Lunch Made Easy: Romaine Wrap

While grocery shopping last weekend, I was trying to think outside the box with sandwiches for Little Miss, so I purchased some yummy organic romaine hearts to make wraps with.

I went ahead and let her try one to make sure she'd like it... And she did! Loved it even. *high five for Little miss and for Mama!* ;-)

Lunch Made Easy: GF Bagel with Flowers & Starfruit

That's a mouthful of a title, I know, lol... But there's a lot goin' on here. :)

Peanut Free, Gluten Free

Lunch Made Easy: GF Chicken Taco

Day two of gluten and peanut free lunches. :)

Side note: Little Miss had brown rice pasta Mac n' Cheese tonight and ate it like a champ! I wasn't sure how she'd respond since it is a noticeable difference in taste. She did in fact notice but I made it so cheesy I don't think she cared. lol :) Plus she's totally on board with trying new things to help her tummy feel better (LOVE that girl!)

Back to lunch -

Lunch Made Easy: New Gluten Free Adventures

Little Miss had been experiencing chronic stomach aches for a couple months now and I started to think back about other possible "red flags" (randomly throwing up, "bathroom issues", overall tiredness, etc. - usually triggered during or after meal times). So, I started doing some research and asking questions to some of my other allergy mamas and my bento blog buddies.

I had a feeling that it must be an intolerance to something - figuring it had to be gluten or dairy. After doing more analyzing and discussing her signs/ symptoms with the fella, he really felt gluten might be the culprit, as well. So we decided to start a trial for a few weeks to see if by eliminating it from her diet we might see improvement in those above mentioned areas.

Monday's lunch is her first gluten free bento (and as always, nut free):

Lundh Made Easy: Let's Go Racin'

So first let me start of by saying, this did not turn out at all how I wanted it too... lol, again an idea in my head but just could not execute the way I wanted. Ugh! I'm glad it's FRIDAY tomorrow...

For those of you that don't know, we're BIG Nascar fans (*insert redneck joke here: _________*)
It's true - I love it. Maybe it's from growing up in Indiana and going to the the Brickyard... watching Indy cars. We'd watch them practice and eat picnics in the infield. :) Great memories.

Little Miss happens to love watching Nascar too. I think when she was little it was something about watching the bright cars go whizzing by and the sounds. Now, she watches and knows the drivers, their numbers, and even most of the sponsors. lol

Whenever the fella and I go to a track, we always have to bring her home a souvenir. Between he and I both, we've been to Sprint cup races at MIS multiple times, Daytona, Bristol, Chicagoland, & Charlotte.

For those of you that don't know (or don't care but I'm educating you anyways, hehe) this weekend is the Daytona 500! *Oh memories!* So to mark the start of the Nascar season, I decided to make Little Miss a racing themed lunch (well I tried anyways, lol)...

Lunch Made Easy: Runaway Whisker

I wasn't feeling ultra inspired this evening, but I managed a bit of cuteness thanks to my Hello Kitty cutter.

Lunch Made Easy: Back to Basics

After two over the top bentos Monday & Tuesday, getting back to basics seemed appropriate for Wednesday's lunches. :)

Food for Thought: Cheater Kings Cakes for Fat Tuesday!

While Pinteresting :) I found this link for the easy Kings Cakes ~ I thought, how cool! So I found what I had available in my house and made my own version for Fat Tuesday / Mardi Gras!

(Yeah these bad boys are so unhealthy, but it's only Fat Tuesday once a year! ENJOY!)

Lunch Made Easy: Fat Tuesday! (Mardi Gras)

Hehe, I'm such a dork - I have seriously been waiting to do this lunch... One of those things where you get a small idea in your head and it just grows from there. :)

Lunch Made Easy: Happy Presidents' Day!

Here in the good ol' U. S. of A. Monday is recognized as Presidents' Day. Many schools have a three day weekend, but not Little Miss - off to school she goes! So, a fun themed bento seemed appropriate. :)

Lunch Made Easy: Cheesy Ravioli

A little change up for something basic and fun on Friday for Little Miss :)

Lunch Made Easy: Little Miss & Mama Bentos

Today was the fellas birthday ~ We had a great dinner out as a lil' fam but that also meant getting home late and then squeezing in bed time stories, teeth brushing, etc for Little Miss so she wouldn't be up too much later than normal bed time (an hour past normal isn't that bad, right!?) :) Then Mama went to work on lunches.

Lunch Made Easy: SunWise Sandwich

I always love when I can tell y'all about new nut free products I find and try - this one is no exception!!
Have you heard of SunWise Foods? They offer “kid approved” crustless whole wheat bread, SunButter, and delicious grape jelly sandwiches! Keep reading to learn more. ;)

Lunch Made Easy: Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

What are everyone's plans? Anything special going on for the evening/ day? I plan on making Little Miss a special breakfast in the AM. I snuck a few "lovey" things into the fellas lunch today too, hehe! *Shh, don't tell!*

Little Miss is particularly excited for school - exchanging cards/ crafts with her friends. She worked so hard on them this weekend. :)

Lunch Made Easy: Valentine's Club

We have a fun week this week ~ Valentine's Day Tuesday and the fella has his birthday on Wednesday. An expensive time of year for this mama ($$ eek!) but an awesome week full of love and laughter with two important dates tied into it!

Lunch Made Easy: 100th Day of School

Hola mis amigos! I have returned from vacation!
Tanned and relaxed. Today was a whirlwind because we didn't get home until 3:30am so after catching up on some sleep, it mostly involved laundry, last bits of homework for Little Miss, and a trip to the grocery store.
Little Miss did FANTASTIC on her first plane ride. We gave her benadryl before each flight as a precaution against any allergy flare ups (plus wiping down and sterlizing her seat area as best I could). We spent six days in Nuevo Vallarta at an all inclusive resort with trips into Puerto & Viejo Vallarta. A great experience as I've never been to Mexico before - life long memories for Little Miss. Plus we got to see two of our friends get married on the beach. It was beautiful! So glad we went.
Back to reality though. Little Miss returns to school tomorrow (Friday). It's their 100th Day of School PLUS pajama day... great one to come back to, right!? :) Lucky girl!

Lunch Made Easy: By More of My Faves!

I didn't have enough days off to post about ALL my faves! (No problem right? I'll just go back on vacation!! lol) So I decided for the last post in my vacation series to be a round up of some of my other favorite Valentine/hearts/love bentos ideas from some of my bloggy buddies ~

Lunch Made Easy: By Keitha's Chaos

My vacation series was setup to highlight some of my favorite bento bloggers, specifically on love/heart/Valentine's lunches to give everybody some added inspiration.

...BUT I just HAD to do a spot on Keitha - I adore her Storybook Themed Lunches she makes for her son, Boogs. His lunches are inspired by the books they read before bed the evening before. Each night, she reads two books to him and he reads one back to her. I just love this idea. Reading is something Little Miss and I do together every evening before bed, as well.

Lunch Made Easy: By BentOnBetterLunches

Continuing my vacation series - Next up is my bento hero, Candy Girl of BentOnBetterLunches!
I call her my bento hero because the woman has FIVE kids, manages to make them all healthy and beautiful bentos, AND blog about it! (I. Am. In. Awe. lol)

She's the proud Mama to her Sproutlets - Beanstalk,  Bella, Pickle, Sprout, and Birdie.

Lunch Made Easy: By FamilyFreshMeals

As I mentioned on my post Thursday evening, I've setup a series of autoposts to run while Mama and Little Miss are on vacation. :)
In this series, I'll be featuring some of my favorite bento blogger peeps - focusing on valentines/hearts/love posts, to help give y'all some inspiration with the holiday coming up!

Next up: The FABULOUS Chef Corey, and self-proclaimed rockstar ;) of FamilyFreshMeals

Now, before I get into Corey's fantastic valentine/love bentos, I have to tell you about how I even came across FamilyFreshMeals -

Lunch Made Easy: By BentoLunch.Net

As I mentioned on my post Thursday evening, I've setup a series of autoposts to run while Mama and Little Miss are on vacation. :)
In this series, I'll be featuring some of my favorite bento blogger peeps - trying to focus on valentines/hearts/love posts, to help give y'all some inspiration with the holiday coming up!

Next up: The fabulous Shannon from BentoLunch.net - most commonly associated as "What's for Lunch at Our House?" Shannon makes delicously amazing bentos for her kiddos, Ben and Faith. They recently moved from TX to Fort Carson, CO.

Lunch Made Easy: By Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Since this Mama and her Little Miss are taking a vacation, I won't be making lunches... or near a computer, if I can help it, for a full week. :)

Just before Ludicrous Mama of Biting The Hand That Feeds You welcomed her new ADORABLE baby into the world, she took a siesta from blogging and did these amazing auto-post features on fellow bento bloggers. (Click here to see the incredibly sweet and HILARIOUS write-up she did on Keeley McGuire Blog.)

I thought it was a fabulous idea! So while I'm away, I'm going to share some of my favorite posts from some of my favorite bento peeps, focusing mostly on hearts/love/Valentine themes to help give y'all some inspiration with the upcoming holiday!

Lunch Made Easy: Colorful Hearts

Last lunch of the week for us :) Make sure you check back over the next week, I'm going to have some great autoposts setup featuring some of my favorite bento bloggers and their work!!