Leftovers for Lunch

Leftovers for lunch seem to be an obvious answer, but sometimes obvious and I don't get along. Thanks to a Becoming A Bentoholic, I'm reminded each week that leftovers are the perfect solution when I can't figure out what to make or pack. I made a big batch of cheese enchiladas last night, and while kiddo and I shared some at home, hubby got to take his to work with him. And, I have a secret in my enchiladas. It's a secret that my Hispanic neighbor shared with me years ago, and now I can't live without when I make them. They taught me to use a bit of small curd cottage cheese spread in the tortilla, along with the traditional shredded, of course. It is creamy and delicious. Give it a try next time. It will be your little secret now!

Vanilla Greek yogurt w/ chopped orange infused dark and white chocolate, cheese enchiladas, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream.

In this lunch...

Simple Snacker

While this really is a complete, light lunch (with milk) for my kiddo, these snacker-style presentations seem to be the easiest to execute, and some of the most well-received. Win-win! And, when it comes to using up scraps or the little bits of something left in the fridge, these are fabulous. Win again!

 Red bell pepper, dried mango, pistachios, Wheat Thins, mini 3 Musketeers bar, turkey pepperoni, and Colby-jack cheese chunks.

In this lunch...
 

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...

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I was so torn on what books to draw lunch inspiration from that hubby even got a Seuss packed lunch. It dawned on me a little too late that I hadn't even done Cat in the Hat! How is that possible? Well, that just means that Seuss will be making a reappearance next week! For this lunch, The Sneetches were the subject, and while the fella on the left turned out pretty cute, I can't quite figure out what went wrong with the one on the right. Um, yeah. Oh well. He was just having a bad day with no star, I guess. The red apple slices were my nod to the infamous hat, so I guess the cat did play a tiny supporting role in the lunch after all. Be sure and peek back at yesterday's post with bentos inspired by Green Eggs & Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Turkey & Swiss sandwich, cheddar cheese, Trader Joe's yogurt stars, cucumber, orange bell pepper, and Braeburn apple.


In this lunch...
 

Dr. Seuss Day - Read Across America

Tomorrow is Read Across America Day, celebrated annually on Dr. Seuss's birthday. There is no better way I can think to celebrate than sharing a quiet corner with my daughter, and a pile of our favorite Dr. Seuss books, and there are a lot of them! I grew up with Dr. Seuss. I don't know a kid that hasn't or doesn't. From simple board book stories like Mr. Brown to horribly fantastic tongue twisters to Oh, the Places You'll Go, which I received from my parents when I graduated high school, and everything in between, I really do love them all. And, now, with my own kiddo, I get to discover his humor, love, wit, and genius all over again, finding meaning in many of his words and worlds that I would have never found before I was a mom. Thank you, Dr. Seuss. You were, are, and will always be an absolute literary treasure.

It was so hard to decide what books or ideas to focus on for lunches, but I settled on Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and a couple others (check back tomorrow). Say, see if you can see my inspiration in the pages of these books, too!

Cucumbers, pears, Swiss and cheddar cheese, hard boiled egg, and Applegate organic ham.

First, here are a couple quotes from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish ... This one has a little star. This one has a little car. Say! what a lot of fish there are."

Hard boiled egg (that one had a little cheese star), cucumbers, pears, red Goldfish crackers (those ones have a little cheese car), and Swiss cheese.

For the cheese in these lunches, we just used inexpensive Better Crocker food markers. They go on more like a paintbrush than a marker, and because of that, are way nicer to work with than Wilton markers. I have yet to try Americolor, but they are pricey, and these seem to do the job just fine for now!

 

 In these lunches...