Day 320

Day 320 - It's A Christmas Story!  Come on, you know you secretly love the leg lamp!  This is my desperately need to go shopping A Christmas Story lunch!  Today D has homemade yogurt, blueberries, a toasted pb & j sandwich and some Kashi granola.

I used my Leg Lamp cookie cutter to make an impression in the bread before I toasted it.  Then I just went over the impression with a food safe marker after it was toasted.

Day 319

Day 319 - DIY lunchable.  Ham, american cheese, a couple of cookies and a cereal bar cut out with a holly cutter and some melba toast rounds.

Here is D's lunch sitting on top of her new drawstring lunch bag.  This lunch bag was a gift from my Bento Bloggers and Friends Secret Santa.  She sent us a box full of bento goodies but D couldn't wait to try out her new Hello Kitty bag.

Here it is all tied up and ready for school!  So beautiful isn't it??  My "Secret" Santa also sells these in her Etsy store!

Day 318

Day 318 - Today's lunch was inspired by Chef Corey and Momables.  I had some leftover chicken in the fridge and if not all the ingredients then some reasonable substitutions!  I mixed some homemade yogurt with Ranch Dressing seasoning.  I use Penzey's.  I probably used 1/2c of yogurt and a teaspoon of seasoning.  Then I added in some Real Bacon Bits.  I like to keep those on hand and use them quite often.  They are much more lean than regular bacon and pack huge bacon flavor!  I tossed in the shredded chicken and mixed them up.  I spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the wrap to keep it from getting soggy.  I put 1/2 the chicken mixture (probably just under 1/2 c) on one of the short ends of the wrap.  Topped it with a generous hand full of alfalfa sprouts,  a light sprinkle of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and rolled it up tight.  I also made some blue cheese dressing for her to dip her celery sticks in.  I just mixed together some homemade yogurt, blue cheese crumbles and enough milk to thin it out a bit.  She also has a tangerine.

Day 317

Day 317 - Today D has a Lunch Punch Elephant ham sandwich, string cheese, xmas tree cereal bars, homemade yogurt with a green sugar xmas tree and clementines.

I left the cookie cutter in when I took the picture because sometimes when I remove the cookie cutter the design kind of goes kaput.  Today it worked out pretty well.  I removed the cutter and it still looked like a tree!

 

 

Day 316

Day 316 -  Breakfast for lunch!!  I picked up some Blueberry Streussel bread at Target the other day.  It was Archer Farm Brand.  I highly recommend it.  It wasn't super sweet so it was perfect for french toast!  So for lunch today D has blueberry french toast, a beef slider, mini dipper of syrup, homemade yogurt topped with blueberries and a clementine.

Day 315

Day 315 - Pizza Kabobs!  We used up some leftover pizza to make pizza kabobs.  She has cheese pizza, grape tomatoes, black olives and fresh mozzarella on a bed of baby spinach.  The small bottle has balsamic vinegarette for the salad.  She also has some fresh pineapple and a couple of chocolate cookies on top of chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

Day 314

Day 314 - I made D a sandwich today with thin sliced deli chicken.  Then we used our mini cutters to cut them into xmas shapes.  D then used the food safe markers to color a few of them in.  She has holly, an ornament, an angel, a candy cane, a bell and a tree, then she has some grape tomatoes, TJ's yogurt stars and a tangerine.

Bento Bloggers and Friends Holiday Ho-Ho Hop!

It's Hop time again!  I love doing these blog hops.  I hope that you all enjoy them as well.  I love to see everyone's take on the theme!  So here is my holiday hop lunch.  I will admit, it is not the most healthy lunch I have ever packed but it fits the theme and everyone needs a treat once in a while!  LOL

So from the top left D has a cheese Santa, mini bell pepper/cream cheese Santa hat, fruit snack gingerbread man, gingerbread man and Christmas tree pb sandwiches.  The tree has a little bit of green frosting and is decorated with candy and sprinkles.  The gingerbread man has nutella on the outside and is decorated with mini chocolate chips and sprinkles.

Please click on the button below to hop on over to All Things For Sale to see what Jee Jee has come up with.

Day 313

Day 313 - No picture today.  Lunch is chicken soup in a thermos.  Be sure to check back tomorrow for the BBF Holiday Ho-Ho Hop!

Day 312

Day 312 - "Sushi" for lunch today.  D has ham, chicken, spinach and pickle roll ups, reindeer toast with american cheese and a tangerine.

Days 310 and 311

Day 310 - Today D has a creepy pb&j sandwich.  I was trying to recreate the dog sandwich from Day 261.  Ummm...yeah, didn't quite get there!  LOL  She also has string cheese, teddy grahams and blueberries!

Day 311 -  Today's lunch is BLT Kabobs, chicken/apple sausage and a tangerine.

Days 308 and 309

Day 308 - Some days the mornings just get away from me.  I just ran out of time yesterday morning and wasn't able to post before running out the door to catch the school bus and leave for work!  So yesterday for lunch D had bunny ham sandwiches, mozzarella, red and yellow grape tomatoes, 2 mini bell peppers stuffed with cream cheese and some pistachio/almond/cashew/m&m mix with a few Hello Panda cookies on top.

 

 

Day 309 - Today D has a FunBites sandwich, yellow grape tomatoes, mozzarella, blueberries (yes they are frozen but by lunch time they will be fine) and a few TJ's yogurt stars.

Day 307

Day 307 - Another Trader Joe's lunch!  Today D has TJ's pork and veggie gyoza with a salad.  Some fresh mozzarella and TJ's yogurt stars.  The heart container has soy sauce and the flower has salad dressing.

Day 306

Day 306 - It's Movember!!  Movember is a way to raise awareness for men's health issues.  We all have men in our lives so this is for them!!

D has a pb & j mustache sandwich, red and yellow grape tomatoes, ham roll upand cherry angel food cake with mustache picks!

Happy Thanksgiving

No lunches for the rest of the week.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

Day 305

Day 305 - I apologize for the quality of this photo.  I am hoping Santa will bring me this lighting kit for Christmas!  That way there it won't matter if I make my lunch at night instead of the morning!  Anyway, D has left overs from last night's dinner.  She has a quinoa/broccoli bake and 2 chicken tenders, ketchup and an orange.

Day 304

Day 304 - Clean out the fridge pasta salad.  I'm trying to clean out the fridge to make room for all the holiday food.  I made a pasta salad with all the meat, cheese and veggie scraps from the weekend. There is ham, turkey, cheese, peppers, broccoli and tomatoes in there.  She also has a mini bell pepper stuffed with fresh mozzarella pearls and sundried tomatoes. She has an apple filled with cranberry applesauce and in the empty compartment...imagine a brownie.  When I made and photographed the lunch the brownies were not quite ready yet!

Day 303

 

Day 303 - It looks a little bit like Spring in D's lunch today even though it is freezing cold outside!  She has flower shaped ham sandwiches, grape tomato "cherries", clementine butterflies, a cheese note and some grapes and clementines.

BBF 'What Are You Thankful For?' Blog Hop

This is the time of year that we like to reflect on our lives and what is important to us.  While we strive to always appreciate who and what we have, sometimes we tend to take those we love and the "things" we have for granted.  This year what I am most thankful for is my family.  D's lunch represents my immediate family, my husband, myself and our two girls.  D could not possibly eat the amount of food it would take to represent all the people who have uplifted us and supported us through this passed year and long before it.  This year has been particularly difficult for my family.  We have seen many changes and personal challenges.  We have been humbled.  We will never be able to adequately thank those who have helped us in countless ways, but I hope they know how THANKFUL we are and just how much we love them.

D's family lunch is peanut butter bear sandwiches, marinated mozzarella, red/yellow grape tomatoes, grapes and a banana with 'I am thankful for YOU' written on it (not pictured).


Click on the button below to head on over to Robot, Squirrel and the Monkeys to see what Eileen is thankful for...
   

Day 302

Day 302 - DIY lunchable today.  Ham and cheese hearts, wheat crackers, yellow and red grape tomatoes, dark chocolate/cherry trail mix and an orange.

Day 301

Day 301 - Today D has one her favorites, salad!  There is romaine lettuce on the bottom, chopped ham in the left corners, fresh mozzarella, chopped turkey in the right corners, pea and alfalfa sprouts under the red and yellow grape tomatoes, clementines, Hello Panda cookies and some italian dressing.

Days 299 and 300

Ever since the hurricane last week, I have been having trouble getting my bento mojo back.  The kids just have so many days off of school this month it's hard to keep the flow going.  Here I am posting my 300th lunch and there is absolutely nothing special about it.  Very sad :(

Day 299 - It was snowing/raining here yesterday so I didn't have any available light for this picture so please forgive the quality!  D has a pb & j sandwich cut out with a Lunch Punch, string cheese, grape tomatoes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, Trader Joe's pumpkin pie greek yogurt with a cinnamon star on top and a clementine.

**Day 300** -  For her 300th lunch D has a DIY lunchable.  Turkey and cheddar cheese "fairy wands", a mini bell pepper stuffed with cream cheese and sliced, sesame crackers, grapes, a couple of cookies and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

Days 297 and 298

Day 297 - Here is the lunch that I had made for D for last Monday.  Unfortunately she never got to eat this lunch.  Hurricane Sandy was coming for us and school was cancelled.  My family was very fortunate.  We were all together, our home made it through intact and we are all healthy and safe.  We lost power for a few days which was a bummer, but we are very aware of how lucky we were.  I will gladly sit in the dark and throw out a couple hundred dollars worth of food if it means my family is safe.  So anyway...we didn't get out power back till late Wednesday night and I didn't get to the grocery store until Friday. 

Day 298 - So today's lunch is similar to last Monday's.  She has a ham/spinach/pea shoot wrap, clementines, grape tomatoes, chocolate covered dried cherries, baby bell pepper stuffed with cream cheese and a Chobani Champions.

Day 296

Day 296 - This is one of D's favorites.  She has fun shaped ravioli, topped with herbed sun dried tomatoes, kiwi and a hollowed out apple with caramel flavored yogurt topped with caramel sauce and unsweetened coconut.

To make the caramel flavored yogurt I use 1 cup of my homemade yogurt and add a tablespoon of sugar free coffee flavoring syrup (like Torani).

Day 295

Day 295 - Thank God for left overs!  Quick and easy lunch today!  She will be eating spinach salad with grape tomatoes, carrot flowers and red pepper butterflies, left over grilled steak tips and string cheese ( I did stamp it but the light was so bad this morning it ended up getting blown out).  She also has chopped strawberries with a "Monstrawberry" on top, some kiwi and blackberries. It took less than 10 minutes to put this lunch together.  I love those days!

Day 294

Day 294 - Turkey/spinach/sprouts in a Joseph's flax flat bread with tuscan white bean humus, string cheese, yogurt parfait, dark chocolate wafer cookies, strawberries and raspberries with chocolate chips.  All packed into the gray Goodbyn!

Day 293

Day 293 - Today is a Trader Joe's day!  D has spinach salad with TJ's chicken pot pie bites, TJ's pumpkin greek  yogurt, Triple Berry Newtons and a blueberry fruit leather heart.

Day 292

Day 292 - D watched A Nightmare Before Christmas the other day and fell in love with Jack Skellington!  I knew that some of my BBF's (Bento Blogging Friends) had made a Jack lunch so I went looking for inspiration.

D saw this lunch from Cristi at Bento On Better Lunches and was quite impressed!  Mine is not nearly as cute!  LOL

Tracie at Lunch, Snack And Sninner made hers for the Halloween Blog Hop.  I love how she used contrasting bread!

Karen from What's In Our Lunch Bags also made hers for the blog hop.  I have to be honest...the spider freaks me out a bit!  LOL

Shannon at What's For Lunch At Our House made this one that was featured on Disney's Family.Com!

So D's lunch features a Dark Chocolate PB Jack sandwich, some dark chocolate covered wafer cookies decorated with Wilton Icing Writer, grape tomatoes, string cheese, orange jack o' lantern and some Chobani Champions Very Berry yogurt.  After I took the picture I remembered that I had some fresh raspberries in the fridge so I put them on top of the yogurt as well.

Day 291

Day 291 - We are using our 2 tier Mickey Mouse bento today.  In the top tier D has strawberries, grapes and raspberries stuffed with chocolate chips and the bottom tier has sliced roast chicken, cheddar cheese and dried cherry on Halloween picks, under those is some sprouts and green pepper slices.

Day 271

I was just looking through my blog stuff and saw that I had some posts that didn't get posted!

 

 



 

 

Day 271 - Totally dialing it in today.  I worked late last night and never got around to putting lunch together yesterday and I just wasn't feeling it this morning.  So thank god for my freezer stash.  D has 2 mini deep dish pizzas, carrot sticks, the eyeballs are actually pumpkin decorations (kind of like Mr. Potato Head), she also has yogurt with gummy vampire teeth, under her milk is a blueberry fruit leather.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 290

Day 290 - Lunch meat "sushi", fresh mozarella pearls, yogurt parfait, grape tomatoes, apple crisp with a sugar star and grapes.

Halloween Hop

Welcome to the BBF Halloween Hop!  Today I scared up a turkey/dried cherry wrap 'ghost', a bowl full of fresh mozarella 'eyeballs', a jack o' lantern apple, grape tomatoes on bone picks and yellow grape tomato 'jack o' lanterns.

Click on the picture below to hop on over and see what Shannon is scaring up!

Day 289

Day 289 - Today's lunch is a teaser for tomorrow's Bento Blogger and Friends Halloween Hop!!  D's lunch today is a sliced chicken sandwich, apple crisp and grapes, decorated with a pumpkin decorating kit from The Dollar Store.

Day 286

Day 286 - Breakfast for lunch!  It's always a good standby! I got up a little late this morning so it was nice to be able to just grab some pancakes out of the freezer, some left over breakfast sausage from Saturday, a homemade yogurt parfait, maple syrup, an orange and some Trader Joe's yogurt stars.

Day 285

Day 285 - Chobani Champions orange/vanilla yogurt topped with dried cherries, milk, steak sandwich, red/yellow grape tomatoes.

Day 284

Day 284 - Dog house/dog ham sandwich made using my Lunch Punch! Red/yellow grape tomatoes, string cheese, cheez - its, TJ's yogurt stars and Chobani Champions orange vanilla yogurt.

Day 283

Day 283 - It's a rainy day here today.  Probably should have packed the beef stew but instead she has greek pizza, grapes, red/yellow grape tomatoes, blueberry applesauce and a Champions yogurt.

Day 282

Day 282 - Breakfast for lunch!  I made an Apricot Quick Bread and used that to make french toast, chicken apple sausage, white bottle has maple syrup, grapes and blueberry applesauce with sprinkle star.

Day 281

Day 281 - Another wrap today.  I really like the Joseph's Lavash breads.  They are full of good stuff! Today they are full of "pizza"!  I spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the bread then put on some pizza sauce, a sprinkle of shredded cheese and some mini pepperoni, in the Mini Dippers she has some Apricot Bread, the green things are dried kiwi, in the two side compartments she has homemade blueberry applesauce and tomato/mozzarella salad.

Day 280

Day 280 - DIY Lunchable today.  There is some ham, Wheat Thin crackers, salami and grape tomatoes, some cheddar cheese, strawberries and green grapes.  Late night at work tonight so I have my thinking cap on for tomorrow's lunch...