Iron Man Bento & Matching Muffin Tin Meal

Last week Beanstalk had Captain America and the Incredible Hulk lunches, so in keeping with the Avengers theme, today he has a red & gold Iron Man bento in his LunchBots Quad. He has red grapes, cheddar & mozzarella cheese crackers, honey ham rolls (one secured with a homemade Iron Man pick), granola squares, and raisins.

It's Muffin Tin Monday! I made matching red & gold muffin tins for little sisters Sprout & Birdie. They had raisins, Annie's Homegrown cheddar bunny crackers, cheddar & mozzarella cheese, strawberries, red grapes (one with a ring pick - they loved that!) and celery sticks with peanut butter dip.

Bella and Pickle took peanut butter sandwiches, Pickle's with yogurt, and Bella's with grapes, celery sticks & PB dip, but I didn't take photos of their lunches today.   If you want to see how I made Beanstalk's Iron Man pick, click the link to: my DIY cupcake pick post :)

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

Avengers Lunch, Assemble!

Well, one of the Avengers, anyways :) It's a Captain America bento in a LunchBots Quad for Beanstalk - a reminder of our weekend plans to see Avengers! Gala apple wedges, Clif Kid Z bar, Craisins, & fruit snacks, as he requested, plus an A cookie and a fruit leather star to make it more fun :)

Also by request, a turkey & cheddar sandwich for Bella, with fruit snacks, berry rice cakes, and whole wheat fig newtons.

Beanstalk has a birthday coming up! He'll be turning 11! He's chosen an Avengers theme for his party, so I made an Avengers Birthday Ideas Pinterest Board for Avengers and Marvel character decor, treats, & eats. One of my favourite pins so far is the healthy superhero snack buffet pictured below:

I'd love for you to share your links to Avengers party ideas! 

It's Not Always Pretty...

Lunch is not always pretty. Some days I just don't have it together. Today was one of those days. I got up on time, but there was no coffee waiting for me (boy do I miss that when Sailor Boy's on a trip) and I just wasn't moving very fast. It's so light when we get up these days too - this morning I just had this summery Saturday-ish feeling that was hard to shake off and get moving to get the sproutlets off to school. I made it though, with adequate lunches in their bags, but only just :) One more month of school, wow!

Here is Bella's lunch, the only one I took a photo of - taken last minute, at her request,  with my iPhone :)

Heh, OK, so it doesn't look half-bad now - but this morning I was apologetic to her... I guess I felt bad that it was so thrown together, theme-less, and full of snack-y things. She has a mango fruit leather bar, a few grapes, some chocolate-covered pretzel rings, 3 fig newtons, some celery sticks with a  little container of peanut butter dip, 4 baby carrots, and a handful of tomatoes I stuck some flower picks in, attempting to add some pretty :)

Oh, I just remembered something! I was looking at my blog stats recently, and someone found my blog with the search "mom who looks like they have it all together". Honestly, it was so funny to me (because I am so not that mom),  that I had to take a screen shot!

So for the person who found me with that search,  thanks for the smile, but I assure you, I'm just a regular parent who doesn't have it together most of the time - but it's nice to know it looks like I do - it reminds me not to compare myself to others and find myself lacking, because what I see is only part of the picture - and with blogs, and facebook, only what people want me to see!

The truth is, some days I'm so scattered or rushed, that as much as I aspire to give my sproutlets better lunches, I could totally just throw a pop tart and a juice box in their bag, if I had those things (which is exactly why I don't buy them anymore)!  I don't bother taking pictures on those days, but believe me, there are plenty of boring, not so pretty, sometimes barely nutritionally adequate lunches that never make it to a post :) And sometimes I do make lunch with convenience snacks :

Birdie's Elephant Garden

I asked Birdie if she wanted to make her own muffin tin meal for lunch today, since Sprout did, for the Mom's Day Off blog hop - but she said "no thanks" ! Strange little girl.  She's probably too tired, she was up several times throughout the night. I bet I'm more tired though! Between Birdie and Sprout, I've been up ALL night! Cross your fingers for us all to get a nap in today, that would be really nice :)

I made her muffin tin with pretty much the same things Sprout chose for her bento lunch for the blog hop, since they'll be eating together - grapes, celery, carrots, and a homemade Butternut Squash Oatmeal Ginger Coconut muffin. And she loves elephants, so I added some of those too. 

Birdie also has a couple of things Sprout doesn't - banana, which Sprout dislikes, and freeze dried mixed fruit, which Sprout refused to try. No clue if Birdie will try it or not - I'm going to call it "fruit chips" and we'll just see :) 

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Beanstalk also has a muffin, in his LunchBots Quad, and grapes, some NatureBox Zingy Dried Currants, and a treat of Captain America fruit snacks - I'm hoping this reminds him to have a good week at school so he's allowed to see The Avengers this weekend!

Pickle requested a plain peanut butter sandwich, not creative, crusts on - no point in taking a picture of that! :)