Cute Koala

An adorably simple lunch for Lulu today!

This darling little koala sandwich was made with the new Cuddle Palz set from CuteZCute. These sandwich cutter and stamper sets are both super easy to use and super adorable. The set comes with the tools to make a little mouse, tiger, bear, or this sweet koala:

The outside shape is included along with the cutter/stamper for the details, a body shape, and an adorable little pick for pushing out leftover bits. We are loving the new set!

In this lunch:

Koala sandwich

Yogurt with sprinkles

Apple slices and grapes

Carrot sticks with ranch

Pretzel twists and mini Oreos

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CuteZCute and Gluten Free to Boot

I know I have mentioned before how much I love the CuteZCute sandwich cutter from BentoUSA . It is fast and easy to use, and adorable too, making it a perfect tool for quick bento lunches for kids.

 I used the CuteZCute to make this gluten, soy, and nut free lunch for Beaker to take on a picnic with friends:

As anyone who deals with food allergies knows, it can be challenging to find products for things like sandwiches which are free of particular allergens. Especially wheat, soy, dairy, and nuts. To make the sandwich, I used Udi's gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread (which is also soy, dairy, and nut free), sunflower seed butter from Trader Joe's (the only brand I've found so far which is free of both nuts and soy), and soy-free vegan sprinkles. I am lucky to live near a large city with fairly easy access to a variety of allergy friendly brands and products, making finding these things somewhat easier, if a bit more expensive. 

On the side he has carrot discs, cucumber slices, a few cheese pieces, mandarin oranges, Van's multigrain crackers, and a few fruit gummies.

Another Beaker-safe CuteZCute lunch:

This lunch has a GF piggy cheese sandwich with cheese slices, carrot sticks, and grapes. For snack the lunch has Van's Say Cheese crackers, EnerG Wylde pretzel Os, and raisins, with a pair of Enjoy Life allergen free soft cookies. We love the Enjoy Life cookies. They taste delicious and are free of just about every common allergen, except eggs. 

Of course, both of these lunches are from before his RAST test showed a positive dairy and egg reaction. Keeping him dairy free has been the biggest challenge so far! This past week we have begun challenging him with small amounts of dairy and so far he has not had any reaction. We're hopeful that this means his RAST positive was a fluke or a side-effect reaction. He was so happy that he got to have a bite of cheese when we started the challenge that he almost cried. Cheese is his very favorite food and not being able to eat it has been awful for him. Crossing our fingers that the dairy sensitivity is gone! Next we re-test hazelnuts (he had a possible questionable reaction to them when we challenged them. It may have been from the hazelnuts or from something else. Since we're not sure, we are repeating the challenge), and then egg whites. Wish us luck!

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And from this week...

Woo! Finally caught almost up to date after all of the catching up. Here are some of the lunches from so far this week:

A lunch for the Dude. He has a thin sliced corned beef croissant sandwich with Havarti cheese and crisp lettuce. He also has cucumber slices, whole strawberries, and a few mini Chips Ahoy cookies.

It has to be Spring eventually! Yes, Winter just started a few weeks ago, but we're already daydreaming of Spring. Bean has a jumping bunny lunch here.

She has yogurt with sprinkles, jumping Annie's Organic bunny grahams, a pair of orange segments, some halved strawberries, a baby Baybel cheese, and a happy little bunny hard boiled egg.

And finally, for Princess, a family of little bears took over her lunch.

She also has yogurt with sprinkles, a few mini Chips Ahoy cookies, orange segments, and strawberry halves. Tucked up top she has chocolate Teddy Grahams, and in the middle she has cucumber slices and a teddy bear hard boiled egg wearing a little hat. A picnic lunch, even if it isn't picnic weather!

All Last Week

The week after our vacation was all half days due to conferences, and then the next week (last week) was busy and stressful. I have been a bad blogger - no posts for over a week, yikes! I'm making up for that now with one big huge mega post, and then will try to keep on track moving forward.

In no particular order:

A Beaker snack... mozzarella string cheese cut into pieces, banana chunks, Goldfish grahams, and turkey with a pair of dinosaur picks. The picks made great makeshift forks.

Beaker's lunch... two lunches, actually. As I was nearly finished with the first tiny lunch, Beaker came into the kitchen and reminded me that he asked for a "Fee-ferd" lunch. I had promised and then forgotten - oops! It was his first time with a sitter (my awesome friend agreed to watch him for me kind of last minute so I could get to my class), and I was willing to do anything that would help him be more comfortable, so making two separate small lunches didn't tweak my nose. He wound up having a fantastic time and ate both lunches by the time we got home.

The first is in a tiny two layer bento box. The bottom layer has peeled clementine pieces, halved grapes, and Phineas and Ferb fruit snacks, and the top layer has mini beef sausages and "space" themed Goldfish.

The second is a Phineas sandwich, made with turkey, whole wheat white bread, a candy eye, and a clementine piece for the 'hair'. He also has ranch, carrots, and Teddy Grahams.

Snack for Bean - Angry Birds Cheese Nips with Laughing Cow cheese wedge tucked into a triangle onigiri case.

Bean's lunch: peeled clementine segments, grapes, mini beef sausages, a snack size chocolate bar, mini pretzel balls, and Annie's bunny grahams.

Princess' lunch: mini pretzel balls, Annie's bunny grahams, mini Oreos, peeled clementine segments, grapes, mini beef sausages, and a McDonald's barbecue sauce tub tucked in under the cookies. Fast food is rare here, but when we do go I tend to collect extra sauce packets and things to keep in the cabinet. Super easy to pack into lunches!!

A Beaker at-home lunch - carrots with ranch, apple slices, caramel apple candy corn, and super cheesy tuna casserole.

Princess lunch - carrots with hummus, Angry Birds grahams, Angry Birds Cheese Nips, and grapes.

I also packed a tiny turkey sandwich and a pack of Angry Birds fruit snacks for her lunch.

Bean lunch - Not-Lunchables. Purple grapes in a triangle onigiri case for her snack, with heart shaped turkey and cheese, Ritz crackers, and carrots, cucumbers, and spinach leaves with ranch.

Lunch for the Dude: carrots and cucumber bits with tiny cheese hearts, purple grapes, a couple of pieces of leftover Halloween candy, Wheat Thin crackers, and a pair of turkey-veggie wraps.

Lunch for Brick - carrots with ranch, Ritz crackers and leftover Halloween candy, and a pair of turkey wraps.

G-man liked this next one so much he has asked for another for tomorrow. Super Mario Bros. fruit snacks with purple grapes, Ritz crackers with super stars, and Power Up Star Biscoff sandwiches.

Another Beaker at-home lunch, this time featuring Bad Piggies/Angry Birds. Bad Piggies is Beaker's favorite. He knows how to operate the tablet, can turn it on and put on Bad Piggies all by himself. It's kind of a construction/Incredible Machine type game. He has piggy Angry Birds fruit snacks, a 'wood plank' turkey sandwich, apple sticks with Biscoff spread, Angry Birds grahams, and Angry Birds Cheese Nips.

Seriously, these crackers are adorable.

Random snack for Bean, of apple slices and Teddy Grahams.

Bean lunch, with a pair of Halloween candy bars, apple slices and Annie's bunny Grahams with Biscoff spread, and a turkey and sprouts star sandwich.

Princess lunch - roasted pumpkin seeds, Halloween candy bars, apple slices and Teddy Grahams with Biscoff spread, and a turkey bear sandwich.

Princess and Bean had identical lunches this day; I'm not sure whose this was. They each had a chicken caesar salad with the dressing on the side in that little tub, cucumber slices and carrots, cheese flavored mini rice cakes, Halloween candy, a peeled clementine, and pomegranite seeds.

Brick had a very similar lunch, but without the carrots and cucumber.

And finally, Beaker's Muffin Tin Monday lunch! Clockwise from the left he has Italian pasta salad, grapes, a Fig Newton and M&Ms, carrots with ranch, cheese slices, and Scrabble Cheez Its.

Thanks!

Hello, Kitty!

Princess has a deep and long lasting love for Hello Kitty. She loves the cute little cat. This morning she asked for a bat lunch. Bats? Yes, bats. Unfortunately, I have no bat stuff. Given more warning I might have been able to put something together, but with half an hour until I had to walk them to school, I had to tell her that bats will have to wait and could she please request something I can do with what I have on hand. So she fell back on her favorite - Hello Kitty.

I used a Hello Kitty head shaped cookie cutter for the pepper turkey sandwich, stuck in a bow food pick, and sketched on the details using black edible decorating gel. Her nose is a yellow heart shaped edible confetti sprinkle. Since the cookie cutter is small, I took the rest of the sandwich and cut it into small pieces, poking them onto a heart food skewer.

Princess also has applesauce with a Hello Kitty cupcake ring pressed in, apple slices with a Hello Kitty candy decoration, Hello Kitty fruit snacks, and Scrabble Cheez Its spelling out CAT.

Bean wanted a bear lunch. "You know, a bear shaped hard boiled egg and bear picks and a bear sandwich and..." Yep, I got it. Bears. Bears she wants, so bears she gets!

Her pepper turkey sandwich was cut with a bear shaped cookie cutter and the leftover bits were cut into tiny sandwiches and threaded onto a teddy bear food pick. Another bear hangs out in the applesauce. Bear shaped cheese, chocolate chip Teddy Grahams, and apple slices with a few gummi bears wraps up the bear theme. Of course, it wasn't until after I walked her up to school and was halfway home that I realized I had made the bear shaped hard boiled egg and forgot to actually pack it in her lunch. Well... maybe tomorrow...

Both lunches are packed into our very frequently used Easy Lunchboxes. Love them!

For my breakfast, I packed a small container with shredded deli pepper turkey, a baby Baybel cheese, and some dried fruit granola to mix in with the Greek yogurt in the second dish. The little butterfly sprinkles were just for fun. Because who doesn't love butterflies? And moms deserve cute snacks, too!