My son Brendan is a math whiz, baseball playing, Madden 2013 addict. He is also 11 years old and has reached the age where cutesy lunches are embarrassing to him. Sigh, nothing lasts forever and I do have 2 younger children who I can pack cute lunches for whenever my heart desires ! lol

Still sometimes I exercise my mother’s right and attempt to add a small fun detail – just one detail, nothing over the top! I swear! The punch-out sandwich is a great simple, fun detail and didn’t get me in any trouble with my son! The 2 photos in the post are examples.

Lunch #1 (pictured above) is served in a Lunchbots Trio container and includes: a punch-out star sandwich (peanut butter only for Mr. Picky!), fresh strawberries and snap pea crisps.

Lunch #2 (pictured below) is served in a Leaflet Tight container and includes: a punch-out sun sandwich (peanut butter only, did I mention he is picky?), fresh mango and pretzel thins.

You may be pondering that this is not be enough food for an 11 year old boy… some would say. My son has a very short lunch period and tends to socialize at this time. He makes up for it with a mid-morning school snack and an after school snack once he gets home so trust me he is well fed. Do however include more food as appropriate for your family member!

Sincerely,

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Phew I made it, it’s Friday! TGIF! I am SO thankful indeed! That means it is also time to recap the gluten-free lunches I served to my 2 year old Evan this week. I know that I have previously discussed gluten-free savings so I thought I would discuss one more way I try to save! I try to save by being efficient with what I buy. As much as I would like to create an endless variety  of lunches for my son to choose from I have to shop within reasonable budget limits. I do have 4 children to feed! This means I have to find creative ways or use clever combinations to use the same ingredients in lunches more than once. Let’s face it, that is real life! I have tried to illustrate that this week.

Here is a recap of some of the ingredients used more than once:

2 times – Glutino Pretzels

2 times – cheese stick

2 times – green grapes

3 times – green beans

(If I was picturing the other lunches I served this week to my other family members you’d see just how efficient I can be).

I hope you’ll agree that even though I have repeated ingredients that the different combinations and the brightly colored offerings still look appealing each day!

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Lunch #1 (pictured above) served in an orange lunch container (sorry don’t know the brand)! On this lunch I went back to the MOMables cold cut/cheese stick sushi rolls which Evan seemed to like last time. I also served green grapes mixed with blueberries, Glutino pretzels (which Evan loves) and a banana.

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Lunch #2 (pictured above) served in a Leaflet Tight Container. This past weekend I made a special treat for Evan. A gluten-free blueberry cheesecake french toast muffin. I served one in this lunch cut in half with some pure maple syrup in the small rainbow container. This lunch also container cooked green beans and strawberries.

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Lunch #3 (pictured above) served in a Leaflet Tight container. Perdue Chicken Shortcuts for me is a great go to easy food. It is gluten-free, can be served as is OR made into a chicken salad, put on a pizza, or served tossed into stir fry etc. In this case it is indeed served as is cold. This lunch also includes green beans, Glutino Pretzels, a cheese stick and green grapes.

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Lunch #4 (pictured above) served in a Glit & Brillia 2 tier container. I think all you busy parents out there will appreciate that it is nice to have a “frozen pre-cooked chicken” on hand. I personally think in moderation a frozen pre-cooked chicken is fine especially if you are going to balance it out with fruits and veggies. I would take this over a fast food restaurant nugget any day. Obviously if you are up for it make and freeze your own so you’ll have them on hand. The problem is there are very few pre-cooked gluten-free selections available at the store. Perdue has now come out with a gluten-free chicken tender in their Simply Smart collection and I must say Evan is a fan! I have served 2 in this lunch along with plums, green beans (yes, again) and Puffins Multigrain Cereal.

You may also notice that I use reusable lunch containers, very few individual serving packaged items and no sandwich bags. These things are all friendly on the wallet and friendly to our environment! Check around my blog and you’ll find many lunchbox suggestions!

I’ll be back next Friday for more Gluten-Free fun and with any luck you’ll see some posts from me before then. Just in case go visit my gluten-free friends!

Keeley McGuire Blog

Biting the Hand That Feeds You

House-54

Sincerely,

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Today’s preschool lunch is a super simple, super fast lunch AND kid’s choice. My 3 year old Trevor said he wanted a bus sandwich, OK he really wanted something else which at the time the caffeine deprived part of me couldn’t fathom putting together. I’ve now blocked that request permanently from my mind lol. As I said Trevor said he wanted a BUS sandwich . Excellent I happen to have a bus sandwich cutter!

With my coffee deprived ingenuity, I decided to make the sandwich fun by making the bus sort of like a puzzle. I cut a slice of bread into 4 squares and then pressed the bus image on 2 squares before assembling my sandwiches. The final product is sort of a puzzle effect. A sandwich that you can play with… put together, pull apart etc. I thought it would be fun for my preschooler! I think he really liked it. Just what he requested, right? Hehe

Maybe next time I’ll do 4 and he can mix and match them! Fun!

This lunch is served in a Lunchbots container and includes:

• A bus sandwich
• A cheese stick
• Veggie chips
• Green grapes
• Banana

Sincerely,

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