Wendy Copley's Blog, page 4

Take a Lunch Making Break with Revolution Foods Jet Packs

Thank you to Revolution Foods for sponsoring this post. Read on for a giveaway to help you take your own lunch making break!

I’ve been packing lunches for one or both of my kids for eight years now. EIGHT YEARS.

How many years? Eight.

That’s a lot of lunches, man. Thousands in fact. Over all, it’s one of the daily tasks I most enjoy. I like coming up with new ideas for things to put in my boys’ lunch boxes, choosing nutritious foods for them and making their lunches fun.

…Except when I don’t. Like the mornings when I wake up late. Or the mornings when a trip to the grocery store is way overdue. Or the mornings when the bickering is out of control and all of my attention is focused on getting shoes on feet and homework in backpacks before someone is crying. (That someone might be me, for the record.) On those mornings I just want a break from the lunch thing. School lunch is an option, but it’s a last resort. We are not in a school district that makes beautiful organic lunches from vegetables the children have grown by hand. Not even close.

On those crazy mornings, I’d like something really easy to put in a lunch bag. I’d also like something my kids are excited to eat and that I’m comfortable giving them. Revolution Foods’ Jet Packs hit all those criteria. They feature the familiar meat, cheese, cracker and treat combos (and a third popcorn chicken and pretzel combo that my kids went nuts over) that you find in most lunch packs but without all the other yucky stuff that show up in the other kits. Their meat is raised with no antibiotics, the cheese is actual cheese and there are no artificial flavors or preservatives in any of the foods. Basically, these are the sorts of lunches I pack for my kids — using the same ingredients I use — but without any work for me. The packs are all around 300 calories and they include at least 10g of protien.

The company was founded by moms (who are local to me) who are on a mission to transform the way America eats by providing access to healthy food in schools and in stores. You can learn more about Revolution Foods, their products and their mission by visiting: www.revolutionfoods.com.

I found Jet Packs in the lunch kit section of my neighborhood Safeway (that’s them on the shelf, right up there), but they are also available at other grocery stores such as Vons, Shaws, Publix, Walmart and Whole Foods. You can find a store close to you by going to the Revolution Foods retail locator page.

You can receive $1 off Jet Packs and Lunch Bundles by going to this Facebook page to download a coupon.

Win a kit so you can take a Lunch Making Break too!

The winner will receive ONE “Take a Lunch Making Break” Survival Pack from Revolution Foods including:

a branded lunchbox
reusable water bottle
FREE COUPONS for Revolution Foods Jet Packs and Lunch Bundles

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Revolution Foods sponsored this post. All opinions are my own.

Four New Year’s Goals and How They’re Going

Happy February!

I’ve been meaning to share the short list of goals I’ve set for 2016 for several weeks, but January slipped away from me and now we are firmly entrenched in February. At first I was dismayed by my failure to post, but now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’ve decided this works out pretty well. Not only do I get to share my goals for the year, but I can also post an update on how they are going!

Send More Snail Mail

My first goal for the year has been my most successful so far: send more snail mail.  I’ve always loved to send mail to people — even when I was a little kid. And of course, I love to receive it too. (Doesn’t everybody?)

I have so many cute papers and stamps and home made envelope templates and not one but TWO typewriters and it’s all been sitting in drawers or piling up on my desk for years now.

NO MORE!

January’s results: I’ve promised myself that I will send at least a letter or postcard per week this year and so far I’ve easily been keeping up with my goal. So far I’ve sent stuff out to aunts, cousins, friends, parents and my nephew and I’m having a ton of fun doing it, too. I love taking the time to sit down and share the details of our lives in a long typewritten letter or dashing off a quick postcard to let someone know I think they’re rad.

Raise Future Adults

A while back I read a quote that said something along the lines of “I’m not raising children, I’m raising future adults.” I’ve been mulling it over for awhile and though I don’t think I’m doing a terrible job teaching my kids to get by in the world, I do think I need to be teaching them more  practical life skills than I have been. It’s just so much easier to do stuff around the house myself than it is to nag them to do it all the time!

That attitude isn’t doing any of us any favors though, so I’m planning to teach them one new skill per month then pass that responsibility off to them FOREVER. Some of the skills I’ve already got on my to-do list include: doing their own laundry, learning to cook some simple dishes by themselves, and reading a paper map. (I’m open to hearing other ideas too!)

First up: making their own breakfast. The need for this one became glaringly apparent when I told one of my children to pour himself a bowl of cereal and he started wailing that he didn’t know how. Obviously both of my children could figure cereal-pouring out on their own if they applied even the smallest amount of effort, but since I do it for them every morning why should they bother? Sheesh, Wendy.

January’s results: Ugh. It’s going terribly! The kids can never figure out what to eat for breakfast even when all their favorites are in stock, they refuse to read the instructions on boxes, I’ve yelled at them about fruit more times than I care to admit and we’ve had to run to get them in line on the playground most days because they take so long getting something together. But I will persevere!

Prep Food in Advance

This is one of those things that addresses all sorts of problem areas in my life. When I prep fruits and veggies and other foods in advance I get all sorts of benefits from it. El Numero Uno: my entire family eats much more healthfully if we’ve got lots of fruits and veggies ready to go. It also makes packing lunches for the boys faster in the mornings and there’s always something on hand for Zach and me when we are rustling up lunch. It’s heavenly to have a dinner I can just heat up a few nights a week, too. And — come to think of it — it might also solve my yelling-at-the-children-about-fruit issue at breakfast time.

Ideally, I’d do a big shop and prep session every weekend (something like this), but since I shop during the week (a fantastic luxury that comes with a flexible schedule) I can’t always spare two or three hours all at once to clean, chop and cook. Instead, I tend to grab 10 or 20 minutes here and there to peel and chop a bunch of celery or a pepper or I’ll cook a double batch of ground turkey when I’m making dinner and save half of it for another meal later in the week.

January’s results: Pretty good! We’ve had a batch of veggie sticks and some sort of fruit in the fridge non-stop. I’ve also made a couple of big batches of rice and farro, salad dressings and pre-washed lettuce for quick salads. What else? Ice tea, big batches of soup, a bunch of roasted broccoli and a few other things I’ve probably forgotten. I also have started the transition from plastic to glass food storage by purchasing this set of containers and I love them so! They stack really easily in the fridge (waaaay better than plastic) and I adore the fact that I can reheat leftovers in the microwave without having to transfer them to another dish.

Post More Frequently to my Blog

This one is kind of self explanatory and based on the fact that my last blog post appeared in mid-December, you can see how it’s going. Phhhhht!

Part of the reason that I don’t post to this blog very often any more is that as my freelance work has picked up and my kids have gotten older, my life has gotten a lot busier. But also, as this blog has evolved over the past 9 years, I’ve felt a lot of pressure (most of it internal) to only post detailed, instructional content. I enjoy writing those types of articles quite a bit, but they are time-consuming to prepare, photograph and write and sometimes I’m just not up for that. I used to post a lot more about my family life, my non-bento crafts and projects and other things I enjoy and I’m hoping to bring back more of those low-key posts in the coming months.

January results: A big fat ZERO!

I have some other, smaller goals I’ve set for myself too:

More big cooking projects — so much of my cooking recently is all about practicality and just feeding hungry stomachs. A lot of the fun I used to have cooking has evaporated in the face of the day to day reality of people needing to eat dinner. Some things I’d like to try are these crazy cookies, big roasts for Sunday dinner, macarons and anything from The Great British Baking Show .
Play with paint — I got a set of portable watercolors for Christmas and I’ve been loving playing with them. More of that.
Organize craft nights for friends — my friend, Annika, mentioned the idea of grown-ups only crafty get-togethers and now I’m obsessed with the idea.

How are your New Year’s goals going?

Space Lunch in the New Yumbox Espace Box

When my friends at Yumbox asked me to try out one of their newest designs — the Espace Blue — I was pretty excited. I’ve been using Yumbox lunch boxes for several years now and it’s no secret that their boxes are among my — and my kids’ — favorites so I was predisposed to like it. But this one is an especially good fit for my boys because it has a really cool space theme going on.

Let’s start on the outside. This box is a beautiful, macho dark blue. This is exciting for us because the last few batches of Yumbox releases have had a lot of pastel boxes in them. They’re pretty, but my boys choose to strictly conform to gender norms so they were not an option for their lunches. And those stars on the outside? Get this: they glow in the dark! I’m not sure exactly when my kids will be eating out of a lunch box in the dark, but when they do we will be prepared! Until that day when we can see them glow those stars still stand up as a fun decoration on the outside of the box.

And if you think the outside of the box is cute, wait until you see the inside. The tray has the signature sweet Yumbox illustrations and labels for different types of foods but when I looked closely I realized that the spacey illustrations also have a food component to them. The astronaut is floating above spaghetti! The planets? An orange and a lime! And of course the moon is made of cheese. Of course! My kids were delighted.

I decided to christen the box with a cute space lunch when I sent it out for it’s maiden voyage. For the most part, I kept it pretty simple and quick to put together: rocket crackers with a rocket pick, chocolate star cookies, blackberries (like the darkness of space) with a robot pick, a salami sandwich, some carrot stars and a little bit of ranch dressing in the dip compartment.

The hardest part of this lunch was the shaped carrots, and even they were simple to make.  I cut several thin slices from the fat end of a large carrot, then cut stars in various sizes from it using some small cutters. I sliced carrot coins (planets?) from the rest of the carrot then popped the stars cut-outs on top. While I was cutting, I also used a small rocket cutter on one of the slices and added that to the top of the sandwich. Cute, but easy enough for a weekday morning.

Check out the step-by-step in this animated gif:

The Espace Yumbox is availiable in two colors (red and blue) and two configurations (the smaller classic and the larger Panino) from Amazon or from the Yumbox website. They also just released a ridiculously cute set of pink and purple Paris themed boxes, but — alas! — my boys are not having it!

Disclosure: This post was written by me on behalf of Yumbox. I am a long-time, happy customer and Yumbox user, so it was a perfect fit. Thanks Yumbox for sponsoring Wendolonia!

16 Gift Ideas for Tween Boys (and Tween Girls Too!)

Buying gifts for tweens can be really hard. They’re too old for most of the toys that crowd holiday flyers and they have very specific opinions about what they do and don’t like. They’re also pretty dang media savvy by this age and have been exposed to enough ads that they are beginning to develop expensive tastes.

This year I’m shopping for an 11-year-old and we are both having a hard time coming up with ideas for his Christmas list. When I asked him what he was hoping to see under the tree this year, he rattled off three or four items which started at $120 and topped out at $800! Erp! I don’t think so, my darling boy!

So I did what I always do when I’m baffled and I turned to Facebook for advice from my peeps, and they came through with flying colors! Their suggestions were so fantastic that I decided I should share them so everyone in the world can benefit from the wisdom of my crew.

Wait! Am I supposed to be saying “squad” now? I’m pretty sure I am…

I asked my squad for ideas in the $20 range, and though a few things were more expensive, there were a good range of reasonably priced items represented. Also, while I was taking requests for my son in particular, these would all work just as well for a tween girl. No gender stereo-typing going on here!

Emoji Pillows

These cool emoji Pillows are making the birthday party rounds among my son’s friends at the moment. He got one for his birthday and liked it enough that he’s asking for a few more for Christmas. I’d be lying if I told you the poop emoji pillow wasn’t the most highly sought after one at my house.

Grown-up Coloring Book

It seems like everyone is jumping on the grown-up coloring book bandwagon and arty kids like coloring in front of the tv as much as the rest of us. The flowery books would probably wouldn’t make the cut, but the Harry Potter, Star Wars or animal themed books would go over particularly well with my boy.

Extreme Dot to Dot Books

Extreme Dot to Dot books fall along the same lines as the grown-up coloring books. My son got a few as hand-outs at school last year and found them to be fun and challenging. Some of the puzzles have over 1000 points in them!

Art supplies

Speaking of drawing and coloring — if you have a kid who loves to draw, a big set of high quality pens or colored pencils are always welcome. My kids borrow my Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Pens constantly and a big set of colored pencils (36 colors in this box!) is always welcome.

TinkerCrate

Maker kids will love the Tinker Crate monthly subscription box. For about $20 per month kids receive a crate with instructions and all the pieces they need to make a fun science or tech project.

Books Featuring Middle Schoolers

Wyatt loves to read and lately he’s been zipping through several book series focused on middle school kids. Some of his favorites:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Diary of a Sixth Grade Ninja
Origami Yoda Files
FunJungle
James Patterson Middle School series
Spy School

He also just finished reading Wonder, which is fabulous should probably be read by all kids at some point.

Fun Earbuds

My kids are constantly misplacing their headphones, so a new pair is always welcome. You can go with something humdrum, of course, but how about these shark ones?

Toolbox tradition

Such a cool idea that came my way from my friend, Deb! She gives kids a tool box one year, then for every gift giving occasion afterwards they get a few tools to go in it. This would work well with other themes too: cooking, crafting, etc.

Ozobot

The Ozobot Bit has a higher price tag, but my friend Whitney said it’s been a big hit with her son. Program it with colors and symbols. Sweet!

Star Wars Lego sets

My son is fresh off a trip to Legoland and excited about the impending release of The Force Awakens (like everyone else in the world), so his love of Star Wars Lego sets is reinvigorated. There are lots to choose from in lots of price points in this category. If you’re looking to keep the costs down this speeder set comes in at around $20.

Headlamp

This is a great item to encourage adventure. Also comes in handy for reading all those books about middle schoolers in bed at night without waking up the kid in the lower bunk. This model comes highly rated.

Perplexus

This 3D maze game was the runaway favorite gift with both my boys last Christmas and it’s still being played with regularly.

Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge Comic Compendiums

My husband has a huge collection of old comics that he assembled when he was a kid and my son is particularly fond of the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge titles. Some of the comics are 50 or 60 years old now, so they don’t stand up to lots of handling anymore. Luckily, there is a fantastic series of books that collects the comics all in one place and Wyatt can read them over and over without having to be too careful. Each volume runs around $20 and you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Light Up Soccer Ball

My friend Sarah says she buys this Tangle Sport Matrix Airless NightBall Soccer Ball for birthday party gifts all the time and it is always a big hit. The same company also sells footballs and softballs.

Loot Crate

Loot Crate is another monthly subscription club but they deliver a boxes of geeky merchandise. Think Star Wars, superheroes, and video game stuff. Order a single box for about $20 or get a subscription.

Almost everything ThinkGeek sells

My friend Sam pointed me to ThinkGeek.com and boy was she on to something. It’s basically a tween boy paradise! Particular stand-outs when I was browsing: giant plush microbes, Hoverkraft Levitating Construction Challenge, and just about anything Minecraft.

What ideas do you have for tweens? Please share them down in the comments!

Though this post contains affiliate links, I have not been compensated for compiling it.

Big thanks to my peeps for all their ideas! Sam, Venia, Kale, Lise, Cori, Maj, Melissa, Deb, Whitney, Sandra, Deborah, Lisa, Lisa, Sarah, Stephanie, Cathy — I’m looking at you!

Holiday Breakfast: Eggnog Pancakes with Cranberry Butter

Pardon me for the brag, but it has to be said: I am an awesome pancake maker. I’ve made pancakes for my family almost every weekend for years and years and that many batches of pancakes gives you some skillz.

Yeah, I said it: SKILLZ. With a Z.

Buttermilk, peach, pumpkin, blueberry, apple-cinnamon — I’ve made all sorts. But as we turn the corner into December, it’s time to get some delicious holiday flavors into the mix. My kids adore eggnog, and when I asked them for an idea for a new pancake flavor they both asked for eggnog pancakes. Um…yum! Eggnog pancakes are pretty rich, so I decided to add a cranberry compound butter on top to cut the sweetness a little. Um…double yum!

Here’s how I did it:

Eggnog Pancakes with Cranberry Butter

Cranberry Butter Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) of Horizon Organic Unsalted Butter
3/4 cup of fresh cranberries
2 tablespoons brown sugar

To make the cranberry butter:

Combine butter, cranberries and brown sugar in the bowl of a food processor. I broke the sticks of butter in half, but I think it would have worked better if I’d cut them into medium sized cubes.

Pulse the food processor until the mixture is well-combined. I needed to scrape the sides down several times before it all came together, but when it did it was delectable!

Pancake Ingredients:

4 cups of flour
2 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 eggs
3 cups Horizon Organic Low-Fat Eggnog
4 tablespoons Horizon Organic Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
nutmeg, about 1/2 teaspoon or to taste

To make the pancakes:

Pre-heat a griddle or frying pan over medium-low heat. This will ensure the pan is hot when it’s time to cook.

Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and stir to blend using a whisk. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Add in the eggnog, stir to combine, then add it to the dry ingredients. Grate about a half teaspoon of whole nutmeg over the top of the bowl. (This increases the eggnog flavor.) Whisk just until combined.

Stir in the melted butter.

Pour a small amount of vegetable oil onto a paper towel, then wipe it over the griddle so there is a light layer of oil on the pan. (If you tilt the pan sideways, the oil should not run at all. If it does, you’ve added too much!) Ladle a scant half cup of batter onto the prepared pan and cook until the edges of the pancake look dry and small bubble appear on top (about 2 minutes). Flip the pancake and cook another 2 minutes or until the second side is lightly browned. Repeat until all the batter is gone.

Spread a healthy (or unhealthy) dollup of cranberry butter on top and serve.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.

Three Hecka Cute Lunches

A few weeks ago Chobani asked me to make some lunches based around the pictures on their Chobani Kids and Chobani Tots pouches. The lunches were initially posted to Pinterest but I loved how they came out so much that I decided to round them all up and post them here for you to see.

First up: Spiderman! I made sunbutter and jelly Spiderman sandwiches and put them on a bed of grapes. Next I added red pepper strips with s Spidey ring tucked into them along with an apple with a spider carved in and a Chobani Kids pouch. (I used this technique for the apple.)

This skateboard lunch is one of my favorite lunches I’ve made in a looooong time! (I was so excited about this lunch that I posted a cryptic photo about it on Instagram. Ha!) I started by putting down a thin layer of yellow carrot slices, then I made two ham sandwich bears and stacked them one on top of the other to make it look like it was only one bear. The top sandwich had a skateboard helmet made out of half an olive. Safety first! The ramp and skateboard are made out of cucumbers. For sides, I added some grapes and clementine wedges with the word “skate” cut from cheese balanced on top along with a skate-themed tube of yogurt. This was packed in our PlanetBox Shuttle.

Finally, I have a sweet little Winnie the Pooh lunch perfect for a preschooler. (Though honestly I think my big kids would be equally happy with this lunch. OK, maybe the sixth grader would be annoyed if I sent him a teddy bear lunch — but the first grader would love it!) I cut a cheese sliceto look like Pooh, drew a face on it with food-safe markers, then laid it on some plain old circles of cheddar. I also added a little pig cup and filled it with ham to represent Piglet. The rest of the lunch was comprised of a Chobani Tots pouch, butterfly crackers, thin-sliced celery, purple carrots, and mandarin orange wedges. It was packed in a Yumbox.

Disclosure: I was paid to create these lunches for Chobani, but I was not paid to write this post. I just liked them and wanted to share!

Lemony Tuna Salad for the Lunch Box

My son Augie loves tuna but I hardly ever remember to pack it in his lunches. When Bumble Bee asked me to create an albacore recipe to share with you, I vowed not only to create something that Augie would like but also to start packing it in his lunch more regularly. It’s a crying shame that I don’t already do this because:

He loves it.
Bumble Bee Albacore provides lean protein, healthy fat, and important vitamins and minerals.
It’s a ridiculously fast option.
We almost always have some in the cupboard.

Augie’s not particularly keen on traditional tuna salad made with pickles and mayo but he often asks for a can of tuna and some crackers as an after school snack. I thought I’d try jazzing that combo up just a little as a gateway to tuna salad. I stuck with flavors he already likes — lemon and cucumbers — and kept it simple and it worked!

Ingredients:

1 pouch Bumble Bee® Premium Albacore Tuna in Water
1/4 cup diced cucumber
2 teaspoons lemon juice (about half a small lemon)
1 teaspoon olive oil

You will also need whole wheat crackers, grapes and sugar snap peas to make this lunch exactly as I’ve shown it.

If you prefer to use a canned version  of Bumble Bee while albacore tuna, that will work just as well, but I would omit the added olive oil if you select a flavor that is packed in oil vs. one packed in water.

To make the salad:

This is a simple recipe that’s great for a weekday morning, so there really is only one step: mix together the tuna, cukes, lemon and oil. Woot! So easy!

I like to use the tuna in the pouch for this because that makes it even simplerpen the pouch, dump it in the bowl. No draining required.

To make the lunch:

Pack the tuna salad into a large silicone cup and place it in the lunch box. I like to use one that’s nice and tall because that way the sides hit the top of the lunch box and the tuna is less likely to spill out in transit.

Tuck the crackers around the tuna cup then add some grapes and sugar snap peas for sides. I went for a bit of a garden theme with this lunch by packing the tuna in a flower shaped cup and adding lady bug and bumble bee picks to the side dishes. (Get it? Bumble bee?? Har har har!) Also, don’t forget to pack a small spoon to make putting the tuna on the crackers less messy!

Do you pack tuna in lunch boxes? How do you enjoy it?

Follow Bumble Bee® on Twitter and Pinterest for more recipe inspiration.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

The Week in Bentos: August 31 – September 4, 2015

It’s Friday which means it’s time to recap another week of lunches for my boys. One thing that is kind of delighting me about lunches this year is that the kids are eating basically the same lunches every day — sometimes even the exact same lunch in the exact same lunch box. In the past, their food likes and dislikes were so different that I often would pack them completely different lunches, but I’m happy to see they are starting to agree on a lot of foods these days. Lunch packing is so much easier when I just make two of everything!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

Monday was Augie’s seventh birthday, so I packed his lunch full of a bunch of his favorites: leftover steak (with picks to spell out his name), watermelon (with googly eye picks and a party hat), cukes, Cheez-its, and a lemon cupcake leftover from his birthday party on Sunday afternoon. This lunch was packed in the PlanetBox Rover.

Wyatt’s lunch was similar to Augies: strawberries, radishes, a cupcake of his own, sliced steak and Cheez-its. This was packed in a Yumbox.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I had a special treat for lunches: sliced cantaloupe wrapped with a strips of prosciutto. If you’ve never had this combo it might sound strange, but the mix of the salty ham with the sweet juicy melon is absolutely amazing. Everyone in our family loves it!

The melon takes a few minutes to prepare, so I kept the other stuff in Augie’s lunch simple — sliced cucumber and a sunbutter and jam sandwich. He also had a pack of Hello Panda candy that’s not pictured here. This was packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Wyatt opted for leftover coconut lime cake instead of the Hello Pandas so that’s what’s in the upper left compartment. He also had melon with prosciutto and a sunbutter and jelly sandwich. I gave him an applesauce pouch too. His was also packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Zach (my husband) was off on another trip, so I packed him a healthy salad in an EasyLunchboxes for the plane. He had leftover roasted zucchini, cantaloupe slices wrapped with prosciutto, and a salad with tomatoes, radish and chopped sugar snap peas. I forgot about the salad dressing until the lunch was already packed and I realized that it was going to be a pain in the rear at security but Zach just told me he’d eat it without the dressing. Problem solved!

Wednesday

The kids had identical lunches today, so I only took a photo of one of them. Whose lunch was it? I don’t know! That’s how similar they were! I used the OmieBoxes for these, because the main part of the lunches was leftovers from dinner the night before — mashed potatoes and bbq meatballs. If this looks familiar it’s because they had leftovers from the same dinner last week. I like to keep it simple when my husband is away! The rest of the lunch was strawberries, sugar snap peas, graham crackers and some pretzel thins.

Thursday

They had another set of identical lunches on Thursday. Each boy had a Yumbox Panino with chicken dumplings (from our freezer stash), pretzel thins, delicious apple slices and a couple of key lime cookies.

Friday

Today we went with a snacky theme. Augie’s Bentology box held pita crackers, a ham rose, strawberries, carrots, celery sticks and hummus for dipping.

Wyatt also used a Bentology bento box and his was filled with crackers, cheddar cheese sticks, apple slices, ham and strawberries.

Interested in packing bento lunches yourself? My book is filled with cute ideas, fun techniques and step-by-step instructions showing how you can make them yourself:

 

The Week in Bentos: August 24-28, 2015

The kids are back in school! Hooray!

And summer is over. Boooooo!

I am simultaneously happy and sad about the start of school. So many possibilities for a great year are in front of us, but I am truly sorry to say good-bye to summer and all the time we got to spend together. (OK, not the “kids bickering time”. I’m happy to see that go.)

Part of back to school is packing lunches, of course, and that’s what I’m about to share with you.

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

The first day of school calls for a special lunch so I packed this little number for Augie: pencil carrots, pickle popcorn, crackers, grapes with a crayon pick and chocolate pudding with sprinkles to help with the transition from the lazy days of summer to the more structured days of school. Seriously — pudding always helps.

Wyatt had  nearly the same thing, but he asked for cheese instead of grapes which is probably more balanced, but whatever. They both vetoed the sandwiches I was going to make at the last second so I was just rolling with it.

Both lunches were packed in Bentology bento boxes.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we used our new OmieBoxes for the first time. The OmieBox is a new lunch box that has an integrated insulated food jar (which most people refer to as a thermos).  I supported their Kickstarter campaign last year and I finally got my lunch boxes last week after a hecka long wait and a lot of anticipation. You can expect to see my full review of this lunch box in a few weeks. (I’m going to warn you right now that they are back-ordered until January 2016 though.)

Augie had asked me to pack a recipe of his own creation into the thermal jar: “Taco Mountains”. Taco mountains are basically a big pile of taco fillings. I put heated refried beans on the bottom, then added leftover turkey taco meat and a hearty sprinkle of cheese. I packed tortilla chips for dipping, along with some banana bread, sugar snap peas and nectarine chunks.

Wyatt’s lunch was identical, except I swapped the peas out for radishes.  Mmmmm…taco mountain!

Wednesday

Wednesday Augie wanted the OmieBox again, but I didn’t have anything hot to put in it so I removed the insulated jar and used the big area to pack a cute robot sandwich filled with sunflower seed butter and jelly. He also had cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, Cheez-its and banana bread.

Wyatt was in a chips and salsa mood, so I gave him a hearty serving of Trader Joes mango and pineapple salsa and some chips to eat it with. I don’t think he realized he was eating a full serving of fruit. Shhhhh! He also had deli ham and banana bread. I packed it in our Bentology bento box.

Thursday

Yesterday the kids were super excited to have leftovers from one of their favorite dinners in their OmieBoxes: mashed potatoes with meatballs in barbecue sauce. Wyatt had a big portion set aside so the meatballs got kind of squished into the potatoes when I put the lid on the thermos. Not terribly pretty but it tasted good at lunch time. He also had strawberries, more chips and tropical salsa and some brownie cookie thingies from Trader Joes.

The dividers that come with the OmieBox are not leak-proof (like, not at all) so I had to find a way to contain the salsa so it wouldn’t get everywhere. After trying several of our sealed containers with no success, I discovered that the small PlanetBox Dipper fit perfectly. Good to know!

Augie also wanted dinner leftovers but he also wanted seconds after dinner and he ate some of the mashed potatoes and all of the meatballs I set aside for his lunch! He still wanted some potatoes though, so I reheated them and put them in the OmieBox’s insulated jar in the morning. He also had hummus, cucumber slices, strawberries, Cheez-its and brownie cookie thingies.

Friday

Today the kids packed their own lunches. Wyatt wanted a snacky lunch, so he chose salami, crackers, strawberries and tiny little champagne grapes in the PlanetBox Rover. He even took the lunch photo himself!

Augie followed Wyatt’s lead and made himself a snacky lunch in the Yumbox Panino: grape tomatoes, cukes, champagne grapes, hummus, salami and Ritz crackers.

And he also packed his morning snack without being prompted! Tomatoes and a few Cheerios. His snack was packed in a Fuel Snack-n-go container that I picked up at Target over the weekend.

Interested in packing bento lunches yourself? My book is filled with cute ideas, fun techniques and step-by-step instructions showing how you can make them yourself:

Summer Bento Wrap-Up

I have a few lunches from the end of the summer that I haven’t shared yet so I thought I’d throw together a quick post to wrap up the summer.

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First up is this lunch for Wyatt. I found some cookie butter cream cheese at Trader Joes (Yes, it is just as delicious as it sounds!) so I spread some on a couple of mini bagels for Wyatt. He also had thin-sliced rainbow carrots (for the braces) and some strawberries. This lunch was packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Another lunch for Wyatt and this time he packed it himself. He chose one of our Bentology boxes for this one — his all-time favorite lunch box. He chose barbecue potato chips, blueberries, radishes and a sunflower and grape jelly sandwich.

This one was one of Augies. I packed a Yumbox Panino with some of his favorite foods: letter cookies, sunflower seeds, turkey meatballs, carrot sticks, hummus and sliced cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.

And finally, we have a kitty lunch that I made for Augie. I packed an EasyLunchboxes bento box with a few mission figs, carrots and hummus, tomatoes, more carrots, and a sunbutter and jelly sandwich that I cut and stamped with a Cutezcute cutter.

And that’s a wrap on summer! First week of school lunches will be coming next week!

Interested in packing bento lunches yourself? My book is filled with cute ideas, fun techniques and step-by-step instructions showing how you can make them yourself: