Manicotti and dinosaurs.

I am still trying to work on the lunches, working 3rd shift, being mom all day, and sleep. Sleep is in short supply right now. Sadly I have not been taking any pictures.

In our Easy Lunchbox we have cheese and broccoli manicotti, chicken, a slice of mozzarella cheese, and some grape tomatoes. To the right of that we have steamed broccoli and an old fashioned caramel candy.

We used our Gerber Mealtime Organizer we have nitrate free salami, sliced cheese, celery, carrots, raspberry, and sunbutter and whole wheat tortilla dinosaurs. I rarely use this box because it is a little on the clunky side and easily pops open if a minion drops it.

Tyke is showing us his veggie stick. You can see Colonel Sanders standing in the background. She decided to stand and eat her lunch today.

 

 Pork enjoyed his salami. Aunt Julie was sent home from work early today since they ran out of work to do. So she joined us for lunch.

Colonel Sanders is a very messy little girl today. She was helping her brothers color earlier and then snacked on some blackberries before lunch. Did I mention her runny nose too. *sighs* I should have changed her, but she would just have gotten messy while eating. So I opted to change her after lunch.

Green Eggs and Ham

Packed

The minions insisted they needed a "box breakfast" this morning. I knew I was not going to be happy with this box from when I realized I did not have enough matching smaller boxes. Clark is very insistent that all of the minions have the same size. He has ASD, so we just kinda go with the flow.

So today we are using our Gerber boxes.  I made some green crepes and used a cookie cutter for the egg shapes. The top egg is about 8 layers alternating between chocolate cream cheese and peanut butter as filling between crepes. I got the idea for the Dr Seuss hat from Bent On Better Lunches. She used apples and cheese. I had no apples so I used strawberries and a cheese stick.  There is a cookie, several ham slices, and a small stack of crepe sheets with yellow cheese as the egg yolk.

To the left are some cheese sticks, strawberries, and kiwi slices. Below that is a Dannon Crunchers.

C is for Cat

Today's lunch has kiwi, blueberries, berry yogurt, carrots, and a kitty face peanut butter and jelly sandwich with raisin eyes, grape nose, and carrot whiskers.

This was packed in my Gerber Meal Time Organizer.

The not so great kite idea.

Can you tell it is a kite? No? That's ok. Clark could. Tyke thought it was a pirate ship and Porkums could care less. He was to busy eating. Initially Tyke did not feel like eating, but when Clark mentioned apples, he changed his mind.

The kite is made out of wonton ravioli (better than it sounds) with a filling of chicken, cheese, artichoke and spinach. Only Pork tried it. The string is made from some turkey bacon I needed to use up. To the left there is tri colored pasta and sauce, raw zucchini, carrots, apple slices, and blueberries.

Jellyfish and the pasta field

I have to say, looking back, I wish I would have made a cheese Spongebob. *sighs* Maybe next time. My little Miss Colonel Sanders was interrupting my not so creative juices with her cries to be the center of attention. Yes, 2 month olds can be very needy. Good thing they are so cute. I suppose I could have put her in a sling. Only I am sure she does not enjoy food being dropped on her. Or not yet anyway. I am sure she will once she can gum real food. Mama makes a mess when she is playing with her bentos. That is why I have a dog though. The dogs job is to clean up anything I may drop.



This is the maiden voyage of my Gerber Mealtime Organizers I picked up at Walmart the other day. Please see my previous post for my review on them.

Anyway, back to the bento and less about my issues. Today's meal consists of tricolor pasta with spinach (you can barely see it) and butter. There is a baby sausage crab sitting on some zucchini. The jellyfish are made from the baby sausages cut in half and whole wheat thin spaghetti. 

To the left of that is some unsweetened applesauce with the letter "C" made out of blueberries. Above that is yet another one of those yummy energy balls (which the minions still think are cookies) and some of the Kraft 3 cheddar cheese blend.




I used one of my silicone cups in this one. I think this will be the last time I do so. From now on, only paper cups. Pork was ever so kinda and gave the cup to the dog to clean when I was not looking. Needless to say, I no longer have a cup. Also I have decided that I "need" a nori punch. Making small eyes is just to much work for me.

Gerber Mealtime Organizer

I decided to give my new Gerber Mealtime Organizers a spin. I do have to say that they are a little large for the amount of food my toddler and preschoolers eat. Although when you are making a fun lunch, space can be a perk. They are a good size for teens and adults. I picked my Mealtime Organizers up at Walmart in the baby section. They appear to only come in blue and red. 

The Gerber Mealtime Organizers seem to open up with ease. My eldest has some very fine motor skill problems and cannot always open things. Yet he managed to open this up without an issue. Also my 2 year old was able to open them. That is always nice. Even though they did open and close easily, they seemed to remain shut quite well. Pork (2) was running around the table with his, tripped, and the box bumped against the table. It remained shut. That is nice, especially with little ones.

These are not leak proof. Although one of the small sections on the inside comes with a tight cover. So you could pack applesauce or yogurt. The large section on the inside is more than enough room for a sandwich.

The only issue we had was with the outside compartment on the lid. When the minions let the lid drop back to the table, the cover to the compartment would pop off. So if you used that compartment (I didn't) you would either need to be gentle when you put the lid down or take the food out of that compartment first. Either way, we did like the Gerber Mealtime Organizer and at $6.99 each, I think it was a good deal.