Animal Parade

I recently won the Critter Cutters Lunch Punch set from my friend Kandice of {we aren't scared of sugar} and I had been wanting to use it. It was a cold and dreary morning and I thought the perfect morning for some cheery lunches!

Here is what we packed for lunch today:

I packed apple sauce and some homemade banana bread as well as an organic vanilla yogurt cereal bar to go with our Dog Lunch Punch sandwich. The sandwich is whole wheat bread with chocolate spread and organic artificial color and flavor free sprinkles. My son loved the idea of the dog in his dog house and I loved how easy it was to make this sandwich. Lunch Punches really are a fun lunch making tool!

I love how this came out. Don't you?

I also packed an Elephant Lunch Punch sandwich. Again, with apple sauce, home made banana bread and organic vanilla yogurt bar. This time the sprinkles are regular sprinkles.

I like this elephant sandwich just as much :)

The other matching utensils I had were mini chickens and since the Critter Lunch Punch does not include a chicken I used some of my bento stencils to make this chicken. This lunch as well has home made banana bread, applesauce and a cereal bar.

I cannot get enough of these sprinkle fairy sandwiches - thank you Kandice for the idea!

   

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!

Lifeway Kefir GiveAway

Lifeway Kefir generously sent me some coupons so my family and I could try their whole line of products. Being from Germany, I have always liked Kefir but recently my kids have discovered it for themselves. They were so excited when I showed them all the varieties there are:

I brought Frozen Probugs, all varieties of ProBugs, Greek Style Kefir and their frozen Kefir home from the store to try. You can find their whole line of products HERE.

What is Kefir you ask? 

Kefir is a cultured, enzyme rich food  filled with friendly micro-organisms that help balance your “inner ecosystem.” More nutritious and therapeutic than yogurt, it supplies complete protein, essential minerals, and valuable B vitamins. It also is 99% Lactose free and easily digestable. (source kefir.net) Lifeway Kefir also is only made with milk from grass fed cows that’s free of rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormones) and antibiotics!

I was surprised how refreshing and creamy the frozen Kefir tasted and I loved that it is both gluten and 99% lactose free. It is also all natural - so no artificial color or flavors - which is always important to me since one of my kids has an intolerance to all artificial color and flavors. We really enjoyed the frozen Kefir and I highly recommend trying it. It is slightly tart and very refreshing tasting and would be a great snack with fresh fruit! Oh, and did I mention it has only 90 calories/serving and 4g of Protein :) ?

I am glad I also decided to pick up the Greek Style Kefir since one of my sons is not a Kefir fan. However, the Greek Style Kefir is thicker and sweeter and tastes more like drinkable yogurt which appeal to him much more (after trying this kind of Kefir he started trying more varieties and loves the Probugs Kefir now, too!) This is a great way to start introducing Kefir to your family if they already love drinkable yogurt!

Yum, the ProBugs Frozen Kefir was my kids' favorite hands down. It has become a staple in our house for after school snack since they are only 3 oz (perfect snack size), 70 calories and that with a wonderful 4g of protein. Even on rainy and dreary fall days this is the go to snack at our house. Plus, there is a flavor for everyone: Orange Creamy Crawler for those of us who love the orange and cream flavor, Strawnana Split for the classic banana/strawberry fans and GooBerryPie for the BerryLovers in our family. A Must Try!

ProBugs Kefir is also a close second favorite and we pack it nearly daily for snack at school. With 100 calories (the same calories as a 100 calorie snack bag or a cereal bar) it provides 7g of Protein and is a great source of calcium - the ideal mess-free snack at school, the car or really anyway you are on-the-go due to it's easy-to-grip shape and patented no-spill spout! 

We love all the flavors: Strawnana Split, Goo Berry Pie, Orange Creamy Crawlers and Sublime Slime Lime and my kids love the little monsters on the package which makes them even cool enough for my 10 year old to take to school and gives me the peace of mind that they had a healthy snack at school!

And if you are still not sure if Kefir has enough benefits to try it:

According to the Nationa Kefir Association, "Probiotic-containing foods like Kefir are essential during cold and flu season for preventing offending molecules from entering the bloodstream and creating reactions that can cause symptoms of ill health. South Africa-based Ingrid van Heerden, D.Sc, "DietDoc" for www.health24.com, says that probiotic containing foods like Kefir are important for maintaining 

a strong natural defense system because they stimulate the production of immunoglobulin in the 

intestines, which improves the body's immune response."

Ready to try some Kefir for yourself? Lifeway Kefir has offered to send you the same coupon pack they sent me so you have a chance to try their complete line of products!

Just enter my Rafflecopter Giveaway for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to U.S. Residents only. Please do not enter if you have received free products from Lifeway Kefir in the last 3 month. The winner has 48h to respond before I will re-draw a winner.

Lifeway Kefir provided me with coupons for free products. All opinions are my own.

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!

Harvest Lunch

Today's lunch is fall inspired. I packed the kids mini grapes, red sweet oranges and apples, as well as cucumbers, carrots, red and orange peppers and one mini yellow pepper. In the main compartment are two chocolate chip cookies, whole wheat crackers and a sunflower seed spread sandwich.

Hoping the weather changes from rainy and dark to a beautiful colorful fall day to match :)

Boo!

Halloween is coming! Only 16 more days - if you are counting :)

My kids love Halloween and get such a thrill out of Halloween themed lunches! 

So, this is what we packed for lunch:

Ghost popcorn, a pumpkin apple, pumpkin cheese crackers, a bat cereal bar and some scary PBJ sandwiches.