lunch boxes

Bento Lunches With The Yumbox Lunchbox (Review)

July 14, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe 7 Comments

Those who follow my Instagram feed will know what a big fan I am of making creative lunches for The Boy. I have a wide range of lunchboxes, cutters, silicon pots, picks etc. to create fun lunches which engage him and ensure he eats everything up at lunchtime. While this seems to fit in with the Bento lunch philosophy, I tend to give him fairly normal food in comparison to the usual Bento foodstuffs; sandwiches, fruit, savoury snacks and sweet treats that other parents put in lunches. I do believe it's all in the presentation though so make an effort to make it enticing for him.

After all, the top chefs do swirly patterns on plates for a reason, don't they?

Yumbox Lunchbox review [Read more…]

Easter Bento Lunchbox

April 9, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe 16 Comments

It never fails to astound me how much The Boy responds to his lunch being presented in a fun way; using a few food picks with cute characters on the top of a bunch of grapes, or a sandwich cutter to transform even the most basic ham sandwich, makes lunch more exciting to a four year old child!

Easter Bento Lunch Box

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Spring Bento Lunchbox

March 18, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe 11 Comments

Spring is such an exciting time of year for nurturing the creative spark and capturing children's imaginations. With Easter approaching, signs of Spring are emerging with in my garden with fuchsia buds and clematis shoots, and we even managed to find a few ladybirds and bumblebees on the weekend! I can't think of a better starting point to make lunchboxes more enticing.

Spring Bento Lunchbox

Spring Bento Lunchbox [Read more…]

Bento Lunchboxes

March 18, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe 4 Comments

Around three weeks into the September term, I lost the will to live with packed lunchboxes. The novelty had well and truly worn off for both of us, and The Boy had ventured into the realms of not wanting to try new things. I managed to have one or two variations of sandwiches throughout the week, but the joy of making his lunches was waning. And I couldn't be faced with finding out that he hadn't eaten his lunch, as a teacher I know the importance of children keeping their metabolism and strength going throughout the day via a quality lunch.

That's when I discovered a few simple tricks of using cutters for his sandwiches, buying some fun food picks to decorate the cake or cheese, putting fruit sections into small lidded pots and I bought a fabulous panda-bear lunchbox online.

Bento lunchbox ideas

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Packed Lunches Made Easy With Jungle Dogs

October 9, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe Leave a Comment

Back in August we were lucky enough to be invited to an event in Longleat Safari Pack to launch a brand new, meaty chilled hot dog called 'Jungle Dogs'.

While there are plenty of cured hot dog sausages on the market, Jungle Dogs are significantly better quality as they are made with quality cuts of pork, naturally smoke, and contain no artificial colours or flavours. Significantly it contains no MRM (mechanically recovered meat) which has been used in hot dogs since the 1960s and isn't a very nice thing at all.

At the jungle-themed event, the hotdogs were presented in a number of different ways for the children, designed to tempt and tantalise their tender tastebuds.

Jungle Dogs selection

Jungle Skewers: alternate chunks of Jungle Dogs, cucumber, yellow pepper, and cherry tomato onto a mini skewers.
Jungle Potato Salad: Mix chopped Jungle Dogs, cooked sliced potato, red onion, crème fraîche and mayonnaise.
Wild Lunchbox Wrap: Spread soft cheese or hummous onto a wrap, grate carrot over the top, roll a Jungle Dog up from one end of the wrap.
Lion Bites: Mix ketchup and soft cheese and spread over two slices of bread, slice Jungle Dogs over the bread and make a sandwich, use a paw print or lion cutter to make a wild shape.
Snake Eyes: As with the wraps, spread slices of salami with soft cheese, place a Jungle Dog at one end and roll up. Secure with a cocktail stick.

I've made the skewers and the snake eyes for The Boy for a tea-time meal or light snack, and they've gone down very well. I've also made him the lunchbox wrap several times and he really enjoys them. I am getting bored of making sandwiches for him, I'm sure he's bored of eating them. A Wild Lunchtime Wrap is a far more exciting thing to see in his lunchbox.

Hot Dog Wraps

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Many thanks to Jungle Dogs for inviting us along to the event, The Boy had a great time tasting the yummy hot dogs which Mr. TBaM said were incredibly firm, moist and tasy (I'm vegetarian so couldn't try them). And with 85% pork in them, I'm reassured that The Boy is eating a quality sausage.

Jungle Dogs

We were invited to, and received free entry into, Longleat for this event, and received several packs of sausages and a goody bag. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Ham & Cheese Muffins

September 30, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

I'm quite passionate about a balanced and nutritious packed lunch for school children, forget this nonsense that all children must have school dinners to ensure they are eating the right foods; have you seen how unappetising they are?

As The Boy started school recently, I've been keen to make sure he's interested and eager to open his lunchbox each day, but after a few weeks of varying the fillings of sandwiches and wraps, even I was getting bored of them! I decided to make him savoury muffins (with hidden vegetables) in place of sandwiches, and they went down a treat.

Ham & Cheese Muffins

Makes 12
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

250g/9oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
50g/4oz grated cheese
50g/4oz ham. chopped
2 eggs
300ml semi-skimmed milk
1tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium courgette, grated
1tsp salt
1 medium carrot, grated
pepper for seasoning

Grate the courgette, place in a sieve over a bowl, sprinkle on 1tsp salt and place a small plate on top. This will press all the excess water out of the courgette, the salt helps the liquid drain. Leave for around 10-15 minutes while preparing and mixing the remaining ingredients.
Whisk the two eggs, sunflower oil and milk together, then sift in the flour and baking powder. Slowly fold the mixture together until thoroughly combined.
Rinse the draining courgette to remove excess salt, press out the remaining liquid in kitchen towel.
Fold into the mixture the grated carrot, ham, cheese and courgette and add a small pinch of pepper for seasoning.
Divide between 12 muffin cases and bake in a preheated oven (190°C/170°C fan) for 20-25 minutes.
Use as an alternative to sandwiches in a lunchbox or serve warm with jacket potato, cheese and beans/vegetables for a light dinner.

Ham & Cheese Muffins

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