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Daily Bento

16 Sep

I actually woke up a little late this morning so lunch had to be made in a hurry.

It took less than 10 minutes from start to finish to make Cam’s lunch today and that time included me fiddling around with fruit leather in an attempt to dress up those ice cream cones. I soon realized that I didn’t have enough time to mess with it, regretted not making this lunch last night, gave up and shoved the whole fruit leather in my mouth instead.

What did make it into her lunch box today was a Biscoff sandwich that I cut into two cute cones using our Lunch Punch. She also has some strawberries, veggie chips, and what I call “cheesy peasy bread spread” (which is basically pea pesto) for her to dip her veggie chips into.

I usually spread it on a lightly toasted baguette and Miss Camryn goes nuts for it. She’s a pea lover from way back so this spread is right up her alley.

You can also thin it out with a little chicken or veggie stock and toss with pasta, couscous, or rice, you can dip crackers into it, and you can use it on a sandwich in place of mayo. A sandwich with bacon and tomato would be a very good idea.

Cheesy peasy bread spread is really easy to make and you can adapt it to suit your taste.

To make it you will need:

1 cup frozen peas – thawed

1/4 cup cheese (more or less) – I like parmesan

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Herbs – Basil, Mint, Tarragon, Italian seasoning, chives (whatever you like)

pine nuts (optional)

lemon juice (optional)

red pepper flakes (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil

Just toss everything except the olive oil into a blender or food processor and give it a whirl until it’s well incorporated. Then, with the machine running, drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil until it all comes together.

If you want it to be perfectly smooth, run it a little longer.

A little lemon zest folded in at the end is nice too.

Keep in an airtight container in the fridge. Should last 2-3 days.

You’ll notice that I didn’t give measurements for most of the ingredients. That’s because this recipe is really adaptable. If you like a lot of garlic, add a lot. If you don’t, leave it out. If you want more cheese – or even a different cheese, add it. If you want to make a larger amount, go for it. Just keep tasting and adding what you think it needs until it tastes right to you.

Daily Bento

11 Sep

I told Camryn last night that I would be making muffins for breakfast this morning and she immediately asked if I’d put some in her lunch today.

So in her Easy Lunchbox, she has two blueberry muffins, a flapjack from our Graze box, a few yellow pepper rings in the cute little kitty box, some pineapple, and sliced celery.

This is actually quite a bit of food for her so whatever she doesn’t finish, she’ll have for snack after school.

 

 

 

Daily Bento

9 Sep

 

For lunch today, Cam has a Hello Kitty Biscoff sandwich on potato bread that was cut and stamped with our CuteZCute cutter, some fruit and veggie gummy snacks, Triscuit minis, and some fresh pineapple.

There’s a bit more sugar in today’s lunch than I normally pack for her but that’s o.k. every now and then.

 

 

Daily Bento

6 Sep

 

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be happier that it’s Friday.

Two days of sleeping past 5:40! Sounds good to me.

 

My favorite grocery store makes pizza dough in-house and it’s delicious. So when I see it go on sale, I always grab a couple pounds of dough to stash in my fridge. There are so many things beyond pizza that you can make with it.

Last night however, my kids wanted cheese pizza. So that’s what they got. They love flavored pizza crust so I brushed the crust with a little olive oil and then sprinkled some garlic salt and Italian seasoning on it before I put in the oven.

The leftovers went into their lunches today. My kids have no problem eating cold pizza.

I cut Cam’s into bite-sized pieces for easy eating. She also has a fruit leather, grapes, celery, and a flapjack from our Graze box.

Both lunches took me no more than 10 minutes to pack. I made them last night and tossed them into the fridge so that they were ready to go this morning.

Happy Friday!

Daily Bento

5 Sep

 

 

For lunch today, Cam has a chicken sandwich on Hawaiian bread, a strawberry banana fruit rope , grapes, and mini Triscuits which are just the cutest little crackers ever.

It’s all packed up in her ELB with some sweet gnome and mushroom picks that I added for cuteness.

Daily Bento

4 Sep

This is a lunch that I made last week. I’m not sure which day though. Wednesday maybe?

That sounds good, let’s go with that.

Regardless, it was the only day that I was actually with it enough in the morning to snap a picture.

Remember the Biscoff Banana Muffins that I made last week? I threw the leftover muffins into a Ziploc freezer bag and stashed them in the freezer. They freeze brilliantly. I just pulled one out the night before I needed it and threw it into the fridge so it was ready for me the next morning.

As you can see, one of those muffins made it into Cam’s lunch along with two flapjacks from our Graze box, an organic fruit leather, some sliced sweet bell peppers, a few Wheat Thins sticks, and a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese for dipping.

Daily Bento

20 Aug

If you were a regular follower of this blog last school year, you might remember how I would gripe from time to time about how early the kindy kids ate lunch. 10:45! That’s bonkers early.

I thought for sure that Cam would be eating lunch later this year being in a higher grade.

Nope.

She eats lunch even earlier than last year!

Only by a minute, but still. That is super early to be eating lunch. And they do not get snack time.

Needless to say, the girl has been coming home hungry every day.

Although she has been eating more of her lunches instead of messing around during lunch time like last year.

So that’s a plus.

 


For lunch today I spread Laughing Cow cheese on a spinach wrap and then filled it with sliced carrot, bell pepper, and a piece of salami.

I made this for her over the summer and she wasn’t crazy about it. Most likely because I used veggie cream cheese. The Laughing Cow cheese made a big difference in flavor. Much better!

I rolled her wrap up nice and snug and I sliced it into bite-sized pieces for her so it would be easy to eat.

She also had pretzel crisps, grapes, and Annie’s Bunny Friends cookies.

First Day of School Lunch!

19 Aug

Daily Bento is back!

I’ll hope you weren’t expecting a full on “back to school” themed lunch today.

I think that the first day of school can be hard, especially at lunch time when you don’t know everybody yet, so I went for comfort over detail and packed some of her favorites.

She also got to use her new Yumbox that we bought over the summer.

 

 

For her first lunch of the new school year she had strawberries, pineapple, pepper rings, mini heart-shaped sandwiches filled with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut spread, a Babybel cheese cut into fourths, strawberry yogurt with a few rainbow sprinkles, and a few fruit and veggie gummies.

The Yumbox is pretty neat. It’s leak proof, which is so great, and it has a divided tray inside that is removable for easy clean up. It’s also easy for her to open and close which is always a plus.

 

Camryn was really looking forward to showing of her new lunch container at school today.

I just hope she actually ate her lunch.

Daily Bento: Dinner

31 Jul

I thought it might be fun to shake things up a bit and serve Cam’s dinner to her bento style.

I took the same food that would have been on her plate and arranged it in her Easy Lunchbox instead.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to my camera and had to snap the pic with my phone.

Ugh.

Is that pic killing your eyes too?

I apologize.

 

 

For dinner in her ELB, Cam had a turkey meatball sandwich with homemade bbq sauce and melty cheese on a teeny whole wheat bun, fries, organic apple wedges, broccoli, cauliflower, and red pepper strips.

 

 

Look! It’s a Lunch.

22 Jul

 

Don’t worry, my kids have been getting lunch over the summer.

I just take a more relaxed approach to lunch these days. Nothing worth photographing, really.

Most days, they get a sandwich or leftovers and some fruit. I don’t cut it up with cute cutters or put picks in it and it doesn’t go into a cute box.

In fact, most days they’re lucky if it even goes on a plate. Who needs more dishes to wash?

I made some veggie wraps for dinner over the weekend and they were fabulous so I had to remake them with one minor change for my little veggie loving lady.

And since they turned out so darn cute, I had to put them in Cam’s new bento box and then blog about them – of course.

In this lunch are 6 veggie wrap slices, an organic gala apple wedge, some fruit and veggie shreds from Plum Kids Organics, and a flapjack from our Graze box.

To make the veggie wraps:

Spread cream cheese or tzatziki on a wrap or tortilla (I used veggie cream cheese & a spinach wrap)

Then layer on some spring greens or baby spinach, thinly sliced red bell pepper, shredded or thinly sliced carrots, sliced avocado, and a thin sprinkle of shredded colby jack or cheddar cheese.

Cam’s wrap didn’t have avocado because she hasn’t really developed a taste for it yet but yours should because it’s delicious!

Feel free to switch up the veggies to suit your taste.