Two Days in One!

Getting back into the swing of things! 

It always takes a few days to recover from a vacation. And it seems like the better the vacation, the longer it takes to re-adjust to normal life. This week has definitely been no exception to that rule. We've been getting back in to our normal daily schedules, slowly but surely. The first day back from vacation, the kids all got lunch at school. Yesterday and today I packed lunches for [some of] them, as usual.

Bean's lunch from yesterday got us back into the Halloween theme. Only a few more days left until the big day!

She has turkey and cream cheese rolls on whole wheat tortilla, with spider ring decorations and bone picks, a peeled clementine, WELCH'S Fruit Snacks, Mixed Fruit (Google Affiliate Ad), frozen Greek yogurt skull and bones, and Spiderman Cheez Its in a spider silicone cup, all tucked into an Easy Lunchbox.

Princess has a similar lunch of turkey and cream cheese rolls with bone picks, Spiderman CheezIts, a peeled clementine, fruit snacks, frozen Greek yogurt skull and bones, and sweet bell pepper strips in a frog bento box.

I bought this frog bento box last year on clearance for $2.50 at Old Navy. Somewhere in the photo gallery is a pic from a lunch last year of the box all put together. 

I love the trick of freezing yogurt in silicone ice trays. It is so easy to pop a couple of pieces out and tuck them in a lunch. They don't stay frozen all day, but if I put them in the lunches in the morning right before the kids leave for school and put an ice pack in to the insulated lunch bags to keep everything cold, the frozen yogurt shapes are still firm enough to be an almost ice-cream-like treat at lunch time. I like using the Greek yogurt better than regular, because it has less sugar and more protein. And I think it just tastes better.

For today, all five kids requested lunches. Usually Brick and G-man prefer to get their lunch at school. Brick wanted Italian pasta salad for lunch, but specified NO veggies. Blah, how can you eat pasta salad with no veggies?! I pulled some partial packages of pasta out of the pantry and put the salad together, leaving half with no veggies and half the regular way.

Brick has his meat-and-cheese Italian pasta salad with Ritz crackers, summer sausage, cheddar cheese, and a cupcake leftover from his birthday dinner. Plastic spider rings from the Dollar Tree (and all of the orange - seriously, this a very orangey lunch!) add a little touch of Halloween.

For G-man, I packed a Biscoff spread sandwich made with Halloween cookie stamps and decorating gel. Biscoff spread is a nut-free peanut butter alternative made with cookies. It's really just smushed cookies made into a spread. I'm pretty sure it is completely devoid of any health benefits. It's more of a dessert than a protein source. But it's nut-free and safe for sending to school, and G-man ate every bite. Usually he just kind of pokes at his lunches. So, I packed in some cheddar and summer sausage slices to add a little protein, and some Ritz crackers for him to make sandwiches out of.

On top of the cupcake I used red decorating gel and "bloody bones" candy to make a bloody mess. He thought that was way cool.

The Halloween cookie stamps make drawing on the sandwich easy. I just had to follow the outline stamped in to the bread.

Bean was very impressed with the mummy lunch I made for Princess last week and requested one of her own. She has a round turkey sandwich with provolone 'bandage' strips on top, grapes, frozen Greek yogurt, and a cupcake with a sugar pumpkin.

Princess has frozen Greek yogurt skull and bones, a cupcake with a skull-and-bones sugar decoration, cheddar and summer sausage strips, sweet bell pepper stripes and a couple of grape tomatoes, and a tombstone/grave Biscoff sandwich.

The sandwich is made with Biscoff spread, bloody bones candy, wheat bread, and decorating gel. Super easy, though not exactly healthy eating!

Beaker wanted a fishy lunch today. He has a fishy shaped peanut butter sandwich with Goldfish crackers and cupcake Goldfish grahams, and cheddar and summer sausage strips. He also had a bowl of grapes on the side.

Still working on putting together a big Vacation Bento blog post. Should have that done by tomorrow! 

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Muffin Tin Monday and Doctor Who

The first time I read about Muffin Tin Mondays was on Another Lunch. The idea of using a muffin tin as a sectioned plate was something I knew my youngest two kids would love. I picked up a couple of 6-cup muffin tins at the Dollar Tree and decided to give it a go for Princess' birthday dinner. See, for our family, birthday dinners are special. The birthday star can choose anything they want for dinner, even if it's chocolate cake. Princess chose a Snack Tray dinner.

Snack Tray consists of a bunch of finger foods. Popcorn, apple slices, grapes, crackers with cheese... anything that doesn't need flatware to be eaten goes. Princess chose popcorn, crackers, summer sausage, cheddar cheese, pear and apple slices, grapes, spinach dip, ham and cheese pinwheels, and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Yum!

I set out muffin tins for Princess and Beaker and let them choose what went into each cup. They insisted I get the camera.

The birthday star herself!

Beaker's muffin tin:

He heartily approved. However, he thought the lack of flatware meant no hands required. He ate puppy-style, by leaning foward and licking his food out of the tin. Messy, but effective enough.

And now for today. Beaker requested a "spiiiiiider wunch". Clockwise from the upper left corner he has: a spider silicone cup of red and green grapes, a few Ritz crackers with a spiderweb drawn on with edible food marker, a ham roll up, another spider silicone cup with yogurt and sprinkles, and a cup of ranch dressing with carrot sticks and olive halves. The spider in the ranch is made with an olive, inspired by a post on Wendolonia.

Sad looking spiderweb:

The olive spider was super easy. Just cut an olive in half. Use one half for the body and cut the other half in to 8 tiny slivers. Place the pieces with a pair of tweezers.

For Princess, I sent a pumpkin lunch. A mixed greens salad with bacon, a side of ranch dressing, and pepper Jack o' Lanterns...

And red grapes, Ritz crackers, and spinach dip with Autumn leaf picks, carrot sticks, and ham and cheese pinwheels.

For Bean, I sent the first of what will likely be many Doctor Who lunches. We love Doctor Who. We're still catching up to the current season - right now we are halfway through the third season of the new series. The Dude and I watch them first to sort of screen them for the younger kids. We learned that lesson in the first season when we all watched The Empty Child together. Princess was understandably freaked out (that episode even scared me!) and we nixed the Doctor altogether for the younger kids for a while. Last week we began cautiously allowing them to watch again with the caveat that they have to tell us if an episode is too intense for them so we can stop it.

Bean is a huge fan of the Doctor, even wanted to be a Dalek for Halloween if I could have pulled the costume together for her (she changed her mind and decided to be a bubble gum machine instead, thankfully. The Dalek costume was a bit too involved for me!), and wants a TARDIS mug for her birthday.

For her snack, I sent green grapes (sporting a bow tie) and graham crackers. The TARDIS is drawn on with edible food markers. 

For her lunch she has ham and cheese pinwheels, a mixed greens salad with bacon and ranch dressing, croutons on the side, and pepper jack letters spelling out "BAD WOLF".

She had also requested I send spinach dip, so I included a little in separate container, with Ritz crackers, apple and pineapple pieces, and Sunbursts.

Inspired by her lunch, I made myself a Doctor Who lunch, too. Mixed greens salad with carrot and bacon bits, ranch on the side, and pepperjack "ALLONS-Y!" Also, a few ham and cheese pinwheels with music note food picks (a nod to the signature theme song), apple and pear chunks, and pretzel sticks.

G-man had jazz band this morning and requested a large snack. I packed a packet of fruit snacks, Flipsides crackers, ham and cheese pinwheels in a spidier silicone cup, and red and green grapes.

Brick wanted a salad. Since I was already on a TV show kick, I made him one for his favorite show... Mythbusters.

He has ham and cheese pinwheels, Flipsides and croutons, and a mixed greens salad with crumbled bacon and ranch on the side. And pepperjack letters with a recurring theme on the show - "Let's blow it up!"

If you've never seen Mythbusters, you should. Fantastic show, especially for people who love science. I'm pretty sure Brick has seen every episode and he has tried a few of the experiments from the Mythbusters science fair experiments book. He is highly interested in science and math, so this show is right up his alley.