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! :)

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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?

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Ghostly Bananas

BOO!

Happy Halloween!

Eliana and I made some Ghostly Bananas for a quick snack today! We cut one banana in half and stuck three Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips as the eyes and mouth in each ghost. 

Simple, easy, healthy and FREE from peanuts and nuts! That is my kind of treat! :)

Be safe tonight!!

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Quick & Easy Pumpkin Bento

Sometimes you just need something quick and easy for lunch on the go...Because you don't feel like making lunch or you are starving and hangry and cannot think clearly (not that I would know anything about that feeling)... either way this Quick and Easy Pumpkin Bento took 5 minutes to make!

Packed in EasyLunchboxes I put together this super simple bento for Eliana the other day. She wanted pumpkin in every section so she got it!

In the main compartment she has a pumpkin in a pumpkin patch :) A ham and cheese sandwich on pumpkin spice swirl bread cut into a pumpkin shape with a cookie cutter. May not sound appetizing together but she always takes the slices apart and eats them separate anyways :) She LOVES this bread. And so do I...its quite addicting! I could probably eat a whole loaf by myself ;) I put sliced green peppers at the bottom to represent the "patch".

In the upper right she has a pumpkin chocolate chunk cookie. DELISH. Which reminds me.. I need to make more of those!

In the bottom right she has vanilla yogurt in a pumpkin silicone cup.  I put some Jack-o-Lantern Sprinkles on top for extra cuteness factor :)

Pumpkins in every section and it took me 5 minutes to put together :) 

Which is super important. When you are hangry. Or whatever..

Happy Thursday! :)

Creative Food Supplies:

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Linking up here :)

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October Savorfull Box Review

It's a Savorfull Day in the neighborhood!

When our box came we were so excited! Savorfull sends you a monthly box filled with allergy free foods every month. We love that because Eliana is allergic to peanuts and some nuts and it isn't easy to get a monthly box that is allergy friendly.  It is nice and fun to be able to sample and test foods and snacks we might not have known about otherwise :) If you want more information on Savorfull you can read more in my previous post as well.

Eliana has been loving this whole MY box thing. She knows that nothing inside will have peanuts or nuts! And she can't wait to open to see what inside :)

 So what came to my doorstep?

So before I go into what was inside the Savorfull October Box, let's talk about what was surrounding the goodies. The packaging.  I had said in my previous post that Eliana loved the packaging... She literally played with it all day! So this time around we made a cute Halloween Ghost Craft:

All you need is some of the Savorfull packaging, glue and black construction paper. I drew an outline of a ghost on the paper for Eliana.  She used glue and glued the packaging within the ghost outline.  She drew the face details on another piece of paper and I cut them out for her (we lost her kid scissors!) Then she glued the ghost's face on top. It was super easy to make and she loved it :) I think its a cute Savorfull ghost :)

 Now back to what was inside the October Savorfull Box:

Like our previous box we got tons of pamphlets and information on living with allergies as well. I love the extra information, and we some coupons for Enjoy Life Foods! Score! :)

Here is what was inside our October Savorfull Box:

Mrs. Glee's Gluten Free Elbows -- Gluten Free Pasta. It came with simple directions on the package, perfect for the sample size. For anyone who is eating gluten free for diet purposes, or because of Celiac disease these would be great sub for pasta!

VitaPerk -- a blend of vitamins, minerals and natural flavors to mix into your cup of coffee. It is meant to to be added to your fresh coffee.. Well since I don't drink hot coffee (I'm a cold coffee drinker) I added some of the unflavored to my hot chocolate. It wasn't that bad, but I'm probably sure it tastes better in coffee. The natural flavoring adds some sweetness, so it made my hot chocolate sweeter. I may just break my cold coffee habit for one day and try the other flavors, especially since I love mocha.

Mary's Gone Crackers Organic Sea Salt Sticks & Twigs -- Gluten free, dairy free and nut free pretzel sticks. These were delicious. I loved them! I wish there had been more of them!

Mary`s Gone Crackers Double Chocolate Cookie -- A gluten free, dairy free and nut free cookie. Eliana loved this cookie! I didn't even get a bite it was gone before I knew it lol

Enjoy Life Foods Boom Choco Boom Dark Chocolate Bar -- Like I mentioned before we love Enjoy Life brand. Everything is free of the top 8 allergens and made in top 8 allergen free facilities.  Once I see their name, I can rest easy. I know it is safe. And this chocolate bar was DELISH! I would love to say I shared it.. but I didn't. I hid in my room and ate it all by myself..

Here are some of the snacks we put together from the box:
Milk and Cookies

Horizon Organic Milk and a Mary's Gone Crackers Double Chocolate Cookie

Silly Spider Snack

Spider sandwich cut with a circle cookie cutter. You can use your desired bread and sandwich fillings. We used Pumpkin Spice Swirl Bread and some cheese. Spider Legs are Mary's Gone Crackers Pretzel Sticks. Edible candy eyes and a red bell pepper mouth are added on top. Now this is a spider. It has 8 legs. I counted this time! (Unlike in my Bug Lunch LOL)

The thing that is fun about Savorfull is that you can get anything from sample size to full size products. Last month the box had full sized products.  This was a great sample sized box. It gave some good samples of products that are allergy friendly. The only problem, in my opinion, is that this box just went wayyyy to quick!  We look forward to seeing what is in November's box :)

Want to try out Savorfull??

See Savorfull's past tasting boxes here

With the promo code CREATIVEFOOD you can get:

$1 off a one month subscription,

$9 off a six month subscription or

$20 off a 12 month subscribtion!

If you do try it, I'd love to hear how you like it! :)

**Disclaimer: I am a Savorfull Ambassador which means I receive monthly complimentary boxes to review. However all opinions expressed in this post are my own.**