Caps For Sale

Caps For Sale 

A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business

Written and Illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina

Caps For Sale is a story about a cap-seller who settles in to rest under a tree, and wakes up to an unusual surprise. A bunch of silly monkeys have stolen his hats and won't give them back!

What is a salesman to do when monkeys get up to their business? You'll have to read it to find out!

"Caps! Caps for sale. Fifty cents a cap."

Monkey see? Monkey do!

I made this lunch for Beaker to celebrate National Reading Month. The sandwich is UDI's Gluten Free bread with lunchmeat and a vegan, soy-free mayonnaise (his favorite!). On top is a slice of cheese with the tired peddler painted on, using food-safe dyes and a toothpick. The leaves on the tree he rests against are made with cucumber peels.

Also tucked into the lunch are cucumber slices, snap peas, and baby sweet peppers. Peeking out of the cucumbers is a silly little monkey and the cap he stole away from the peddler. Another monkey and cap are hiding in a Halo orange with raisins. Rounding out the lunch are a handful of Van's Natural gluten free crackers and a little tub of Enjoy Life allergy-free chocolate chips.

The whole lunch is packed neatly in our Laptop Lunchbox. These boxes are great for packing several different items securely in one box. Everything stays together, right where it's supposed to be! Very convenient, and easy enough to use that Beaker can open them himself.

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Welcome to the Boneyard

Oh, how I love Halloween. SO much. This year October has been even busier than usual for me, as I just started a new job and have been working quite a lot in addition to going to school and taking care of home and the kids. I am keeping quite busy and barely know which direction I'm moving in lately. Not that I'm complaining - I love it! The blog has been much too quiet lately. But when the lovely BBF'ers were planning up a triple-play Halloween Hop, there was no way I could resist that super fun action!

For my part, I made a Boneyard lunch for Beaker. As are all of his meals, this lunch is gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, peanut-free, egg-free, shellfish-free, and garlic-free. It's also a super simple meal, in a perfect size for a preschoolers little hands and tummy. There is plenty of scary this time of year, but no need for allergies or picky preschoolers to cause a fright!

To start, we have creepy-cool frozen yogurt skull and bones with frozen blueberries. Packing the yogurt and blueberries in while still frozen helps to keep the rest of the lunch at a nice cool temperature. By the time lunch rolls around, the blueberries have thawed a little and the yogurt has softened slightly, making a delicious and easy to eat dessert, which is also healthy. It tastes like a yummy blueberry ice cream, but has all of the nutrients, calcium, and protein of a fruity yogurt. Double WIN, nothing frightful about that!

The simple grave is made from a gluten, soy, and nut free vegan double chocolate zucchini muffin, topped with a rice cracker gravestone.

Beaker also has a broccoli floret 'grassy hill', with bites of leftover grilled pork chop and crunchy apple pieces. 

Making delicious, healthy, and fun lunches doesn't have to take a scary amount of time, either. This lunch took about twelve minutes to pack up, including the amount of work-time it took to prep the yogurt ahead of time.. Freezing the bones was pretty simple - just scoop some of your favorite yogurt into a silicone ice cube tray in a fun shape (skull and bones, in this case) and slip into the freezer for a few hours. I usually keep a tray or three in the freezer covered with plastic wrap for easy grab-and-go when needed or a fast after school snack for the kids. The muffins I also make ahead and freeze in large batches every now and again when I have a little extra time. Super time saver right there!

Have a happy happy Halloween!

Now click the button to see what spook-tacular fun awaits at What the Girls Are Having, and see the rest of the fang-ulous lunches on the hop!

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Mini Sausages for the Lunchy Win

Recently my younger three kids have become somewhat obsessed with these little mini sausages. They've always been a favorite, but lately it's what they are requesting every day for lunch! The sausages are free of all of Beaker's allergens, but not terribly healthy, so I put some limits on them and let the kids have them one or two days per week. The kids like to eat them cold, which makes them pretty nice to pack for when we have to go places or for school. Here are some of their recent mini sausage lunches:

A handful of popcorn and chocolate chips for dessert, with pasta salad, grapes, watermelon, and mini sausages with ranch for dipping.

This one has garlic-free, gluten-free pasta salad for Beaker, with watermelon balls and mini sausages with ketchup.

He also has halved grapes, sunflower seeds, mini allergy safe chocolate chips, and carrot sticks.

In this one, the mini sausages come with BBQ sauce for dipping, and carrot sticks with cheesey ranch sauce. There is also watermelon pieces with grape halves, popcorn and chocolate chips.

On the side is a small green salad and a serving of Italian pasta salad.

This at-home lunch has mini sausages with ketchup for dipping, strawberries with yogurt for dipping, a handful of carrot sticks, and an allergen-free brownie bite for dessert.

We love these little sectioned plates. They are perfect for serving a preschooler! The different sections keep his food separated and help with portioning sizes.

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Pre-School Lunches On the Go

Life has been hectic and crazy here! I am still making lunches for the Dude and the kids, but haven't had time to sit down and write blog posts. Funny how time seems to zip by and the "well, I'll skip it for right now and get back to it in a day or two" somehow becomes a month!

However, now that I am seriously behind on posting, I have a camera full of lunches to share over the summer! So yay for ... thinking ahead? Sure. We'll call it that!

Anyway, here are a few of Beaker's lunches from the gap time:

Who needs pre-packed snack tray box lunches from the grocery store? This mom-made lunch was easy and fast, and Beaker chose everything that went in! He has a Beaker-safe snack mix dessert, grapes, car shaped turkey pieces, cut string cheese, pickle pieces, and a stack of rice and Van's multigrain crackers.

The dessert snack mix is soy, nut, and gluten free ~ perfect for Beaker! It has fruit gummies, dried cranberries and raisins, roasted sunflower seeds, and rice Chex. There might be a few EnjoyLife chocolate chips in there, too.

For another day, Beaker took this Bob the Builder box full of berries and sweetened yogurt to preschool for his snack.

And for his lunch he took another Bob the Builder box (both of which I found at the Dollar Tree, I think), this one with cut string cheese bits, Canadian bacon on tool skewers, veggie chips, and an EnjoyLife sunbutter bar.

For a simple train themed snacky lunch, Beaker has an EasyLunchbox full of Thomas! He chose Thomas ham rolls with grapes (cut in half to make eating easier for a three year old), a Percy small container with a few fruit gummies, some dehydrated snap peas from Trader Joe's with cut string cheese bits, and James veggie chips and EnerG pretzel rings.

Fast and easy allergy safe lunches for a kid on the go!

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Frogs!

Where we live it is very wet. It rains a lot, especially in the spring. We also live fairly close to a river, and to several small creeks, watershed areas, and watery ditches. So the fact that there are frogs all over here is not surprising!

Every evening when we go out for a walk we get to hear frog song. It's such a pretty, happy sound. The frogs singing to each other while most of the people settle in to rest. During the summer the frogs, night birds, and crickets seem to be competing, singing their happy hearts loud and clear for who listen.

One of the (many!) great things about living where we do is that any given day when we're working in the flower garden in the front yard, or taking a walk, or just hanging out outside, there is always a good chance we could see little frogs. The kids love that! They are always very careful not to disturb them when they sit and watch. A few times they have even 'rescued' frogs which had wandered into the road or sidewalk, by carefully scooping them up and carrying them back to the grass or flowers.

Ever since taking the dog on a walk and really noticing the frogs sing, Beaker has been semi-obsessed with frogs. Some of his froggy lunches from the last two weeks:

Froggy CuteZCute sandwich for preschool! The sandwich is made with allergen safe Udi's gluten-free bread, cheese, and turkey. His tongue is a strip of carrot, catching a little raisin 'fly'.

He also has a pair of gummy frogs, Ener-G allergen-safe pretzel rings, carrot coins, and raisins.

To round out the lunch, he has snap peas, blackberries, and pear chunks. Yum!

Another CuteZCute froggy sandwich, this time with ham and cheese on Udi's bread.

Cheese letters spell out RIBBIT, which Beaker says is frog for "Hello, you can eat me now."

For sides he has a little fruit 'salad' of cantaloupe and halved green and red grapes, cucumber chunks, Van's Multigrain crackers, popcorn, and a little cup filled with EnjoyLife allergen free chocolate chips and roasted sunflower seeds.

And on another day he took this very simple lunch for preschool.

He has Tings, snap peas, blackberries and strawberries in the bottom layer of this two tier bento box. In the top layer he has cucumber slices, gummy frogs, and ham-and-cheese rolls. For snack he took a Mini Dipper full of sunflower butter, some rice crackers, and a few roasted plantain chips. 

Curious George

A lunch featuring the curious little monkey, for my curious little monkey!

Beaker has a mixed greens salad with a homemade dressing I whipped up using sour cream, pepper, and dill. It was okay. Not yet close to ranch dressing, his favorite. Still trying to find a garlic and soy free version of ranch dressing for him! Ranch is his very favorite dressing for salad and dip for carrots, cucumbers, and broccoli, but every commercial version I have found has garlic and soybean oil. So we're on a quest to find a dressing/dip that he loves as much as ranch, but safe for him to eat.

He also has fruit ~ blackberries, strawberries, and pears ~ with a little Curious George decoration on top. A few slices of Canadian bacon and cheese add protein, while an Enjoy Life double chocolate cookie rounds it up with dessert.

Without the Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George would never have gotten out of the jungle to have his amazing adventures! The yellow hat here is made of a piece of cheese cut into a hat shape with a nori hat band.

And balloons, of course! Cherry tomato balloons, to be more precise. Beaker's favorite part of the Curious George movie is when George and the Man in the Yellow Hat fly away holding the bunch of balloons. 

My curious little monkey <3

And then my lunch was a delicious pear and gorgonzola salad. So very delicious!

My favorite salad right now. I toss some mixed spring greens with extra baby spinach leaves, and then top with warm bacon, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and fresh sliced pear. Drizzled over the top is a homemade pear vinaigrette - just mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and pepper, and then add the juice from a can of pears. I also mashed a few of the canned pears up and mixed in with the vinaigrette for a little extra sweetness. Light, tangy, and utterly fantastic. On the side I had a cup of strawberries and extra pear slices.

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And remember to enter the giveaway for an awesome set of sandwich cutters and a fab bento box!

Date Night!

WOOHOO!

Date nights are pretty rare around here. Five kids makes babysitters expensive and often difficult to find. Also, the Dude and I are usually just too busy to take a whole evening off. So when Beaker's preschool offered a Parent's Night Out (siblings welcome) on the same night that we both were free, we jumped on it!

The kids had a blast. The preschool had a Wii set up, and a movie, and lots of games and crafts and toys. They had dinner there, too ~ pizza and popcorn, major favorites!

Of course, Beaker can't eat pizza unless it is specially made to be safe for him (no gluten, no garlic, no nut or soy flours), so I packed up a dinner to send with him. I wanted to make a nice hot meal for him, but was limited in time and transport ability. But hey, that's where the thermos comes in handy!

For Beaker's dinner, I cooked a box of Annie's Organic Rice Mac & Cheese and mixed in a little extra shredded cheese. I tucked a serving in to a Crayola insulated Thermos to keep it nice and hot.

I also packed him a side dish with some mini sausages and ketchup, and some Van's Multigrain crackers. He also has veggies ~ carrots, mushrooms, and snap peas ~ with some sour cream with dill for dipping.

What is that up in the corner? It's a gummy frog! I stumbled across these at a local grocery store. They're adorable, and pretty detailed for candy. Beaker loves frogs, especially the brightly colored Poison Dart Frogs. These taste like gummy worms, and are Beaker's favorite sweet treat.

Unfortunately, I just looked up the company information and found that while the ingredients are Beaker-safe (gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free!), they have a cross contamination warning for all three. I am going to have a very sad little Beaker when he finds that out. And I have packed them in several lunches over the last week... so that explains the little red bumps on his face this morning. 

And that? Is the hardest part of food allergies. Reading ingredients isn't always enough. You have to look up company information to make sure they practice safe manufacturing policies, too. And frequently have to contact the company directly to make sure that there isn't cross contamination from something that isn't listed. And be so. very. careful. All of the time. 

But? They're totally worth the effort and work. Since we started this new diet for Beaker a little over a month ago, his eczema has cleared up. The random rashes ~ often so bad they would bleed ~ have completely gone away. He hasn't needed his inhaler, not even once (where before he was using it often several times per day). He sleeps better, with less snoring. And he seems happier, because his body feels better! Worth every minute of the effort, just to see his happy smiling face each day. 

And our date night was fantastic. The Dude and I got to sit through a grown up movie AND dinner! 

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My First Giveaway!

CuteZCute from AllThingsForSale is my favorite sandwich cutter. So adorable! Easy to use, and reasonably priced, too. Often they are one of the first bento tools I reach for when making lunches, for Beaker and Princess especially. I have also used the cutter for cookies and they made excellent toppers for individual pies.

The CuteZCute Sandwich Cutter and Pastry Stamp Kit is a fantastic all-in-one tool. It can be used to cut sandwiches, deli meat and cheese, cookies, pie crust, and so much more! It can also be used as a rice mold, or to cut thin sliced veggies and fruit into cute shapes. The set comes with six pieces ~ the outside shape cutter, 4 sweet animal faces (bear, pig, cat, and frog) with a cutter on one side and a stamper on the other, and a special tool for popping bits out of the cutter.

I frequently use our set for making sandwiches, like this cute piggy made with multiseed gluten-free bread. I have also used it for ice cream-cookie sandwiches, and it was so easy to use! 

Another fantastic and fun bento tool is this cheeseburger bento box, also from ATFS. Beaker loves this box. It comes with two layers, and the clipping lid is simple enough for even his little hands to get it open. It is small, but still holds plenty of food for younger kids or smaller appetites.

This is a full lunch packed for Beaker to take to preschool, all tucked into the cheeseburger bento box. He has a gluten, nut, and soy free sandwich, some snap peas, a sliced up cheese stick, cantaloupe balls, Wylde GF pretzel rings by Ener-G, and a little mayo cup full of sunflower seeds and Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips. 

A complete and balanced meal, perfect for Beaker, all tucked into this compact, space saving box!

This one is a froggy organic turkey sandwich on Udi's bread (gluten, soy, and nut free, and Beaker's favorite) with a sliced cheese stick, watermelon and mango pieces, celery with cream cheese, and carrot sticks.

In between the two tiers of the box is a flexible lid, which holds a small fork, just the right size for little hands. Tucking it away in between the layers of the bento box saves space in lunch bags and keeps the fork clean and ready.

Now... do you want a chance to win both of these awesome products?

Of course you do!

The amazing BentoUSA/ATFS has offered to send a full CuteZCute Sandwich Cutter and Pastry Stamp set AND a Cheeseburger 2 Tier Bento Lunch Box to one lucky winner! Enter to win below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Drawing open only to citizens of the Earth.)

Good luck!

Edit: CONGRATULATIONS!!! to our winner, Heidi B! I hope you love the set as much as I do!

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