Week 17: Wreck-It Ralph.  Wreck-It Ralph might have been our family's favorite movie this year.  If you havent seen it--you should.  I was short on time and energy last night and changed my mind a few times about what to make, then I landed on this.

It actually tuned out to be one of the easiest lunches to make and the materials were really easy to come by.  This is one for you to reproduce easily at home if your kids like the movie.

Most of it can be put together to be made into a meat and cheese do-it-yourself sandwich!

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Ingredients

2 frozen slices of whole wheat bread and 1 heel piece of bread

   Yellow, blue, and red food coloring 

1 piece of fresh spinach

1 slice of cheddar cheese

1 Tbsp. Nutella hazelnut spread

1 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese

2-3 leaves iceberg lettuce

1 handful dried cranberries

Directions

1. Using the template as a guide, cut Ralph’s arms and head out of the slices of bread.  Cut his overalls out of the heel piece as shown in picture.  
2. Trim slice of cheddar cheese to look like Ralph’s torn, sleeveless, orange shirt.
3. Mold cream cheese into two round eyes and place on face.  Mold the mouth as shown in the picture and put on face.  Use toothpick to draw white lines on overalls with cream cheese.
4. Mix equal parts yellow, blue, and red food coloring in a small bowl to make the color black.  Dip the end of a toothpick in the black coloring and use it to draw the details on Ralph’s hands, face, shirt, and overalls.
5. Use toothpick to spread Nutella on his face to make his hair and eyebrows.  
6. Place lettuce leaves in the container as background.  Set arms in the container and place Ralph’s head above them.  Put spinach leave just below his chin and put the cheese shirt on top.  Set overalls on cheese.
7. Finish by sprinkling dried cranberries around Ralph.  All of his parts can be stacked together to make a sandwich!

#lbdbento

Product Review: Laptop Lunches lunch box

Laptop Lunches Review

I discovered laptoplunches.com while doing some research on lunch box containers.  They are based out of Santa Cruz and have been featured in magazines such as Everyday With Rachael Ray and Parents.  Their mission is to provide lunch boxes that are safe, cost-effective, reusable, recycled, easy to clean, and waste free.

I was immediately impressed with their website.  It was professional, easy to navigate, and very helpful.  They offer newsletters, a store, healthy tips for lunches, and a place for users to send in pictures of lunches they have created.  Their customer service was also prompt and helpful.

Rear view of packaging

When I received the lunchbox I was impressed with the packaging.  It was fun and engaging.  It also shows key features and has a QR code on the back to scan with your mobile phone.  This leads you to a mobile version of their website.

The outside container seems sturdy and attractive enough.  However, it is just one solid color.  So if you are looking for different designs, you will need to choose a more expensive bento kit from their website (this particular model reviewed costs $23.99 + shipping).  My daughter was just happy it was purple.  After one use, I did start to notice some scratches on the top but this didn't compromise the overall build.

Top of lunch box

Inside of lunch box

When I opened the box for the first time, I really enjoyed the bright colors of the inside containers.  Some of the pieces came with lids, which is helpful to contain those things you dont want spilled.  There were five containers included, plus there is a compartment for utensils.  The containers really did help to not pack too much food, but at the same time really made you think about what you are putting in the lunch.  It was fun to pick out the different foods for to fit in each one.  If you want to see the finished product for the lunch that I made for my daughter, click here to see the Angry Birds Lunch.  My daughter ate everything and the lunchbox was easy to clean and dishwasher safe.

Close-up of the latch

The biggest problem my daughter had was with the latch.  Even though there are clear instructions, it took a good amount of practice to open it consistently.  I tested the latch out with more K-1st grade kids and they all had the same problem.  When I tested it with 2nd graders, however, there were able to open it with no problems.

Overall, I was very pleased with this product and would recommend it, as long as you practice opening it with your kids beforehand.

Disclosure: Laptop Lunch sent me this product to review.  I have received no other compensation for this post and the opinions I’m expressing here are solely my own.

#lunchboxreviews

Week 16: Angry Birds

Week 16: Angry Birds--in a new lunchbox!  For this week, I wanted to do something different and laptop lunches sent us a lunchbox to try out.  I ended up making my daughter's lunch in there.  I will post a full review on the lunchbox later this week.  My daughter loves Angry Birds so I thought this would be something different than I have done before.

The backgrounds were much easier in this because the lunchbox is bento style.  I also used some rubber decorative cups to accent it with different colors.  I finished with romaine lettuce to help the elements stay put.

Overall it was a pretty simple, healthy, and fun lunch.  Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest and check out www.laptoplunches.com for more of their products.  Have a great week, tell me some of your ideas for making some different Angry Birds!

Ingredients

1 large piece dried mango

1 green grape

1 kiwi

1 strip of dark colored fruit leather

1 hard-boiled egg

1 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese

1 slice of cheddar cheese

1 round Mini Babybel cheese

1 handful Triscuit crackers

2-3 leaves romaine lettuce

   Black food coloring and colored food markers

Directions

1. Make a shallow cut all the way around the bottom of the round Mini Babybel cheese red wax.  Make two small circles of cream cheese for the eyes.  Put a dot of black food coloring in each eye (repeat these eyes for every character except the egg).  Cut a beak of cheddar cheese.  Draw eyebrows and hair out black food coloring.
2. Cut dried mango into a triangle shape.  Make a line with cream cheese along the bottom.  Make eyes.  Cut the beak out of cheddar cheese.  Cut two small strips of red wax from the Babybel cheese to make the eyebrows.
3. On a hard-boiled egg, draw facial features as shown in the picture. 
4. Slice the brown skin off a kiwi and cut the kiwi in half.  From one half cut two small ears and a round nose.  Place them on the other half of kiwi to form the pig.  Make eyes.  Place two dots of black food coloring on the nose.
5. On a green grape, make eyes and a black line for the eyebrow.  Cut the beak from cheddar cheese.
6. Cut a circle out of dark fruit leather.  Make eyes.  Cut the beak from cheddar cheese and cut two strips of red wax for the eyebrow.
7. Place lettuce as background in your container and make a platform out of Triscuit crackers.  Arrange birds and pig in the lunch box.

#lbdbento

New Lunch Tomorrow

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day so my daughter doesn't have school.  That means no lunch today, but I am trying to put together a lunch for tomorrow, so stay tuned and check back then!

Week 15: Cars: Lightning McQueen and Mater

Week 15: Lightning McQueen and Mater.  I'm not going to lie, this was a tough lunch to make.  The animators at Pixar make McQueen look so so simple and easy, but he is not.  Don't they know that people will be trying to make lunches out of their drawings?  They should really keep us in mind next time they want to make a movie.  Anyway, here is what I did.

I made McQueen out of an egg sheet.  It is a really easy thing to do and I go the idea from another blogger.  Here is the link for the recipe: Egg Sheet.  I made it, then cut it out into his shape.  It is really easy to cut (the actual shape was a little difficult), hopefully my daughter will like it!

If you have any bright ideas for how to do it better, please let me know.  This one took too long, but at least I had fun doing it!  Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter and tell your friends!

Ingredients

2 frozen slices of whole wheat bread

   Yellow, blue, and red food coloring 

1 piece of fresh spinach

2 slices of white cheese

1 slice of cheddar cheese

4 slices black olives

2-3 leaves of iceberg lettuce

1 handful of dried raspberries

4 dried apricots

1 egg sheet, dyed red

Directions

1. Cut Mater out of the slices of bread.  Cut his square eyes and teeth out of white cheese.  use two small rectangle scraps of bread for his rear view mirrors.
2. Trim Lightning McQueen out of the egg sheet using the template as a guide.  Use picture to cut out shapes for the windows, headlights, and mouth.  Cut two lightning bolts, one large and one small, out of cheddar cheese.
3. Place lettuce leaves in the container as the background.  
4. Mix equal parts yellow, blue, and red food coloring in a small bowl to make the color black.  Dip the end of a toothpick in the black coloring and use it to draw the details on McQueen’s car body, eyes, hood decoration, mouth, and lightning bolt.  Use blue food coloring for his eyes.
5. Repeat to decorate Mater’s details on the truck body and eyes.  Write KA-CHOW on the large lightning bolt.
6. Place Mater in the upper right corner and arrange parts as shown in picture.  Put McQueen in the lower part of container and arrange his parts.  In the upper left corner, place dried apricots.  Put large lightning bolt on top.
7. Finish by sprinkling dried raspberries along the bottom of the container.

#lbdbento

Week 14: Mulan

Week 14 lunch: Mulan, the Disney Princess.  I finally decided to make one of my daughter's favorite Disney Princesses.  She turned out way more serious than I would have liked, but it was fun making something out of different food than normal.

For Mulan herself, I cut her out of pancakes.  We made them this weekend and I had it left over so I thought I would give it a shot.  As always, shoot me your ideas and let me know what you would do different.  Stay tuned for fun stuff coming this month!  Remember to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Ingredients

1 slice of a white cheese

1 green spinach tortilla wrap and 1 flour tortilla

1 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese

1 small pancake

1 piece of nori

2 blackberries

1 leaf of fresh spinach

1/4 avocado

   Handful of strawberries

   Yellow, blue, and red food coloring

Directions

1. Cut out the shape of Mulan’s head from a pancake.  Cut out the neck from the pancake scrap as shown in the picture.
2. Cut the 1/4 avocado in two pieces for her robe.  Cut out a small triangle of white cheese for her undershirt.  Trim two long narrow rectangles from the spinach leaf.  Cut a narrow rectangle from the flour tortilla for her belt.  Put 2-3 drops of blue food coloring on it and spread it over the belt.
3. Using the template as a guide cut out the two pieces of Mulan’s hair out of nori.
4. Trim the green spinach wrap to fit the bottom of your container.  Cut a tree branch out of the flour tortilla.  Place the spinach wrap in the container first, followed by the tree branch as shown in the picture.
5. Place the avocado pieces, cheese triangle, and neck piece where shown.  Put Mulan’s square piece of hair down, then put the face piece on top, followed by the other hair piece.   Place two small circles of cream cheese on her face for the eyes.  Use the spinach pieces and blue tortilla to finish the robe and cover the seams made by the other parts of the robe.
6. Use black food coloring and a toothpick, or food coloring marker, to draw the details on her face and body.  Do the same using red for her lips.  Mix yellow and red food coloring to make brown color for her eyes and dab on using a toothpick.
7. Finish by placing the strawberries on the tree and blackberries on either side of her.

#lbdbento

Great source for lunch tools!

Hey Lunchbox Dad readers, I came across this great website for kids' lunch boxes and tools last night.  It is a company out of Santa Cruz (in my backyard) called Laptop Lunches.  The picture to the right is an example of a lunch made (from their website, I didn't make it) in some of the stuff they sell.  They seem pretty cool so I thought I would pass it along.  They want to encourage parents to make fun, healthy lunches for their kids, which I definitely support!

Check out their website here to look at all their tools, pictures, books, etc.