Seuss' My Many Colored Days Redux

Since she's used to having me trot her lunch leftovers out again and again throughout the day, she was unprepared for them disposing of her field trip leftovers. On the ride home from preschool, she asked for the rest of her lunch, please. And I had to break it to her that, like I'd been warning her all morning, she'd only had one shot at it, and that the rest had been thrown out. Poor thing was devastated. So she asked for another. Just like it. We compromised with just the My Many Colored Days sandwich.

My Many Colored Dinner

Purple cabbage, ham, cheddar and mozzarella rainbow "Me" sandwich.
Carrot scored to look like a flower on the ends, yogurt pretzels,
organic celery w/sunbutter and chocolate chips

Since this was her dinner, and would not be trotted out over and over again throughout the day, I didn't pack nearly as much food as usual. I offered to make it on a plate or in a box. She chose box. And since we weren't needing it in the car, I let her choose from amongst all my bento boxes. She chose an EasyLunchbox anyway. Which turned out to be a great choice, since I had forgotten about my MOMS Club board meeting, so we ended up taking the rest to-go!

She was so excited to start eating this, I almost didn't get any pictures!

I opted for chocolate chip "ants" for her Ants on a Log, since she's told me recently she doesn't like raisins. I was worried that she wouldn't eat the celery, so I told her she couldn't have the pretzels until it was all gone. Woot! I wasn't sure how the sunflower butter would taste, but I wanted to give it a try, both to use up the sunflower butter before it expired, but also just to see how it would measure up if we ever had to go to a nut-free lunch for school. (Her preschools now are peanut/tree nut-free, but they just eat snack there, not lunches. And I can pack a nut-free lunch for her drop off school the three or four times a year they go on field trips!)
It was pretty tasty. I might actually prefer it over peanut butter for this.

Many Scrappy Returns

My dinner: Salad (see below,) sandwich scraps,
Chex Mix (see below,) celery w/sunbutter and raisins

Leave no sandwich behind! Since I opted to save time, I made the sandwich first, then cut out the shape (normally I cut everything separately, to make sure the edges are all crisp. Plus if I'm using spreads instead of meats and cheeses, it keeps the cutter clean! Woot!) My cheeses and cabbage weren't all large enough for the full shape this time, so I faked it and kept it in a sandwich-shape, rather than fanning them out to show off the colors. But that left a whole rest-of-the-sandwich. So I ate it. The cabbage was a little weird, texturally, but the whole thing tasted just fine... could have used a tiny smidge of mayo or butter though, to add more moisture.

My salad is made of green leaf lettuce (whatever kind that is! But that's what the list from my CSA said!) purple cabbage scraps, celery bits; candied cashews, sesame seeds, and dried cherries from ex-Chex mix; raspberry vinaigrette. Gramma Barp had made two kinds of gluten-free Chex mixes for Unka Chris' birthday party a few weeks back, and gave me some to take home. The nuts and cherries were from the Chex Honey Nut Cherry Crunch that I had... but a mysterious pint-sized someone ate just the Honey Nut and Rice Chex's - leaving me the nuts and cherries. Hmmm... So I figured rather than throw them out, I'd try them on my salad! Pretty tasty!

The other Chex mix bits are the remnants of the PB and Chocolate Blast Chex Mix. Someone ELSE gobbled down most of the cereal from that, leaving me roughly 10 Chex's; the rest mostly peanuts and Ms. And crumbs. So I tossed the last few bits of cereal in the little compartment, and added some peanuts and Ms (Coast Guard colors, for Unka Chris!) for dessert.
Since I actually enjoy raisins on my Ants on a Log, I did raisins on two of them. But since I like to try anything new that I offer her (other than frogs legs!) I made one with chocolate chips. Pretty tasty too! I really enjoyed the feel of the solid hunk of chocolate in there. It was a nice textural difference.

Wonder Wish Kitty Girl loves her "beautiful lunches!"

She ate all her celery and pretzels, and a few nibbles of parts of her sandwich. Also a few nibbles of carrot. Then we had to go. I added in two Circus Animals cookies and some Apple Straws chips as a treat for staying out of my hair at the board meeting. She finished off most of the rest of her sandwich there, leaving only a little bread and most of the cabbage. She ate the cookies, but left most of the Apple Straws for me! Omnomnom!