The Banana Police

Do you love bananas? We do! And having recently read Katy Koontz's book The Banana Police I had to make another banana lunch!

This post contains affiliate links.

This book is funny, has wonderful details and teaches the kids about the acceptance of others. I love that there is text on one side and a very detailed picture on the other side which entertained both my reader and non-readers. A great book for all ages! We keep finding new things every time we read it. And the banana consumption in our house is up by 500% thanks to this lovely book!

Our lunch is inspired but my kids' favorite page. They loved seeing all the ways the elephants were using to clean up the bananas. Even the Baby elephants were helping! You will have to read the book yourself to find out how the elephants became a big part of this town and why they are so many bananas in the picture! You can find a summary of the story here.

Lunch is packed in our Easylunchboxes and is packed with:

• banana pudding with baby banana slices
• banana bread muffins with sliced glazed bananas
• a baby banana
• a banana peanut butter and sliced banana Daddy and Baby elephant sandwich carrying cheese bananas to clean up the town. The sandwich is made with Lunch Punch and the added details are cheese and seaweed.

For more information about The Banana Police please visit them on Facebook, on the web or find the book on Amazon!

Things I used to make lunch (contains affiliate links):

 

 

Disclaimer: Katy Koontz sent me a copy of her book for review. All opinions are my own. No bananas were harmed in the making of this lunch. However, several were eaten thereafter.

A Monkey and his Lunch - a Literary Lunch

I made a very special lunch today. And for once this lunch is not for my kids. I made it for Mr. Pig who lives in The Little Crooked Cottage along with four fabulous children's authors named Anika, Jamie, Kara and Kristen. Every Monday he will be interviewing a character from a new children's book and serve him lunch. A lunch I am privileged to make. Today he is interviewing Monkey from Adam Lehrhaupt's new book: WARNING! DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK!

Mr. Pig told me that Monkey LOVES bananas, so I made a special lunch filled with lots of bananas - of course - ...a monkey.

We packed the special lunch in our Easylunchboxes and filled it with:

• a whole wheat thin bagel topped with PB Crave CoCo Bananas all natural peanut butter and sliced bananas on spinach leaves. The monkey is made with provolone cheese, ham and seaweed.
• banana salad with honey and yogurt dressing*
• a banana corn muffin and
• a banana

Banana Salad {Recipe}

for two hungry monkeys

You need:

• one banana
• 2 tsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. vanilla flavored or plain yogurt

Slice banana. Add honey and coat banana slices. Add yogurt and stir gently until well combined.

Pack for lunch or serve as dessert.

Did you enjoy this lunch? Check out how the interview went and to find out more about Adam Lehrhaupt's book HERE and of course you can find my lunch HERE was well . And don't forget to see for whom I am making lunch on Monday, September 16th!

Things I used to make lunch (contains affiliate links):

BRAT Banana Lunch

We are much better today but will stick to BRAT for lunch.

You already know the drill: Bananas, Rice (reserved for dinner), Applesauce and Toast.

We packed our PlanetBox Shuttle with a fun Lunchbox Love Card:

• frozen apple shaped applesauce cubes ( I found the silicone ice tray at Target)
• mini toast crackers
• a happy banana with a hand drawn face
• banana sauce and - you guessed it -
• toast cubes

If you cannot change the food you may as well change the texture! Banana sauce instead of a whole banana ( I just used a fork and a drop of lemon juice) or frozen apple sauce in shapes or cubes instead of a sauce. 

Thankfully we are adding other foods to the diet since yesterday and will hopefully be starting with veggies and fruit again tomorrow. 

To see yesterday's BRAT lunch click HERE.

Things I used for this lunch:

Tummy Trouble Panda Lunch

One of my kids has come down with a nasty stomach bug and feels quite bad :/ So what better way to cheer him up then with a cute lunch!

Since we had to stick to Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast my food choices were obviously limited. With a few cute addition this lunch still put a smile on his face :)

We packed our PlanetBox Shuttle with:

• A Squooshi Panda filled with applesauce
• banana slices packed in a silicone cup with panda picks and
• a CuteZCute Panda toast in a silicone cup

Need more ideas on how to feed your child when there it tummy trouble?

My friends Grace from Eats Amazing and Crystal from Crystal's Ramblings have some cute ideas HERE and HERE!

Things I used to make this lunch:

Winter Lunches

When we woke up this morning frost was covering everything. It looked so pretty glistening in the sun. The sign that winter is on it's way and of course I made lunches to match:

My 10 year old packed lunch in his Easylunchboxes:

A Ham and Salad sandwich, cucumber slices and two Cucumber Christmas trees, snack mix with nuts and a cereal bar and as always an ice water and a yogurt drink.

My 7 year old chose a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with star shaped cut outs, cucumber slices and veggie sticks. Packed as well with ice water and a yogurt drink.

My 6 year old has a fairy bread chocolate spread sandwich, snack mix and cucumbers in addition to his ice water and yogurt drink.

I also packed my 10 year old a snack in our Lunchbot Trio: a half a banana with stars (I just simply pressed my mini cookie cutter into the banana and it made a design), cucumbers with more Christmas trees and some more snack mix.

Have you noticed that I am stuck between peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwiches? I sure do. So we announced this morning that those two choices are gone and we are packing some other foods next week. Their response: Excitement! They already chose grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for tomorrow - so stay tuned!

What do you think? Would you like to participate in a one week no peanut butter/Nutella/almond butter/ chocolate spread challenge and post your lunches on my Facebook page to keep each other motivated?

Red, White and Blue and a German Brunch

It's finally summer and with summer comes BBQs and celebrations and Blog Hops :)

We made some fun Red, White and Blue and otherwise patriotic lunches to kick of summer and give you some ideas for the 4th of July and other upcoming holidays!

For this Red, White and Blue lunch I packed red, white and blue gluten free Tortilla chips from R.W. Garcia with Peach Salsa, a red, white and blue wrap with Roastbeef (red), Provolone cheese (white) and beets (blue) and a red, white and blue fruit salad with strawberries, apple stars and blueberries. To keep the fruit salad fresh I added a 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice and about a 1/4 teaspoon of confectioner sugar to coat the fruit. I also added a cucumber cup with fresh salmon because it is my favorite even though besides the tomato nothing really is red, white and blue but it represents the 4th of July BBQ mood for me.You can find the recipe here.

I also added a German Style Brunch today because I wanted to represent both countries dear to my heart - my home (the US) and my origin (Germany). For this lunch I made another fruit salad. This time with banana, kiwi, blueberries, strawberries and peaches. I added just a little bit of orange juice to prevent browning and a couple of drops of honey. On the other side next to the fruit salad is a Bircher Müsli (recipe below). It is one of my favorite breakfast options. Healthy, easy to make but keeps you going all day! I decorated the Müsli with a dried apricot and a small piece of cereal bar. Also in the Brunch Lunch is a bagel with smoked salmon and alfalfa sprouts, yum!

Now go and see what my friend Marie packed for today!

Bircher Müsli

for two hungry adults

6 Tablespoons of Swiss Müsli

3 Tablespoons of unflavoured plain yogurt

2 teaspoon of honey

1 apple

nuts or fruit

some milk

Add the 6 Tablespoons of cereal to a small bowl.

Add enough milk to wet cereal.

Set aside. Let stand for 5-10 min until cereal absorbed a little bit of the milk.

Peel apple and grate into small bowl.

Add to cereal and milk.

Add yogurt and Honey.

Add nuts, fruit, or fruit salad.

Enjoy.

Tip: If your cereal is too wet, add a little more Swiss Müsli and let stand an extra couple of minutes.

Lunch in a Box

The end of the school year is nearing and it seems the kids are getting more and more excited about the last lunchboxes of the year. Everyone wanted to plan their lunchboxes last night and think about what they wanted and how.

My 7 YO wanted a sandwich bento box with a jelly sandwich and a granola bar at the bottom (with a little bear and grass decoration) and a peanut butter and banana sandwich at the top. I also added a couple of dye-free yogurt pretzels and some grapes with - as he called it- M&M bento picks ;)

My 5 YO wanted a jeep or recycling truck sushi box. Yes, he asked for this and I had no idea and for sure not the skills to fulfill that wish. I ended up making three triangle rice shapes and set them on lettuce. I added cucumber skin for the window and recycling sign and cucumber slices and yellow mini tomatoes as wheels. For him, I also added a few yogurt pretzels, more garden cucumbers and an oat & brownie bar from Trader Joe's. I have a lot to learn but it was fun to make!

With a lot of imagination (especially with that of a 5 YO) you can make out the truck, lol.

My oldest wanted a homemade Lunchable and got Tortilla chips and Guacamole, some yogurt pretzels and a Pumkin Seed Ciabatta roll with butter and blackberry jam.

All three have ice water today and no additional food since today is a short day :)

Happy Wednesday!

Beary Happy Day!

Today is the last day before Spring vacation! Yay!

So I made Beary Happy Last Day Before Vacation Lunches :)

They all have peanutbutter and banana sandwiches on Whole Wheat bread cut out with a cookie cutter.

I also packed strawberries, peanuts and No-Bake Energy Bites. As always, they also brought yogurt and ice water and I hope they all have a great day!

I am not sure how much I will blog during Spring Vacation but I will definitely be back after next week :)

Happy Spring Vacation!