Preschool Panic: Lunchbox Edition Part II

Mommy doesn't put nearly enough cookies in my lunch.

Once and awhile, I receive emails from readers.  Oftentimes they are to the effect of: "you're a horrible Mother and your kids should be taken away", to which I respond by sending a photo of myself drinking wine and giving them the finger.  I realize it's not the mature way to respond, but it makes me laugh, and really, isn't life all about humor?

Lately, though, I've received some really lovely missives from people who liked my lunchbox post and said that they were inspired by my lunch ideas!  Well, that right there is Hanukkah gift enough for me (unless you're my spouse, in which case you better be purchasing me something from my gift guide).

So, just in case you're in need of a little more Lunch-spiration (cute, what I did there, right?) to carry you through to the end of the school year in a few weeks, I've got another round-up of greatest hits from the Muffin Man's lunch offerings.

But first, I bring to you a few more lunchtime tips:

Buy some tiny cookie cutters.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I purchased a set of these, but I blame it on Pinterest and the fact that I can shop on Amazon while I drink.  Anyway, I bought them and I resisted using them, and then one day I decided to cut the Muffin Man's turkey into flower shapes and he was so excited by it that he actually took the turkey off of the bread and ate it alone.  This is a chid who I practically have to hold down and force feed protein, so the fact that he then asked for more flower-shaped turkey has alleviated all of my guilt about online shopping while tipsy.

Penguin ice packs.  I realize it seems totally ridiculous to purchase fancy ice packs for my kid's lunch, and a few months ago I would have agreed with you.  To my mind, if you already have free ice packs in your freezer (left over from your One Potato shipment, natch), then you have no need to spend money on something else.  While this is good in theory, in practice shoving a giant ice pack in my son's lunch bag not only made it impossible to zip closed, but so heavy that Noah couldn't carry it.  Seriously, the poor kid would pick it up and practically be pulled over on his side thanks to my cheapness.  So I broke down and ordered some of these lightweight ones, and we're all much happier.  Also, you can never really go wrong with penguins.

I totally want to order an OmieBox that has a removable insulated piece that keeps food hot or cold for up to six hours.  What a cool idea - and I love that it was invented by a Mom!

What Noah's noshing:

Pretzel bites with cream cheese and flower-shaped turkey cutouts, yogurt with Trader Joe's Super Seed and Ancient Grain blend, Trader Joe's crispy crunchy broccoli florets, 

strawberries and watermelon.

English muffin with melted cheese and turkey (with ketchup for dipping), 

Trader Joe's crunchy coconut and cashews, organic sugar snap peas, grapes and clementines

Carrots and cucumbers, Trader Joe's organic hummus, Food Should Taste Good crackers and Trader Joe's goat milk cheddar cheese, blackberries and strawberries

Crunch Master gluten free multi-grain crackers with soft goat cheese, clementine and strawberries, cucumber and sweet pepper, Lucky Cow jerky, sweet potato mini muffins

Gluten free corn pasta with olive oil and parmesan, cucumbers and black olives, Trader Joe's freeze dried strawberries, apples with Barney Butter almond butter

Edamame and brown rice, Trader Joe's freeze dried raspberries, grapes and clementines, 

pretzel bite with goat cheese.  

I really need to start packing lunches for myself, because the leftovers I've been scavenging from the Little Lady's high chair really aren't cutting it.