Lunchbox look - Dec 8-12, 2014 - Twelve Days of Christmas week 2

You don't appreciate just how bird-centric the Twelve Days of Christmas song is until you've carved all of them out of sandwich cheese.

Four calling birds! I thought I was being clever but my lunch-eater politely requested that I keep my video game birds on the computer and out of the twelve days of Christmas lunch series. Noted! There's a waxy cheese bird with tomatoes, miniature sandwich with carrots and celery, triangle sandwich with clementines and raspberries with peppermint JoeJoe. Lots of candy eyes here!

Five golden rings! Ring picks made this easy - I just stuck candied pineapple on the picks and slipped the rings around a quesadilla hand. There's also dried cherries, celery (peanut butter is only on the top layer) with sprinkles, raspberry, checkered cucumber, salami with a pick and grapes.

Six geese! More cheese birds, this time stacked on leftover pasta with Parmesan. The second tier holds carrots, apple chunks and grapes.

Seven swans! This is the end of the birds! These swans are on top of a simple half sandwich. There's grapes and raspberries, orange slices, cookie an carrots with a silicone flower to keep the sandwich dry.

Maids a milking! My vision for this lunch was a lot cuter than the finished product, though the image of a girl drinking a gallon of milk through a straw does make me giggle. There's a sandwich plus cow crackers, carrots, tomatoes and snap peas.


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Lunchbox look - Dec. 1 - 5, 2014 - Twelve Days of Christmas week 1

This is my third year of counting down the last 12 school days before winter break with a 12 days of Christmas theme. It is the first year that I realized (too late to do anything about it) that I probably should start at 12 lords a leaping and progress backwards from there.

Sweet pea! Before we start with the 12 days, we've got two other days to take care of. This theme was easy to put together from dinner leftovers and a few fun accessories from my collection. There's a lot of food variety in here! Hawaiian sweet roll with cheese topper, plus salami, leftover peas in a silicone, grapes, clementine, carrots, cheese chunk and a treat in the Lego container. The little man holding the cheese is actually from a wine glass marker set.

Hearts! One lunch accessory I haven't pulled out in a while in my heart-shaped mini sandwich sealer. It makes four hearts and a square, and seals everything nicely if you have soft bread. After that, I quickly threw in more boring winter produce - grape tomatoes, carrots and celery, clementine plus salami slices.

Partridge in a pear tree! One of these days I'm going to look up what this bird actually looks like. In the mean time, I freehanded a bird out of fruit leather and stuck it on a carved pear (dipped in lemon water to stop the browning). There's a lot going on here - Triscuits, clementine, salami, cheese cubes, kiwi, dried cherries and a peppermint JoeJoe.

Two turtle doves! I love how this turned out! That's a doubled-over piece of washi tape between the doves. They are resting on two Hawaiian sweet rolls plus there's a leftover turkey burger, tomatoes, carrots, celery and some chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. Next time, I'll be smarter and stack the two pieces of cheese rather than cutting each one individually.

Three French hens! These divided containers make lunch packing really simple. The cheese hen has sprinkle accents plus a flag pick, all on top of a bite size sandwich There's also a clementine, grapes, chocolate coin, steamed broccoli and carrot flowers.


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Lunchbox look - Nov. 24 - 26, 2014

Another short week! It's a good thing my child got two days off school so she could be there to witness me cooking the turkey with the giblet bag still inside, a fact of which she likes to remind me daily.

Autumn! It's my least favorite season but I sure do like maple flavored sandwich cookies, so it can't be all bad! There's a leaf sandwich, carrots and celery, grapes, leftover chicken and one of those great cookies. To make the carrot flowers, slice off the ends of a baby carrot and carefully cut little V-shaped notches around the sides. Mess up the first three and eat the evidence. Gently slice into coins and scatter throughout the lunchbox.

Hand turkey! I made a version of this same turkey last year, but it didn't make an impression until this year. Evidently they no longer make these simple art projects in school because my daughter complimented me on my ingenuity. The turkey's features are made from sprinkles - a heart for his crest, chocolate-covered sunflower seed for the beak and part of a candy cane sprinkle for the wattle. This lunch also has a carved cucumber, sliced kiwi, pretzel sticks, grapes and a few more sunflower seeds.

Pilgrim girl! Her pale little cheeks make me happy (they're Easter egg sprinkles) as does her prudent, center-parted fruit leather hair. Grapes, clementine, salami and celery/carrots fill in the rest of this small lunch on the last day before Thanksgiving break.


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Lunchbox look - Nov. 17 - 21, 2014

The good thing about throwing a party is, well, everything because ... well, party! There's also the vast buffet to choose from when packing your child's lunch at the end of said party. The only downside is the pink tint your lunch picture takes on when you plop that lunch right down on the centerpiece amid a sea of bubblegum pink party decorations.

Party love! This extra deep Lego box is filled Lunchable-style with lots of party leftovers. There's cake, a waxy cheese, maple bacon chips and celery in the top row. On the bottom are Ritz crackers, sliced olives, carrots and grapes. Throw in a mini fork and we're done!

Garden angel! I can't remember what I was actually going for, but that's what my daughter called this and it seemed much more fitting. Those are silicone leaves on top of a sandwich plus grapes, star cookies, leftover mixed veggies and dried fruit in the mushroom container (which is actually a recycled candy dish).

Hello Kitty! Here I again used a silicone divider as clothing. Then there's grapes on picks, cheese cubes in the metal container, carrots and celery plus a box of raisins that I ridiculously accessorized with a strip of washi tape. 

School play! These four sections each relate to a song in my daughter's school play. Quick-steamed broccoli (cooled before adding to the box), leftover pasta salad, half an apple and grapes with star cookies. For the apple, I wrote the word in toothpick across the apple and then cut around those letters with an X-acto knife.

Lion! My young actress suggested I make a lion lunch in honor of her school play's main character. This easy lion is a triple-decker sandwich in a silicone flower cup. Then there's a kiwi, carrots, tropical dried fruits, cashes, peanut butter celery sticks and grapes. 

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Lunchbox look - Nov. 10 - 14, 2014

Another short week! The beginning of the school year goes so fast and it feels like there are holidays all the time. Remind me of this feeling during the torturous slog that is April. We were busy this week so I took it pretty easy in the lunch-packing department.

Lunch on a stick! When in doubt, kids will always eat food on a stick. Except a corn dog, which my children wouldn't eat if you paid them in lollipops. Here we have ham and cheese on a stick, plus Goldfish, checkered apple chunks, tomatoes, strawberries and a few prized mini Pocky treats. I find that placing long sticks on an angle makes the rest of the lunchbox a lot easier to fill than a rigid horizontal line.

Birthday! We had a family birthday this week, so I kept the festivities going. This lunchbox is very deep, which makes it easy to pack a small apple, ham on picks, carrot sticks, strawberry and leftover pasta with Parmesan.

Rainbow! I used concentric circle cookie cutters to mark the outline for the rainbow, filled it with peanut butter and pressed on sprinkles. The clouds are popcorn kernels. There's also baby carrots, a kiwi, tomatoes, a waxy cheese and rainbow box holding rainbow chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. 

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Lunchbox look - Nov. 3 - 7, 2014 - This little piggy week

When I told my daughter about my plan to do a little piggy week, she immediately asked if I really could give her NONE on Thursday and instead she'd buy cafeteria lunch. It was genius and probably would have made her day, but instead her big bad wolf of a mother made her lunch on that day too. Life is so unfair.

This little piggy went to market ... to make his own soft taco.

This little piggy stayed in his graham cracker-covered home.

This little piggy had roast beef  ... err, bratwurst.

This little piggy had none ... until he looked in the other tier and discovered an abundance of tropic fruits and peeled vegetables. 

This little piggy cried "Wee wee wee!" all the way home, where he enjoyed breakfast for lunch.

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