Heart hands

Posted by: bentoriffic on: July 30, 2012

• In: bento | casein free | eating local | Foods | kids | lunchbox | raw food | snacks | Summer | Vegan | Vegetarian
• 3 Comments

It’s definitely the dog days of summer here in Florida.  Hot!  We’ve been doing a lot of swimming to stay cool in the 90 something degree weather every day.

I owe a giant thank you to my guest bloggers from last week for such fun and creative posts in my absence.  Like everyone, I’m gearing up for back to school and trying to get into the routine while grasping on to the last bits of summer we have left.  I am still making today’s lunches so I did make a few bento lunches while I was traveling with the girls.

This lunch is one I packed for the airplane.  We had to travel a long distance so I packed one Easy Lunch Box container with as much food as I could fit for both girls.   At 2 & 4 years old, they can be very fickle about what they eat.  I used a cookie cutter to make smaller sandwiches.  Often stacking them sideways allows more to fit in too.  There are 4 almond butter and jam sandwiches on whole grain bread.  Under the sandwiches are heart shaped strawberries, at the bottom left are dried mangos, and the bottom right are mini carrots .  At the top left are blueberries and the top right are grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas and more mini carrots all packed in our Easy Lunch Box container.

Since our trip was so long I also packed some healthy bars and snacks for inbetween meals.  I try to keep some in my glove compartment when traveling in the car, in my purse or anywhere the kids might need to refuel.

For this airplane ride I introduced some new snack foods.  They loved both the dried strawberries and the pumpkin seeds.  The animal cookies were a special treat for after lunch.

One of the staples in our house are Larabar fruit and nut bars.  They are NOT a good option if you have a nut allergy.  Most have cashews so they are peanut free.  The reason I like them is they are simply dried fruits (apples, dates, pineapple, etc) and nuts.  That’s it.  There are no other additives so they are a great, healthy option for kids and adults and are filling enough that you only need one.  We also recently found these flavor & fiber bars by gnu foods that have simple ingredients as well.  And both of my kids are big Craisin eaters.  Again, the chocolate rice bars were a special treat.

I hope everyone is enjoying a bit of time off to enjoy the summer.  Looking forward to another fun school year and new lunch ideas.   Thanks as always for reading!

Tags: airplane food, almond butter, Barbara's Snackimals, blueberries, carrots, Craisins, dried mango, Eden Organics, flavor & fiber bars, gnu foods, healthy snacks, heart shaped strawberries, LaraBar, organic dried strawberries, pumpkin seeds, sugar snap peas, traveling with kids, vegan, vegetarian