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Monkey has been enjoying her first week back at school and I'm finding the quiet extremely odd! I'm glad she is reconnecting with friends and getting back on a schedule. Today for lunch I wanted to offer her some of her favorite foods

IN THIS LUNCH

• Pretzel Thins
• Rolled Turkey Lunch Meat
• Baby Carrots
• Tomato Slices
• Mozzarella Slices
• Watermelon Chunks

What are your kids favorite foods?

Happy Packing!

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Second day of school and Monkey was thrilled to get some watermelon! I personally don't buy a lot of melon because I hate cutting it up, just feels like such drudgery for me and I refuse to pay the crazy price for the precut stuff. Luckily, they had a few halves lying around at the store the other day and that felt much less daunting than a full melon. So, here is our day two lunch!

Like yesterday I tried to go along with the idea of what the school was having so we had our own breakfast lunch.

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Watermelon
• Hard Boiled Egg (with pepper)
• Peach Yogurt (topped with a banana chip)
• Graham Crackers
• Dark Chocolate Almond Milk

Some people may be put off by the lack of meat in this meal but I assure you with the egg and yogurt she's is making up for the ''lack of meat''. So a simple vegetarian option or a simple breakfast lunch if you kids like those! 

Happy Packing. 

New School Year!! 2014-2015

It's that time. The time when we all scurry to the office supply store and stock up on pencils, paper, fat line markers, and watercolors. As of now, Monkey is tucked into bed, all of her school items labeled with her name, her outfit for tomorrow all stacked together, and her lunch is put together and waiting in the fridge to be lovingly tucked in her lunchbox in the morning.

At which point I'll probably still be in my pajamas, hair not brushed, with a squirmy baby on my hip and a caffeinated beverage in my hand not certain if I remembered to actually put an ice pack in the box with her lunch or not. Those perfectly polished moms hopping out of their mini vans and SUVs that will undoubtedly give me the evil eye can stuff it! I'll just be happy my darn shoes match (this is a problem that happens more often than I'd like to admit).

I don't know about you but with each coming school year I start worrying over what I'm going to be packing for Monkey! This will be my third year packing her lunch and we both really enjoy it. I also get the satisfaction of knowing what she's eating and she gets the satisfaction of bragging (she tells me she does this often. I should discourage it, but I just can't bring myself to haha).

This year I decided to use the school menu for inspiration! Yes, I love Pinterest and Facebook but I also know that Monkey wants to be like her friends. The older she gets the more this will probably become my reality. So, I sat down with the school lunch calender with pen in hand and went to work circling the items that I figured I could make myself. Her first day of school lunch could have been the pencil shaped sandwich I was planning to commemorate her first day of first grade, but it's not.

According to the school calender the kids will be having Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice. Well, from what I remember of school food, it'll be Chicken-like product and moist cardboard. But, I know that sometimes, a similar lunch just makes Monkey feel like she's like everyone else. So, I obliged. To make life easy on myself we had Rice Bowls for dinner and I just made a little extra so we could put her lunch into her box while we plated dinner.

LUNCH PACKING TIP: Anytime you can just make extra dinner and put a portion in the box while plating, do this! It saves time and effort and works out really well most of the time!

IN THIS LUNCH

• Rice Balls
• Veggie Mix - Peas, Carrots, and Zucchini (Monkey suggested we add bell peppers in the future). 
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Pineapple Chunks
• Chocolate Almond Milk (not pictured)

So tomorrow for school this is what my almost seven year old will be having for lunch. She doesn't know it yet, but her father and I are sneaking a brownie into her lunch too as a first day of school surprise! :) 

What are you all packing? 

Happy Packing! 

Getting the wheels moving

Today was the first day I boxed a new lunch and I posted directly to Facebook. If you aren't a fan there I encourage you to come join us! Things are often posted there first and many times there are many things I post on Facebook that never make it to the blog. It's a great spot. I also link to my pins there for quick references on each post so I think you might find it really helpful.

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Leftover Chicken Parmesan "Cupcake" 
• Spring Salad Mix (Dressing on the side)
• Cherries
• Carrots 

What I love about this lunch is that it's super fast to put together. It takes no time to toss carrots, salad, and cherries into the box. The Chicken Parmesan "Cupcake" was leftover from a dinner, so I just pulled it out of one container in the fridge and dropped it in here. Super easy lunch that anyone can do in just a few minutes. This took maybe five minutes and most of that was pulling containers out of the fridge! 

Happy Packing!

3 tools, 4 bloggers

Today I have the fantastic privilege of participating in a series called 3 tools, 4 bloggers being hosted by the fantabulous Wendolonia. Essentially 4 of us lunch packing blogger mamas use the same 3 tools to make a lunch. Hopefully you can see that tools can be versatile and are only limited to your creativity! If you'd like to see the 3 tools, 4 bloggers post from 5/21 you can see it HERE.

Today's tools are: Easy Lunchboxes, Ikea Woodland Cutters, and Food Markers

So I immediately knew that I would be running with the woodland theme with these cutters, but I didn't want to just use one cutter so I tried to figure out how to incorporate at least one more cutter. So I used the squirrel and the hedgehog (the cheese sun) from the woodland cutters, I used the food markers to put an eye and nose on the squirrel as well as outline the sun, and on the mushrooms. I tend to use food markers pretty sparingly since my artistic ability isn't very high. Of course it's all in my Easy lunchbox.

IN THIS LUNCH: 
Squirrel PB&J
Broccoli
Almonds
"Mushrooms"
Blackberries
Cheese Sun

The little mushrooms were super easy to put together! I used one stick of string cheese and a few grape tomatoes cut in half and I skewered them onto toothpicks. Monkey loves kabobs so she will totally be on board for these cute little guys. Plus what woodland theme would be complete without a few little mushrooms?

Make sure you check out the OTHER fabulous lunches that were made by 3 fantastic bloggers. :)

 

Happy Packing!

Lunch Round Up 5/12 - 5/22

Things are busy busy these days at our house! Between homeschooling, the baby who is now 3 months old!, my internship, running monkey to lessons, and writing a book I am exhausted! Haha. If you haven't already, follow the facebook page to get more frequent updates. The lunches get posted there usually before here these days. Hope you enjoy!

5/12/14

IN THIS LUNCH:

Mixed greens spring salad
Tomatoes
Avocado
Cucumber
Full-Fat cottage cheese
Pretzels

5/14/14

IN THIS LUNCH

Sandwich: turkey, cheese, tomatoes, pickles, red onion, lettuce
Avocado
Grapes
Strawberry

5/19/14

IN THIS LUNCH

Tuna Salad
Crackers
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Cheese

5/21/14

IN THIS LUNCH:

Graham Cracker PB&J
Strawberries
Full-fat cottage cheese

5/22/14

IN THIS LUNCH:

Organic Whole Wheat Popcorn Chicken
Green Beans
Watermelon/Cantaloupe



Happy Packing!

Cupcakes for Lunch

So I will openly admit that I am one of those moms. The ones with a million boards on Pinterest with thousands of pins that I will probably never ever look at again. This isn't so when it comes to my monthly meal planning! I found two recipes that I was anxious to try and here are the leftovers in the lunchbox (which was actually requested by Monkey! 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Chicken Parmesan Cupcake
• Cucumber Salad
• Frozen Blackberries

Okay, so I was skeptical about whether or not these little ''cupcakes'' would turn out. I've done work with wontons before and I hated it. Luckily the hubby made dinner last night and the Chicken Parm cupcakes came out perfectly! They were sooooo yummy! So I got the recipe for the Chicken Parmesan Cupcakes from Emily Bites. You can click HERE to get the recipe! 

If you'd like the recipe for the Cucumber Salad it is available HERE. But I'll admit I think it could use some tweaking. Next time it gets made I plan to use one cucumber, two avocados, salt, pepper, and I want to purchase the marinated mozzarella balls and incorporate some of the marinade instead of the vinegar/olive oil mixture. I didn't taste any flavor from the balsamic vinegar. All in all though it was good and was really filling. Monkey totally gobbled it down!

Want more cupcakes? Check out another lunch I packed with these fabulous little guys HERE.

Don't forget to like me on Facebook & Pinterest for the most up-to-date postings!

Happy Packing!