Sleepless Near Seattle

That's me, so so tired... so Bella's lunch was uninspired. Ooh, a rhyme! :)

Really, my mind is kind of mush from lack of sleep. Sailor Boy is away, and Pickle and Birdie seem to have made it their mission to keep me awake as much of the night as they can, they have a little tag team going. Pickle often has trouble sleeping, lots of kids with autism do - he has a hard time winding down, and we give him melatonin to help, might be time to increase that - but I think it's partly they miss their Dad, and partly them testing me - like maybe this trip I'll cave and let them do whatever they want...

Plus, when my hubby's  away, I have to take the little darlings with me everywhere - so there's no such thing as a quick trip anywhere - so I tend to let the cupboards get very bare before I brave the Commissary with the brood.
I have much admiration for single parents who do this all the time. I am so not good at it, not even temporarily.

So there I was last night, out of ideas, almost out of food, half out of my mind from lack of sleep, staring at the empty EasyLunchbox and nearly empty fridge willing something good to appear in either... and somehow it seemed like a good time to play with my new FunBites... I'll save the details for my upcoming review, but here is what I ended up putting in Bella's lunch box:

Salad! Good thing it's not Pickle's lunch, it's not very creative ;)
The FunBites were fun - I chopped with them - lettuce, chicken & cheese.  In the sides, Roma tomato chunks topped with a grape tomato heart, and mini peppers on a bed of carrot slices. It turned out we had enough little bits of a bunch of things to put together something she'd like. Birdie woke up (again!) as I was making this lunch, and I fell asleep settling her back down (it was around 2:30 AM-ish) so the tomato heart was a morning addition, as was the cheerful cheese heart, and the Lunchbox Love note card:

This morning, slightly refreshed from a few hours of sleep, I was able to come up with something cute for my Pickle, who now demands his sandwiches be creative. Good thing I've got LOTS of Lunch Punches and cookie cutters!

He asked me what it was, I explained what a rebus was, and he got it right away, but asked why there were two hearts. Ummm... because I don't like empty space and wasted bread?  "Because I love you so much one heart is not enough."   He liked it.

I tried to get some groceries today but Sprout had a tantrum and we left the store without purchasing anything - so tomorrows lunch might be peanut butter sandwiches all around!

O Christmas Lunch, O Christmas Lunch

Today's lunch didn't start out Christmassy...

It was a frosty morning, so I had the idea to do a peppery lunch for Bella, a little sweet heat on a chilly day. Bella likes hot - those habanero spiced almonds are a favourite of hers. I also packed a trio of mini peppers, a skewer of grape tomatoes & mini pepperoni slices on a bed of lettuce, cheddar hearts and mozzarella stick slices on a heart pick, and a pepper jack and sharp cheddar tortilla roll-up, squared off and grilled, then sliced.

I don't have a pepper-shaped cookie cutter, so I was going to cut Pickle's peanut butter sandwich with whatever Lunch Punch he chose, but when he came in the room, this conversation took place:

Pickle:"Good morning Mum, what are you doing?"
Me: "Making your sister's lunch."
Pickle: "Are you going to make lunch for me?"
Me: "Of course."
Pickle: "Will it be a peanut butter sandwich?"
Me: "Of course."
Pickle: "Good. Make it creative!"

Of course :)

Hooray,  hooray, give a holiday cheer,  inspiration struck while I was photographing Bella's EasyLunchbox! All that red and green looked so festive, I decided to do a Christmas tree for Pickle! Past attempts have taught me not to do too much to his sandwich or he won't eat it, so it's just peanut butter and bread, with "decorations" cut into the top. It's actually a triple decker sandwich (the cookie cutter wasted so much bread - I used the scraps to make a middle layer, and a mini sandwich star) so it's more filling than it looks. 

For the sides, I stirred few drops of strawberry hershey's syrup into a bit of plain yogurt, sucked it up with a medicine syringe, squirted a swirl on top of the plain, then dragged the tip of a knife through it for an effect I've seen on holiday desserts - it's kind of peppermint candy-ish, don't you think? And instead of an oatmeal cookie I mixed a bit of Cap'n Crunch Christmas Crunch cereal with some Cheerios, for a spot of colour and crunch. I think it came out looking pretty fancy compared to his usual PB with plain yogurt and plain oatmeal cookie... and hopefully creative enough for my little man :)

♪ ♫ It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ♫♪...

20 Christmas-Themed Bento Box Ideas for Kids

Sweet Lunch Punch Giveaway Winner!

Thank you, everyone who entered my Sweet Lunch Punch Giveaway, for all your lovely comments! I would love to give all of you a set, but I only have the one - and it's going to Myra, the winner with comment #30 :)

You're going to love these Lunch Punches, Myra!  Make sure you check your inbox for an e-mail from me, and reply with your address, before 11:00 PM PST Wednesday, December 7th, so I can get them in the mail to you ASAP (or - eek - draw another winner if you don't!) I hope to see some sweet sandwiches in future lunches posted on mommy + me lunch box !

And those of you who didn't win this time can always order your own Sweet set from Amazon.com:) 

Hey, I just realized, this is my 100th post! Sweet! LOL

Nuts About Fall

I'm not ready to for it to be Winter yet! I love Fall! Anyways, it's not officially winter until December 22 :) So here are a few more Autumn-themed lunches for my sproutlets (and a we'll-miss-you-themed one for their Daddy) :

It gets really windy where we live, and there's a lot of Dutch influence around town - even a couple of windmills - so the cookie was perfect - and the crackers behind the cheese leaves remind me of windblown clouds :) Under the windmill is a green dip container with caramel for the checkered apple slices (thanks Bento for Kidlet). The orange muffin cup holds spiced almonds, and the brown one, mixed nuts. Grapes (on leaf picks) and cheddar leaves add colour and yumminess.

The little girls have muffin tins with carrot hearts, a maple sandwich cookie, mixed nuts, applesauce (with an apple leaf on top), grapes, and cheese. I'm betting against them trying the nuts, but, sometimes they surprise me.

I made those lunches up last night, and good thing, because I slept in today and had to scramble this morning - so no pics of what Pickle or Beanstalk took - not that they would be worth posting anyways... I didn't do a thing to them - besides being pressed for time, I was kind of crabby since Sailor Boy left this morning. I had already made up a special lunch for him :

It's a salami, provolone and cheddar sandwich, cut with several different Match & Munch Lunch Punches, grapes, & mixed melon balls. I was going to write something corny on the EasyLunchbox lid, something along the lines of "a piece of my heart will be missing while you're away" ... but I didn't get around to it in time. Ah well, it's a short trip, he'll be home for the holidays, I'll have more chances to be corny :)

 

Sweet New Lunch Punches!

Today's the day! I am oh so delighted to be giving away a set of The Lunch Punch's brand spanking new Sweet sandwich cutters! And I'll get to that, but first, let me show off the sandwiches I made with them, and gush a little  :)

You saw the Cupcake in Tuesday's lunch, Wednesday's featured the Gumball Machine, and now for the last two...  so, how about a couple of Ice Cream sandwiches for lunch? Yes please! To be honest, I made this sandwich for Bella on the weekend - I just couldn't wait for a school day to try out these awesome Ice Cream Cone Lunch Punches!

To make this sandwich, I stacked a slice of white wheat and a slice of brown wheat and punched them out before making the sandwich. Then I flipped the cut out bread stack over and used the cutter again on the other side. Next I separated the 2 slices of bread and following the lines imprinted on it, trimmed the "ice cream" away from the "cones". I then spread peanut butter on the smooth sides of the bread, and put the sandwiches together with the bread colours swapped - so I had white "ice cream" on beige "cones".

Since the first time I pressed the sandwich there was no filling in it, the image wasn't pressed into the bread as deeply. So lastly, I used the punch one more time to re-impress the image on the side of the sandwich facing up. Yes, that means the bottom of this sandwich has a less defined white cone with beige ice cream - but who looks at the bottom of their sandwich, right?

And finally, the Cake. With candles!

This cake was for Pickle, who prefers his sandwiches plain (I couldn't resist "lighting" the candles with peanut butter "flames" though, and he loved that), but just think of the possibilities with this one if your kid isn't as picky as mine! This punch cuts the sandwich in two pieces, at the wavy line, so you could even do a "filling" layer :) Fun!

But why should the kids have all the fun?

I made myself a toasted ham & cheese cupcake sandwich for lunch!

For the cheese "frosting", I used the punch again on a slice of cheese, topping the "frosting" part of the cupcake-shaped sandwich with the "frosting" piece of cheese, and adding the rest of the slice into the sandwich. I did the same thing with a slice of ham for the "cherry". Then I toasted it in the toaster oven. Oh, and when I took it out of the oven I added some grated mozza "sprinkles" :)

Mmmm, looks good enough to eat!  Thanks Lunch Punch!

So there they are all together, the four newest, Sweetest Lunch Punches to join the Lunch Punch party in my sandwich cutter drawer.  Want a set too? Stay with me, I'm getting to that :)

Now, if you read my blog, you already know I love my Lunch Punches, but in case you're just here for the giveaway, I'll say it again: I love Lunch Punches. Not only are they the best sandwich cutters on the planet, (click here for all my posts tagged Lunch Punch if you want to see proof), but they are also an all-around awesome small business owned and run by the amazing Kiersten, inventor of the Lunch Punch, and a lunch-making work-at-home mum herself. 

Just a few months ago, when this blog was only weeks old, I sent The Lunch Punch a comment through their website, to tell them how much Pickle and I loved the Lunch Punches, and to share the link to this post about my 101 Peanut Butter sandwiches challenge. I didn't really expect a response, so I was totally surprised to get an email from the owner/inventor, and not just a form response, a real, personal, chatty email. And even more surprised at her offer to help me out with my challenge by sending me the Lunch Punch sets I didn't have yet. No strings attached, no request for a review... just because she is a kind and generous person who was genuinely pleased that her Lunch Punches made my little boy so happy. ♥ 

And today, thanks to her continuing generosity, I get to share some of the Lunch Punch love with one of you!  Oh, right, the Sweet Set Giveaway!  Yes, I'm finally getting to that :) 

HOW TO ENTER:  

1. Leave a comment on this post, and I'd love it if you'd tell me your favourite lunch that I've made, or make a suggestion of something you think my picky sproutlets might like me to make in the future. Or just say hi :)

That's the only mandatory entry - but you can make up to 2 more optional entries, by leaving a separate comment for each of these options, including if you're already doing them:

2. Like both Bent On Better Lunches and The Lunch Punch on Facebook

3. Follow me on Google Friend Connect 

* Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win! If you post as Anonymous, or your email address is not visible on your Blogger profile, please include your name and email address in your comment.

The giveaway will run until 11:00 PST Sunday night, December 4th. The winner will be chosen by comment # using Random.org. I'll announce the winner the following Monday morning.  Good luck!

Disclosure: I received 2 Lunch Punch sets, 1 as a gift to me and 1 to give away to anyone I wish.  No other compensation or payment was given. All opinions and descriptions are my own.