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!

April 7th -- A New Bento Box

So maybe it's dorky but I was super excited to put this together. I found a fantastic new bento box at Target and let us just say, it's got me lunch inspired! Been dying to use it for a few days and here is what we've got.

UPPER LEVEL: One clementine, some grapes, two strawberries, string cheese, and pretzels.

LOWER LEVEL: Meat/lettuce roll ups, mixed greens salad with almonds, dried cranberries, and catalina dressing with tomato hearts.

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 -- 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 -- 003

The lunch that almost wasn't

So, I got the lunch all ready to go and found that Monkey had forgotten ANOTHER lunch box at school. Well the first we've still never seen again, so I was a bit distraught thinking that we'd lost a 2nd box and our last ice packs. Luckily, the box was recovered and we were able to send this lunch a day late.

IN THIS LUNCH: 

• Skewers -- 1 Babybel cheese cut up, 1 slice of turkey, 3 slices of salami, 3 grape tomatoes. 
• Cucumber Stars and Flowers (about 6 slices of cucumber)
• Grapes
• Home Popped Popcorn
• Organic Chocolate Milk

Monkey adored the cucumber shapes and it was an easy way to incorporate them in a fun way. Usually I just toss slices in and call it good. This didn't take much extra effort and she really enjoyed the product. Popcorn is one of Monkey's favorite snacks and is a great lunch feature for a whole grain. Our protein star in this was cheese and lunch meat. 

Don't forget this lunch is part of the ''What's for Lunch?" Wednesday Link-up. Check out all the other fantastic lunches!! 

Happy Packing! 

Chili On A Hot Day

.004

So we were excited to bust out our Thermos Funtainer today. Monkey said her lunch was still warm when she opened it at lunch and that it was DELICIOUS. This lunch was actually kept from leftovers. I like to use leftovers whenever I can! 

We had chili Tuesday night for dinner and set aside a portion for Monkey for lunch Thursday. Some might pack it right away on Wednesday, but me personally, I don't like eating the same thing all the time. If I am going to eat leftovers I like to wait a couple days before I revisit them! 

IN THIS LUNCH:

• Homemade Leftover Chili w/ Cheese on top
• Grape Skewers
• Cornbread muffin
• Vanilla Milk

I had monkey help me skewer the grapes, something that she was super excited to do! She loves helping make her lunches whenever possible and so this was an opportunity for her to do that. The skewers I actually got a huge pack of from the Dollar Tree and they work fantastically! Love em. 

Here is the lunch inside the box. I like to incorporate these pictures because sometimes I see people's fantastic pictures and just wonder to myself how it all fits in the box, or what it looks like in the box, etc.. So I like including pictures of her lunches in the box. I don't know if anyone else wonders these things, but my brain works in mysterious ways sometimes! 

I'm still working on the entry for a Dairy Free/Gluten Free week of lunches! I am very excited about that! I also have made my first shot at Jungle Juice. I wasn't a fan but Monkey said it was good. I think I will keep trying until it's something we can all handle! 

What are some of your favorite ''leftover'' lunches?

As luck would have it...because this week has a Friday the 13th one of my favorite blogs ''Becoming a Bentoholic'' is doing their usual Friday link-up party on Thursday instead! So while I was bummed I wasn't going to get to participate before, I get to now!

Happy Packing!