My (Other) Favorite Love Story

Remember last year, when I said that my favorite love story is The Princess Bride? Well, recently I was reminded of my other favorite love story.

It is a love as true and deep as the sea. A love that withstood the tests of time and trouble. A love unparalleled. A pair that you just know will be together forever, whatever life may throw at them.

JD and Turk, besties forever!

I love Scrubs. It is still one of the greatest shows ever made! My favorite episode is "My Way Home", but "My Musical" is second on my list for sure.  

It's February, and that means its time for love-themed lunches. I'm kicking it off with my first Valentine's lunch of the year by paying homage to the best couple on TV.

Caesar salad in a Sistema Cube, topped with parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper, with chicken and dressing on the side.

Also included are some carrots, a heart-shaped silicone cup full of croutons, and small red grapes.

Also, Zach Braff's fabulous hair. And a chocolate bear. Because Turk is JD's Chocolate Bear, of course!

Affiliate links to products used:

Happy Valentine's Day!

I gave our Laptop Lunch boxes a whirl for the first time for a pair of super special Valentine's lunches for my super sweet girls.

Okay, to be totally honest? These were Wednesday's lunches. Thursday morning I was partway through packing lunches when I smashed my foot hard and the time it took to clean up the mess from that almost made us late for school. No time left for lunch packing, sadly, so both girls got lunch at school. But they had pretty lunches yesterday, so that counts. Works for me!

Bean has a little Nutella sandwich, with a cheese and fruit leather tic-tac-toe game. She also has yogurt with a sugar heart, and I put in some blueberries and strawberries with a little heart pick for dipping. In the upper quadrant she has a heart silicone cup with a few small pieces of sausage and a smaller heart of ranch dressing (topped with heart shaped cheese to hold the ranch in place) for dipping the carrots and snap peas. For dessert she has some tiny Valentine's cinnamon candies.

Packing the lunch was quick and simple in these boxes! I was a little concerned about all of the fiddly lids and cups, but they turned out to be fast and easy, and held everything in place nicely. The Laptop Lunch boxes fit just perfectly inside most of our lunch bags, and they're slim enough to give plenty of clearance in the bags for a drink and ice pack.

Bean loved her sandwich. It's lunch AND a game! Yep, we encourage our children to play with their food. 

Princess has a very similar lunch, but instead of tic-tac-toe she has a peekaboo heart sandwich.

Sweet and cute and a little bit tangy, just like my Princess!

Important tip: Remember the lids! Several of the inner boxes in the Laptop Lunch boxes come with lids, and they are there for a reason. I forgot the lid on the yogurt box in this lunch. Yikes. Yogurt all over the berries. Which tastes delicious, in my opinion, but Princess was icked out by the mess and only ate the sandwich, candies, and veggies. Next time I will remember the lids!

Beaker wanted a fun Valentine's lunch at home, too.

His lunch is a smaller version of his sisters'. He has blueberries and strawberries, a peek-a-boo heart Nutella sandwich, tiny cinnamon candies, a few baby carrots, and waffle pretzels.

The peek-a-boo window sandwiches are very easy. Just cut the crusts off two slices of bread and use a small cookie/fondant cutter to cut out the window from one slice. Spread your sandwich fixings onto the bottom slice and place the window slice on top. Done!

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you had a wonderful week, snuggled up with the ones you love!

Products used:

 

My Favorite Love Story

It has everything. A fair maiden princess, a swarthy pirate, a true love in disguise. Sword fights and giants, vengeance and escape, harrowing death and miraculous recovery. And also, a young Cary Elwes. Not to mention some of the most memorable and quotable lines ever written.

What am I talking about? Um, if you don't know already go watch it right now! You are missing out on a great experience.

The Princess Bride ranks high on my list of all time favorite movies. One of the few movies based on a book which I truly enjoy, and one of a few movies which I could watch over and over and never get bored. The Dude is nearly as big of a fan as I am, and actually introduced me to the movie many years ago, long before we were married and were both still two geeky, awkward teenagers.

The teen years are well behind us, but we're both still pretty geeky. And we both still love The Princess Bride, and quote it often.

For my geeky Valentine:

He has a roast beef and provolone sandwich on a buttery croissant, with spring greens and tomatoes. The letters spelling out Westley's quiet declaration of love to Princess Buttercup are cut from havarti cheese, with a pair of red heart picks and grape tomato hearts on the side.

He also has a cup of blueberries and strawberries, and a heart shaped container filled with toasted almonds, with a macaroon tucked underneath for dessert.

Have a lovely, happy Valentine's Day!

Now, hop over to Bent On Better Lunches to see the next Geeky Valentine lunch!

Products used:

 

Pizza!

One of our favorite foods here is pizza. Who doesn't love pizza?! Delicious, easy, fast. Full of calories, but it doesn't have to be. I prefer my pizza to look more like a garden, with a garlic sauce and a wide variety of vegetables, maybe with a bit of chicken and bacon sprinkled over. Bean likes sausage on her pizza, while Gman is strictly a pepperoni guy. Princess loves pineapple with pepperoni, while Brick will eat almost any toppings except onions and green peppers, and the Dude likes sausage and mushrooms the best. 

Getting take out with all of these different taste preferences is sometimes tough (although we all agree on pepperoni, so that makes it easier in a time crunch), so our very favorite way of making pizza is to set up a DIY mini pizza bar. The Dude makes a killer dough, and breaks it up into individual sizes. Then we set out all of the toppings on the table and let the kids go wild. They love making their own, adding all of their favorites in just the right amounts.

This weekend we took the same concept, but rolled it up - the Dude made a bunch of homemade pizza pockets! Instead of pizza dough he used a dinner roll dough, which made them taste delicious. He made some with veggie pizza toppings, some with meat, and some with ham and cheese. WAY better than Hot Pockets, and super easy to pack for lunch.

For the Dude, I packed a clementine and a peeled kiwi with two pizza pockets, a few mini cookies, and a heart full of raw almonds, plus a few golden cherry tomatoes.

For the kids, who don't have access to a microwave at lunch, I packed leftover pizza. For Princess and Bean I cut the pizza with a cookie cutter for a fun Valentine's theme.

They also have heart shaped strawberries, a handful of blueberries, and a small chunk of chocolate cake with heart rings and sprinkles.

It was pretty easy to cut the pizza into a heart shape. I used a large heart cookie cutter and pressed down hard, then cut around the shape with a sharp knife. Worked great!

G-man thinks he is too old for hearts, so for his lunch I just cut the pizza in to strips. He doesn't like strawberries, so he has peeled clementines instead.

Chocolate cake... YUM.

And so pretty, too! Not homemade - I am not that talented at baked goods, unfortunately. But tasty enough to make the indulgence worthwhile!

Products used:

 

Valentine Muffin Tin

It's Monday! And that means (um, when I actually manage to get myself organized enough) it's a muffin tin lunch!

Being February and the first day of Valentine week, a heart themed muffin tin seemed appropriate.

The cute little consumer chose some of the ingredients himself.

Roughly clockwise from the upper left, he has: mango chunks, Greek yogurt with berry granola, red bell pepper bits, colby-jack cheese cubes, waffle pretzels, and mini sausages, with ketchup and ranch for dipping.

Beaker loved his lunch. However, the servings were a bit on the large side for a 3 year old, so he shared with Mom. Delicious lunch!

A heart shaped red bell pepper slice garnished the top.

Beaker says "Happy lunch!"

Products used:

Sweet Hearts

A request from Bean: heart themed lunches.

For her I made a sweet Valentine lunch.

She has a hoagie sandwich with a frilly heart pick and fruit leather heart, pickle slices with a heart pick, pretzel Goldfish, heart strawberries, and a sweet little mini cupcake.

Frilly! She loved the puffy lacy heart pick.

Two little heart picks tucked in to the mini cupcake for decoration.

For Brick I packed two pieces of a hoagie sandwich, with CheezIts, strawberries, and a mini cupcake.

Two simple small heart picks hold the sandwich pieces together.

For G-Man, leftover chicken nuggets with ketchup was on the menu. He also has grapes, whole wheat crackers, and a mini cupcake.

I love the Mini Dippers from Easy Lunchboxes for holding dipping sauces!

Princess also has a Valentine's lunch, with leftover chicken nuggets and ketchup as the main meal. She has grapes on heart skewers, a mini cupcake, and pretzel Goldfish on the side, with a little fruit leather heart decoration.

Pretty and delicious!

Products used:

Psych!

Tomorrow is February, and you know what that means! A special day is approaching. A day long awaited and anticipated.

Do I mean Groundhog's Day? Valentine's Day? Nope! Way better than that!

PSYCH is coming back! The first new episode since April of last year will be aired on USA on February 27th. Fans have been waiting not-so-patiently since the last episode ended on a crazy cliffhanger, and soon we'll finally get to see what happens next.

In honor and anticipation of the upcoming new season, a Psych lunch!

Apricot fruit leather spells out the name of the show, next to a turkey Yin-Yang sandwich (a nod to the serial killer played by Ally Sheedy in 3 episodes spanning seasons 3, 4, and 5).

Of course, Psych wouldn't be complete without the running Pineapple gag, which has been a show theme from the very beginning. Also included are some snap peas, pretzel Goldfish (a reference to Henry Spencer's love of fishing), and a little piece of chocolate ~ because everyone needs a little chocolate sometimes.

And... hats. Our first introduction to Shawn Spencer is the pilot episode, which opens with a young Shawn sitting in a diner with Henry, his father. Shawn wants dessert, but his dad makes him earn it by telling him to close his eyes... and then asking him, "How many hats?" In order to get his dessert, Shawn has to correctly recite the number and type of hats in the diner from memory. I bought the hat picks from BentoUSA and knew they would be perfect for this!

I couldn't find a clip, but watch the show. Worth it!

February also means Valentine's Day, and it's no surprise that my pink-and-red loving little Princess adores the holiday. For her I made a heart shaped sandwich shot through with Cupid's arrow and decorated with Conversation Hearts. She also has snap peas and golden cherry tomatoes, a piece of Dove chocolate, some grapes, and a few pretzel Goldfish.

Products Used: