#GuacItForward for National Guacamole Day!

Happy National Guacamole Day! The folks at Wholly Guacamole are always looking for fun ways to celebrate National Guacamole Day & love the concept of paying it forward, so this year they're giving back to their community & encouraging fans to do the same, with the #GuacitForward campaign! And in partnership with Laptop Lunches, who also like to pay it forward, they're giving away some of the ingredients for a tasty healthy lunch! I'm pleased to be able to offer one of these giveaways to my guacamole loving readers :)

One lucky Wholly Guacamole fan in the United States will win:

• 1 Set of Laptop Lunches Avocado Bento Buddies
• An awesome Wholly Guacamole cooler filled with:
  • 3 Guacamole Trays (various flavors)
  • 2 mini cups (various flavors)
  • 1 Chip Clip
  • 1 Avocado Squeezie

▼ Scroll to the bottom of the post to enter via the Rafflecopter widget

Use the hashtag #GuacItForward on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to share how you are paying it forward!

I packed my hubby a National Guacamole Day bento! Sailor Boy's favourite Dr. Seuss book is Green Eggs & Ham so I thought I'd make him smile with a green eggs & ham salad sandwich in his lunch. Of course I had to tell him that's what it was to get the smile ;)

Guacamole Green Eggs & Ham Salad Sandwich
Ingredients:

• 1 Wholly Guacamole mini (or 2oz Wholly Guacamole) 
• 2 hard-cooked eggs
• 2 slices deli ham
• 2 slices bread

Directions:

1. Peel & chop eggs. 
2. Chop ham. 
3. Combine eggs & ham with guacamole in a bowl & stir/mash until desired consistency. 
4. Spread on a slice of bread, top with another slice, & cut if desired.
5. Pack or enjoy!

I also packed green grapes, a Babybel cheese, & NatureSweet Sunbursts tomatoes in the side containers of his Laptop Lunches bento. I used a bento cutting tool to carve OMG! in the Babybel wax coating, & spelled OMGuac! with alphabet bento picks in his sandwich :)

Last of all, I added a Lunchbox Love note atop his Laptop Lunches Bento Buddies lid to remind hubby to #GuacItForward too :)

Wholly Guacamole Minis come in Classic, Spicy, Ranch, Chunky & Organic varieties! I used Spicy in my egg salad sandwich - Sailor Boy likes it hot!

You can also enter to win a NatureSweet Prize Pack 

from the Wholly Guacamole OMG! Sweepstakes!

▼ Enter the Giveaway!▼

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► Visit Wholly Guacamole for more fabulous & fun ways to OMGuac Your Lunch! There are some delicious lunch ideas for both adults & kids!

International Chocolate Day Balance Bar Giveaway!

Today is International Chocolate Day! It's the perfect day to give away some indulgent exotic chocolate healthy treats from Balance Bar! They recently sent me some of their delicious Dark Chocolate Crunch Bars & new Dark Chocolate Caramel Macchiato Bars to enjoy & have offered to send a box of the same to one lucky reader :)

 

We've tried the Dark Chocolate Crunch Balance Bars before - they're now one of Bella's favourite energy snacks - but the Caramel Macchiato flavour is new! Caramel Macchiato is Sailor Boy's favourite coffee shop drink, and Bella's just crazy about all things caramel, so both were excited to try one. And you know I had to put them in a bento lunch :

I packed Bella's in a LunchBots Trio - the Balance Bar fits perfectly!  I also packed some grapes, ham & cheddar roll-ups, & broccoli florets. I added some sweet touches to this healthy lunch with candy & chocolate bento picks :) And can't forget the Lunchbox Love! I can always find the perfect note. This one's from one of the new Lunchbox Love for Kids Riddles - the riddle side asks:

"Why does a flamingo lift up one leg?"

Answer: Because if it lifted up both legs, it would fall down! :)

I'll post Sailor Boy's lunch later this week - but I'll tell you now that he did say the Caramel Macchiato was awesome :)

I've recently started eating gluten free myself, and my on-the-go snack options have been feeling the impact - so I'm very happy that I can have both the Dark Chocolate Crunch & Caramel Macchiato Balance Bars. The Caramel Macchiato perfectly combines the rich flavour of roasted coffee & the sweetness of caramel, and the Chocolate Crunch hits the spot with a smooth layer of dark chocolate over a crunchy cookie base. They're both filling & delicious! There's also a gluten free Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar that I'm pretty sure I'll love :)

Here's some nutrition info & a closer look:

• Gluten Free
• 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Cocoa
• 180 Calories
• 13g Protein
• 4g Fiber
• Balanced 40-30-30 nutrition (What's that about? Click here)
• 7 Vitamins & Minerals
• Excellent Source of Antioxidants

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Here's your chance to win a box of these yummy bars!

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Today is also Roald Dahl Day, in honour of the beloved children's book author's birthday. I find it very fitting that Dahl Day & International Chocolate Day share a day, since one of Dahl's best-known books is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary, by the way :) I'll definitely be celebrating both days today - by enjoying both a Dark Chocolate Crunch & a Dark Chocolate Caramel Macchiato Balance Bar ;)

P.S. Check out yesterday's Dahl-icious lunches, they're part of a Roald Dahl Day Blog Hop!

Disclosure: I was provided with Balance Bars to sample. All opinions are my own :)  
Giveaway Terms: U.S. entries only. One (1) entrant per household please! Prize provided by Balance Bar

A Bookish Bento for Roald Dahl Day

It's Roald Dahl Day tomorrow! In honour of the beloved author's birthday, some blogger friends & I are making Dahl-icious lunches & doing a blog hop! I made my Bella a bookish bento, with turkey & Asiago cheese tortilla books! I made Fantastic Mr. Fox, Esio Trot, Matilda, & The BFG:

The book sandwiches were super easy to make. I cut tortillas in rectangles & used food markers & stamps to make the covers. I cut cheese & turkey in smaller rectangles & stacked them for the pages, then folded the tortilla book covers around them. These were a big improvement on the ones I made for 2012's Dahl Day lunch.  I had come up with the whoppsy-whiffling idea for them just that morning, & only had cheddar & white bread. I've long been meaning to remake them with white cheese & brown bread, but Bella prefers sandwiches made with tortillas over bread - which worked out even better since tortillas are much easier to stamp & draw on!

I love how my new & improved edible books turned out! Here they are in my 6th grader Bella's EasyLunchbox. She also had some broccoli & grape tomatoes with a "Read" pick, & grapes with a chocolate bar pick - it's the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

And look, I had the perfect Lunchbox Love for Kids joke note to go with it :) Oh, I also tucked in a tiny pack of Wonka Gobstoppers ;) Hallowe'en candy!

Even the flip side of the Lunchbox Love note was just right :) I had a great foxy cloth napkin from Beneficial Bento too:

This book bento was such a fun lunchy use for my Stupendous Stampers :)

And in case you missed them, here are some of my sproutlets' splendiferous lunches from Dahl Days gone by :

 

2012's bento had elements from James & the Giant Peach, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, & Matilda. One of 2013's (above) was all James & the Giant Peach, & the other (below) was mostly the BFG, with a smidge of Danny the Champion of the World. 

Now, it's time to get jumpelling over to Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys to see what luctuous lunches Eileen has made:

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Some stuff used to make this bookish bento:

Domo Bentos

When Pickle came downstairs wearing his Domo t-shirt I decided to put a Domo cupcake ring in his lunch, & since I have several of them, I did the same for his sisters' lunches - adding cupcake rings are an easy way to make them fun. But even though the lunches weren't fancy, I was still rushing to get them ready on time! I'm so out of practice.

Bella's EasyLunchbox contains sunburst & grape tomatoes, baby carrots, grapes, a ham & cheddar burrito, string cheese decorated with a Domo ring, a granola bar (tucked under her cloth napkin), & a Lunchbox Love note.

Sprout's appetite has been small lately. Her Goodbyn Bynto contains strawberries, a mozzarella string cheese through a Domo cupcake ring, lemonade (cloth napkin tucked underneath), Triscuit minis, & honey ham, in silicone cups the perfect depth for the Bynto.

Pickle's Goodbyn Hero contains peanut butter sandwich spirals, cookies, lemonade, yogurt, ice pillows to help keep that section cold, a napkin & spoon through a Domo cupcake ring, & a Lunchbox Love note from one of the joke volumes. He was very pleased with his lunch matching his t-shirt :)

I'll be doing a Goodbyn Hero review & giveaway soon, but for now, check out Mamabelly's Lunches with Love for her Hero review & giveaway - there's still a day and a half left to enter!

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Some stuff used to pack these lunches:

Yumbox Lunch Before & After

Yesterday was Birdie's first day of Kindergarten! It wasn't her real first day of school though, in my opinion, that will be Monday, when I actually drop her off and leave. Yesterday, parents stayed, and learned about the school rules & practices, took a tour, and got to know the kindergarten teacher. I failed to pay attention to details when I read the notice about it, so I didn't catch the part about her not needing a lunch, and packed her this Yumbox:

Oh well,  we took it back home with us :) And I got to see how lunch in the Yumbox looks by lunchtime, after being packed in a lunchbag (usually sideways) then a backpack, tossed in the back of the van with all the other sproutlets' backpacks, or jostled about while my independent child put the backpack on herself to walk, the trip to school, then sitting in the backpack hanging on the classroom wall for 2 ½ hours, until it's taken out (often turned upside down in the process) & opened by the small child:

Awesome! Everything still in it's own section, even the yogurt with strawberry syrup! Some stuck to the lid but I expected that - and you can see how the silicone seal in the lid did it's job :) 

Birdie's lunch was decorated with elephant picks, and contained yogurt with a drizzle of strawberry syrup,  popcorn, strawberries, & a Clif bar,  which she asked for,  plus red grapes, which I added since she didn't want a vegetable. She's kind of gone off them lately - even baby carrots :(  I baked some carrot muffins for after school snack though, she likes those. 

Stuff I used to pack this lunch: 

Picks shown may not be the same colours as the ones in my lunch, they come in assorted colors, so if you're looking for particular colours, there's an "order comments" section in the checkout process where you can say so - the folks at BentoUSA are awesome and will do their best to honour your request :)