Tag Archives: bento

EasyLunchboxes Round-Up

EasyLunchboxes Round-Up

There are lots of days that I aspire to achieve lunchbox fame, and there are some days that my goal is simply to get lunches done and get everyone to school on time. This post is entirely made up of the latter.  These are the lunchboxes that I am generally not very excited to share, but I decided to do so anyway so you can get a feel for what the simple “every day” lunches are like in our house. They are not always creative or exceptionally nutritious, but they are healthier than convenience food and still have some fun in them.  These are primarily sandwiches or leftovers and the kids are generally offered some role in designing or assembling them.  Hopefully, these lunches will give you some fun ideas for simple lunches that can be made in a few minutes as you’re going through the morning scramble.

Party Leftovers ELB

The lunch above contains the remains of a party we had at our house.  It has a slice of someone’s homemade banana bread, Tostitos Scoops, a mini-dipper of Salsa, and some bits of cheese that were leftover from another day’s star lunch (you can see the cutouts!).  There are grapes, oranges, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas in the small compartments.

Elephant Circus ELB Elephant ELB

My son really wanted an elephant lunch recently, so I made these sandwiches using our Critter Cutters lunch punches.  Little Dude’s has a babybel cheese with a star cut into the wax and it is on a heart pick.  He said it was a sign for the elephant circus.  Girlie has ants on a log and a little bit of trail mix.  Both kids have strawberries, grapes, and pirate booty.

Airplane ELB

Little Dude’s class recently went on a fantasy trip to France, complete with passports, luggage, airport security, and the make-believe airplane ride!  I love how his school really goes the extra mile on fun details on every unit they present.  I made him an airplane lunch to go along with the air travel themed day.  He has a cheese sandwich, grapes, strawberries, and yogurt.

Heart ELB

Girlie made this lunch herself!  It is Sunbutter and Jam heart sandwiches with grapes.  She decorated the sandwiches with the food coloring markers and added this “caring” cut-out that came with a stuffed animal toy she was given.  You were supposed to put the attributes you wanted to bestow upon the animal inside with the stuffing, but I guess caring was not one of the traits she chose.  Instead, she generously gave it to herself in her lunchbox!  She has strawberries with a heart pick and yogurt in the small compartments.

IMG_1722

This is another SunButter and Jam sandwich and I used a Sand*Wishes Lunch Punch to cut the design.  I filled the center of the sandwich with blueberries and the sides are lined with cheese.  The also has strawberries, grape tomatoes, and sugar snap peas.

Rainbow Loom - EasyLunchBoxes

And while I am showing my Easy LunchBoxes love, I am also excited to unveil my new arts & crafts hobby: Rainbow Loom!  My daughter got one of these rubber band bracelet kids and I wanted to play too!  Instead of making bracelets, I made some bento straps!  I made one headband for our kotobuki panda, and a few of these Easy Lunchbox straps too. They are great for when you don’t need to keep the lunch cool, but want to be certain that the lid doesn’t accidentally open.  I am nervous to throw mine straight into a backpack, but the strap makes it much more secure now.

What else do you make when you’re in a hurry?  Sandwiches are always my default, but I’d love any other fun ideas!

Here are the products I used in this post:


This lunch is linked at:
Bento LunchFollowing In My ShoesBentos on the Bayou
 

 

May the Fourth Be With You! – Jabba the Hutt EasyLunchbox

May the Fourth Be With You! – Jabba the Hutt EasyLunchbox

May the Fourth Be With You, friends, as you travel across today’s blog hop like the awesome Jedis I know you all are!

My contribution this year is dedicated to my little brother. I am sure that many girls of the 80′s can appreciate the memory of wanting to play with awesome Star Wars toys “for boys” and ransacking their brothers’ collections.

Jabba The Hut EasyLunchbox - May the Fourth Be With You - RachelsRandom.com

One particularly awesome toy that I remember being especially jealous of was the Kenner Jabba the Hutt playset from Return of the Jedi.  Imagine my delight when I searched for images of this toy and discovered it on eBay, labeled as VINTAGE!  Thanks for making me feel a little older, eBay sellers! Anyway, one of the best features of this toy was the trap door.  You could could be Jabba and drop your enemy into the dungeon!  Endless fun.  Jabba actually completely scared me as a kid and I still get a little creeped out thinking of this ruthless slug-like disgusting mess of a creature.  So naturally, I found it totally appropriate to commemorate him in my Kindergartener’s lunchbox.

My lunch Jabba is made with a whole wheat tortilla that I cut by hand to show his round body and long lumpy tail.  There is a plain tortilla on the bottom that will be the lid to the quesadilla.  The open-faced one on top has cheese melted onto it and then was spread with re-fried beans.  I tried to use a knife to add a wrinkly pattern to Jabba’s skin, but the beans were lumpy enough to make him look quite disgusting as-is.  I gave him candy eyes and a carrot mouth, and I tried to smear the beans around those features to make them look more inset, as he is very blob-like.  I have a cheese stick next to him, instead of a hookah, and I used alphabet picks to spell out his name.  The EasyLunchbox itself is being presented as vertical to represent the way that Jabba sits on the trap door.  Fortunately for the child eating this lunch, this dungeon consists of carrots, celery,  grape tomatoes and a mini-dipper of low-ranch, instead of a “pit of monstrous rancor.”  I told my daughter that the mini-dipper contained Han Solo, frozen in Carbonite, even though he’d actually be on display in the throne room and not in the dungeon.

If you want to relive your Jabba play-time memories, or if your childhood somehow did not include this toy, here’s a great video review of it that I found on YouTube:

For my son’s lunch, I definitely took the easy route!  He got a PB&J Tie Fighter with his first initial as an emblem.  He has pirate booty, carrots, celery, strawberries, and a papaya animal Jedi that I constructed using bento picks.

Easy Tie Fighter Lunch - RachelsRandom.com

Is Star Wars a big thing in your home?  My kids haven’t really gotten into it yet, but they are certainly aware of it.  I am excited to see if my son develops an interest in it when he gets a little older.  How old were your kids when they got into it?

Now that you’ve seen our lunches today, please continue on the blog hop by clicking the button below for Food, Family, Fun:

May the 4th Be With You Blog Hop

Once you’ve completed the hop…


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These are the products I used in this post:

Working with Preschool Themes – Castles and the Sea!

Working with Preschool Themes – Castles and the Sea!

Most of my lunches are pretty basic and I come up with any special touches while I work on the lunch that morning (while I am under-caffeinated and over-hurried), but I love the opportunity to work with a school theme and try to make those lunches a little extra-special.

Castle and Knight EasyLunchbox - RachelsRandom.com

My son’s class has been working on a two-week unit on Medieval times and the teacher transformed the classroom into a castle!  They’ve been learning about kings, queens, knights, dragons, and so much more.  I had this castle cookie cutter from one of Girlie’s collections and decided to try it out for his sandwich.  I added some of the other small cutters I had for flags on top of the turrets, windows, and a fancy door.  I gave him a teddy bear knight with a sword pick and cherry tomato.  He has a little bit of pirate booty, half an apple, and some Greek yogurt.  He was giddy when I showed him this lunch. I love to see his face light up when I make something special for him.

Castle PlanetBox - RachelsRandom.com

While I was at it, I made a duplicate castle for Girlie. She also had pirate booty, papaya, edamame, grape tomatoes, pistachios, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.  She was very excited about this lunch too!

Sea Themed PlanetBox - RachelsRandom.com

Girlie’s Kindergarten class is studying the sea, in preparation for an upcoming field trip to the Adventure Aquarium.  I decided to make her a cheese and crackers bento with boats, whales, fish, and waves.  She also has snow peas, grape tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, pistachios, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.  I’ve got most of the rainbow into this box and she ate all of it!

Sea-Themed EasyLunchbox - RachelsRandom.com

I made a similar lunchbox for Little Dude and he actually came over to help me with the cheese cut-outs.  He loves using the cookie cutters and popping out pieces with our Cute-Z-Cute detailing tool.  He was supposed to be getting dressed for school while I was working on this, but he insisted “Eagles can help!”  It took me a second to put together that he was referring to the fact that he was wearing his Philadelphia Eagles pajamas and wanted to help me while he wore those, instead of waiting until he was dressed.  I’m a sucker and I agreed!  I love when he gets involved.

Dolphin Sandwich EasyLunchbox - RachelsRandom.com

Girlie got one more sea themed lunch – dolphins and a heart made out of sunbutter and jam.  She also had half an apple, carrot sticks, and a container of yogurt (not pictured).  She is always overjoyed when I use candy eyes on a sandwich and these dolphins are just too cute.

I have to remember to look at school themes in advance – they are so fun to plan for!  I’d love to hear your suggestions on how you reinforce school themes, and learning in general, at home. As the kids get older and more academically oriented, I am definitely interested in coming up with more fun learning activities that extend what they are taught in the classroom.  Please comment with any ideas! Thank you!

Here are the items I used in this post:

This post is linked to:
Bento LunchFollowing In My Shoes

Week of the Young Child – Success!

Week of the Young Child – Success!

My kids both attend a NAEYC accredited school that participates in Week of the Young Child.  This was celebrated last week with lots of special activities and fun treats and visits from the kids’ families.

Girlie's EasyLunchBox - RachelsRandom.com

During Week of the Young Child, parents and other family members are encouraged to visit the classroom and lead the children in a special activity.  In Girlie’s kindergarten classroom, they had a parent teach about gardening and help the kids decorate a pot and plant a sunflower seed, another parent did a cupcake decorating activity, a grandparent talked Philadelphia history with the kids, and another parent read a story to the class. The activity is supposed to take 15 minutes and it can be on whatever topic the person chooses.  Naturally, I wanted to talk about lunch.

I decided to introduce the kids to bento and teach them how to make a healthy lunch for themselves.  As part of the activity, I also supplied lunch, an EasyLunchbox, a mini dipper, and fun picks for 16 people (including teachers).  The kids were all so excited to get their own lunchbox and picks and get creative about lunch. It was a lot of fun to see them get to work.  I brought ALL of my sandwich cutters and cookie cutters, but it was the Sand*Wishes Lunch Punches and Star Wars Tie Fighter cutter that attracted the most attention.  You can see some of their handiwork below:

EasyLunchbox WOTYC2 EasyLunchbox WOTYC4

EasyLunchbox  WOTYC3EasyLunchBox WOTYC

As for the food, I offered up supplies for making a lunchable-style cheese/cracker/cold-cut box, using cookie cutters to make fun cheese shapes, OR a sandwich, using the cutters.  Sandwiches were the most popular choice by far.  I provided whole wheat bread and crackers, cheddar cheese slices, turkey and ham cold-cuts, babybel cheese circles, strawberries, grapes, apple slices, cucumber, celery, carrots, and low-fat ranch for dipping.   The kids were allowed to top off the box with pirate booty, if they wanted to, but were encouraged to fill up on fruits and veggies first.

I wasn’t sure how much to bring with me and erred on the side of over-doing it.  Even with almost double what I had estimated would be consumed, I had very little left over!  Cucumbers and strawberries were the first to go, but the kids really did take almost everything. I did not hear one child complain about whole wheat bread or that there was no “dessert.”  They were all very excited by the bento itself and the picks and were not really focused on what was or wasn’t served.  Many kids helped themselves to seconds and came up with new ideas when they came back to the sandwich station.  It definitely showed how they could be excited by healthy foods in the right circumstances.  I was very proud of all of them.

A few parents have asked for more info on how to pack lunch like this for their own kids and I am considering putting on a parent workshop, just for fun.  I love how bento can be so contagious!  A lot of time and a good hundred bucks went into coordinating this special lunch for the kids, but I definitely feel like it was a success and totally worth it.  I would like to do it again for my son’s class next year.  Do they have events like this in grade school?  Elementary school starts for us next year and it is still a mystery to me!

Here are some of the products I used in this post:

This lunch is linked to:
Bento LunchFollowing In My Shoes

Mixing Up the Bento Boxes

Mixing Up the Bento Boxes

Ouch! Life has been extra busy and I haven’t made time to post our lunches.  I now have a nice backlog of lunch photos to post and am going to attempt to group them into small themes.  Today’s is simply, variety!

Cheddar Cheese Crescents - RachelsRandom.com

This Kotobuki Frog box has a cheddar cheese and vegetarian bacon stuffed crescent roll, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, cantaloupe, grapes, and strawberries.  I also sent in a pomegranate yogurt with granola that Girlie picked.  Both kids LOVED the yogurt and rest of the lunch too.

Rainbow Loom Bento Strap Kotobuki Panda - RachelsRandom.comCuteZCute Kotobuki Bento -RachelsRandom.com

The lunch above is the Kotobuki panda.  I love this lunchbox for its ridiculous cute factor, but it is a little bit small, and it always annoyed me that it came with a plain black bento strap.  Since it sits at headband position, I always felt like it should be red. Well, my daughter and I got hooked on Rainbow Loom recently.  She’s been making bracelets, and I’m cranking out bento straps!! I’ve made some for the EasyLunchboxes too and I’ll show those off in another post!  It looks so great on our panda and keeps the box held together snug.  This lunch has a CuteZCute panda, some Trader Joes rocket crackers, plum slices, and strawberry.  He had a yogurt on the side.

Hello Kitty Bento Set - RachelsRandom.comVegetable Soup Bento - RachelsRandom.com

The above lunches are both from Girlie’s Hello Kitty Collection (lids pictured here) and both contain the vegetable soup she helped me make.  We took a visit to the farm store and she selected lots of fresh veggies that she thought we go well in her recipe.  We used my homemade veggie stock and added her choices of carrots, celery, leeks, zucchini, broccoli, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, and green beans.  We made a huge pot of soup and ate it for days! She loved it and definitely felt proud that she participated in both the shopping, preparation, and cooking.  She was a great help!

The lunch on the left has star and flower cheese sandwiches with rocket crackers, oranges, banana, cucumber slices, soup, and milk.  The lunch on the right has cheesy tortilla pinwheels, pirate booty, cactus pear, oranges, grapes, and soup.

Bento Scrap Muffins & Smoothie - RachelsRandom.com

This bento is from our PaperChase set (picture of lids here).  Girlie has 2 of my bento scrap french toast muffins (made with cranberries this time), carrots, celery, a small container of lite ranch to dip with, and a power smoothie made with berries, banana, oranges, Greek yogurt, and kale.  Delicious and healthy!

Cheese and Crackers Bynto - RachelsRandom.com

This Goodbyn Bynto has strawberries and cantaloupe, crackers with star and flower cheese slices, trail mix, and pirate booty.  I’ve been asked before how I deal with bento scraps.  There generally are not a lot of bento scraps, but whatever is not used in the lunch gets re-purposed in some way.  Cheese scraps can go into a small container and will be used like shredded cheese in other lunches or in quesadillas. Sometimes they get melted on top of broccoli.  They often get fed to the dog, who is generally sitting at my feet, begging for scraps.  Veggie scraps go into my freezer bag of soup stock scraps if they are usable and into the compost, if not.  Fruit scraps can go into freezer for smoothies, pancakes, or bento scrap muffins, and anything unusable goes into compost.  There is very little actual waste.  You can see below how I store the cheese scraps as I’m cutting it.   In my next post, you will see these same scraps get used like shredded cheese! :)

CheddarCheeseScraps - RachelsRandom.com

What do you do with your scraps?  I love all the innovative ways I see my bento blogger friends re-purposing scraps! I just added a new pin board to keep track of all of their recipes and ideas.  You can click right here to follow it.

These are the products I used in my post:

This post is linked to:
Bento LunchFollowing In My Shoes

3 EasyLunchboxes Inspired by a Preschooler!

3 EasyLunchboxes Inspired by a Preschooler!

My son has graduated from being a very enthusiastic lunch consumer to a bento-design apprentice in my kitchen!  Here are 3 simple lunches that he chose all the elements for and helped prep.  He basically did everything that did not require a sharp knife.

CuteZCute EasyLunchbox - RachelsRandom.com

This lunch has a CuteZCute cat PB&J sandwich, cheese, pirate booty, grapes, and strawberries.  Little Dude, who turns 4 in June, washed the grapes and strawberries, cut the bread, used the special tool to pop-out the accents in the bread, and picked the cup the cheese went in.  He almost always picks the CuteZCute pig, so I was pleased to see him change things up a little!

EasyLunchBox Cheese & Crackers - RachelsRandom.com

This EasyLunchbox has crackers and space-themed cheese slices.  He also has pirate booty (his fave), grapes, strawberries, and cucumber and tomato.  I talked him into giving the veggies a try, but naturally, he did not touch them.  Oh well, I continue to make attempts at this!  He cut the shapes out of his cheese, washed the fruit, and poured in the pirate booty. It is fun working side-by-side, even though it does tend to slow things down a bit!

Tran & Boat EasyLunchBox - RachelsRandom.com

This lunch has a cutter that I bought at Daiso in San Francisco and never managed to use.  He fished it out of the drawer and demanded that we give it a try.  He has a two-car train and a boat, surrounded by pirate booty.  He has PB & honey today. He also has applesauce, grapes, and something new… a cactus pear!  We found this special fruit at the local farm store and decided to give it a try.  I can’t even begin to describe it.  You’ll have to try it for yourself.  It had some seeds inside and the color was gorgeous!  I can’t wait to hear how the kids like it in their lunches today!

My Kitchen Apprentice - RachelsRandom.com

Little Dude was very excited about this cool “new” fruit!  Have you tried it?  What other unusual fruits could we be missing? His diet is somewhat restricted to fruit, cheese, and various breads, crackers, and tortillas.  I am always looking for something new I can slip in and hope for success.  Please comment if you have any suggestions!

These are the products I used in this post:

This lunch is linked at:
Bento LunchFollowing In My Shoes

Hoppy Easter Everybunny!

Hoppy Easter Everybunny!

Oh boy that’s a terrible title!  Too bad for you, I kept it anyway! :)

Hoppy Easter - Rachel's Random.com

This bunny lunch marks the last day of school before school’s Friday – Monday long weekend for Spring Break!  I packed both kids bunny-shaped cheese sandwiches on a bed of lettuce.  It is hard to see in the picture, but the middle egg is a dyed hard-boiled egg that Girlie made at school. She brought home one for each of us!  The two smaller eggs on the left and right are mini Easter eggs and contain Annie’s Organic Bunny Grahams as a special treat.  The kids also have grapes and strawberries in the fruit compartment and cooked carrots with a bunny pick in the smallest compartment.  Girlie was most impressed that the bunnies have some of their favorite foods to eat (lettuce and carrots), but Little Dude’s favorite feature was the mini eggs. He said “you put eggs in my lunchbox?” and when I nodded with a big smile, he literally fell over laughing!!  Gotta love how easy it is to make a 3 year old’s day!

How long do you think it takes to make an egg-stra special lunch like this one? 

Hoppy Easter Timer

I was surprised that it did not take me much longer than it does to make a boring lunch!  I used a cute bunny cutter to cut shapes into sliced bread and sliced cheese.  I washed some fruit and cut up a few strawberries.  I had lettuce leftover from an earlier salad, so I just dropped it into the EasyLunchbox and added the sandwiches, hard boiled eggs (which were already cooked and dyed), filled a couple of mini eggs, and grabbed the leftover cooked carrots from the fridge.   Easy.  The most challenging (and time consuming) part was digging through my bento drawer to find the tiny bunny pick that I wanted to use.  Even with that hiccup, making TWO identical Easter lunches took 13 and a half minutes.  Getting all of it into their lunch bags, along with their drink containers, cloth napkins, utensils, and ice packs, took 16 minutes and 23 seconds.

I have no idea how much time “normal” people spend making lunches, but if you could’ve seen my sons face when he saw this lunchbox, you’d know that the 16 minutes are so worth it for us!  It benefits both kids.  Girlie likes to take creative lead on designing lunchbox ideas.  She has so many great ideas and is always thrilled when I respect her ideas and try them out.  Dude is just entertained!  He likes to help, but mostly he just gets a big smile and knows he has something to look forward to at lunchtime.  I love when he carries in his lunch bag and practically skips to the car.  It sure beats the days when he throws a fit over not wanting to go!

How much time do you spend on lunches every day and how many do you make?

I used these products in this post:

This lunch is linked at:
Bento LunchFollowing In My ShoesBento Blog NetworkBentos on the Bayou

4 Fun PlanetBoxes

4 Fun PlanetBoxes

Last night was “Taco Night,” a family tradition since we moved to Pennsylvania.  I cook a giant batch of this awesome chicken taco mix in the crockpot and my parents come over and let us host for once!  We all hover over our tiny kitchen table and make our own tacos (crispy and soft). Even though the eating seems endless, it is relatively healthy (low-fat ingredients and lots of veggies) and there is always a lot left over!

Planetbox Burrito Bento - RachelsRandom.com

Girlie took a little burrito made with fat-free refried beans and low-fat cheese and she has lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and a little dipper of low-fat sour cream on the side.  She also has some cheese shapes, strawberries, golden plum slices, and a bit of my mom’s sopapilla dessert.  Delish!

PlanetBox Fruity Bento - RachelsRandom.com

This lunch is full of fruit and dairy goodness.  She has a large serving of fruit salad, composed of strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple.  She also has mini peppers, cheddar cheese tortilla pinwheels, a yogurt-covered pretzel, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.

CuteZCute Frog Planetbox - RachelsRandom.com

I can’t resist packing Cute-Z-Cute sandwiches in all of our lunchboxes.  She had a frog that was surrounded by blueberries.  She also had mini peppers with a laughing cow lite wedge, grapes, a chocolate quarter, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.

PlanetBox Bento - RachelsRandom.com

This lunch was a leftover from Pi Day last week!  She had a slice of apple pie, strawberries, grapes, cheddar stars, mini peppers, and tortilla and cheese pinwheels.

I like the versatility of the PlanetBox  because it has sections of varying sizes and shapes, which naturally causes the layout to be dynamic and fun.  Even though I pack relatively similar ingredients within the same week, the lunch always looks different.  It looks neat and clean and the stainless steel makes the food color “pop,” which gets my kids more excited to eat a variety of foods.

Do you have a PlanetBox?  What dishes do you like to pack in the big dipper? I’d love some ideas on how to use it!

Here are the products I used in this post:

This lunch is linked to:
Bento LunchFollowing In My Shoes

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day, nerds of the world!  My family is much more enthusiastic over the lesser known and far geekier holidays like Pi Day, May the Fourth, and Talk Like a Pirate Day, than we are about the commercialized ones!  In fact, the kids went all out to show their engineer dad some Pi Day appreciation with a special breakfast this morning, all to say thank you for all the brainy work he does for us!

Pi Day EasyLunchbox - RachelsRandom.com

The EasyLunchbox above has a Pi-shaped breadstick we made from homemade dough last night!  It also has a delicious slice of apple pie and some cheddar cheese cubes.  To enhance the math lesson, there are 22 pieces of fruit and 7 pieces of cucumber.  22 divided by 7 = pi!  For the record, my husband is an engineer and I work in computers, and we’ve never been called on for this bit of scientific knowledge.  But we will impart it to our children anyway!

Pi Day Bynto - RachelsRandom.com

The Goodbyn Bynto above has apple pie, which Little Dude was super excited about, tortilla cheese pinwheels, strawberries, and grapes.  As a budding engineer himself, he has a lot of enthusiasm for pi day and was practically skipping into the classroom to put this lunch in his cubby!

Pi Day Breakfast!

Above is the surprise Pi Day breakfast we made for my husband, and at Girlie’s insistence, we even served it to him in bed!  He has a warm slice of apple pie and two fried eggs with cheese.  Breakfast of engineering champions, right??  To all the engineers and mathematicians of the world, we salute you!

Husband's Hamburger & Jelly Bento

And one more word of husband-appreciation… I went out on Tuesday night, and when I came home, mine had surprised me by packing lunches for the kids.  He did his best to make them bento-like.  He made a new creation: “Hambugers & Jelly,” which thankfully turned out to be PB&J on a bun… no hamburger patty included!  He was sure to put some cute cheese and fresh fruit in there too.  And he even took a photograph!  I was impressed and the kids ate every single bite! Thanks, Nate!

One last plea for anyone with a Facebook account to hook me up with some votes! I am a finalist for a “complete and total cosmetic/wellness/weight loss transformation.” The race is close and if you could help me by liking this status and this page, it will be a big help!   The voting ends tomorrow, so please do it now! Thank you!

Here are the products I used in this post:

Lotsa’ Leftovers!

Lotsa’ Leftovers!

I have not posted any great themed lunchboxes lately, but I do have a mixed up post of leftover bento lunches to show off today.  None are creative, but they’re nutritious, filling, and got us out the door quick when we overslept (thank you daylight savings!).

Leftover Chicken Bento - RachelsRandom.com

I’ll start with my husband, who had some grilled chicken left over from a playdate/BBQ we hosted on Sunday.  He has two pieces of chicken, surrounded by celery, sweet baby peppers, pineapple chunks, and two wedges of laughing cow lite.  This is a nice lunch that has some color and low-fat protein to help him stay full and hopefully avoid the snack truck at work!

Leftover Lo Mein Bento - RachelsRandom.com

Girlie has leftover LoMein from the Chinese takeout we had over the weekend.  We very rarely do take out, but we were working in our garden, and by 5:30, we realized we were too tired and too late to start cooking someting and too filthy to go out.  I dialed up some Chinese food and we kept working in the garden right up until the delivery guy pulled into our driveway.  The kids loved the Lo Mein and I sent the leftovers with Girlie in her Tinkerbell thermos along with a Kotobuki box full of ants on a log, sweet baby pepper, honey crisp apple, and grapes.  YUM.

Leftover Pasta Bento - RachelsRandom.com

Little Dude has some leftover pasta in a thermos, grapes and pineapple, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.  I heated up the pasta and then just dumped the frozen peas right in the thermos and stirred it together.  The peas defrost this way, without getting wrinkly and overcooked.  I added some fresh Parmesan cheese on top.

Grilled Chicken Bento - RachelsRandom.com

My husband had another round of grilled chicken leftovers, this time with a slightly Irish twist.  He has the orange peppers, white chicken, and green celery to represent the colors of the flag of Ireland.  He also has some of the leftover shamrock ravioli from Costco and pineapple chunks.

Shamrock Planetbox - RachelsRandom.com

Girlie also has the shamrock ravioli, along with crackers and cheese, apple slices, and edamame.  I included a valentine heart (yes, I am STILL doling out candy, even after I purged a bunch of the really bad stuff) and a poem for her to go with this week’s -IGHT word family. She loves this new tradition and I found this notepaper that is perfect for writing short poems on.  Today’s poem is: “You are a star, your light so bright. You keep away the fright at night. Snuggle up to me. Hold me tight. When I’m with you, I feel all right.”  She is probably reading it right now at kindergarten lunchtime. Awww.  Her reading is improving quickly and she loves reading everything she sees now.  It is so fun to be able to bond over books together!

Here are the products used in this post:

This lunch is linked at:

Grown-Ups Gotta EatBento LunchFollowing In My Shoes