Here are a few of our "break out" lunches!
First we have the Creepy Bunny of Doom lunch... it's a wrap so I get it if you're thinking "Really? THAT'S your idea of a sandwich break?" But trust me this was a huge win for me! Monstro NEVER eats wraps. He hates cream cheese and they just don't hold together well without it. With this one I was able to camouflage it with a little smear of ranch dressing! It's got Chicken Parmasean lunch meat with spinach and cucumber. And look at those ADORABLE mini-Triscuits! I've been waiting and waiting for him to agree to the Triscuits so I could show how freakin cute they are! I added some extra cucumbers, carrots, purple cauliflower and pepperjack cheese. Then the ultimate creepy lunch accessory...that hideous bunny face!!! Big thanks to Marsh Supermarket for selling the heebiest Easter cakes ever!
Next we have quesadillas. We were on quite the quesadilla kick for a few days and he had them for multiple meals. We like to add all sorts of veggies to ours. These are spicy grilled chicken and cheese with a little olive oil to help crisp them up- no veg to prevent soggy-sad-panda-lunch. There's brown rice under that enormous pile of corn planks (yay for first corn of the season!) plus swords of tomato and a giant strawberry. That cow has some Florida's Naturals Fruit Nuggets inside. I got the both on super clearance at Target after Easter. We love the Fruit Nuggets. They're more expensive than your typical fruit snack but they have no artificial colors in them and they've actually got juice in them! Monstro has been BEGGING me for desserts in his lunches. He's the only poor, deprived child who doesn't get cookies or candy bars! Usually fruit is dessert but I've told him he can earn desserts by showing that he'll eat the healthy stuff each day.
My husband made some fantastic meat sauce for pasta one night. I left out a couple tablespoons of it to use for Monstro the next morning. He had star pasta with the meat sauce, garlic cheese bread, ridge-y cut carrots, purple cauliflower and a little heart of Short Stop peanut butter fudge. I used some alphabet pasta that I found for $0.33/bag to remind him of a few spelling words. Unfortunately, after I arranged them, it seemed like I was giving him some sort of creepy religious message. As soon as I started to place the "M" in promise I realized it but it was too late to go back!
We used to eat more traditional bento like this one pretty often. It's certainly not standard Japanese by any stretch but it's closer and the flavors in the chicken are Asian. He wanted "Mommy's Spicy Marinated Chicken" and rice. My marinade is pretty simple and it somewhat mimics my beloved Sati Babi. Oh how I miss jamming wooden sticks into my gums and tongue as we attempted to snarf down our meaty, juicy treat while walking around the uneven ground of the Banks Of The Wabash Festival at night. So, he has the chicken and rice as well as the usual veggie assortment - cucumber, carrot and purple cauliflower.
I think I've saved the best for last. Today's lunch is an unconventional lunch masterpiece! He's got the typical veggies... I won't let him have a lunch without them! But, his "entree" is a "bowl" of cereal! We keep finding Mom's Best Naturals on sale and it's so rare that Monstro gets to enjoy a marshmallow cereal. The Mallow Oats have no artificial dyes so he gets to feel like he's being a little "bad" but it's better for him than most of the other cereals he chooses (Coco Roos anyone?!). I gave him a little bottle of almond milk to pour over the cereal so he could have the whole shebang. He was especially jazzed about that mutant marshmallow fusion there towards the bottom!
Those are our "off the wagon" lunches for the last week or so. It's been much more fun packing things other than sandwiches! Part of my love for bento is being creative and we were just in a rut. He was sick, then dad was sick and now I'm sick. But it can be so easy to make it fun, sometimes I forget how much so! What are some of your favorite "extra-ordinary" lunches?
