Mini DIY Lunchables-Style Lunch!

Wednesday 2/15/12 - Had nothing planned in the morning, but had leftover meats and cheeses already cut up into squares from a V-Day potluck we had gone to. So made lunches in our EasyLunchboxes to eat in the car (or in the lobby at preschool, in my case,) and to have as snack between school and swim class.

Z's lunch: turkey and ham squares, Mini Saltines, marshmallow treat,
Special K crackers, cheddar and CoJack squares, spinach w/carrots, apples

For a Valentine's Day potluck with one of my moms groups, I brought a meat/cheese/cracker platter. I used my FunBites Cube It! cutter to make mini squares out of the meats and cheeses, to fit perfectly (and cutely!) onto Mini Saltines and the Special K Multi Grain crackers. This particular moms club has mostly younger preschoolers and toddlers, so I figured this size would be perfect for those chubby little fingers! It's kind of neat having one of the older kids in the group, but it means we don't go to as many events.
In a mini paper cupcake liner (from Dollar Tree,) I put a Valentines cupcake-shaped marshmallow treat (also from Dollar Tree.)
For the carrots, instead of cutting them into coins, I cut the grooves to make them look like flowers and left them as sticks, just to change it up.

My lunch: ham and cheese scraps pocket (toasted,) dressing,
mini cupcake, apples, spinach w/almonds and strawberries

For my sandwich, I trimmed off the crusts and filled it with turkey and cheese scraps left over from making the squares for the party (no ham scraps. I gobbled those down when I cut them all...) To prevent having little scrap bits from falling out as I ate it, I pressed the edges together really hard to seal them into a pocket. I also toasted it a little to melt the cheese just a bit to help them stick. (My toaster has wide enough slots for bagel halves, so my pocket sandwiches fit just fine. And saves me from having to put butter on it and get a pan or cookie sheet dirty frying or baking it, like with a grilled/toasted cheese sandwich.)

She ate all the meat and cheese right away, and most of the crackers. She ate the apples and was excited about the carrots being big still. She nibbled on them and the spinach, and nibbled some more after school.

She was not a fan of the marshmallow cupcake, despite her initial excitement about them when I showed her the package. It was kind of peach-flavored, which she didn't like. We'll have to see if the whole package is the same flavor. So the marshmallow had a few licks and nibbles, and then got tossed after I tried a bite as well.

Green BPA-free fork from Dollar Tree, dressing in Tupperware Smidget. Heart-shaped silicone liners imported from China via eBay, but Wilton makes some sturdier ones in red and pink.