Simple Maple Leaf Bento

Even though I have Christmas on my mind..... Fall ain't over yet! ;) 
I figured I'd share one last fall bento before I dive into Christmas cheer :)

We've made a lot of leaf lunches this fall, and this was one of my favorites. This was a SUPER simple lunch to make. It took 5 minutes to put together, including washing and cutting the vegetables.

On the left upper compartment Eliana had two maple leaf cucumbers on top of cut up cucumber scraps.  

On the bottom left Eliana had sliced red, orange and yellow bell pepper with a leaf pick.

On the right she had a ham and cheese sandwich.  On top is a peanut free Dare Foods maple leaf creme cookie we found at the store the other day.

Those extra little touches turned this simple lunch into a special lunch. 

Eliana loved it and ate it all too. Win-win! :)

Creative Food Supplies:

I link up.

Kid's DIY Turkey Snack

Need the perfect healthy, creative and fun snack that also gives the kids something to do so you can finish up those last side dishes for Thanksgiving? Try this Kids DIY Turkey Snack! :)

Last week Eliana and I put together this cute Kids DIY Turkey Snack. It is a great idea for the kids table on Thanksgiving, and it is also works as a healthy snack for them to munch on while all the food is being prepared :)

For your Kids DIY Turkey Platter you will need:

Ritz Whole Wheat crackers
Turkey
Cheese
Bell Peppers (red, orange, yellow), sliced
Baby Carrots
Edible Candy Eyes
Ketchup, on the side (googly gobbly thing)
circle cutter 

Directions:

Use your circle cutter to cut your turkey and cheese into circles.

Wash and cut your red, orange and yellow bell peppers.

Wash and cut your carrots. For the turkey feet cut a small round in half, to have two semi circles. For the nose use your knife to cut a triangle. For each turkey you need one triangle nose and two semi circles for feet.

Place everything out on a platter and let your kids make their own turkeys!

Keep the ketchup in a small bowl on the side and allow the kids to add their own details with a toothpick (or allow them to use fingers if they are too young for a toothpick)

You could leave a turkey snack as an example too :)

Eliana loved this snack! She had so much fun making her own turkeys! 

This is one of Eliana's turkeys:

She was so proud of her turkey and she was very specific on where she wanted to put everything... not like I know where she gets that from... ;) I think she did an amazing job! Not only did she enjoy making her own turkeys, she ate everything. Win-win situation! :)

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Creative Food Supplies:

I link up.

Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook: Easy Lunch Boxes Review

I got the fabulous opportunity to review the new cookbook Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook: Easy Lunch Boxes and I was thrilled! Not only do I know many of the bloggers who contributed recipes to this book, I also happen to know Kelly Lester, CEO and creator of EasyLunchboxesand the driving force behind this book! Kelly is an amazing person and even though I have never met her in person you can hear her passion behind everything she says in regards to packing lunches fast and healthy.

The pictures speak for themselves. This cookbook is filled with absolutely gorgeous photographs!

You will find fast, easy, quick and healthy recipes, meals, snacks, cute food ideas, allergy friendly recipes, vegetarian and vegan recipes all easy to make and easy to pack ahead in your EasyLunchboxes(or the lunch container or your choice!)  I love having pictures of what exactly my food will look like with each recipe. 

And even if you don't have a local Trader Joe's you can still recreate all of these recipes with ingredients from your local grocery store.

We've all been there...when you think buying a lunch is the easy way out. It does sometimes seem easier and faster to just buy out lunch instead of prepping food ahead of time. But literally with just 5 minutes of prep time you can pack these yummy lunches, that will be healthier and cheaper than if you ate out lunch every day. 

Packing lunches quick, easy and healthy has become very important to us as a family, and this book has some great examples to follow!

I honestly can't wait to try some of these recipes to mix up our daily lunch routine! Of course you'll need to get Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook: Easy Lunch Boxes yourself to see some the amazing recipes! :)

** Disclaimer: I got a copy of the book to review.  All opinions stated are my own.**

Support For Sandy #FBS4Sandy

Today's post is in honor of the Hurricane Sandy Victims.

Hurricane Sandy swept through the east coast and left so much destruction behind.  Millions were affected. We only lost power for one day where we lived, but there are many that continue to be without power and are in need of help. I'm sure you've seen some of the pictures. They are horrific and devastating. As I sit here cold (I'm always cold), even in our heated house, I feel awfully detached from the tragedy. Losing power for one day is nothing in comparison to what the storm has done to many. I am thankful my family in MA, CT, NY and NJ are all safe and had no major problems with their health or their houses.  Some of my family members in NY still don't have power and have had to stay in gas lines for hours.

Jenn Oliver of Jenn Cuisine is calling for all food bloggers to support the victims of Sandy: To post a comfort dish, something that you would make for someone in need to help them feel at home. I don't blog many recipes on my blog that I would consider comfort dishes. But these Oatmeal Energy Bites are super yummy. The perfect comfort snack that is so simple and easy to put together, with items you most likely have in your pantry already: perfect to make for someone in need.

If you are able to donate to those in need here are some of the major organizations that are helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy:

Red Cross is providing food, shelter, and other forms of support to hurricane victims. You can donate directly to the Red Cross or you can also text the word "Redcross" to 90999 to make a $10 donation

Salvation Army is focused on providing food, shelter and support to victims, and takes donations to storm relief

Feeding America is providing food, water and supplies to those who need it as part of their disaster relief program

Kids with Food Allergies has created a community blog that will post updates on how you can help donate and where you can go to obtain allergy-friendly foods

Or click on this button to go straight to Red Cross to donate:

Here are some other posts from my friends in honor of Support for Sandy:
Bentobloggy
Bentoriffic
Mamabelly's Lunches with Love
Mommy + Me Lunch Box

Easy Breakfast Bento

Breakfast on the go!

Sometimes you need a quick breakfast (or lunch) on the go. I made this Easy Breakfast Bento for Eliana the other day. Packed in EasyLunchboxes she had breakfast for lunch! For this lunch I took a homemade waffle from my freezer stash and put this together quickly. 

Packed in the main compartment she had Apple Cinnamon Waffle Sticks. I cut one Apple Cinnamon waffle into four strips so she could easily dip them in her syrup, which was packed in a mini dipper.  

In a separate mini dipper I put some Enjoy Life Foods Very Berry Granola for her to pour on top of her vanilla yogurt.  This is Eliana's favorite granola at the moment! All Enjoy Life Foods are allergy friendly--top 8 allergen free and made in a top 8 allergen free facility-- I LOVE that!  Eliana loves to pour the granola over the yogurt herself and keeping them separate prevents the granola from getting soggy over time -- so win win situation here :) 

I also packed her some fruit below the yogurt.  In a flower silicone cup I put some sliced grapes and some clementine pieces.

She had some Horizon Organic chocolate milk to drink and we were good to go!

Here is a picture so you can see it all packed up and ready to go: 

Lids on the mini dippers and I placed a spoon inside for the yogurt.

Cutting up the waffle makes it sooo much more fun according to Eliana :) To make waffle sticks I put my frozen waffles through one round on "defrost" in the toaster, cut them, and then finish the reheating in the microwave. If the waffle is still a little frozen you can cut the waffle sticks easier than if the waffle is thoroughly reheated :)

This took literally less than 10 minutes to put together. 

Even counting the time to get the waffle out of the freezer and heat it up. 

SO easy and perfect for on the go! :)

I link up.

A Maple Leaf Bento and How Having a Food Allergy in our Family Changed Us

Celebrate Fall with a Maple Leaf Bento Lunch! :)

Nothing says Fall quite like leaves! And in this case, maple leaves. In our front yard is one large Maple tree. We've enjoyed watching the leaves change color and then fall. And we've been having fun raking the leaves and jumping in them!  Eliana and Mia love to jump into the leaf piles.  After Hurricane Sandy most of the leaves are now gone so we made a Maple Leaf Bento in our EasyLunchboxes:)

In the upper left compartment Eliana has red, orange and yellow bell pepper scraps. 
The colors of Fall :) On top are two cucumber maple leaves cut with a mini maple leaf cutter.

In the lower left compartment is a babybel cheese with a maple leaf shape cut out.

In the main compartment Eliana has two maple leaf sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter on wheat and white swirl bread.  There are two mini organic fruit leather maple leaves too.

The maple leaves were peanut free and nut free soynut butter and banana sandwiches.

This is one of the sandwiches that Eliana has come to love over time. At first she didn't like anything that even looked like peanut butter because of her allergy.  Now she knows peanut substitutes by name and asks for them.  

I must say... Having a food allergy has changed us a a family.

But first... I have a confession..

My name is Michelle and I was a crunchy peanut butter addict.  I used to make a crunchy peanut butter and blackberry jelly sandwich almost every day. It was my favorite. I used to LOVE open faced peanut butter with sliced banana sandwiches--on slightly toasted bread it would be all warm and delicious! I loved Reese's peanut butter cups. They were my favorite. But things have changed. Eliana is allergic to peanuts, cashews and pistachios. She had never liked peanut butter or nuts ever but when we found out she was actually allergic, not just didn't like it, we made some deliberate changes in our family. The day we officially found out was the last day I had peanut butter. I have never even tempted to eat it again, even though I was an addict. That's right.. you read correctly. was.

These sandwiches (soynut butter or sunbutter with banana) are so delicious I actually don't crave peanut butter!  I thought I would crave peanut butter like crazy after stopping cold turkey. And no--peanut butter substitutes don't taste exactly like peanut butter. No matter what they say on the label. And yet, I still don't miss it like I thought I would.  I know I am not allergic to peanuts. But when you have an allergy in the household it changes things for the entire family. It's not a choice for Eliana and I don't ever want to unintentionally cause an allergic reaction by having something that is potentially dangerous to her in the house. That concern and love for her overrides my previous addiction to crunchy peanut butter.

So we had to make changes. We don't eat certain products/foods and we are always reading labels.  It is always better to be safe than sorry!  I know that depending on how severe the food allergy is, the precautions can be different.   I also know allergies can change over time, but for right now I am thankful that it has been manageable for us.

Now we are so much more aware. Aware of all allergies, aware of food labels, aware of ingredients, of products that are not safe.  I would have never thought twice about dog food/dog treats before, but a lot of dog treats have peanut butter in them! Not until I started looking around did I actually see how many things have peanuts in them or contain traces of peanuts in them--which may have been part of Eliana's tummy ache issues.   

I do sometimes get sick of seeing the words "may contain peanuts or nuts" or something else so vague on something Eliana really wants to get. But for being 4 1/2 she is very understanding. She is proud of her allergy! She tells everyone exactly what she is allergic to and she knows what each nut looks like. If I explain to her that something has peanuts or nuts in it she won't usually ask for it again (well except for M&Ms. That is a hard one LOL!) 

Having an allergy in our family has opened our eyes to so many different products too! I have to say--Some of my favorite snacks were found because we were looking for peanut free and nut free options! I love how that happened :) I'm very thankful that there are so many companies and products out there that are peanut free and nut free and made in peanut/nut free facilities. We have been discovering new brands and trying out new products and we've made it fun! Overall I have to say that having a food allergy in the family has changed us for the better :)

Has a food allergy changed your family? In what way?

I link up.