Mickey, Yubo, and a little Lunchbox Love!

I have a friend. And she is fabulous! I don’t even know her in real life, but it feels like I do! She shares my Disney passion, and is my number one bento lunch supporter! ♥♥ It just so happens that she lives very close to the Disneyland Resort! Sometimes, she picks up special treats for me and my girls! Yesterday’s mail included a package with Mickey shaped pretzels! YUM! Of course my girls couldn’t wait to have a lunch packed with them in it!

We decided on some packed dinners rather than lunches. My oldest tiny princess started cheerleading practices on Monday. She practices 5 days a week for 2 hours per night. (6pm to 8pm) This is her 5th year in the program. I am going on my 4th year of coaching. From now until mid October our evenings are going to be pretty tight. Especially once school and dance start. We won’t be quite as busy as last year though, cause tiny princess K decided cheerleading just wasn’t for her.

The girls decided on their Yubo lunchboxes cause they love them so! ♥♥ Tiny princess A had: Carrot coins and one lone cherry tomato, ranch for dipping in the Mickey sauce cup, rolled chicken lunch meat, Mickey head pretzels, homemade chocolate pudding, a couple of apple slices, and some bunchkins grapes.

So, who noticed my “hidden Minnie? See it? Right there, in the carrots and tomato. ♥

K had a mouse themed Yubo too!

She had: 2 small chicken/cheese sandwiches, 2 super small chicken/cheese sandwiches, (2 pieces of bread total) Mickey head pretzels, carrot coins, ranch for dipping, applesauce, and homemade chocolate pudding.

I also included a Lunchbox Love note in each of the meals. I love the messages and fun facts that are on each card! I can’t wait to get my hands on the new editions! Tiny princess A’s Lunchbox Love was not photographed.

I just love all the different combinations and layouts you can come up with when using the inner containers of the Yubo Lunchbox! It’s fantastic! I just adore endless possibilities! ♥♥

 

Some things I used to make these meals…

Eat Your Heart Out!! & a shake test!

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I forgot all about purchasing any fun Valentine supplies to make our Valentine lunches fun! Luckily I do have some basic heart cookie cutters and my sweet husband picked up some cute ♥ day sprinkles to spruce up a few lunches!

By now, we all know that Wednesday is chicken sandwich day at school. I knew that full well when creating, what I thought would be today’s lunches. I thought, maybe, just maybe, I could totally WOW my tiny princesses with fun lunches and new boxes to make them say NO to hot lunch at school. I was wrong. Even my lunch box charm couldn’t pursued them in “bring your own lunch” direction. Oh well, they decided on eating them for dinner last night instead!

Tiny princess A’s meal was packed in our brand new LunchBots trio! This is of course my first lunch in a LunchBots, but I think I’m really going to love packing in these!

Here is what she had…

• chunked colby jack cheese
• hot dog on a heat pick (Now, we aren’t normally much of a hot dog family. Not for any reason other than that I think they taste yucky! :p I think that as parents we tend to try to force our like and dislike on our kids. Am I right? My girls really like hot dogs so when I saw this idea of slicing the hot dog ends just right to form a heart, it reminded me that just because I don’t like something, doesn’t mean my princesses cant! ♥)
• grape tomatoes on triple heart pick
• all natural trix yogurt with sprinkles
• a few sweet pepper rings in the yellow silicone cup
• the red heart cup hold s’mores mix (hold the chocolate because we didn’t have any)
• filling in the spaces of the top left compartment is a few clementine orange slices and a yellow sauce cup that hold BBQ sauce for hot dog dipping

Tiny princess K’s meal was packed in our pink Yubo lunch box and is the reasoning behind today’s blog post title.

Here is what she had…

• nutella fairy bread sandwich with letter picks spelling “Eat Your Heart Out” Make your own fairy bread by cutting a shape out of your top piece of bread and adding sprinkles to the middle. So fun and so yummy!
• heart shaped colby cheese in pink silicone cup cut using FunBites Luv It
• watermelon hearts in Goodbyn sauce cup
• sweet pepper rings in flower silicone cup
• all natural trix yogurt
• orange cutie I cut a slice in the top of the orange to aid in peeling and to add the fun cupcake ring
• I also included some LunchBox Love ♥

I decided since this lunch was a little more complex it would be the perfect opportunity for a Yubo shake test. Following the same pattern as before, we shook K’s pink Yubo, inside, outside, and upside down. Again, we even played a fun game of catch with it! :)

When we opened up the top lid and all inside lids here is what we found…

Tiny princess K and I were quite pleased with the results of this shake test. As you can see, a few of the inside containers shifted a bit, as well as the cheese in the pink silicone cup. The yogurt also got all discombobulated and the sprinkles dissolved quite a bit. This problem could totally be eliminated by using this idea from Molly’s Lunch Box, of including sprinkles in a small a lidded container or sauce cup so that your kiddos can add the sprinkles in themselves. The sandwich seems to have stayed intact really well and not even one of the sprinkles fell off at all!

♥♥♥ Tiny princess K gives the Yubo shake test 5/5 crowns! ♥♥♥

She is such a goof ball!

 

Now I want to hear from you….. Which lunch box would you like to see the shake test done in next? Leave a comment to let me know!

 

Some things I used to make these meals

Tiny princesses pack lunch!

My tiny princesses are home from school today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day. Well, actually they are not home. They are at grandma and grandpa’s house. They have been there since Saturday night. It sure has been quiet around here.

So, no lunches today, but remember the kid made meals I mentioned in my FunBites review and giveaway post? (click the link for your chance to win your own choice of FunBites cutter if you missed it) Well, today I’m going to share those lunches. BUT first I wanted to show you a photo of the delicious dinner my husband and I had last night……

Do those croutons look familiar? Yup! I couldn’t resist using my FunBites cutter to create crunchy, yummy, crouton-ey goodness once again! This time I used my Cube It cutter and it made the perfect most sophisticated crouton shape. Hmmm… can croutons be sophisticated? Yeah, I think they can. ;)

The rest of our salad consisted of: grilled chicken, sliced carrots, raisins, and shredded parmesan cheese, over a bed of fresh romaine lettuce. We also had some sun dried tomato vinaigrette dressing to go on top, but there were so many yummy flavors going on I opted for a dressing-less salad. I guess that would make it naked! YIKES!

Alright then! Onto the tiny princess packing…….

If you remember from the previous post I decided to let my tiny princesses have some fun with the FunBites Luv It food cutter. After that, I made their day and let them pack their own lunches! If you could have only seen their sweet little faces when I told them to choose any picks and silicone cups that they wanted! Too cute!

Here is K’s lunch. She was so excited to put peas in her lunch. Well, a peapod silicone cup that is. Since she doesn’t really like the real thing. And cherries too. Another thing not on her list of likes. Maybe someday she will like the real thing. I hope so. ♥

Here’s what she packed in her Yubo lunch box…

• frozen yogurt stars
• applesauce with a few too many sprinkles
• FunBites Luv It stacked bite sized sandwiches
• fruit snacks
• Mickey pretzels
• chocolate covered sunflower seeds
• multigrain cheerios

I chose the Lunch Box Love note cause her lunch did just that…. it impressed me!

And here is A’s circus sandwich lunch…

 

Here’s what she packed, also in her Yubo Lunch box…

• bear shaped hard cooked egg
• FunBites Luv It stacked sandwiches
• animal crackers with nutella
• fruit snacks
• grapes
• and I have no clue what was in the green sauce cup :)

Tiny princess A chose her own LunchBox Love note. I think it was fitting. ;)

some things we used to make these lunches…

Some forgotten dance night dinners and Mickey Mouse!

Well, today is chicken sandwich day at school and if you are a tried and true reader of tiny princess lunch box, then you know that chickens sandwich days are  “Mama, don’t pack my lunch” days. Today was no different. No matter how I pleaded, begged, or offered to add fun treats they just weren't having it!

It’s a good thing I have lunch pictures backed up out the whazoo, cause it’s high time I start blogging again! ♥

I’m not sure which day these dance night dinners came from. I just know that they are from before school let out for winter break. My tiny princesses helped plan these as you can see from the not so healthy choices. I also made one for myself.

I’ll start first with the tiny princess dinners. They both contained the same items…

Here is what they had packed in Yubo lunch boxes…

• Cheese quesadillas
• Mini pop tart crisps
• Princess fruit snacks
• One triangle each of cream cheese, cinnamon sugar quesadillas
• Organic vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit topping. *disclaimer* they still will not eat the fruit that is put in their yogurt, but they have decided that it does add a nice flavor as it melts and I will continue to add it in there because surely at some point they may decide it’s not so bad after all!
• snack mix

I personally think packing in a Yubo alone makes a meal special and fun. The brightly colored boxes and super versatile inner containers can make any food look inviting and yummy, but here is a few other special details I added to make these meals fun….

• Silicone food cups in the largest container to keep food tidy and separate
• fun food pick which in this case serves no purpose. It’s just for fun! ♥
• LunchBox Love Notes add a great personal and fun touch!

Here is my dinner. Believe it or not this is the very first Bento style meal I have ever made myself! It was delicious and I will definitely be doing it more often!

I packed my dinner in one of our laptop lunch boxes! I just love all the different inner container options that it offers!
Here is what I had….

• pickles
• cheese quesadillas
• fresh green beans (raw)
• snack mix
• rice cake with peanut butter to spread

Now onto Mickey Mouse! We adore anything Disney related! This week was the week we were supposed to be in Walt Disney World. You can read more about why we didn’t go, HERE.
Earlier this week I received a surprise package in the mail from a very sweet friend who happens to live just minutes away from the Disney Land Resort! Mickey head pretzels!!! YAY! Naturally I couldn’t wait to use them in a lunch!
These were yesterday’s lunches packed on our PlanetBox Rovers….
These lunches were EXACTLY the same so I will just include one photo.

Here’s what they had…

• Cheese chunks on Mickey and Minnie head picks
• Applesauce in the planetbox mini dipper
• Leftover cooked carrots and potatoes
• Mickey head pretzels with sauce container of Nutella for dipping
• Nutella sandwich rounds arranged in the shape of a Mickey Head. ♥
• Also included in each tiny princess’s lunch was a Lunchbox Love Note from sayplease.com

Somethings I used to make these meals…
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All aboard for the BBF Holiday Ho-Ho-Hop!

Have you all wondered if I’ve still been making lunches this week? Don’t worry I have, but I decided not to post yet, as I used the last 3 lunches as an experiment to decide what to use for my very first BBF blog hop!! That’s right,  I am so, so, so excited to be participating in my very first Bento Bloggers And Friends Blog Hop! I mean who wouldn’t be excited to be a part of such a fabulous, talented, group, of fellow fun lunch makers?!

Out of my last 3 lunches, I decided that my 3rd lunch took the cake…… er, cupcake rather! :)
Are you ready for it? I have to admit I’m a little bit a lotta bit in love with this lunch! Our very favorite movie to watch and book to read at Christmastime is “The Polar Express”! I love the excitement it brings to my tiny princesses and the “belief” in their eyes!

So, here it is…. All aboard for our Polar Express Lunches! Complete with hot chocolate cupcakes and shiny silver bells….. can you still hear the magic? ♥

Packed in our Yubo Lunchboxes, these lunches contain…

• PB&J Sandwich for K. Turkey for A.
• A few veggie straws
• String Cheese cut
• Snowflake Ritz Crackers
• Hot Chocolate Cupcake
• Applesauce for K. Yogurt for A.

Here are some ways I made this lunch special…

• Train shaped sandwiches were made using one of our Lunchpunch sandwich cutter from the VRRRM set
• Small cutters to create the words “Polar Express” in A’s lunch and fun letter food picks in K’s lunch purchased from All Things For Sale.
• Various silicone cups to keep food tidy and separated.
• Cupckae/food picks to keep cheese from rolling around
• Sprinkles add a great festive touch to yogurt or applesauce
• Also included in this lunch is a silver ♪♫ jingle bell ♪♫ freshly fallen from Santa’s sleigh ♥

When I decided that I MUST make a Polar Express lunch for my tiny princesses, I knew that it HAD to have 2 things. A silver bell and some hot chocolate. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t put hot chocolate in their lunches. I though of maybe making some and putting it in their thermoses to take to school, but what fun is hot chocolate in a thermos and how could I make it look pretty to photograph with my lunch? Instead I decided to do some searching. Immediately cupcakes came to mind. Surely there was a recipe for hot chocolate cupcakes somewhere in the world wide web! I was right! Want to make your own hot chocolate cupcakes? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t? You can find the recipe here. I followed the recipe exactly. Except for the frosting. I cheated there and purchased pre made butter cream and then added the marshmallow fluff. ;) Before you run off to bake your own, check out our photos for some mouth watering inspiration!

While we are already on the subject of The Polar Express and since this post is already bearing book length and photo album qualities, I though I would share the awesome experience my tiny princesses got to have 3 years ago.

Did you know that the real live train that the Polar Express was based on is called the Pere Marquette 1225? Did you also know that it resides very close to my hometown in Owosso MI? In Dec. 2010 my sweet princesses got up close and personal with said train! It was supposed to be our engine that took us to the North Pole, but a week before our trip in went in for maintenance. We were a tad bit disappointed, but still had a fantastic ride and were very grateful to have been so close to an awesome piece of history. ♥

Here is a photo of my tiny princesses in front of the Pere Marquette 1225. They look so tiny! 

Okay, that’s it for me, but don’t be disappointed. Click the button below to be taken to the next lunch in the hop, made by Jackie of Loving Lunches!

somethings I used to make these lunches...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I promised myself I wouldn’t start making Christmas lunches until December, but when my tiny princesses saw that our new Christmas Yubo faceplates arrived yesterday, there was no getting around it for today’s lunch!! We only got one set of the Christmas theme so I just divided the set up and left the other side of our Yubos white. :)
Look at all this Christmassy cuteness!!!!

Now, we only got one set, so I just divided them up between the princesses and left the other side of their Yubos blank.
Now onto the lunches! YUM! Both tiny princesses had basically the same meal except A got grapes and K got applesauce. Other than that they each had… Vanilla yogurt colored with a bit of green food coloring so that it matched the sweet little Christmas Tree cup, I picked up at the dollar store. The tree star and presents are salami sandwiches that I colored with food safe markers. They also each got a couple of tree shaped white chocolate covered pretzels, some gingerbread men shaped mozzarella cheese, and a few snowflake shaped ritz crackers.

  

Some things I used to make these lunches…