It’s the first day of school!
For lunch today, I made Camryn an apple-shaped sandwich and topped it with letters cut out from a fruit and veggie strip. I also included a fruit-filled cereal bar (under the Lunchbox Love note), some heart-shaped strawberries, and a few veggie straws.
Her lunch is packed up in this super adorable new bento box.
Now that summer is almost over I’m willing to bet that at least a few of you have been perusing Pinterest for cute lunch ideas and maybe even scoping out reusable lunch containers online.
If you like the idea of sending your kids to school with trash-free lunches but weren’t sure which lunch box would be right for your kids and your budget, then you’ve come to the right place.
Today I’m sharing which of our lunch boxes are my favorites. All of them made the cut because they’re easy to pack, easy to clean, and easy to love.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know how much I love CuteZCute products. The Animal Friends and the Animal Palz have been featured many times because they’re cute, easy to use, easy to clean, practically indestructible, and most importantly – they’re affordable!
That’s why I’m super excited to be able to share the newest addition to the CuteZCute family with you today, Cuddle Palz!
Cuddle Palz can be used to cut or stamp bread, meats, cheeses, fondant, cookie dough, pie dough, fruits, veggies, fruit leather, tortillas, and so many other things. You can mix and match the cutters and stamps to create over forty different combinations!
And when you’re done, Cuddle Palz can be washed on the top rack of your dishwasher. Hooray for easy clean up!
There’s so much you can do with this set. I just love it.
I used the koala cutter to make Cam’s lunch today. I showed her the handy dandy combination guide (that can be downloaded and printed out from the Cuddle Palz web page) and let her choose what she wanted. She asked if her koala could be doing a hand stand just like the one pictured and I was happy to oblige because the body cutter makes it so easy.
We used the cute koala pick in her bento today as a food pick but it can also be used to help you remove the small cut-outs from the cutters. We like multitaskers!
Camryn was even able to use our new Cuddle Palz sandwich cutters to make her dad a tiger sandwich. She had a little trouble getting the edges of the bread nice and smooth at first, but once I showed her the “push and wiggle trick” she was good to go and now she’s pretty much a pro. 😉
So if you’re looking for a fun way to spruce up your kids’ lunches in a hurry, I highly recommend Cuddle Palz.
I also think Cuddle Palz would make a great gift as well as a fun party or play date activity for little ones.
Want to learn more about Cuddle Palz? No problem. Just click here.
Want to see Cuddle Palz in action? Here you go.
Cuddle Palz and other CuteZCute products are available on amazon.com and from my favorite bento goodies website, allthingsforsale.com.
A couple of bentos for Friday:
The first is yesterday’s lunch which contained a strawberry preserves and cream cheese kitty sandwich cut with our Cutezcute kitty cutter, Triscuits, grapes, fresh pineapple chunks, and a few sugar snap peas.
Today’s lunch is macaroni and cheese pizza (pizza with macaroni and cheese baked on top!), strawberries, veggie straws, and chocolate covered almonds. I added a couple of pups from this set to add instant cuteness.
Today’s easy lunch contains leftovers from last night’s dinner.
We had teriyaki chicken sandwiches with an Asian style slaw on the side. Since there was plenty of the slaw left, I just mixed in some cooked edamame and then crumbled dry ramen noodles for some crunch this morning, gave it a toss, and it was good to go.
I meant to add in the leftover shredded chicken as well but I stepped away to do something else this morning and forgot. Whoops!
I also added a few grapes with these fun new picks, a Babybel with a creepy face, and some dark chocolate covered almonds.
Today’s lunch was all packed up in this box.
Because I’ve been slacking on blogging…
Here are a few lunches from this week:
This was a simple lunch for Miss Camryn, packed in her super cute little pink house bento. She had salami roll-ups, veggie chips, pineapple, watermelon, carrot, celery, and red bell pepper sticks.
Aren’t those kitty picks precious? Cam got them for her birthday and she loves them.
This was a work lunch/snack that I packed for the Mr. He doesn’t need a lot of food because he eats dinner with us before he goes to work.
On this day. I sent him on his way with some celery and zucchini sticks, a little ranch dressing (in the panda sauce cup) for dipping, a homemade granola bar, and some pistachios in the super cute squirrel container.
I think this was Cam’s lunch on Tuesday. She had leftover macaroni and cheese in her thermos, a honeycomb flapjack from our Graze box, some cheese crackers, pineapple, and watermelon.
I arranged the fruit in a checkerboard pattern to fancy it up a bit only because I had an extra couple of minutes that morning.
The chicken pick is from a new set that she got for her birthday.
The lunches are back!
I haven’t posted in a while so I have quite a bit of catching up to do.
These particular lunches that I’m about to share with you were my husband’s lunches/snacks over the past week.
Camryn has been bringing a lot of leftovers that have been warmed in her thermos for lunch, and those just don’t photograph well.
So, grown up lunches it is!
For the lunch pictured above, I used a rolling pin to flatten two slices of wheat bread and filled each one with a little egg salad. Then I cut them into bite-sized pieces. I tucked some puffed wheat crackers in next to the egg salad rolls-ups, and added cucumber slices, raspberries, and celery sticks. The sauce containers hold peanut butter and blue cheese dressing for dipping.
This Easy Lunchbox holds a veggie-heavy sandwich (turkey, mashed avocado in place of mayo, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, homemade pickles on multi-grain bread) with a few cucumbers on the side, sweet potato and brown rice crackers, and strawberries filled with spicy vegan chocolate pudding (recipe to come).
On Wednesday afternoon, I whipped up some delicious avocado hummus. Unfortunately, it goes bad fairly quickly thanks to the avocado, so I used quite a bit of it to make the Mr.’s work lunch. I smeared a good helping of the hummus on a multi-grain wrap and topped it with lettuce, shredded carrot, sliced red onion, thinly sliced cucumber, and sprouts. Then I rolled it up tightly, sliced it in half, and it was good to go. I threw in some pita chips, a few of my quick and easy peanut butter bars, and extra hummus for dipping in the fish container.
Avocado Hummus
1 15 oz. can of canellini beans – rinsed and drained
1 avocado
juice of a lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a couple pinches of cayenne pepper – optional, except in my house 😉
salt and pepper to taste
Blend until smooth.
Store in an air tight container in the fridge. Best eaten within a day or two.
Quick & Easy Peanut Butter Bars
1/2 cup peanut butter – I used Wild Friends Sesame Cranberry PB
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey – I used maple syrup
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/4 tsp cinnamon
optional add-ins – about a handful of dried fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, and/or seeds
Add the peanut butter and maple syrup to a large microwave safe bowl and microwave until smooth enough to mix together. This took about 30 seconds in my microwave. You can also do this in a pot on the stove.
Mix well until combined and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix to incorporate everything together and dump into an 8×8 pan.
Press to form an even layer and let sit for a couple of hours at room temp before eating. This helps the oats to soften.
You can also roll the mixture into balls if you prefer.
Store covered at room temperature.
This super simple lunch contains fresh zucchini, carrot, and celery slices, more peanut butter bars, dates filled with Wild Friends Cinnamon Raisin PB, and a little chocolate.
The lunch pictured above contains one of my new favorite sandwiches: A flaky croissant filled with ham, thinly sliced Bosc pear, and Muenster cheese. If you haven’t tried that combo you’re missing out. It’s delicious!
If you do try it, slice the croissant, add the cheese and pop it in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted, then add the ham and pear. That’s the best way, it just is.
To go with the sandwich, I added some strawberries, raspberries, and sweet peppers that I sliced in half and filled with tzatziki.
This lunch is packed in one of my favorite cheapo containers that I found at Marshall’s a while back. I think I paid less than $5 for this one and I use it all the time so it was worth every penny.
Not wanting to make another sandwich or wrap, I added chopped chives to softened cream cheese and then spread a little onto a few slices of turkey. Then I wrapped the turkey around a few of my homemade pickle spears and called it done.
Also included in this lunch are carrot sticks, broccoli, blueberry Belvita biscuits, sweet potato and brown rice crackers, and a couple of pieces of chocolate in this sweet little food cup. The sauce container holds ranch dressing for dipping.
I hope these lunches will inspire your own lunch packing next week. Seriously, try that ham, pear, and cheese on croissant. It’s so good!
Have a great weekend! ♥
How’s your weekend going?
Are you doing anything super fun?
I hope you are, unless you’re into relaxing this weekend and in that case, I hope that’s what you’re doing.
My husband and kids are currently in our living room watching video game previews 
so I thought it would be a good time to share another work lunch that I made for my husband.
It was either that or folding a load of laundry and I think we all know how excited I get over that chore.
His Easy Lunchbox contains a turkey and romaine wrap on a whole wheat tortilla that I smeared with a little horseradish/dijon mayo, a few fresh raspberries, some homemade pickles, and a couple of apple slices that I smeared with Wild Friends Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter, dipped in dark chocolate, and sprinkled with seat salt. Yum!
I made his wrap when the tortilla was cold so it ripped.
This is real life and in real life, wraps rip.
Say that three times fast.
If apples aren’t your thing or maybe you’re just in the mood to trash things up this weekend, have I got an idea for you…
Just smear some peanut butter (I used Wild Friends Sesame Cranberry Peanut Butter) on a few chips, dip them in melted dark chocolate, and then sprinkle a little sea salt on top. Pop them in the fridge or freezer to set, and munch away!
I really like the addition of the dried fruit in these so if you have any, chop it up and add it to the peanut butter before you smear it on.
If you’re using a smooth peanut butter, you can just stir it into the chocolate, dip, set, and you’ll be good to go.
Happy snacking! ♥
I’ve got a new bento box to show you!
It’s beyond adorable and Camryn loves it.
I had originally planned on getting her this one but when I came across a pink version, I knew I had to get it for my girl.
It’s pretty small so it required some planning to get everything to fit but it’s definitely doable and it holds more food than I thought it would. It’s the perfect size for young kids but I can definitely see Cam getting many more years of use out of this one. It’s just so darn cute!
I really like that it comes with its own ice pack. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the front of the box this morning, but you can check out more info about it here.
For lunch today in her adorable new bento box, Cam has a salami sandwich cut into hearts set into these cups, baby goldfish crackers, a granola bar cut into thirds, and some celery and carrot sticks. I used silicone cups from this set to hold the other food items.
My friend Sara, who moved all the way across the country to Oregon about a year ago, kept telling me about this nut butter that she found way out there.
I like nut butters as much as the next person so when she offered to send me some to try, I happily accepted.
She was awesome enough to send me two full-sized jars of Wild Friends Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter and Sesame Cranberry Peanut Butter. She also sent me two single-serve packets of Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter and Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter.
As soon as they got here, I cracked them open and sampled each one.
Then I made jam because at that moment I knew that the half-empty jar of strawberry Smucker’s in the door of my fridge just wouldn’t do.
Each flavor I tried was a winner. Even the Chocolate Coconut PB… and I hate coconut!
Go figure.
Since I had already ripped open the single-serve packet with wild abandon, I went ahead and used it to make the hubs a quick wrap for lunch tonight at work.
I already have some ideas for the other flavors so stay tuned.
In his Lunchbots Trio, my husband has a wrap that contains a whole wheat tortilla, my homemade berry jam, Wild Friends Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter, and sliced banana. He also has a few celery sticks with blue cheese dressing for dipping, some herby bread snacks from our Graze box, and a few raspberries with a dark chocolate chip inside for a sweet treat after lunch.
* Interested in signing up with Graze? Use my friend code: CASSK5VKP to get your 1st and 5th box for free!
.jpg)
We Should Be Folding Laundry 