Tag Archives: cooking

May24

5 Easy and Healthy PlanetBox Lunches

Posted on May 24, 2013 by rachel.beard

We like to mix up our lunchboxes a lot, but the PlanetBox is commonly requested by my daughter. She likes the box itself, the bag it came with, and the easy access to multiple food areas. I like it because it gives me a template to work with for lunch, which somehow enables me to think less about the layout. I just fill it up and we’re out the door! Here are some of our PlanetBox creations from the last couple of weeks.

This CuteZCute frog sandwich is made on homemade bread and has a flower bow made with cut-outs from another sandwich. I also packed a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, strawberries, blueberries, cucumber, grape tomatoes, and shelled pistachios.

This PlanetBox features the California Tommy from the recipe that I contributed to the EasyLunchboxes cookbook last year. It is basically a veggie dog, veggie bacon, and cheese, wrapped up in a crescent roll and baked. I added snow peas to the main compartment, along with picks full of grape tomatoes and mozerrella cheese. I also included a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, strawberries, papaya, and shelled pistachios.

I went with animal shaped cheeses slices and crackers for this lunch. I also packed a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, apples, carrots, celery, a little dipper full of light ranch dressing, and shelled pistachios.

Could it get any easier than this? Leftover pizza in a PlanetBox! I added a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, carrots, cucumber, red bell pepper, blueberries, papaya, and shelled pistachios. Because she loves patterns, the cucumber and bell peppers were her favorite part of this lunch!

Here’s a Cute-Z-Cute frog PB&J with sugar snap peas. I also included a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, strawberries, mini heirloom tomatoes with mozzerella, and pistachios. Girlie was most impressed with the big green tomato that had a kind of watermelon pattern to it. I love when her lunches are colorful and fun and entice her to eat more.

These are the products I used in this post:

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May4

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

Posted on May 4, 2013 by rachel.beard

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.

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.

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:

Once you’ve completed the hop…

These are the products I used in this post:

Mar21

4 Fun PlanetBoxes

Posted on March 21, 2013 by rachel.beard

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!

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!

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.

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.

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:

Mar14

Happy Pi Day!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by rachel.beard

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!

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!

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!

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!

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:

Mar12

Lotsa’ Leftovers!

Posted on March 12, 2013 by rachel.beard

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!).

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!

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.

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.

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.

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:

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Mar6

4 CuteZCute Bento Lunches!

Posted on March 6, 2013 by rachel.beard

4 CuteZCute Bento Lunches!

Have you tried the CuteZCute sandwich cutter yet? It has been out of stock on Amazon.com, but it is now back! To help celebrate its triumphant return (they are made by a mom-friend of mine), I have been making CuteZCute lunches all week! I made one of each animal. Check them out:

This one is an all-time CuteZCute favorite. I used the frog template and then cut bones out of white cheddar to make a froggy pirate flag. I added blueberries and cheese for the border. He has strawberries and some leftover cookie from the huge batch I baked over the weekend. I wish I had captured Little Dude’s face when he saw this thing! His face lit up and he was jumping up and down. And then, of course, it was some kid’s pizza-lunch birthday at school and he didn’t get to eat it there. Fortunately, he hated what I made for dinner that night (some quinoa casserole) and he got to eat his lunch then instead!

For this CuteZCute pig I packed for Girlie, I dyed some of the cutouts with beet juice that I had left after roasting beets for dinner. I dipped them in the beety goodness and then left them out to dry overnight. They were probably too dry to eat, but they sure looked cute! He also had cheddar and jack cheese cubes, sugar snap peas, strawberries skewered with heart picks, blueberries, tomatoes, and cucumber.

Little Dude’s new favorite trend is asking for two sandwiches every day. He wants a peanut butter sandwich and a cheese sandwich. Today, he has a CuteZCute cat PB&J sandwich and a tiny flower cheese sandwich that was cut out from Girlie’s sandwich (which will be featured in my Lunch Punch winner announcement, coming soon). He has a mini-dipper of trail mix, strawberries, and pineapple. I added some cute picks just for fun. Little Dude helped me pick the pineapple at the grocery this weekend. As we were going through the store, he held it and kept talking about “Spongebob’s home.” I let him help me chop up the pineapple chunks this morning and I tried to reinforce knife safety: “When is it OK to use a knife, Little Dude?” And instead of answering something about having a parent to help you to be safe, he answered “when you’re cutting up Spongebob’s home!” Gotta love preschool logic!

This last lunch is a CuteZCute panda in a Panda Kotobuki bento box. He has the Panda, cheese slices, a strawberry and blueberry flower, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube. Cute, fun, and easy to make!

Do you have a CuteZCute cutter yet? They are only $9.99 for the set of all four animals I showed above. They are very cute and easy to make. They will produce a lot of leftover bread, but you can use that for bento scrap muffins, egg in a hole, breadcrumbs, and endless other recipes that don’t end up wasting too much food. For more CuteZCute lunch ideas, check out this pinterest board!

Products used in this post:

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Feb26

Totally Tortellini!

Posted on February 26, 2013 by rachel.beard

Totally Tortellini!

The kids have a new favorite dinner and it is tortellini! I made an entire package for dinner on Sunday night and intended for them to have leftovers, but there was not much left for lunch. I was looking for some creative ways to serve the remainder in small portions and this is what I came up with:

Girlie’s lunch was served on heart picks with a small container of tomato sauce in her little dipper. She also had sugar snap peas, strawberries, blueberries, a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, and a small Valentine’s Day chocolate. I got the skewered tortellini idea from this pin, but tried it with red sauce instead of pesto. Please take a minute and use this link to vote for me in the Planetbox photo contest. I’d love to win another one for Little Dude to use!

Little Dude is also tortellini-crazed and he had his leftovers in his EasyLunchbox Mini-Dippers. He also had strawberries and blueberries, including a heart-shaped strawberry in his yogurt. We found these great new rocket crackers at Trader Joe’s this weekend and he was happy to have those in his lunchbox as well.

I’ve mentioned before that I am looking for new meal ideas for my vegetarian kids. I’ve seen a lot of people having success from group boards on pinterest. I just created a new board called Vegetarian Food for Kids. Comment or e-mail me if you’d like to be added as a pinner. I would love some broad new ideas. We are really stuck in a mac-and-cheese / quesadilla rut. What is your most common dinner entree?

I used these products in my post:

Feb22

Friday Random Round-up!

Posted on February 22, 2013 by rachel.beard

Friday Random Round-up!

Well, this week has flown by and my insane work schedule has kept me from making my usual lunch posts. I’m making up for lost time with this random lunch round up of completely average-looking lunches in various lunchboxes we own and love. These are all simple bento lunches that a busy mom can put together without hassle or stress. Here they are in no particular order:

Above is a new bento box that I got from Daiso in San Francisco a few months ago and just finally got around to using! It is a cute two-tier box, with chopsticks at the top and a bento strap. The tiers are filled with cucumber and tomato in one and strawberries and blueberries in the other. I have another container with a pastry that Girlie made with my mom. The Hello Kitty thermos has homemade Mac & Cheese. Girlie loves getting a hot lunch, but we rarely have leftovers to send with her! This will be viewed as a special treat.

The EasyLunchbox above has a cheddar cheese and vegetarian bacon croissant wrap, a peanut butter with banana, a nut and berry mix in a silicon cup, pirate booty, a tiny pepper, and sugar snap peas. Girlie loves anything “baby” and these tiny peppers from our CSA were no exception.

Above and below are Kotobuki Frog and Panda lunchboxes. I’ve included what they look like closed to give you some perspective. The one above has cheesy pinwheels, carrots, and broccoli, with pears in the small compartment. I served it with a yogurt parfait in a ball jar and granola in an EasyLunchboxes mini-dipper. The kids were excited to mix the granola in their parfait, just like they do at their favorite cafe! The granola is homemade from Lunches Fit For a Kid’s Grandma’s Granola recipe.

The kotobuki panda box above has super-cheesy pinwheels, craisin ants on a log, strawberries, blueberries, and a Chobani Champions tube.

Girlie had a Hello Kitty bento-palooza again with the cute nested container set I bought in Chinatown in Philadelphia last year. You can see a picture of the containers with their lids here. They are filled with apples and grapes, peppers and sugar snap peas, and pirate booty. She had tomato soup in the hot thermos and milk in the cold one.

Little Dude is practicing the letter W and I wanted to give him a W sandwich on whole wheat bread for lunchtime learning. He also has pirate booty, carrots sticks, pepper strips, and apple slices.

This planetbox has cheese pinwheels (See a theme here lately? I may have overbought cheese and whole wheat tortillas at Costco last week!), carrot sticks, a baby pepper, mango and grapes, a Chobani Champions yogurt tube, and a heart valentine candy from last week’s goody bag.

Finally, this is our Paperchase set. You can see the lids here. They are adorable and come with a fushia bento strap. Girlie used the set of these with a cheese sandwich, yogurt with frozen berries (they defrost by lunch and keep the yogurt cool), carrot sticks and pepper strips, and homemade granola.

Whoa! That’s a lot of lunches to catch up on. I’m still stuck on good vegetarian dinner ideas for the kids and I’d love any suggestions if you’ve got them. Thanks!

Here are the products used in this post:

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Jan18

New Planetbox & Pinterest Craziness

Posted on January 18, 2013 by rachel.beard

New Planetbox & Pinterest Craziness

There is something really scary going on in my house. I’m in a Pinterest frenzy! I’ve been cooking up a storm and organizing stuff and making things…very out of character for me. I did not nest like this when I was pregnant, but somehow taking care of a sick Little Dude all week really brought it out in me. It was a busy week juggling caring for a sick baby, my crazy workload, and this crazy compulsion to make things. The arrival of our new PlanetBox only fueled that fire and I had fun making new foods in a new layout!

Wednesday’s PlanetBox had a zucchini tot with a small dipper of ketchup, mango and kiwi, blueberries, fried rice, and a Chobani Champions yogurt tube.

Thursday’s lunch was a cheese-filled crescent roll, mango & kiwi, granola, Greek yogurt with berries mixed in, veggie kabobs on heart picks, and a chocolate quarter.

Today’s lunch was edamame, mango, kiwi, and blueberries, trail mix, a Chobani Champions tube, and a pasta salad made with tomato, red bell pepper, and white beans.

I am finding myself more and more jealous of Girlie’s lunches (and Nate’s too when I pack them). I kind of want to start making my own lunch in advance instead of trying to rustle something up between conference calls. Good idea, right?

Here is a list of crazy stuff I made from Pinterest this week:

White Bean & Sriracha Dip

Beet & Yogurt Salad with Yogurt & Mint

Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup

Baked Brie (Served with Apples & Grapes)

Breakfast Cookies

Cheesecake Bars

Slow Cooker Sesame Chicken

Zucchini Tots

On top of all of that, I also cooked a giant pot of soup to eat all week and baked some delicious cinnamon raisin bread in my bread machine.

I also had Girlie help me with a Pinterest craft of DIY Air Freshener! She was actually very handy with a hammer and nail!

So that about catches me up on my week. This is the first day this week that everyone is at school or work and nobody got sent home sick from either. Well, it is only 4pm, so I may be pushing my luck by stating that!

Are you as pinterest crazed as I am? If not, what do you do when you’re cooped up at home with a sick kid?

Here is a link to an PlanetBox on Amazon, if you’re interested in learning more:

Jan16

Weekly Round-Up

Posted on January 16, 2013 by rachel.beard

Weekly Round-Up

I finished last week’s goal of a different lunchbox every day of the week for Girlie! I cannot believe that she has 10 different styles of lunchboxes now. Clearly, I am a bento addict! Luckily, she appreciates my mania. It was fun to keep mixing things up all week and trying new foods too!

Thursday’s lunch features a whole lot of pink! I roasted some beets for myself and kept some of the beet juice to dye a hard boiled Hello Kitty Egg and to mix with cream cheese for super pink cream cheese and jelly pinwheels. I also gave her strawberries, grape tomatoes, a slice of beet, and Very Berry Chobani Champions. I was proud of her for tasting the beet slice, but I was not surprised that she did not like it!

Friday was a Hello Kitty fun day! Girlie had yogurt mixed with berries and a side of granola to sprinkle in. She also had a cheese and veggie bacon crescent roll, red bell pepper, sugar snap peas, cucumber slices, and ranch dip in a mini dipper. I also gave her some milk in her Hello Kitty thermos and put all of it in her Hello Kitty lunch bag.

On Monday, we got back to our tried and true EasyLunchboxes. I made these ridiculously delicious cheesecake bars over the weekend (primarily made from crescent roll dough and cream cheese) and they were a huge hit with Girlie, so I included one in her lunch, but with lots of fruit and veggies to balance it out. She got a pattern of carrot, sugar snap peas, and grape tomatoes in the large compartment. I added grapes and blueberries in one small compartment and greek yogurt in the other.

Yesterday’s lunch was a simple PB&J, but made with the cinnamon raisin bread I baked in my new bread machine. I served that with grapes, blueberries, cucumber, yellow bell pepper, some low-fat Ranch in a mini-dipper, and an Orange Vanilla Chobani Champions. I added her glass water bottle for the photo – it is a Lifefactory bottle and this is what she brings almost every day.

Little Dude and I have been sick off and on and he’s barely been at school this month. I’ve been keeping him busy with TV, games, and cooking projects. He’s back again today, so let’s hope he doesn’t get sent home with another fever! Does you have any kid-tested immunity boosting recipes to recommend? I’ve been trying to force liquids and vitamin C, but the colds just keep coming. I’d love any other ideas you can share!

Here are the products I used in this lunch:

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Rachel's Random Ramblings

Bentos and My Adventures in Parenting!

Tag Archives: cooking

5 Easy and Healthy PlanetBox Lunches

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

4 Fun PlanetBoxes

Happy Pi Day!

Lotsa’ Leftovers!

4 CuteZCute Bento Lunches!

Totally Tortellini!

Friday Random Round-up!

New Planetbox & Pinterest Craziness

Weekly Round-Up