Lunches September 26-30

Monday September 26



The kids asked for bagels so they have PBJ on bagels today. The orange chips in Kaitlyn's main compartment are some dried mango. The crackers are some cheddar crackers I made using this recipe. It was super easy to do, I still have the dough left to bake.

Tuesday September 27



Nothing really earth shattering but I did put some M&M's in the little containers. I expected that at least one would not open it to see what was in there (and I didn't tell them in advance). I was right, Kaitlyn had her container full when she came home so I recycled it to her lunch for the next day.

Wednesday September 28



Greg had a work lunch so no box for him. As you can see, the frog and pig box came in so the younger set got a mom version of a lunchable. I knew I was taking a risk, putting some turkey slices in for Rhys. He will eat turkey, eats turkey lunchables but he brought back these 2 slices of turkey (rolled up with a pick) back untouched. Tinsel happily ate them. I quizzed him on why he didn't eat it. He said he likes it flat, not rolled up. You will also see Kaitlyn got the tub of M&M's again. I told her on the way to seminary that it had M&M's in there. "I know, I don't like M&M's." Whoops! That was news to me and not only did I give them again, I gave her a cookie with M&M's in them. When he got home, Iain's first sentence was "Can I have the exact same lunch again tomorrow?"

Thursday September 29



Yes, it is the same tub of M&Ms yet again! This time, they are in Iain's box and I know he will eat them. Today was another iffy lunch. I had asked Greg to get grapes and he brought back some green grapes and some purple grapes. Purple grapes are not very well liked but I thought I would give it a shot anyway. Mr. Indignant Rhys informed me when he got home that I KNEW he didn't like grapes. (He used to!) That was the only gripe about lunches.

Friday September 30

Happy Birthday to my big brother, Donnie!



Is it bad that I am glad this week is done? I really want to give the kids a variety but some days, the standard PBJ just works. Despite Rhys turning his sweet little nose up at turkey earlier in the week, I am giving it another go. I read somewhere that kids need to be exposed to a new food item at least 4 times before they may try it. Turkey and cheddar roll ups are what is up for lunch today. They each got a pudding as well. Rhys has a little tub of peanut butter to dip his apples in because he has gotten picky about his apples. You know, he has gotten picky about everything lately! Lucky for him that he is adorable and I love him to pieces.

There is no lunch for Kaitlyn since she didn't use her lunch from yesterday, we just recycled it to today.

I got in a new batch of SIGG water bottles after I found them for $5 each (!!) They have been working out really well and zero leaks.

Can you make my lunch?

As I was getting out things to make lunches this evening, Kaitlyn asked if I would make her lunch. She seemed surprised when I said sure. I mean, seriously, I am already making 4 lunches, adding one more is not an issue. I grabbed another thing of containers (made by Ziplock, not Glad) so I was good to go.

Rhys didn't like his banana slices and so they came back along with some grapes. This box is too big for him. He has a Pokemon box incoming so for now, I am going to just make due with what I have.

As I was making lunches, Greg noticed I had tomatoes out. "Are you giving me tomatoes?" I looked at him and said "No, I didn't think you liked them. Do you want some?" He assured me he did not. I would think after being married to him for over 25 years, I have a good idea of what he will and will not eat! And for the record, I don't like tomatoes either. The girls do like them so I buy them.


From the top down, on the left are: Rhys, Iain and Kierynn. On the right are: Greg and Kaitlyn




Iain, Kierynn and Rhys have basically the same thing: Chicken nuggets, strawberries, grapes, cheese chunks, 2 lemon cookies, marshmallows. Kierynn has some tomatoes in hers and Rhys has a sugar cookie and lemon cookie rather than 2 lemon cookies. All of them will eat these chicken nuggets cold, when I have left overs on the stove but I am not sure how they will react to them in lunch.

Greg: PBH, carrots, grapes, pistachios, cheese chunks and a mix of strawberries/blueberries. His cookies are hidden on the bottom. Then I felt badly he didn't have any marshmallow bunnies and put a few in there.

Kaitlyn: PBJ, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes, cheese chunks and cookies with a few marshmallows.

Did you notice I got some cute picks in? I still need to get some silicone cups since the paper ones work but they are not that great.

You may see that the strawberries still have their leaves. I left them on for the color but they were washed.

Success!

Wow, I thought Iain was going to be my tough sell on a new way of doing lunch but I was wrong. As we walked home from the bus, he asked if I would do a "creative" lunch for him tomorrow. I showed him my Glad containers I found at Giant today and he was willing to give it a go as long as his sandwich remained uncut. I got out a slice of bread to show him it would remain cut free.

Greg raved about how great his lunch was. Hmmm, while I think it was a good lunch, I have to wonder if he was just really happy he didn't have to make it himself :D

Rhys was happy with his lunch but did say he didn't like his sandwich being hidden (food was on top of it) and the blueberries were not sweet enough for him.

So this evening, I did 4 lunches bento style. Description below the pic. I decided to take one picture of all four rather than individual shots.



Greg's lunch, upper left: Ham and cheese sandwich, red grapes, apple slices, pistachios, cheese chunks, blueberries (with a little bit of sweetening on it) and 2 cookies. Wait, I also stuck a few baby carrots in there.

Iain's lunch, upper right: Ham sandwich, plain (as in nothing but bread and ham) and UNCUT!, cheese chunks, red grapes, apple slices, cheese crackers, gummy snacks and 2 Tagalongs. He also gets an in class snack in the late morning, usually popcorn.

Rhys's lunch, bottom left: Dinosaur strawberry jam sandwich, red grapes and banana slices, cheese chunks, gummy snacks, cheese crackers and 2 Tagalongs.

Kierynn's lunch, bottom right: Cream Cheese sandwich in a circle, cheese chunks are under it, cherry tomatoes, red grapes, banana slices, cheese crackers, gummy snacks and 2 Tagalongs. She also has an in class snack in late morning, tomorrow will be pretzel snaps.

I would say it took me maybe 25 minutes to do all of these. I did them in assembly line style. All sandwiches first, then I started arranging things. I think the box Rhys is using is actually too large but he wanted to use it. I think if I get him the Pokemon box he wants, it will fit him a bit better.

Bento!

I had looked at Bento lunches before but the overwhelming amount of information just blew me away and I dismissed it as entirely too time consuming. All the lunches I saw seemed to be food my kids would not touch and while cute, I didn't want to spend 90 minutes to make Pikachu out of cheese and cherry tomatoes..no matter how cute it is.

A message on Ravelry got me to look at Bento once again and then a friend posted a link to another lunch, a great Bento site. After looking through that site and also at Lunch in a Box, I thought maybe this would be something I could do. I don't have to use all the Bento specific gear, I can use what I like. (And how silly is it that I feel like I have to give myself permission to use what I have and like??)

I want the kids to eat their lunch and like what is in their lunch bu it seems like that is not the case. Maybe by packing it all in one spot rather than multiple bags, I can break away from packaged foods and get them eating better (and I admit it, it looks pretty!)

Rhys is on board and he wants his box here now! In the meantime, a snap and lock box will do for him. Since Greg has been bringing his lunch to work, he is another test subject.

First up is Greg's lunch...this box was meant for Rhys but since Greg left his snap and lock box at work, Rhys gets to be downsized to a smaller box. As it is, I think that this box would be too big for Rhys. I grabbed it at Wal-Mart for under $4. I don't have any silicone cups so paper cupcake holders work for now.


Peanut butter and honey sandwich, pistachios, blueberries, grapes, baby carrots and on the bottom, where you can't see it, two chocolate chip cookies.

This is for my Rhysie. He is generally a good eater but is not a big eater.

Strawberry jam sandwich. I used a crust remover/shape cutter thing and made it into 4 pieces. When I laid them in there, there was a nice diamond pattern in the middle so I filled it with chunks of cheese. He also has some blueberries and pretzel snaps. After I took the pic, I added a test cookie on the top. This little snap and lock container is the perfect size for him and fits in his current lunch bag.

Kierynn had a birthday party over the weekend where the guests decorated sugar cookies. I made a batch of cookies prior to the party, my test cookies, to be sure they would work well. I told the kids they could eat the test cookies but not the other cookies so now Rhys is calling all sugar cookies test cookies.

I am working on Kierynn and Iain. I think once I get some cute picks, Kierynn will be on board. Iain...he will be more difficult but I think I will get him turned. The trick with him is to get him more involved in what can go in his lunch other than a load of sweet junk.