All Wrapped Up

I'm sure I sound like a broken record here...
Wait, you all remember records, don't you? I mean, I loved records. In fact, I still have my old record player that is built into it's own case. My daughter now gets to listen to my stacks of books on record and read along with them. You know, when she isn't on the iPad... Wow, I digress.

Okay, so where was I? Broken record? Oh yeah. I'm sure I've said it many times. I love making wraps and pinwheel sammies for lunch. You can stuff them with 'regular' sandwich ingredients or you can cram your favorite salad in them. You can even stuff them with things that a sandwich would never be a good vessel for. This wrap is a good example of that with lots of chunky veggies that would normally just slide out of your sandwich bread.

Greek quinoa salad, checkerboard apples, pizza string cheese, and a wrap made with cream cheese, pesto, baby spinach, cucumber, carrots, and avocado.

This particular lunch was a full wrap for the hubby, but you can easily serve half a wrap, or cut them in pinwheels for younger kids. While you can use just about any type of 'glue' in your wrap like mayo, mustard, dressings, hummus, etc, I encourage you to try mixing fresh herbs or pesto with cream cheese. It is so, so good! When my kiddo was really little, the only way she'd eat veggies or pasta was slathered with pesto. She'd even eat pesto by the spoonful. So, every once in a while, I remember and toss some in for her (and mom and dad too). Yum!

In this lunch...

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Apple Picking

I can't believe I've never been apple picking, which, in turn, means the kiddo hasn't been either. We make it a point every year to visit our local apple farm for apples, fresh cider, and donuts, but it had never occurred to me to pick our own apples, since they don't offer that option. This past week, we've been reading lots of apple books as an extension of an apple-themed week at Preschool, so it seemed like the perfect time to try it out. We headed to a different local farm, Leaman's Green Applebarn Family Orchard. This place was so much fun with a little putt-putt golf range, huge play area, tractor pulled barrel ride for the kids, animals, corn maze, walking paths, and, of course, an orchard that we could pick our own apples. In addition, we happened on a weekend where they had an educational scavenger hunt of sorts that with the completed form, we got free donuts, which were delicious. Bonus! We brought a trio of lunches along to the orchard, and had an apple theme, of course. Now, we just have to decide what delicious goodies to make with our bounty of apples. We picked several varieties we've never tried before, so I'm excited just to cut into them. Yum!

Red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, pasta salad, Boar's Head roast turkey, Swiss cheese, multigrain crackers, and apples (in our PBK dual compartment box).

Mama's lunch - Boar's Head cajun turkey, cream cheese, and spinach wrap, apples, orange and yellow bell peppers, Swiss cheese, and pasta salad.

Daddy's lunch - Boar's Head cajun turkey, cream cheese, and spinach sandwich, apples, orange and yellow bell peppers, Swiss cheese, and pasta salad.

For some other great apple themed lunches, be sure and visit some of my Bento Blogger Friends, too!
Becoming a Bentoholic
Bento for Kidlet
Bent On Better Lunches
JDaniel4's Mom
Keeley McGuire 
Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys

In these lunches...

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Wrapped Up Pizza

I've been playing around with some new variations on the traditional 'wrapped' sandwich, and today did a pizza wrap for the hubby. It would be really fantastic with some bell pepper, black olives, and mushrooms. I'm finding that a tortilla or flatbread can be made to transform nearly any favorite flavor combination into a fun, unique lunch. Plus, there is so much versatility in a flatbread. I'm thinking Naan bread with hummus, roasted red peppers and feta cheese or an oriental chicken salad wrap next. Hey, isn't a burrito just a wrapped up Mexican feast, too? Yum!

The top tier has a whole wheat wrap with tomato paste, turkey pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese, and vanilla Greek yogurt in the container. The bottom tier has bell peppers, celery, watermelon, cantaloupe, and a chocolate treat.

In this lunch...

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Wrap It Up

Last week was the first week of nice weather for us (finally), and there is nothing like pasta salad and veggie wraps to speak of spring or summer to me. As far back as I can recall, a regular staple meal for warm, lazy (or crazy) days, at home, but especially up at Hubbard Lake, consisted of a plethora of veggies and cheeses (meats if you please) all wrapped up and eaten with chips and/or pasta salad. No cooking required. Very little cleanup required, too, since most of the scraps get picked at and eaten or just tossed together for salad the next day. The best thing is that everyone can build their own and eat what they like, and it's fun!

Lay out your goodies, some knives and plates, assemble and enjoy! We normally just pull out whatever veggies are in the fridge and have plenty of choices, but I did notice on this day, I was missing zucchini and sprouts, two favorites of mine in these wraps. Alas. We still had peppers, cucumber, carrots, radish, olives, tomato, lettuce, avocado, egg, and a couple of cheeses, plus condiments (or salad dressing). They really are delicious!

It is also a major bonus to these yummy wraps that the kiddo loves to be involved in preparing what she's eating. What kid doesn't want to be able to pick and choose their favorites to build their meal around, right? This is one of those meals where everyone in the family really can have a say in what they have, for sure.

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring, or so says the almanac. For me, not so much. The snowfall from yesterday has stopped for the moment, but it's a whopping 20 degrees and more snow and sleet are expected this evening. Still, I put together some Spring inspired lunches to hopefully help us get a jump on the season even if Mother Nature hasn't gotten the memo yet.

Baby yellow and red bell peppers (one stuffed with cream cheese, and the other stuffed with black olives), green pepper, carrots, mini flower sandwiches (two are cheddar, apple, and peanut butter, and the other two are salami, Trader Joe's white bean hummus, and Swiss cheese). In the top white section, there are blackberries, cocoa roasted almonds, and yogurt raisins.

I had fun making the little stuffed baby bell peppers. For the most part, I just used a regular knife, but I also had a chance to use this fun little tool. I think they turned out pretty good, and certainly colorful flowers are one of the things I most associate with spring!

I sent the hubby with a Spring lunch, too. What did I eat? Scraps! Really, I don't mind. I find myself actually eating lunch if I have to make one for someone else. Otherwise, I rarely eat during the day and then am ravenous by dinnertime. So, Cheese, veggies, bread, fruit, nuts...I'd say that is a pretty good lunch any way you look at it.

Trader Joe's dried coconut strips, cocoa roasted almonds, multi-colored bell peppers stuffed with Laughing Cow Swiss cheese and carrots, blackberries, yogurt raisins in the container, and a wrap stuffed with cheddar and Swiss cheese, yellow bell pepper, asparagus, tomato, and Trader Joe's white bean hummus.

In these lunches...

It's a Wrap

Today's lunches were a combination effort for kiddo and hubby. I like when I can make lunches for both of them at the same time, usually with the same ingredients. I found a Rachel Ray post a while back about mixing Laughing Cow wedges with shredded cucumber and using that spread in a wrap. I took that idea and went with it. For the kiddo, I used Swiss wedges, and for hubby, I used French Onion. Yum!

Watermelon, grapes, carrots, crunchy peanut butter/Greek yogurt mixture, pistachios, wraps with Laughing Cow Swiss wedges, cucumber, turkey, and carrots, and 1/2 piece chocolate left from Valentine's Day.

Wraps with Laughing Cow French Onion wedges, cucumber, turkey, pepper jack scraps, and dijon mustard on the side, watermelon, carrots, cucumber, veggie dip in container, Chobani Bite caramel pineapple Greek yogurt, grapes, pomegranate cashews, and a chocolate.

This is a good opportunity to mention what happens to some of the scraps we inevitably create when making fun shapes in our lunches. Much of the time, the scraps are mama's lunch, but sometimes, the scrap piles build up and then I throw them in salads or wraps, just as I did for hubby's today. In this case, it was the pepper jack scraps.

In these lunches...