2 Bento #271 - Forgotten Lunch Non-Bento

Do you want to know what to do when your child forgets their lunch, lovingly prepared by you, when you can't get home and go get it?

This morning, I wanted to know too!  The moment before the carpool attendant opened my daughter's door, I heard a forlorn, "Mommy, where's my lunchbox?"  With quick promises to bring her lunch and not to worry, I headed to the closest grocery store that was open at 7am.  Walmart.  You see, it's not really practical for me to go all the way home, since it's an hour round trip with morning traffic and carpool lines.  Plus, I'm pregnant and exhausted.  So, Walmart.

The other day I posted a homemade version of a "Lunchable".  Today I was SO tempted to grab an actual Lunchable and call it a day.  But...I couldn't do it.  Could not.  I stood in the aisle for about 10 minutes looking over what pre-made lunches exist today.  Plastic bread, meat loaded with nitrates, preservatives, HFCS. tons of sodium and everything else artificial.  Even the so-called "healthy" brand option "Active Pack" had added corn syrup and lots of preservatives.

I seriously considered grabbing a pre-made salad bowl, but they all had cubed meat in it which is basically the same as Lunchable meat.  I don't trust it.  That meant it was up to me to piece-meal it.  Literally.

So, here's what I ended up with.

Produce aisle: Snack Fresh fruit/veggie pack.  Includes sliced apples, cubes of cheddar cheese, carrots and a pack of crackers. - $1.98

Deli aisle: Double pack of hard boiled eggs. - $.98

Dairy aisle: Activia strawberry yogurt smoothie drink. - $.88

Total cost: $3.84

Interestingly enough, this is just a little less than hot school lunch costs at E's school.  We attend a public charter school, but we don't get the same government subsidies as other public schools, so all food is ordered in advance and costs $4 per DAY.  And unfortunately, it's not all that great for the price.

This is also the first time in probably two years I've purchased paper lunch bags!  We ran out a few weeks ago when I packed the last disposable field trip lunch, so I did actually need a new package.

So there you have it.  This was a much better collection of foods for lunch than grabbing one of those pre-made lunches.  Though convenient, they will do your body no favors!  And now that I know exactly what to buy and where to get these lunch components, I'll be in and out in 5 minutes, instead of reading labels for 45 minutes!

[non] Bento #271 - Apples, cheese, carrots, crackers, hard boiled eggs and strawberry yogurt smoothie.

23 Bento #267 - Egg Salad Stuffed Heart Sandwich and Giveaway!

Yum, yum!  We have crossed over the boiled egg mountain and now Miss E just loves them!  She'll eat an entire boiled egg plain now. I made several yesterday afternoon and whipped them up into a simple, kid-friendly egg salad.  Just eggs, mayo, deli mustard and some minced celery.  I made a stuffed sandwich with my new heart-shaped sandwich press.  So cute!  I also have a collection of new picks, one of which is a sweets collection.

We also have some super delicious and addictive Willamette Valley granola chips!  They sent me a sample kit to try out and the whole family gobbled them down in record time.  In fact, we ate them so fast that they had to send me a few more packs so that I could actually blog with them!  Here we have a mixture of the Berry flavor and the Honey Nut.

Check out the snack-sized bags!  Butter Pecan...my personal fave.  That flavor doesn't last long at all in this place!  Not only is it great-tasting and totally satisfying, but it's filled with fiber such as oats, barley, amaranth and quinoa.  They also use no GMOs in their ingredients (call me impressed!)

Best of all, Willamette Valley Granola is giving a nice big sample kit away to one of my readers! One person will receive a kit with Butter Pecan, Wild Berry, Honey Nut and Vanilla Bean.  I'm trying out Rafflecopter this go-round, so let me know if it works (or not) for you.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received Granola Chips from Willamette Valley Granola Company. I was not compensated for this review, and all opinions expressed are exclusively mine.  Winner will be notified via email, and has 48 hours to claim their prize.  Contest ends at midnight EST on 10/13/12.

32 Bento #264 - Talk Like a Pirate Day Shipwreck & Bento Booty Blog Hop Giveaway!

Yaarr there mateys!  Today be talk like a pirate day!  All ye scallywags be in fer a real treat!  There be TREASURE at the end of this blog hop, so grab yer quill and parchment and use yer letterin' skills to record in yer captain's log the clues on the treasure map that lead to the booty! Persevere me hearties, the treasure rivals ol' Blue Beard's!

(Translation: Grab a pen to write down the puzzle pieces in each blog in the hop!  It'll reveal where the treasure is located. Every blog in the hop has a piece of the map to the bento booty treasure - a giveaway! As you go through the hop, collect the pieces and put them in the right order to find out where to enter! You'll probably need something to write with, because there are 39 blogs to visit, so 39 pieces to collect! (OR print out our handy dandy worksheet!  Click here.) 37 pieces will spell the URL, and 2 bonus pieces with words on them will get you 2 entries to win!  Stick with it, the prizes are AMAZING and sponsored by AllThingsForSale!!)

So, today's bento lunch is a pirate shipwreck in a Planetbox!  Fresh green grapes are on palm tree stirrer skewers.

Next are our inside-out starfish pirates, yaaar!  They are having an altercation amid the palm trees.  With pretend plastic swords, of course!

The buzzword of the day in cucumber.

A treasure map hard boiled egg!  With the obligatory dagger thrust through the X on the map.

Details on my most awesome pirate ship centerpiece.  With a sneaky monkey and a Siren mermaid in the waves!

A tropical banana snack in a festive pirate sack.

Isn't it fun with the pirate parrot napkin and mermaid Sigg water bottle??

Bento #264 - Cheddar on whole wheat, organic cucumber, hard boiled egg, green grapes and yogurt star.  Snack - Banana.

Okay mateys! This here's my piece o' the map!  Hurry and collect them all, the treasure hunt ends on Sunday, 9/23 at the stroke of midnight!  

If you liked this lunch, please follow my blog here, and Like Bentobloggy on Facebook!

To find your next map piece, click here to visit Myra at Mommy and Me Lunchbox!  Happy huntin' mateys!

Print out the treasure hunt worksheet here.

5 Bento #168 - Hello Kitty Egg & Pears

I'm getting better at making these egg molds!  This one came out pretty well.  I had to crumple a bunch of plastic wrap in the bottom because the mold is so big.  That way the egg would be elevated enough to take all the impressions at the top.  Still a little messy, but Miss E thought it was fabulous.  She said it was too cute to eat (though eat she did, including the yolk which is a big deal!)

Bento #168 - Hard boiled egg, steamed organic broccoli and sliced organic pear.

0 Bento #126 - Eggy Flower & Nectarines

Here we have a couple hard boiled eggs sprinkled with a little sea salt and paprika, and some baby carrots in the middle as the stamens, surrounded by flower "leaves" of artisan lettuce.

Bento #126 - Hard boiled eggs, lettuce, baby carrots, fresh nectarine and ranch dip.

3 Bento #86 - Eggy Flowers

When I cut out the cucumber flowers, I keep the outer cutouts because it seems like such a waste to throw them away, and since they are also in flower shapes, they are cute to boot!  The eggs are sprinkled with a tiny bit of sea salt, paprika and cumin.

Bento #86 - Hardboiled eggs, carrots, cucumbers, raspberries and ranch dip (not pictured.)

1 Bento #82 - Egg Flower & Wild Blueberries

Today we're going to help my SIL pack up her classroom, so I packed a lunch for E to take and eat there while we work.

Bento #82 - hardboiled eggs with a blackberry, wild blueberries, artisan lettuce, mini oatmeal cookies and banana chips.

Also, this is in a new bento box that I picked up from Niko Niko this weekend.  I'm impressed by the locking style - instead of the handle hinges being the locking point, it's those tabs on the bento box itself that lock into the handles, so a lot less chance for hinge breakage.  I can see this one lasting a long time!

1 Bento #78 - Eggs, Cheese & Sprouts

More eggs!  E begged me for the hard cooked eggs I was eating with my salad the other night.  I always make about a dozen, so I had plenty extra for her lunch.  I decorated them with sprinkle dots for "eyes" but then ruined the whole "eye" effect with sprinkled paprika, haha!  I ended up giving everything a good dusting of paprika, it was so pretty.  Anyway, I was actually at school with her today (preschool play and then the teacher appreciation lunch I volunteered for) and wouldn't you know, she decided that today wasn't an egg day after all.  But she did eat all her sprouts, go figure.

Bento #78 - Hard boiled eggs, alfalfa sprouts, colby-jack cheese cubes on picks, tortilla scoops and craisins.

2 Bento #75 - Eggy Lady Bug

This plate is a cross between a rabbit and a lady bug, but either way it's cute!  The dots on the "wings" are flower-shaped sprinkles.  Also, in my never-ending quest for non-HFCS dressings, I found that Newman's Own All Natural Ranch has no HFCS, and no MSG.  Hooray!

Ella also had a revelation of her own - she swiped the other half of the egg that I was going to use for rabbit legs, and declared that she now loves egg yolks because she's a big girl now.  I'm so proud of her for trying new things!  This must be the 20th time I've offered her yolks, and she's now taken to them.

Bento #75 - Hard boiled eggs with flower sprinkles, ranch dip, baby carrots (and red seedless grapes, not pictured.)

1 Bento #74 - Shells & Greens

This was a huge hit for dinner, and E asked me to pack it for lunch yesterday.  I picked up a package of Bean So Green at Trader Joe's, which is a frozen mixture of green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and romanesco, which is in a light garlic and herb butter.  I really like it because everything stays crisp and green after quickly heating in a pan.  I tossed it with organic tri-color (tomato and spinach) pasta shells, some olive oil, salt and pepper and a bit of parmesan.  I'm still working on getting her to eat egg yolks.  She loves the whites, but isn't so keen on the yolks yet, but we keep trying!

Bento #74 - Tri-color pasta shells tossed with beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco, hard boiled egg sprinkled with paprika, and red seedless grapes.

0 Bento #63 - Pastel Eggs & Cheese

E wanted colored hard boiled eggs for lunch, and she chose blue and purple, and I did my best to accommodate her =)

Bento #63 - Halved pastel hard cooked eggs, mozzarella, paprika & onion dip, sugar snap peas and fresh blueberries.