosaurus together in the EasyLunchboxes. For Bella's, since there was no peanut butter to adhere the spikes, I made a little slit in the bottom slice, a sort of pocket, and slipped the almond into it.

Stuff used for these lunches:

 

Lunch For The Man: Airplane Food

Sailor Boy had to travel for work recently. Not on a ship though, he went by plane - so I packed him an EasyLunchbox to eat in the air.

He has grapes, kiwifruit, carrots, almonds, pistachios, blueberries, and black forest ham & mozzarella cheese rolls. I folded the cheese into the ham before I rolled and skewered it. Everything bite-size and mess-free.

I wanted to separate his foods but didn't want him to take any of my silicone muffin cups, and I stopped buying the disposable kind - but I save just about everything I think might be repurposed, so I dug up some plastic cups that once contained frosting in the ends of tubes of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough, and some medicine cups that came with cold syrup. Applesauce cups would have worked well too but I couldn't have fit as many.

I should have taken a photo from the side to show you - it's kind of hard to tell from the top - but the rims of all the little cups reach right to the lid when it's snapped in place. Everything was held securely enough that I was able to turn it completely sideways with nothing shifting or spilling over - perfect for traveling with the man :)

Spring is NOT in the air today...

... but it IS in Bella's bento... a little bit :)

Bella has cheddar flowers, Spring print Ritz crackers, grapes (there's a 2nd layer under the flower cup), tomatoes topped with ham tulips, carrot tulips, & celery. The carrot had a split in it so just had to make a 2nd split for the tulips. I attached the ham tulips to the tomatoes with cute little tulip picks from AllThingsForSale, and secured the cheese stack with a bunny pick from Daiso. A pretty Spring-y lunch to brighten this gloomy rainy day - I hope :)

Nothing cutesy for Beanstalk - he was less than thrilled about his Valentine's Day hearts bento. I did still sneak a little sunshine in - Sun-Maid raisins (made from grapes & sunshine, right?) and Spring print Ritz - but only the ones with the sunshine, not the flowers or butterflies :) 

To answer Jenn of Bento for Kidlet's question from the other day, "where do you take your lunch pictures?", I take mine on our front porch too! The light is best there in the mornings, although on gloomy days like today, the "best" light still isn't very good! :)

Pickle wanted pancakes. Fortunately for him (because I am not good at making them), when Sailor Boy makes pancakes, he makes lots so we have extra to freeze - so I only had to reach into the bag in the freezer :) He has separate spoons for the yogurt and the peanut butter cup - he likes a fresh spoon - and a dipping cup of maple syrup, covered in Glad Press'n Seal.

Stuff I used today:

A Berry Cute Snack

My sproutlets and I received some happy mail the other day, a package from LearningZoneXpress! One of the items inside was LANA's Fruit & Vegetable Snack Recipes cookbook, from the LANA Preschool Program. It's a step by step picture cookbook for preschoolers and caregivers to use together. The recipes are simple, adorable, and nutritious, and the instructions even suggest which steps the child can do. I love that the pages are sturdy and laminated, no worries about my messy little helpers handling it :) We love it!

My Sprout picked out the Strawberry Mini-Mouse Nibbles snack recipe right away, strawberries are her favourite. 

The recipe calls for graham crackers, strawberries, berry cream cheese, mozzarella string cheese, and sliced almonds. We didn't have any graham crackers (I thought we did, but it turns out we had an empty graham cracker box... I'm sure other parents with older kids are familiar with that sort of discovery) but we had everything else.

And we did have berry rice cakes, they'd make a yummy substitute :) 

Sprout enjoyed spreading the cream cheese. She spread quite a bit on her tongue too!  And only 2 of the 4 mice actually survived the snack's preparation, the other 2 were eaten in the process :)

 

Aren't they adorable?! Easy and fun too :)

Thanks LANA & LearningZoneXpress  ♥

Happy Friday!

Rainbow Week : Yellow

We're halfway through our Rainbow Week! Today's colour is

Yellow

Bella's yellow lunch was inspired by Beatles songs ! Beneath the celery sticks and cheese, she has a turkey & cheese sandwich, yellow peppers, and on the side, slices of golden delicious apples, and some plain pasta (with a Thermos Funtainer of hot cheese sauce to pour over it at lunch - not pictured). Do you know which 4 Beatles songs are represented?  ♪ ♫

♫ Yellow Submarine, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Golden Slumbers & Give Peace A Chance ♪

Beanstalk didn't eat the snack I packed him yesterday, so he got it again today, plus an organic Clif Z Bar. Pickle got a cute beehive and bee peanut butter sandwich. The cutter for this was a surprise gift from a friend, and this is the first time we've used it. Pickle loves it,  thank you Linli!

Sailor Boy has pineapple teriyaki chicken kebabs, yellow pepper slices, sharp white cheddar cheese, and grapes in his Easy Lunchbox. I also scratched a little love note on the peel of a banana and sneaked it into his lunch tote  ♥
By the time he opened his lunch the message would have been really dark :)

No pic of the banana, he leaves before the sun rises, too early for me! I also wrote a banana note for Birdie though, if you want to see an example :

She can't read yet so I just drew pictures :)

Rainbow

I saw these rainbow fruit kebabs on the MOMables facebook page way back in August, just before the popular lunch menu plan officially launched, and have wanted to make some ever since. It took me a while, but I finally got around to making some for my sproutlets!  I made these ahead of time for Sprout & Birdie's snack. Two each, and a yogurt cloud to dip in :) 

They still don't like pineapple. More for me :)

We were out all day, so no muffin tin meals, then brought one of Sprout's little friends home with us this afternoon, so Birdie and I made muffins together while they played. Banana muffins! She really liked mashing the bananas:

I almost forgot to get a picture of the banana muffins before the 3 little girls ate them all - and by the time I remembered, there were only 3 left!  They were really good muffins, and so cute in their flower muffin cups :)

There's nothing rainbow about them - but they are yellow :)

Now these muffins, made by the talented Kris

 of In the Kitchen with Audrey, are Rainbow!
   

And healthy too! Click the Rainbow Mom button to see more from Kris, Audrey, & little sister Maurene too!

Thanks for following our Rainbow Week! Don't forget to read my review of Today I Ate A Rainbow! and enter to win a Rainbow Kit of your own!

Eating Real Food Can Be Fun!

Fuel up on real fruit snacks! Here are the apple & grape car snacks I made and posted on my Facebook page yesterday:

All you need are apples, firm grapes, and food picks*:

1. Slice an apple into wedges and trim the core.
2. For each apple car, slice 2 grapes in half, widthwise.
3. Push the pick through the sliced side of one grape half.
4. Now push the pick through one end of the apple slice.
5. Finish with the other grape half,  sliced side out. 
6. Repeat with the other end of the apple wedge and 2 more grape halves, and it should look like a little car  :)
7. (optional) Trim any protruding pick if desired.

*I used short plastic bento picks, but toothpicks would work as well - maybe break them in half. If your kidlets are a bit young to have toothpicks in their food, uncooked linguine or spaghetti noodles might be better, if the pasta was thick enough to not break in the process.

Some great variation suggestions were made on Facebook too:

• pears with cucumber wheels
• carrot slice wheels on a cucumber car 
• banana wheels 
• cheese wheels

There are plenty of nutritious possibilities for this simple fun snack! 

Update - April 24th 2013 - My car fruit snack is featured in the May 2013 issue of Family Fun magazine & website, as Treat of the Month!

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Talking to my 10 year old son about real food

Yesterday, Beanstalk, my 5th grader, came home from school with some carrots in his bento box - but I hadn't packed him carrots - (he says) he doesn't like them. When I asked him about them, he said his teacher gave them to him, because she didn't think his lunch was very nutritious.

Now, my first reaction was to feel miffed and defensive. But then, I thought about what was in his lunch that day and how it might have looked to her. I don't have a pic, but it was a Lock&Lock 4 square bento box, packed with apple slices, white cheddar popcorn, and an organic Clif Kid Z Bar - but the Clif bar was cut in half in one of the little squares - I bet it looked like a brownie to her! Now that I've thought about it more, I'm thankful that she cares about his nutrition :) Here's a lunch of his similar to yesterday's:

 The Clif bar does look like a brownie.

A little backstory: Beanstalk is very picky - always has been since he was a baby - and slow to gain, with little appetite. His pediatrician even prescribed Pediasure to supplement his diet when he was a toddler. He just doesn't have much interest in eating. So, I am glad when he lets me pack him a lunch and put anything into it other than a nutrition bar (like Power bar or Clif bar) and a Boost drink.

Anyways, his teacher criticizing his lunch gave me an opportunity to talk to him about nutrition. "See," I said, "even your teacher agrees with me. You should eat more real food, not just meal replacement bars." We talked about how some processed foods may fill you up, but that your body doesn't use all of it, so that "filler" is empty calories, and how filling up on empty calories may make you feel full, but you didn't eat anything your body needs, and now you don't have room. I told him it's okay to eat some empty calories - he does share my love for candy - but only after you've eaten enough of the good kind of calories that your body needs for fuel. (If there are any dietitians reading this, constructive criticism on what I told him would be welcomed!) Here's another typical Beanstalk lunch, in a Fit & Fresh Chill container:

Oh, I am turning this into a long story... get to the point right? I told him I would really love to see him try more real food. Yes, there was nutrition in his Boost and Clif bars - but they were processed, and what if they suddenly weren't available? And really, he might find out he likes things that he thinks he doesn't - he's been saying "I don't like ______" for so long now, it might not actually be true anymore - our tastes develop and change as we grow, and he might like something now that he didn't 5 years ago.

So, I asked him if he would be willing to try new foods if there was an incentive. He suggested video games. Figures. But, that's what he likes, so if the promise of video games gets him to try more real food, is that so bad? I hope not... I suggested this:  If he tries something from each colour's list on the Today I Ate A Rainbow chart every day for a full week, I'll buy him a previously-viewed video game (they cost less).  Deal! And he wanted to get started right away too - last night he ate a whole strawberry! (OK here's where those of you with good eaters are thinking - one strawberry? Big deal. But I don't think this kid has eaten a real strawberry in years, in fact, for longer than I can remember.) He started slowly, with little nibbles and a grimace on his face, but the last couple of bites he chewed and swallowed without his gag face. Woo, celebrate!  *sigh* Wish us luck with the other colours of the rainbow!

Making Meal Time Fun

Sometimes, getting my family to eat a healthy meal feels like a job that I'm not very good at. And from the way my sproutlets occasionally act, I'm guessing they feel like they're the ones who have the tough job of eating those healthy meals. Who wants meal time to be a battle? Not me! But I also don't want them leaving the table with not so full tummies and not so healthy bodies. What can I do to make my family's dinners both a good time and good for them?

Well, like Mary Poppins said, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and - SNAP - the job's a game! " So, I've been on the lookout for ways to find the fun in eating a balanced meal. Here are a few healthy eating games & activities I've found so far:

The Rainbow Kit from Today I Ate A Rainbow - Challenge your kids to complete their rainbow of fruits & veggies each day. We have this one, and the friendly competition with their siblings has encouraged my sproutlets to try veggies they had previously refused!  The website also has a cute song and videos, and links to more healthy eating fun & games.

The FREE printable Family Dinner Kit from Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children features menu planners, a recipe book, activity & colouring placemats, family mad-libs & other word games, and more! I haven't tried this one yet, but only because we are out of printer ink :)

Crunch a Color - The Healthy Eating Game card game, and free printable reward chart, conversation starters, and more from Crunch a Color. Another one I haven't yet tried but plan to! If your family has tried this one, I'd love to hear about it if you want to leave a comment or post on my facebook page!

The Garden Heroes Food Nutrition Kit from Learning ZoneXpress makes nutrition fun with game sheets, stickers, an activity book, plush Garden Heroes veggie characters, and downloadable activities.

And here are a few tips for making healthy meals go more smoothly:

Let the kids help! Whether it's with the shopping, menu planning, or even meal prep/cooking, kids are more likely to want to try a food they were involved with getting to the table. I've seen this work with my own sproutlets. I admit I have a tendency to just do it all myself because it's quicker and less messy - but I really should let them help more.

Keep offering foods again and again - even if they've been refused again & again. It might take many tries before a child is ready to accept a new food (and many could mean 12, or 20 or more, depending how resistant your child is... don't give up too soon)! I've been told this from Pickle's speech pathologist, read it in many a nutrition publication, heard it from other parents, and seen it prove true at my own table - eventually :)

Bella trying beets!

Eat with your kids, and eat what you want them to eat. Let them see you enjoying your meal, and the time together as a family. Comment on your meal and how good it tastes... but be aware of the Phrases that Help and Hinder!

I found a bunch more great tips here: Be a Healthy Role Model for Children - 10 tips for setting good examples. I especially like the idea of naming a food that a child helps make! At least that child might be more likely to try it :)  

Disclaimer:  This post has not been endorsed by any of the companies associated with any of these products, and other than receiving a Rainbow Kit to review (though not for this post, for an upcoming post) I have not been compensated in any way. I just think they seem like useful and fun tools and wanted to share them :)

A taste of what's to come

It's so odd not blogging about our lunches after all these months of doing so... but without pictures, the posts would be pretty dull... so when I get my camera back, I'm going to make up for lost time with some very colourful lunch pictures; we're going to have a Rainbow Week! We have a Rainbow Kit from Today I Ate A Rainbow that we started using over the holidays, and I think a week of rainbow themed lunches will make it even more fun!

We've not yet had a day where everyone ate a complete rainbow of fruits & veggies, but we're having a good time trying :) Before I was without camera I snapped this pic of Birdie marking the colour fruit she just ate on our chart:

Blue for blueberries!

I can't wait to get my camera back so I can get some pictures of some of our rainbow lunches and snacks - and sometime during Rainbow Week, I'll be posting a review of The Rainbow Kit, and doing a giveaway too!

For now, here's a tasty rainbow bento lunch I made last summer:

It's one of my first EasyLunchbox bentos. I didn't have any silicone muffin cups yet, but the foil one worked well :) A mini bagel is the perfect fit in the medium section. Bella loved this lunch!

And here are some rainbow lunches I've admired on other blogs! 

A rainbow butterfly bento by Shannon of 

BentoLunch.net - What's For Lunch At Our House

& 

This rainbow bento box by Wendy of 

Wendolonia

I'll link to more of my favourites during Rainbow Week :)

All pictures belong to their blog owners. 

Click on them to see the full posts on the original sites.