Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Break Through? Maybe.

Today of course was not a school day. Today was a busy day filled with soccer and a Harvest Festival at a local church. However, between soccer and the Harvest Festival I had to make lunch for K and her best friend M who is spending the weekend. M is a fantastic eater and even eats things I won't eat like mushrooms and sushi. EW! I watch her eat and just wish K would eat as well as M does. Well, whenever M is here she is always reduced to eating the same boring foods that K is. I had never really thought to make her anything different before yesterday. But yesterday, I thought to myself am I really going to feed this poor child who can eat anything something off of K's menu? NO! So, I thought and thought. Hmm! Then it came to me! Both girls are huge fans of iCarly so why don't I make spaghetti tacos for lunch. K will only eat pasta with butter sauce and salt. As a baby she did eat spaghetti sauce and we have proof of it. I couldn't make up my mind on just one. 










 We recently visited a dietitian who suggested letting K pick out the pasta sauce and have her stir in just enough to make her spaghetti pasta red. Today, we used Barilla spaghetti pasta and Ragu sauce flavored with meat. No big chucks of tomato or anything just enough to give the noodles color for K. Well, she did it grudgingly. M and I mixed up the rest of the sauce and pasta real good so we got the yummy chucks. You know I am new to this whole blogging thing and didn't think to take a picture for the blog. Really I wasn't even thinking about blogging about this until I sat down at my computer and what a big step this was for K and I wanted it down in writing. Anyway, SHE ATE IT! M said it was very good. I was so happy. 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lunch #23

Oh my, do I need to go shopping we are out of just about everything. Hopefully, I can find time to stop by the grocery store tomorrow. It is going to be a busy weekend. I have fridays off so I am volunteering to help set-up the book fair tomorrow. Tomorrow night I will be scooping up a second child for the weekend. K's best friend M. Then we will be off to Family Fun Night (Halloween Party) at K's school. Anyway, back to today's sad lunch. It was a yellow day I guess.


K's snack:
-Cheetos Flaming Hot Limon (Daddy bought them for her.)

Her lunch:
-crackers and pepperoni
-Dole's pineapple
-sliced yellow peppers
-string cheese
-3 Gummi Bears


K doesn't like many things but she loves her bell peppers (no green please.)


String Cheese with a spoon. The spoon is for the pineapple but it fit so well with the cheese that is where it ended up.


These crackers and pepperoni are from the Hormel snack pack minus the cheddar cheese. K doesn't like cheddar cheese (makes me wonder if she was switched at birth). ;)


Dole pineapple cubes drained and rinsed.

HOPE you all have a happy Friday tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Lunch #22

I don't have much to say today so on with K's lunch.


For her recess snack:
Oats 'n Honey granola bar

In this lunch is:
-Carrots
-Pineapple and strawberries
-Yogurt covered pretzels
-Pepperoni/mozzarella sandwiches
-Gummy Bears 


K saw a dietitian on Monday. K had liked carrots up until the last time I gave them to her in her lunch. The dietitian got it out of K that she no longer liked them because she got one that was so hard to bite she thought she was going to break her teeth. The dietitian suggested slicing them up so they were easier to bite into. So that is what I did this morning. I asked K after school if that helped and she said yes it did. Hmm!


The strawberries were fresh and the pineapple is Dole's. I drained the syrup and rinsed them in water and patted them dry. I stuck the cute Panda pick in the strawberries so K wouldn't have to use her hands to touch the fruit.


K's sandwiches are from a punch/press. Now that I have learned you are suppose to punch everything out individually and then make your sandwich they came out much nicer. The sandwiches are pepperoni, mozzarella on white whole wheat bread with mustard. In the middle are three flowers cut from a fruit strip with my veggie cutter.


Here are some yogurt pretzels. K won't eat yogurt but she will eat yogurt pretzels. haha


And this is what came home uneaten. UGH!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Review of the Planetbox Rover System

Since K bought lunch today I decided I (we) would review her Planetbox Rover Complete System. I have to tell you a friend of mine first purchased and turned me on to the Planetbox. My friend J is very green and wanted to make no waste lunches for her 2 kids. I believe she purchased 2 systems a year + ago and still has not used them because she is afraid her kids will lose them. Oh wait...back to me and K. It took me a good 6 months before I made the plunge. The cost is very scary unless you are made of money which I am not but some times think I am. ;) If you read my very first post you know K is a very picky eater. I thought the Planetbox would help me put together healthier lunches that were easy for K to eat.

K picked the perfectly pink Carry Bag with the groovy magnets. 

The Planetbox fits perfectly in the carry bag even when open. We put the ice pack in that black mesh area you can see in the picture below on your left.

It comes with a big dipper (left) and a little dipper (right) for wet foods.



We paid extra for the fork and spoon. K has used the fork once.


Compartment #1 is for your main dish. See the 4 raised bumps that is where you would put the big dipper if your main dish is a wet food like yogurt.


Compartment #2 is for fruits.


Compartment #3 is (where the little Planetbox symbol is) for a small dessert.


 Compartment #4 is for vegetables (see the raised 4 bumps that is where you would put the little dipper maybe filled with Ranch for the veggies).


Last, is the compartment #5. You could put pretzels, string cheese, chips or Pocky sticks in there.


So after about 2 months of using the Planetbox Complete Rover system here is what K and I found:

K's review
    Pros:                        Cons:
Food doesn't touch       too heavy
                       looks cool                    popcorn & chips get soggy 
                                                                      from condensation from ice pack

My review
Pros:                                                               Cons:
helps make healthy lunches                                price
no squashed lunches from kids stepping on it                             can't be microwaved
                    promotes waste free lunches               compartments are not leak-proof

After all is said and done I would definitely buy the Planetbox again however it would not have been my first waste-free lunch box choice. I think if I could go back I would have bought a microwaveable lunchbox first and then a Planetbox when I had the money. Actually, a Laptop Lunchbox is en route to our home now.

Please note: I am not paid by any supplier for my reviews. I have paid retail price for all products seen in my blog unless I have been lucky enough to find an online coupon or a sale. 

Monday, October 22, 2012

Lunch #21

Okay, I am back on track. This is K's lunch for today.


She had yellow bell pepper slices, strawberries, yogurt covered pretzels, crackers and pepperoni (10 each). One cracker came home.  Tomorrow she is buying lunch. I have some other news I would like to share so I will take tomorrow to share one item. I guess on the days she buys lunch I will take those days to share other info/ideas. 

Lunch #20

October 17th K bought lunch again. On the 18th we tried something different. 


Since K has decided she doesn't like bread. Lord only knows why! She said I would use tortillas. So, last Thursday K took to school a pepperoni wraps with mustard (yup, that's it), strawberries, sugar snap peas yogurt covered pretzels and for snack (which I don't often use) pineapple wedges. Just a few pineapple wedges came home. K said it was because they were soggy.

Lunch #19

Last Monday the 15th K bought school lunch. On the 16th I don't know what happened. I made lunch for her but only have an after picture. It was not a happy day.


She had left her Planetbox at school so she was not able to eat her leftovers in the car on the way home or to the my allergist appointment. This lunch was slices of bacon (which she begged for), flower cut out cantaloupe, black olives and garden style Sun Chips. The Sun Chips are gone of course. They are one of her favorite snacks.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Lunch #18

Once again I am late in posting! I have been laid up in bed with a migraine for  2 1/2 days. This lunch contained Trader Joe's movie theater popcorn, cherry tomatoes, pineapple and a pile of Ritz crackers, pile of pepperoni and pile of pepperjack cheese. I say a PILE because my husband glance at this photograph and said, "You gave K one pepperoni! You are starving her!


I really liked the popcorn idea but both times K asked me not to put it in her lunch. She said it gets soggy from either the cold pack or the juices from the other foods and who wants to eat soggy popcorn. She really likes the pepperjack cheese so I think we found a winner but I will keep trying other cheeses and she if she can find a few she enjoys.  

Due to the soggy popcorn and not being able to warm up anything I really have my eye on type of lunchbox... Laptop Lunches Bento-Ware. I am liking their idea because K can microwave certain parts of her lunch. This is becoming more and more appealing to me as K does not have that many main dish options. I have been trying to win all kinds of lunchbox giveaways to try out different ones but have yet to win. Boo hoo!

Tomorrow (which is actually October 17th) K will be buying lunch. Oh, she did take lunch today but I was in no shape for picture taking. I thought my head was going to explode. I am feeling better now so hopefully the migraine is on its way out.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Lunch #18

Okay, I thought K was buying lunch today but that is next Wednesday. Ugh! When I noticed we were already running short on time this morning. K insisted I pack a lunch. So, I rushed and packed without thinking about what I was doing. She got baby carrots (I don't know where they came from honestly. They just appeared in the refrigerator.), cantaloupe pieces, Ritz crackers with bologna and mozzarella again (since we are out of bacon and pepperoni) and Trader Joe's pretzel slims.


I have no picture for you again as she ATE IT ALL. I keep waiting for the big let down but it hasn't come. HOORAY!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Lunch #17

I always want to shop at Trader Joe's and never do. "Why?" you ask. I'll tell you why because the closest Trader Joe's to my house is up the street and the parking is worse than trying to find parking in Newport Beach during the summer. Okay, it may not be that bad but it is a close second. Then one day while I was going to my friend's house to scrap book I passed a Trader Joe's on the same street as mine just farther north (no more than 5 minutes). So, I decided to try that one as the parking lot seems HUGE. I took K with me to try to get her to pick out some new things to try. That went as well as a dentist visit. Anyway, here is what I packed for today's lunch in her Planetbox. Ritz crackers with pumpkin shaped bologna and mozzarella cheese, sugar snap peas, pineapple (from Trader Joe's), Movie Theater Popcorn (from Trader Joe's), Cuties (for snack; I usually don't take a picture of her snack), 2 gummy bears and some Chocolate Sunflower Seed Drops (from Trader Joe's; they are just sunflower seeds covered with candy hard shelled chocolate). I wasn't sure she liked them since she pitched a fit in the store when I put them in the cart. So I added the 2 gummy bears so she would have a treat I knew she would like.


It was another good day; an empty Planetbox came home. Tomorrow K is going to buy lunch.

Lunch #16

All right, I am getting pretty excited about K's Planetbox coming home empty. For October 4th's lunch K took sugar snap peas, cantaloupe shaped flowers, Cheetos with sour cream in the little dipper, Dove chocolate and bacon again. K said the bacon is the best part of the lunches now. I tried to explain bacon couldn't happen everyday as it is not all that healthy for you but she doesn't care. She loves her bacon!


So, again an empty Planetbox comes home. So pleased! She said she even shared a piece of bacon with her best friend at the lunch table (even they are told not to share). Her best friend told her she is so lucky because she gets bacon for lunch. lol

Fridays are Pizza days at school so K buys lunch and Monday she is buying lunch as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY K! Lunch #15

October 3rd was K's 8th birthday. My time has flown by way too fast. I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.


Okay, back to lunch! K's birthday was packed with Gardetto's snacks, raspberries, bacon slices and a ton of black olives. I found the black olives in the refrigerator and was afraid they wouldn't last too many more days so I packed them all in. 


So even though it was K's birthday she gave me a present; an empty lunchbox when she got home. I love it! I felt no need for a picture of an empty lunchbox.

Lunch #14

Once again I have fallen behind. If it is not one thing it is another. This was last Tuesday's lunch I packed for K. As usual it was packed in her Planetbox. I packed Cherry tomatoes, Cheez-It, Cuties, gummi bears and pumpkin shaped mozzarella cheese and bologna. I am trying to pack less to see if I get an empty lunchbox back.


Not too bad! This is what was left when I checked K's Planetbox when we got home. I was pretty happy. 



Monday, October 1, 2012

Lunches #11, #12 & #13

Wow, it is crazy how quickly you can get backed up if you don't post daily. I think I have said that before but I will say it again. K has been feeling under the weather so I have been focusing on her. This was last Wednesday's lunch. K had snap peas, bunny cantaloupe, Ritz crackers, pepperoni rounds and mozzarella cheese flowers. My thought was she could make her own lunchables. I have been trying out different cheeses as K says I don't like cheese but I know she does. She eats pizza, grilled cheese, and quesadillas for crying out loud. 


Well, I am back to taking pictures of what comes back home. Not too back. Not sure why she moved the crackers and pepperoni. However, she did tell me that crackers broke a little when I closed the lid. Do you see cheese? I don't! The mozzarella was the winner.


So I am still trying to pack a little less to avoid wasting. This was last Thursday's lunch. K had sliced red bell peppers, bear cantaloupe, grapes and a salad. My husband said, "Where is the protein?" Oops! Well, she said she wanted a salad.


And this is what came home. UGH! Will I ever get it right? I know I can't ask to have an empty lunch every single day but come on once in a while would be nice and why can't I have an empty lunchbox every single day? What a long run on sentence. But that is the way I said it in my head so that is the way I typed it.


Friday was a staff development day so there was no school. K had a play date with a boy in her class. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed the next day in her weekend.

Today, Monday, K is still not feeling well. She has a cough and a low grade fever. She hates to miss school so I give her the usual instructions. If you feel you can't make it have the office call me at work and I will come get you. She is such a trooper! She made it through the day in terrible 109 degree weather. For lunch, K had cucumber slices, raspberries, green chips (as she calls them; they are really Sun Chips) and homemade lunchables again (Ritz cracker, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese leaves).


Can I tell you how overjoyed I am? Look what came home. NOTHING! I love it. Praying tomorrow brings some of the same.