Day 2: Egg Sandwiches & Switch It Up Sandwich Link Up

Happy Monday!

Today is Day 2 of our "No peanut butter challenge" and today's lunch is inspired by our elf Christopher. He came December 1st from the North Pole to finally be able to see the kids he has been making toys for all year. He loves hiding over night and my kids love looking for him in the morning. Christopher has gotten into the snack cabinet already twice and so I thought it would be fitting to make an elf lunch today :)

Here he is this morning with some snatched yogurt raisins...

But back to lunch:

Today's lunch is apples, veggie sticks and elf egg sandwiches packed in our EasyLunchboxes. I added a small mini bottle of ketchup so everyone can add it if they'd like. We also packed drinkable yogurt and ice water and Christopher snuck a chocolate snowman into everyone's lunch ;)

{Recipe}

4 large eggs

1 Tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon of cooking oil

{Instructions}

First, I scrambled the 4 large eggs with 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl. Meanwhile I heated a small amount of oil in a medium size pan. Once the pan was hot, I added the egg and turned the heat to low. I cooked the egg until the egg was set, turned it over once and made sure it was cooked properly. I then let it cool on a cutting board and used a cookie cutter to cut the egg in shape.

While the egg was cooling I used the same cookie cutter and cut two elf sandwiches for each child. Two plain bottoms and two tops with the embossed elf. Pictured are only 3 sets of bread but I had enough for 5 sets of elf sandwiches and my daughter and I had the other ones for breakfast.

Then I layered the sandwich. Here I added a piece of egg and a piece of ham, also cut in shape with the cutter.

How cute are these?

My kids were so excited for lunch today!

I also found this cute and very matching Lunchbox Love note from their Christmas Volume to complete today's lunch :)

And now it is your turn!

What did you pack for lunch today or in the past that is different from the 

"Peanut butter, Nut Butter, Nuttella, Jam" sandwich? 

I would love to see it!

You can link up all week!

Please don't link up more then 2 lunches per day!

Be nice and visit some of the other links :)

and Have Fun!

Day 1: Soup and Sandwich

My kids have been in a sandwich spread rut. They only ask for peanut butter and chocolate spread these days and I decided enough is enough. I am challenging them to suggest No PBJ and chocolate spread sandwiches or lunches starting today all the way until Friday next week to show them that they like many other things as well. One week of no PBJs and no Nutella sandwiches!

Day 1:

Today they asked for tomato soup, grilled cheese and grated cheese to add to the soup which I packed in our EasyLunchboxes. I also added carrots and cucumbers and of course ice water and a yogurt.

I will post a link up for Mondaynext week: Switch It Up Sandwich.

Come and link up your sandwich ideas that do not contain peanut butter, nut butter, Nutella, chocolate spread, jelly or any other sweet topping. Savory spreads like cream cheese, condiments 

and and dressings are allowed.

Hope to see you on Monday!

.

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?

Pumpkin Waffles for Lunch

We returned yesterday from visiting family and after a long trip in the car we needed a quick dinner and an easy lunch box idea for the next day. I remembered that MOMables.com had a Pumpkin Pancake recipe but when I checked my pantry I did not have all the ingredients. So I improvised ;) Find the recipe below!

 But first, today's lunch:

I packed left over Pumpkin Belgian Waffles lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar, a small containers of cashews and a fruit&veggie fruit snack and grapes. I also packed a drinkable yogurt and ice water.

Ready for a quick and easy Pumpkin Recipe?

{Recipe}

feeds 6 hungry people

1 box of Belgian Waffle Mix 

1 can of organic pumpkin puree

1 TBS vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

a pinch of nutmeg

I mixed the Belgian Waffle Mix according to instructions.

I then added the pumpkin puree and mixed it well.

Lastly I added the vanilla sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Enjoy with powdered sugar.

TIP:

I always make one mini waffle first to test and see if I need more cinnamon or vanilla :)

And if you don't know about MOMables.com yet, please check them out and get a free week of menus!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

If you still need a quick and easy lunch idea for your kids why not try to make a pizza pocket Turkey! I made those for my kids and they loved choosing their own filling. Also a great idea for Thanksgiving left overs! Just fill with turkey, cranberries and stuffing, yum!

I packed our EasyLunchboxes with apples slices and grapes for lunch and made pizza pocket turkeys. I followed my earlier tutorial but instead of rectangular pockets I used a circle cookie cutter and made 8 large circles. I filled one circle with the desired toppings (1 tablespoon pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni and cheese for example) and pressed the second circle gently on top and used a fork to seal the two together. I used two cans of dough for five large pizza pockets and five turkey neck breadsticks and still had some left overs for a few mini breadsticks.

They needed about 15 min at 350 degrees to bake. 

In the meantime I cut eyes and wattles out of pepperoni and then stuck them to the hot breadsticks.

Did you like this lunch? Then please visit BentoforKidlet for another cute turkey pocket lunch idea:

Happy Thanksgiving!

{Linking up here:}

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

Go Green Lunch Box Review

The wonderful folks at Go Green Lunch Box sent me a Go Green Lunch Box to review and I packed a couple of lunches to see how we like it:

Today's lunch is an CuteZCute Angry Bird Pig chocolate spread sandwich, Angry Bird crackers with a cheese stick, a cereal bar, sunflower seeds and some fruit snacks and a yogurt as well as a bottle of ice water. 

I also packed a lunch around Halloween containing a pretzel roll with cold cuts, cheese and lettuce, a cereal bar, cheese and crackers, oranges and apples and a vanilla yogurt as well as ice water.

The first thing I noticed packing the lunchbox is that it has very deep compartments and you can fit a lot of food - which is perfect especially for my 5th Grader. I also liked right away that there was a space for the water bottle and that the bottle is stainless steel.

My boys really like the cool carrying case and even though it is not washable so far we had no issues since the lunch box is leak proof.

I really liked that it comes with a name tag since things do get lost and this tag matches the carrying bag!

Another neat feature is the little white board in the lid of the carrying bag. You can write your child a sweet note and have enough room to include a spoon, straw or napkin.

Also perfect for lunch notes!

My older kids really liked the wide mouth water bottle and I liked how easy it was to add ice. However for the little kids (3 and 5) it was hard to drink out of and I switched out the water bottle with one with a spout for now until they get a little bigger.

There are so many great features this lunchbox offers like the secure leak proof lid, the turn 'n' lock technology that keeps food fresh and the retention clips that help keep the lid attached to the lunch box. 

{Pros:}

• Lots of compartments
• leak proof lid which makes packing yogurt and applesauce a no mess affair
• retention clips to keep the lid attached to the lunch box
• a 9 oz stainless steel water bottle
• a whiteboard for leaving notes
• a insulated cooler bag 
• that it is BPA, lead, leach and phthalate free

{Cons:}

• I would love to have the option to buy a water bottle with a spout for younger kids. This can be easily solved however by swapping out water bottles until they are older.
• The lid is not dishwasher safe and you have to remove the silicone bands when washing. It does not take long however and since I wash several lunch items by hand I do not mind.

 

A Bento To Be Thankful For {For Mommy}

The theme for this year's Bento Bloggers and Friends Thanksgiving Blog Hop is

I am thankful for...

I am thankful for so many things in my life but the most thankful I am for my family. They have supported me daily by eating my bento creations, dealing with my bento gear all over our kitchen and by sampling new recipe ideas. Thank you for helping me start my Facebook page and liking all my posts! Thank you for commenting on my blog and for encouraging me to keep going! Thank you for long phone calls about photoshop and other picture editing programs and for simply listening when I am over the moon that someone retweeted me! Thank you for supporting me in my passion!

But most of all thank you for enjoying the fact that I make you lunch ~ I love you!

This bento was packed in our ECOlunchbox and I packed it for myself - but don't worry! I still fed the kids ;) I packed them fairy bread by request :) I packed white rice, and vegetables (black beans, onions, corn and peppers) as well as my wonderful family made out of cheese, chicken, turkey pepperoni and cucumber skin. I have a cutter that you can use to piece together faces, hair and arms which I used to create this bento.

Ming from Bentomonsters is also thankful. Find out what she is thankful for by clicking this button:

Also linking up here:

      Things I used to make this lunch: