Gingerbread Men for Monday

Not the traditional ones, though. I used my gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut sandwiches into little gingerbread men. I used Wilton food color markers to draw their faces and shirts.

Fancy (above) is taking her lunch in an Easy LunchBox since she left her usual bento at school over the weekend. That's going to be fun to clean...

Bayberry (below) is taking her lunch in her usual Laptop Lunch System.

The sandwiches are flour tortillas, honey ham, and cheddar cheese, with a smear of mayo. They both have grapes. Bayberry has a tomato and Fancy has cucumber sticks. They both have a couple oatmeal raisin cookies.

Fancy will take a water bottle. Bayberry will either take water or juice.

Thursday Lunch Boxes

So you say that your kids want PB&J everyday? You can still offer them some variety. Thursday, my kids (and husband) are taking PB&J "Sushi" Rolls.

To make the peanut butter & jelly "sushi" rolls: Trim the crusts off of your bread slices. Roll flat with a rolling pin. Spread peanut butter thinly all the way to the edges. Smear a little bit of jelly over the peanut butter. Roll tightly. Slice carefully.

The girls are taking the same lunch Thursday. PB&J "Sushi" Rolls; TLC Country Cheddar crackers; Grapes & Asian Pear; and French Vanilla Yogurt with homemade granola. They're bringing orange juice to drink. Bayberry's yogurt has a lid. Fancy's will be encased in plastic wrap, then lidded, to ensure its safe arrival at the cafeteria table.

These are the last kids' lunches of the school week. We have a four-day weekend. See you Monday with another lunch!

3 Lunches for Thursday

To make these cute sandwiches, cut out bread with cookie cutters. Use a tiny cutter to cut a "window" in the top slice of bread. Spread peanut butter on the bottom bread, top with the window bread, then spoon jam into your window.

Pluots are a cross between plums and apricots and are delicious.

Here are the lunches:

Green grapes under four mini window peanut butter & jelly sandwiches; pluots, and dessert bites (brownie, teddy bear grahams, and rice krispies treats).

Green grapes under two mini window PB&Js; pluots; lettuce, half a hard-boiled egg (it's cut jagged like it was hatched), a cheese-stuffed tomato, ham roll-ups, and dessert bites.

Green grapes under one mini PB&J window; lettuce, egg, and cheese with ham roll-ups; pluots.

Kids' Lunches + 2 Recipe Links

What's For Lunch Wednesday

Today, I made some Vanilla Wafer cookies and some stuffed biscuits for the girls' Wednesday lunches. They both came out delicious and have already been taste-tested and pre-approved by the kids.

Vanilla Wafers

Stuffed Biscuits

To draw on the cookies, I used Wilton Food Writer Edible Color Markers. To cut the cucumbers into shapes, I used Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters.

Clockwise from top right: grapes & melon; cucumber stars; ham & cheese stuffed biscuits; Nilla Wafers & granola bars. Chocolate Almond Milk to drink.

Same lunch, just different proportions and no granola bars. Juice for Picky Eater.

And here are a couple of my cookie drawings. As you can tell, I'm quite an artist. ;)

Lunch for Everyone (Except Me)

Three lunches to show you today. Nothing fancy in them, except for some colored eggs. To color the eggs, peel them, rinse them off, then add them to a bowl of colored water (10 drops to 2 cups of water for brilliant colors). You can also color them naturally with tea, spinach water, and beet water...but they will impart a bit of flavor as well, so make sure the recipient likes those flavors. I let my eggs sit in the colored water for 10 minutes while I assembled the lunches, then I drained them and patted them dry before placing them in their lunchbox spots.

For the Army Man (aka Husband): Low-Carb Ants on a Log (Peanuts on Peanut Butter on Celery); Turkey Pastrami & Cheese on a Low-Carb Tortilla; Salted Peanuts, 2 Bright Pink Hard-Boiled Eggs; Crystal Light to drink.

For Bayberry: Peanut Butter & Guava Preserves on a Plain Bagel; Green Grapes; 2 Vanilla Cookies; a Bright Pink Hard-Boiled Egg; Cut up Cantaloupe. Nu-Vim Strawberry-Vanilla Smoothie to drink.

For Picky Eater: Peanut Butter & Guava Preserves on a Cinnamon-Raisin Bagel; salted Peanuts; a Vanilla Cookie; Cut up Cantaloupe; Green & Purple Grapes. Berry Punch to drink.