We are a sports loving family. Football, hockey, cycling, soccer, tennis, and more! All year, you'll find us at live events or glued to the television seeing our favorite teams in action.
I know I'm always looking for fun ideas and ways to incorporate our favorite sports into a creative themed lunch box idea for Little Miss to take to school.
So, why not do a large round-up of ideas from our site and some from our friends!? Sounds good to me!
Do you subscribe to Parents Magazine?
If so, you might have read the great article in the September 2014 issue about Food Allergies in Schools. If you don't have the hard copy, you can read the article online by clicking here.
I was honored to be interviewed for the article and share a few personal experiences dealing with food allergies at school for my Little Miss.
While checking out the issue, there was a snippet inside for Family Fun Magazine and their Treat of the Month which happened to be a fun school bus lunch for back-to-school called "Miles of Smiles". I couldn't think of a more fun way to celebrate Little Miss' first full day of the new school year than with an extra special school bento lunch!
One of the best and easiest school lunch ideas are Homemade Lunchables.
It doesn't always have to be with cheese and meat slices either. For Tuesday's lunch, I made one for Little Miss with SunButter & Jelly. That was she can spread them on her crackers all by herself and enjoy!
For the last couple years, I've made Little Miss some fun Mardis Gras & Shrove Tuesday school lunches.
I kept it a little simpler this year with a fun Fleur de Lis on her sandwich and simple food pick. She appreciated my nod to the NOLA Saints. ;) Girl knows her NFL logos. lol
Over the years, I've shared various lunch ideas and recipes using Chebe dry mixes.
I love the AP Bread Mix, especially. It's versatile, inexpensive, gluten free, & allergy friendly.
Last May, I did my first "One Box, Five Lunches" post using the mix. It's been such a hit, I thought I would do it again- with some new ideas!
The thing I love most about these ideas, you have the ability to bake once and have lunches done/ packed for the entire week! Who doesn't love prepping ahead and having lunch ready in the fridge every morning ready to go!? I know my tired eyes do. ;)
Little Miss has her winter singing program at school this week. She's so excited because she has a small group solo (she and two of her classmates) during the performance.
If you've followed our site for a while, or know me personally, you're well aware that I am an NFL junkie.
It's true. I'm obsessed. I even was champion of my Fantasy Football League this year (yeahhh that's right! In a league of guys, the girl won! WOOT!)
I have my favorite team - the Colts, being an Indy girl at heart - so of course, in this years Super Bowl, I'm routing for Peyton Manning. Notice I did not say the Denver Broncos, I said Peyton Manning. ;)
Anyways, my love affair with all things NFL has rubbed off on my Little Miss. Her favorite team? The Carolina Panthers. (She loves "Cam Cam", as she calls him.) However, we'll be butting heads during the Big Game because she also loves Russell Wilson (she likes to repeat her favorite Deion Sanders line "First Name Russell, Last Name Wilson" from the NFL Network -- see, told you we're junkies!)
Right now, it's raining and thundering outside. It's suppose to continue through tomorrow (Halloween).
1) That stinks for taking photos - no natural light, lol, and 2) Trick or Treating might be a bust if it's crummy weather. Boo!
At least we can have fun with lunches, right? RIGHT! Woo!
For Little Miss' Halloween School Lunch, I made her an EasyLunchbox filled with vampires, bats, and creepy crawlies. What could be better than that!? ;)
With this week being Halloween, my goal was to do fun lunches all week in keeping with the "holiday theme"... but when it came to our {Tuesday Teachings} Little Lunch Lessons, how would I incorporate that?
So, I started focusing on fall itself... and harvesting. The bible talks a lot about "harvest"- from a food perspective and metaphorically, as well.
After reading a few passages, my favorite verse came from Matthew 9:38 and inspired today's school lunch:
Toasted sandwiches (like a grilled cheese, turkey melt, or grilled frenchman) are the best for lunch!
But... they can often get soggy when packed up in your lunchbox by the time you or your kiddo gets to eat it. Bleh! No one wants a soggy sandwich.
So, how do you keep the sandwich from getting soggy? I'll tell you!
After two weeks off from our #TuesdayTeachings posts, we're back with our Little Lunch Lessons series.
This week, I just did a simple play on colors. Gold to be exact.
The Golden Rule: "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." In other words, treat others how you would like to be treated.
As I've said before on the blog, I love Halloween.
We enjoy making cute & scary foods + Little Miss is so creative coming up with costume ideas each year.
School lunch is always a fun way for us to "celebrate the spookiness" with creative touches - by use of colors, foods, picks, and cookie cutters to take it up a notch.
Here's one of our recent Halloween lunches {gluten free & allergy friendly}:
When Mom (or Dad) is away, the kids will... starve?!
For parents of children with food allergies or on special diets, if we're out of town for business (or pleasure) we don't have the luxury of falling back on school cafeteria foods to feed the kiddos while we're gone.
Instead, we must plan ahead and stock up the fridge and freezer with allergy friendly foods.
I'm going to be gone over the next week and Little Miss will have family staying at the house with her so she doesn't miss school. (God bless them!) It's something we've done before and I know the better prepared I am in getting as much ready for her as possible, the smoother it is for all parties involved while I'm away.
Here are my tips for make ahead school lunches (and other ideas):
For the last couple days, Little Miss has been running around the house (even at the bus stop) singing one of the songs I remember even from my youth singing in Bible school on Sunday's: "I am a C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n".
So for this week's Little Lunch Lessons {Tuesday Teachings}, I decided to make a fun themed one based on the song she's had in her heart.
When we have {gluten free} spaghetti for dinner, Little Miss loves when I make "garlicky toast" (as she calls it) along side.
I typically make our garlic bread by toasting in the oven Udi's bread and/or bun slices (whatever is handy), add Earth Balance spread, garlic, and a little Italian seasoning.
Little Miss takes her slices and forks her spaghetti right on top of the slice eating it like an open faced sandwich. That's her absolute favorite way to eat it. Whyyyy it never occurred to me to pack up leftovers that way for her school lunch until now, is beyond me... but when I asked her if that's what she wanted, she gave a very excited "YES!" in reply.
Little Miss went back to school yesterday. The first day was only a half day of school, so today is our official first full day and also the first school lunch of the year!
My baby is in third grade, how did that happen!!??!
She loved her first day of second grade lunch so much (we did all the items in groups of two), I decided to repeat it this year making her foods in groups of three!
Back to School: Kids Lunch Idea!
Gluten, Peanut, Tree Nut, & Dairy Free {Allergy Friendly}
{Day 3} of GIVEAWAYS FOR DAYS!!
Helping you win goodies for back-to-school!
Today's giveaway, I wish I could win myself! ;) It's for a fun lunch packing shopping spree to BentoUSA by allthingsforsale.com!!!
This site has over 1,100 items to choose from and I seriously could spend hours filling my "pretend shopping cart". We *love* getting our lunch supplies from BentoUSA! They have everything!
Day 3: WIN $25 to Spend at BentoUSA by allthingsforsale.com
Bento lunch supplies, cooking tools, & much more!
We decided to kick off this Monday morning with a little lunch box fun!
It's SHARK WEEK! So, why not make a bento? Really, it was just a great excuse to some of our sea creature cutters.
This lunch is {allergy friendly} gluten, tree nut, peanut, soy, & dairy free:
August is among us, my friends. That means back to school!
Time to have the kiddos try on their sneakers and jeans, find out what still fits and what doesn't. Make sure there are no rips, holes, or stains on backpacks, coats, etc. and go buy new, if need be.
Supply lists of notebooks, pencils, scissors, markers, and crayons. Barbie folders or Hello Kitty? Tough decisions.
It also means for food allergy families (or those on special diets with an intolerance, for example) refilling numerous prescriptions - like inhalers and epinephrine injectors, 504 meetings and plans, and figuring out how to clearly manage the school year as safely and educated as possible.
I'm often asked what are my favorite lunch boxes, allergy ID tags, bracelets, food allergy t'shirts, and labels for my own daughter for school. So, I decided to put together a nice post of "Must Haves", featuring just some of the items we love, that can help give you ideas for your own family as you prepare for back to school!
ETA: This post has been updated for 2016
