Simple Lunches for Small Bellies

A week of lunches for Beaker!

He took this fun butterfly lunch to preschool on a day of beautiful Spring weather.

A trio of cheesy butterflies take flight across a tiny garden of lunch.

He has soy and gluten free rice crackers with cheese butterflies and EnjoyLife allergen free mini chocolate chip flight trails, pieces of dill havarti, a tiny tub of sunflower seeds, slices of turkey rolled up, carrot pieces, fresh pineapple, and snap peas.

On a day at home, Beaker had this little bunny lunch:

Cantaloupe pieces are tucked up in the corner, with mini squares of ham sandwich skewered on bunny picks. The bread is a soy and gluten free sunflower seed bread I found at Costco. Pretty tasty, actually!

Beaker loved the mini sandwich skewers. They were a super easy way to make his lunch fun.

My first attempt at gluten-free baking turned out pretty good! This is a piece of Beaker-safe (so gluten, soy, and nut free) banana bread with EnjoyLife mini chocolate chips on top. It was pretty good, but I forgot to mix the dry ingredients together before adding to the mashed bananas so there were some spots of salt and baking powder that were a bit gross to bite into. Lesson learned for next time!

He also has a couple of carrots, some Van's Say Cheese crackers, olives on picks, and slices of cheddar-mozzarella cheese stick. This simple finger foods lunch took about ten minutes to make. Very easy and a nice variety for him to eat.

Beaker took this puppy lunch and snack to preschool. 

For lunch, I packed a sliced up cheese stick with Canadian bacon on puppy picks. He also has snap pea 'grass' with carrots cut into tiny flower shapes, a mandarin orange cut in half, and strawberry pieces.  

For snack he has grapes cut in half, carrot bits, Van's Say Cheese crackers (free of all his allergens, and they taste delicious, too), and a few gummi bears.

I packed his lunch and snack in these cute matching small bento dishes from Daiso Japan. We bought them on our last trip up to Seattle. You can also find them at AllThingsForSale.com, which is way more convenient for most people. That is where I generally buy most of my bento gear, since I don't have a Daiso near me. ATFS is a great online store - excellent customer service, great prices, and fast shipping!

This was a simple and fast lunch for at home. It took roughly seven minutes for me to make three exactly like this - lunches for Beaker, Princess, and Bean. 

He has cubes of roasted turkey breast left over from dinner with honey mustard (the only commercial dressing I have found so far which does not have soybean oil or garlic), a sliced up pickle, banana and strawberry slices with a mini fork pick for eating, and three gummi bears. Fast, simple, and tasty! And this lunch is free from gluten/wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, corn... all of the top allergens.

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