It's Roald Dahl Day!!!

Happy Roald Dahl day! Roald Dahl was one of my favorite authors as a child and as an adult with children of my own now I have enjoyed sharing these treasures with my children. Mr. Dahl was a brilliant writer with a lovely and wonderful imagination. His stories are timeless and will continue to delight children for years to come. Now that I'm done gushing over Mr. Dahl I can get to lunch!

 First up is Matilda. This book was one of my favorite books and I am happy to say my children love it as well. Here you have a cute bologna Matilda sandwich, Annie's bunny mix, cucumbers, carrots, and grapes. She also has a granola bar and a snack bag of chips.

James and The Giant Peach is next up on the lunch menu. My youngest girl also has all of the same items listed above in her lunch.

Lastly we have a plain lunch for Mr. No Fancy Lunches! He has P.B.&J., grapes, and a clementine. He also has a granola bar tucked under his sandwich plus a snack bag of chips.

These lunches were inspired by one of the best children's authors ever, in my opinion. Go grab your favorite Dahl book, curl up, and share it with your kiddos today!

Back To School, Bento Essentials

We have a little over a month before we head back to school. I have put together another "Back To School" post for you to give you some more ideas. I have set up three different examples of bento supplies. Kind of like a pick your package deal. (The items shown are not sold together as sets. They are just examples of bento products, put together by me. I do not sell any of these items. There may however be affiliate links in this post, which I may receive affiliate benefits from.)These examples will give you an idea of where you want to start when buying bento supplies. Also they will help with picking what's best for your budget.

Example 1: This is a pretty big collection of bento items. I started by giving you a great lunchbox, the EasyLunchbox. These lunchboxes come in sets of four and are sold in three different color combinations. They are quite affordable also and are a great lunchbox to start out with. Easy Dippers are second on the list. These little containers are sold by EasyLunchboxes also. Then I added some fun cutters, silicone muffin cups, handmade cloth napkins, and several of my favorite bento food picks.

Example 2: Here you have EasyLunchboxes, Mini Dipper containers, several bento food picks, a few silicone cups, and some fun cookie cutters. The animal cookie cutters are sold in huge sets by Wilton. They are a great value. You can even get them in letters and numbers. I don't have those yet because my kiddos are a little old for alphabet lunches but I may have to get them if I can figure out a way to incorporate them into our lunches. The bigger cutters are an awesome way to make a plain boring sandwich FUN! The smaller cutters are an awesome way to make DIY Lunchables. They are perfect for cutting meat and cheese. Or making sandwich kabobs. While this collection is smaller it still has a lot to work with.

Example 3: We will call this "Bento Essentials" Here you have the same great EasyLunchboxes, a few different silicone cups, small cutters, two sets of cookie cutters, the Mini Dippers, and a few food picks. You would be surprised what you can do with just a little bit of bento supplies. This is a great starting point. If you are a minimalist or just on a tight budget this is the perfect example of what to start with.

You can purchase all the food picks from Bento USA! Just click on the link in the upper right hand corner to shop! (This post may contain affiliate links.)

Shark Week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, And A Cookie Cutter Review!

There is a lot to talk about today! A cookie cutter review, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Shark Week all in one post! First we will start with my favorite week in television- Shark Week. I am completely terrified of sharks but also find them so fascinating. They definitely get my respect. Sharks are so beautiful and scientists are learning more about their behaviors all the time. My son loves sharks too so when Shark Week comes we get pretty excited. I just recently had the opportunity to do a review for Francesca4me. I got some pretty awesome cutters and the sharks were two sent.

 This is lunch for the boy, A.K.A. the Picky Eater! lol He has a P.B.&J. shark sandwich. I'm going to say it's a great white or a bull shark! He also has a butter cookie, grapes, and an orange. I also cute the leftover bread scraps into triangles and added P.B. & J. to those too. No waste here!

This is lunch for one of the kids. I let the girls choose which they wanted because they all contain the same ingredients. Here is a shark fin P.B. & J., the extra bits are tucked under the fin. There is a butter cookie, carrots, cucumbers, sweet peppers, grapes, and a half a clementine.

The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie is on our watch list. My hubby has been catching everyone up on the movies from our childhood. Here you have a P.B. & J. turtle sandwich, a butter cookie, cucumbers. carrots, sweet peppers, grapes, and a half a clementine.

And last but not least I made a turtle shell P.B. & J. They also have the same in this lunch as the one above.                                                                                                                                                      

The cookie cutters I received from Francesca4me were pretty darn awesome. Before I got these I had never used 3D cookie cutters before today. I used them to make all the lunches. The quality is excellent and it has truly been a pleasure to work with them. I see myself purchasing many more cutters from Francesca4me and her son's store Sweet Prints Inc! You can go check out both stores by clicking on the name link. I think you will be excited to find just about anything your cute little cookie cutter heart desires.

Strawberry Shortcake!

Hello everyone! Summer is here and you know what that means? Lovely summer deserts! My family, well most of them have a thing for strawberries and my husband loves strawberry shortcake! So today I made a quick strawberry shortcake for everyone to celebrate summer!

Look at those pretty berries!

I sliced the strawberries, cut a slice of angel food cake into squares, layered the cake and berries then added a heaping helping of Reddi Whip!

It was yummy!

You can find all the products I used here!

Snack Tray & Chicken Salad, Oh My!

Hello everyone! Today I have a couple of awesome things to share with you! It's not a lunch! Ha ha ha! Summer is approaching fast and I just bet you are wondering how to keep the kids happy and healthy while they graze the day away. If your kids are anything like mine on summer break you will hear the all to familiar sound of your kids in the kitchen! So let's keep them out of the not so good for snacks and help them make better choices throughout the day. Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with chips but let's face it they CAN NOT survive on chips alone! So here is an idea on how to keep the healthy options available.

Apples and carrots are an easy and affordable option!

Here it is all ready to go in the fridge for easy access. Grapes, apples, cucumbers, celery, and carrots. I also pitted a pound of cherries.

Here is a quick lunch option for the kids or mom and dad. I made the chicken salad for my mom. She loves it and it's something she can grab to put together a quick lunch for work.                                     

Chicken Salad Recipe

1 cup halved grapes

1/2 cup diced apples

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/4 to 1/2 cup mayo

1 can of chicken breast

Directions

Drain chicken and break apart. Add grapes, apples, almonds, and mayo. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Viola! Enjoy!

 Now that's a pretty easy lunch! You can use leftover rotisserie chicken also. Change it up a bit also. Use pecans or walnuts instead of almonds. Add cranberries instead of grapes. The possibilities are endless! 

                                                                                                                                             

Products used in the making of this lunch. Large Square Cool & Serve. 1-cup,2-cups, and 3- cup prep bowl sets, Apple Wedger. These are all Pampered Chef products! You will find them all here!                                                                                       

A Touch Of Spring!

Hello everyone! School is nearly over here and I can't decide if I am excited or terrified! Ha! Ha! Ha! Just kidding. I always really look forward to turning off the alarms and sleeping an extra hour. That feeling last for about two weeks and then I'm ready to start buying school supplies and send the kiddos back! Next school year will be my first year with no kids in elementary school! All the kiddos will be in middle school. That's going to take some adjustment. I also got the green light from the boy to start packing lunches again for him, nothing cute. Just simple goodness for him from now on. I'm so glad the girls allow me to pack cute lunches. I don't know what I would do if they didn't let me do cute lunches! Okay, enough of my rambling. Here's lunch!

This is lunch for the youngest. She has two cute little rose shaped ham sandwiches, grapes, cherries, An orange, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, a cheese slice, and M&M's! Yes, M&M's because life is too short to miss out on everything all the time!

This is lunch for my middle school girl. She has a salad, cucumbers, grapes, carrots, an orange, and M&M's!

That's all for today and I hope to see you back here later this week!

Cute Sandwiches!

Hello everyone! I'm back! It's been quite some time since my last lunch post but I promise I have made some lunches. Hahaha! The kids have been buying lunch some and I pack for the girls here and there. The boy buys everyday because he is a tough kid to please and would rather eat at school. He prefers to have a hot lunch. Enough about that and let's get to todays lunches.

  These lunches were super easy and we used our EasyLunchboxes today to make packing lunch even easier! Both girls have ham sandwiches, grapes, a half a clementine, carrots, cucumbers, and sweet cheese cracker mix. One girl also has sweet peppers.

I hope you all have a great Monday!

Simple Sandwiches!

Today I needed to make lunch in a hurry and I decided simple sandwiches were in order. I had some leftover French bread from last nights chili dinner so I decided to use it in lunch today. The youngest girl has a field trip today so I packed her a disposable lunch in a brown bag. I also thought the other two could use a little love in lunch so I added a couple of Lunchbox Love Notes.

This lunch is for my daughter, she's using a small Lunchbots trio box, the dipper, and an 8 ounce rounds container. She has a ham sandwich, carrots, a side salad and multi grain chips. She is also taking a banana.

This lunch is for my daughters boyfriend. He has two small ham, salami, and Muenster cheese sandwiches. He also has peppers, cucumbers, carrots, salad, grape tomatoes, an orange, and a banana.

This is a close up of the Lunchbox Love Note.

Mickey Mouse Mini Sandwiches!

Earlier last month I ordered these really cute Mickey cookie cutters. They are super cute and of course I decided to use them for mini sandwiches. They turned out really cute and the girls loved them. Both Mickey lunches are very similar.

This is lunch for the middle girl. She has an mini ham sandwiches, an orange, grapes, cucumbers, carrots, cashews, and peanut butter fudge.

The youngest girl has the same thing plus peppers.

This is just a simple sandwich made for one of the teenagers in the house. He has a ham, salami and provolone sandwich. Grapes, an orange, carrots, cucumbers, and peppers. He also had chips and applesauce.

Chicken Salad And Fancy Sandwiches!

Today I made three really easy lunches. I used the same chicken salad I made yesterday for the first lunch. You can get the recipe here. The other two lunches were made using a couple of vintage cookie cutters I have. I really became obsessed with vintage cookie cutters a few months ago and I have been on a cookie cutter hunt ever since. You can never have to many cookie cutters, although my husband would disagree with that statement. I also switched it up a bit and used both EasyLunchboxes and Yumboxes! I also included a few of my new food picks I got from Japan for Christmas.

This lunch has chicken salad, sesame crackers, Swiss and Asiago cheese slices, carrots, and apples. He also has two small pieces of banana nut bread.

This is lunch for my middle girl. She has a ham sandwich, carrots, apples, cashews, crackers, and a small piece of banana nut bread.

This is lunch for the youngest girl. She has a ham sandwich, Swiss cheese, cashews, carrots, apples, grapes, and banana nut bread.

First Lunches Of The New Year!

Hello there! I trust you all had a wonderful holiday and winter break! We did but I am so ready for the troops to head back to school. Our oldest daughter still has two weeks left before her second semester begins. She's looking forward to peace and quiet so she can catch up on some reading. I am looking forward to getting things organized around here, and of course the peace and quiet. So let's talk lunch and today I have a recipe for you also.

I made three lunches for today. The first is for my youngest girl. I thought she could us a bit of whimsy. She has a mermaid princess lunch today.

She has a ham sandwich, cashews, grapes, oranges, cucumbers, peppers, and carrots.

This is my moms favorite lunch. She asked me a few months ago to come up with a chicken salad recipe because she didn't like the store bought versions anymore.

This is lunch for my daughters boyfriend. He has croissants with chicken salad, grapes, an orange, peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. He also has a bag of plain chips, a cheese stick, and a water.

This is lunch for my mom. She has croissants, chicken salad, cucumbers, carrots, grapes and an orange.

Now here is my recipe for chicken salad.

Chicken Salad

1 large can of chicken breast or rotisserie chicken pulled from bone
20 or so grapes, halved
1/4 cup almond slivers, pecans or walnuts ( I used almond slivers)
2-3 tablespoons of mayo
salt and pepper to taste

Drain chicken and place in bowl, shred chicken. Place the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and mix well. Pile high on your favorite bread or wrap. You can even use lettuce leaves. Enjoy!

It's such a simple and yummy recipe. It only takes minutes to make.