Hand Picked Lunch

My son came to me this week and asked for more lunch in his lunchbox. I always have to smile when he comes to me with his very serious "we have to talk about your lunch box packing" face. Like all kids he goes through faces of very little or big appetites and it is hard to always know exactly how much to pack. I asked him to give me a list of foods he wanted in his lunchbox and then packed our Easylunchboxes according to his list:

Packed are:

• a Cliff Bar Zbar (cut in half)
• Pirates Booty
• a rice roll and
• three homemade onigiri

He came home happy and finished his left overs for snack. It is important to give our children input in the lunch packing! Include them in the choosing of the lunch foods and in determining how much food they need!

What I used to make this lunch (contains affiliate links):

Look! Lunch! {Gluten Free}

Here are two recent gluten free school lunches. We are trying to keep one of my sons gluten free to determine if that would help with the recent bouts of stomachaches he has been having. I am very new to gluten free so we are still learning :)

Our yubo is packed with a gluten free lunch today:

• a Cocoa Loco bar from Enjoy Life
• Naturebox Cranberry Almond bites
• two tuxedo wearing onigiri
• applesauce and
• a gluten free coconut chocolate chip muffin - home made with rice flour

Our Laptop Lunches bento box is packed with:

• a gluten free coconut and blueberry muffin
• gluten free popcorn
• almonds
• a gluten free cheese sandwich and
• apple sauce

Panda Onigiri Lunch

My son asked for onigiri and strawberries so I decided to make him a fun Panda themed lunch in our
Goodbyn Bynto:

Today's lunch is very simple:

• a Squooshi Panda pouch filled with applesauce
• a Cocoa Loco bar (not pictured - it's under the applesauce pouch)
• strawberries
• two onigiri on spinach leaves

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

Friday Lunches

It's Friday! We survived the first week of school! So glad it is the weekend and we have an extra day off! Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Here are our lunches from today:

My second grader is not a fan of sandwiches and had been asking for onigiri. I had left over rice from last night and made him a fun Onigiri lunch in his Goodbyn Bynto. We packed:

• two funny onigiri and one wrapped onigiri with seasoning
• garden cucumbers
• baby carrots
• red peppers
• and some cheddar popcorn

My third grader wanted his Laptop Lunches bento box today. It is filled with:

• a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• garden cucumbers and red peppers
• cheddar popcorn and a small serving of all natural fruit snacks
• apple sauce
• a cereal bar

I also added a fun new Lunchbox Love Card from the new joke editions! Perfect humor for a third grader ;)

My middle schooler has the same lunch as his brother but I added a Lunchbox Love Card from the Teen & Tween edition. I love Lunchbox Love Cards as you know and these are perfect for an older child. 

Happy Friday and Have a nice and safe weekend!

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

World Animal Day Blog Hop

Today is World Animal Day and Bento Bloggers & Friends are having an exciting Blog Hop! 

We all picked a different animal to make today ~ click through the hop to see them all !

I picked a BEAR as my animal:

And here is the World Animal Lunch I made:

First I added some lettuce and my rice bear. The bear is made with rice and colored with soy sauce. I mixed about 1/2 cup of cooked rice with soy sauce until I was happy with the color. I added the rice to a piece of plastic wrap and shaped the head. I added thinly cut julienne style cucumbers with a tiny amount of salt and then folded them into the middle of the head of the bear. Then I made two small rice balls for the ears and added some white rice for his snout and also cheese and nori details to make his ears and face :)

I love the this tutorial from Moriazu on how to make a shaped onigiri! 

After that I added the details: straw-bear-ries, Italian cookies, Enjoy Life Chewy On-The-Go Bars Cocoa Loco -- 5 Bars, pretzels to make a fence and cheese flower to go with my soy sauce flavored bear. 

I hope you enjoyed my Bear Bento

 and now please click on the blog hop button to see what animal Obento Momma picked!

Happy World Animal Day!

and

This is also my 100th post! 

Thank you for all your support!

Things I used to make this lunch:

Kitty Cat Snack

My daughter loves having special snacks and since we got the fabulous CuteZCute Animal Friends Cutter in the mail recently (review to follow) she wished for a Kitty Cat Lunch. I used the cutter to make a strawberry jelly bread sandwich and also added some grapes with bento picks. 

I really love how easy it was to make the cat and my daughter loved that it looked so cute!

I also made her a girl and her cat rice balls to complete her snack. I simply rolled some cooked white rice into balls and added seaweed decorations and a bow pick :)

Things I used to make this lunch:

Baby Bird Onigiri Snack

 I made these cute Onigiri Snacks this weekend. They were so easy to make and the kids loved them!

I put about two tablespoons of rice on a small piece of plastic wrap and rolled the rice into a ball. I added nori details cut out with my nori punch and cut out a small triangle for the beak.

Happy Snacking!

Things I used to make this lunch:

Tuesday with Love

I had originally planned something fun for Fat Tuesday but we are all feeling a little queasy and I thought keeping it simple might be better.

So instead, I made a rice ball caterpillar that I decorated with ham, cheese, cucumber skin and left over soup crackers. I would have used Nori if I had planned a rice bento but cucumber skin sliced thin with a peeler is a great substitute if the lunch is not sitting for a long time. It is also great for decorating sandwiches and I love using it for making eyes ;) I also added an apple to the lunch, applesauce with sprinkles and some carrots and celery.

Hope everyone is enjoying Fat Tuesday without any queasy tummies out there!