Summer Lunches

This post was previously posted on the Bentology website. This post contains affiliate links.

Even though it is summer we are still packing lunches for work, camp and trips to the beach and pool. I love going shopping with my kids this time of year so they can pick out fresh fruit and vegetables for their lunches!

This summer lunch contains:

• a simple herb salad and cheese wrap, 
• a mini pepper, 
• blueberry yogurt topped with fresh blueberries and 
• a few farm fresh strawberries. 

The perfect lunch for work!

My kids prefer smaller portions and a variety of choices. The Bentology Bento Lunch Box makes packing several food groups so easy. No matter if you are packing for camp, school, or a day at the pool, with the right prep you can pack this lunchbox in under 5 min!

This colorful lunch contains:

• a mini pepper and baby carrots, 
• blueberries with a few raspberries, 
• strawberries, 
• Goldfish crackers,
• three mini stamped ice cream sandwiches filled with nut butter and 
• yogurt topped with fresh raspberries. 

Here a few tips to make packing lunches a little easier:

• Pick out the fruits and veggies you plan to pack with your kids at the store. They are more likely to eat them if they got to decide which ones to pack or try.
• Prep prep prep! Wash the fruits and veggies when you get home and store them in a container in the fridge ready to go. That way healthy snacks are always available and you save time when making lunch. I often shop and prep on Sundays so I am ready for the week. 
• It is so much easier to plan and pack at night after the kids are in bed then in the morning when you are rushing out the door! So, pre-pack what you can and store the Laptop Lunches containers in either your fridge or on the counter until you need them.

• --> I filled the containers that need to be refrigerated the night before and placed them in the fridge. Take advantage of the fact that two of the Laptop Lunches containers have lids (but you can also cover the containers with plastic foil if need be). I highly recommend the Bento Buddies if you pack lunch every day since you get 4 lidded containers in the set! I filled one container with crackers and pre-cut the bread to save time in the morning as well. I used a fondant plunger to make the ice cream shaped bread but even a simple cookie cutter can make lunch more fun! I started with one star shaped cookie cutter 2 years ago. I just place the bread back into the bread bag and seal it. That way I only need to fill the sandwich in the morning. With a little prep packing a healthy and colorful lunch is fast and fun!

• Don't forget last night's left overs! They make great lunches the next day!
• Always have some healthy snacks in the fridge you can add to your lunchbox in the morning when your are short on time.
• Freeze juice pouches or to go yogurts to keep your lunchbox cold and the drink and food fresh on hot summer days!

ThisBentology bento box contains:

• left over macaroni and cheese with carrot flowers
• cheese crackers
• fruit gummies
• a peach, sliced
• a yogurt to go and
• a frozen juice pouch to keep the lunch cold until it's time to eat

Have a great summer!

Monbento for Mama: Spring (Forward) Lunch

I almost forgot about my bento today! With 4 days off due to snow, daylight savings and three kids waking up sick, my morning started off on the wrong foot for sure ;)
BUT, I am so thankful I remembered. The kids have little appetite and only want soft foods and my stomach clearly did not adjust to daylight saving, so I was relieved to simply pull out my lunch and have something healthy to eat - even if a little early today ;)

My Monbento is packed with a spring themed lunch:

• left over Spaghetti Carbonara reminding me of sunny Italy
• a salad made from carrots and cucumbers and decorated with butterfly cut outs
• a banana
• a few strawberries
• and a few peanut butter crackers to tie me over until dinner. 

Hope your Monday started off well! We can get through Daylight Savings! Spring is in the air! (right?)

Monbento for Mama - Un-Sloppy Joe

Today's lunch for Mama (that's me) is filled with left overs. The kids have the next two days off and I did not plan any lunchbox food...But, I have to eat so I packed what we had left over from last night's dinner.

My Monbento is packed full of:

• an un-sloppy Joe* pocket
• grape tomatoes
• left over pretzels and\
• a few dried cranberries

* I found the original recipe on the Pillsbury website. I simply subbed a few healthier choices and doubled the recipe to guarantee left overs. This fed 6 hungry people for dinner and for a small lunch.

Unsloppy Joes

original recipe from Pillsbury

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of ground chicken
• 2 cans of tomato paste with pesto (6oz)
• 2 cups of water
• either two packets of Sloppy Joe seasoning mix or make your own HERE
• 2 Pillsbury™ Grands!™ refrigerated biscuits
• 1 cup of shredded cheese

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook ground chicken until thoroughly cooked through.
• Add tomato paste, water and seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Roll out each biscuit into 6 inch rounds.
• Top with 1/3 cup of meat mixture and about 1 TBS of shredded cheese.
• Fold over half of the dough to create a pocket.
• Seal edges with fork.
• Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown.

French Toast Casserole Muffins

Packing lunches and making bentos every day leaves me with a lot of bread scraps every week. What to do with them? I save them in a big gallon size Ziploc bag in the freezer!

Is that really worth it? Yes! Yes it is because I love making French Toast Casserole {Recipe HERE}

But this time around I had so many bread scraps I had enough for a casserole and some. 

I had a whole large bowl worth of bread scraps. Enough for another dish. I decided to simply make muffins with the left overs with a few changes to my original casserole recipe.

French Toast Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar were the result!

A delicious way to re-purpose those bread left overs or a forgotten slightly stale loaf of bread in the back of your pantry!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups of left over bread (about one gallon sized Ziploc bag full) - cubed
• 4 beaten eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 2 tablespoons home made vanilla sugar (or substitute sugar + 1/4 teaspoon more vanilla)
• 1/3 cup of pancake mix
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• cinnamon sugar to taste
• if desired butter for crispier muffins

Instructions:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Rip or cut all bento bread scraps into same size small cubes.
• Spray muffin tin with oil or use aluminum or silicone muffin cups (paper muffin cups will get soggy!)
• In large bowl mix eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar, and vanilla together.
• Then add 1/3 cup of pancake mix and mix well until only a few lumps are left.
• Carefully add the liquid to the bread cubes and coat well ( I use my hands to make sure it is evenly coated).
• Let bread mixture sit for one minute.
• Spoon with a tablespoon into muffin cups. Fill about 3/4. DO NOT OVERFILL! They will rise!
• Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste and add a small piece of butter on top if you like your french Toast muffins to be crispy on top (can be omitted).
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes or until brown and crispy.
• I serve mine with applesauce or fruit (or even a drizzle or maple syrup).

ENJOY!

Rock The Lunchbox {with Giveaway}

We all want to send our kids to school with a nutritious, healthy and yummy lunch but that is not always that easy. Between busy schedules and picky kids it gets all too easy to just pack what we know they will eat. Especially if our kids don't eat all the good food we pack.

And that is the reason that Honest Kids, Annie's Organic, Organic Valley and Stonyfield YoKids teamed up to bring you resources, lunch ideas, coupons and How-To videos from fellow Moms. All in one place! At www.rockthelunchbox.com you can find all the resources you need to pack a great lunch and best of all: coupons! And if you share a lunch of your own you can win a lunch prize pack filled with coupons and/or products from the sponsors above!

Enter to win a lunch prize pack weekly at www.rockthelunchbox.com

Wait you want a second chance to win? At the end of my post I will give away the same lunch prize pack to one lucky reader! So stay with me :)

Here are some lunch ideas including the sponsors above:


1. Bunny Lunch in Laptop Lunches

This bunny themed Laptop Lunches bento lunch contains:

• a Stonyfield YoKids strawberry yogurt
• Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies
• two mini bunny shaped sandwiches
• cucumber slices
• two grape tomato flowers
• Annie's Organic Berry Patch Bunny Fruit Snacks
• Organic Valley Low Fat Milk

2. Leftovers in Easylunchboxes

Leftovers make great lunches the next day! We filled our Easylunchboxes with:

• Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies
• homemade coleslaw with radish flower
• homemade bread
• BBQ chicken - shredded
• strawberries
• a YoKids Smoothie and
• an Honest Kids Berry Berry Good Lemonade juice pouch

3. A hot lunch in Laptop Lunches

If your work place or school has a microwave you can sent food to be warmed up for lunch - just place the Laptop Lunches container with the food to be warmed in the microwave and enjoy this warm lunch. Packed in a Laptop Lunches bento box:

• Annie's Shells & White Cheddar pasta with carrot flowers
• Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies
• Annie's Organic Berry Patch Bunny Fruit Snacks
• a sliced peach
• a YoKids strawberry Squeezer
• an Honest Kids Berry Berry Good Lemonade pouch

I hope I could give you some lunch packing ideas. For more ideas, coupons and a chance to win a lunch pack prize check out www.rockthelunchbox.com!

Would you like to win a lunch prize pack from the sponsors above?

Just enter my easy, one entry Rafflecopter for a chance to win here:

UPDATE: Laptop Lunches generously offered to send the winner a Laptop Lunches Bento Lunch Box! So now you can win a brand new lunchbox AND the lunch pack prize! Thank you Laptop Lunches!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

US residents only. Winner must respond within 48h via email or a new winner will be drawn.

Disclaimer: I received free products to showcase in my lunches. However, I am sharing this and hosting the giveaway because I wanted to share this resource and a few fun lunch items with you. This is not a sponsored post.

The links above are affiliate links.

PlanetBox Shuttle Review

PlanetBox generously sent us their newly launched lunchbox: The Shuttle! I was excited to try out the new size and see how this lunchbox works for us!

Since PlanetBox sent us the adorable Aliens Shuttle with matching magnets and carrying bag I wanted to make the boys a lunch to match! I packed our Shuttle with:

• plain yogurt sky topped with apple stars
• kiwi slices and cherries
• and a sky sandwich with Swiss cheese moon and stars details

Simple and fun!

We also packed some left overs - which I want to do more this upcoming school year - and this Shuttle lunch contains:

• a salad topped with yellow pepper stars, a yellow pepper space ship with carrot details and a few star shaped croutons
• a piece of chicken
• Spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and
• the Tall Dipper containing dressing for the salad.

And now to my review:

I immediately loved the quality of this box! Made out of stainless steel the lunchbox feels sturdy without being heavy and the overall quality seems superior to other boxes we have tried! Plus, how cute are those adorable magnets (which are optional and many other designs are available HERE).

Another important point for me: The lunchbox is dishwasher safe! A big plus for me since I pack 6 lunches a day and being able to just put all lunchboxes in the dishwasher at night makes clean up so easy! [I have to say here that you have to remember to remove the magnets before putting the lunchbox in the dishwasher! The magnets can be wiped clean but are not recommended for the dishwasher. Just stick on the fridge while the lunchbox is being washed ;)]

The Shuttle comes with the Tall Dipper for sauces and dips and you can purchase the basic Shuttle with the Tall Dipper (without magnets) for $34.95 which makes the Shuttle a very affordable lunchbox of the PlanetBox family!

For only $5 more you can purchase a carry bag and matching magnets and I have to say I would highly recommend both! How cute is this carry bag! The carry bag is made well and keeps the lunch cold during the morning! There is very little room however for an ice pack so using the PlanetBox cold kit or an ice pack sheet will work best!

Both the magnets and carry bag are wipe clean/ hand wash only but well worth their money. My younger kids loved the magnets and they really add a lot of character to the lunchbox! A great way to distinguish between lunchboxes if you have more then one. The carry bag is made well and since I love having sets worth the extra money.

Overall, we really love the PlanetBox Shuttle and look forward to using it often! 

Disclosure: Planetbox sent me the Complete Shuttle lunch set with magnets and carry bag for review. All opinions are honest and my own. This post does not contain affiliate links.

BLT Lunch

This is the first week of summer vacation but I never got to post these last lunches of the school year. We had BLTs for dinner last week and since we had left overs (I know hard to believe there could be :) the kids wanted BLTs for school as well:

We packed our Easylunchboxes with a few pitted cherries, a corn muffin and three Goldfish crackers and a toasted whole wheat turkey bacon BLT. They also had yogurt and ice water. 

black+blum Review

black+blum generously sent me their box appetit and lunchpot to review. I am really excited about both products because they are for ME - and for a change not for the kids :)
I make sure that my kids take a healthy packed lunch to school but I often forget about myself which then in return causes 11:30 am fridge raids and candy bar consumption on the go. Both are bad for my waistline and health.

But back to these fab products and to a healthier lunch habit for me and really any Mom or Dad out there. There are only 5 more days until Mother's Day, did you know ;) ?

box appetit:

I love how compact this lunchbox is. All you need in one square. And with the look and feel of a designer lunchbox!

The box appetit comes with an ingenious sauce pot, an inner container - great for separating cold and warm food since the containers are microwave safe - and a fork/knife.

The box really has more of a dish feel to it and the plastic lid makes this lunch box water tight!

I packed myself a salad with avocado and tangerine with a sweet orange balsamic vinaigrette in the sauce pot, sweet potato chips and left over breaded chicken. Lunching in style at home!

Overall, I love this lunchbox and cannot wait to pack more lunches for me!

Why I love the box appetit:

• BPA free
• dishwasher safe
• microwave safe
• redesigned hinges for durability
• can separate cold and warm foods
• includes a sauce or dip pot
• includes a fork/knife
• feels more like eating from a dish then a lunch box

lunch pot:

This lunch container is so unique! I love that both containers (or one if you need just one) are carried in the strap and there is even a place for the spork!

This lunch is left overs again. This time comfort mac'n'cheese and steamed green and yellow beans with baby carrots.

Just like the other lunch box the lunch pot makes lunch an experience. The spork is so well designed and makes eating everything from salad over soup to mac'n'cheese easy. The fork part is simply well designed and I even ate a salad with this spork without any issues!

Why I love the lunch pot:

• BPA free
• dishwasher safe
• microwave safe
• can separate cold and warm foods in the two containers container
• includes strap and spork
• feels more like eating from a dish then a lunch box
• the smaller pot fits into the larger pot for storage

Overall, I love them both. They are both well designed , make remembering to pack lunch for yourself fun, are dishwasher and microwave safe (ideal for left overs) and for just around $20 they are both very reasonably priced!

Please check out all amazing products of black+blum HERE. But be aware: You will want them all!

On my wish list:

The Thermo Pot 

and eau good

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!

French Toast Casserole

When I posted my Earth Day Lunch and mentioned that I make a French Toast Casserole with the bread left overs I have from making my sandwiches, some of you asked for the recipe.
So, here it is :)

French Toast Casserole

5 cups of cubed bread
(= about one gallon sized ziploc bag full)

4 beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup of pancake mix

cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in your casserole dish.
(just put the casserole dish with the butter into the oven for a couple of minutes :)

In large bowl mix beaten eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, salt and vanilla together.

Then add 1/3 cup of pancake mix and mix well.

Carefully add bread to mixture and coat well.
(You can also add bread to casserole dish and pour the milk-egg mixture over it. If you do, let the dish stand for a couple of minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. I like tossing the bread - even though it is messy - because it coats the bread faster :)

Add to buttered casserolle dish.

Cut remaining butter into small pieces and sprinkle of the French Toast Casserole, then

sprinkle with remaining sugar and cinnamon to taste (I add the rest of the sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon).

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes or until brown and crispy.

I serve mine with applesauce or fruit and we never have left overs :)

Enjoy!