Day 26- Pot Stickers Bento

Another evening meal of you guys can have anything you want that " we have in the freezer". Potstickers it was! My entire division was laid off; all of my people and myself. Boo! Lunch was quick and made for the Peanut alone. Potstickers cold are edible per Peanut. Potstickers covered in strawberry infused organic, no sugar applesauce are icky. Note: Do not put sauces etc by themselves unseled in the 4 square Lock & Lock container. Snack was dried pears from Costco. Lucky for everyone; I pre ordered hot lunch for Peanut tomorrow!

Day 25- Peek-A-Boo Sammies

This is being posted after another really bad day, when one remembers what is truly important (family) and holds them as close as they can and then asks them to call the shots.:) The Peanut made the peek-a-boos and somewhat mangled the bread with mommy's help (my rectangles came out a little uneven after a well-deserved glass of wine). The sammies are made with butter ("we" no longer like cream cheeze and pb is off limits at kindy) and apricot and strawberry preserves. Watermelon and orange slices for desert with cucumber flower, tomato, mayo and dill salad served in the orange rind. This one was a very popular lunch.

Day 24- Caterpillar Lunch....

I got the idea for this little guy off of parenting.com, (actually before I started even making these lunches, this was one of the first places I found ideas for "cute lunches")  butI  just hadn't yet gotten the "time" to try him out. Now that I've gotten the hang of it though, I've tried my own version which required a lot less forethought and more importantly work, but he still looks cute! The original is made with mashed potato (which Peanut "will not" eat-her words not mine) and scrambled eggs with spinach from Parenting.com (http://www.parenting.com/gallery/how-to-make-a-caterpillar-bento-lunch-box). Ours was made half as small for a kindy appetite with an edamame snack, plain old scrambled eggs, and mozzarella cheese and watermelon slices addes to boost up the celery legs (to keep them from "running" around" the box during home to school transport).

Day 23-Flower Garden Bento

Today it is all about what the Peanut wants and the Peanut has only two requests: flowers and avocado. Peanut loves avocado! To keep the avocado from browning we sprinkle with Crystal Lite Lemonade (pears get soaked in this). Slice this with some of that apple smoked gouda, chedder cheese, ham, peeled pear, and kiwi and the Peanut gets to work with cutting and sneaking tastes when I am not looking. The base is sushi rice which I make in one of my  favorite kitchen appliances of all time: My Black and Decker 3-cup rice cooker (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-RC3303-3-Cup-Cooker/dp/B002CVTT52). Served with celery sticks and black olives (I buy by the can and keep in tupperware for a week or so to use for lunches, snacks and dinners, or freeze in batches in ziploc bags). Little container holds low sodium soy sauce to season the rice with. Peanut loved filling this guy up using a little suction straw deal.

Day 22- Busy Mom has a Bad Day!

Okay let's face it. We all have these days! Some days I feel like a super woman; able to juggle children, marriage, career, house-hold all in one hand. Some days I can whip together a totally inspired, made from scratch  healthy meal and lunch all before bedtime and before my work computer even cools down. And some days I just hit the freezer and throw chicken nuggets (organic of course) in the microwave for the kids, and hubby and I fend for ourselves. This is the day I have to lay off two employees. This is a day that really sucks!

Lunch is cooked chicken nuggets, watermelon and kiwi and carrots and mushroom with ranch dip. This picture taken by a mom too uninspired to dig up a scrapbook page back ground at this time, does however, showcase our super cool Lock & Lock thermos and three part container (they make all my cool tupperware style "boxes" as well, and have great deals on their website from time to time where you can get things like these thermos (plural "thermi?") for cheap for sets of 2: http://www.locknlockplace.com/servlet/-strse-template/event_happy/Page
). It also showcases the cute click open BPA free snack container I found at the Dollar Store. Love the dollar store and any dollar bins at the grocery store, Target, Micheals etc for great bento supplies BTW.

Day 21- Lunch on a Stick

I got way too many shadows in this picture, but this was a none-the-less popular lunch and also very easy. This was also fun to make with Peanut and had to keep the Bear very busy because he kept hitting us up for scraps while we assembled it. Basically just trying to use up everything fresh that needed to be used before it hit expiration (as well as some of the ham we had for dinner), stuck them all on broken down b-b-q skewers, seperated by cupcake liners cut off from the base, and voila. For the veggie course we have olives, tomatoes and mushrooms. For the protein/grain course: cut up dinner rolls, ham, and some smoked apple gouda that peanut loves even though she says she now "doesn't like cheese;" and for the fruit course: kiwi, black grapes and the last of the seasons watermelon. Wheat thin sticks (which both kids disliked BTW) and grapes for snack.

Day 20- Left Over Spaghetti Casserole Lunch

This is left-over spaghetti casserole with some fresh parmasan from last night's dinner with baked ritz, celery sticks and multi colored grapes. Very very quick and easy lunch. Peanut will eat the cooled cheeze dishes better than the hot ones for some reason?

Day 19- Homemade Kolache Lunch

I made Kolaches with sausage and chedder cheese over the weekend (recipe found online: http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-sausage-kolaches-37793) but didn't get to use left overs for lunch until today since Peanut tried lunch at school yesterday. Our school offers healthy lunches so she gets to have those once a week to give mom a break.The tomato ketchup was from Chic-Filet and the lunch was served with grape tomatos and our all time favorite food: grapes (green this time). For snack was squeezable organic, no sugar added cinnamon applesauce which I found at Walmart of all places. Peanut actually isn't a huge fan of any sauces (much to my bento dismay since there are so many cute containers for sauces available) but I threw it in there for looks more than anything else. This lunch was served in her giraffe bento:

Day 18- Bunny eggs

Hard boiled eggs are also a peanut favorite. This egg was shaped with a mold to look like a bunny face but is very difficult to see in this picture. Served with orange slices, black grapes and carrots with brocolli stems with grapes and yogurt covered pretzels for snack.

Day 17- Dogwiches

DD loves puppies. That is what inspired the dogwiches cut with juice glasses with Swiss, American and Nori features, watermelon flowers, a cuke and cherry tomato skewer and graham crackers for filler. Graham crackers and craisins in cute sandwich baggies from the Target dollar bin for snack. Dogwiches can be made with a multitude of fillings but we made ours with butter, ham and thin cuke slices and cut all three out of one sandwich/ two pieces of bread.

Day 16-Easy Cheesy

This is what you do when you have a reputation to protect and 5 minutes in which to fix lunch because you worked late. Half a banana, cheese, turkey and pita chips in a flower  cookie cutter and celery sticks with banana half and yogurt pretzles for snack!

Day 15-Chicken on a stick and Quinoa

More dinner left overs. Chicken "on a stick" (drumstick) is one of our family favorites. This was tarragon lemon garlic chicken (a wonderful recipe) which I use to make about 12 drumsticks at a time usually. Tastes great cold as well.

Day 14- A not so boring Ham and cheese sandwich

Hame and cheeze sandwiches cut out with bottom of a glass (I freeze all the bread scraps for stuffing later on and give all the meat and  veggie and fruit and cheese scraps to the kids for late afternoon snack). I cut flowers out of cucumbers and kiwi using mini flower cookie cutters and also cut some grapes into flower shapes. Most of the ingredients were already in use for the chef salad we had for dinner the prior night.

Day 13-Lion Bento

2 part bento box/ Macaroni and cheese lion with celery whiskers, carrot mouth with carrot and celery stick, grapes and fishy craker sides. Grapes and bunny graham for snack. King Soopers carries these packages of three color grapes. Love them!

Day 12- Make your own pizza

Bagel thins with mini pepperonis, olives, cheese and a little bit of the sauce left over from the spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Another very easy box.

Day 11- Meatball chickens

Meatballs and noodles left over from dinner with carrot beaks and side of asparagus, cherry tomatos and orange. The other container is snack (Costco veggie fries and orange).

Day 10 - Homemade chicken noodle soup

Very basic boring quick Bento with home made chicken noodle soup left overs served in our all time favorite Toy Story thermos with peaches in their own juice and low salt-baked ritz for sides. Love to use left overs when I can. Bunny grahams for snack. I love Annies!

Day 9-Breakfast for Lunch

The whole family is filled with big breakfast fans! Subsequently, we frequently have "breakfast for dinner" nights when Mommy is feeling particularly burnt out and there happens to be eggs etc in the fridge. On Sunday, DH used his "Belgian Waffle Maker" and made us all belgian waffles for breakfast (yum). There were quite a few left over so I cut one of them up into squares and sent to school with Peanut with a little "syrup" container", a Babybel cheese cut into a smily face with Nori features, apples, and edamame on skewers (plastic toothpickes). Snack was pita crackers with hummus dip (in green stripey container) and a peeled tangelo.I made hummus dip for the get together this past weekend with red onions, from an internet recipe and froze the left overs in an ice cude tray. If Peanut doesn't like it, I will put it in future lunches for DH and I. A friend of mine on ColoradoMoms.com, also told me that you can buy excellent dip in individual containers at Costco, but haven't tried those yet.

Day 8- Octopus and Ramen

This one was fun to make! I used cocktail weiners which I actually had purchased for an appetizer for the upcoming weekend but then on thinking about it, went ahead and bought two packages and froze the remainder (before re-boiling) in zip locks in groups of 8 for later use. This is plain old Ramen (another kiddo favorite) with cheese starfish and Cocktail weiner octipi (use the hot dog vs. the 'sausage" version and cut two to three slits in bottom up to half way and then boil them with the noodles). Sides are fresh stemed green beans left over from dinner, fishy pretzel crackers and peeled tangelos. Anything that is leftover, I either freeze for later use, stick in a tupperware for myself or hubby to use, or keep until the next day for after school snack or for inclusion in breakfast. Snack today was dried apricots and baked/salt free ritz crackers. This lunch was eaten completely!