My sweet boy who helped Aaron make my breakfast in bed for my birthday!

The card Nate made for me...I was moved to tears!

Look at all the presents and hearts from my sweetie!

For more Wordless Wednesdays, check out Arkie Mama.

Monday

Leftovers, baby! Veggie-flavored fettuccine with sauce and meatballs, broccoli and ranch (in the little lidded bowl,) cantaloupe and plum skewers (used the melon baller on them both….for the plum, cut in half and remove pit to ball,) and some parmesan cheese in the yellow egg.

Verdict: loved it, at almost all the pasta and all of the broccoli, left one skewer of fruit behind.

Tuesday

More meatballs please! A couple of meatball skewers, the much loved edamame, a mango jell-o, cut up cheese stick, some banana skewers, and a couple of carrots stuck in the middle. The balance of food groups and color was right on.

Verdict: surprisingly, there was a meatball and some cheese leftover. Not surprising, I don’t think he ate any carrots.

Wednesday

 Mac ‘n cheese! I cooked one of those Easy Mac bowls and added a cut up hotdog, then paired it with some shelled edamame, a peeled clementine, some Hello Panda! cookies and sunflower seeds.

Verdict: he did not eat hardly any of the edamame and none of the clementine, and left some of the mac ‘n cheese….but all the cookies and sunflower seeds were gone. I think that he likes the edamame pods just cause they’re fun to eat and the clementine was admittedly tart.

Thursday

 Dino-mania: Nate showed us how much of a big kid he’s become by proving that yes, he can be the banker when we play Dino Monopoly! To celebrate, I made some dino ham n’ mozz melties (I used pitas for the base, cut out the shapes and spread with some mustard, topped with diced ham and shredded mozz, and toasted til melted) along with a coordinating DINO, a hard-boiled “dino” egg, some carrot sticks and flowers (click hereto see how to make the flowers,) edamame skewers; in the shark are some banana chips and plums, and Hello Panda cookies in the yellow egg.

Verdict: he ate almost of everything, leaving just one of each behind. He totally missed the shark and ended up eating it for his after school snack…minus the plums. I figure one day he will eat them if I keep putting them in his lunch.

Friday!

Hooray for Friday! On the menu: tortellini with butter, with marinara sauce, olives and pepperoni to complete the pizza pasta feel. Toss in some green beans for color and some applesauce.

Verdict: he touched none of the green beans, and he mixed the sauce with the tortellini and ate some of it, but the olives and pepperoni were gone. He was pretty hungry that night!

Overall, I feel the week was a success! I’m much more successful at packing a quick lunch if I do it right after dinner, so I’ve tried to make that my new schedule. I might have overloaded him on the Italian foods this week, so I’m gonna try to keep it more plain this week.

On a side note, I discovered a new website that sells little bento kits. It’s called Little Lunch Box, and they sell two-tiered boxes in 6 different designs complete with a fork and spoon, 3 silicone muffin cups and a lidded sauce container. I thought it would be a great way for a beginner bento maker to get all the little supplies plus a box so they can start making cute and healthy…not to mention virtually waste free…school lunches!

My co-worker Amanda introduced me to this perfect bento find she picked up at Walmart. It’s by the Fit ‘n Fresh brand, and has two small containers up top for small items…and are you not LOVING the strawberry mouse? She used a halved strawberry with blackberry sections for a nose and eyes, then cut little slits into the strawberry and slid in leaves for the ears. So FREAKIN’ cute! Anyway, there is a cold pack underneath the top containers that acts as a divider between the larger bottom compartment. I believe she told me this was just $10, which is a killer price.

Okay, more bento news next week! Til then, happy lunching!

The first thing I made inspired by Ana’s site was the clip art rails, a really easy project that you can do in a couple of hours, and get your child in on the action. My version of the rail was a bit simpler than hers, mostly because I’m just lazy.

Materials needed:

Inexpensive pine craft boards, 1.25” by 4”, from any home improvement store
Clothes pins, about 8 per board
Hot glue gun
Paint for the boards and clothespins

First things first, paint the boards with at least 2 coats of paint and let dry.

My little artist

I set up a painting station for Nate with a couple of dozen clips and several washable paint colors, and let him paint the whole clip instead of taking them apart. You know I’m all about easy and fun haphazard art! I let them dry over night, then took my favorite ones and evenly spaced 8 of them along each board and glued them down on each board with the hot glue, alternating the clip’s directions.

Finished and hung

Aaron screwed the two rails onto the wall in Nate’s room one afternoon while he and I were out, and put up a bunch of Nate’s artwork from school and friends. Nate walked in the room and just LOVED it! I love how even the way we display his artwork is touched by his sweet hands.

Pretty blue, painted by my sugar pie

I’m telling you guys, this is so easy…go out to the store this weekend to get the supplies and by Sunday you’ll have a great way to display your little Picasso’s works of art not only in their rooms, but in the hallway or dining room of your home. It makes kids so proud to see their handiwork displayed with love by you!

I love using my Bento Monday posts to share different blogs I’ve discovered and new ideas on keeping lunch fun. I hope that you have found inspiration to make your childs’ lunch exciting, not to mention healthy and more waste-free. To add to the fun, I’ve decided to post photos of Nate’s lunches each Monday, along with some of mine, from the prior week so I can let you know what works for me and how.

So here’s what Nate had for the first day of school!

First day's lunch

Biscuit pizzas (recipe below) with edamame, baby carrots, cantaloupe skewers with watermelon “1″s (for the first day…I know, right?!) and a grape jell-0 (from the Asian grocery store on S. University). One pizza and 3 of the carrots came back, everything else was devoured!

Close up of the "1"s in the cantaloupe skewers. The square-topped picks came from Hobby Lobby in the party section.

We went to Jo Ann’s on Cantrell and picked out some fabric for some cloth napkins for his daily lunches. He picked out Batman/Joker and Spiderman fabric, and I think they turned out wonderful. Simple to make:

• 1/3 yard, cut into quarters, iron and pin squares right sides facing
• Sew 3 sides, and 1/2 of the fourth side, 1/4 inch from the fabric’s edge
• Flip the napkin right side out and iron, folding inward the fabric edges on the opening
• Sew around the sides, 1/4 inch from the edges.
• Voila! Two kid-sized napkins ready for lunch!

Oh yeah, and biscuit pizzas! Another simple and quick idea for lunch:

• Preheat oven to temperature to cook the can of biscuits
• In a muffin tin, coat 10 spots with non-stick spray
• Put a biscuit in each spot, and cook for 5 minutes until they get a bit crusty on the top
• Dollop some pizza sauce on each on and spread evenly on the biscuit, and top with whatever pizza toppings you like. We made sausage/pepperoni, olive and cheese pizzas.
• Pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes, or until the toppings are all crispy melty
• Let cool before packing into the bento or serving 

Day 2

The second bento was almost an exact repeat of the first, using leftovers and a few new twists. More pizzas, carrots and edamame, but I added cheese stars and peanuts, and used his shark snack holder and filled it with a couple of watermelon whales, cantaloupe slivers and pineapple tidbits. He ate it all except 4 carrots and the pineapple.

Alright, that’s all for now. Next week’s post will be exciting….five lunches!

My sugar pie, all grown up.

And of course, I had a ball making his lunch….I’ll post it all on Monday for my Bento Monday series! He actually ate the majority of it, which was very surprising. I wasn’t sure he’d have enough time to eat/talk. He is my child, you know…we can talk all day long! But Ms. Ashley, the student intern from UALR who will be in his class this year, told me that he was asking for lunch at 10:00 yesterday, so he must have been hungry!

Last Friday I showed you guys the Zuckertute I made for his first day of school and gave you easy steps on how to make one. We let him open the Wednesday night, and let’s just say he loved it!

Happy, happy, happy!

When as old you are, look at cool you will not.

All the captain's spoils

Zuckertute head!

It was such fun! Keep a Zuckertute in mind for your child’s first day of school, or for any other very special occasion.

Now your marching orders for the weekend….something new to eat, and a craft for you and the kids.

Mmmmm...breakfast!

From one of my fave food blogs, Framed, here’s something new to add to your weekend breakfast repertoire….Bacon and Egg Muffins! Delish! Click on the photo for the yummy instructions.

Wearable artsy goodness

And from another fav, Filth Wizardry, here’s an artsy craft for the painter child in the family. She made this skirt from 2 flour sack dishtowels from the Dollar Tree, using Sharpie markers and watered down acrylic paint. For those of you who don’t have an immediate need for a skirt, sew 3 sides of the towels together, stuff and handstich the top closed to make a pillow! Click on the photo for the tutorial.

That’s it guys! I hope you have a wonderful weekend.