Pretty Bagel!

Last night tiny princess A helped pack her lunch for today. I didn't originally plan to have her help, but when she told me she wanted a bagel, I told her bagels were boring, and I was tired of trying to think of ways to make a bagel "pretty". Her exact words were.... "Go away, mom. I've got this!" I left the kitchen and let her do her thing. This is what I came back to....I'm not sure if it was brilliant, or just lazy? What do you think? ♥

Today was chicken sandwich day at school, and though I’ve been trying, I haven’t yet succeeded in getting both princesses to skip it. Just A had a packed lunch today and it was simple!
Along with her “Pretty Bagel” she had some clementine orange slices, cut grapes, a homemade drinkable yogurt (made with real strawberries! YUM!), a few wheat pretzels twists, carrots, and ranch for dipping. ♥ Packed in a Goodbyn Bynto!

Some things we used to make this lunch…

Bentgo lunch box review and belated Birthday lunch! (Well sort of)

 

Guess what? Give up? I’ll tell ya!

The ahhhhhmazing people over at Bentgo have generously sent me one of their super sweet lunch boxes to review!

I took the opportunity to use it a few times before conducting my review and let me tell you, I am so excited to share with you my results!

Here is my Bentgo exactly how it arrived to me just out of packaging box. Look, purple!! A perfect tiny princess color!! ♥♥ Don’t like purple? No worries! Bentgo offers some other really vibrant colors including:  Blue and Green, as well as a more neutral sophisticated grey. ♥♥♥ 

Out of the manufacturer's packaging, the Bentgo contains 8 pieces. These consist of: the top container with built in divider, bottom container,  top lid, bottom container and divider lid, which holds the included 3 piece plastic silverware set, and a nylon sealing strap. They even include a coupon code for a complimentary sealing strap should yours become lost or damaged.

 

The Bentgo is sleek, slender, stackable, and even has nesting capabilities for a great storage solution. Each container varies in depth and size creating the ability to accommodate perfect portion control!

The Bentgo is made from strong, durable, BPA-free & FDA approved food grade materials. It is microwave, dishwasher, and freezer safe. All fantastic qualities to look for when searching for a great lunch box! The container lids are NOT leak proof, but both the top and bottom tier lids seal VERY well. I was able to pack food in each container attach the lid, turn it upside down, and give it a little shake. Nothing vigorous, but enough that if the lid didn’t seal it would have fallen off.  Each lid stayed put. You could VERY easily use the Bentgo as two SEPARATE lunch or snack boxes. That is always a plus when packing for tiny royalty with various likes/dislikes and appetites!

 

Okay, who’s ready for some lunch?!?! As I stated before I was able to pack quite a few meals in out Bentgo before writing my review. Since I knew my post would already be bearing photo album qualities I decided to choose just 2 for this review.

The first one was a lunch for myself and it was DELICIOUS!!

In the bottom tier I packed myself a yummy salad consisting of: romaine lettuce, sweet yellow peppers, strawberries and a few raisins. On the side in the light pink silicone cup I had a piece of fresh homemade garlic/dill bread and some olive oil and salad vinegar in the blue sauce cup. The top tier holds a cutie orange blossom with grape center, a few honey wheat pretzel twists, colby cheese chunks on heart picks, and some all natural vanilla yogurt in our Goodbyn sauce cup. YUM!

The next lunch was the lunch that tiny princess K took to school today. She turned 7 years old over spring break and was a little disappointed that she didn’t get a fun birthday lunch at school, so I decided to add a couple *very* small birthday details to brighten up her Monday a bit. ♥

In the bottom Bentgo tier she had: Heart shaped strawberries, carrot coins, ranch dip in the pink sauce cup, 2 slices of ice cream cone shaped Colby cheese (cut and stamped with a fondant press purchased from ebay), a few mini saltine crackers, Goodbyn sauce cup with all natural vanilla yogurt (I added some sprinkles for birthday fun), and 3 all natural chocolate chip animal cookies.

The top tier holds two adorable ice cream shaped PB&J sandwiches (cut with our lunchpunch sandwich cutter) complete with with sprinkles and a candy coated chocolate cherry! I adhered the sprinkles and and candy by spreading a thin layer of butter on the top of the sandwich. She also received 8 pretzel twists arranged on either side of the sandwiches.

One of the things I really LOVE about the Bentgo lunch box is that it fits perfectly in our regular lunch bags!

See that! Fits great! And upright, too!

In conclusion we give the Bentgo lunch box 5 out of 5 crowns! It’s fantastic lunch box and a great way to provide portion control as well as a very eco-friendly approach to meals on the go!

My only concern, which really is not a valid concern at all and has nothing to do with the quality of the product what-so-ever, is that I *think* the strap may be a little difficult for tiny princess K to get back on when she is finished. We’ll find out today! ♥♥

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Bentgo for allowing me this opportunity and providing there product for me to review!

Some things I used to make these lunches…

 

Pretzel bites fun with FunBites cube it!

Okay, so this isn’t really a lunch, but it sure was a yummy snack! ♥

Lately my family has been on a HUGE pretzel kick! For serious… they want me to make them like every single day. Salted pretzels, cinnamon sugar pretzels, pretzel dogs, you name it! If it involves pretzel dough they want it! A couple of weeks ago we made some Minnie and Mickey shaped pretzels. I did include those in a lunch, but I’ll save that one for a rainy day!  ♥

Once again, today my tiny princesses asked for pretzels. “Ugh! Really, girls? Do I really have to make them again?” “Please, mama!” “Oh, alright! Go get the supplies!” (They know I can’t resist their cute little princess faces!)

Now, I really don’t mind making these pretzels. It’s not that hard at all. BUT, I hate rolling out the dough into the looooooong thin pieces to form the pretzels. Today I had an idea! FunBites! How incredibly fun would bite sized pretzels be? And so much easier than the traditional pretzel shape!

So, we gathered up what we needed and got started!

Pretzel dough ingredients…

2 cups hot water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 envelope active dry yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 egg, beaten
melted butter (optional)

We used coarse salt for our topping this time, but we also LOVE to use cinnamon sugar!

We use our bread maker for mixing the dough. You most certainly do not need a  bread maker to make these pretzels. It’s just what we do. ♥

Dissolve sugar in hot water and add yeast. Let sit about 5 minutes. In separate bowl combine flour and salt. Slowly add flour/salt mixture to liquid mixture. Turn bread maker to dough setting and begin cycle. My bread maker mixes the dough for 30 minutes and then lets dough rise for an hour. Sometimes I let this go the full hour, but if you are using rapid rise yeast the full hour is not generally needed. When dough is about twice it’s size you can go ahead and shape your pretzels how you would like them. In this case we chose to roll our dough out with a rolling pin and use our FunBites Cube It cutter to create awesome bite sized pretzels pieces. Yum! Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spread your pretzel bite pieces on a greased baking sheet, brush them with beaten egg, and sprinkle on salt. If you are using cinnamon sugar skip last step. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter. If you option for the sweet version now is the time to sprinkle on your cinnamon sugar! ♥

We also LOVE to mix an 8oz brick of softened cream cheese and 1 cup of powdered sugar with an electric mixer for a mouth watering pretzel dip. Sweet or savory pretzels it doesn’t matter! This dip is mouth watering and a must when we make our pretzels! Sooooo good!!

I didn’t really need to, but I decided to go ahead and arrange the girls pretzel bite snack in our LunchBots Duo for an alternate view. Aren’t they cute? Any they were so yummy too! Now, I almost can’t wait until the next time the girls ask me to make pretzels! ♥♥

Funbites make everything more fun!

 

Some things I used to make this snack