the monkey bento box needed a friend, you see...

When I first posted about our new monkey bento box I mentioned I had really wanted the alligator.  But I let Paige pick and she was very sure she preferred the monkey. And it turned out I really like the box a lot. But I kept thinking about that cute green gator. So, this happened. 



And today they both got all packed up with little lunches. Despite being on Spring break. And despite being trapped at home with sniffles, sneezes and other sickie sufferings. Bentos are fun at home too.



I made Paige and Tyler almost the same exact lunch, with just a bit of a fruit switcheroo distinguishing one from the other. 

I thought it would be nice to put the red fruit in the green box, with green fruit in the red box.



Tyler's green gator bento:
- strawberries and cucumber slices with hummus in the top tray
- two mini bite-sized sealed sandwiches of peanut butter and blackberry preserves
- veggie chips
- pumpkin seed kernels

Paige's monkey bento was the same, but with kiwi fruit.


And then when I gave them their little lunches Tyler said "I want kiwi too!" and Paige was all "where are my strawberries?" and so I grabbed a handful of each out of each bento and swapped, so the kids ended up having both fruits anyway. 

Supplies used to make these lunches:

Muffin Tin Monday | springtime chicks & bunnies

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! 

This week's theme for Muffin Tin Monday is "Spring is Sprung!", a celebration of bunnies, chicks, eggs, and all those basket goodies.


 
back row:
- cucumber slices with hatching chick bento picks
- mini bite-sized chickie sandwiches
- mini bite-sized bunny sandwiches (made with this cute cutter set)

front row:
- organic bunny-shaped fruit snacks in a little bunny cup
- hard boiled egg, shaped like a bunny (tutorial post here)
- kiwi fruit with bunny bento pick

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

 

I'd love to see the muffin tins you have made this week! 

New to Muffin Tin Monday? Check out the MTM information page to read all about it. The schedule of themes can be found there too. :)

lunches packed in a hurry, part 2.

The following lunches were all packed in a rush.  Maybe this can be Part Two of an ongoing series, lunches that were packed in a hurry. Lunches that I almost skipped taking a picture of, but did anyways, just for the sake of keeping it real. :)

Let's start with the worst first:
 

 
This lunch is packed in a Gerber Mealtime Organizer.
- leftover pizza
- Goldfish crackers
- strawberries & blueberries


A lunch for Tyler on the occasion that my husband and I took the three big kids to see Oz and this littlest tike went to a babysitter.
 

 
Packed in my beloved elephant box:
- a mess of strawberries
- snap pea crisps
- crackers
- cucumber "sticks"
- hummus in a leak-free mini dipper
- string cheese (hiding there next to the cucumbers)

Finally, a lunch of Paige's from earlier this week. Okay, looking at it now it doesn't look so bad. But I remember feeling panicked for time on this morning.



Packed in a Laptop Lunches box:
- strawberries & kiwi
- sandwich ravioli (made with the sandwich maker from this post) (these were already made  in my freezer stash and I just tossed them in the box)
- cucumber slices sandwiches with hummus
- animal crackers

Supplies used to pack these lunches:

two bento lunches for my little Kindergartener

We've had a second round of flu sweep through our house and Ethan has been out of school for a few days. Less time for blogging and I'm getting a bit of bento backlog I need to post!

These two lunches are both Paige's and both feature new supplies I picked up recently.

This lunch is packed in an EasyLunchbox and contains:

- white cheddar corn puffs (from Trader Joe's) (similar to Pirate Booty)

- a bear face sealed sandwich

- dry roasted chickpeas

- blueberries and kiwi fruit slices, cut into flowers

The bear face sandwich sealer is a one piece gizmo. You just make your sandwich and then press this into the sandwich. Press hard. And it's done. Very straight forward. It's important to make sure your sandwich fillings are not in the way of the edge though, and that part can be tricky.  I was impressed with how well the face turned out. I think it could be even more clear with a smooth bread, but this bread is really seedy.

The sandwich is in a large square silicone cup, mostly to keep it propped up so he didn't drown under the corn puffs.

Another fun thing I got recently is this super cute monkey bento lunch box! I was instantly smitten. Truth be told, I really wanted the alligator, but Paige pleaded for the monkey.

It's a little on the smallish side. The lid snaps on easily with two buckles that are easily snap open and closed. Inside there is a little shallow tray with a divider which lift out to access the deeper bottom portion.

 
In the bottom portion of this monkey bento box there are two little sandwiches, cut and stamped with this cutter set to look like an elephant and lion. A standard sized silicone cup fits perfectly and holds roasted almonds.

The top tray section contains a Babybell cheese, organic mini peanut butter sandwich crackers, blueberries and our last strawberry.

I wasn't exactly sure this was enough food for Paige, so I included an organic yogurt cup along in her lunch bag. 

I like this box a lot. I think it's a really nice size for a preschooler's lunch, or any young child who is a light eater.  Paige is a robust eater and I suspect this cute box isn't going to be in rapid rotation for her school lunches, but will make a nice box for bigger snacks or on-the-go mini meal bentos (and I tend to make a lot of those on weekends and school breaks and summer vacation).

Supplies used to make these lunches:

Muffin Tin Monday | rainbow for St. Patrick's Day

Despite our best efforts we did not see, let alone catch!, any leprechauns yesterday. Tricky little buggers. 

I went with a really simple, fast, and easy rainbow theme for our St. Patrick's Day muffin tin lunch.  



Strawberries, mini organic peanut butter & crackers (from Trader Joe's), blueberries, carrots, cucumbers, and grapes.

The rainbow colored silicone cups are from a cute kid's cookbook I bought a couple years ago.

Supplies used to make this muffin tin meal:

Now on to the Muffin Tin Monday link-up!:

• please link back to this post 
• the MTM button is available in the left margin, at the bottom, just below the regular Another Lunch buttons if you'd like to use it :)
• Everything you might be wondering about Muffin Tin Monday, including the schedule for upcoming themes, is posted on the Muffin Tin Monday information page. 

St. Patrick's Day school lunch

Paige's lunch today had a bit o' Irish flair today, with a little nod to St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't feeling particularly creative or motivated this morning, but it seemed necessary to do something. She has her leprechaun trap all ready to go to school and chatting up a storm about how exciting it will be to have her own leprechaun after it's caught.

I'm not so optimistic. Her trap is the same design Ethan used for a leprechaun trap when he was in Kindergarten and his failed to catch one. But we'll see, I suppose. ;)

  

Paige's slightly green lunch is packed in an EasyLunchbox:
- peanut butter sandwiches on multigrain 
- pretzels
- cucumber chunks
- kiwi
The sandwich is cut with a shamrock shaped cookie cutter. There was quite a lot of bread scrap leftover, so I made two little flower sandwiches from the leftover.

For more St. Patrick's Day lunches of check this post from last year where I did a round-up of St. Pat's lunches. Most more creative than this one! :)

Supplies used to pack this lunch:

EasyLunchbox & Lunchbots school lunches

I am still adjusting to the Daylight Savings fiasco and totally dragging in the mornings. This morning was the first day I've managed to snap a pic of a lunch before the kids left for school, and that pic is still trapped on the camera. But I've got a couple of stray lunch photos I haven't shared from recent weeks and here they are.



Lunch for Ethan, in a Lunchbots Quad stainless steel box:
- mini saltines
- carrots
- turkey and cheddar cheese stars
- strawberries with a cool stainless cocktail fork

There are times when I really enjoy making cutesy lunches and then there are times I really don't feel like messing with it. But even when my creativity is nil, the kids still need to eat. This lunch of Paige's is a perfect example of what a lunch looks like when I'm just not feeling it. ;)

Super simple lunch in an EasyLunchbox:
- leftover chicken garlic parmesan pizza
- cucumber slices
- mixed berries and grapes

Supplies used to pack these lunches: