Food, Family, Fun.

Rose is on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately. We could all use a few meatless meals so everyone had similar vegetarian lunches packed in their new Yumboxes. This is Amy's very easy to pack vegetarian school lunch.

Amy has diced peaches, sliced apples with a yummy greek yogurt & peanut butter dip (recipe from BentOnBetterLunches), sliced veggies - radish, carrots & cucumber. There are 2 no bake energy bites (recipe from MOMables) and a boiled egg. 

Most foods in this lunch were considered her favourites so I thought I could sneak in a few new tastes like the dip and the radishes. Amy didn't like either, but her sisters sure did! Rose & Heidi had extremely similar lunches. Rose had pineapple instead of peaches and Heidi did not have radishes or cucumbers. 

They ate everything from their lunch save a few bites.

This lunch was extremely fast to pack! The boiled eggs were made the night before using this fool proof method and I had also made the energy bites ahead of time. Packing all 3 lunches in the morning took less than 10 minutes! Now that is FAST.

red grapes, clementine, blueberries

carrot sticks, grape tomato & broccoli floret

ranch dip, mini pig cup holds sunflower seeds

ham sandwich & a Gingerman cookie

I had forgotten to make Heidi's lunch in the morning. It was just one of those days and I got sidetracked. I made lunches for Amy & Rose who were taking theirs to school, and didn't get back to make a third. As soon as Heidi came home from school her usual - "What's for lunch?" routine started and I had to move quickly. The whole thing took under 6 minutes. The longest time was peeling the clementine and peeling the carrot. All of the rest was pretty speedy to put together. If I had made this in the morning I would have put the lid on the ranch dip cup, since I was making it to eat right then, I left it as is. I often just put dip right in there with the carrots at lunch time if she asks, but I was hoping that she would try the broccoli and I wanted her to choose about dip or no dip. Well she didn't touch the broccoli or the tomato and also left a few blueberries. Otherwise it was a successful lunch, packed really quickly with a hungry 3 year old biting at the ankles. And yes - she ate the cookie first. Can't blame her -I would have too!

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A very simple and fast lunch packed in a Planetbox. This was for Amy. You know those mornings where it's just so difficult to get moving? This was one of those days. I seem to have them a lot lately!

carrot sticks, red grapes, clementine, candy coated sunflower seeds, 

apple & cinnamon rice cakes, ham sandwich

We all really love those sunflower seeds. The ONLY place I have found them locally is at Treats. They're $15.99 a pound! Yikes! They'll have to be a special treat. It's a good thing that we all like plain sunflower seeds too. 

I made this lunch without any fancy bits (not even a pick!?!) and it was super fast to pack.

We had a delicious spaghetti and meatballs dinner on Sunday night. There was just enough left to pack a couple of lunches on Monday. This one was for my husband. I am really loving packing leftovers for lunch. It's just SO FAST! I made this right after dinner when I was packing up the leftovers.

leftover spaghetti & meatballs embellished with two olive slices and some parmesan cheese

strawberries, carrot sticks (from our garden) and hummus

The fruit & veggies were easily removed and placed on the lid while the spaghetti was heated up in the microwave. I am pleased to report that there was no reisdue/staining etc from the spaghetti sauce in the plastic of the Easy Lunch Box after microwaving. Yay!

I packed this lunch for my husband to take to work. I almost never pack lunch the night before but I had just the right amount of leftovers from dinner tonight so why not pack it all ready for lunch tomorrow? Plus I was a little bit excited to use my new jumbo silicone cup that came in my order today from Bento USA. It actually would fit in there a bit neater if I wasn't trying to cram two chicken drumsticks next to it :)

My husband's EasyLunchBox has - 2 baked BBQ chicken drumsticks, kiwi, fettuccine with frozen mixed veg, and a salad with - mixed greens including spinach, radishes, grape tomato, carrot matchsticks, apple pieces, cucumber and celery. The little panda container holds Italian dressing. I purposely put the kiwi in that little silicone cup so that he can easily remove it and the salad and rest them on the lid of his easy lunch box while he warms the rest in the microwave. I didn't purposely choose pink though - just noticed that it was pink in fact. He won't mind; real men aren't afraid of pink.

Since this was made up of mostly all leftovers (not the kiwi) it took under 5 minutes to pack! I should try this more often.

Lunch for Amy: Ham sandwich, carrot sticks, assorted fruit - grapes, pineapple, strawberry (from our garden!) and honeydew melon

I had been trying to stay away from the continual ham sandwich lunch and have been mixing it up a bit in their lunchboxes lately. On Wednesday, I did not have a plan in mind, there were no decent leftovers in the fridge and as we were running late I caved in and went back to their favourite sandwich. Just yesterday, I got a new cookbook from Amazon. Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook - Easy Lunch Boxes. There are lots of interesting things to pack for lunch in there - and really you don't need to have a Trader Joe's nearby to use the ideas. I certainly don't have one near me! Hopefully Amy will see some things that she likes in the pictures and I can try some new lunch options.

The same lunch for Rose plus I added a few grape tomatoes

I realise that her sandwich looks little messier than Amy's but it's because I used the off cuts of ham after I cut out Amy's bunny and just tucked them into Rose's sandwich. No waste! This bunny is from my favourite cookie cutter stamp set. It's very fast to stamp the bread and it makes for an appealing end result. No peanut butter gluing of eyes, noses and whiskers. Saves 3 minutes at least!

Leftover taco meat, lettuce, taco shell, cheese & cantaloupe

I feel like I should have tucked some carrot sticks in there or something extra but I was having a hard time  getting everything to fit. I think I'll look up some other taco lunches and see how other people get them to fit nicely.  At the very last minute when I was packing up I added a granola bar to Rose's lunch. She doesn't take a morning snack as they have a classroom community snack. I was worried that it might not be enough food if she's hungrier at lunch time because she didn't like the morning snack. Amy already takes two snacks and rarely eats them both so I knew she would have extra in her lunch. Her snacks today were a boiled egg & some more cantaloupe, plus her favourite goldfish crackers. They both had little forks packed in their lunchboxes too.

I really needed to go shopping. We were out of almost all fruit. Including everyone in our family (4 kids, 2 adults) we ate an entire honeydew melon yesterday! Plus grapes, the last of the pineapple, the last of the mandarin oranges, and the only two ripe strawberries in the garden. The amount of fruit and veg that we go through as a family is staggering considering that the girls are still little. I can't imagine what it will be like when they are all older.

So that's 3 lunches, 2 drinks and 2 snacks in 20 minutes and 19.6 seconds. Heidi's lunch on the far left will stay in the fridge until she gets home at lunch time. The meat was a dinner leftover but the tacos were baked from the box this morning. Do you know what took me the most time this morning? Finding my Easylunchboxes mini dippers! They come in a package of 8 and somehow I can only find 3 cups and 2 lids! I sorted out almost all of my bento storage drawers on the weekend so here's hoping that the rest are in the bottom of the last two! Interruptions were a minimum today as I helped the girls get organised first and only stopped to give reminders about what they needed to do next - shoes & socks, brush your teeth, check that your pouches have everything you need for the day, choose your coats etc...

I think my usual, I woke up on time, lunch making duration is 25 -30 minutes to make all three. Also, since Heidi doesn't need hers to go out the door with her in the morning I sometimes spend a little extra time on hers when everyone has gone and the house is quiet. You know, if I'm in the mood to try something fancy :) At that point, I also tackle lunch for my husband if he's taking lunch and lunch for the baby if the afternoon will be busy.

Since I was wondering how I could do a better job of packing these lunches to fit more food I did a little inquiring with some other lunch blogger friends. Perhaps I should have assembled the tacos and then I would have had one spot extra for some extra veggies or using tortilla chips instead is also a nice idea like these lunches from Keeley McGuire


Here are some other taco and nacho lunches packed in EasyLunchboxes:
Keeley McGruire - Taco & Nachos lunches
More Than Your Average Mom - Mini Nachos
Lunches Fit For A Kid - Spaghetti tacos
Lunches Fit For A Kid - Nachos
Tiny Princess Lunch Box - Taco salads
Lunch with Eyeness 
Bentoriffic - Fiesta Bentos
Chaos and Confections - soft tacos in a Laptop Lunch

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goldfish, pizza biscuit, marinara sauce for dipping

grape tomatoes & carrots from our garden, pineapple

Heidi's lunch

bunny sandwich, carrot coins and celery with some peanut butter in the mini dipper. 

grapes, apples & a strawberry

I did put the lid on the mini dipper of peanut butter when I sent it to school. The little cupcake wrapper in there was actually practical not just pretty. It's kind of annoying to wash peanut butter out any of our little dip cups (no dishwasher!); it makes cleanup so much easier if it's in a wrapper :)

This was a super fast lunch to make. To make 3 kids lunches I cut two stalks of celery, one large carrot into coins, one apple into slices and halved a few strawberries. Then it literally took a few seconds to fill the compartments. The sandwiches were easily cut with a cookie cutter and then it was very easy to add the little candy eyes and candy nose. I bought some kitchen tweezers recently that made adding the sprinkles super fast. I think this turned out to be one of my cuter bunny lunches (other bunny lunches here) and it was probably one of the fastest to make! 

Here are some items that I used to make this lunch:

carrot sticks, goldfish, honeydew melon, strawberries

I have had a bad headache for two days in a row now :( Just couldn't get out of bed this morning. So we didn't get up until 8 am today -  lunches had to be easy and fast. It's been pretty cold (for here) lately and I asked the girls if they wanted soup. Rose and Heidi said yes, Amy still wanted a sandwich. I'll make Heidi some soup when she comes home from school at lunchtime. 

Rose's Lunch - packed in a Lunchbots duo and a Thermos Funtainer

bread and butter with fruit leather stars, grapes and strawberries, chicken noodle soup

Amy's Lunch

ham sandwich with strawberry fruit leather, mini cup of m&ms, cheez its, grapes and strawberries

Last night I made delicious pulled pork in the crock pot and we had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. I already can't wait until lunchtime so that I can have the leftovers! Yum!!

This was a REALLY fast lunch to put together! Today was the first day back to school after a 4 day weekend and I just did not have my act together this morning. I didn't even take a photo of Amy's or Rose's lunch this morning. Here's Heidi's lunch.

carrot sticks and celery, butterfly shaped sandwich, mini cupcake, grapes and strawberries

All of the kids were begging for cupcakes this morning. They each got one in their lunch. The rest of the lunch is pretty healthy so I think it's ok. All in moderation. I'm sure she'll ask for dip for her veggies as she always does -- so I'll add it at lunch time. I often put the dip right in the cup and then stand her veggie sticks up in in the dip and cup. As far as speed goes this took no time at all. Cutting a sandwich with a cutter is actually faster than trimming crusts with a knife. The longest time was spent cutting the veggies - but when you cut once for three lunches the time really is negligible. I should have timed it -- I think I took longer trying to take a photo with my terrible kitchen light!!!

ham sandwich with a black sprinkle cat cut out, cucumber slices and carrot sticks, 

boiled egg, cantaloupe and strawberries

Heidi had a similar lunch
Hers stayed at home as usual and she ate it for lunch when she came home from school at noon

2 custard creme cookies, cucumber and carrot sticks, ham sandwich

bear shaped bunny, strawberries, cantaloupe and raspberries stuffed with tiny blueberries

Rose didn't want a sandwich and only wanted a rice cake!

She has all of the same sides as Heidi to go with her rice cake. I offered to put peanut butter on it but she said no, she only wanted a plain one. I think there is enough protein considering the egg so I didn't worry. Her little cup has ranch dip for the carrot sticks.  In case you are wondering why Amy didn't get any cookies -- she doesn't like them or anything else that I offered her instead! She was happy with her lunch as is.

Everyone is on midterm break right now and these lunches are actually from last week. I am very busy with work and haven't had time for much else. I am still packing fun lunches as Amy and Rose are at ballet camp, but I haven't been taking any photos. Since I have been working late, I just have not been getting up early enough to snap a picture. They actually have to leave as early as a school day since ballet camp is a farther drive than the 5 minutes to school!

Some items I used:

Rose's Snack

cheese circles, cantaloupe pieces, apple pieces, cucumber slices and grape tomatoes

It's the same as Rose's except Amy doesn't have tomatoes because she doesn't like them.

I packed Heidi an EasyLunchbox and put it in the fridge.

She had Raspberry fromage frais, ham penguin sandwiches, grapes, clementine & carrots.

carrot sticks & dip, grape tomatoes, cantaloupe, strawberries

vitamin gummies, goldfish smore's

roasted chicken sandwich with a cheese flower topper

Amy's is quite similar with only a small variation due to her taste preferences and the fact that I am trying to use up little odds and ends of fruit and veggies before the storm.

Amy's lunch

cucumber sticks, carrot sticks and a grape tomato that she probably won't eat

strawberries, black grapes, vitamin gummies

plain goldfish (original), same roasted chicken sandwich as above

I do not know what the heck happened to these photos, I must have taken them with my eyes shut. There is some weird angle thing going on and it looks all skewed funny. The sandwiches were definitely normal looking circles in real life. Oh well, that's what I get for a late morning start. Regarding Amy -- I am probably going to give up on the tomato soon as she's approaching her 9,876,543 presentation of them! That's how many times it takes picky eaters to try something new right? ;)

Heidi's at home Lunch

2 chicken rainbow sandwiches, mini cup with 2 vitamin gummies

cucumber sticks and carrot sticks

black grapes, strawberries

I did not put any dip for her veggies, but as she is at home I can add it later. I figured that I might stand up her veggies and put some dip in the bottom of that section if she asks for any. I am pretty sure that she will since she loves to dip stuff. I drastically decreased the amount of food this time. This should be a better amount for her.

Here are some items that I used in these lunches:

Yesterday was the last day for school lunches! I was totally planning something fun and special for them and then my plans were foiled. Sweet little Emily woke up to play at 4 am! This did not bode well for me who fell back to sleep in the wee morning hours and then overslept until 8 am!?! There was no time for anything cute and the girls had some very FAST lunches. Amy will still pack lunch for 3 weeks of summer camp so there are still more lunches to make. As I am only going to have to pack one lunch in the morning, hopefully I'll have time to make it special :)

Rose's lunch

blueberries, watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe

ranch rice crisps, rainbow chip rice krispie snack

ham & mustard sandwich

Amy's Lunch

strawberries, watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe

teddy grahams, rice krispie treat

ham sandwich

They ate almost every bite!

carrots sticks and cherry tomatoes (both from our garden)

mini ham and mustard sandwich rounds

mini apple from Great Granny & Great Papa's tree

oatmeal cookie that Great Granny made

honeydew melon & a few red grapes tucked around the edges

This was really easy to put together. Rose was very specific that she wanted very tiny sandwiches. I was able to cut 4 circles out of one slice of bread, just to give you an idea.  She picked the cherry tomatoes from the garden herself before school :)  She ate almost everything!


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I was in a bit of a lunch rut the last week or so. I still made the girls some good healthy (mostly) lunches but not too much by way of themes or cute accents. They certainly did not mind and happily ate almost all of their lunches. Here are a few photos of our basic, easy school lunches from the past week. 

Amy's Lunches

mini apple from Great Granny & Papa's tree ( the girls picked some themselves), peach slices

honeydew melon, red grapes, oatmeal cookie, carrot sticks and peanut butter dip

ham sandwich

peach slices, red grapes, watermelon

homemade blueberry muffins, ranch rice cakes

ham sandwich

Heidi's Lunches

peach slices, red grapes, honeydew melon

fig newton cookie, carrot sticks

ham or cheese sandwich ( can't remember!)

peach slices, red grapes, 

watermelon, homemade blueberry muffin, ranch rice cakes

ham sandwich cut into squares

Rose has been a bit on and off about  sandwiches still . Sometimes she asks for one but usually she doesn't want a sandwich. Sometimes she wants a particular bento container. She's very specific and knows what exactly what she wants! Sometimes it makes me crazy but I know these traits will take her far in life. She may have even got a bit of that from me so I can't  really  complain. I'll post 2 of  hers separately tomorrow.