Homemade Lunchable

One of the girls' favorite lunches is the homemade Lunchable.  They get to play with their food and "help" cook their lunch.  So, our featured lunch this week (we're going back to weekly posts) is the Fun Friday Lunchable in Laptop Lunchboxes.

Our main entree is a homemade Lunchable made with salami, turkey pepperoni, provolone and colby jack cheeses.  We used a small cookie cutter to cut the salami and cheese and added a little froggy pick to the box.  

We also have Ritz crackers for the girls to make sandwiches with.  We added a little ladybug pick to them. 

Our fruit side is a pink lady apple that has been cut into chunks.

Our dairy side is plain Greek yogurt with honey mixed in it and a few sprinkles for fun.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is a small piece of Dove milk chocolate.

Pepperoni Roll

I went to my favorite bake shop to get some birthday goodies (my birthday was yesterday) and picked up a pepperoni roll for the girls while I was there so tomorrow's lunch was nice and easy. 

Tomorrow's lunch is in a Laptop Lunches bento box.

Our main entree is the scrumptious pepperoni roll.

Our vegetable side is mixed pepper rings.

Our fruit side is raspberries and blueberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is plain Greek yogurt with honey and a few sprinkles.

Day 5, FUN FRIDAY!!!

We've made it!!!!  We have survived the first week of school!!!

We've always had a tradition of having a dessert or something fun on Fridays as a way to celebrate making it through the week.  Well, this week is our first Fun Friday of the year in Laptop Lunch Boxes.  Link below.

 

Our main entree is a pepperoni roll from an awesome little bake shop near our new house.  We added a small container of Ranch for dipping.

Our vegetable side is baby carrots.

Our fruit is grapes and clementine segments.

Finally, our Fun Friday treat is two heart shaped cookies from the bakery.

Day 4 of School

So, we were a little crazy in the spring while getting ready to move and got a puppy.  Yes, horrible timing and a lot of responsibility but he was too cute to pass up.  A great friend works at The Animal Rescue League of Pittsburgh and posted his picture on Facebook and we just couldn't resist.

I mean....could you say no to this adorable little face?  

Instantly, Dublin became part of our family.

The girls asked for a puppy themed lunch in honor of him (who is now about 4 times this size!).  Our lunch is in Laptop Lunch Boxes.  Link below.

 

Molly had a smoked gouda and ham sandwich and Bean's is pb&j.  We used our Lunch Punches to cut out our sandwiches and colored on them with food safe markers.

Our vegetable side is baby carrots for Molly and cucumbers for Bean.

Our fruit side is sliced strawberries.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions tubes.

ps - they're having a 72 hour sale!!!  

2nd Day of School

The girls had a FANTASTIC first day of school.  They absolutely love their new schools, teachers and friends.  We're hopeful that this positive trend will keep going for the rest of the year!

The school is having breakfast for lunch tomorrow so we went with it.  Our lunches today are in Laptop Lunch Boxes using the large insert.  Link below.

Our main entree is a waffle sandwich.  We added whipped cream cheese to 2 waffles (chocolate chip for Molly and whole grain for Bean) and then added thinly sliced peaches.

Our fruit side is champagne grapes (known as baby grapes in our house).

Our protein side is two slices of bacon.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is a Chobani Champions Greek yogurt tube.

1st Day of School!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Molly and Bean.  They are in a new school, new district and they are going to different buildings for the first time.  It's quite an adjustment but we are thrilled with our move and can't wait to see what the future has in store. Our first lunch is in Laptop Lunch Boxes, a great way to have a waste free lunch.  (link below)

Bean chose cucumber boats (pickling cucumbers hollowed out and stuffed with whipped cream cheese with a little bit of dry ranch mix in it.) for her first main entree.  We added a few pepper rings for some color.

She also has a few crackers and a couple of pieces of turkey pepperoni.

Molly chose pasta salad for her main entree.  She's always been a big fan.

Her vegetables are cucumber slices and pepper rings.  

Both girls have mixed berries for their fruit side.

Finally, their special first day dessert is a Rice Krispie Treat with a few sprinkles added for fun.

Happy first day of school, girls!!!!

We also had to make sure that the teachers were not forgotten.  We made a survival kit for each of them so that they can have a great first day too. 

We picked up a few essentials at the Target travel section.  Tissues, hand sanitizer, band aids, Altoids, Tooth "brushes", Tums, Chap Stick, Advil, Hand lotion, a yummy Annie's snack, a few Hershey's Kisses and of course, the coveted red pen.

All packed up in a re-usable bin with and a little note of appreciation.  

The first few weeks of January

Since taking a hiatus from the blog, I have gotten a lot more sleep and I'm working on myself a lot more.  I've been trying to be more organized in my shopping and menu planning, plus concentrating on health.  We, as a family, threw caution to the wind a bit over the holidays and needed to get back on the healthy wagon.  

We are still packing lunches for the girls (and so is my husband) every day.  I plan to do a round up like this every week or so.  These are just a few of my favorites from the last couple of weeks.

Our happy winter lunch with a sandwich, peppers, clementines, pomegranates, string cheese (I wrote on the wrapper with a Sharpie marker.) and a fun Friday treat of white chocolate dipped pretzels with peppermint in Easy Lunchboxes.

 Our piggy sandwich (CuteZCute Cutters), cucumbers, sugar snap peas, clementines, apples, blueberries and Chobani Champions in Laptop Lunch Boxes.

Our Elephant sandwich (Lunch Punch cutter), cucumbers, clementines, pomegranates and peach yogurt in Easy Lunchboxes.

Eat 'N Park Christmas Star

Just about anyone from Pittsburgh will agree that the Christmas season doesn't start until we've seen one particular commercial.  This year is the 30th Anniversary of the Eat 'N Park Christmas Star commercial.  It has a heartfelt story and a feel good message.  For our last school lunch of the 2012 year, we're paying homage to this Christmas staple.
*Eat 'N Park is a sit down restaurant similar to Denny's or Perkins. (only better!)

Our main entree is a tree shaped quesadilla.  We found the perfect cookie cutter for this lunch and the idea became reality.

Our fruit side is strawberries and blackberries.

Our dairy side is Chobani Champions Very Berry.

Finally, our final Fun Friday Treat of 2012 is something else that Eat 'N Park is known for, the Smiley Cookie!!!  We picked up a couple of mini Smiley Cookies just for this special occasion.

 

Christmas Tree Ravioli

We found a great new thing for a Christmas at Sam's Club.  It's Christmas Tree shaped ravioli by Nü-ó-vö pasta.  It's not only cute but it tastes great!

Our main entree is Nuovo Christmas Tree ravioli.  We added a little bit of light Italian dressing to them to add flavor and keep them from sticking.

Our vegetable side is red peppers and sugar snap peas.

Our fruit side is sliced apples and pears.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Greek Gods Honey Greek yogurt.  This stuff is AMAZING!

We also added a little Lunchbox Love note.

All Request Lunch

Usually when I suggest something the girls are quick to agree with a "sure, sounds good Mom" but tonight they both wanted different things.  Luckily, their requests were an easy fix or Mama might have tried to sway their choices.

Bean's lunch is leftover pasta with a little bit of butter and Parmesan.  We will heat it up in the morning before school.
Her veggies are cucumber slices, pepper rings and shredded carrots.  Her fruits are strawberries, fresh figs, kiwi and pomegranate arils. These are in a Lunchbots Duo.
Finally, her dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek yogurt. (we love their new design!)

Molly's main entree is a super cinnamon raisin sandwich.  Trader Joe's makes this amazing cinnamon roll bread and we spread Peanut Butter and Company Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter.
Her veggies and fruit are the same as Bean's.We also put Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk in Molly's lunch.

Hello Kitty Breakfast for Lunch

Daddy made his famous pancakes for dinner and there were enough leftovers for the girls' lunches tomorrow.  Hello Kitty is a favorite around here and yes, I bought the pancake maker....and I'm SO glad that I did!

Our main entree is Hello Kitty pancakes.  Daddy even put a couple of mini chocolate chips in them for extra fun!  We used our food safe markers to embellish them a little bit.

We don't have a vegetable side but we did add some turkey bacon to go with the pancakes.

Our fruit side is strawberries, grapes and a Hello Kitty kiwi.  We used a stamp to press the face into the kiwi.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions Verry Berry.

Butterfly Lunch

We were inspired by our friend Michelle at Creative Food.  She made an awesome butterfly lunch, two of them actually, and we realized that we had the same pasta that she used.  The wheels started turning and now we have a fun lunch for the girls.

Our main entree is a buggy pasta salad.  We cooked the pasta from a box of Back to Nature Crazy Bugs Macaroni and Cheese, drained it and cooled it.  (We are saving the cheese packet for our next movie night to jazz up our popcorn.)  Next, we added marinated mozzarella balls, tomatoes and some light Italian dressing.  YUM!

Our vegetable side is crinkle cut cucumbers.  (say that three times fast!)

Our fruit side is apple slices.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is Chobani Champions.  Molly chose Honey-Nana and Bean chose Vanilla Chocolate Chunk.

Disney Lunch

The girls have loved the themed lunches lately and we figured that a great theme is Disney and who better than the mouse himself...and Minnie of course.

Our main entree is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We used a Mickey shaped pancake mold that we got a few years ago at Disney World.  We then cut a piece of provolone cheese and used our food safe markers to make Mickey's face.

Our vegetable side is cucumbers and carrots.  We used a Mickey Mouse shaped press for the face on the cucumbers and a micro cookie cutter to cut the carrots.

Our fruit side is strawberries and cantaloupes.  We used cutters with presses to make Mickey and Minnie's faces on the cantaloupe.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is vanilla yogurt with Mickey sprinkles on top.

Tomorrow is the color brown day in Bean's Kindergarten class.  We have a cherry Nutri Grain bar and some red grapes.  Brown was kind of hard to do for a kid that doesn't care for pretzels.

Angry Birds Lunch

This is the first Fun Friday of the school year.  If you are new to Molly's Lunch Box, Fun Friday is the special day when we include a fun treat in our lunch boxes.  Sometimes it's a cookie, sometimes it's candy but it's always delicious.

Our main entree is a salami and cheese sandwich on a sun dried tomato wrap.  We're calling it the launching pad for the Angry Bird.  Our Angry Bird is a Babybel mozzarella cheese that we used a round cookie cutter to peel the bottom of the red wax off.  We used a straw to cut out the eyes and our food safe markers to embellish the eyes and eyebrows.  Finally, we cut a small piece of colby jack cheese (used in the sandwich) for the beak.

Our vegetable side is a green salad with ground cherries (part of the tomato family) and a side of creamy French dressing.

Our fruit side is peaches and raspberries.  Both girls really like this combination of fruits.

Finally...the Fun Friday treat!  Angry Birds graham crackers and Angry Birds gummy fruit snacks.

Have a great weekend and Happy Labor Day!

Make Your Own Lunchable

If your kids are like mine, they are drawn toward those Lunchables available just about everywhere these days.  I understand that making your own cracker sandwiches is fun but there is so little actual food in those things that most kids would be starving an hour later.  We figured that we'd just make our own.

Looks innocent enough but not very nutritious and only enough for a snack.

Much Better!  

Our main entree is Kashi TLC Toasted Asiago Crackers, Turkey Pepperoni and Mozzarella and Colby Jack Cheeses cut out with our circle cookie cutter.  (Pretty much everything in the Lunchable but much healthier.)

Our vegetable side is multi colored bell peppers.  They were a big hit on the first day of school and we had plenty left to add some for tomorrow's lunch.

Our fruit side is a mix of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.  We put a party hat on one of the strawberries to make the girls smile.

Finally, our dairy/dessert is our favorite Greek yogurt, Chobani Champions in the Verry Berry variety.

 

We also made a fun lunch for Daddy.  To say he's a Star Wars fan would be a huge understatement.  

This is turkey meatloaf on wild rice with pepper and berry sides.