Muffin Tin Monday

Today's Muffin Tin Monday theme is summer! Sand, sun and the beach is what I first thought of:

Our Muffin Tin is filled with:

• a home made Almond Streusel Banana Bread beach
• a chocolate spread sun
• a wild blueberry ocean 
• kiwi fruit
• a yogurt butterfly decorated with apple and chocolate chips and 
• strawberries

Enjoy this beautiful summer day!

Things I used to make this lunch:

First Day of Summer

Happy Summer!

We packed a simple summer lunch in our yubo today:

• a peanut butter sandwich sun
• cantaloupe
• blueberries

Hope you can enjoy the sun today! Have a great weekend!

Lunch for my Girl

The new Easylunchboxes BRIGHTs are here and I could not resist to get a set since my daughter loves purple!

It also matches our new purple ELB cooler and apparently her new chapstick ;)

When you are three it is incredibly exciting when your lunch box matches your chapstick, right?

I even found a purple Lunchbox Love card and packed her a lunch in her new purple ELB and our new purple cooler! We packed some snack mix, strawberries and blueberries and a chocolate spread heart shaped sandwich. She also packed a thermos with milk and a yogurt since there was enough room in the new cooler for a thermos and cup of yogurt as well :)

One more word to the cooler. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the cooler. It looks very large on Amazon but in reality is not much bigger then a regular lunch bag! 

It fits up to three Easylunchboxes (great for sporting events or car rides) or one Easylunchbox, a thermos, yogurt, ice pack and snack for every day packing.

I also love the short handle! Long enough to attach it to the backpack or carry it but not too long to be in the way!!

I will be getting more for us since they are so convenient and fold flat for storage when not in use!! Perfect if you have several lunch coolers and little cabinet space - like me :)

And here is where you can find both the BRIGHTs and the Easylunchboxes Coolers:

Day 6: Belgian Waffles for Lunch

Today is our last day of the "No Peanut Butter" Challenge and I have to say that it was indeed challenging but the kids and I also had a lot of fun discovering foods they like and working together as a team on deciding what's for lunch. I definitely will continue to have them involved in their lunch packing even if occasionally a peanut butter sandwich sneeks back in :)

But, without further ado, here is our lunch from today:

We packed grapes and blueberries, a clementine and waffles with syrup. Today they also brought Orange juice to drink and a yogurt for lunch to complete the breakfast for lunch. 

Very simple but perfect for a Friday Lunch!

Lunch is packed in our favorite Easylunchboxes with an Easylunchboxes Mini Dipper to hold the syrup and we also added a fun Lunchbox Love Note to make their day brighter.

Have a wonderful Weekend!

First Day of School 2012/2013

We started school :)

Everybody was very excited for their first day and I wanted to make sure they had some healthy lunches to fuel them through the first exciting day!

For my First Grader I packed sunflower seeds in a cute dog silicone cup, sliced mini peppers decorated with a crayon pick, four mini sandwiches with Sunbutter spread, a high protein power bar and a lunchbox note wishing him luck :)

For my Second Grader I packed broccoli, carrots, sliced orange and yellow peppers with ranch dip in a small bottle and decorated with a crayon pick, four mini Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries with blueberries and of course a little note :)

And my fifth grader requested broccoli, carrots and orange peppers with ranch dip which I decorated with a crayon pick, crackers, a roll with ham and cheese, a small treat and the lunch note was tucked into his lunch bag :)

I hope everyone had a good start on their first day!

Things I used to make this lunch:

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.

Family Picnic at Home

Some days it is easier to pack lunchboxes for lunch even if you don't go anywhere. I love how easy it is to fill them when they are all lined up on my counter. That way I have a mini assembly line and can just put veggies and fruit in each one at the same time.

Plus, the kids still love having lunch out of a lunchbox even if they are eating it at the dining room table.

These two lunches have strawberries and blueberries, broccoli, tomatoes and carrots, veggie dip and 4 sandwich quarters held together by a bento pick. My kids wanted Turkey Clubs, so I put two slices of bread in my toaster oven (one with cheese) and in about 3 min at 350 degrees the cheese is melty and you have nice toasted bread. I added turkey, salad, pickles and a small amount of mayonnaise :)

The lunchbox on the right is packed as I mentioned above and for my one child that does not like sandwiches I omitted the Turkey Club and just added Deli meat on food picks. He was happy with just the meat and you can add crackers to the lunch  if desired.

I even made lunchboxes for my husband and I. I have the same Turkey Club lunch as the kids and for my husband I made a Salad and Chicken Whole Wheat wrap. 

And if you need to make lunches for a big crowd...KeeleyMcGuireBlog has a great post about packing multiple lunches HERE.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation!

Chobani Chocolate Honey Blueberry Breakfast Muffins

The last 8 days of school have begun before summer vacation will be here. My kids are ready for summer and so am I. To make this last full week of school a little more fun I wanted to make some healthy but still yummy breakfast muffins for school lunches. I found a yummy recipe over at Chobani Kitchen and tweaked it for my family (I know, I know, I never can really stick to a recipe without changing it a little. But that is the fun of baking ;)

Don't these look fantastic?

Here is the recipe for you:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C whole-wheat flour, plus 1 Tbsp flour reserved

1/2 C all purpose flour

1/2 C granulated sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp iodized salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 large egg

3 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp real vanilla extract

1 C Honey 0% Chobani Greek Yogurt

1/2 C blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips

a small amount of milk (1-3 Tbsp)

(I added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips instead of using a full cup of blueberries. I know my kids will be more likely to eat the muffins if they kind of look like chocolate chip muffins. Plus, you know me by now. I love chocolate ;)

How to bake the yummy Chobani Muffins:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In another bowl, whisk together egg, vegetable oil, vanilla and Chobani yogurt.
In a small bowl toss the blueberries with reserved flour until lightly coated, add to egg mixture.
Add chocolate chips.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.
Using a spatula, fold ingredients together just until dry ingredients are moistened.
(I had to add a little milk since my dough was too dry.)
Be careful to not overmix the batter, as it will cause the batter to be slightly stiff and not smooth.
Line muffin pans with paper muffin cups, spray lightly with non-stick spray.
Fill muffin cups halfway and place in oven.
Bake at 375°F for 8-12 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Muffins may be served warm or chilled with dollops of Honey Chobani Greek Yogurt on top.

We did try them with a little Chobani Honey Yogurt on top and it was unbelievably yummy. So much better then icing and my kids loved adding the yogurt on top!

We loved them so much I packed them for lunch today, too. They are very airy and light and the slight yogurt-vanilla-honey taste makes them the perfect snack for summer!

Today I packed a Chobani Chocolate Honey Blueberry Muffin, a Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk yogurt (so they can add their dollop of goodness to their muffin at school), whole wheat crackers with cheddar and cheddar jack cheese and a star sandwich with turkey and salad. I added letters stenciled out of cheddar cheese to spell: You are a star!

Hope your week starts off as full of goodness as mine!

I made my lunch with the help of this:

Fun Lunch for a Fun Fair Day

Today is the Annual Fun Fair at my kids' school with a water dunking tank, face painting, bounce houses, a DJ and just fun fun fun!

Since my kids are always looking forward to this special day and I was sick last week and could not pack really any lunches I wanted to do something fun for today!

So, the lunch has grapes (or as my kids thought: healthy fruit snacks), watermelon and blueberies (like taffy), a brownie lollipop and a candy shaped sandwich. I made the sandwich with a circle cutter and cut the side with a knife. I strung a little bit of fruit leather around the sides and voila a Hard Candy Nutella sandwich :)

I hope it sweetends their day until it's time for the Fun Fair tonight!

Happy Wednesday everyone,

 

It's not Friday?

All morning I had that spring in my step only Fridays can bring. The heaviness of the week had gone and the weekend was just one day away - or so it seemed. Until, I wandered too close to the kitchen calendar only to discover in shock and awe that today was only Thursday. Sighing and feeling like this week must have an extra day I started to look for bread to make lunch. Matching this morning I discovered that my bread had a hole - an air bubble - all through the bread. Right through the middle. But then it hit me. We could turn this day around with a little fun. And so the " What do you mean, it's not Friday? Bread" was created ;)

Lunch already brough early morning giggles from my kids! I packed Goldfish Adventure crackers, a yogurt and blueberries on garden bento picks, well, and of course our shocked bread.  

 

 Here is to a happy Thursday!

Say it in Blue

I made a blue lunch today in honor of World Autism day!

1 in 88 children in the US are affected by Autism.

Learn more about Autism and how to detect the signs here.

Today's lunch are BLUEberries, BLUE grapes, a BLUE Peeps Bunny and two little kids holding hands and raising awareness for Autism with BLUEberry Jelly.

Under The Sea

I found some cute Underwater creature cupcake picks and some new cookie cutters at the store this weekend and had to of course try them out today :)

I packed some Vanilla Goldfish cookies with a cute Turtle pick, some Strawberry Fig Newtons sand dunes with a Octopus pick and made a Whale Nutella Sandwich with a blueberry and bread crust eye and a bread crust smile on blueberry waves.

Happy Monday,

P.S. I have to apologize for the picture quality. I used my phone since my camera has gone missing ;)