All-Natural Preschool Snacks - October, Week 4

Monday, October 22 through Thursday, October 25

Monday

Strawberries, red grapes, SunButter, TJs graham crackers, True Lemon packet

I needed something large enough to fit everything I wanted in this snack, so I dusted off my Sistema Klip-It Lunch Cube (I've only seen colored ones at Old Navy and The Container Stores.) I don't like to use this box much because the left half flips upside-down to close (after securing the snappy lid.) After making an effort to make a cute lunch, the last thing I want is for it to tumble around helter-skelter before I've even put it in the lunch bag! And if I'm packing for myself, an EasyLunchbox does the trick without fiddling with floppy lids and folding compartments. So I kept the purple one I had bought just in case I ever needed it, and gave the rest away (except the pink one. It got busted somehow, so I recycled it.)

In the left/top half, I skewered a strawberry onto a fun plastic skeleton lollipop stick that I got in a pack last Halloween from Dollar Tree. After soaking off the candy skull, I washed and saved the stick to re-use! (I forget how many there were in a package. I saved two for me, and gave the rest away. I'm sure you'll see them crop up in other bloggers' lunches...)
Since we only had two strawberries left, I filled an orange silicone pumpkin cup with some red grapes. The the cup wasn't tall enough to keep the grapes in after flipping, so I used a cloth girly skull napkin (from Red Poppy Cards and Crafts on Etsy) folded up underneath to hold the cup flush against the lid.

In the right/bottom segmented half, I chose one of my childhood favorite snacks - graham crackers and peanut butter. But since her school is nut-free, I chose SunButter instead, and put it in an EasyLunchboxes Mini Dipper. The graham crackers came from Trader Joe's so contain no "artificial flavor" like all the grocery store ones. Not all artificial flavors are petrol-derived, but it's not like they tell you on the package which ones ARE, so we avoid them all, just to be safe. Vanillin, used instead of vanilla in most mass-market chocolates and baked goods (including graham crackers, most likely,) is not petroleum derived, and is often just listed as "artificial flavor" or "flavor added," but Z happens to react to it, so we avoid it too. In case you're wondering, they don't seem to have the little "break lines" like the commercial brands do, so my breaks are a little sloppy.

A portable knife for spreading the SunButter and a True Lemon Raspberry Lemonade drink mix packet complete the snack.

The travel knife came from a Sistema Cutlery To Go kit found at Old Navy. The fork, spoon, and knife tops fit onto separate handles so they can be taken apart for more compact travel. It also comes with tapered chopstick tops that can be plugged in instead! All in a nifty little case. I think I paid around $5, less 20% for some promotion using my Old Navy card! I wish I had bought more!

She ate everything but the mini strawberry! Woop!

Tuesday

Apple slices, Apple Straws, True Lemon mix packet

 In one of our sandwich boxes I sliced up an apple and used a little U-shaped cutting tool to carve some grooves across the peel on some of the slices, and a "Z" in a larger slice. Just for fun. To keep with the apple theme, I chose a silicone apple cup for her Apple Straws chips. After school, she was very excited to tell me that she'd used the Apple Straws as drink straws.

I also included a True Lemon drink mix packet to add to her water. Last week I'd sent an opened drink packet dumped into a little container, along with a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon (and forgot to take a picture! Doh!) since I figured out the packet, which was meant for 16-ounces of water, contained a little less than 1 tsp powder. The school's drink cups are 5-oz cups, so I figured a 4-oz dose of powder should be fine. I even wrote instructions on some masking tape and taped it to the powder container, so the teachers would know how much to add.
But they trusted her with it or never even saw it, apparently, since she told me that "One scoop didn't taste delicious enough. Or two scoops or three scoops. I had to use all four scoops." Argh! Luckily, each packet contains so little sugar (so far I haven't been able to find an all-natural drink mix powder without Stevia,) so I figured until I can figure out a better solution, I'll just accept it and let her over-saturate her water.
If I could find an easy-open small box to just hold enough powder for one cuppy, or a leak-proof drink container that's easy to open and easy to pour, so I could just send 16-ounces pre-mixed... Or something.

She said the apples were too mushy, so she didn't eat them. Nor did she notice her initial carved into the middle one. *sadface*

Wednesday

Buttered Rosemary Bread, red grapes

I almost forgot to pack a snack that day, and threw this together as we were headed out the door. I grabbed the first small divided box I could find in my stash; a Tinkerbelle snack box from The Disney Store (now discontinued.) To make it festive, I stuck a flat pumpkin cupcake pick in the grapes. DONE!

Totally forgot to send a drink that day too. Doh! Luckily the snack mom had brought safe apple juice concentrate. I was in such a hurry I had to take the photo in the car, so I used her little lightly-insulated snack bag as the background. (Meant for carrying compact bento boxes. Works great for her small snacks! Daiso, $1.50.)

Small snack, so I wasn't surprised to find the box empty after school.

Thursday

Whole Grain Ritz, spreadable cheese, red grapes, True Lemon packet

In a sandwich box I decided to try her out on another cracker-spread combo. I packed around 6 Whole Grain Ritz crackers (our favorites for spreadable herby cheeses!) and a mini muffin cup with some Rondele Garlic and Herbs cheese I managed to nab at 75% off from a grocery store location that was closing down. I included a mini bone spork cupcake topper for spreading, and a skeleton cupcake pick for the grapes chillin' in the silicone pumpkin cup.
A True Lemon Lemonade drink mix packet for her drink (they were on sale if you bought two boxes, so I picked both lemonade flavors when I discovered them at the grocery store. Very exciting to find dye-free drink mix at a "regular" grocery!)

She left most, if not all, of the grapes, but ate all the crackers and cheese.

         

WFLW - Get Ready for Preschool

Friday, 5/13/11 - I thought I had missed this month's Get Ready for Preschool class with one of my moms clubs. I had to sleep in Z's room the night before, and I kept waking up in a panic that it had already started. Since it's around a 30-minute-drive away, and starts before noon, it's a real effort to get there on time! We made it, but we were late. (I know, right. What a shocker.)

Teacher Jen started with a song. They did "If You're Happy and You Know It."

"If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet! Stomp stomp!"

She had each child bring something from home for Show and Tell. Z was very excited, and brought her little purse made by Auntie Kayneen, her new soft doll Rose/Rosie (a Carter's Just One Year doll,) Rosie's Bunny (a little blanket with a soft rabbit head, also Carter's Just One Year,) Shiny Bear (an October Beanie Baby bear with metallic fabric that we just found at a JBF consignment sale for $2,) and a heart-shaped box from my bento stuff.

Z sharing her menagerie

Then Miss Jen brought out her school mouse puppet and had it read a letter from a little mailbox. The letter described a game that the kids would be playing.

Then each child got their own letter (with their name on the envelope, which I love! They get the chance to recognize their own name, which is almost as thrilling as getting their own "mail!") These letters contained a picture of a mouse with colored overalls. Then the kids paired up with another person who had a matching colored mouse.

Z's match was the teacher's daughter. They sat down and made bracelets for themselves and their new "friends." They used pony beads and some letter beads and strung them on pipe cleaners. This is a great beading and fine-motor-skill activity for little ones, since the pipe cleaners' fuzziness keeps the beads from sliding off the other end, and since the chenille stem is stiff, the end doesn't flop away or out of the bead while the child is stringing it, as happens with ribbon or string. Z was easily able to string beads this way from around 18-months old. Now she can do yarn with the end taped a little to make it firm. Cut-up straws are another great addition to the pony beads for both the chenille stems and yarn beading projects. Shoelaces also make great string options!

After story and craft time was open play, where they explored the preschool. Z found a little stuffed kitty friend to drag around, and spent much of her time in the pretend kitchen area again, much like last time. Since the goal of this is to help her be independent and prepare for drop-off preschool next year, I didn't follow her around with my camera, since she was fine leaving me behind in the main room.

After play time, the parents have the option to leave while the kids stay and eat lunch. So I stepped out to the front room while she stayed with the other kids and Teacher Jen. She cried a bit, and the teacher distracted them with stories.

PBHoney "Rosie" sandwich, Pirate's Booty, salt, string cheese nibblets,
Cucumber and carrots, apples and blackberries

For the cucumber, I cut coins, then used my mini flower cutter. Veggie cutters also work, but I found the cookie cutter first. I just cut the carrot into coins, since my V-shaped blade was still in the car with the stuff I had taken to my sister's house.

I put salt for the cucumbers (she, like her Mama, is a salt fiend!) in a little froggy bento sauce container. The string cheese nibblets (more oval-shaped because the string cheese got crushed somehow!) are in a silicone star muffin liner I bought imported from China on eBay.

The apples are leftover from a Mcd Happy Meal, and the blackberries were from Costco. They're kind of in a smiley-face design, but this was totally unintentional!

I put in some Pirate's Booty as a treat, since it gets her seated and starting to eat when she's resistant. I use sugar cereal on the mornings we're running late to her co-op preschool, since she usually needs a bit of time after waking before she's ready to eat. So if I give her something super yummy or fun, she eats it faster and sooner, so we actually get something in her belly to help make preschool easier for the both of us!

For fun, I made her sandwich look like her new dolly Rose (kind of.) 

I did it like my Pinkalicious sandwich, using peanut butter to glue down the pretzel "hair," and frosting facial features. The nose got kind of messed up, since I hadn't known it was a gel tube. And the doll's eyes are blue, rather than green. But I don't have a tube of blue frosting. Ah well. I told Z that her sandwich was meant to look like Rose, so she loved it. She has an amazing imagination, and will happily accept things that look vaguely like whatever, as long as I tell her what it's supposed to be!

Can't you totally see the resemblance, though?

She fell in love with Rose and Rose's Bunny at Target as I was buzzing through the baby section looking for 2T underpants. At $9 each, I wasn't going to buy them on my budget, but she called Daddy and suckered him negotiated for future potty prizes. Then she snookered him by using the potty successfully, finishing up, earning Rose, then going back for round two and earning Rose's Bunny! Hahaha!

I don't have any pictures of her enjoying her lunch, since I was off in another room enjoying my lunch!

PBHoney, blackberries and apple slices, cucumbers, Ranch

I made myself a whole sandwich, plus the rest of the bread from hers. The rest of the apples and some blackberries, and the cucumber scraps and the rest of the cucumber flowers I'd made. Plus Ranch in a Tupperware Smidget, all in my purple Sistema. (I found clear ones at Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day. I got the colored ones at Old Navy, but they were on clearance.)

She ended up dumping all her salt out on a cucumber flower, but didn't eat any. She ate all the Pirate's Booty and half of her sandwich (all the pretzels though.) Oh yes, and the cheese. When I came back to "pick her up," she tried a bite of less-salty cucumber, and traded a blackberry for a grape from her new friend. And, as it turns out, she was coming down with something, this was actually a pretty good meal for her. 

She ate hardly anything the next few days with her cough, runny nose and fever. The doc thinks her cough sounds like Croup, but her lungs sound good. And her ear looks "troubling," but he couldn't verify that it was infected. So we went home with a hard copy for an antibiotic prescription to fill the day after her appointment if she still had a fever. Which she did. And it went away seconds before giving her the first dose of meds. Ah well.

Check out some other fun bento meals from this past week!

WFLW - Floral Arrangements

I can't remember what I had brainstormed Monday night for Tuesday's after-gym lunch. But I stayed up too late, and had to force myself to get up at all on Tuesday, and ended up having only 30 minutes to get a lunch ready and get a munchkin dressed. So I kept it simple(ish.)

Her Lunch:

Cheese nibblets, PBHoney sandwich flowers, carrot flowers with broccoli,
strawberry flowers with black- and raspberries

I chose a small box with animals on top from Daiso ($3!) since I didn't need a ton of room for this lunch. I used a small flower veggie cutter on a carrot and some strawberries, and filled each space with broccoli and berries, respectively.
I decided to use long pretzel sticks as "stems" for the sandwich flowers, much like my Pinkalicious "wand" sandwich. Sandwich pops! I love these sandwich press cutters!

My Lunch:

PBHoney bunnies, cheese nibblets and cubes, Snappea Crisps, strawberry scraps, carrot scraps

For mine I chose a box with bunnies on the lid ($6, I think, from Daiso,) to go with my bunny sandwiches and Year of the Rabbit (my zodiac sign too!) To use up the rest of the two slices of bread, I made some bunny head sandwiches from the same cutter set as the flower.

 She went for the sandwiches first, and gobbled them all down. And then went for mine. She ate more broccoli than carrot, but overall fairly little of either. I don't think she touched the fruit, but she may have when I gave her that level of her box in the car on the way, since she claimed to be famished, and I didn't want her all starving and cranky and whining all through gym class.

She ate all her cheese and most of my cheese nibblets. Then she discovered a plastic knife I had with our lunch stuff from a previous McD Cinnamelts purchase something healthy, and used it to cut up the rest of my cheese before graciously offering to let me eat them. Thanks.

3/30/11 - I can't even remember what I made this lunch up for, but I know we ran errands that day, so maybe I was just being an awesome mom for once and planned ahead.

White chocolate chips, PBHoney sandwich,
carrots and broccoli, Ranch,
strawberries, cheese nibblets

In my purple Sistema box (from Old Navy): I dug out my tote of sandwich shapers and Z chose the fairy princess one, so I went with a sort-of star theme with the cups. [I got the mini yellow one from Kitchen Collection and the blue one on eBay imported from China.] I used a Tupperware Smidget to house the Ranch dip.

  

Getting It Out Of My Sistema!

Old Navy had a bunch of Sistema Lunch Cubes (BPA free!) for $5, and they were having a 30% off everything store-wide sale, making them only $3.50 each, plus my sister had an additional 10% off coupon, making them each only $3.15! So I got one in each color! [Turquoise, green and purple. I had purchased the pink one already before, using only a 20% off coupon.] Because the top folds back over the bottom of the box (after you snap the divider closed,) it has limited utility. Works great for something like a sandwich, or something non-drippy, like fresh veggies or something. Or, in this case, a small ice pack!

Pink butterfly water bottle
Ice pack in 'top' segment on left
Carrots and bean sprouts, strawberries, pretzel sticks, cheese

The water bottle also happens to be from Old Navy. They were on sale a few weeks ago for $3 (right before their 30-40% off store-wide sales) and I had a 20% off my purchase coupon. I got it and 2 others at a location by my sister's house. The pink Sistema was bought at a location north of my mom's but near where we went to lunch one day with my sister, and the other 3 were bought at a location by my mom's house. Old Navy much? Ironically, this was a snack to take to the mall to shop at yet another Old Navy store.

For those of you paying attention, the carrots and sprouts, strawberries, and mitten (and kettle)-shaped cheeses are repurposed from Sunday morning's Muffin Tin Meal. There are some string cheese nibblets under the Colby Jack cheese shapes, and more of the organic whole grain pretzels from Costco.