Life in the Bento: Week Four || 21-25 Sept 2015

Hellooooo cupcakes! 

Hope you all had an amazing amazing week! Our week consisted on a nasty sickness going around the entire house (my parents, my sister, both minion, & myself). Everyone was over it within 2-3 days; a week later & I'm still battling it. supersadface.

Anyhow! We are in week four of Life in the Bento. You can revisit all our past weeks here:
Week 1: 3-4 Sept
Week 2: 8-11 Sept
Week 3: 14-18 Sept

Now lets hop into this weeks Bento meals!

Monday & Tuesday 21/22 Sept. 2015

So this was J's lunch for 2 days only because he stayed home from school Monday (& ultimately Tuesday). He requested a grape & mint jelly sandwich on a thick, amoroso roll; some gingerale soaked apples, carrots, & fudge brownie little bites. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but I started feeling quite horrible Sunday night when I was prepping their lunches.

H's lunch (which he ended up taking to school on Tuesday since he was sick on Monday) we a peanut butter & jelly on an amoroso roll, some gingerale soaked apples, green beans, & chocolate chip muffin little bites. Again, not entirely healthy, but when momma can barely stay standing, you do what you gotta do.

Wednesday, 23 Sept 2015

Starting this week, J is only in Pre-K Mondays, Tuesdays, & Fridays so the rest is just H's meals for the week. If you'd like to see what I make J for lunch on those "off days", let me know!

For H's meal today he chose his make your own pizza (sans the pizza sauce) with turkey pepperoni & shredded, mild cheddar cheese, apples, a drinkable Danimal's yogurt, & some pringles.

Thursday, 24 Sept 2015

Finally got H to step out of the sandwich box & try something new. Hooray! So for lunch today he had ham & cheese roll ups, some apples with peanut butter, animal crackers, & a drinkable Danimal's yogurt. (**side note: he actually enjoyed the roll ups! So you may be seeing more of those)

Friday, 25 Sept 2015

Hooray! It's friyay! The minions ended up having similar lunches today due to the simple fact that I still wasn't any better & was having a hard time creating anything cute for them to eat. Eat minion had 2 sandwiches (H had pb&j & J had cheese), some peas, animal crackers, & Danimal's drinkable yogurt. Quick, simple, & a total carb over load which I feel horrible about but, again, when momma is sick not much gets done. 

Every day the kids drink water with their lunches & have a healthy snack upon arriving home from school. That is something that never changes. (:

In terms of their "Bentos": The blue Bento is a Paw Patrol 3 compartment, plastic lunch "kit" from the Target Dollar spot - & I totally should've picked up more than the 2 I did when I found them because the dog got ahold of 1 & now I can't find them.  The white rectangle-ish one is actually a Chinese take-out box reused & repurposed. It's definitely not as cute but it works! I am eventually upgrading to a PlanetBox or a YumBox. Maybe I can convince Santa to gift them to the kids for Christmas. Hahah. 

What do you guys pack for your kids during the week? Do you do anything cutesy? I am so excited to start doing fall/halloween themed boxes starting Oct 1! If you would like your kiddos Bentos to be featured in a blog post, tag me on Instagram @LoveofFilo &/or use the hashtag #NavyLifeinBento & you may see your works of art added to the blog!

Life in the Bento: Week Three | 14-18 Sept 2015

Welcome back, cupcakes!

It's another Life in the Bento series post! Who's ready for some kid-friendly lunch ideas brought to you by my kiddos H & J. Lets do this!

Want to catch up on the past few installments? Check them out here:
Week One : 3-4 Sept
Week Two: 8-11 Sept

Monday 14 September 2015

Lo & behold: the boys' lunch! In their cute bento boxes they dedicded on a left over taco from taco bell, some carrots, Motts All-Natural fruit gummies, apples soaked in ginger ale (need to know why? Read the first installment of the Bento series here), & 2 homemade chocolate chip cookies.

J loves helping to pack his lunch 

 Tuesday, 15 September 2015

 On Tuesday the boys decided to have different lunch options. Today H enjoyed 2 turkey hot dogs cut into about the size of a viena sausage with ketchup, Mott's All Natural fruit gummies, a small salad (& by salad I meant 1 romaine lettuc leaf & 2.5 cherry tomatoes), & some pretzel twists.

Meanwhile, J decided on carrots (can you tell this kid loooooves carrots?!), Mott's All natural fruit snacks, some pretzel twists, & a whole wheat pita pocket stuffed with 1 slice of cheese, some turkey, & pepperoni (hey! don't ask me..... I don't eat it, I just make it. **NOTE: on this day, J was sick so he ate his lunch at home. Hey, it's gotten get eaten one way or the other, right?

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

J's lunch, yet again, consisted of carrots (surprise, surprise), Mott's gummies, some Ritz crackers, & another whole wheat pita pocket stuffed with pepperoni & turkey - hey! the kid knows what he likes. & again, he was sick today so he got to enjoy his lunch at home.

H ended up getting a "special" lunch, as he puts it. His lunch consisted of left over raviolis with a little bit of sauce, a celery stick cut into 3 pieces with some peanut butter, ginger ale soaked apples, & a bag of the fudge brownie little bites. Pretty sure thats why he said it was special. Hahah.

Thursday, 17 September 2015

Both of the boys lunchs today consisted of mac & cheese, Mott's gummies, green beans, & the fudge brownies little bites. Not the most healthiest meal that could be packed, but I tend to give my kids "free reign" in terms of what they want for lunch so long as they have at least a fruit &/or veggie. I was just surprised that J picked something other than carrots.

Friday, 18 September 2015

Today in H's bento we had another leftovers day with the remaining bits of mac & cheese, animal cooks, celery with PB, & half a banana. My mom was stressing we get rid of the left overs in the fridge & this was the most 'easiest' thing in the fridge (by that, I meant, it wasn't chicken drum sticks or pork chops. or anything like that).

J's box consisted of two PB&J sandwiches, green beans (again!? I was shocked!), half a banana, & animal cookies. 

Now you're probably noticing that J's bento isn't a green one & that the green bento has been MIA since Thursday. Welp, on Wednesday when J was sick, he left his bento on the table & the dog got to it. :|     so there's that. Luckily my mom had an oversize tupperware container that was the same size as the bento, just non-compartmentalized. 

So that's everything for the week! If you would like to see your kiddo's favorite recipes shown in upcoming blog posts, tag me on instagram using the hashtag #NavyLifeinBento. Hope everyone had a great week!

Life in the Bento: Week One | 3-4 Sept 2015

Hulloooooo cupcakes!
My kiddos first week of school (if you can call it a "week"..... they only had school 2 days this week!) is officially over & I wanted to start a series on my blog called Life in the Bento which will showcase all the yummy goodness of lunch that my littles consume for school. I figured this is a great way to help those mommies & daddies who are having trouble with ideas for school lunches - because lets be real no one wants to eat sandwiches every day. & so, I bring you.....

LIFE IN THE BENTO.

week one. 3-4 Sept. 2015

Thursday, 3 Sept 2015: Lunch for the kiddos was fairly similar to each other. They had homemade chicken nuggets, "penguins" (which are Save-a-lot's version of Goldfish), Motts All Natural Fruit Gummies, & J chose cherry tomatoes while H chose carrots. (*H also chose to have ketchup with his nuggets)

Prepping the nuggets was easy. I sliced up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can also use tenders or thighs) & rolled them in italian breadcrumbs (you could also use panko which would make the "breading" thicker, but my parents didn't have any panko in the house & I didn't feel like making another grocery store run). Bake them at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (depending on the size & thickness of your nuggets); let them cool & put them in a ziplock baggy with the date you made them so you can use them for meals later in the week.

I actually ended up snacking on them while prepping their lunch. They're really delicious!

Friday, 4 Sept. 2015: Their final day of their first week & each boy wanted something different in their bellies! The yummy deliciousness shown up above is J's lunch! He was having a "yellow" theme for some reason. In his little bento, he decided he wanted:
. half a banana
. 7 Ritz crackers
. Vanilla Yogurt
. "Kitty Sandwich"

To make the Kitty Sandwich, it was fairly simple. First: make any type of sandwich your monster is craving that day (J wanted black forest ham & cheese on whole wheat bread). Then take a cookie cutter or a sandwich cutter & smoosh it into the sandwich to create your shape. We ended up using a halloween cookie cutter for this but it was the perfect size. The "scraps" (aka the bits of bread on the OUTSIDE of the cutter) ended up in J's belly while I packed his brothers lunch. Get your little to help smoosh the cutter into the sandwich so they feel like they're having a big part in their lunch making.

Now onto H.....

For H's lunch he wanted homemade pizza! What kid doesn't love pizza?! But those lunchable pizza's that you can find at the grocery store are so full of sodium & processed junk..... + it's always more fun to figure out what you have on hand to make a delicious, kid friendly pizza. He also, sorta, stuck to the yellow theme too..... ish.

In H's bento:
. "Penguins" (read above if you are wondering about them)
. Corn
. Half a banana
. some hand shredded cheddar cheese

. 10 slices of turkey pepperoni

. 1 whole wheat "sandwich thin" (which I opened up to look like pizza crusts)

Now, you may be wondering where is the pizza sauce?! You are more than welcome to send your kiddos to school with pizza sauce in a little tupperware container, but I could just see H trying to open the container & it going everywhere..... or him trying to pour a little onto his crust & it end of in a soggy heap. Yeah, no thanks.

& that was pretty much their lunch for their "week" at school. I am honestly excited for next week when I can bring you a FULL weeks worth of meals for your littles! As for the bento boxes, I actually picked up these 3 compartment lunch containers in the Target Dollar Spot for, yep, $1! While they're not traditional Japanese Bento boxes, I think they work wonderfully with the boys & if they break them or lose them (& I'm sure they will), they were only $1. To separate the snacks & crackers a little more, I'm using cupcake liners to make extra "compartments" - I will be switching to silicone cupcake liners for reusability within the next week or so. 

If you guys do any of the aft formention bento ideas, tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #NavyLifeinBento. I can't wait to see all your wonderful creations. I may even feature you in a future blog post!