Launching into the Hallowe'en Season

Happy October! I packed Bella a boo-tiful lunch in her PlanetBox Launch: 

Turkey, cheese & cucumber wraps, as she requested, secured with pumpkin & bat picks, carrot fingers with a spider pick, a couple of Oreos in a pumpkin-shaped cup, and a handful of ghostly marshmallows. I love the Hallowe'en picks I used - they're long which is great for little snack kebabs, but easy to trim if I want them shorter,  & you get lots of all 4 in the set : 

I used some for this Hallowee'eny snack tray:

 

Cat in the Hat Pocket Cracker Snack

Here's a little pocket-size bento snack with a Cat in the Hat theme :)

It's a stack of Triscuit crackers topped with pepperoni sticks & string cheese cut & arranged like the famous Cat's hat, packed in a tiny bento box for Sprout to carry in her pocket. This snack was so tightly packed right up to the lid that it was still a perfect hat when she opened & ate it :)

I have more Seussalicious blog posts!

Click here to see them all :)

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This Seuss-inspired snack post is linked to the 
Bento Bloggers & Friends Dr Seuss Post Party!

The Ghost Lunch of Hallowe'en Past

Wow, this past October was the busiest Hallowe'en season ever! Between volunteering to help plan & put on the sproutlets' elementary school Fall Festival, planning & shopping for Bella & Sprout's end of October birthdays, & putting together Hallowe'en costumes, I did not find time to blog. I did make some Hallowe'en themed bentos, & photographed a few ... but for the most part, the sproutlets' lunches were just food :)

This ghostly EasyLunchboxes bento is one of the few Hallowe'eny lunches I took a picture of :) The string cheese ghost's wrapper is decorated with marker, & the PB&J sandwich has candy eyes & a chocolate chip mouth. Baby carrots are embellished with a Boo! pick, & a ghost pick hovers over apple wedges with a little cup of caramel dip. 

Cheese + marker = ghost! I made these easy spooky snacks for Sprout's classroom Hallowe'en party contribution:

Bella's day of Hallowe'en lunch was filled with pumpkins & spiders :) In the spider silicone cup she got a Fig Newton & an Oreo embellished with candy eyes, her turkey, ham & cheese wrap is secured with Happy Halloween & spider pick, a spider ring decorates the baby carrots, & cucumber slices with a jack o'lantern pick fill a pumpkin-shaped silicone cup.

This one was barely Hallowe'eny.  It was a dark & dreary pre-daylight savings time morning, I wasn't awake enough to be creative ;) Bella got pepperoni bites, string cheese, turkey & cheddar wrap, 2 cocktail tomatoes,  Fig Newtons, & a Lunchbox Love note.

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The sproutlets in their Hallowe'en costumes:

Bella was Wednesday Addams. I was super impressed with how well she did keeping that deadpan expression, especially for such a naturally smiley girl:

She looked so good! The skeleton behind her is my mom :)

Birdie was Amelia Earhart, in a mini flight suit we got at our NEX.

She loves those aviator goggles!

Pickle was Eggs from The Boxtrolls.  I made the box easy to put on and off, kind of like a cardboard vest - it closes in the back with velcro. Colouring the eggs label was kind of fun :)

Sprout was Annie Oakley, & requested her costume have lots of "cowgirl fringe". For the record, I did not enjoy sewing on that fringe! 

One last picture before going out trick or treating - a silly face group shot - including Beanstalk as a pirate & his buddy as a nerd :)

My little tricksters got lots of treats. A happy Hallowe'en was had by all!

A Seussalicious After School Snack

She would probably say "Someone has too much time on their hands!"

Heheh ... I don't often make things like this... when trying to get 5 littles out the door there's no time for tiny fiddly bits - & something like this could never survive in a lunchbox anyway - but when I got the idea in my head I just had to try it - so I made it for after school snack :)

"I am the Lorax, I'm made out of cheese!"

My idea worked - my mini penguin and and gull shaped bento cutters did make a fine cheese Lorax! I trimmed the wings off and used them for arms, used a tiny oval cutter for his feet, and added sugar eyes. The truffula trees are watermelon and cantaloupe on drink swizzle sticks :)

Some cutters I used for this snack:

 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

For more Seussalicious lunch & snack ideas, come see the

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss Linky Party at Bento Bloggers & Friends! 

You're invited to add your own too :)

Hello Kitty Preschool Lunch in Goodbyn Mix & Match

Peek-a-boo! A pretty Hello Kitty snack & lunch peek through the lids of Birdie's Goodbyn Mix & Match containers :

This preschool lunch may look like party food, but it's really a pretty nutritious lunch, in just the right portions for my 3-5 year old. I know, some of you might be saying "Fruit snacks? Those are NOT nutritious!" and of course, you're right, but I'm okay with my little ones having occasional sweet treats as long as they are in moderation and in addition to a healthy meal.

I love this Mix & Match container set from Goodbyn! It comes with a matching, stackable snack set & sectioned meal set (as well as an undivided box suitable for a sandwich), and a little dip container! Birdie's snack container holds gummy fruit snacks, apple wedges, and baby carrots. 

Her small meal container holds a small peanut butter sandwich topped with a little Hello Kitty peanut butter sandwich, a hard-cooked egg (made with an egg mold), some grapes & strawberries, & a little yogurt she could either dip the fruit in, or eat with the little spoon I included. It may not look like a lot of yogurt, but the Goodbyn leak-proof dipper holds about the same amount as is in a Minigo cup - only scooped from our large tub for a fraction of the cost! 

I used food colouring markers to embellish the egg and sandwich, the dip cup is decorated with a Goodbyn dishwasher-safe sticker, and the little Hello Kitty's bow is actually a food pick! Little touches make lunch lots of fun :)

Goodbyn's Mix & Match line also includes matching drink bottles, a great rounded ice pack (water-filled - no blue goo!), & it all fits into the Goodbyn insulated lunch bag by Arctic Zone: 

 

Goodbyn food containers are made of BPA-free, pthalate-free, dishwasher-safe recyclable plastic.

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Back To School Giveaway!

Tiny Wiggles sweetly gave me the set of bento picks I used for Hello Kitty's hair bow. And sweeter still, they're going to give a second set to one lucky reader! The set comes with all the picks shown above and below: 2 party hats, 2 bowler hats, 2 ball caps, and 2 bows. Tiny Wiggles carries more cute food picks and other fun mealtime accessories, as well as lunch gear like the Goodbyn Eco System Mix & Match containers I packed Birdie's lunch in.

My favourite pick from the giveaway set is the bow; it's so versatile. Yesterday I used it as a hair bow for a Hello Kitty, but it could also be a bow tie, or the ribbon under a kite... What would you make with these picks?

Good luck!  Giveaway Over - thanks for entering!

One more thing... Hats off to some of my bento blogger friends, they sure found some creative ways to use these picks! Check them out:

• Biting the Hand That Feeds You Goldilocks And The 3... Bunnies?
• Healthy Eating Starts At Home Summer Mealtime: Under The Sea
• Molly's Lunchbox Fast & Fun Lunches with Chobani Champions
• Lunches With Love Choo-Choo and the New ELB Mini Dippers
• Bento for Kidlet Friday Vlog: Kidlet Makes Lunch!
• Veggie-Bento A Quackin' Good Day At School
• A Boy & His Lunch Hats Bento
• Creative Food Elephant Bento
• Zoe's Lunchbox Flutter-Bye 

Rainbow Week : Orange

Day 2 of  Rainbow Week ! Today is Beanstalk's favourite colour...

Orange

Bella's orange lunch contains a ham & cheese sandwich on whole wheat bagel thins, with the bagel top underneath it - she can put the top on herself after the pepper flower makes her smile :)

Bagel thins are Bella's new favourite sandwich bread, they don't make her too full. I like them too, they fit the largest section of her Easy Lunchbox perfectly, and since they're thinner than a regular bagel, even with a sandwich stacked full I can still get the lid on. On the side she has mandarin oranges, and baby carrots arranged around a sweet potato star (made with an egg mold).

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Beanstalk stayed home this morning, but was feeling better just before lunch. He got his own late breakfast (brunch?) of cereal, then I took him to school in time for his usual lunch period, with a snack of golden delicious apples and orange slices in his smaller Lock&Lock:

Rainbow

For my little sproutlet girls, I made rainbow muffin cup meals. They really do like this kind of nibbly meal best. Red strawberries, Orange carrots, Yellow parmesan cheese, Green spinach rotini, & Blue (ok Purple) grapes. Plus a White hardboiled egg cloud :) 

I only have one round orange muffin tin, the other one is pumpkin shaped.

 My 5 year old Sprout was sweet, she let her little sister have the round one :)

Birdie loved the "eggie" cloud. I used my star star egg mold, which needs an extra-large or jumbo egg to make a star - if you use a smaller egg it doesn't fill the mold, so you end up with a rounded star, which looks more like a flower to me and my girls - or a cloud :)

I wasn't really expecting Sprout to eat the spinach pasta, she has refused it several times in the past, but hoped the cup of parmesan and the spoon to sprinkle it on herself might get her to at least try it - and it worked! She covered it in parmesan and ate it all up! Even asked for seconds - which she ate without any fresh parmesan :) Today's Rainbow meal was a big success!

More Rainbow Fun!

Pickle wanted to be in on the rainbow fun too,

but without actually eating a rainbow of fruits or vegetables...

so I made him a rainbow peanut butter sandwich - kind of:

If only he'd let me colour on his sandwiches... I'll just have to admire the talented Caren of Bento-logy's beautiful and colourful Rainbow Smiles sandwich instead ♥

Gorgeous and inspiring, just like all her bentos!

One last thing!

Yesterday I reviewed The Rainbow Kit by from Today I Ate A Rainbow, but I didn't mention their fantastic website, http://www.todayiatearainbow.com/ & blog! You'll find great tips & ideas for picky eaters, suggestions for using the chart, meal ideas, fun rainbow cooking videos, there's even a Kid's Zone with fun activities and colouring pages! Even if you don't have a Today I Ate A Rainbow! chart, it's a great resource, don't miss it!

And don't miss my Rainbow Kit Giveaway!

Got the Preschool Snack Rules Blues?

If you have a kidlet in a preschool, daycare, or kindergarten with strict rules for snack days, you know what I'm talking about. Your little one wants to bring in something fun. You want to bring in something fun and healthy. But what you are allowed to bring in must be store-bought, in it's original packaging, meet nutritional guidelines, and allergy-safe...

For the record, I'm not complaining - I understand why some schools have these rules, and I'm glad they are concerned about the nutrition and safety of our children - I'm just admitting it's bit of a bummer to not be able to make cute homemade food for my kids to share with their friends, especially with all the adorable ideas on Pinterest! :)

That said, it's a very minor bummer compared to the bummer it is to have to tell a child they may NOT have any of the cute snack at school because they don't know for certain if it is SAFE for them to eat... so... Hooray for storebought, packaged, allergy-safe food! 

So, how can I make it fun?  Individual packets are fun for my kids, a treat since they rarely get them, and they seem to love miniature versions of anything. Single serving snacks aren't the most economical or environmental, but for special occasions they are okay with me (and if your 5 year old is like mine, a snack day is most definitely a special occasion!)

These kid-friendly snacks are all on our Safe List* 

There are heaps of crafty and creative ways to decorate packaged snacks, but if you're a busy parent like me, you might not have time to individually embellish each juice box and string cheese... that's OK, dollar store to the rescue! You can usually find printed plastic (or paper) treat bags for every occasion,  plus ribbons and stickers galore to make things even more festive :)

So for less than $5 more than the cost of the snacks themselves, and very little time and effort, you can easily put together cute, fun, somewhat nutritious, allergy-safe snacks for your kidlet to share with their class - like these ones I made with some of the above ingredients and supplies:

In each bag I put an applesauce & spoon, or a box of raisins, 4 oz juice box, string cheese, and graham snack. I took the staple out of the curly bows and used the curled pieces of ribbon to tie each bag with a half-knot, then covered the knot with the sticker to secure it. All the kids need to do is pull the sticker off and the knot will untie with it :)

Happy snack days!

*Check with your child's school or daycare about what is & isn't on their Safe List

Valentines

Baby Love

A couple of my favourite "lunch ladies" have recently welcomed some sweet new wee mouths to feed ♥ Congratulations to Ludicrous Mama of Biting The Hand That Feeds You, on the Christmas-time arrival of her adorable daughter Little E, and to Super Glue Mom Laura of MOMables, on the birth of her sweet son, born yesterday!

Last night I thought it would be fun to say Congratulations to Laura and Welcome to the World to her little man on the MOMables Facebook Wall with a cute little snack made in their honour... but it turned out to be another one of those things that looked better in my head :) See for yourself:

Sailor Boy said it looked a little creepy... so of course I had to eat it in front of him - I think he flinched when I bit into it, heheh. It's just half a mozzarella string cheese stick wrapped in a piece of ham for a blanket, with cupcake sprinkles for eyes and a mouth, yummy, but I had to admit he was right, it didn't seem right for posting on anyone else's wall :)

I've made baby bundle snacks before... I made "Babies in Blankets" - turkey Lit'l Smokies in crescent roll swaddling blankets - for our Labour Day Lunch, that looked cute and not at all creepy... I don't think. Maybe I should have skipped the sprinkle face.

Anyways... Welcome to the world new little babies! You picked some good families to be born into -  and you've got some great meals to look forward to!