10/11

Lunches for today, Oct 11, 2011

7 yr old- Egg salad, GF rice crackers for dipping. Babybel cheese, 4 gluten free mini cookies, 2 dates. Strawberries and pear slices, celery with sunbutter and chocolate. Tiny dill pickles on a stick.  Yogurt and banana for afternoon snack.

She reports- "The yogurt was gross, I hated it! (tried a new brand, dairy free almond milk yogurt. Apparently NOT a keeper, LOL!)  also- "I loved the egg salad. and I like my bell cheese better when you make it cute" (ok, so noted- cute babybel cheese!)

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15 yr old- Tuna salad, GF rice crackers to dip. Strawberries, HB egg, celery with cream cheese. 5 mini GF cookies, 2 dates. Orange.

He reports- " I loved my lunch today, the tuna was really good, did you do something different? I also like those brown things, what are they called?" Dates. They're dates, lol. Also nothing different with the tuna. Just olive oil mayo, onion and relish.

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 17 yr old- Tuna salad, GF rice crackers for dipping, strawberries, babybel cheese, celery with cream cheese, mini GF cookies, 2 dates. Banana.

She reported- " I ate everything, so apparently I liked it" as she walked away texting her boyfriend. LOL!

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Todays pictures are very dark. My cell camera is not the best. If it wasn't such a PITA to use my digital camera and upload pics from it each time I'd take much better pictures. Hopefully they aren't so bad you can't get the general idea...

Also, a real life friend suggested I ask the kids to report on what they liked or didn't like in their lunches so I'll be doing that from now on :)

10/10

I realize I've skipped a week of lunches. It has been a hectic couple of weeks around here. My 17yr is a Senior in High School and we've been doing the College application thing, Senior pictures (taken by me) Homecoming Dance, AND parent teacher conferences for all 3 in one day. I haven't had time to post the pictures of their lunches. I did take pictures though! I've been so exhausted. I'm also an avid knitter and it is almost the Holiday season so around this time of year is when I am staying up way too late to finish gifts :)

I figured I would start fresh with this week!

Today my kiddos ate-

17 yr old- ham,turkey,salami rolls (all three rolled together) a babybel cheese, celery with cream cheese, colby cheese squares, strawberry, melon and gluten free chips. And a tangerine.

She reported- "My lunch was so good, I ate every single bite!"

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15 yo old- Ham, turkey and salami rolls, babybel cheese, celery with cream cheese, grumpy HB egg, strawberry, melon, GF chips and a tangerine.
He reported- "My food was really yummy today, but my chips were soggy" I asked how they could be soggy and he replied " I dunno, they had water in them" Since there was no water in his lunch box we concluded that some juice from his melon must have seeped over. We also concluded that he must not have kept his lunch box upright. He confessed to "tossing" it into his locker, and swinging it around on his way to lunch. Not my fault he had soggy chips! Maybe he will learn now, LOL!

7 yr old- 2 ham, turkey and salami rolls, babybel cheese, celery with cream cheese, flower painted HB egg, melon and GF chips. A pear for afternoon snack, which she switched out for a small apple and a cheese stick this morning.

She reports- "I liked my lunch today, the flower cut out was cute. I wanted more strawberries though. And I liked the flower on the HB egg." I asked her if she ate the egg (before I unpacked her lunchbox) and she replied " well.. I didn't really have much time, so I took one bite at least!" She did eat everything else, including her apple and cheese for snack.

9/30

For my 15 yo-

Egg salad, GF crackers, hummus and carrots. Grapes and orange slices, cheese skull (by my husband) with red eyes and a dagger in his mouth. GF animal crackers, yogurt, trail mix and an orange.

For my 17 yo-

Ham and salami, black olives, cheese,GF crackers. Flower carrots, grapes, GF animal crackers. Trail mix, yogurt, apple.

For my 7 yo-

Flower theme!
Flower hardboiled eggs. kiwi, babybel cheese, carrots, grapes, black olives, GF animal crackers. Yogurt, trail mix and an orange.
She will pick two things to have as afternoon snack. Usually its the yogurt and orange.

My 3yr old ate HB egg, black olives, apple and grapes, trail mix, flax crackers with cheese and banana with nutella. He ate everything except the egg yolks which he usually gives to me.

9/21

Todays lunches are mostly the same. We had an unexpected over night guest last night and since he was going to school too I made an extra lunch. Can't let kids go hungry, even if they aren't mine!

Since I had an extra kid I didn't have enough food set aside for lunches and needed to think about something else instead.

While pondering what to make since I had an extra mouth to feed my teen son came into the kitchen and asked what was for lunch. I told him I had to ponder for a moment and come up with something and he said "hey, could you make that chicken salad again? That was really good!" So, they all get chicken salad. Easy!  How I make mine  at bottom of post.

For my 7yo-
Chicken salad, GF rice crackers for dipping, Purple sweet potato flowers, red bell pepper slices, white cheddar cheese slices. Cantaloupe and a dark chocolate square with a bumble bar. Pear for afternoon snack.

For my 15yo-
Chicken salad, GF rice crackers, hard boiled egg, red bell peppers, purple sweet potato stars, cantaloupe, dark chocolate square, bumble bar, and a peach.

For my 17yo-
Chicken salad, lettuce for wraps, red bell peppers, purple potato flowers, cantaloupe, dark chocolate square, bumble bar and an apple.

For our guest-
Chicken salad, lettuce for wraps, red bell pepper, purple potato stars, cantaloupe, dark chocolate square and bumble bar, pear.


For my chicken salad- Its really easy and apparently my kids think its the best ever, lol. Also I don't measure anything exactly but this is basically what I do...

I cook 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the pressure cooker,  I then remove and shred into a bowl. I add half a small onion diced, half a small apple diced, run half a carrot over the shredder and plop in two spoonfuls of mayo made with olive oil. A little salt and pepper and call it done. Its fairly simple and quick to make if you cook the chicken in a pressure cooker! My chicken breasts went from frozen to cooked tender and shredded in about 35 min!

9/20

The first two lunches today are packed into our Easy Lunch Boxes  The one for my 7yo is packed into her little bento box she picked out.

17yo DD-
Ham rolls, cheese squares, red bell pepper, small plum.
Homemade trail mix, bumblebee bar, black olives, dark chocolate square. Apple.

 

15 yo DS-

Egg salad, rice crackers to dip, cheese squares, small plum, bumblebee bar, homemade trail mix, black olives, dark chocolate square. Nectarine.

7 yo DD-
2 hard boiled egg flowers, small golden plum, red bell pepper slices, 3 purple tomatoes, bumblebee bar, black olives, cheese, trail mix. greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey and some dark chocolate flakes, pear.

9/6

Yesterday my kids did not have school. My 7yo daughter had a pretty bad crash on her bike and suffered a concussion. So today she is home from school. She has a Doctor appt later to get checked out again and we will see how she is doing after. She is pretty banged up but doing well considering. Thank goodness for helmets!

I packed a bento for my 7yo and 3yo to eat at home before we leave. They enjoyed these picnic style eating on our patio outside :)

In the yellow box we have for my 3yo.
Hard boiled egg, cheese squares, turkey rolls. Fresh mango slices, green grapes, celery with peanut butter and half a gluten free cookie.

In the blue box for my 7yo. Exactly the same as the yellow box.

My 7yo attends a "nut free" classroom. And there is at least one child in her class who has a peanut allergy. So she only gets peanut butter items at home. If I am sending something like celery to school for her I will use a safer alternative such as "sun butter" or cream cheese.

Also, my kids got to pick out their boxes. My 3yo sons favorite color right now is yellow so thats what he picked. My 7yo really likes blue. I'm happy if they are happy :)

8/31

17 yo DD-
2 triangle shaped onigiri with carrot flowers on top. Hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, cheese squares and a few apple slices with the cores cut out that I stuffed with small red grapes. Not pictured is a plum and a small bowl of GF corn chips.

15 yo DS-
Pretty much exactly what the 17yo got. Notice the lil yellow fork in the cheese? I found a container of vintage olive forks at the thrift store for 99c! They're the perfect size for small bento foods.

7 yo DD-
2 flower shaped hard boiled eggs. celery with sun butter, peaches, cheese squares and apples like the teen agers got. She also had her usual full fat yogurt and an orange for afternoon snack.
In this picture her peaches look kinda lame and bruised. Just before sending her off to school I opened the box and inspected them in person, I asked her if they were ok and she said "yummy!" after tasting one. They didn't seem bruised to the naked eye, but the camera maybe picks up things we don't I guess.

8/30

This lunch was packed by my 7 yo DD. She got to pick everything that went inside, and I must say that I think she did a darn good job!
2 Hard boiled eggs, celery with cream cheese, cherry tomatoes on a stick, cucumber slices, red grapes. In the tiger bowl she cut flower shaped cheese. Afternoon snack is a bowl of full fat yogurt and red plum.

Often times my teenagers will ask for dinner left overs in their lunches. I don't usually photograph those because they aren't very pretty :) So if you see just the 7yo lunch posted you can safely assume my teens picked left overs that day. Which is fine by me, because that tells me I must be doing something right with my dinners since they seem to want them again!

8/24

This is for my 17yo DD.

3 flower shaped Onigiri with red bell pepper shaped flowers on top. Hard boiled egg, cheese on sticks, cantaloupe balls, red bell pepper and cucumber slices. In the smaller container we have spaghetti squash with cheese. 

My oldest two are in High School so they have access to a microwave. Sometimes I will pack foods for them to heat up before eating.

Same day lunch for 7yo DD.

Cat shaped onigiri with Nori slices for whiskers and mouth, red and green bell peppers for eyes and nose. Tomato slices, cucumber slices, hard boiled egg, cheese on flower sticks and a mixture of cantaloupe and blueberries.

8/23

Lunch for 7yo DD.
Blueberries,cheese on animal sticks,carrot flowers,broccoli,hard boiled egg,half of a plum,"fancy" cucumber slices

and oranges for afternoon snack.

On the same day we had playgroup with my local Moms group. My 3yo DS also got a bento lunch.

Hard boiled egg, plum slices, celery with peanut butter and tiny chocolate chips, carrot flowers on fishy sticks. Cheese slices on animal sticks and a mixture of peaches and blueberries with a flower fork. He ate everything except the egg yolk.