No Bread, No Problem!

Bread goes bad in my home.  We prefer croissants, crackers or wheat rolls so, unfortunately that $3 loaf of bread just sits there and slowly manufactures "the icky".  Most times, when I fall asleep instead of making lunches at night, sandwiches are the quickest to make and I've often found myself in a pinch because ... WE HAVE NO BREAD!!  Well, No bread, no problem ... We don't need it anyway. :)

Kaitlyn, my youngest daughter, loves it when her food is sort of deconstructed.  It allows her to use her imagination while eating.  If you'll notice, most things you would find on a sandwich are actually pictured, just not stacked on top of each other and slathered with mayo.  What you see is what happens when the bread crisis strikes my home AND i decided to go lie down before making lunches.

Contents

• Mandarin Oranges (Cuties Brand)
• Honey Turkey
• Triscuits Rosemary Rice Crackers
• String Cheese
• Cucumbers & Carrots

Enjoy!

Gold Nuggets!

If your children are anything like mine, they love chicken nuggets!  Lunchables brand sells a chicken nugget option but I'm always wary about the amount of unnecessary sodium, the lack of fruit or veggies AND the presence of candy.  My way of helping my little ladies feel like they aren't being cheated out of the "Lunchables" experience is creating delicious and fun lunches with similar things in them.  I feel a lot better about this lunch because it has most everything they need for proper nutrition along with a few yummy items they don't necessarily need but really like.

Contents

• Chicken Nuggets
• Chopped Carrots 
• Pretzels, Coconut, Almond & Sunflower Seed Mix
• Ranch Dressing (for nugget and veggie dipping)
• Pear, Pineapple and Blueberry 
• White Cheddar Chunks

For those of you searching for sandwich-less lunch options, I hope this helps!

Enjoy!

Healthy and Uncomplicated Sandwichless Lunch

Fridge Randomness w/Love on top! :)

Sometimes, I refuse to go to the grocery store because I still have things in my fridge that need to be used but are not ideal to create dinner or breakfast meals.  In most cases though, these random items can be used to create delicious child-sized lunches.  

Pictured is a spinach salad made with fresh spinach, hand chopped carrots, and shredded cheese.  All of these things were the last bit left of something we used but didn't quite finish off.  Blueberries and cut strawberries are usually always here so I try to use them often to prevent them going bad.  The fried popcorn chicken breasts leftovers became the meat for this little salad.  The clear liquid in the little container is vinegar ... my 8-yr old daughter, Kennedy, loves this stuff on salads. 

TIP: When I make salads as a meal, I try to add only things to the lunch box that will serve as a good topping if they want it that way.  When I do this, I find that my youngest (who doesn't like to eat her veggies all the time) will actually eat all her food if she can add the sweet in with the other items.

What's best about this is it's an opportunity to make a lunch that's not too complicated and it's a "sandwich-less" option made from the complete randomness in my fridge.  I save our budget by being less wasteful and our babies get the nutrition they need with a little dash of love on top.

Enjoy!

Corndog Muffin Lunch

Today I decided to serve the girls something I thought was a little fun!  My daughters really like corndogs and though we don't serve them often, when we do, it's always a favorite.  While looking on-line for muffin recipes, I ran into one for "Corndog Muffins" and knew instantly my girls would like them.  See the link below for the recipe! 

I used Jiffy Mix and skipped the sugar mentioned in the recipe since the mix is already quite sweet. Overall, it was very easy and my daughters loved them! 

Although the recipe called for 9 of 10 hotdogs, I used a complete package of 8 hotdogs and everything turned out just fine.

As I said, these were really simple to make and perfect for a "sandwichless" lunchbox idea.  Here's what I came up with.

The fruit is a mixture of Blueberries, Pear, and Apple in fresh lemon juice to prevent yellowing.

Cucumbers, Broccoli, Corn-dog muffin (find recipe here) & Ranch Dressing.

I made the corndog muffins the morning of and wrapped them in foil.  Finally, they were placed in an insulated L.L. Bean lunchbox and sent off with my sweet babies.

Renew, Reuse, Recycle!

I have many random containers stashed in my cabinets that were from different food items.  In this blog, i'm going to share some of the easiest ways to get containers without having to splurge too much on them.  In most cases, you can get the containers and use whatever's in them to make lunch! Click on the links (where available) to see how other bloggers have used the same containers!  

1. Hillshire Farms Sandwich Meats

  

What I love about these containers is they are the perfect size for a standard lunchbox.   Just be sure to take the paper off the top, remove any stickers, wash them really well and inspect for cracks.  I've never had a defective container from this brand.  Also, in most cases, your store-brand may have their deli meats in a re-usable container as well.  I find this so much more useful!  

2. Talenti Gelato

I'm quite smitten with the Caribbean Coconut flavor of Talenti's Gelato so, as you can imagine, I have plenty of these! (Don't judge me ... LOL)  When I first started reusing these containers, it was to hold the body butters and hair creams I made for my family.  Since I've started making lunches for my daughters with more veggie and fruit varieties, I've been chopping them up ahead of time and using these containers to store them.  They are leak proof and incredibly sturdy.  I feel like I get my money's worth out of the containers alone ... the absolutely DELICIOUS product on the inside is the "icing on the cake". 

 3.  Asian Food Takeout Containers

If these work for the delivery guy, they can work for us!  These don't last as long as some of the other options but you can get several uses out of them before they're added to the recycling pile.  The soup containers are especially handy when doing warm lunches if you don't have a soup thermos.  When in a pinch, I usually wrap them in foil and place them in an insulated lunch box to help keep them warm.  You get a little more for your hard earned dollars this way!

4. Gerber Baby Food 

When looking online for "dipping containers", I ran across these little guys.  While I'm not going out to buy any baby food any time soon, I was impressed by some of the ways different people reused these.  Check out the link above to see an idea on how to use these!

****None of these images are my own.****

Container Talk

The most frequently i'm asked is, "What kind of Containers are you using?". Hopefully, this blog post will help all of you out! :)  Click on the name of the containers to visit one of the many websites where you can purchase these items.

1. Ziploc Divided Containers

I absolutely ADORE these!  They are compartmentalized, affordable and spill proof!  These little lovelies have divided slots where you can put yogurt, veggies, fruit, etc and the lid seals tightly in each of them to prevent compartment leakage.  Hands-down, these are my first choice but they are getting harder and harder to find.  If you see them in your local stores, snatch them up!  You won't regret it!

2. Laptop Lunches Bento Buddies 2.0

If these were not more expensive than the Ziploc containers, they would be my absolute first choice.  The different sized containers offer a variety of choices.  Each of these is leak-proof and have ample space for lunchbox serving sizes.  If you click on the link, you'll see that they have several different color options for this set and much much more to offer.  I'm really impressed with this brand and plan to buy all the sets eventually.

3. Easy Lunchboxes Mini Dippers

My favorite container for making child-sized portions are the EasyLunchBoxes Mini Dippers containers.  The lids are easy for children to remove and they are the perfect size to use for lunch box servings for kids.  I think I use these in almost every lunchbox I fix for my daughters.  The only drawback is, because they are made to be "easy" for children to handle, the lids don't go on as securely as I would prefer, HOWEVER, we have yet to have any spills with these.  I'm pleased with them.

4. Liquid Sauce Containers

I don't have the pictured containers above but I bought some similar one's while I was in Japan.  These have screw-on tops so that makes them the perfect choice for very watery condiments like vinegar or soy sauce.

5. Lil' Dippers

These little containers are perfect for thicker sauces.  We have not had any leaks with them yet and they help me control the amount of sauce my daughters are taking in and/or wasting.  So cute and convenient.

****None of these images are my own.  They were all borrowed from the websites that are linked in each header.****