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!

108 & Grub for the Hub

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Monkey has been very enthusiastic about her lunches lately and now that I am making lunches for Dad she's pretty interested in those too. The sad part, we're getting to the end of the month so we are starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel on lunch fixins. Usually I plan out lunches for the whole month, but this month with her birthday party well, things went a bit off course and I never got around to it! But, hopefully these lunches will be up to par.

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Apple Slices
• Mini Ravioli (tomato sauce in green container)
• Halved Tomatoes
• Turkey Pepperoni
• String Cheese (cut into rounds)

Initially, I wanted these to be skewers...but the string cheeses weren't cooperating! So I gave up and she got all the pieces I had ready for the skewers. Hooray for lunch fails! 

Grub for the Hub

So my bento blog friends all helped me come up with this segment name and my husband liked it too, so all the posts with lunches for my husband will have the Grub for the Hub title. :) I hope this will make finding them easier when you search. 

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Garlic Hummas
• Carrots & Pepper Strips
• Parmesan Cous Cous
• Chicken Tenderloins

Color wise this lunch IS a bit drab, but it's full of flavor and I think he'll enjoy it. He LOVES chicken so that's always an easy go to when thinking about what to cook for him. 

Happy Packing!

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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!

2014 -- 030

A Bear-y Good Lunch!

So this lunch was a completely happy accident that I am really in love with! I asked my husband to put on an egg to boil for me this morning and next thing I know he asks if he could try to use the bear mold on it. I have had nothing but trouble with those molds but decided, what they hey, let's go for it! I think he did a pretty good job getting that little bear mold to work (better than any of my attempts!) and from there we decided we wanted a bear lunch! 

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Bear Shaped Sunflower Butter and Jelly Sandwich
• Bear Shaped Hardboiled Egg
• Carrots
• StrawBEARies. :P 
• Yogurt Parfait (Greek yogurt, cut grapes, slivered almonds, and some sprinkles!).

I'm not sure why but this lunch just makes me sort of happy. Not sure if it's the shapes or the colors, but I really ended up loving this one! I guess I owe my hubby a thanks for wanting to use that egg mold! :) 

Happy Packing! 

2014 -- .002

In This Lunch: 

• Turkey Meatballs
• Peas and Carrots
• Applesauce w/ Cinnamon
• Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
• 100% Juice Box

So yesterday was a shopping day and we found that when we filled the freezer there wasn't any room left for a small package of turkey meatballs. So decided to change the lunch plan for today and cooked them up. The peas and carrots were actually leftovers and then the applesauce and cheddar bunnies were part of the original lunch plan. I really enjoy using leftovers whenever possible but find that Monkey isn't always thrilled with eating traditionally warm foods cold but luckily she's not SO picky that she'd refuse. 

Happy Packing!

Leftovers!

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So for today's lunch I decided to use a new container! This little beauty I picked up at the Dollar Tree and is intended to be used for things with dip. Well, me...I think I could put anything I want in the ''dip'' container. So I did! I put her dessert in there! I'm also thinking it would fit a mini muffin, yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce, dips of any type, maybe a hard boiled egg, etc... I think it's a great little container!

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Rice cooked in chicken broth w/ carrots and peas
• Garlic and herb roasted pork loin 
• Mixed berries [defrosted] including: raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries
• Dessert: 6 Hello Panda Biscuit Cookies.
• Strawberry Honey Kefir [not pictured]

Shockingly this was actually last night's dinner but Monkey said she wouldn't mind having it again for lunch today. Usually she's not a fan of leftovers so soon (neither am I) but she was totally on board with this (so it must have been good!). 

Just wanted to include this so you could see that the dip section has it's own little lid to keep it separated from the other foods. After I put the top lid on I used a hair tie to wrap around it. I wasn't sure if it would open in her box or not, so I just wanted to be safe! 

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!