Bear Hunt and Farm Animal Go Green Lunches

  Today’s Lunches are both packed in the Go Green Lunchbox, for my Kinder son I’ve made a Bear Hunt theme because they’ve been discussing this at kinder and he was reciting the story as he fell asleep do I thought it was only fitting to bring that into his Lunchbox: 

  
He has Bear ham sandwiches, Strawberry Hearts, Cucumber and Cherry Tomatoes, Bear shaped Apple slices, Bear boiled Egg and Homemade Choc Yoghurt in the My Squueze Pouch.

For my Grade 1 boy I’ve packed a Farm Animal theme:

 

Apple Slices, Cheese Stick, Ham Pig Sandwich, Organic Farm Biscuits, Raspberries, Carrots, Corn Cob, Chicken Egg and Homemade Choc Yoghurt in Reusable My Squeeze Pouch

  

I picked up these cute Organic animal farm biscuits in the baby food aisle of my supermarket, they were a perfect addition to this lunch.

  

For his boiled egg i cut some carrot and poked it into the egg and added an eye pick, very quick and easy but very cute.

 

– Mel

Tuesday Go Green Lunches

Lately I have been tired, worn out and feeling like I haven’t been enjoying making lunches as much, it’s in part because my ASD son has decided he won’t eat even more things and partly because I’ve just been too tired to think of things to do. 

On the weekend I went through my Bento Box Pinterest board and created all new boards with proper headings and re pinned everything so it’s organised and easy to find. Today I felt re-inspired to put the extra touch in the lunchbox and I’m pretty happy with the results 😊

My youngest son, Kinder boy requested a car sandwich and egg so I was excited to do a traffic light and car theme for him:

  
I started with the celery traffic lights: I filled celery stalks with corn relish then added red and orange cherry tomatoes and cucumber. Ham sandwich using LunchPunch cutter, traffic light salad: strawberries, Grape Tomatoes and Baby Cucumber, for the Apple slices I used a green apple then the orange side and red side of a royal gala apple. Boiled egg made using car mould, and finally a Ladyfinger Banana. I added some road sign cupcake toppers and the lunch was done. My car mad boy is going to be one happy kid at lunchtime!

For my eldest son, Grade 1 Boy, I went with Under the Sea theme.

  
I included something I normally wouldn’t and that’s the sprinkles on top of the yoghurt, my son has been refusing more foods lately so I’m trying to get him eating yoghurt again and thought this might help. Making things visually appealing is the main way to get through to him, he is the whole reason I started making bento lunches! 

His lunch has octopus and whale coco2 sandwich, Grapes, Peas, Corn Cob, boiled egg moulded into a fish, carrot “anemone” and Apple Seaweed, Vanilla Yoghurt with polka dot Sprinkles and a Banana. 

– Mel 

Skeleton Halloween Lunch

Wednesday School Halloween lunch is a spooky skeleton and pumpkins theme. Lunch is packed in the Fuel Bento today, I find I can fit a fair amount of food in this box and it’s a bit taller than others so can handle things like corn easily.

I went food shopping yesterday on the hunt for the new Cheddar Babybel cheeses that have just come out in Australia, which is really exciting because we only ever had the normal red ones! The flavour of the cheddar is much preferred by my son and it matches so cute with the halloween theme. I used a Fred Brand gingerdead men cutter on his sandwich which is Rye bread with coco2 spread. I sliced chicken into strips and made a pinwheel kabob using one of the picks from the Lindt chocolates we got a few weeks ago. Plus a few pieces of treat natural popcorn.

The second half of lunch has the awesome new polka dot corn cob I found at the supermarket yesterday which my son is so excited about, he loves corn raw so it’s easy to pack in his lunch. I sliced carrot lengthways and used a Bone cookie cutter to keep with the skeleton theme. The food rings and Happy  Halloween pick are a great addition too. Sliced strawberries and grapes with bone picks and a Jack O lantern mandarin complete this spooky lunch.

I only have 2 more to go before halloween, I’ve had so much fun making these as I’m a bit of a spooky horror freak so being able to use all the spooky items has been really cool!

– Mel

DIY Lunchbox Notes

Today I’m making up a heap of laminated lunchbox notes for my sons lunches. 

  
I went onto Pinterest and found a heap of free Printables: 

Lunchbox love notes – Printable Lunch Box Notes – Disney Lunch Box Notes – Lunchbox Fruit Jokes – Printable Lunch Notes – Lunch Box Notes – Add your own text Lunch Box Notes 
I downloaded and printed them off. Once cut out I place them in the laminating sheets with space between so the edges get sealed. This means I can wash them if they get funky from food! 

  

So pretty once laminated! 

  
Cut them out and you’re ready to roll!

  
– Mel

Bento Mail

Each set of School Holidays I usually place a bigger Bento order from my favorite online bento shop: Trendy Lil Treats. This time it was getting all the items that have been on our want list for almost a year and some new goodies that had just come in.

First up is the Little Mashies and Choomee Sip’n tops. Mr. 6 requested these and because he’s been off yoghurt for the last few months I was happy to oblige. He said we can start making yoghurt again because he’ll eat it if it’s in the Lil Mashies. We previously got some last year but with our move across the country at christmas they’ve been misplaced. Here’s hoping he follows through on that! I’ll be trying smoothies in them in the summer too.

We have been eagerly awaiting new stock of these Thomas and Percy egg moulds. Mr.6 has a boiled egg most days and Thomas has been his favorite character for as long as I can remember so when we can track down Thomas lunch items I jump on them. We also got these cute little transport picks which have trains, boats, helicopters, cars and rockets which will go with heaps of our Bento items.

These Reusable Skip Hop snack bags have been on my want list for over a year! I finally gave in and bought them because we have the matching Insulated food jar and lunchbox and I am a sucker for matching items. We really needed snack bags though because coming into warmer weather it will be great to pack things like dried fruits, popcorn & crackers and can easily be added into his lunchbag without taking up too much room.

New picks! To tell you the truth I don’t buy picks much anymore because we have most of the ones available that we like already, so when Trendy Lil Treats got in these new ones I couldn’t wait to add them to our collection. The veggies have been some ive wanted for a while but kept putting off. I recently saw a cute lunch with a garden theme using these picks and they looked super cute in use…on the list they went!

Baran: This is probably one of the most underrated bento products. Yes it just goes behind the food and doesn’t have any use except for looking cute but adding baran makes lunches come alive in my mind, it fills up the empty spaces and adds great pops of colour.

Mini Cutters!! I can’t tell you how much I love mini cutters, they are so useful and make plain food look awesome. I use mini cutters on ham, cheese, fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, anything really! These gorgeous animal ones we’ve been waiting to be back into stock and finally they are ours.

Last but not least this Puppy in kennel Sandwich cutter from LunchPunch. Now that I have this I can finally make up the Paw Patrol Lunch I have had in my head for months! I’m going to pair it with the puppy picks we have and its going to be so cute!

What have you added to your collection lately, Do you like to save up and buy a big lot all at once like me and have a list a mile long? Maybe its just me!

If you like any of these products you can find them on Trendy Lil Treats website here: http://www.trendyliltreats.com.au/ I find they have an excellent selection of bento and children’s lunch boxes and food items and now ship worldwide too. I’m not affiliated these views are completely my own.

Happy Bento making

– Mel

Welcome!

I thought it was about time to make it official and start a Blog to coincide with the Healthy Kids Bento Facebook page where I share our creations daily. We are currently on school holidays so with the tiny shred of time I have up my sleeve between the “Muuuuuum”s and demands of having kids at home, here it is! I look forward to sharing my lunchbox and food creations with you all along with various craft and life adventures.

Let the fun begin! – Mel

https://www.facebook.com/healthykidsbento