Afro Circus Field Trip & School Lunches

♪ ♫  Da da da-da-da-da da da Circus! Da da da-da-da-da da da Afro! Circus! Afro! Circus! Afro! Polka-dot! Polka-dot! Polka-dot! Afro!  ♫ ♪

Madagascar 3 is in theatres today! My sproutlets are so excited!
I made them penguin peanut butter sandwiches & Afro Circus oatmeal muffins. Bella had carrots with a giraffe pick & tomatoes with a lion & polka dot picks with hers. Beanstalk had raisins with his (not shown).

This lunch will make more sense if you have seen the Madagascar 3 trailer :) So in case you haven't, or even if you have, and because it's funny...  here is the Madagascar 3 Afro Circus Remix:

Afro Circus Muffins!

I saw some zebra print baking cups and thought I'd try to frost oatmeal muffins to look like a circus afro, but on a whim, I sprinkled some fruity cereal on top of the batter instead. I wasn't sure if they would rise much with the cereal on top, but they did, and and everyone loved them!  I thought about sticking a circus animal cracker on top of each, but the animals weren't very recognizable! I just put the little boxes aside for a snack to take to the movie when we go :)

♪ ♫ Polka-dot! Polka-dot! Polka-dot! Afro! ♫ ♪

Field Trip Lunch!

Pickle was supposed to have a field trip yesterday, and needed a disposable lunch. That didn't mean it had to be boring though! I decorated a strawberry basket with Madagascar character cut-outs and lined it with a red & white striped popcorn bag :)

Inside I packed apple Buddy Fruits, an apple juice box, polka dot penguin peanut butter sandwiches, & an Afro Circus muffin. I also added a yogurt tube, but after I took the photo below. He also got a little box of circus animal crackers for snack time.

Pickle was so excited to be taking a "sack lunch", he even asked that I write Circus Afro Polka Dot Sack Lunch on the paper bag. Here he is with his sack, smiling so big his eyes have disappeared :) But do you see what's happening outside the window behind him?

Yep, rain. And the field trip was a hike in the woods. Sadly, it was canceled at the last minute, which made me extra glad I had made his lunch so fun, I hoped it might help cheer him up. He was soooo disappointed he didn't even want to go to school. The lunch helped - I told him he had to go if he wanted his sack lunch, because we don't eat sack lunches at home! It worked :)

Lunch is Cool

Here on the Washington Coast, I don't usually have any trouble keeping the sproutlets' school lunches cool; it doesn't usually get anything close to hot until well after school is out... but they do take part in day camps over the summer, and I pack lunches for those. For some lunches, an ice pack in the lunch tote is enough, but Bella and Beanstalk like their string cheese cold. They don't like their sandwiches & crackers cold though...

No worries,  I've found a way to keep some portions of their lunch as cold as they like without making the entire lunch icy or soggy - I add frozen water-filled reusable ice cubes - miniature ice packs!

In today's lunch Bella has grapes, string cheese, ham, carrot chips, Kashi crackers, and spiced almonds:

A few reusable ice cube cold boosters (these ones are shaped like little apples) help keep her meat & cheese chilled until lunchtime. With ice in her water bottle and the whole lot packed in an insulated lunch tote, her lunch stays just as cold as she likes it.

Yesterday's lunch was one very easy lunch box - I didn't even bother arranging the crackers neatly! Those Kashi Fire Roasted Vegetable crackers have a bit of a kick - my girl likes things hot :) 

I cooled things down in the large section with fresh juicy grapes, crunchy carrot sticks, and a mozzarella string cheese - kept refreshingly chilled with the reusable ice cubes.

These bright blue, orange, and green cube shaped ones were a dollar store find that matches my EasyLunchboxes perfectly! Vibrant colours make me happy, even happier when they all coordinate :

They're a perfect fit in Beanstalk's PlanetBox too:

He has a very plain lunch as usual, but I guess it's fairly well-rounded... he has whole grain goldfish crackers (grain), ham on swords (protein), NatureBox dried cherries & an apple cut in quarters (fruit/veg) and a mozzarella string cheese (dairy), kept extra cool by the colourful ice cubes.

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[update 7.3.13]  Kelly of EasyLunchboxes made this cool Pinterest-friendly graphic and shared it on the EasyLunchboxes Facebook page, should you want to pin this idea :) Thanks Kelly!

Some cool lunch stuff:

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Bella's yummy heart-shaped homemade chicken nugget lunch is part of my latest This vs That post at MOMables!

Just posted today, Lunchbox Wars : Chicken Nuggets is a fresh, healthy remake of a boxed chicken nugget convenience lunch - and includes my recipe for the homemade chicken nuggets :)

When Bentos Go Bad

All right, I know this is not a bento - it's a peanut butter sandwich - but it's Pickle's lunch, and it's in a box, and the loose meaning of bento is lunch in a box, so there -  my blog, my rules  :)

Recently my bento buddies and I had a conversation about when things go wrong and our bentos don't come out as planned, and we thought, wouldn't it be fun if one day we all posted our lunch mishaps.  So of course tonight, when I produced what is likely the worst Perry the Platypus peanut butter sandwich ever created, I immediately took a photo and shared it with my friends so they could all have a good laugh :)

I'll be honest, I originally had no intentions of blogging this. Until one of my bento buddies asked if she could share it with her friend, the "voice" of Perry the Platypus! What? Uhh, yes, please! 

Somehow, that would so make it blog-worthy to me!

So here you go,  Mr Dee Bradley Baker.  I hope this makes you smile :) Your show makes my sproutlets smile daily!  And messy as it is, this is going in Pickle's lunch tomorrow - he'll love it!

And now, my fellow bento bloggers & friends, 

Bent On Better Lunches in a cookbook?

It's true! 4 of my lunches will be featured in the upcoming Cooking With Trader Joe’s Cookbook – EasyLunchboxes, by Kelly Lester - the "singing CEO" of EasyLunchboxes, and a lunch-making mom herself. I am so excited! You may have already heard some buzz about it, it's been in the works for some time now - I just didn't want to say anything about being in it until I had submitted everything - in case I messed up - but it looks like a done deal :)

It also features a whole bunch of my bento & lunch blogging friends!
Bento for Kidlet, Biting the Hand That Feeds You, Veggie-Bento, Lunches With Love, Rachel's Random, Lunches Fit For A Kid, Pink'n Punchy Lunches, Family Fresh Meals, Bobbi's Bentos, Keeley McGuire, Beneficial Bento, Bentobloggy, MOMables, & more!

Want to see which of my lunches will be in it? Too bad, you'll have to wait for the book ;) But you can see some the ones that won't be in it...  I submitted 8 lunches for consideration, hoping that 1 of them might make the cut, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out they chose 4! I can't wait to see my lunches recreated by the talented Kelly & her team of helpers, and photographed by the fabulous Marla Meridith of Family Fresh Cooking! 

Here are the 4 "rejects", heheh:

   

"Out of This World" grape & clementine alien, carrot asteroids, cheese stars & PB sandwich space scene, and "All-Weather" lunch with cheese quesadilla sun, pepper rainbow, popcorn clouds, apple & grapes umbrella & raindrops.

   

"Flower Power" ham & cheese bagel sandwich with pepper flowers, orange & apple blossoms with grapes, and "Berry Tasty" strawberries & cream cheese bagel sandwich, kiwi hearts, & celery sticks with nut butter dip.

The cookbook will be coming out in September!
You can Like EasyLunchboxes on Facebook if you don't want to miss the announcement about when it comes out and where to get your copy :)