Thursday, November 6, 2014

Adult Lunch Round-up!

If there is one thing I find a lack of when I'm browsing the web for ideas, it's adult lunches. Because of that I started documenting the lunches I pack my husband as well as the lunches I do for my daughter (Even snuck a couple lunches that were mine in here). If any of you are struggling to find new ideas for lunch, I hope you find some sort of inspiration here!





My husband's lunch is on the left. Pizza bagels (do we ever really get too old for them?), salad, popcorn, and a Larabar. He also had snacks on the side for his two breaks and of course drinks. He usually takes flavored waters, vitamin waters, and occasionally soda. All packed in our Easy Lunchboxes.









Turkey and Swiss sandwich on a Pretzel bun, grapes, pickles, and carrots.


















Two clementines, Nitrate Free Turkey wrapped around asparagus with a little cream cheese inside. Salad, Clif Bar, and pretzels in our Goodbyn Bynto.




















Chicken, Couscous, Carrots, Bell Pepper Strips, and Hummas. This lunchbox is discontinued but the Easy Lunchbox has the same three compartment set-up and is awesome for lunch packing.



















Breakfast lunch: Sausage Links, Biscuit, Hardboiled Egg, Tillamoo (cheese), Greek Yogurt, Banana Chips in our Easy Lunchbox.




















Two slices of Leftover Pizza, Pumpkin seeds/Dried Cranberries, Cucumber Slices, Larabar, and a string cheese.



















Sandwich, Salad w/ feta and pepper rings, pretzels, and a Larabar. This box has been discontinued but you can use Easy Lunchboxes for quick 3-compartment lunch packing.





















Bagel Sandwich, Kiwi, String Cheese, Tillamook Yogurt with Almonds, Brownie with Coconut Oil Frosting. This box has been discontinued but you can pick up Easy Lunchboxes for quick 3-compartment lunch packing!














2 Clementines, Meatballs, Pretzels, Sweet Peppers, Greek Dip (Feta, Greek Yogurt, Cucumber, Tomatoes) served with Pita (not pictured).
















Salad, Salami/Cheese pretzel skewers, Tomatoes/carrots, Hummas, and Pita Pieces in our Easy Lunchboxes



















Salad, Sandwich, Pears, Cottage Cheese, Jungle Animal Cookies, and a Vitamin Water.
















Penne Pasta Salad (Penna, ground turkey, parmesan cheese, spinach, pesto, tomatoes), Greek Yogurt, Avocado, and a Vitamin Water.  Check out Easy Lunchboxes for a great 3-compartment option.














Pizza Cresents, Salad, Blueberries, Clementine Segments, and Tomato Sauce for dipping. Check out Easy Lunchboxes for a great 3-compartment lunchbox option.










The two following lunches are actually lunches I packed for my daughter that I think would translate well to an adult lunch!










Chicken Parmesan Cupcakes, Salad, Cherries, and Carrots in our Easy Lunchbox.
















Salad -- Spring Salad Mix, Shrimp, Peppers, Tomatoes, and Feta.

Halved Grapes

Pistachio Pudding












Thanks so much for checking out all my lunches. I hope you got at least and idea or two for your own boxes. Feel free to share the lunches you're making!!

Happy Packing!







Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Trying New Ideas

Today's lunch has a couple new tricks that I haven't used before. I was pretty pleased with them and Monkey thought they were pretty neat when she got to peak in the box this morning.


IN THIS LUNCH:
  • Carrots
  • Grapes
  • Aussie Bites
  • Chicken Apple Nitrate Free Lunch Meat
  • Devilled Eggs
  • Yogurt
So devilled eggs are pretty standard around here during the holidays. We LOVE them and I am a bit of a purist when it comes to them. However today I added a little food coloring and a piece of celery to make a fun little pumpkin.



The second new thing was freezing of yogurt for fun shapes. What we have is strawberry yogurt that I colored purple... I layered a little in the bottom of the compartment as well as made frozen bats with it. Then added a layer of plain full fat Greek Yogurt. Topped with some Halloween sprinkles and of course one of those strawberry yogurt bats. Hopefully by lunch it'll be mostly melted and she can swirl the little bit of strawberry in with the plain and sprinkles and enjoy!

Happy Packing!


Taquitos!

For today's lunch Monkey had a request. Since I was able to, I was happy to oblige. I believe any time that she makes reasonable requests that I can fulfill then I probably should. If she picks out her lunch then she'll be delighted to eat it! Plus I have found that she always seems to like helping me piece together a lunch when I'm going off plan!



IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Mixed Greens Salad w/ Queso Fresco and Taco Dressing
  • Taquitos
  • Guacamole
  • Tomatoes

What kinds of things do your children request for their lunches?

Happy Packing!


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

118

Boo!


So after a delightfully batty lunch ghosts were ready to make their way into the box!

IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Nitrate free turkey lunch meat wrapped around pear slices
  • Pumpkin Yogurt Treat topped with Ghost sprinkles
  • Pretzels

Pumpkin Yogurt Treat

Full Fat Plain Greek Yogurt
Pumpkin Puree
Pumpkin Pie Space
Vanilla
Tad Maple Syrup for sweetener

Grub for the Hub

So today is Monday for my Hubby and so I gotta send him off with a lunch for his middle of the night meal. I like to try to give Monkey and the Hubs similar meals but of course sometimes it just doesn't happen. Today, they have a similar premise with the meat wraps. I'm excited to share. I'm also really glad that I have a husband that doesn't mind ''cute'' lunches. Haha


IN THIS LUNCH: 

  • Jack-O-Oranges
  • Pretzels
  • Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bar
  • Salad (under the wraps) w/ Taco Dressing
  • Meat Wraps (Nitrate Free Turkey Breast Slices, Laughing Cow Swiss, and Asparagus)

Happy Packing!



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Halloween Lunches!

Halloween

Halloween is here and I don't know about all of you but I am definitely starting to feel the spirit. I've dug out my Halloween lunch decorations, put up our skeleton on the front door, and bought Monkey some window clings to put up (one of her fav things to do at any holiday). I hope you'll enjoy these first few Halloween lunches and that you'll feel free to share your own Halloween lunches! 


One of my favorite things to do at Halloween is draw little faces onto oranges to make them look like pumpkins. It's easy, it's inexpensive, and it really works well for adding some Halloween fun! If you haven't done it before, give it a shot, I bet your kiddos will love it. 

IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Leftover Smoked Turkey
  • Snap Pea Crisps
  • Cheddar Cheese Cubes
  • Jack-O-Orange
  • Carrots
  • Grapes

I was excited to use this bento box again! I haven't gotten to use it much so I am striving to use it more. I really love it, it just packs a lot of food! Yes, I have some inedible decorations in this box, but my daughter is old enough to know to just enjoy them and leave them in the box till the end of the day. Of course keep in mind your child's age and maturity when using inedible decorations.

IN THIS LUNCH:
  • Mixed Greens Salad w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette (and tomatoes)
  • Cheddar Cheese Skull & Crossbones (used a cookie cutter) 
  • Skewers: Nitrate free Salami, Marinated Mozzarella, and Tomato half (Got Halloween Skewers at Dollar Tree)
  • Sliced Plum (Little spider I got it from Dollar Tree in a bag of mixed Halloween Decorations)

This is a new box and the first time I have used it. I LOVE it. It's a Sistema sandwich box with a divided sides. I picked up the trick-or-treat napkins, the bat picks, and the bat rings from Dollar Tree. I have a sandwich press I used to make the bat pocket sandwich. Again take into consideration age and maturity before using inedible decoration.

IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Jam sandwich
  • Grapes
  • String Cheese 
  • Nitrate free Salami
  • Salad w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette
Here are some old lunches of mine for more Halloween inspiration.


IN THIS LUNCH: Halloween Lunchable
  • Crackers, Turkey Pepperoni, Pumpkin Shaped Cheese
  • Carrots
  • Cottage Cheese (With Gummy Spider)
  • "Witches Brew" (Pumpkin Egg Nog w/ a little food Coloring)

IN THIS LUNCH:
  • Haunted House Sandwich
  • Cheese Ghost
  • Eerie Carrot Chip Clouds
  • Blood Moon (Babybel)
  • Salad Grass
  • Apple Starry Sky
  • Chocolate Chip Chobani Champions yogurt w/ little food coloring and Halloween sprinkles

IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Ghost Sandwich (Used a cookie cutter and put the cheese on top instead of inside)
  • Tomatoes
  • Frozen Fruit
  • Sweet Potato Chips



Easy ways to spookify lunches

  Fun Halloween sprinkles on yogurt







Candy Corn Parfait

Vanilla Yogurt
Mandarin Orange Slices
Peach Segments









You can also use cupcake picks, rings, Halloween themed baggies (I get them at Dollar Tree), Cookie Cutters, or use the traditional colors, I'll use candy occasionally like the gummy spiders, chocolate eyeballs, etc.. Hope these helped get you into the Halloween spirit! 

Happy Packing!

Lunch Round Up 111-115 & Grub for the Hub

111 




IN THIS LUNCH: 

  • Sandwich Skewers
  • Salad w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette
  • Raisins
  • Pumpkin Fluff (Extra Creamy Cool Whip, Pumpkin Puree, and Pumpkin Spice) 


113



IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Carrots/Tomatoes w/ hummas
  • Small salad w/ taco dressing
  • Pretzel skewers that have uncured salami, colby jack and swiss cheese
  • Pita Pieces

114


IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Leftover Vegetarian Pizza 
  • Carrots
  • Tomatoes
  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • Almond Milk

115


IN THIS LUNCH: "Make your own Burritos"
  • Tortillas
  • Tomatoes
  • Pepper Rings
  • Cucumbers
  • Mix of beans, meat, olives, rotel, and sour cream



Grub for the Hub



IN THIS LUNCH: 
  • Biscuit
  • Tillamook Marionberry Greek Yogurt
  • Banana Chips
  • Hardboiled egg
  • Tillamoo Cheese
  • Breakfast sausage. 
  • Not Pictured (snacks for work): Cheese, Extra Biscuit, and a LaraBar

Grub for the Hub



IN THIS LUNCH: 

  • Leftover Vegetarian Pizza
  • Cucumbers 
  • Dried Cranberries & Pumpkin Seeds
  • Larabar
  • String Cheese
Happy Packing!



Thursday, September 25, 2014

110 + Grub for the Hub -- Daddy & Me Lunch

Okay, so...sorry for the long title but I feel like this lunch is different than just the other lunches where I had Monkey's lunch and my Husband's lunch. This lunch I made them (roughly) the same thing. When I use the same ingredients I sorta like thinking of them as "Daddy & Me" lunches. I hope they highlight for you that you can really pack the same things for more than one person despite appetite size!


IN THESE LUNCHES:
  • Pizza Bagels -- Mini Bagel, tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni, olives, shredded cheddar
  • Mixed Greens Salad w/ Balsamic Dressing
  • Popcorn (First time using coconut oil to pop, it's pretty tasty)
  • HE got a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Lara Bar and SHE got a handful of grape tomatoes. 
[These are packed in our Easy Lunchboxes]

One of the goals when packing lunches for me is to make sure that Monkey doesn't feel alienated from the other kids. I don't want her to be the weird kid who's mom packs her lunch (thank goodness there's like 4 other kids in her class this year that bring lunches). I don't want her to feel excluded from the goodies they get like Pizza or Popcorn. Her school has Popcorn Friday where you can pay .50 for a bag of popcorn. Well, sometimes I do this because it raises money for the school, but OTHER weeks I just pop my own and send it with her and she seems happy with it. She just wants to feel like she is like the other kids most of the time and this is a small way I can make her feel included. 

As a side note, she thinks Daddy getting packed lunches too is the coolest. :-P


Happy Packing!