4 Cute Animal Themed Lunches

One idea I truly love is that of getting, and keeping ready at hand, one set of cutters from which I'm able to create several different and fun lunches. They are especially convenient for those times when I feel like packing something cute, but just seem to have momentarily run out of ideas. These critter cutters from the lunch punch set are absolutely adorable and as always, you can go with or without the accents and your lunches will still turn out cute. All of the cutters I used to create these lunches came in the one set, which for those who have multiple lunches to make every day, might provide an easy way to keep them organized. It surely is crazy fun being a parent!

These lunches were enjoyed by Nikolai a few months ago and it's about time that I post them.

Bento lunch 1: Butterfly themed in which I used the butterfly cutter from our lunch punch set, added a few cheddar cheese accents on the sandwich and used honey as glue. The adorable eyes pick completed the look. Sides are cheese crackers, Babybel cheese which I used a small butterfly cutter for the cut-out, sugar snap peas, choc covered sunflower seeds and seedless red grapes. This lunch is pack in a Planetbox rover.

Bento lunch 2: Dog in doghouse cute lunch. I used the bread end for the dog and cheddar cheese for his collar, a dot of food safe marker for the eye. Alongside are pineapple chunks, strawberries, fruit snack, organic celery sticks and ranch dip in the small container. This lunch is packed in a leak proof Yumbox panino.

Bento lunch 3: A couple of dolphin shaped sandwiches with candy eyes, organic granola bar, Babybel cheese with a small dolphin cut-out, watermelon chunks with a cute pick, organic baby carrots with dip in the small container, far right is Clif Kid berry fruit stick. This lunch is packed in a Bentology living bento box.

Bento lunch 4: Elephant with baby elephant sandwich with Colby cheese ears Mozzarella cheese tusks and candy eye. The baby's eyes are food save marker. Sides are strawberries with an elephant pick, seedless grapes, choc covered sunflower seeds, cheese sandwich crackers, ranch dip in the small elephant container and cucumber slices. Packed in Planetbox.

Continue Reading »

2 Baseball Lunch Ideas

It's already October which means it's soon time for the baseball World Series games and then at least a couple of fun Halloween themed lunches! Life is slightly hectic this year since Nikolai started a new grade at a new school with many more after school activities. I'm sure many of you can relate to this. I'm certainly not complaining as there will be only so many of these precious school years. After that, he'll get his drivers license and will be driving himself off to college. Every day is special and we should treasure them all.

I've always wanted to make baseball themed lunches since Nikolai enjoys baseball very much, and hubby was, I guess, his first coach back when he started playing with those plastic bat and ball sets. Remembering when they went shopping for gloves together can't help but bring a smile. Those days are very much treasured memories and remain fresh as just yesterday.

Bento lunch 1: In the photo above is a baseball themed bento lunch featuring a sandwich with the in-field and bases free hand cut from Colby and Provolone cheese (hubby had me include a pitcher's mound?) and a bat from the crust at the end of the loaf connecting with the baseball pick for a home run. Also included are organic baby carrots with sugar snap peas, a granola bar, a yogurt covered star and some strawberries with another baseball pick.

Bento lunch 2 in Planetbox: The lunch shown above includes a ball and glove sandwich made with our Lunch Punch Sporty set, a granola bar and Annie's organic snacks, a yogurt covered star, some mango chunks, and red seedless grapes with a baseball pick.

Any baseball fans here?

Continue Reading »

5 Pinwheels Lunch Ideas

I did mention recently how much I love my reusable snack bags. Snack Taxi was the first brand which I acquired and use. They generously sent me a set several months ago to try out, and we love them. The reusable bags are made of 100 percent cotton outer with nylon lining, hook and loop closure and made in the USA. You can find many more designs and prints at their site here.

Stasher is another brand of reusable snack bags which I've reviewed earlier and you can find it here. They recently sent me their snack size stasher which we absolutely love. It's smaller than the original stasher and is perfect for snacks.

Pinwheels are among the foods that Nikolai loves. Often I use bread which I slightly flatten with a rolling pin before adding the fillings. I also use tortilla if we have them on hand, which is slightly easier as the tortilla does not require rolling. I'm also sharing one of my failed pinwheels lunches, which you will find if you scroll down towards the end. That morning I was way in a hurry and didn't bother to roll the bread so that was how it turned our - failed! Fortunately, it was still a yummy lunch, Nikolai didn't mind, and came home with an empty lunchbox which made my day.

Bento lunch 1: Ham and cheese pinwheels, cucumber slices and seedless grapes in a round silicone cup with a cute pick. This lunch is packed in a Happy Tiffin lunchbox. On the side is our SnackTaxi reusable bag which contains Annie's organic crackers.

Bento lunch 2: Cream cheese and jam tortilla pinwheels with an organic granola bar in the main section. Sides were Babybel cheese, fruit snacks, seedless red grapes and cucumber slices with a cute pick. This lunch is packed in a Bentgo leak-proof lunchbox.

Bento lunch 3: Pinwheels with cute animal face picks, organic baby carrots, watermelon slices cut into cupcake shapes in my favorite square silicone cups. On the side is a string cheese cut into half. This lunch is packed in our leak-proof stainless steel splash Ecolunchbox. As for snack, he had Annie's organic crackers in our new stasher reusable snack bag. We love this bag!

Bento lunch 4: Ham and cheese tortilla pinwheels. Sides were organic baby carrots, grapes in square silicone cups, cereal bar cut into half and cheddar snacks. This lunch is packed in a Planetbox shuttle.

Bento lunch 5: This is the lunch which I mentioned above. SunButter and jam pinwheels which failed. Annie's organic snack and Babybel cheese with an eye food pick in square silicone cups. Sides were cucumber sticks, baby carrots, pineapple and watermelon chunks. This lunch is packed in an Easylunchboxes.

Continue Reading »

4 Transportation Themed Lunches

Looking at these transportation themed lunches is putting me into travel and vacation mode! I wish we could have a long vacation and more travels coming soon but unfortunately our next long one will be around Christmas time, not that it will be really long, only around two weeks if I'm not mistaken. These lunches were created with our Lunch Punch transportation set which comes with four cutters. They are easy to use and the final results are always cute, you can add some accents like what I did or go without and your lunches will still turn out cute!

Nikolai enjoyed these lunches last school year before our summer vacation! It sure brings back memories.

Bento lunch 1: Truck with cargo. I used the lunch punch cutter for the sandwich and added cheddar cheese wheels and a cap pick for the driver. Sides are pineapple and watermelon chunks with a truck food pick, choc cover sunflower seeds, cucumber slices, organic baby carrots, a cereal bar and crackers. This lunch is packed in a Planetbox rover.

Bento lunch 2: Aeroplane in cloud with Provolone cheese accents. The plane was, of course, cut with the same cutter, while the little clouds were freehand cut.
Sides are organic granola bar, pineapple chunks, yogurt covered fruits, organic baby carrots with a cloud baran. This lunch is packed in a leak-proof Yumbox panino.

Bento lunch 3: For this 'Train with coal car' sandwich I used a small circle cutter and some Provolone cheese for the wheels and puffs of smoke from the locomotive and some mild cheddar which I freehand cut for the other accents. Above the coal car is a morning sun of Babybel cheese and below the wheels are celery tracks. This bento also includes orange slices and a granola bar. It is lunch is packed in a Planetbox launch.

Bento lunch 4: Car. Main compartment contains a car shaped sandwich with cheddar cheese accents and a cute face pick. Sides were grapes with a stop light pick, yogurt covered fruits, sugar snap peas with dip in the small dipper, organic granola bar and crackers. This lunch is packed in a Planetbox rover.

I've packed many more lunches created with the lunch punches and I am hoping to post them soon if possible.

Continue Reading »

4 French Toast Breakfast For Lunch Ideas

I am biased here, I would say that my hubby makes the best french toast! I never much liked French toast before I met him but now, after tasting the ones that he made, I kinda like it as does Nikolai, who loves them and often requests them for his school lunch. The French toast bentos below were made by my hubby except for the French toast sticks which I got from my freezer stash. We like to stock up on some frozen breakfast items for times when we need quick and easy, grab and go.

The first breakfast for lunch, shown in the photo below, and packed in our leak-proof Yumbox , is so easy. While hubby was cooking more French toast, I added some features to the ones that I helped packed in the Yumbox. I used a small circle cutter for the cheddar ears and provolone nose, raisin eyes and nori accent for the nose. Does it look like a bear? His sides were organic maple syrup, organic apple sauce and orange slices.

The second breakfast for lunch was from my freezer stash, with the French toast heated in the toaster oven. The sides were organic granola bar cut into half, grapes, organic maple syrup, strawberry yogurt with a strawberry cut into star shape and some organic crackers. This lunch was packed in a leak-proof Bentgo lunchbox.

This third breakfast for lunch French toast was also made by my hubby and I added a smiley face to it, raisin eyes and nori mouth with a cap pick, easy peasy! Sides were organic apple sauce, seedless grapes, organic maple syrup in the small container, Trader Joe's yogurt stars and a spoon wrapped in cloth napkin. This lunch was packed in a Bentology lunchbox.

The fourth French toast breakfast for lunch was also packed in our leak-proof Yumbox. I added a baran sheet for cuteness. Alongside are Chobani Greek yogurt, organic maple syrup and seedless grapes with a pick.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

Continue Reading »

Football Bento Lunch

With football season just around the corner, I thought I'll make Nikolai a Football themed lunch and I believe this is my first ever football lunch. Thanks to the lunch punch sporty set I was able to create this lunch easily.

The nice people over at the lunch punch sent me this sporty set a coupe of months ago when we were on summer break, and it's now the perfect time for me to put this set to use, sort of a kick-off for the school year! We also have the VRRRM and Sweet sets, of which you can find my review here, and the the Critter cutters as well as the Match and Munch set that can be found here. We love all of these sets and they are frequently my favorite cutters when I need to create something cute, quick and easy.

The Sporty set comes with four shapes of cutters: Baseball and glove, Basketball, Football and Soccer ball. Like the other lunch punch cutters, one really great feature of these cutters is that they are very cleverly designed to capture the most amount of bread to minimize waste!

The ease of use includes their ease of cleaning. If you desire, you can simply put them in the dishwasher, and like the other sets, these are made of US FDA approved food-grade virgin ABS plastic, which is free of such things as BPA, PVC, phthalate, and lead, so of course you won't see these, but you will definitely see fun lunches!

In this bento lunch: A football shaped sandwich with provolone cheese accents, organic granola bar cut into half, organic baby carrots and organic apple slices in my favorite square silicone cup. This lunch is packed in our Easylunchboxes container.

I've created a bunch of lunches with the lunch punch sets right before end of last school year. I was short of ideas and lost much of my bento making mojo for a time. It happens to all of us occasionally, so I expect you'll soon be seeing more of the Lunch Punch lunches that I haven't yet posted.
 

Continue Reading »

4 Winnie The Pooh Themed Lunches

It's been back to school for over one week and I am happy to share that we made it through smoothly! The drive to and from his new school wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. Nikolai is happy with his new school, which is a great start, met with some old friends, and made some new ones!

Any Winnie The Pooh fans here? I am one! Nikolai still likes Pooh but not as much as in his younger days and even hubby likes Pooh and the other characters from the hundred acre woods. I made these Pooh bear themed lunches for him last school year and it's about time that I post them. I still have a huge backlog of lunch pictures which I'll post, slowly but surely!

Bento lunch 1: A whole wheat sandwich topped with a cheddar cheese Pooh face for which I used my cutter/ stamper to create. The bee was free hand cut cheddar cheese with nori stripes, mozzarella cheese wings and I used food safe marker for the features. Alongside are organic baby carrots, ranch in the small Pooh container, fruit snacks, and seedless green and red grapes with a bee pick. This lunch was packed in his leak-proof Yumbox.

Bento lunch 2: Free hand cut Pooh face with nori features, organic fruit leather for his shirt and placed on top of a whole wheat sandwich. His sides were grapes with a Pooh cupcake ring, baby carrots, yogurt covered fruits and pineapple pieces. This lunch was packed in his Planetbox.

Bento lunch 3: Pooh mini sandwiches which I used my small cutter/stamper to create, it's so easy. Alongside are organic granola bar cut into half, fruit snacks in a bear shaped silicone cup, yogurt covered star, cucumber slices with a Pooh pick, a couple of grape tomatoes from our garden, a banana for which I used a toothpick to carve POOH lettering. This lunch was also packed in his Planetbox.

Bento lunch 4: Main compartment contains a beehive shaped sandwich with a cute bee pick. His sides were organic baby carrots, mini choc chips, seedless red grapes in a bee shaped silicone cup, seedless green grapes and blueberries with a Winnie the Pooh pick. This lunch was packed in his Planetbox.

Pinterest collage.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

 

Continue Reading »

PlanetBox JetPack Backpack and Carry Bag Review

The wonderful people over at PlanetBox continue to amaze me! Recently they sent me their Jetpack Backpack and a Carry Bag. These are two great items designed to be very practical in use and made to a high standard of quality for durability.

The Jetpack is a brilliant combination of a spacious backpack, into which you might put the usual collection of school supplies, books, notebooks, laptop, and such, with a special compartment below for holding any Planetbox, or many other lunch containers, in a horizontal position. This special compartment has its own zippered access so when it is time to eat, everything else can stay put while you slide your lunch out from its hiding place.

While writing this, Planetbox generously sent me another package which contains three of their ColdKits. I put one of them to use straight away so I could share my impression of the ColdKit with y'all. Continue reading and you will get to it.

In addition to the lower lunch storage compartment of the Jetpack backpack there are seven other pockets of various sizes, four of which have zippered closures and there are also two water bottle sized pockets at the sides, which are the perfect place to securely carry your BottleRocket or any beverage container. This is a good sized bag with a base of 13 inches x 12.5 inches and a height of 17 inches. While their site, Planetbox recommends it for children over eight years old, its 30 liter capacity is very nice for older students or adults with lots to carry!

The bag is made of a recycled polyester fabric that has been independently certified to be free of phthalates, BPA, and lead. It has adjustable shoulder straps that are sturdy, well padded, and very comfortable. There is also another sturdy loop at the top.

This great bag is available in six attractive patterns. The one Nikolai chose is the one shown here and is known as the Nebula design.  

The PlanetBox Carry Bag is a great companion for your PlanetBox Rover or Launch. This is an insulated bag that, like all their products, is of the highest quality materials and workmanship. Inside it has a TPU coating for super easy clean-up while outside there is a snack pocket and a bottle pouch which accommodates not only their attractive BottleRocket but most bottles up to three inches in diameter. The Carry Bag strap is sturdy and adjustable.

This lunch, packed in a PlanetBox Rover includes a sandwich shaped as a car with windows, wheels, and stripe cut from Colby cheese, tires cut from nori, and a pick. In addition there is a granola bar with bunny crackers, seedless red grapes, sugar snap peas with ranch for dip in the small container and some yogurt covered raisins. A couple of fun picks were also added.

The convenient ColdKit that I mentioned earlier, which can keep your lunch cold up to eight hours, fits perfectly in the mesh pocket of the Carry Bag and will also fit their Slim Sleeve and Shuttle Carry Bag. Their ColdKit consists of an ice pack of purified water and a washable fabric sleeve. This combination is easy to use, as it can be put into the freezer with or without the sleeve, and the fabric sleeve solved the excess condensation problem that I've experienced with some other attempts to keep the lunches cold. Nikolai reported to me that indeed his lunch was kept cold till his lunch time.

I have previously published reviews of the PlanetBox Rover, PlanetBox Launch, PlanetBox Shuttle and the adorable PlanetBox BottleRocket. I'm sure that like all of these, the Jetpack Backpack and the Carry Bag will also be a joy to use for many years. For information on their complete collection, and view all their wonderful designs and options, I urge you to visit their site at www.planetbox.com


Disclosure: PlanetBox generously provided me with the products for review without cost to me. Other than receiving the products, I have not received any compensation to write this review. All opinions are my own.

Continue Reading »

Back To School Lunch

We are back and I can't believe this! Time flies, I guess it's true, when you are having fun, and already it's back to school time for Nikolai! It always feels that summer passes by quicker each year and then you wonder where has this summer gone?
This year, we spent most of our summer holidays travelling, in and out of the country which was fantastic. Adventuring about is one of those activities we all really enjoy. As usual, we even tried to cram in a few last minute fun road trips.

Every year includes the back to school shopping experience. I usually get his clothing, shoes, backpack, etc. right after he gets out of school instead of just before school starts. He always asks why we get the stuff so early. I respond "so we have a free mind for when we go on vacation."

Nikolai will be starting in a new school which will require a longer drive in more traffic. We all have to adjust to a new daily routine but I believe we'll soon get used to it. Most important is that he is looking forward to this new school year with confidence and optimism!

Here is the lunch I prepared for his first day.

In this bento lunch: A sandwich decorated as a notebook with Asiago and Colby cheese lettering, the spiral effect was accomplished with strawberry licorice string. Along side is an organic granola bar. Above are seedless green grapes, to the left are organic baby carrots with ranch in the small container. Below is an apple segment with free hand cut A+ and in the middle is a yogurt covered star. This lunch is packed in a Planetbox rover.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack this lunch.

Continue Reading »

Star Themed Lunches

I try to make at least one star themed lunch for Nikolai towards the end of every school year. It's my way of reminding him that he's our star and we are very proud of his achievements and hard work throughout the entire school year. This year it's slightly different, I made a few star themed lunches, probably because this will be his last year in elementary school. I've combined them in one post as the last week of school will be quite hectic for us with concerts, award ceremony and all.

I'll still be packing lunches till the last day of school for sure, just the last few days will be bento snacks since they only have to attend half days.

In this bento lunch: Main compartment contains a sandwich topped with a couple of smiley stars cut out of Gouda cheese with my small star cutter, STAR lettering and an organic granola bar. Alongside are organic baby carrots, broccoli florets, strawberries, grapes and a sting cheese. This lunch was packed in a Bentology Living Box.

In this bento lunch: Main compartment contains a couple of star shaped sandwiches topped with stars of cheddar and Gouda cheese, a Babybel cheese which I used my small star shape cutter for the cut-out, Trader Joe's yogurt stars and an organic granola bar. Sides are strawberries, organic baby carrots and broccoli florets. This lunch was packed in our Easylunchboxes urban.

Nikolai is quite particular with the number of cheese, crackers and meat whenever I sent lunchables. If it's 8 crackers, he prefers everything else to be 8 so he can stack them. Many times I've sent lunchables without counting and he suggested that I should, LOL. The bento below has 8 of each but one cracker is hidden behind, so you'll only see 7.

In this lunchables: Main compartment contains whole wheat crackers, star shaped cheddar cheese and nitrate free ham roll-ups. Sides are baby carrots, seedless grapes with a star pick, mini chocolate chips, a yogurt star and cheddar popcorn. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox rover.

In this bento lunch: Cheddar cheese star topped on a yummy sandwich. Alongside are kiwi slices and strawberries with a star pick. He also had a snack box and his daily water bottle which is not pictured. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox shuttle.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.
 

Continue Reading »

Pinwheels and Bagel Lunches

We are back from our spring break. Besides all of the fun, we did some spring cleaning and this time I donated more than half of my clothing from my closet which is quite drastic I guess, lol. I decided to change my style and get all new clothing and shoes.
Do you like Hello Kitty? It has been one of my favorite characters since childhood and I'm still collecting any cute Hello Kitty items. I've made Hello Kitty lunches for Nikolai previously and wanted to create a bagel to look like Hello Kitty but Nikolai told me "Mom, just to make a cat will do fine."

I totally understand that he's older now and his preferences have changed. I am also afraid that the days of me making cute lunches are numbered, hopefully not too soon though!

Bento lunch 1: Cat themed bagel. As always, honey works best for me as food glue. A dab on the cheeks and it glued the nori whiskers into place. Raisin eyes and cheddar cheese ears completed the face. His sides were celery sticks which he is not keen on, He came home with only a bite on one stick! Ranch for dip in the small container, Annie's organic crackers, blueberries, grapes and a cheese stick.

Bento lunch 2: Pinwheels, or what some call roll-ups, for lunch. His sides were Cascadian farm organic granola bar cut into half, seedless grapes, strawberries, and Chobani Greek yogurt with a spoon wrapped in napkin. I love our bentology living box which has inner leak-proof containers with lids.

Bento lunch 3: Easy dinosaur bagel lunch. A couple of dino picks, dino fruit snack and dino napkin gave this lunch a title. He also had organic apple sauce with extra cinnamon (his favorite) and organic baby carrots.

These lunches were packed in our bentology bento box.

Here are the supplies that I used to create these lunches.

Continue Reading »

6 Fun Lunchbox Ideas For Your Yumbox

I had made these lunches some months ago, and I thought it would be nice to combine them all in one post. As you may already know, Yumbox is leak-proof and it's great for sending apple sauce, yogurt, rice pudding, etc with Nikolai. For some reason, he loves applesauce and makes a request for it almost daily!

Bento lunch 1: Bears bento lunch. I used both whole wheat and pumpernickel bread for the bears faces, with raisin eyes and  provolone and cheddar cheese for ears and nose. Alongside are organic baby carrots, seedless green grapes with a bear pick and slices of mozzarella cheese.

Bento lunch 2: Tortilla roll-ups for lunch. His sides were Clif bar cut into half, organic baby carrots, dye free choc covered sunflower seeds, slices of orange and organic apple . I love our square silicone cups, they work great as separators!

Bento lunch 3: Bagel face lunch. I added a couple of eye picks for fun on the bagel. Alongside he had a babybel cheese, dye free choc covered sunflower seeds, cheese crackers and organic apple pieces. Love the leak proof Yumbox.

Bento lunch 4: French toast with Greek yogurt breakfast for lunch. My hubby made breakfast and I conveniently added a couple of French toast in Nikolai's Yumbox, topped with a ladybug baran. Alongside are pure maple syrup, seedless green grapes with a ladybug pick and Greek yogurt.

Bento lunch 5: Simple sandwich cut into half with a cute Panda pick. I always love it when a cute pick can instantly make a simple lunch special! His sides were Cascadian Farm organic granola bar, slices of mozzarella cheese, organic apple sauce, baby carrots and seedless red grapes. Packed in our Yumbox.

Bento lunch 6: Tortilla wraps with a couple of music note picks, a Clif bar, organic apple sauce, slices of mozzarella cheese and organic blueberries.

All of these lunches are packed in our Yumbox.

Here is a recap of all of this collection of lunches.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

Continue Reading »