Wendy Copley's Blog, page 5

Giveaway: Happy Bento Book

Last week I was very excited to receive a copy of a new bento book: Happy Bento! by Anna Adden.

Anna writes the bento blog Becoming a Bentoholic and we have been friendly for a few years now. In fact, I can’t really pretend to be unbiased about Anna’s book because I happily wrote an endorsement for it.

Happy Bento is a compact little book that’s packed with fun bento lunches. The book covers lots of bento basics and it showcases 50 different packed lunches along with instructions for each of them.

There are several ideas I’m looking forward to trying in my boys’ lunches:

I love this idea to put a cookie cutter right into the box and use that as a divider! I have plenty of cutters I could use this way.

My kids were quite taken with this piranha plant from the Super Mario Bros lunch. Cute, right?

And this Pac Man lunch offers even more video game fun! (I suspect I might like it even more than they do though!)

There are many more fun themes included too — all the major holidays and some you may not have heard of. Pi Day? Talk Like a Pirate Day? Both covered!

Happy Bento! is available for purchase on Amazon and in fine bookstores everywhere.

Giveaway! Woo hoo!

Want to check it out for yourself? Anna has generously provided a copy of Happy Bento! for one Wendolonia reader to win! Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interested in packing bento lunches? Check out my book:

Review and Giveaway: ButterStix Food-Safe Chalks

Another day, another fun back to school giveaway! Today I’m reviewing ButterStix Zero Dust Chalks. I was sent a sample of these non-toxic chalks a few months ago and the kids and I have had a great time playing with them.

Because these chalks are specifically formulated to be safe to use around food, they are fun to use to write messages on the kids’ lunch boxes. We tried them on the Yumboxes first because they have a nice smooth surface to write on.

The texture of the chalks is kind of a cross between regular blackboard chalk and an oil pastel. The colors are nice and bright on a contrasting surface and they are resistant to smudging (though if they get rubbed too much they will come off). When I wiped the chalks off the Yumbox, they left a faintly ghosted image of the kids’ names on the boxes. Not a big deal to me, but it might be to you. Also, I found that the blue chalk left some staining on our light blue Yumbox, making it look a bit grubby. I was less thrilled about that. All of the other colors came right off though.

I had even better success when I used the ButterStix on our stainless steel lunch boxes. No ghosting, no staining — they work perfectly.

They are a great way to send a message to your kid at school. I’ve also found it handy to use them to label our lunch boxes when we take multiple lunch boxes on an outing.

One tip: If you sharpen them with a pencil sharpener it’s a lot easier to write a nice looking note and you have more control when you’re drawing. You have to be careful because the chalk breaks easily in the sharpener but it’s worth the effort.

The kids have been enjoying using them on their lunch boxes too. Wyatt drew this creepy little dude on his.

And Augie practiced his writing skills. If you can’t read this, it says:

Your a butt

Your a butt

Your a butt

Your poo poo

I’m so proud.

When you’re ready to clean off the chalk, you can just wet a paper towel or a sponge and wipe it off.

ButterStix Chalks can be purchased on Amazon.

A Giveaway! Woo hoo!

JaqJaq Bird (the creators of ButterStix Chalks has a great giveaway for THREE Wendolonia readers: enter via Rafflecopter down below and be entered to win one of three chalk and chalk holder sets!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interested in packing bento lunches? Check out my book:

Review and Giveaway: Bentology Lunch Box and Lunch Bag

For the past few months I’ve been playing around with the new Bentology lunch boxes. Do these boxes look familiar to you? Do they maybe look like the Laptop Lunches boxes my family has been using for years and years? There’s a good reason why — they are the same!

Earlier this year, Laptop Lunches rebranded under the Bentology name. (Not to be confused with the blog Bento-logy which is completely different and pre-dates this new name for the lunch boxes.) Along with the new name, they reworked their boxes to look a little different.

The changes to the boxes are cosmetic in nature. The new versions are made of semi-transparent plastic and the colors have been updated to match current trends. You can see from the photo above that you can see right through the outer box.

But the boxes themselves are unchanged and appear to be made from the same molds. You can swap the new boxes with the old boxes and everything fits properly. The old lids work on the new boxes and vice versa.

So really, there’s not much to review! I went back and re-read my original review before writing this one and everything I said there still stands.

I like the new look of this box and I think food looks really pretty in it. The containers come in other colors besides white, but I’ve been sticking with these because they show off the natural beauty of the food.

For more details about the Bentology boxes visit my Lunch Box Comparison Chart.

Giveaway! Woo hoo!

Bentology will provide one lucky Wendolonia reader with their choice of a Shark Camo Bento/Sleeve Kit OR a Kitty Bento/Sleeve Kit. (Can I just tell you I am DYING over the print on that Kitty bag. She is wearing the same glasses I wear! This is the lunch bag I would choose if I needed to carry my lunch somewhere.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review and Giveaway: FarmBox SF Farmer’s Market Basket

With school about to start back up, we are heading into days filled with new routines and schedules.  I usually find the first few weeks of school to be pretty rocky at first. Getting into the routine of packing lunches and fitting in dinners around the kids’ activities can be an adjustment. One thing that can help with that is a weekly delivery of fresh groceries and produce.

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to try a delivery from FarmBox SF. FarmBox is similar to a CSA, but rather than delivering produce from one farm, they work with dozens of farmers to bring you the freshest local fruits and veggies at the best prices.  Currently FarmBox serves the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas so they work with California farmers. The cost of the boxes vary starting at $39.95 and rising in price as you add more produce, local artisan products, or meat and seafood. There are dozens of different options to choose from. My family sampled the Complete FarmBox – Basic which costs $77.95 and adds a few non-produce options into the basket.

Every delivery is different, based on what’s in season. Here’s what we received:

cabbage
lettuce
English peas
red potatoes
oranges
garlic
radishes
peaches
kale
pattypan squash
strawberries
plums
a small bundle of herbs
a loaf of bread
6 eggs
a couple fancy snack bars
rosemary walnuts
apple cherry cider
Bellwether Farms Crescenza cheese

Phwew! That’s a lot!

The first order of business was to cut fat slices off that loaf of bread and smear them with some of the cheese. Seriously, we did this within 5 minutes of unpacking everything. The kids even got in on it. So tasty! We ate the rest for breakfast the next morning.

OK, so what to do with the rest of it? For some people receiving a box of super fresh produce every week is a great place to start menu planning. Or if the thought of menu planning gives you a headache, you can just prepare the recipes that are included in each week’s newsletter and you don’t have to plan anything.

I am one of the people who enjoy menu planning, so I had fun finding recipes to use all the gorgeous veggies.

One of the first dishes I made was an improvised potato and pea hash. The peas needed to be shelled which I loooooove doing. Sitting at my kitchen table in my pretty retro apron, I felt like an old-timey lady as I popped each pea into the bowl.

Once I scrubbed the dirt off the potatoes they were the brightest pink I have ever seen. They were even pink on the inside!

I chopped them up, sauteed them with the peas and some garlic and then served the hash with a poached egg on top.

The lettuce, radishes and kale went into salads through out the week. The fruit that didn’t go into lunch boxes was eaten as snacks or with breakfast. The patty pan squash was sauteed with garlic and a little pesto as a side dish at dinner one night. The leftovers were stirred into pasta with some more veggies the next night.

Finally, I used the cabbage and the walnuts to make a blue cheese cole slaw for a pot luck.

I loved the inspiration the FarmBox basket gave me and I’d love to try it again some time. It’s a bit of a luxury for me to spend that much money on something like this every week because it didn’t quite cover all the produce we needed and the additional products were treats I wouldn’t normally buy.

Now for the giveaway! Woo hoo!

FarmBox is giving one Wendolonia reader a FarmBox to try out. If the winner is inside the FarmBox delivery area in the San Francisco or Los Angeles areas she will win a Complete FarmBox- Standard kit. If the winner is outside the FarmBox delivery area she will win a Taste of California Gift Box.

a Rafflecopter giveaway





Disclosure: I received a FarmBox basket for the purposes of writing this review, but I have not been otherwise compensated for writing this post. All opinions are my own. I really liked that cheese.

Review and Giveaway: The Updated Yumbox Original and New Yumbox Bag

Earlier this year, Yumbox updated their original lunch box. We’ve been fans of the Yumbox lunch box for quite a while now. We use both the original 6 compartment design and the slightly larger 4 compartment Panino lunch box and have packed many, many lunches in them. My older son in particular likes the snacky nature of the lunches I pack in his original Yumbox, so when I had the opportunity to review the new design it was a no brainer.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

All of the things I liked about the first version of the Yumbox are still a part of the improved version: six compartments, a removable tray with cute drawings, leak-proof, dishwasher safe, a nice compact size, and a $28.00 price tag. (See my original review of this box here.)

So how is the new version of the Yumbox different?

When I got my first Yumbox it was only available in the green color. Now it comes in a rainbow of colors: pink, yellow, green, blue, lavender and my favorite, orange.

The biggest change though, is with the tray. It has been redesigned to enlarge the individual compartments and to eliminate a lot of the excess space that was taken up by the separators that divided the box. The total capacity for the original version of this box was 2.5 cups, but this version holds a little over 3.25 cups. That’s an additional 3/4 cup of food you can pack into it! Big improvement!

The old version was great for preschoolers and kids with smaller appetites, but with the increased size this newer version works just as well for older children and even adults!

My biggest pet peeve with the old-style try was the big gaps between compartments. The tray is dishwasher safe, but water would pool up in the gaps on the back and it took forever to dry. The new tray still has crevices around the outer edge so this problem isn’t completely eliminated, but now that the bulk of the tray is flat, it is much better.

Another big improvement is that the hinge on the latch has been strengthened making it less likely to break.

And the same is true for the hinge on the box itself.

I’m thrilled with the improvements Yumbox has made to the original box and we are looking forward to packing lunches in this new old favorite this year.

While we’re talking Yumbox, I wanted to take the chance to share some thoughts on their brand spankin’ new insulated bag. The bag is so new that I haven’t had a chance to send it out of the house with my kids, so please do keep that in mind as you read this, but here are a few initial observations.

Let’s start with the basics. The bag costs $15.00 and comes in two fabrics — the royal blue pictured here and a significantly cuter orange with white polka dots that I love but that my two boys wouldn’t be caught dead with. Sigh. The outer fabric is a rugged polyester. The inner lining is PVC, BPA and phthalate-free. It includes a carry handle on the lid and a removable shoulder strap for carrying.

The Yumbox site says it holds two Yumboxes flat or on their sides, but I found it easily holds three bags positioned either way. Great if you are headed out on a picnic, but please keep the size in mind before purchasing because this is a big lunch bag. If I packed it in either of my boys’ backpacks it would take up about half the space (if not more).

Here’s another photo that shows how roomy it is when it’s packed with a single Yumbox. I also put in a thermos and a water bottle and there would have been room for some snacks and ice packs too. It’s worth noting that I did not have to lay that thermos on it’s side to zip the bag closed.

Other lunch boxes I tried that fit in the Yumbox bag: EasyLunchboxes, PlanetBox Shuttle, LunchBots (small and large sizes), and Bentology (snug but absolutely doable).

The upshot: this is a great, roomy bag for someone who wants to be able to pack their Yumbox flat along with several extras.

Giveaway! Woo hoo!

OK! Time for the giveaway! Yumbox is providing a Yumbox lunch box and a Yumbox insulated bag to one lucky Wendolonia reader! You pick the color (based on availablity)! Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Yumbox is a sponsor of this blog and they provided me with samples of the updated Yumbox Original and an insulated tote for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and I have not been compensated for writing this post. I have included affiliate links so if you make a purchase using them I will receive a small fee for referring you to the Yumbox site.

PlanetBox Product Review Round-up

Note: As I was preparing this review, PlanetBox announced that they are having a quick back-to-school sale. Take 10% off Rover and Shuttle lunchboxes when you enter code Summer10 at checkout. Discount applies to Rover and Shuttle lunch boxes only – accessories not included. Offer good August 6th-8th, 2015.

PlanetBox released a slew of new products over the last year and we have spent the last few months testing them out. Rather than write several individual reviews, I’ve decided to round them all up into one big post. It’s a PlanetBox-a-palooza over here folks! Let’s dig right in!

(This post contains affiliate links.)

PlanetBox Bottle Rocket

First up is my family’s new favorite water bottle: the PlanetBox Bottle Rocket! Why is it our favorite? Because it keeps things cold. Coldy, cold, COLD! I like to fill it with water and ice cubes before we head out for a day’s adventure and I have come home many hours later with ice still knocking around inside the bottle. PlanetBox says it keeps things cold for up to 12 hours and it’s absolutely true.

Other things I like:

the bottle is stainless steel inside and out
it doesn’t sweat
all its parts can go in the dishwasher
the clasp is very well thought out — it has a push-button opening so it’s easy to pop open, but it also has a flip-up clasp that keeps it from opening in your bag if the button accidentally gets bumped
It has a wide spout so it’s easy to drink from.

Priced at $28.00, it is one of the more expensive water bottles I’ve seen, but it is honestly the best one I’ve ever used so it’s worth considering. (If you buy the Bottle Rocket as an add-on to a PlanetBox lunch kit they knock $10 off the price.)

PlanetBox Pods

The PlanetBox Pods are a brand-new addition to the PlanetBox line-up and we just got ours last week so I haven’t had a ton of time to play with them, but so far I like what I see.

As with all PlanetBox products the details have been thoughtfully considered. The pods are made of high quality food-grade silicone and come in two sizes which fit perfectly into the different compartments of either the Rover or Shuttle lunch box. (I have the Rover Pods.)

They are exactly the right height so that the tops of the cups touch the top of the lunch box when it is closed. This helps to minimize spills and leaks. A small detail that I like is that each cup has two little divots on the bottom that fit over the little bumps in the upper left compartment of the Rover. This helps them stay put and decreases the chances that they’ll slide around while the box is in transit. The walls of the cups are also thicker than most of the silicone cups I’ve seen which also helps them keep from getting squished and spilling their contents. They are dishwasher safe and priced at $6.95 for a set of four.

I tried packing one of the cups with hummus and sent it to camp with one of my boys as part of this goofy Star Wars lunch and it did a bang up job of keeping the hummus where it belonged.

Do you need the PlanetBox Pods? No — you don’t. You can easily pack your lunches in these boxes without them and you can also use silicone baking cups from other manufacturers and they’ll work fine. But these are nice, sturdy cups and they’ll work a little bit better in the PlanetBox lunch boxes than other cups will so they’re definitely worth considering.

PlanetBox Shuttle

I’ve been wanting a PlanetBox Shuttle for ages now and I finally treated myself to this cute space-themed kit last month. I got the whole kit — lunch box, magnets and the carry sleeve which is priced at $39.95. (Note: PlanetBox is offering 10% off the Shuttle when you enter code Summer10 at checkout. Offer good August 6th-8th, 2015.)

The Shuttle is smaller than the Rover — it holds about 3 cups of food compared the the 4 1/2 cups you can pack in the Rover — but it’s of a similar size as some of our more traditionally sized bento boxes. It works great to pack lunches for smaller appetites and it’s good for snacks for anyone. Like all PlanetBox lunch boxes it’s extremely rugged and I know it will hold up for many years.

So far I’ve used it to pack a few snacks for day camp and it’s been fun to work with. I like that it has a bigger section where I can get a little creative. This little bear snack is a great example of some of the creative snacks I’m planning for it. It’s a bit deeper than I’m used to though so that is taking a little getting used to. Otherwise, I’m super happy with it.

PlanetBox JetPack

Finally, we have the PlanetBox JetPack! This is PlanetBox’s new backpack and again, the attention to detail is top notch. It comes in three cute prints and two solids and starts at a whopping $57.95 (the prints are $2 more). It’s made from a rugged polyester fabric which is made out of recycled plastic bottles. (Cool!)

The coolest feature of the JetPack is the large pocket on the bottom that is perfectly sized to hold any of PlanetBox’s lunch boxes flat in their insulated bags. It’s a nice feature that helps keep lunches from getting jumbled and it also eliminates the need for kids to dig through their packs to retrieve their lunches.

The JetPack also has a ton of pockets for organization in the front compartment. Five? Six? I lost count. It also has a secret pocket at the top for a phone or wallet and two pouches on the side for water bottles. I love bags with lots of pockets so this is a dream come true for me.

So what’s the downside? It’s really big. Huge! Enormous! The large pocket for the lunch box on the bottom kind of necessitates this. The web site says it’s recommended for kids aged 6 and up, but I’m not so sure it will work for many kids at the younger end of that spectrum. My nearly seven-year-old is actually pretty tall for his age — 75th percentile —  and he is dwarfed by the JetPack. We adjusted the straps to be as short as possible and they slip off his shoulders which makes it tough to wear for very long. A chest clip would help solve this problem and balance out the weight so it would be nice to see that as a future addition. For older kids who are taller, stronger and have more stuff to carry to school it would probably be great, but my rising sixth grader has no interest in it. Sigh.  It’s frustrating because this is a really great back pack otherwise.

Have you tried any of these PlanetBox products? I’d love to hear your thoughts on them!

Don’t forget! PlanetBox is having a quick back-to-school sale. Take 10% off Rover and Shuttle lunchboxes when you enter code Summer10 at checkout. Discount applies to Rover and Shuttle lunch boxes only – accessories not included. Offer good August 6th-8th, 2015.

Disclosure: I received samples of the BottleRocket, Pods and JetPack for review. I purchased the Shuttle Kit because I am a crazy lunch box lady and I wanted one. I have not been compensated for this review and everything I’ve said here is my sincere opinion. This post contains affiliate links.

A Kid-Made Volcano Lunch for Back to School

When Augie returns to school in a few weeks, he will be eating lunch there for the first time. He was in half day kindergarten last year, so eating lunch in the cafeteria is a pretty big change for him. It seems like a small thing, but when you’re six-years-old small things can be a big deal! In an effort to start prepping him for lunch at school, I asked him if he’d like to try packing his lunch himself sometimes in the coming year. His response: very enthusiastic!

We decided to do a test run earlier this week and it was fun for me to watch where his imagination took him. It was also fun for me to see how much he’s gleaned about packing cute bento lunches from hearing me talk, looking at my book — and from eating them, of course!

When I asked him to start picking the food to put in his lunch he spotted a bowl of melon balls in the fridge first thing. I bought both yellow and red watermelons when I did my weekly shopping trip and I used a melon-baller to prep them. He told me that the yellow and red mixed together looked like lava so he decided he would pack a volcano lunch. Cool!

We pulled all the ingredients for his lunch together, along with a lunch box and he set to work!

The first step was easy: spoon some watermelon balls into one of the containers from the lunch box.

Next, he wanted some cucumber slices. I was a little worried about having him use a sharp knife on the tough cucumber skin, so I helped him with that part.

But when it was time to slice the cucumber I let him give it a shot. Augie doesn’t help me with veggie prep too often, but he’s done it a few times and he’s getting good with a paring knife. I watch him closely when he uses it to make sure he doesn’t cut himself, but he’s mostly got it down.

When he finished cutting the cucumber he filled a small dipping container with hummus. That part was not quite as tidy. Many napkins were involved.

After I gave the outside of the little cup a quick wipe-down, Augie executed his creative idea. He put the hummus in the middle of another container and explained that was the lava. Then he packed cucumber slices around it to act as the rocks that made up the volcano.

Then it was sandwich time. He opted for sunflower butter and jelly and when I suggested that he might want a little more sunflower butter on the bread he scoffed.

“Mom, this sandwich is not about the sunflower butter! It’s allllll about the jelly.”

“Really? Why’s that? I thought you liked sunflower butter.”

“I do, but jelly has lots more sugar,” he explained matter-of-factly.

At least he’s listening….

He cut the crusts off his sandwich and then cut it into two triangles. You probably already see where he’s going with this. Yes, the triangles are more volcanoes! He then pulled out some orange and red food-coloring markers from my bento stash and used them to draw lava on the bread.

If you ask me, this step was unnecessary because the jelly was already erupting out of the bread, but it did look good!

Finally it was time to add a treat! He chose a Horizon Mixed Berry Super Squeeze — a perennial favorite in our house — and added that to the final compartment in the lunch box.

“Why did you pick the Super Squeeze, Augie?”

“Because when you squeeze it it erupts like a…”

Wait for it…. You know what’s coming!

“Volcano!”

Excellent choice!

He was so proud of his volcano lunch and I think he did an excellent job! I loved how carefully he thought about which foods would fit his volcano theme and I think he packed a nicely balanced lunch.

Do your kids ever pack creative lunches? What inventive themes have they chosen?

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

The Week in Bentos: Camp Lunches 2015 #4

The boys were back to camp this week, so I have more lunches to share. Whoop!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

We started Monday by packing little bits of this and that in our Yumbox Originals. Augie had strawberries, nectarine chunks, cucumber stars, turkey meatball chunks, a couple Starbursts and some Pirate’s Booty.

Wyatt also had strawberries, nectarines, Pirate’s Booty, meatballs, and Starbursts, but I swapped in radish slices for the cukes. His lunch was also packed in a Yumbox.

Tuesday

We had one of the kids’ favorites on Monday night — Hoisin Chicken — so they wanted the leftovers in their lunches on Tuesday. I packed two drumsticks into the largest compartment of our PlanetBox Rover for Augie, with a little foil wrapped around the ends to minimize messy fingers. He also had cucumber slices, watermelon chunks, blueberries and Fuji Apple and Raspberry Clusters.

The clusters were a sample that I received from the people at CVS and the kids are crazy for them. They are part of the new Gold Emblem Abound line of healthier for you products that CVS just added to their shelves. We’ve also sampled some nuts and organic mac and cheese and they’ve all been tasty and fit into the kinds of foods I like to give to my family. I also appreciate that their bright green packaging makes them easy to spot on the shelves when we visit the drug store.*

Wyatt also had leftover Hoisin Chicken, along with blueberries, apple and raspberry clusters, carrot coins and some bacon cheddar ranch dip. His lunch was packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s lunches were filled with summer favorites! Augie had corn on the cob, leftover pork chop, watermelon and a brownie. It was packed in a Bentology/Laptop Lunches box.

And again, Wyatt had almost the same thing: corn (cut off the cob to accommodate his braces), pork chop, farmers’ market strawberries and a brownie. His was also packed in a Bentology/Laptop Lunches box.

Thursday

We had a lot of pasta leftovers so Thursday the kids had hot lunch in thermoses for the first time in a long time. The pasta (macaroni, sausage and marinara) was packed in a Thermos food jar. It’s pretty filling, so I just gave him a few sides: watermelon and a Mott’s Fruity Roll. The fruit leather was another sample I received. They are tasty and the kids like them. Exactly what you would expect. (Find the spork here.)

Wyatt had the same thing, except I swapped the watermelon out for strawberries. His pasta was packed in our LunchBots thermal jar.

Friday

This morning TimeHop showed me a photo of the goofy Star Wars lunch I made for Augie one year ago today. When I showed it to the kids, we all giggled so much that we realized we had to recreate it for their lunches today. The most important part (and the source of the goofiness) are the Darth Vadar and Yoda sandwiches made with icing googly eyes. I cut the mouths with a crescent moon shape and filled these sandwiches with sunbutter and grape jelly. The rest of the lunch had Pirate’s Booty with a Darth Vadar ring, strawberries with a Storm Trooper, some hummus and sugar snap pea light sabres. The hummus was packed into one of the new PlanetBox Pods. Today is my first time trying one so we’ll see how it goes. The lunch was packed in a PlanetBox Rover.

Wyatt had a really similar lunch but it was packed in a Yumbox Panino so the configuration was a little different. He also had sunbutter and jelly Star Wars sandwiches with icing googly eyes, strawberry light sabres, Darth Vadar Pirate’s Booty, snap peas and some bacon cheddar ranch dip. I wish I had this R2D2 thermal water bottle to go with these lunches. How cute is that?? Alas! I really don’t need another drink container!

Disclosure: I haven’t been paid to share info about CVS’s Gold Emblem Abound products with you, but I did receive samples and liked them enough to pass on a little info.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

The Week in Bentos: Camp Lunches #3

The boys were back in day camp this week, so I have some lunches to share. I kind of wish I had something fun or cute to share, but apparently the word “lazy” applies to me as well as to the days of summer!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

On Monday, I packed lunches in about 3 minutes flat! We were so late! How late were we? Pretty darn late. And in addition to helping the kids get out the door, I was also trying to help my husband get ready in time to catch another plane. Good times! When I need an easy lunch, I pull out our EasyLunchboxes. (It’s not just the name, it’s the truth!) The kids had strawberries, carrots (cut thin for the boy with the braces), snap peas for Wyatt, cukes for Augie, and a sunbutter and jelly sandwich for each of them. I also threw in a grape ZFruit for a treat after I took the photo.

Speaking of my husband and airplanes, I also packed him a snack to get him through to lunch time. He had strawberries, cheddar cheese slices, crackers and some carrots. This was packed in a single layer of our Bentgo box. Nice and simple!

Tuesday

This lunch looks pretty good, I admit, but there was a dark underbelly to it. Every item you see in this lunch box was the very last bit of that thing in the house. I desperately needed to go to the grocery store and I frankly can’t believe that I managed to find enough food for the kids’ lunches considering how empty our fridge was.For a minute I thought I might have to send them with pickle chips, barbecue sauce and some questionable sauerkraut, but a little digging and using things up helped me pull this off.

They boys had twin lunches packed into Yumbox Paninos: the last of the sunbutter and the last of the jam on the last four slices of bread (each kid got one of the heels), the last scraggly strawberries and blueberries, the end of the cucumber (Augie only) and the bottom of the bag of maple-rosemary sunflower seeds.

The struggle is real, people!

Wednesday

I have to admit it: I’m jealous of my kids’ lunches today! Most of what I packed was leftovers from our dinner last night, but there was only enough for their two lunches so I’m going to be scrounging in the fridge while they feast on blackberries, raspberries, a cheddar garlic bread stick, leftover corn that I cut off the cob and a couple of yogurt-pesto chicken drumsticks. They had the exact same lunches, both packed into our Bentology lunch boxes.

Thursday

On Thursday the boys requested snacky lunches, so I pulled out the Yumboxes. Augie had a half of a cheddar-garlic bread stick, strawberries, blueberries, ranch sunflower seeds (the new fad at camp), deli turkey roll-ups, and cucumber slices.

Wyatt had nearly the same lunch — half a cheddar-garlic bread stick, strawberries, blueberries, ranch sunflower seeds and deli turkey roll-ups — the only thing I swapped out for his lunch was radish slices.

Friday

When I asked the boys what they wanted in their lunch boxes, they both requested sunflower seed butter and grape jelly sandwiches. So easy! Thanks kids! In addition to the sandwich, Augie had blueberries and cucumber slices and I threw in a couple Starburts candies as a surprise. This was packed in a Yumbox Panino.

Wyatt had the sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, in a Yumbox Panino, along with blueberries, radish slices and his own Starbursts. I think I might have goofed there though. Now that I’m thinking clearly, I’m pretty sure those are a humongous no-no when you have braces. Gotta go! The Parenting Police just came to throw me in Mom Jail!

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

Mini Book Reviews: Recent Crafty Finds from the Library

One of our weekly activities this summer is a visit to the library. The kids load up on books (picture books and EZ readers for Augie, comic compendiums for Wyatt) and I like to check out craft books and cook books. (I do most of my fiction reading on the Kindle, so my books are borrowed online.) I’ve really enjoyed some of the books I’ve checked out, so I thought I’d do a few mini-reviews for you. (This post contains affiliate links.)

Idiot’s Guides: Zen Doodling by David Williams




I loved this book! I’m a long-time doodler and I especially like drawing patterns so I’ve been interested in the zentangles I see online for a while. This book features many step-by-step tutorials showing how to draw some  complicated patterns and additional ideas that you can copy and adapt for your own doodles just by looking at them. I particularly liked the instruction for drawing braids and Celtic knots. I’ve been doodling these for years and I was please to see a few techniques for drawing them that were different — and easier — than my own in this book.

Here’s an example of one of the zentangles I put together after reading this book:

Cool, right? I’m brimming with ideas after reading this book!

Martha Stewart’s Favorite Crafts for Kids by the staff of Martha Stewart




I’ve always been a big fan of the kids’ crafts Martha Stewart puts together and this book is filled with some really excellent project ideas. They’re surprisingly simple for a book from from Martha Stewart, but that’s  good because it makes you feel like you could actually do some of them with your kids. Some of the ideas I wrote down to try: popsicle stick houses, a basic recipe for cornstarch slime, ridiculously cute customizable cross stitch family portraits, and a fun baking soda/vinegar balloon experiment. The only project we’ve managed to knock out so far is an animated flip book. When I was a kid I used to make these by carefully drawing each picture (not easy!) but the suggestion in this book was to use rubber stamps so you don’t have to draw on every page. This was much faster and even 6-year-old Augie could manage it on his own. The next one I want to try are the popsicle stick houses. I love them!

Don’t you want to move into one?

The Lunch Box by Kate McMillian & Sarah Putman Clegg




I’ve had this book on my Amazon wishlist for years now, but it’s never quite made it into my cart so I was excited to see it on the shelf in my local library. This book isn’t revolutionary or anything, but it is filled with good, solid lunch box knowledge and flipping through it will spark some ideas about what to pack for yourself or your kids. A lot of the ingredients used in the recipes wouldn’t go over very well with my boys so it is probably not worth adding to my permanent lunch book collection, but I did really like the ideas and combinations suggested in the wraps section and I’m inspired to try some of those with my kids.



Craft-a-Day by Sarah Goldschadt




I really wanted to love this book, but I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by it. Look how cute those projects on the cover are! Aren’t they cute? I also wanted a lot of easy ideas that the kids and I could execute quickly so they didn’t wander off before they were finished. And I wanted the project to be made from items I would likely have on hand. The book does deliver all that along with clear instructions and gorgeous photos.So what’s the problem? The problem is that the projects are extremely repetitive! Basically, the book is broken up into 52 weeks and each week gets a theme, along with a template for that theme. Think robots, gnomes, circles, stars, bugs, birds, etc. Then the author uses the provided motif on seven different projects. The problem is with the projects themselves. There are only about 10-15 different projects in the entire book! So during “whale week” (or whatever) she’ll give you instructions to make a greeting card with a paper whale on it, a stuffed whale made from felt, a garland of whales and a whale cupcake topper. Who needs 52 individual cupcake toppers? Well, someone who makes a lot of decorative bento boxes might, but that’s pushing it even for me!



The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman




Finally, we have my favorite of all the books I’ve checked out: The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. I have visited the Smitten Kitchen website in the past but I’ve never cooked anything from it and now I’m wondering why the heck not! This book is filled with interesting recipes. I guess Perelman is known for taking basic recipes and putting a twist on them because this book is filled with them. Some of the recipes I want to try:

gingerbread spice Dutch baby
chocolate chip brioche pretzels
black bean and spaghetti squash tacos
balsamic and beer braised short ribs with brown butter mashed potatoes
chicken and eggs salad toasts with lemon aioli

One recipe I have already made (and will be making again): Popcorn Cookies!

Popcorn and cookies are two of my favorite foods (cookies are #1, popcorn is somewhere in the top 10), so combining them into one cookie? That is nothing short of revolutionary, my friends!

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is definitely going on my wish list.

What are you reading? Have you found any great craft or cook books lately?