Showing posts with label no sandwich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label no sandwich. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Grownup Lunch!


Here's a lunch I packed for my husband to take to work. This is a huge container so that is a decent sized salad!

Leftover potato salad, pears with a few pieces of dried mango.
Mixed salad with romaine, grape tomatoes, mini bell peppers, cucumbers
ham, cheese, carrots & snap peas. I didn't' send dressing because we have some in the office fridge.
I heard this was good :)

These containers are the ones I usually send the girls for their hot lunch because they seal really well. This is helpful when they don't eat everything and leave dressed salad, coleslaw or pasta sauce. They are just so darn big it annoys me. It makes them hard to pack in lunch bags, particularly on days when they need a morning snack AND an afternoon snack. They're fine for grownups though!


Here are some items that I used when making this lunch.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Monday, September 18, 2017

Ceasar Salad lunch

Day 2 for Amy was a salad lunch. She picked everything.


Snack is apples, carrots & peanut butter.
Her lunch is a Ceasar salad with no croutons, the dressing is in a container under the peanut butter
with a side of pears. 


This is a Rubbermaid lunch blox divided container, they aren't huge but it was still a bit too much for her.  To be fair I did pack quite a bit of lettuce in there. The carrots are in a cube sized Sistema snack container and the peanut butter fit right on top in a little cup that sits under the lid. I think we will like that container this year! I bought all of these containers at Lindo's Devonshire but you can find them at lots of places - including Amazon!


Here are some items that I used when making this lunch.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Chips & Salsa for Friday!

Normally Fridays are pizza days at school. They didn't start on the first Friday so as a special treat everyone had chips & salsa lunch. It was a hit. All were slightly different variations, and here are two of them.

This is Rose's (no salsa!)

mini bell peppers, grape tomatoes, carrots, roasted chicken breast
assorted berries & Lundberg Red Rice & Quinoa Chips with french onion dip


 This is Emily's lunch.

cheese stick & pistachios , blackberries & strawberries
chips & salsa.


Thursday, September 14, 2017

Back to School - Day 1.


The first week of back to school went well! Girls did a great job of getting ready in the morning. Although the wee one was a little slower than the rest ;)

This is Emily's lunch from the first day of school. It's packed in her Yumbox lunchbox.


Honeydew & Cantaloupe, Cucumbers & Carrots
Graham Crackers, Cheese Stick & Pistachios and a few blueberries

She ate almost everything - no surprise there since she picked her lunch! She picked her "flair" too. 
Everyone else had school hot lunch on the first day -- I think it was pizza.

Hope your back to school time is going well. I have actually been away for work all week so Dad has been on lunch duty. He told me he has made salads, wraps and sandwiches. 

It's hard to find time to blog but I do have quite a few pictures from the first week so I'll do my best to share them all. My girls do like looking back at their lunches and I do too!

Here they are - M1, P5, P4, P2!



Here are some items that I used when making this lunch. The yumboxes come in different configurations and colours as shown below. They can also be found at Lindo's Devonshire and People's.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!

 

Friday, October 24, 2014

Gluten Free, Dairy Free lunch with Chocolate Chip Banana Bread



Yesterday, I posted one of Rose's favourite kinds of lunch - the snack box. Today her Planetbox has her second favourite kind of lunch - salad.


Rose has Applegate Farms chicken strips, red grapes, dairy & gluten free choc chip banana bread (recipe from Natural Nutrition) with probably a bit too large of a smear of dairy free butter like spread! The main compartment has all of her favourite veggies in a salad - romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, yellow mini bell pepper, carrot coins & cucumber.

When she came home she said it was the best lunch ever, even the chicken. Love her.


Friday, September 5, 2014

A new milestone - all girls at the same school! (and some vegetarian lunches too!)


Yesterday was Emily's first day at school! She handled it like a champ. No tears and enjoyed her day at big school. She will be at home by lunchtime each day this year so I won't be packing her a lunch to take.

Here are all of my girls ready for school yesterday. They were greeted by a bunch of smiling teachers who have known most of them since they were babies, happy to have all of them at school together at last! It was quite a moment for me to have them all climb out of the car and head off to their classrooms. Of course, I spent the morning thinking of them, particularly Emily on her first day, hoping that it was a good one! And it was. 


Poor Rosie did not have a good day, I had to pick her up after lunch as she was not feeling well. Fever & a sore throat  - we're off to the Dr today. Yikes!


The girls wanted a little yogurt in their lunches today so I used our leakprook Yumbox lunchboxes.

This was Rose's lunch - she didn't eat much on account of not being well.
yogurt, cheese sticks, sprinkles in the little cup for her yogurt, no bake energy bites, pepitas, grapes & strawberries, grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper.


Heidi's is similar

Just realised that I put her eye picks in with the eyelashes facing the wrong way - oops!

Amy's lunch is packed in our brand new Yumbox Panino. Sadly, this photo is pretty terrible. I was a bit nervous for Emily's first day and trying to get out the door early enough in case she had a meltdown at dropoff. My hand must have been shaking!


Annie's cookies, strawberry fruit leather, energy bites, almonds, bell pepper & cucumbers, clementine, grapes



Here are some items that I used when making this lunch.
Disclaimer: if you make a purchase using the links on my site I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Japanese Fun Eyes Bento Food Pick, for your lunch box - Small Japanese Bento Accessories Sauce Container set of 4 Lovely Mayo Cup Bento Silicone Baking Food Cup 12pcs Square

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Monday, January 13, 2014

Vegetarian Yumbox

I packed a very simple vegetarian lunch for Rose in her new Yumbox last week.

Rose has cherry yogurt & plain greek yogurt swirled together and topped with sprinkles, diced peaches, cheddar and colby jack cheese cubes, mini crackers, a couple of fruit snacks and her favourite veggies - cucumber and yellow peppers.

When it came home empty I asked her about eating everything worried that she was still hungry. Nope! Her teacher had birthday cupcakes but they had to eat all of her lunch first. So the size is actually quite perfect.

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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

A pair of fruit salads

I made two fruit salad lunches for Heidi & Amy. These lunches were super fast to make - 5 Minutes tops! Everyone made it to school on time - phew!


Heidi has Ritz crackers, ham & turkey rollups, carrot sticks with ranch dip and a fruot salad made to order. She requested peaches, honeydew melon, grapes, apples and maraschino cherries.


Amy's lunch is almost identical. She has the same fruit salad that Heidi chose, plus there are a few pears added.


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Monday, October 14, 2013

Applesauce+yogurt = yummy!


Yum! Our new favourite yogurt combo for lunch.

Rose has ritz crackers, ham rollups, turkey rollups, honeydew melon and a few maraschino cherries (by special request). The big dipper contains cinnamon applesauce on the bottom and vanilla yogurt on top. The little panda container has a few sprinkles to put on her yogurt. I packed an ice pack on the top and bottom of this planetbox, Rose said it was still nice and cold at lunchtime.

I saw a really lovely yogurt combo on OrganizedBites a while back and I instantly wanted to try it out - unsweetened applesauce, Vanana yogurt, honey and cinnamon. Before sending it for lunch, I made it at home with cinnamon applesauce, vanilla yogurt and honey and while I LOVED it, Rose preferred it without the honey. So here is Rose's version, packed for lunch. She ate everything and I think she was a bit hungrier than usual when she came home from school, so next time I need to add a little something extra. The lunch on OrganizedBites does look fuller and I also like how she swirled the yogurt so that you could see just a hint of something underneath! 


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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Momables Mini Quiches

This post contains affiliate links

Today, Rose has a recipe straight off the Momables menu, Ham & Cheese Mini Quiches. Momables is a lunch menu planning service. You can sign up to receive a weekly menu of 5 lunch recipes with photos, tips & shopping list. Each recipe gives you a hint to make it gluten free or vegetarian if applicable. When you sign up you also gain access to other Momables recipes and their homemade resource guides which are not available on the public website.


Rose has green grapes, cantaloupe, a green salad with baby butter lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and yellow pepper. The top compartment has orange pepper, green beans and grape tomatoes. In the main compartment there are 5 mini quiches. The original recipe calls for ham but we substituted honey roasted turkey since that's what was on hand. 

This recipe literally took 20 minutes tops to whip up last night. I popped them in the fridge and packed them for lunch this morning. They were cooling on the rack for a bit after baking and at one point I thought I would have to stash a few away to make sure there would be some left for lunch. Turns out they are a quick and yummy snack too and everyone in the house gave them the kid seal of approval!

If you want to sign up click the button below! You can also signup for their newsletter (recommended!) and gain access to a free sample menu.


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Monday, April 29, 2013

Easy Veggie Lunch for Rose


Rose had two requests for her lunch today - no sandwich and use the planetbox. 
Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Plus -  I had a bunch of her favourite foods on hand :)

walnuts & peanuts, grape tomatoes, broccoli and carrot sticks
clementine, red grapes, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, hummus and Stacy's Pita Chips

I realise that the little container for the nuts looks odd but the lid had  Spongebob on it and I knew she would like it. I should have taken a  photo with the lid on also. Lunches had to be super easy this morning because this Momma was worn out! Yesterday, we had a rainbow art party for the girls' birthday. It was extremely fun. Every party I say that I am going to reign it in a bit and simplify next time but somehow that never happens. I think it's because I have so much fun coming up with ideas! I know it seems kind of late for their birthday party since their actual birthdays were several weeks ago but we wanted to have it at the school playground due to the number of kids (35 invited!! plus my 4 girls) and it was booked up until now. So it was a much anticipated afternoon and the girls were so happy to spend the afternoon with their friends.

For some other fun Meatless Lunches check out:
BentoForKidlet

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Homemade Chicken Nuggets for lunch

Homemade chicken nuggets for lunch - This was for Rose and was eaten at home.
chicken nuggets, pistachios & almonds, ketchup for dipping, carrots and grape tomatoes (from our garden)
fresh fruit - apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries

The idea to make these into heart shapes was seen on BentOnBetterLunches, I used to always just make nugget shapes, when I saw Cristi's shaped into hearts, I thought hey- why didn't I think of that!
Here's my recipe:

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

1 lb ground chicken
a few grinds each of sea salt & black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground flax seed
1 small carrot, grated
1 small apple, grated
1 leek, sliced
I clove of garlic, chopped
Extra Virgin Olive Oil about 1 tbsp
2/3 cup cornflake crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan and romano

Preheat oven to 375F.
In a medium frying pan add olive oil (a quick once around the pan, about 1 tbsp). Saute carrots, leeks, garlic and grated apple until all are soft. Put into mini chopper and whiz a couple of times. Cool slightly. In a medium bowl, mix ground chicken, salt & pepper, papkrika, and ground flax seed. Add the vegetable mixture. Mix until just combined.  In a small bowl mix together cornflake crumbs and cheeses. Form chicken into small nuggets or heart shapes using your hands to form the shape and coat in the crumb mixture. Place on cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Spray the tops of the nuggets with non-stick spray and bake for 12-15 minutes turning once. If you would like to freeze these for later, go as far as coating the nuggets and place them on a small cookie sheet and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes - 1 hour. Then store in the freezer in an airtight container or freezer bag. When you are ready to bake them add an extra 5 minutes to the cooking time.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Colourful Lunch!

Here's a colourful lunch that I made for Rose last week. I just noticed that I hadn't posted it when I went to review my pictures from this morning.

Leftover roasted chicken on fish picks, broccoli, tomato & carrots (from our garden)
goldfish and fruit salad 

She ate almost everything, leaving just a few bites. I was doing so well staying away from the favourite ham sandwich of the picky one. Woke up late today with no plan and packed ham sandwiches. I had just enough time to snap a quick picture so I'll post those shortly.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Fast lunches - 3 lunches in 20 minutes!

I finally timed myself making lunch. It took me 20 minutes to make 3 lunches. I was kind of rushing - but only because we woke up at 8 am today!!  I am trying to send lunches other than sandwiches and here are taco lunches by request. everyone had the same -except Amy who wanted cilantro mixed in with her lettuce.

Leftover taco meat, lettuce, taco shell, cheese & cantaloupe

I feel like I should have tucked some carrot sticks in there or something extra but I was having a hard time  getting everything to fit. I think I'll look up some other taco lunches and see how other people get them to fit nicely.  At the very last minute when I was packing up I added a granola bar to Rose's lunch. She doesn't take a morning snack as they have a classroom community snack. I was worried that it might not be enough food if she's hungrier at lunch time because she didn't like the morning snack. Amy already takes two snacks and rarely eats them both so I knew she would have extra in her lunch. Her snacks today were a boiled egg & some more cantaloupe, plus her favourite goldfish crackers. They both had little forks packed in their lunchboxes too.

I really needed to go shopping. We were out of almost all fruit. Including everyone in our family (4 kids, 2 adults) we ate an entire honeydew melon yesterday! Plus grapes, the last of the pineapple, the last of the mandarin oranges, and the only two ripe strawberries in the garden. The amount of fruit and veg that we go through as a family is staggering considering that the girls are still little. I can't imagine what it will be like when they are all older.

Here is the start - timing with the ipad mini stopwatch. I LOVE this ipad mini case. Each of the girls has their own colour so it is easy to identify them at a glance, plus the stand is pretty awesome too - it works in both portrait and landscape. It's probably not the toughest as far as protection goes but they have all survived the usual wear and drops of young children and for that price it's fabulous.

And here is everything that I finished for the girls' lunches and the timer.

So that's 3 lunches, 2 drinks and 2 snacks in 20 minutes and 19.6 seconds. Heidi's lunch on the far left will stay in the fridge until she gets home at lunch time. The meat was a dinner leftover but the tacos were baked from the box this morning. Do you know what took me the most time this morning? Finding my Easylunchboxes mini dippers! They come in a package of 8 and somehow I can only find 3 cups and 2 lids! I sorted out almost all of my bento storage drawers on the weekend so here's hoping that the rest are in the bottom of the last two! Interruptions were a minimum today as I helped the girls get organised first and only stopped to give reminders about what they needed to do next - shoes & socks, brush your teeth, check that your pouches have everything you need for the day, choose your coats etc...

I think my usual, I woke up on time, lunch making duration is 25 -30 minutes to make all three. Also, since Heidi doesn't need hers to go out the door with her in the morning I sometimes spend a little extra time on hers when everyone has gone and the house is quiet. You know, if I'm in the mood to try something fancy :) At that point, I also tackle lunch for my husband if he's taking lunch and lunch for the baby if the afternoon will be busy.

Since I was wondering how I could do a better job of packing these lunches to fit more food I did a little inquiring with some other lunch blogger friends. Perhaps I should have assembled the tacos and then I would have had one spot extra for some extra veggies or using tortilla chips instead is also a nice idea like these lunches from Keeley McGuire


Here are some other taco and nacho lunches packed in EasyLunchboxes:
Keeley McGruire - Taco & Nachos lunches
More Than Your Average Mom - Mini Nachos
Lunches Fit For A Kid - Spaghetti tacos
Lunches Fit For A Kid - Nachos
Tiny Princess Lunch Box - Taco salads
Lunch with Eyeness 
Bentoriffic - Fiesta Bentos
Chaos and Confections - soft tacos in a Laptop Lunch

Shared on:

Bentos on the Bayou

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Leftovers for lunch - Pizza Biscuits

I made some delicious pizza biscuits for lunch on Sunday and the girls had them in their lunches on Monday.

 This was Rose's lunch
goldfish, pizza biscuit, marinara sauce for dipping
grape tomatoes & carrots from our garden, pineapple

Heidi's lunch
all of the same items except I swapped the tomatoes for celery.

Amy was at home feeling sick so I didn't pack her a lunch. She ate a few nibbles here and there at lunchtime.




Here's the recipe for the pizza biscuits, it's hardly an original idea and there are several versions around. These are very easy to make and my 3 year old was able to do much of the work. We actually didn't put pepperoni in each one as my the girls don't like pepperoni. So I marked each biscuit that was filled with pepperoni with 1/4 pepperoni slice on the top so that we could identify them when they were all baked.


Pizza Biscuits
makes 16

2 cans grands biscuits 
1 cup marinara sauce
16 slices of pepperoni (or 32 slices if you like extra pepperoni)
16 mozzarella bocconcini, each one cut into 3 slices
3 tbsp melted butter (or melted garlic butter - yum!)
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan and Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray inside of 13x9 dish with non stick spray. Roll out the grands biscuits until flat.  Put one small spoon of sauce in the middle. Don't spread it around too much or it will be difficult to wrap up. Add a slice or two of pepperoni and 3 slices of fresh mozzarella from the bocconcini. Pull up all of the sides and pinch into a ball shape. Put seam side down into the prepared dish. Repeat until all of the pizza biscuits are filled and in the pan. They will just about fit, you'll have to squish that last one in there a bit but they all will cook evenly. Brush the tops with melted butter and then sprinkle with the Italian seasoning and the grated Parmesan & Romano cheese.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until  the biscuits are puffed and browned on top. Leave to cool in the pan. Warm the extra marinara sauce and use for dipping. Yum!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Vegetarian lunch - no sandwich!

I bought some hummus especially for Rose since it's one of her favourites. This time I managed to get some into her lunch before my husband ate it all! He's a very sneaky late night eater. Well maybe not so sneaky since we always know it was him. 
A vegetarian lunch for Rose
popcorn, grapes, pineapple, carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes from our garden
Stacy's Wholegrain pita chips and hummus

This is my kind of lunch too (well except  for the tomatoes!). I was in a bit of a rush since I had to drive for a school field trip that morning and the baby and I had to look more presentable than our usual morning attire when we left the house. Didn't even notice that I hadn't put any cute picks in there. Rose didn't either! It was a bit more food than her appetite and a tiny bit of everything came home uneaten. It's interesting how my children are so different in their tastes. Rose is a very adventurous eater who will try anything - octopus, oysters , mussels, clams, any vegetable or fruit. She definitely takes after her Dad! The picky one on the other hand would not be impressed to see this lunch vetoing the hummus, tomatoes and pita chips.

Shared on:
BentoForKidlet

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pita chips & Hummus

Here's another lunch from last week. A no sandwich lunch for Rose - her favourite hummus and pita chips.

Rose's favourite lunch
hummus, Stacy's plain pita chips, carrot sticks and cucumbers
strawberries and grapes

I specifically bought the pita chips and hummus for Rose's lunches. Daddy discovered them that night and made himself a little snack. I had intended to give her this lunch a couple of times but alas the chips were all gone. I must admit that they are pretty tasty so I can't really blame him for his midnight snacking.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Pita chips and Hummus

Well I made it to the store - all kinds of new things in this lunch. This is Rose's lunch. She didn't want a sandwich. No biggie - I bought her favourite hummus and pita chips so that was easy :)
celery, petite baby carrots, seasonal pretzels, grapes, cantaloupe
Hummus and Stacy's plain sea salt pita chips - YUM!

We don't  often get any kind of fresh baby carrots so I was surprised to see these in the grocery shop - only the second time ever. There were no local carrots so I bought these. I prefer the taste of the local ones but the kids said these were OK too. We have carrots planted in our garden but they won't be ready to harvest for quite a while. Hopefully local carrots will be back in the shops soon.
Celery doesn't make an appearance that often as it's not a favourite, but since Rose will dip anything in hummus I packed a little bit of celery for a change. I was right she ate her celery too :)

The other girls has similar lunches with sandwiches and I didn't take any photos - it was a busy morning!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Easylunchboxes and no sandwich lunches!

We were out of bread last Thursday, so I sent some non-sandwich lunches and tried out the easylunchbox mini dippers again. So far we really like them!
Amy's Lunch
ham rollups, crackers, fig newtons and some carrot sticks in a mini dipper
goldfish & strawberries

Rose's Lunch
crackers, ham rollups, carrot sticks, ranch dip in the mini dippers
pretzels and strawberries

Can you tell how nicely two mini dippers fit side by side? You can actually fit 4 mini dippers in the large compartment of the easylunchbox!


Heidi's lunch
crackers, ham rollups, ranch dip, carrot sticks
goldfish & strawberries

This is not a mini dipper but a random little container that I had. I couldn't fit 4 of these in the large compartment. Everyone loved the change from not having a sandwich - especially Rose. I need to start being  a little more creative and not making a sandwich everyday. School is out today and tomorrow so I only have two days of packing lunches (and one day of packing a snack) this week. I'll try to think of something new :)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A Trio of Easylunchboxes

All of the girls wanted their lunch packed in an easy lunchbox! Actually I think they wanted to take the carry bags the most. They each have a different colour bag and they really like the colours - we have black, blue, pink and purple carry bags at home. Blue and purple are the favourites :)

This is Amy's lunch - it started out with a halloween theme but the bunny egg doesn't quite fit!
ham sandwich with a black sprinkle cat cut out, cucumber slices and carrot sticks, 
boiled egg, cantaloupe and strawberries


Heidi had a similar lunch
Hers stayed at home as usual and she ate it for lunch when she came home from school at noon
2 custard creme cookies, cucumber and carrot sticks, ham sandwich
bear shaped bunny, strawberries, cantaloupe and raspberries stuffed with tiny blueberries

Rose didn't want a sandwich and only wanted a rice cake!

She has all of the same sides as Heidi to go with her rice cake. I offered to put peanut butter on it but she said no, she only wanted a plain one. I think there is enough protein considering the egg so I didn't worry. Her little cup has ranch dip for the carrot sticks.  In case you are wondering why Amy didn't get any cookies -- she doesn't like them or anything else that I offered her instead! She was happy with her lunch as is.

Everyone is on midterm break right now and these lunches are actually from last week. I am very busy with work and haven't had time for much else. I am still packing fun lunches as Amy and Rose are at ballet camp, but I haven't been taking any photos. Since I have been working late, I just have not been getting up early enough to snap a picture. They actually have to leave as early as a school day since ballet camp is a farther drive than the 5 minutes to school!

Some items I used: