Left Over Lunches and a Move

Hi, yes, it is me and it has been so long since I posted :) 

I have been busy feeding my family but also planning a move and in the moment I am in between houses so please forgive me for not posting. Soon, we will be settled in the new house and I will have time to actually post my lunches and recipes again!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you an easy lunchbox put together solely with leftovers (moving means cleaning out the fridge ;)

This lunch I made for myself. It contains leftover veggie pizza, some leftover feta cheese, corn, cucumber and bean salad and a spear with left over baguette, butter and surimi. Easy and portable!

Tasterie Review - Allergy-Safe SnackBox

A couple of days ago, Tasterie sent me a one of their SnackBoxes to try and my family and I were immediately in love! 

Tasterie was founded by Lama Rimawi out of frustration with the lack of allergy-safe and great tasting food products.

"I was a pediatrician and a mom of a toddler, and a newborn that had multiple food allergies. It was simply too tiring to keep finding find food that I could introduce him to, or feed myself (while I breast-fed)."

There are many allergy-free options you can choose from and also simply a healthy snack or food box if your family has no allergies.

TasterieBox choices include:

Top 8 Allergen-free

gluten-free

gluten, dairy & casein-free

dairy-free

dairy & egg-free

dairy & soy-free

egg-free

soy-free

peanut & treenut-free

vegan

healthy & nutritious

I liked the variety of products and felt my kids were more inclined to try something when they had a choice of snack to pick. Since I have four kids it is sometimes hard to try new specialty products since I never know if they like it and therefore actually eat it which can be pricey at often $5 or $6 bags of snacks. This way we found many new favorites and everyone had fun trying something!

We loved the Kettle Corn Popcorn so much we shared it with our extended family. It is egg and dairy free and Vegan and the best Kettle Corn Popcorn we ever had. My kids also loved both Somersaults products and the Enjoy Life Mountain Mix! I loved the dried Mangos, Hummus and Falafel Chips! I am glad we got to try so many different and new foods!

This is one of the lunches I made with the Tasterie Box. It has Tasterie's Somersaults sunflower seed crunchy nuggets, apples, pretztels, raisins and a fun Sunbutter and Honey healthy kid sandwich - all nut free :)

Overall, I love the choice between the Signature and SnackBox, the variety of different allergy-free snacks and foods and the price which is lower then other health food boxes. Most products were only 1 or 2 servings each but as mentioned above I have no problem letting everyone try and purchasing the product in full size at my local health food store once everyone tried. Also, if you are buying the box for one member of your family with allergies the snacks would be just perfect.

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!

Quick Snack To Go

Happy Monday!

Today is just a quick picnic style snack for my daughter. We will be in the car today so I made her a Lunchbox to Go :)

We packed ham and cheese sandwiches , apple slices and some crackers with cheese. I added apple shaped cheese with sprinkle decorations to look like apples although they look more like oranges ;) We also added a cute cupcake pick shaped like an apple to tie it all together. I also packed her ice water and a yogurt tube.

Enjoy your Monday,

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!

Field Day Round Up

We have had one busy week packed with fun at school and at home. I haven't been able to blog their lunches and will do some round ups to catch you up:)

Here is our Field Day Round Up!

First off, my first grader had a field trip to a local farm to learn all about bugs. So, of course I had to do a bug themed lunch:

He brought ice water and a yogurt and we packed apple slices sprinkled with lemon juice and decorated with cute ladybug picks, veggie sticks with a chocolate lady bug treat and a Nutella sandwich on whole wheat bread decorated as a ladybug with melted chocolate and candy eyes :)

 My fourth grader had a beach day at school with lots of fun in the water and sun, so his lunch is  beach themed:

He packed ice water and Guacamole dip (under the Babybel cheese) and whole wheat Tortilla chips, a babybel cheese, a pumpkin seed roll with butter and jelly, some cheddar-jack cheese and a chocolate chip cookie. The cute sea creature pick in his lunch are cupcake toppers from amazon.com :)

My Kindergartner had a field trip to the park today and had to pack a disposable lunch. Also, everything had to be labeled clearly, so I came up with this (for privacy I removed his name from all the containers with a photo program before posting but they were on there so he knew what was his :)

My son picked Doc McStuffins as a theme for today. So I went and printed out some pictures on sticker paper and added his name (removed) so his lunch would be properly labeled. We made a new label for his water bottle, carrying bag and lunch container.

I always save plastic containers for occasions like this and we found a great paper bag with handles and a fennel plastic container that snaps shut to redecorate  :)

I taped a disposable plastic spoon for apple sauce on the inside of the lid and added a napkin before adding his lunch to make it more fun!

He packed a 1/2  Nutella sandwich with melted chocolate decorations...

...grapes in a disposable plastic container, an apple sauce, a cereal bar and some oatmeal cranberry cookies. He also has his water bottle with the new label that I froze for a couple of hours this morning to keep it cold until lunch. All is packed in a paper bag and the frozen water bottle also will keep the lunch cool until they eat :)

For more great ideas on how to pack a fun disposable lunch please click here: http://pinterest.com/easylunchboxes/disposable-lunch-boxes/

Happy Monday and Happy Field Trips - if you still have some coming up!