Sunny Winter Day Lunch

We had a wonderfully sunny day on Monday! Once again, it doesn't make for the best lunch photo, but we had a lot of fun outside enjoying the nice weather. My lunchbox is pictured w/ leftover roasted chicken, raw carrots and green beans w/ ranch dip, pretzel sticks and grapes. I didn't get a photo of Ethan's lunch before he was digging in, but the in-action shot shows leftover roasted chicken; raw peppers, carrots and green beans w/ coconut yogurt dip; leftover roasted potatoes and carrots; plus grapes. He made it very clear that he wants the same lunch box as mommy ... the laptop lunchbox!

Out-to-lunch Box

My husband and I decided to go out to lunch today. Since Ethan can't eat restaurant food due to his food allergies (and cross-contamination/mistake risk), he got a lunch box to bring along. He actually loves eating out even though it's still the same ole food for him. I think he just enjoys the change of scenery and people watching. As you can see from the photo, the sun was out in full force today! It makes getting a good photo a lot harder, but I'm not complaining!

I always overpack Ethan's to-go lunches just to make sure he has enough foods he likes to be satisfied while we eat. His lunch today was Avocado on Tapioca Bread, Red and Yellow Sweet Peppers w/ Coconut Yogurt Dip, Applegate Farms Turkey (his safe lunchmeat brand), EnerG Pretzels and Pear w/ Grapes. He ended up eating all the peppers first, then the turkey and grapes w/ just a few bites of sandwich and pretzels. We had a few errands to run afterwards. By the time we got home, Ethan was hungry and ready to finish his fruit and sandwich. The uneaten pretzels got dumped into his snack cup in his backpack for the next time we're out, so nothing gets wasted.

Simple "Wee-chah" Bento

It was such a dreary day on Friday, but you'd never know it by this photo. We took advantage our our 2 minutes of sunshine just before lunch. Overall we had a very lazy day, so I just made an easy sunbutter on tapioca bread sandwich for Ethan, or "wee-chah" as he calls it in his toddler Spanglish. Funny enough, the child is a little weirded out when I cut his food into shapes. I had to convince him these were actually edible. To balance out the sandwich, I also packed leftover steamed carrots and green beans plus pear and blueberries.

Homemade Chicken Sausage

The little man was a very willing participant in Day 2 of our lunchbox project. He even helped me put the vegetables in the pot, eating several in the process. Last night, I had some defrosted some chicken breasts sitting in the fridge so I decided to make chicken sausage. It's pretty tasty if I do say so myself. The guys of the household concur.

For lunch, we had homemade chicken sausage (of course), the carrots and green beans Ethan helped me make, apple, grapes, and wild rice. Ethan's lunchbox also contains an Enjoy Life Sunbutter bar and pear for his after nap snack. I was very surprised today when Ethan ate all his fruits and veggies first, ate no rice and only one half of a sausage. He usually downs the meat first thing. Since I worked tonight, Ethan had his leftovers for dinner where he was apparently back in the mood for rice and sausage.

40 Days, 40 Boxes

Even though, I am not religious, I was raised in a Catholic family and always loved the challenge set forth during lent. I was recently reading one of my favorite blogs Clover Lane and saw her 40 Bags, 40 Days challenge in which she cleans out her entire house, aiming to get rid of 40 bags of stuff during lent. While I am trying that challenge myself, with only one child and a small house, I'm not sure I can wrangle up a full 40 bags of unnecessary stuff to purge. I was, however, inspired to try another 40 day challenge of my own ... 40 days of lunch boxes. Seeing as I'm working on improving my diet and I'm always looking for an excuse to use my bento boxes, I figured it was the perfect project for me this year.

Today is Day 1! I didn't cook last night, but had some homemade chicken soup in the freezer just waiting to be eaten. I cooked some fresh rice noodles and threw them into the soup (they seem to get mushy if I freeze them in the soup). To get our veggies, we both had okra plus I had a green salad w/ purple cabbage. Ethan is not a salad fan yet (and I'm not a raw pepper fan), so he had raw red and yellow bell pepper sticks plus coconut yogurt for dipping. We both had apple and blueberries, though his has a much higher berry to apple ratio to satisfy his current blueberry addiction. I thought this would be way too much food for a 2.5 year old, so I filled the last portion of Ethan's lunchbox w/ grapes and EnerG pretzels that were set aside for a snack later.

Turns out I under-estimated my son's appetite ...

In the past, I had always removed the inner containers from the box at mealtime to make it easier for him to reach the food. Today, he insisted they stay in the box! Ethan was DELIGHTED with his lunch. First went the soup, then the peppers. After discovering the fruit was also glorious dipped in the yogurt, it was quickly inhaled. He even dunked a few pieces of okra in the stuff. That part grossed me out, but if he's eating his veggies I'm not complaining! The child was so hungry, I refilled his soup twice. About 1/3 of the noodles lost their way off the spoon and ended up all over the chair, but that's still a lot of food. Someone much be about to hit a growth spurt!

I'm so grateful for our time together this morning. We had such a great Mommy-Son lunch today!

Also posted at Whats For Lunch Wednesday.

Saturday Work Day Bentos

A lot has happened in the past few months. In May, Senorcito decided he was ready to wean. After some shock and panic on my part trying to fill his changing nutritional needs, we have all adjusted. We introduced calcium fortified OJ for his calcium and vitamin D needs and I've been making a huge effort to get more fat into his diet via oils, avocado, and less lean meats. He's still a super healthy boy who loves to eat a variety of foods and is growing normally despite his allergies and related restrictions. As you can see, he certainly is not wasting away! Fortunately, he has recently gotten some beans back into his diet (woohoo!), but at the same time he's also lost apricot, nectarine, and strawberry due to reactions.

In June, my little guy turned 2! It's hard to believe how quickly time moves. For his birthday, I made him a frosting-less chocolate cake from Cherrybrook Kitchen. He was in love :)

Tomorrow is a work day for me, so I decided I was long overdue for a bento or two ...

Baby Breakfast Bento :

• Blueberry Rice Pancakes
• Red and Green Grapes plus Red Cherries

Mom-at-Work Bento (Now that I'm no longer breastfeeding my allergic kiddo, I can eat whatever I want again!) :

• Tortilla Roll-up w/ homemade Black Beans Patty and Cheese
• Pretzel Rods
• Nectarine and Blueberries
• Green Salad w/ Red Cabbage and Dressing
• Strawberries

Taco Fever

Senorcito is getting so big! In less than 3 months he'll be two years old!

In addition to being busy with my little boy, I started a part time job in January. It's low stress and I work off hours (nights and weekends) so my husband is home with the little man when I'm gone. So far things are working out great. My biggest problem these days is that I hibernated through this year's extra cold and snowy winter and let my healthy meals slide. The random warm days we've been having lately are starting to reawaken my senses ... So I decided to pack colorful lunch boxes for both Senorcito and myself. I realized after I took these photos that my last post was also beef tacos. Oops :) We obviously know how to enjoy a good taco at our house.

Senorcito's Meals

Breakfast - Corn muffin style Rice Muffin, Nectarine, Banana

Lunch - Homemade Rice Tortillas, Roasted Squash and Pepper Sticks,

Avocado, Ground Beef

The Mommy Lunch

Three small Corn Tortillas

Extra Lean Ground Beef

Clementine

Avocado (most of which will end up eaten by Senorcito)

Roasted Yellow Squash, Zucchini, and Orange Bell Pepper

Also posted for What's For Lunch Wednesday