Turkey week

It's Thanksgiving week in the states, and here in Colorado the kids are out of school for the whole week. I know, I know, I don't really agree with it either, but it means my boys get to hang out with my visiting parents a lot more.

No bentos this week; it's going to be a week of scavenge stuff out of the fridge or eat out BUT DON'T TOUCH THAT IT'S FOR THURSDAY!

Bentos, heavy on the turkey leftovers, will return next week.

They ate this!

Will wonders never cease, my children actually ate a lunch I sent. It did not involve peanut butter or Halloween candy or dipping everything in honey. I'm a little verklempt...excuse me...ok, better now.

Nothing fancy, just tasty. Edamame, homemade pumpkin bread, red grapes, and Naked Nuggets with ketchup for dipping. I love Naked Nuggets; they're grilled chicken nuggets, so they're awesome in this gluten-free household. Healthier than the breaded and fried scary things too. A NOTE ABOUT THE NAKED NUGGETS IN THIS LUNCH: I received two bags of Naked Nuggets as a writer here on Colorado Bento. Not to review, but to put in lunches and see how they go as a bento item. Oh, and because I'm an awesome person. But mainly because Denise arranged it. She's awesomer. I'm a huge fan of Naked Nuggets and hope to heck they return to my Costco.
One popular lunch here. Today's probably won't be as successful, but I'll take what I can get; one a week right now will make me happy.

Bits and pieces

My youngest son is the world's s.l.o.w.e.s.t. eater. Seriously, the slowest eater ever. Have I mentioned he's slow? Most days he doesn't eat most of his lunch, simply because there's not enough time...and he's slow. So he requested a "little bites" lunch, simply because he might have a chance of actually eating most of it. And I obliged. What we have here is a cheese sandwich cut into eight pieces (bite-sized), mac 'n cheese puffs, mandarin orange, and homemade pumpkin bread. Let's hope it comes home empty.

Packing Lunch Again... Post Move!

Oh boy, moving has put a real speed bump in my bento inspiration! Most mornings we are trying to get something nourishing out the door in a flash and a few days it was even in a brown bag! The majority of my bento supplies are in storage, so we are down to the absolute basics. Two laptop lunches and a couple Japanese bentos are all I have in my 1000sqft apartment. In a month we'll be settled into our real home and I'm already devising ways to organize my bentos in the new kitchen!

Whole wheat tortilla gently melted in the toaster oven, cukes, baby carrots, pirate's booty, and some raspberries.

Sadly, no Halloween bentos

I wish I had a good reason for not decorating up the boys' lunches the last few weeks, but I don't. I could go with "I don't have any Halloween lunch stuff," and while that is technically correct, still no excuse for not trying to carve a wee pumpkin out of cheese or something. The real reason is 1) they wouldn't appreciate it, 2) they wouldn't notice it, 3) I just didn't give a hoot, 4) all of the above.
Yes, the answer is indeed #4.

But hey, they have Halloween candy in there, so that counts for something, right? There's also a peanut butter and apple butter (homemade and canned by moi) sandwich on GF bread, tortilla chips, carrot strips, and Thousand Island dressing for dip. How much did they eat? A couple bites of the sandwich, maybe a single carrot strip with all the dressing (I'm thinking they used that as their beverage), a corn chip or two, and all of the blasted candy. Needless to say, there will be no candy in future lunches for awhile.
And because I'm all about keeping it real, yes, those are crumbs all over God's creation up there.