Simple Panda School Lunch

Eliana's Second Day of School! 

Today is Eliana's Second Day of school!  Her school split the kindergarten in half for the first two days and they also had shorter first days in order to help the kids adjust to school.  And next week they only have school two days. At first I was annoyed with trying to figure out which day she went and what time, but I really do think it will help us all ease into the school routine.  So her first day was Wednesday, and then she was off on Thursday while the other half of the kids went that day.

Eliana had a WONDERFUL first day of school and actually cried when I came to pick her up. No... Not because she missed me, but because she did not want to go home! I had to explain to her that she could not sleep at the school and eventually she accepted that and decided it was OK to come home.  She was very disappointed she had yesterday off and couldn't go to school but she was so excited to be there today! Today will be her first full day :)

Overall her first day was amazing! Minus one minor mishap that gave me a slight heart attack ;) But I must mention how proud I am of Eliana for advocating for herself and being so verbal about her food allergies on her very first day of school.  The nurse called me on Wednesday to tell me that Eliana was having anxiety at lunchtime and saying she was allergic to nuts and that they had no record of this (insert ME FREAKING out, because I did in fact pass in the paperwork and now my heart is in my chest thinking she ate something)! However, the nurse assured me everything was fine and Eliana was moved to the nutfree table AND she found the paperwork about five minutes after our phone chat. But wow. Way to give me a heart attack on the first day of school. Seeing the school nurse number gave me heart palpitations. But again. I am extremely proud of Eliana for being so verbal and safe, not to mention how awesome it is that the school nurse praised Eliana's ability to articulate her allergy very clearly to them. I'm so proud of her! I think we are off to a good year! :)

So for her second day of school I made her a simple panda bento! :)

For her lunch Eliana has a panda pocket sandwich filled with I.M. Healthy chocolate soynut butter (peanut free/nut free spread). She also has a babybel cheese, strawberries and flower cucumbers with cute panda bento picks. Her lunch was packed in an EasyLunchbox, sitting ontop of her ice pack and inside her Bixbee Sparkalicious purple lunch bag :) She also had some fruit ice water (sliced strawberries in ice cold water) in her thermos and a snack that goes in with her as well.

I'm still a newbie school lunch packer so I am trying to figure out how much she will actually eat in school.  At home she has all the time in the world and really does take forever to eat. Because she LOVES to talk and is a slow eater I am trying to figure out how much food to send and how much she will actually eat. So these next weeks I will be adjusting to figure out how much to pack her :) And again -- I can't wait to pick up my baby from school today! :)

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First Day of School!

Today is Eliana's first day at school!!

This morning I dropped off Eliana for her first day of school! My baby is in Kindergarten!! She was so excited to go to school today as soon as she woke up she changed her clothes, got her packback and she was ready before the rest of us! We had to slow her down and told her she had to eat breakfast first but I am thankful she is that excited to go!

This is her first time in school so this is a transition for the both of us! I have been home with her the past 5 1/2 years and this will be the first time I haven't been with her all day.  I am more nervous because of her peanut and nut allergy than anything else.  She is in an nut free classroom and sits at the nut free table at lunch but it still gives me anxiety to not be in control of her environment anymore. However her teacher and the school nurses are absolutely lovely and I am positive she is in good hands.  I'm also thankful Eliana is so articulate about her allergy and can speak up for herself.  But like any other allergy mom I am still anxious! Lots of transitions and adjustments happening for us in our family and I'm sure with many other families as well!

Her first packed school lunch is a bee lunch in her yubo lunchbox. Before school started we talked about how she needed to bee kind, bee nice and bee respectful at school so I thought making a bee lunch would be cute :)

Her lunch was half a sandwich (crusts cut off and cut into two mini sandwiches) of WowButter, sliced strawberries and mini chocolate chips.  On top I had Scrabble Jr. Cheez-Its spell out "BEE".  In her bee silicone cup she has some colby jack cheddar cheese cut up.  She also had strawberries with a bee pick, and some yellow bell peppers (because bees are yellow :)) All packed in her yubo lunchbox. I even put a little peanut free/nut free sticker (comes with the Wowbutter) on top of her lunch.

I almost forgot a drink, but then did attach the drink holder afterwards! I completely forgot about having to pack a drink to be honest! First time school lunch packer here! I have some adjusting to do too :) 

Even though I have packed us lunches before she has never had to go off with it to school so this is a fun and new experience.  And I love making her fun food for lunch because I hope it will remind her how much I love her.  Making fun food is something we love to do together so while I can't be in school with her I can make her some fun food and hopefully put a smile on her face :) 

 I can't wait to pick her up later today and hear how her first day went!! :)

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Back To School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

Back to School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

The entire month of August has been Back to School mode over here! With Eliana starting school next Wednesday (!!) I've been sharing different "essentials" lists for Back to School every week.  Not just for you.. but for me too. This is our first experience with the whole Back to School parade and I need to get myself in order! At the moment she is completely prepared for every cute lunch she will ever get... however school supplies? we should probably go out and get her folder.. and other stuff... but anyways back to the most important part about school: FOOD! ;)

Of course this list is my favorite.  Being my blog is all about creative fun food I love using tools to make fun food easier. I love how simple fun food cutters are to use and how they transform simple sandwiches in seconds!  I also do understand that this list of fun food cutters is not exactly "essential" in the same way as a lunchbox and a lunch bag is for back to school.  But here on Creative Food using fun food cutters is part of what we do! :)

In my first two editions of Back to School Essentials I went over my personal favorite lunchboxes and lunch bags.  Again I will start off by saying, even though I make creative fun food I do not own every single fun food cutter out there, nor is this a full compliation of ALL the fun food cutters out there. I'm  just sharing my personal favorites with you and telling you why I like them so much :) 

My favorite Fun Food Cutters are The Lunch Punch, FunBites, CuteZCute, Cookie Cutters (mini and vegetable cutters included) and sandwich stampers (numerical order is not in order of preference; I like all the cutters for various reasons)

1. Lunch Punch

Ever since I laid my eyes on The Lunch Punch I knew I had to have them! I don't have them all (yet anyways) but I have four sets. The sets I have are: Sand*wishes*, Match & Munch, SWEET and VRRRM! I do love the Critter Cutters set, but honestly I already have butterfly and dolphin/fish cutters. I'd just want it for the dog and elephants so its on my wish list :)

I love ALL of our Lunch punches. They are simply the easiest way to make a plain sandwich into fun food in a matter of seconds.  You simply make your sandwich and press the cutter down on top.  Eliana can use them herself and she especially loves to make the puzzle one so she can put it all together again :)

With this Easy Back to School Bus Lunch I used the VRRM! Lunch Punch cutter. I do like to add extra details sometimes, but honestly the sandwiches look great even without the details.  To do the details I take the cheese (or whatever I'm using) and press it into the mold with my fingers.  It makes a cleaner cut and ensures that I cut out what I want.  The only problem is sometimes the shapes that have a lot of extra pieces can get stuck inside the punch.  Whenever I remove my sandwich I always do it slowly to be sure not to break any of the pieces.

2. FunBites

FunBites are food cutters that cut your food into bite sized pieces.  With the Cube it you can cut food into 12 small square pieces.  With the Luv it (available in pink or red) you can cut your food into 8 geometric shapes and two mini hearts.  With the Triangles you can cut food into 8 small triangles and 2 larger triangles.

You can use the cutters on fruits, veggies, sandwiches, pancakes, french toast, pizza etc. There are a lot of options on how to use the cutter because they are so sturdy.  My particular favorite cutter is the Cube it (what I used to make my lion, pictured above) and I use it much more than the other ones. For more Cube it Lunches click HERE.

3. CuteZCute

I said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE the CuteZCute Cutter! It is a 6 piece set and the options are endless.  You get one outer face cutter and four different animal face cutters/stamps.  One side of the animal face is used as a cutter while the other side can be used as a stamp.  You also get a cute little panda pick tool that helps you poke out the food that gets stuck in the cutter. I love how versatile this tool is and I use the panda pick all the time with other cutters too!

Here I used the CuteZCute Frog on a wowbutter (peanut free/nut free) sandwich. I had decided to punch out the face details (Eliana ate the scraps) but you could leave them in and it would look just as cute!

4. Cookie Cutters (mini cookie cutters and vegetable cutters too!)

ANY cookie cutters work but I have this animal 50-Piece Cookie Cutter Set and it is amazing! They are plastic and very easy to use.  I've made Eliana lots of fun lunches with them as well. Honestly I'm not as creative without the use of my handy dandy cookie cutters.  I'd rather not cut out fun food with scissors or with a knife because it takes longer.  I enjoy the simplicity and ease of using cookie cutters. Plus I can use them for cookies too! :)

I also have various other cookie cutters, the ones I use the most are pictured below:

 nesting circle cookie cutter set, circle cookie cutter, 
star cookie cutter and nesting heart cutter set

I use the circle cookie cutters the most. And I love my nesting cookie cutters because not only do they take up less storage space, I can make fun layered sandwiches with each layer being a different size.  There are so many cookie cutters out there, so really any large cookie cutters will do for cutting out sandwiches and making lunches fun very quickly! Eliana will sometimes choose which cookie cutters we will use. I love how involved she is with all the cooking and prepping of food. I've found that having her involved has helped her eating habits tremendously.

I also LOVE my mini cookie cutters:

I have a variety of mini cookie cutters.  I love to use them on organic fruit leather and cheeses mostly.  They cut out the tiniest pieces and add such cute accents to lunches without me doing any work at all!

Vegetable Cutters are great too:

These vegetable cutters (come in small and large) are not just for vegetables! You can use them on vegetables AND other foods as well.  They cut great through cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, apples, pears, cheese, deli meats and breads.  They are very easy to use with even the hardest of vegetables because of their stainless steel edges.  I love that these sets come with cases so that storage is simple and easy.

5. Sandwich Stampers:

mini transportation sandwich cutter stamps and Angry Birds cookie cutter stamps

Sandwich stampers are a lot of fun! They are super easy to use.  You simple take your piece of bread, use the other rim to cut out the shape, and then push the design part down very hard.  You'll get a cute outlined sandwich! You can either make mini sandwiches, or use the stamps to add decoration.  They work best on bread and if you push down firmly and hard so the design is stamped well.

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So those were my favorite fun food cutters! I know I probably have too many of these... but we do use them all the time so I justify my addiction that way ;) What are your favorite fun food cutters?

Make sure to check out my Back to School Essentials: my personal favorite lunchboxes, and lunch bags.

p.s. Stay tuned for my Back to School Essentials: Allergy Friendly Snacks list next week! :)

**Disclosure: I was not compensated by any of these companies for this post. 

I created this list to share my favorite fun food cutters with you**

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