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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Leftovers Lunches

Simple lunches using leftovers:

Preschool lunch for Beaker: leftover grilled Italian sausage with a sliced up cheese stick, strawberries and halved green grapes, Pirate's Booty, and fruit gummies.

This bento box has a shallow inset layer, in which Beaker had some bits of cucumber for his snack.

For Bean:

Leftover grilled Italian sausage with a sliced cheese stick, Annie's Organic cheddar bunnies, strawberries and grapes, cucumbers, and Girl Scout cookies (Savannah Smiles).

And for the Dude, leftover rice fried up with egg, soy sauce, a handful of veggies, and some BBQ pork bits, pressed into triangle rice molds.

He also has leftover sliced grilled chicken, sliced BBQ pork, mango and watermelon chunks, and Girl Scout cookies (Dulce de Leche).

The fried rice balls are easy to make, take only a few minutes, and are great for lunch. I just put the rice in a pan, toss in a handful of frozen veggies and sometimes a bit of diced meat, and break an egg over the top, stirring constantly as it heats through. Before it's done I pour a little bit of soy sauce over and mix it in. Then scoop the whole thing into rice molds and let cool slightly. The Dude loves them and they travel pretty well.

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Runaway Bunny

One of our favorite books to snuggle up ad read with little ones is Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown. A little bunny dreams of running away to be something else and his mother follows.

For Bean's lunch, I used this scene from the book for inspiration:

When Little Bunny says he will run away and become a flower in a garden bed, and Mama Bunny says she will follow and become a gardener.

Easter Italian pasta salad is the main dish, made with Easter themed organic pasta (eggs and chicks and bunny shapes in three colors), mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, marinated garlic, and Italian salad dressing. Mama Bunny in a sun hat sits up in the corner with some chocolate chips (bunny droppings *heh*), while Little Bunny runs across a flower garden. Bean also has crackers and a granola bar tucked in for snack.

Little Bunny's flower garden is made of apples and blueberries with sweet flower picks. The little dish holds Sunburts, candy coated sunflower seeds.

These Annie's Organic crackers and pretzels have always reminded me of the bunny from Runaway Bunny. 

More bunny themed lunches from this week:

For Princess, a little bunny with turkey-spinach wrap rolls, watermelon balls, and apple slices. The little baggie above holds Annie's Organic pretzel bunnies and a few Pocky sticks.

For Bean, similar foods tucked into a different dish, with little Easter Bunny picks.

A double lunch from a day when I was in a rush:

Yogurt with sprinkles, watermelon and blueberries, Annie's Organic pretzel and graham bunnies, leftover grilled chicken, and animal cookies.

These lunches are unusually cracker-snack heavy, for a reason which I will address in a later post. I generally don't feed the kids that many crackers and cookies in one meal.

Have a great Spring weekend!

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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!