Teacher Cannot Live by Apples Alone 2015

Miss M helped to make her Teachers' gifts' this year. Waldorf inspired salad in cute little apple lunch boxes.

Rather happy with how they turned out!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Miscellaneous Mummy Lunches

I have been feeling a bit rushed of late and although I am still taking lunch each day, they are rather repetitive and so I haven't been recording them. Pie-day-Friday and once a week toasties (which have been twice a week or more) and then leftovers have been all I seem to be able to achieve for myself. I still look forward to the break though :-)

Leftovers, vegetables, rice and corned beef

Muffin pizzas, crackers and dip

Ham bread roll with pasta salad (packet pasta, frozen veg and corn relish - yum!)

Lasagne and salad

Yumcha box with sweet & sour sauce

Crisp bread with cheese and tomato

And why, yes, that _is_ chocolate hiding under my salt & pepper!

Salad and a lamington.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Halloween Lunches

We didn't really go all out with Halloween lunches this year, but I did make the girls little Jack-o-Lantern lunches for Honey's last day of the week.

Miss M had pumpkin scone with FooFoodler detail, passionfruit with yoghurt, sandwich and a Lindt ball and juice in her pimped Juice in the Box.

Honey also had a Jack-o-lantern sandwich and a pumpkin scone. The rest of her lunch consisted of leftovers, yoghurt and watermelon.

Miss M had show & share on Friday and the theme was 'Favourite Food'. She decided cake was her favourite food, so we whipped up a batch to share and I used our trusty Lunch Punch to give her one in her lunchbox too :-)

This was one of my lunches for the week.

Easy Lunchbox Dinners

 For the school holidays I chose to trial working less days but for longer hours, which meant that the girls would most likely be aiming up for dinner at around their pick up time if not earlier, so I packed them dinner as well as lunch!

 And while I was packing their dinner, I made one for myself as lunch. I had Ferrero Rocher for my dessert instead of healthy yoghurt like the girls did. We all had garlic bread, lasagne muffins and salad.

I love these Texas Muffin cups I picked up in New Zealand last time we were there. They are a little tall for the Easy Lunchboxes but make a great sized meal. I made the lasagnes on the weekend prior and froze these babies ready to pack on the fly which made these dinner super quick to assemble. All I had to do was toss in some salad, some story bought garlic bread, and the variations on dessert.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Mummy Lunch Monday

It's just another Mummy Lunch Monday. . . 

Sorry - I've got Manic Monday by the Bangles stuck in my head :-)

Mr Loving made spaghetti & meatballs last weekend. I love packing my lunch the same time as serving dinner!

Also had roast pork over the weekend so I nabbed some to make a pork, potato & gravy roll. Flashback childhood favourite <3 Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. Must served with a milkshake!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

More Mushrooms for Mummy

 A couple more of the lunches and snacks that have sustained me through my working week :-)

Loaded potatoes, roast pumpkin, peas & corn

strawberry hearts with peanut butter-Nutella dip

Nibbles for the markets!

Chicken crimpy biscuits with gherkin dip - its there any better combination?

Apple slices with peanut butter-Nutella dip

Doubling up on the silicon cups to make a lid

English muffin pizza with dinner roll garlic bread

Spaghetti Bolognese with dinner roll garlic bread

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Happy Bento Book Tour

Have you heard the buzz? There's a new Bento book on the shelves! I've loved Anna Adden's work over at Becoming a Bentoholic for some time now, and when the opportunity arose to review her new book Happy Bento!: Lunches on the Go I jumped at the chance.

Anna clearly & concisely walks you through the basics of Bento - from what it is and 'tools of the trade' to techniques to help you achieve the types of lunches pictured in her book. Basic Bentos, Fun Bentos, Special Days, and Season Bentos are all accompanied by crisp and colourful photos with each lunch detailing supplies, ingredients and directions. Where needed photo tutorials are also included. I love that this book covers everything from simple basic bentos and techniques through to somethings that are more advanced and complicated. Something for everyone!

I decided to replicate her Super Mario Bros inspired lunch, not only because it is so cute, but because I've been wanting to make one in my mushroom lunchbox ever since I got it!

I replaced the hotdogs in the book with corndog muffins as we've just been to the circus and I can't get that side-show staple Dagwood Dogs out of my head! Following the directions in the book made creating the Piranha Plant a breeze, although I used regular spaghetti instead of angel hair pasta and didn't cut the small circles from the plant which wold have made it that extra bit cuter.

I bought cherry tomatoes instead of grape but I still think they look quite cute, don't you?

I love this lunch so much I'm taking it to work for myself!

(By the way, if you're quick there's a copy of Happy Bento!: Lunches on the Go up for grabs on Becoming a Bentoholic right now - and the giveaway is open world wide! Check out this post for details.)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was offered nor provided. This post was written for Loving Lunches and Becoming a Bentoholic who provided an e-copy of the book to review. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

How Much Can a Mushroom Hold?

 Turns out, quite a bit! I packed this leftovers-for-lunch to take to work, but didn't end up eating it there.

This was taken when the lunch was packed, Monday evening.

 This was taken when I got home Wednesday.

 The still cold meal dished up on a plate to give you an idea of how much you really can fit into these lunch boxes. Mashed potato with parsley, broccoli, turkey, brown onion gravy, carrots, roast pumpkin.

And warmed through when everything starts to spread a little.

What do you think? Does it look more or less than you expected?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Mummy Lunch Monday Round Up

I'm thinking I might make this a regular segment, what do you think? Here's some of my work lunches. I only have a 15 minutes break so need to make sure my lunches are filling and quick to consume.

Sweet Potato & Pear Soup (recipe here) with bread crust croutons and strawberries

Bread crust crumbed chicken nuggets, chocolate treat, with stuffed potatoes, edamame, and roast pumpkin

I thought I'd resisted making a face until I looked at the photos ;-)

Sausages and eggs with bread to be tasted at work. I also packed what I needed to make a 'bowl of tea' in the lid of my lunchbox. Ahh, the comforts of home when watching the clock on a lunch break!

All packed in my Magical Garden Lunchbox

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Mummy Lunch Round Up

Some of the lunches I've been taking to work with me :-)

Spaghetti Marinara with parmesan and fresh parsley.

Pasta Bolognese with garlic butter dinner roll

Cheat chicken pie with lamington

Cheat chicken pie with passionfruit yoghurt kin

Normandy Chicken Leftover Lunch

 Another Mummy Lunch from my first week back at work. Rather than sticking to the traditional 3 part carb, 2 parts fruit/veg, 1 part protein I tried to stick more to the guidelines I had on a placemat a few years ago (I can't even remember which arm of the government I picked it up from and it seems to have been lost in the move :-( ). I aimed for 3 parts veg, 2 part carb (in this case mashed potato, so bonus veg - woohoo!) and 1 part protein.

I'm quite happy with how my 3D carrot flowers turned out too!

This is leftovers of the Normandy chicken with mash and baconed cauliflower bake that Mr Loving made for us. I love that he is enjoying cooking again!


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Kinoko Lunchbox Fail

I've shared the first couple of lunches I took when I returned to work recently and thought I had better let you in on a rather disappointing turn of events. My Kinoko lunchbox quickly fell from favour on my third day back. My favourite pie (Bushman's Bazaman Beef) doesn't fit!!! I had to cut the crusts off and that's just not acceptable.

However fitting in a large (store bought) lamington may bring it close to redemption.


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.