Rainy Day Lunches

We are starting the week on a rainy, dreary and windy Tuesday. I decided to brighten their day with colorful lunches and pack all their favorites.

I packed our yumbox with a blueberry Chobani Champions tube yogurt, apple slices and kiwi, left over chicken, mini ice cream shaped peanut butter sandwiches and some baby carrots with dip. We packed milk today instead of water. 

For my second grader I added some sun with a funny Lunchbox Love Card, and packed his yubo with Pirate Booty and cinnamon almonds, puzzle shaped peanut butter and blueberry jelly sandwiches and vanilla yogurt with Naturebox Vanilla Macroon Granola and a few mini chocolate chips. He brought home made strawberry milk in our thermos Funtainer. Hope the sun peaks out for lunch!

My 5th grader brought lunch in his Laptop Lunches bento box filled with Pirate Booty and Cinnamon Almonds, apples (and mini chocolate chips for his yogurt in the mini container), vanilla yogurt and a nitrate-free salami sandwich on whole wheat bread. He packed some lemonade to bring summer to school.

Let's hope the rain goes away!!

Here are some of the things I used to make these lunches (the links contain affiliate links):

 

Easter Lunches

Today is the last day of school before spring break and I made the kids special lunches for the occasion! I am also reading to my son's class about the Spring Equinox and cultures all over celebrating the beginning of spring. I made them Easter themed lunches since we will be celebrating Easter next week :)

We packed a celery and carrot garden, oranges and two shaped peanut butter pockets.

I also found a sweet Lunchbox Love Card to match our Easter theme!

The other lunch we packed were a left over cinnamon roll, oranges and two oven baked pancakes. They also packed a mini dipper with syrup and a Chobani Champions Banana Honey yogurt. Easter breakfast in Easylunchboxes!

Energy Lunches

Happy Monday! Hope everyone has a great start into the new week!

We made some no bake energy bites this weekend (recipe below) in preparation for state wide testing this week. They are filled with protein and a great snack for the days the kids need extra energy!

For my two older kids we packed no bake energy bites, all natural apple sauce and a chicken, mustard and salad sandwich with a Chobani Champions blueberry tube. They also packed ice water and a small orange juice.

My first grader packed a Chobani Champions blueberry tube in his yumbox as well as oranges, carrots, no bake energy bites, a protein cereal bar and a small treat.

We have been making no bake energy bites for a while and I first found them HERE. I still use the recipe from Smashed Peas and Carrots as a base recipe but I tweaked it a little bit.

Ingredients:

(it makes about 50 - 70 mini energy bites)

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup peanut butter 

2/3 cup honey

1 cup coconut flakes

1 cup ground flaxseed

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup of sliced almonds or 1/2 cup of dried fruit

Add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix until a dough forms. 

Wet your hands slightly and roll into balls. 

I store mine in parchment paper lined tupperware in the fridge.

For a great picture tutorial visit Smashed Peas and Carrots :)

Lunch Munch

We were gone Monday and Tuesday to visit with family but this morning we are back and packing lunches, snacks and a second breakfast!

Also, this is the last day to enter my Lunchbox Love Giveaway! Don't miss it!

We packed popcorn, apples and a puzzle peanut butter sandwich for lunch. They also brought yogurt and ice water and today I also added a Lunchbox Love Card! Yay for left handed Polar bears :)

Lunch #2 also has popcorn, apples, yogurt and ice water but for my oldest I packed a nitrate free ham and salad sandwich. He also has a Lunchbox Love Card which gives a whole new meaning to the mini van ;)

We are so excited that our yumboxes came and packed our first lunch in it today. I packed my first grader some of the new Chobani Champions tubes, apple bunnies, Naturebox cinnamon almonds, two mini chocolate chip cookies, two bear peanut butter and honey sandwiches, carrots and a few chocolate chips. He also has ice water and of course a Lunchbox Love card. Well, and now we know that we will never see a crocodile sticking it's tongue out at us, lol!

Since we have to catch up on some things and run errands I also packed my 3 year old a yumbox with a second snack breakfast. She has cheese, apples, carrots, Naturebox cranberry almond bites and some nitrate free ham.

My oldest also needed a snack today so we packed apple bunnies, a cereal bar and Naturebox cashew power clusters in our Lunchbot Trio.

Have a great day!

Chobani Champions Blog Feature

I am so excited! I am featured on the Chobani Champions Blog today!

Please head over there to find my quick and easy Halloween Fruit Parfait Recipe and Tutorial :)

A Quick Monday Lunch

Mondays are always hectic at our house with everyone trying to get back into the weekly routine. 

Today was no different and between making breakfast, signing forgotten permission slips, getting instruments ready and kids dressed - in between all of this I made lunches :) They are simple but hopefully will still make them smile when they unpack it at school :)

Lunch today is packed in our yubo lunch box with grapes, crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a Chobani Champions yogurt and a fun stuffed pepper.

To make this cute ghost in the pepper, I stuffed a mini orange peppers with a little bit of cream cheese and added a ghost pick from the Dollar Store and some yellow carrots.

Have a great start into the week and don't forget to enter my Lifeway Kefir Giveaway!

Pumpkin Lunches

 My kids asked for pumpkins in their lunches today and here they are:

.

I packed our yubo with a chocolate spread sandwich pumpkin, Chobani vanilla yogurt with a frozen peach yogurt pumpkin and some pistachios. I don't have a pumpkin face cutter so I just cut the shape with a vegetable knife and added a leaf :)

For this lunch I cut up some apples and carved one of the bigger pieces into a pumpkin, also packed a cheese crackers with a Mummy pop up and another chocolate spread pumpkin sandwich. This pumpkin did not come out quite as good as the first one o-O

Trick or Treat Halloween Blog Hop

Halloween is just 2 weeks from today and my kids are already busy planning their costumes and Anticipation is running high at my house. My kids love every Halloween themed lunch these days and I am excited that Bento Bloggers & Friends is having a Halloween Blog Hop today to give everyone some ideas for Halloween lunches :)

Read through my post and at the end click the Blog Hop button to see what my friend Rina packed for lunch!

But first, here is what I packed for lunch today in our yubo lunchbox:

I made a spooky haunted house filled with chocolate spread and decorated with melted chocolate and caramel window shutters. The witch is flying into the night lit up by cheese cracker stars and of course a moon. Also packed are vanilla yogurt with a frozen peach yogurt pumpkin in the middle and a scary purple radish.

The yogurt and frozen pumpkin are fun to make and very easy! My friend Michelle posted a great tutorial on her page for pumpkin shaped frozen pumpkin yogurt  HERE. I opted for peaches to color my yogurt since my kids have a food dye intolerance but cannot wait to try pumpkin yogurt ones, yum! I simply bought a pumpkin shaped ice cube tray at my local Dollar Tree and then added plain vanilla yogurt and about 4 slices of frozen peaches into my food processor. 

I mixed it until light orange and filled it into the ice cube tray. I popped one yogurt pumpkin out this morning and added it to the yogurt. The yogurt ice cube will melt but normally keeps it's shape until lunch time and will keep the yogurt cold in the meantime :)

I found these colorful purple radishes at a local farm and could not resist carving them since their purple skin was just perfect for Halloween. I just used a vegetable knife and carved a face in the radish and lifted off the purple skin to reveal the white inside :)

I hope my kids will enjoy this spooky Halloween lunch and I hope you enjoyed it, too!

Now please click on the button below to find out what Rina from BentoSchoolLunches made!

Chobani Raspberry Chocolate Scones {with Recipe}

It was a rainy weekend and therefore great for baking yummy treats for this week!

If you read my blog regularly you know I love baking with Chobani and using the yummy recipes from Chobani Kitchen. However, I mostly bake spontaneously and never have all the ingredients on hand needed so I tweak them to fit what I have at home.

This time we made Raspberry Lemon Scones with mini chocolate chips based on the Strawberry Scone Recipe! Find the recipe at the end of my post..

My kids love to help and my 5 year old son wanted to make the scones into fun shapes instead of just triangles. I did not mind so he picked a car and a firetruck cookie cutter and helped cut them out.

We had so much fun together in the kitchen!

Here are the cars and firetrucks my son made...

...I also made some round ones to use in our lunches this week! They smelled so good baking we could not wait to try them!

How amazing do these look! And they taste delicious! 

I had a hard time saving some for this weeks lunches. I think I have to bake some more!

Chobani Raspberry Lemon Scones with Mini Chocolate Chips

You will need:

• 3/4 cup Chobani Lemon Greek Yogurt
• 2 c all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting work surface
  (I added a little flax seed to the flour :)
• ¼ c sugar plus 2 T for sprinkling
• 2 t baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into ¼-inch cubes
• 1/2 c whole frozen raspberries
  1/4 c mini dark chocolate chips
  
  
  How to make the scones: 
  
  

  Step 1

  Preheat oven to 425°F (Gas Mark 7). In a large bowl whisk together flour, ¼ cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter and using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal.

  Step 2

  Stir in raspberries and mini chocolate chips, then gently incorporate Chobani, taking care not to over mix.

  Step 3

  Turn dough onto a heavily floured work surface. Fold dough on top of itself to knead, 3 to 4 turns, then pat into 1½-in thick rectangle. Fold rectangle into thirds and shape into a 1-in thick circle. Cut into 8 wedges or use cookie cutters to shape your dough instead.

  Step 4

  Arrange wedges/shapes on parchment paper-lined baking sheet and sprinkle tops of scones with remaining 2 T sugar. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

  
  

  Happy Baking and a good Start into your week!

  
  
  
  

Summer Blog Hop Fun

It's the First Day Of Summer and it's Blog Hop time again!

Come and join the summer fun! We have more then 20 great summer lunches for you!

Just click on the summer button at the bottom of each blog's page :)

I packed a simple lunch of apple slices decorated with a starfish cupcake pick, a Chobani Champions yogurt and a fun starfish sandwich decorated with melted chocolate, candy eyes and a fruit leather mouth. As always we packed ice water as well!

And now go check out the fabulous lunch Chef Corey made from Fresh Family Meals:

Happy Summer!

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:

Chobani Champions Winner Announced! Updated!

And we do have
2 Winners!

Our first winner is Janice! Comment #44 :) I have emailed you, Janice! Congratulations!

Our second winner is Keeley from the wonderful  Keeley McGuire Blog! She was lucky comment #10! Congratulations! I emailed you, Keeley!

CONGRATULATIONS to both winners! And thank you everyone for commenting!

Chobani Champions Review and Giveaway

Chobani generously sent us a box of their new Chobani Champion flavors to review. We were so excited when the box arrived and the kids could barely wait to taste test the new flavors :)

Chobani Champions' new flavors are Vanilla Chocolate Chunk and Orange Vanilla, yum!

And the best part? Two of you will get a chance to try these new flavors, too! Find out at the end of my post how to enter to win one of two boxes of Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk and Orange Vanilla!

Since I have a son with food dye sensitivities I am always looking for food without artificial color and Chobani Champions are free of processed ingredients including artificial colors, preservatives, flavors and sweeteners. Most of the sugar in their yogurt occurs naturally in the milk and the yogurt is only lightly sweetened with evaporated cane juice, an unrefined form of sweetener sourced from non-GMO sugar cane. The yogurt is also gluten-free and does not contain wheat, nut, soy and shellfish allergens. This yogurt also is high in Protein which is something I look for when packing a healthy lunch.

The first thing we noticed of course was the absence of neon colors found in other kids' yogurts and the amount of creaminess. Yes, you can actually see that!

Overall this yogurt was a big hit with my entire family. My husband and I love Chobani Yogurt, especially the lemon flavored one and my kids therefore were especially excited to try the kids' versions. The Vanilla Chocolate Chunk was of course the favorite but we also loved the Orange Vanilla. My 9 YO loved the creaminess and said it tasted like ice cream whereas my 5 YO kept telling everyone that there were really chocolate pieces in his! My 3 YO fell in love with the Orange Vanilla one and so did I. It reminds me so much of Orange Creamsicles and summer. My 6 YO loved the creamy goodness of both and everyone is requesting Champions for their school lunches now!

So here are the four school lunches for today:

My 9 YO had a french breakfast inspired lunch with chicken, cheese and salad stuffed croissants, blueberries, carrots, organic soy crisps and Chobani Champion Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Yogurt.

My 6 YO is bringing a Swamp Monster made out of German Dark Bread, Whole Wheat Honey Bread for the eyes and mouth and green sprinkles for the pupils. The hair is made out of cucumber peel which made the swamp monster more authentic and my son loves dipping it in ranch dip. He also has carrots with ranch dip (dip not shown), soy crisps and a Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk yogurt.

My 5 YO loves rescue vehicles and I packed a Hook and Ladder Firetruck for him made out of Whole Wheat Honey Bread and German Dark Bread and a carrot siren. He also has a carrot fire with a ranch emergency kit ( the cross is made out of carrot sticks), soy crisps and a Chobani Orange Vanilla Yogurt.

My 3YO picked her own cookie cutter this morning and since she picked the moon, I made a moon and stars lunch with a moon sandwich made with Whole Wheat Honey bread and a sprinkle eye, cucumber stars, Goldfish Adventure Crackers which contain moons and stars (and no artificial colors ;) and she also brought a Chobani Champions Orange Vanilla Yogurt.

So, want to know how you can win one of two awesome boxes of Chobani Champions for yourself?

Here are the rules:

This GiveAway is open to all US residents.

Please leave me your email address or I will not be able to reach you!

GiveAway ends 11:59 Pm EST on May 5th and the winners will be announces on May 6th. I will email the two winners. If I cannot locate an email address or the winner(s) do(es) not email me at luncheswithloveblog(at)gmail(dot)com within 48 hours a new winner is drawn.

Here are how you can enter:

1. Like Chobani Champions on FB (mandatory)

2. Like Mamabelly's Lunches with Love on FB

3. Follow me publicly with GFC

4. Follow Lunches with Love on Twitter

5. Follow Chobani on Twitter

Please leave a seperate comment for each of your entries!

So, 5 chances to win! Good Luck!

Chobani send me a box of Chobani Champions for this review. All opinions are my own :)