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!

106, 107, & Grub for the Hub!

Okay so this morning was definitely feeling like a Monday! This meant I would have rather been sleeping than getting up to face the day. Which also means that I wasn't feeling too inspired to make lunch. Who hasn't had that morning? With that in mind I needed something simple, fast, and no busting out bento tools! Here's what I came up with.

Definitely not the belle of the ball but it'll hit the spot for lunch! 

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Meat and Cheese Rolls ups (No tools today so I used a pretzel to skewer!)
• Pretzel Rods
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Apple Sauce w/ Cinnamon 

There you have it! Lunch number 106 is a no muss and no fuss sort of deal. 

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After I after I had a chance to wake up and got home from dropping Monkey off at school I was feeling....a tad inspired! So I decided to make lunch for tomorrow. This of course has something new added to it. My husband got a new job and will be needing me to pack his lunches too! I'm really excited about this and look forward to sharing the journey of packing lunches for both of them with you!! 

Here's what we got for our lunches tomorrow! 

So, for packing both their lunches I wanted to make this as streamlined as possible! So, I used most of the same ingredients to pack both with a few unique twists for each of them. 

Daddy's Lunch [On the Left]: 

• 1/2 Sandwich -- Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese, Turkey Pepperoni, Sliced Turkey, and Swiss. 
• Salad -- Mixed baby greens, pepper rings, and feta [As my husband says, "Feta makes it bettah!"] w/ Balsamic Vinaigrette. 
• Pretzel Rods
• Banana Bread Larabar 
• I packed the other half of his sandwich in a plastic baggy on the side for his break. 

Monkey's Lunch [On the Right]: 

• Pinwheels [Swiss Laughing Cow, Mixed Baby Greens, Pepper Rings, Turkey Pepperoni, and Sliced Turkey lunch meat]. 
• Scooby Snacks Graham Crackers
• Celery with Garden Veggie Cream Cheese
• Pear halves with cinnamon

Essentially, I took Daddy's salad and sandwich and put it in a wrap for Monkey! Then with the leftover pears, I pulsed them in the baby bullet a few times and made chunky pear sauce [Like applesauce] and gave the baby half for lunch and the other half is saved in the fridge.

Happy Packing! 

A little slow

So, today I was again feeling in the lunchy mood so I decided to try out a new cutter on the sandwich my daughter requested. I also decided to bust out a veggie that she keeps insisting she now likes, though she hated it before. Will we end up with an empty box or will it still have that veggie that I am skeptical at best she's liking now?

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Snail Sammy - Sunflower butter and Jelly
• Broccoli
• Blueberries
• Cottage Cheese with Pepper
• Flavored water

Well, I am pleased as punch to report that it was an empty box! She ate the broccoli with no comment other than it was clever that I used it as grass. Hey, who doesn't like appreciation? What are you all having? 

Happy Packing!

2014 -- 028

Happy Valentine's Day! I will be totally honest I did think about what kind of lunch to make for several days. I thought about all the cute hearts, x's, o's, envelopes, conversation hearts, roses, and anything else I could pin to this holiday. I came up with some ideas but truly just couldn't figure out how to make them happen (that happens a lot, I get grand visions and lack the tools or skills to create them LOL). So, instead Monkey got a lunch made with lots of love that really isn't all that festive. I think she's still going to really enjoy it though. 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Bagel sandwich with cream cheese and blackberry jam,
• Brussels Sprouts (leftover from dinner) sprinkled with dried cranberries (there are some throughout, promise it's not just 5 little cranberries!), 
• Almonds mixed with white chocolate chips for a treat, 
• An orange and;
• A juice box. 

Luckily, thanks to pinterest and other fantastic bloggers I will get to oogle all the creative and cute lunches that I didn't make and will wish I had thought of myself! Are you packing your kiddos any fun treats for the v-day lunches? 

Happy Packing! 

2014 -- 012

Something Old, Something New

So my husband brought home this really fantastic fresh baked hoagie rolls for our pulled chicken sandwiches. They were so fantastic that I was willing to break with my normal wait two days to pack leftovers rule. We did chicken with BBQ sauce, cooked onions, and bacon all mixed up together. Healthy, no...magic on a hoagie roll? Yes. Tonight was a bit of a indulgence night, which in my opinion is just a good thing for life.

So I took the other half of Monkey's roll and filled it with some leftovers and got that baby in the box! She was enjoying dinner so much I couldn't imagine that she wouldn't like having it again for lunch. In addition to this I snagged her a couple of the crispier leftover fries (she specifically asked if she could have some in her lunch) and tossed them in as well. She wanted Brussels sprouts, but we polished them off at dinner (they never last around here). 

The third aspect of our lunch today was inspired by something I have been really crushing on that I've seen online, the Grape Parfait Crunch by MOMables. The recipe I saw took vanilla yogurt, two types of grapes, and granola. Looked delicious and I wanted to make it. Come to find out, I had no yogurt and one kind of grape...and no granola. I could have made some myself but after a long day dealing with my broke down car I just wasn't feeling that. So I went with what I had! 

This grape parfait has red grapes, a dollop of whipped cream (I put a little too much, but she won't mind :P), dried cranberries for a little tartness, and slivered almonds on top for the ''crunch'' aspect. This will be her dessert and calorie wise whipped cream is one of those lesser evils in my book. So, just to recap...

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Leftover Pulled Chicken Sandwich
• A few leftover crispy curly fries
• My version of a grape parfait crunch
• Organic Milk (not pictured)

Happy Packing!! 

2014 -- 009

Bagel Sandwich

I don't know about you, but sometimes I am just NOT in the lunch packing mood. That's when my month of planned out lunches goes out the window and I stare blankly into the fridge debating what I can pack besides a sunflower butter & jelly sandwich. I don't know if this is MUCH of an improvement, but I'd like to think it's a small step up!

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Mini Bagel Sandwich: Cream Cheese, Pepperoni, and Cucumber Slices
• Tillamook Strawberry Yogurt w/ sprinkles
• Frozen Blueberries
• 100% Juice Box (not pictured)

This lunch took maybe 10 minutes to throw together which was mostly the sandwich! I was informed later that cucumber/pepperoni is Monkey's favorite sandwich (I don't recall ever making her one before) she's so silly! 

Happy Packing!

First New Year Lunch!

Back to the Lunch Making Routine

So, I've been slow about updating the Facebook but even less so here, things in life got crazy as they often do. Of course lunches were still being packed and devoured but time to update, take pictures, etc... just didn't seem to present itself. Small update for those that follow my blog, I'm nearly 32 weeks pregnant with my 2nd little monkey! In October (about when the posts stopped) I had to pick up a job which has me getting up at 2:30 a.m. and honestly, the sleep deprivation and illness has been getting to me (not pregnancy illness, I just keep getting colds etc). With the new year, one of the things I wanted to do was try to get back into the blogging habit with making lunches. I really enjoy it so what's an hour out of the day? Haha. 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Sunflower Butter/Jelly Puzzle Sandwich,
• Grape Tomatoes
• Chobani Champions Yogurt Tube
• Banana
• Organic Chocolate Milk

This lunch is part of the Meatless Monday Link up! Make sure to check it out and see all the other Meat Free options. 

Treat Day!

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We are still going through training week and I am finding that I am super tired and definitely needing to make a trip to the store! So today we have another improvised lunch featuring whatever I could find in my pantry and fridge. I think in general it came out alright!! It also features a monkey made treat for treat day! 

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Mini Bagel Sandwich
• Mixed Greens Salad w/ tomatoes & Pomegranate Blueberry Vinaigrette
• Unsweetened Applesauce with Cinnamon
• Small piece of cake (made by monkey!!)
• Kefir Smoothie

This box came home almost empty! There was just a little bit of salad left after school and you know, I am okay with that. She at a good 85% of her salad. She was thrilled to see that her treat had made it into a box. Overall this is a lunch I would even pack for myself! I think it looks and sounds delicious.

This lunch is part of the ''What's for Lunch Wednesday" Link up. Be sure to check out all the fabulous lunches by clicking the button below.

What are your favorite treats to toss into a box? 

Happy Packing!

Polka Dot Sandwich

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Is it just me or does the weekend never feel long enough? This lunch came due long before I was ready for it to be time for school again! I'll admit this lunch was not on the schedule so this is a ''quick and easy'' lunch that was thrown together really quickly (I'm sure you can tell). 

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Mini Bagel Sandwich w/ cream cheese and mini pepperoni
• Baby Carrots w/ side of ranch
• Sunburst Tomatoes
• 100% Juice Pouch [not pictured]

What is it that you all do when you're just not in the lunch packing mood? Leftovers? The standby sandwich? I'm all for quick, easy, and covering my food groups! Thanks for sharing!

Happy Packing!

Tuna Fishwich

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So, the asparagus wrap lunch was a big hit. The only thing that came back was a little bit of the 4th wrap that she had asked me to pack (I knew she only would REALLY eat 3 comfortably, but live and learn). I've started bouncing flavor combo ideas for "Jungle Juice" off my fiance and he's really responsive to it and helping me come up with ideas. I am hoping to have a ''rough draft'' to give monkey on Thursday with the Chili. If you aren't on Monkey Munchables Facebook, we posted a pic of tonight's dinner which is a sneak peak of Thursday's lunch! 

Here's what we are going to have for Wednesday's lunch! 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• A fish shaped Tuna sandwich
• Baby Carrots w/ side of Ranch
• Medium Plum
• Goldfish

I don't know how you make your Tuna salad for sandwiches but when I make this for Monkey (I hate tuna personally) I do drained tuna (that was packed in water only), I use a micro-grater to grate in celery, and a little squirt of mayo (salt/pepper if desired). It sneaks in another little bit of vegetables and Monkey is none the wiser! 

Here is her lunch in the box with her Hello Kitty birthday napkin and her Organic Strawberry Milk. This girl LOVES strawberry milk. I personally don't think I would like drinking milk with a tuna sandwich, but hey, to each their own! I fully expect some of those carrots to come back tomorrow. She never eats all her carrots when I send them, but the fact she eats them at all makes me happy.

This lunch is also part of a Wednesday link up! Feel free to check out all the lunches!

What are you all having? 

Happy Packing!

First Day of School!

001 - Designer Monkey

For the first day of school I have a small tradition. I like to let Monkey decide what she will be having for lunch. It sounds small but I like to give her the chance to make her own choices (once in a while :-P). I feel like on the first day it gives her a sense of comfort to know what is coming at lunch, when everything else is so new and different. So, the lunch for the first day was completed selected by Monkey. Here it is, our first  Monkey Munchables lunch (so long to our old blogging name and home). 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Turkey/Swiss Puzzle Sandwich on Dave's Killer 21 Grain Bread
• a mix of sunburst and grape tomatoes
• peas (albeit some overcooked!) and; 
• a mix of bananas with orange segments. 

Please forgive the terrible lighting, my kitchen light hates me! Anyway here is her designer Monkey masterpiece. I was actually rather pleased with her food choices! For those that follow my blog and my facebook you all know that Monkey's birthday was last Friday, her birthday party (a gigantic hello kitty bash) was today. She was rather disappointed that she wouldn't be having school on her birthday, so I said, "what the heck," and tossed her a Happy Birthday Pick that I found at the Dollar Tree. I think the thing that surprised me most in this lunch was when she specifically asked for the orange/banana mix. Seemed very random but I had no problem running with it. I just hope the juice from the oranges helps keep the bananas from getting too yucky by lunch (I'll check on them in the morning). These are of course our new Lunch Blox containers that I have been so ecstatic to try! 

For those that are wondering here is how her lunch fit in her box. She is having a Horizon Organic Chocolate milk (also her choosing) and up at the top there is a fork wrapped inside a leftover napkin from her Hello Kitty party today! It's also hard to see because of glare but the lid on the peas actually has a Lisa Frank sticker (I found a pack of them at the Dollar Tree as well!). 

Here is the front of her new lunchbox that she got so excited about when she opened it at her birthday party. I was worried. It wasn't the one she had shown interest in and it wasn't Hello Kitty...so I got concerned that poor Barbie wasn't gonna fly. But, she squealed with delight and hugged it to her chest, so I guess it worked out okay! 

Hope you all enjoyed our first Monkey Munchable! 

Happy Packing!