Friday 31 January 2014

Puzzling Park Lunches


 Flashback Friday this week is from a park playdate we went to. Miss M wanted to take a lunchbox for all the kids that would be there. I must admit I enjoyed the challenge of packing multiple lunches. They all got the 'same but different'.
Miss M chose to have the car egg, sandwiches, yoghurt, cheese, apple (not cut Mummy, just plain) and some Nutella/peanut butter dip in a little silicon cup colour matched to her lunchbox.

 She chose the fish egg for her little friend. Miss M's friend likes her Vegemite sandwiches, while her siblings prefer jam. I thought it an excellent opportunity to finally make a mix & match puzzle lunch.
I made 2 sandwiches each of vegemite, peanut butter, strawberry jam and honey. Each child got  2 squares of each flavour & were encouraged to swap if they wanted to.

 The older siblings got slinky apples stuffed with sultanas. I ran out of yoghurt so this last Sinchies has juice.

All in all it was great fun watching the kids play with their food and comparing who got what shape and which silicon cup etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think they did too ;-)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Thursday 30 January 2014

#LovingEveryLunchforaMonth Prompts

Are you excited to start #LovingEveryLunchforaMonth Saturday? I had thought I might do up prompts for each day to maybe inspire you, but then I thought 'No, if there's something special coming up, I like to plan something special'. So instead of daily prompts, I'm going to give you a giant list for the month in one post!

I've long said there must be a 'day' for every day of the year, and most of these 'days' I didn't even know existed, but thanks to Google, now we all do! My sources are:
Australian Government Department of Health
Days of the Year
Our Community
National Calendar
Holiday Insights
Cute Calendar
Food.com
United Nations

As with most things on the internet these days there is so much choice so I'm just going to select a few.

Firstly - events that last the whole month!
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
Heart Month, or Red Feb and Children's Heart Disease Awareness Month
FebFast
Hot Breakfast Month

Events that last a week:
1-7 World Interfaith Harmony Week
9-15 Duchenne Awareness Week
10-16 Random Acts of Kindness Week
17-23 Australia's Healthy Weight Week
23-2 March Donate Life Week

And Daily:
1 - Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, Decorating with Candy Day, Working Naked Day
2 - Neuroblastoma Awareness Day, Crepe Day, Hedgehog Day
3 - Carrot Cake Day, The Day the Music Died
4 - World Cancer Day, Homemade Soup Day
5 - World Nutella Day
6 - Waitangi Day, Frozen Yoghurt Day
7 - USA Bubble Gum Day, Ballet Day, Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
8 - Kite Flying Day
9 - Read in the Bathtub Day, Toothache Day
10 - Umbrella Day
11 - Safer Internet Day, Extraterrestrial Culture Day, Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day
12 - Darwin Day
13 - World Radio Day, Madly in Love with Me Day, National Tortellini   Day
14 - St Valentine's Day; Heart Research Day, Ferris Wheel Day; February Full Moon
15 - Hippo Day
16 - Innovation Day, Almond Day
17 - Cafe Au Lait Day
18 - International Aspergers Day, Single Tasking Day
19 - Choc Mint Day
20 - World Harmony Day, Love Your Pet Day
21 - The Empire Strikes Back, Special Edition Anniversary
22 - Open That Bottle Night, World Thinking Day
23 - Melba Toast Day, Olympics Closing Ceremony
24 - National Sunnies for Sight Day, National Tortilla Chip Day
25 - Clam Chowder Day
26 - Teal Ribbon Day (for Ovarian Cancer), Tell a Fairy Tale Day
27 - Polar Bear Day, Chili Day, Strawberry Day
28 - Rare Disease Day; School Clean Up Day, Tooth Fairy Day

I do realise I've missed quite a few 'days'. If you'd like me to add any to this list, please let me know :-)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Elephant Sandwiches



Before I got my elephant LunchPunch Miss M asked for an elephant sandwich. I think I did alright for a quickie.




Ears, trunk and eyes all made from crust off cuts. I think I like it better with a straight trunk, don't you?


After I got the LunchPunch I had to try it out. I still love these products - without any extra embellishment they look special.


Oh, and did I tell you. . .


. . . . super easy to use!


No really!












A toddler could do it! :-)


(Please excuse the terrible focus, no idea what happened there. . . )
I was excited to try these cute bags from Daiso but didn't think Miss M would go for a rice ball.





So I made some sandwich balls instead. I was quite happy with everything until I found out Miss M had thrown the bag in the bin at lunchtime, because 'Plastic goes in this bin Mummy.' *sigh*










Are you getting excited for #EveryLunchforaMonth? I know I am! Details can be found in this previous post

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Monday 27 January 2014

Get Your Loving On. . .

A public holiday is a wonderful way to start the week isn't it? And a new project is a wonderful way to end it!

Have you heard of hashtag projects on Instagram? I must admit I'm quite the newbie but I would love for you all to join me in #LovingEveryLunchforaMonth!

Are there days when you settle for cereal for lunch? Me too! Do you go for weeks on end preparing the *exact same sandwich*? Me too! Are there days when you feel a creative surge coming and before you know it there's a masterpiece before you? Me too! (Ok, so maybe only a few times a year, but still, it happens ^-^) Do you re-purpose your leftovers for lunch? Me too!

But the question is - do you love it? Some days yes, some days no, some days all of the above. I'm asking you to catalogue *every* lunch for one member of your household for a month. And I chose the shortest month of the year too! You can Instagram, Facebook, Tweet, Blog - even just take a photo for your own satisfaction. And here's the kicker - I'd like you to find one thing about that lunch that you love. One thing. Some thing. Any thing. Do you love that the person receiving it will eat it? Do you love the plate it's served on? Do you love how a particular feature worked out? Do you love that it can be eaten on the run? Do you love that there's a nutritional balance. . . or a not so nutritional one? To get you started, here's a few of the lunches I've prepared for Miss M over the last year that haven't been shared for one reason or another. Let me know what you think. . .

Ham & corn flan doughnuts, sausages and sauce. I love how quick this is, using with frozen flan.

Leftovers - pie, broccoli, sauce, mashed potato. I love using up leftovers.

Leftovers - Corned meat spirals, mashed potato heart, broccoli and carrot. I loved twirling the meat for something different.

Frozen Mac & cheese (with veg), sauce and sausages. I love having sides frozen so there's a quick throw together lunch with some leftovers.

Frozen lunch! Cheerios, ham & corn flan doughnuts and sauce (well, the sauce wasn't frozen). I love that I can pull something out of the freezer on those days when i'm just *blah*.

Leftover face. Mashed potato hair, with carrot hair ties and nose. Broccoli 'hair clip', sausage eyes and mouth with 'red sauce cheeks'. I love that Miss M enjoyed her new Face plate by Fred (I won a prize from Family Mealtimes Matter - thank you Jo!) so much that she asked for the same thing for lunch the next day.

Leftovers. Whole baby beetroot, sausage, sauce, mushroom, tomato and a little lettuce underneath. I love that my new rectangle moulds from Little Bento Shop can hold a whole sausage, and it can be removed for heating without the rest of the lunch having to go in the microwave.

Vegemite 'sushi' sandwiches. I love how quick & easy these are.

Sausages with tomatoes, sauce and a food pick. I love playing with my new Daiso toys.

Meatballs with spaghetti and store bought bottle pasta sauce. I love easy leftover lunches. 

More frozen Mac & cheese with sausage and sauce in the lidded container. I love easy.

Sausage, moulded egg with FooDoodler details and sauce in the lidded container. I love that Miss M will eat the 'broken' egg that got stuck in the mould.

I love that looking back at these I realise how many times we've eaten sausages!

So what do you say? Will you join me and share the love? There will be a Linky Party in March for anyone wanting to share their collections. 

::EDIT - Please feel free to right click and copy the #LovingEveryLunchforaMonth button above::

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Sunday 26 January 2014

How to Fix a Banana

 I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced the anguish and pure heartache when your (or more specifically, when your toddler's) banana breaks. . . 
This is a quick and simple fix I came up with one day when the sky was falling. You can use raw spaghetti, but I've found that fettuccine works best.

Pop your pasta half way into your base piece, then pop the top piece on - woohoo!

 You can of course spend a little more time lining up your pieces, but as it was the end of the world, I thought delaying long enough to snap a few pics was pushing things enough :-)

Happy Australia Day! And may all your broken bananas end up on pavs ;-D


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Saturday 25 January 2014

Congratulations Eclectic Lamb Bento of the Week

Bento-Blog-Network

Congratulations to Kathy from Eclectic Lamb for winning Bento of the Week for her Princess & the Pea lunch which we featured back in August!
You can check out her creation in this post

Princess and the Pea lunch

Congratulations again Kathy!

~J

Friday 24 January 2014

Yellow Submarine and Some Vehicles




Flashback Friday again! This was the first time I played with this cutter and my FooDoodlers were new too, so everything got a little colour that night.






Of course my favourite was the Yellow Submarine :-)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

First Day at Kindy and A New Nude Lunch Box


 Wow, first day at Kindergarten. It seems only yesterday we started feeding Miss M solids, no wait, that's the other one! Honey has started experimenting with food too, but I'll save that for another post. Today is about our adventure into the Orange Room at our new Kindy. . . and our new lunchbox!


I've been eyeing off the Nude Food Movers range for a while, but have been quite satisfied with our Sistema Quaddie. However, after two years it's starting to get a bit worn, and fingers crossed with a shorter day (at least 2 hours shorter than our daycare days) I won't need to pack quite so much for our little Hoover. . . Garbage Guts. . fantastic eater.


On closer inspection I was surprised at how much room there actually is in the Rubbish Free Lunchbox. Plenty of space for 2 sandwiches, a popper or two large snacks, and two snack pods, perfect for yoghurt, fruit, or anything a bit messy. (These hold about 100mL.)

In our 2L Quaddie we would normally pack:
Sandwich
'Something Else'
Yoghurt
Snack
Fruit
Treat
Drink (popper size)

In our 1.22L Rubbish Free Lunchbox we can fit:
Sandwich
Yoghurt (in a Sinchies)
Snack
Fruit
Drink (popper size)
and if I wriggled my nose a slice style treat on top (or a muesli bar).
So we're really only missing our 'Something Else' which works out well seeing as Miss M likes to have hers warmed through and they don't do that at this Kindy. They do however have a fridge so I didn't invest in a 'skin'. We'll also be sending a piece of fruit each day for a shared morning tea.


One thing I love is that there are removable pieces! The lids come off (except the centre lid) and the divider can come out too. I know this means more opportunity to loose pieces, but it also gives you more freedom to configure your lunchbox to suit.


Ain't they purty?


Here's another configuration option. I found out this purple double snack box in Coles, and it fits perfectly into the snack pod side. Someone in design has been reading my thoughts! Although not too closely because I still had to rely on my Tupperware square rounds as a sandwich box. All my other sandwich boxes wouldn't fit :-( Removing the snack divider meant a popper would fit nicely and if you squint you can see the Little Bellies Mueslis Choo Chew bar I snuck in the bottom.


Even with the lid on my Tupperware, the sandwich divider fits back in. I take that to mean I have room for the Ice Melt Bottle that's designed to go in here but I haven't seen for sale anywhere. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough. You can get it and most other spare parts for this & other lunch boxes in the range from Smash's own webshop Bonzoo. I find that a little exciting in itself, although by the time you pay for postage it may be more worth your while to keep an eye out for 50% off specials which is where I picked mine up from.


And just because it comes with the snack pods doesn't mean you have to use them. I think in the future I may pre-pack some yoghurt in them both and send one each day with a piece of fruit in the space. Maybe not a piece as large as this orange that Miss M picked out though. . .



To give you another idea of size, here's a muffin packed in too. There is quite a bit wasted space in this compartment.


I got all excited when I saw this pack at Big W. Finally a lunchbox that you can fit sandwich boxes into! I wonder if they will fit into the Rubbish Free Lunchbox. . . ?


Yeah. . .  no :-(



Well, enough about the lunchbox - onto the lunch! Can you guess what our class name is at Kindy this year?


I made an 'Orange' Vegemite sandwich on white with the crust/heel used as the top piece. Cut with an apple cutter I picked up from Target recently. I haven't added the details to my tools & toys page yet, but will get around to it at some stage. Even though Miss M can't read yet, she is recognising some letters. The word 'Orange' was cut from Red Leicester cheese and stuck to some crust off cuts with extra Vegemite.


There was the popper juice with some Little Bellies Choo Chew bars (which I reviewed last year in this post)


A slight change on our regular Pepperoni from Walkerston Country Meats with cheese and crackers. Today it's served with cheese, carrot sticks and dip in the bottom of the container. I did try to make a sort of flower, but that didn't really work and I didn't have the patience tonight to try again ;-)


Our mini 'oranges' are actually rockmelon balls (and in all honesty I removed the picks before I put the lid on. No pretty picks allowed at Kindy :-(  Choking hazard)


I also snuck in an Orange slice biscuit.



Oh, and there's the Sinchies (200ml) with yoghurt. I thought I'd get away with some mango in there seeing as Miss M has taken to stealing my mango & yoghurt snack, but apparently it only tastes good when it's on Mummy's plate.


And here it all is with the lids on. Did you guess? Miss M will be in the 'Orange' class this year ;-)


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page. (Although I haven't updated it with my Back to School 2014 purchases as yet)

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.
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