MOMables Monday - Chicken Salad "Garden"

Another MOMables-inspired lunch! While I didn't end up using the recipe provided in my menu plan, MOMables gave me the idea to try putting chicken salad in Little Z's lunch!

Oh, why didn't I use the MOMables recipe? Well. Glad you asked. As it happens, I have a personal favorite chicken salad recipe. That happens to have been published in a cookbook. Perhaps I've mentioned that before... That I'm in a cookbook?

Chicken Salad Garden

NatureBox Cranberry Almond Bites, string cheese nibblets, raspberries,
edamame, Kashi crackers, "Accidental Chicken Salad" on part of a lettuce leaf

Cloth napkin from Red Poppy Crafts on Etsy.

I put a few Cranberry Almond Bites from our January NatureBox in a silicone butterfly cup. They are soooo gooood! And I figured a little incentive to get her to try the chicken salad wouldn't hurt!

The rest of the foods were pretty basic, so I made them more fun with some butterfly and flower picks (mine are silicone on plastic picks, and were sent to me by a friend in Japan. I haven't seen them anywhere else.) Since I finally noticed that our favorite Special K Crackers have petrol-derived artificial preservatives in them, we've been trying out new whole-grain crackers. These Kashi crackers aren't as addictively tasty, but they have a nuttier flavor. And Z likes them. So we have a winner, until I can find something else we like better.

For the Accidental Chicken Salad recipe, you'll have to check out the Cooking With Trader Joe's Easy Lunch Boxes cookbook. Page 126. *wink* I made a few minor changes, in that I used canned chicken and was too lazy to chop up an apple. I also chopped everything up super tiny, so that Baby could eat it too. I didn't need her choking on anything. I also included a cupcake spoon spreader thingy that I got in a bento pick swap with my bento friends.

Tools of the Trade