Lovely Leftovers

The leftovers in today's lunch aren't particularly "lovely" to look at; they were just lovely to pack because I had to do the grocery shopping last night so wasn't ready to pack lunch until almost midnight. I had told BunnieB that I would not be packing her lunch tonight, but she begged so sincerely & sweetly that I somehow found the energy to pack it after putting away the groceries.

The menu for today (clockwise from bottom left) is:

• A donut peach & plain blueberries with cute plastic picks.
  
• Pasta salad (left over from supper 2 nights ago)
• Pre-packaged cookie (I didn't buy these; they were a gift)
• 1/4 of a bean & cheese burrito (left over from bento lunch last Friday)
• PB&J mini-sandwiches cut in the shapes of little hearts
• Water (frozen in a new Klean Kanteen 0.3L jar with sippy cup top)

VERDICT:

Donut peach - Yum!

Plain blueberries - She ate them but I think is getting tired of them.

Pasta Salad - Avoided the vegetables in it but otherwise a hit.

Burrito - Still a hit!

Pre-packaged cookie - No brainer.

Water - Two thumbs down -- it didn't stay cold in the Klean Kanteen, and the "sweat" got everything in her backpack wet.

PREPARATION DETAILS:

Donut peach. According to other bento websites, these are popular for bento lunches since they are so small. They are definitely cute! I showed Miss Picky the small bruised area and warned her that it would be mushy so to just cut it out (if she happened to eat that first, the entire peach would have been rejected; if I cut it out in the morning, the exposed flesh would be brown by lunchtime and she'd reject the entire peach!).

Plain blueberries. Carefully selected only firm blueberries. "Mushy" ones are always rejected out of hand.

Pasta salad. Made this for supper 2 nights ago & she liked it (though picked out all semblances of vegetables first). Just boiled Barilla Plus pasta (a fiber- and protein-enriched pasta), rinsed it in cold water, threw in some leftover cut-up tomatoes & garlic, and tossed it all with well-shaken Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.

Burrito. Left over from BunnieB's bento on Friday. I reheated it for about 20 seconds in the microwave, then allowed it to cool on the counter before packing.

PB&J mini-sandwiches. Another idea from The Vegan Lunchbox. I made PB&J sandwiches using are usual peanut butter (Smucker's Natural), whatever jelly I had on hand (All Fruit strawberry), and BunnieB's usual bread (Nature's Own WhiteWheat - she won't eat whole wheat but at least this bread has extra calcium, protein, and fiber). The I cut them into little heart shapes using a metal cookie cutter (50 cents at The Kitchen Collection in Blowing Rock). Had a couple left over so I put them in the freezer for some other time.

Miss Picky won't eat sandwiches that have gotten "wet" which seems to happen easily with WhiteWheat. So I left the packed lunchbox partially open in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately this resulted in the top layer of mini-sandwiches becoming very dry, so I had to throw those away.

Water. Today I am testing out a new purchase: a pink Klean Kanteen stainless steel drinking bottle from Footsloggers (Green Mother Goods also carries Klean Kanteen, but only in plain steel color). I wanted uncoated stainless steel on the inside, since BunnieB drinks a lot of water and I wanted to avoid the potential health hazards of plastic and aluminum bottles.

It's the smallest size Klean Kanteen makes, and it comes with a valved sippy-cup lid. Hopefully other kids won't make fun of her for having a "baby" bottle (it looks odd enough that they might not realize that's what it is).

Filled it with water and froze it overnight; it was already "sweating" heavily when I took it out. We'll have to see if the "sippy cup" top leaks as the ice melts.