Leftovers to Lunch: Chicken Strip-Kebabs

Leftover chicken skewers are one of my favorite lunch ideas from my MOMables subscription. Both girls like them okay, although no one is clamoring for me to pack them again and again and again. But they're suuuuuper easy for me! I don't have to think really hard, or make anything special in advance. And with cute picks and skewers, I can make them fun with zero extra effort! Win!

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Leftovers for a First Grade Lunch

Leftover chicken skewers (GF Ian's chicken strips, olives, goat cheddar,) olives, organic grapes and salted cucumber

9/10/14 - Since Yumbox sent me the new Yumbox Panino* (for free!) it was the perfect box for this lunch. The little treat compartment works great for just a few olives, and the whole box is water-tight, so no worries about the olives or cucumbers leaking into other compartments.

I made mini skewers using some cute animal picks, rather than trying to thread these onto one or two longer picks. The goat cheddar is very brittle, and I needed very thin skewers if I wanted any chance of the cheese cubes not just splitting in half. Nailed it!

*red Yumbox no longer available

Leftovers for Little Sis

Leftover chicken skewers (GF Ian's chicken strips, olives, goat cheddar,) organic salted cucumber and grapes

I used some wider animal face picks for my toddler for safety reasons, but they did end up splitting the cheese, as you can see on the left. Oh well. Still tasty!

She wasn't as keen on cucumber slices, so I tried making them more fun with a flower veggie cutter. Which totally worked! She ate a few! Yay!

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Robo-Bread Sandwich - Ex-ter-mi-nate... Your Hunger!

I had just gotten the new Robo-Bread cutter set from CuteZCute, and couldn't pass up the chance to try it out on some gluten-free bread! Bedeep bedeep bedeep!

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Danger, Will Robinson!

GF PBJ, organic carrots and apples

12/17/14 - The Robo-Bread cutter set is full of various options for building your own robot shape, with two rectangle cutters for body and head, two face options, and a variety of bits and bobs to cut out or imprint. It was fun deciding which ones to use!

I had to use an extra slice of bread to make the whole robot sandwich for Z, my First Grader, but it was worth it! Most gluten-free breads are too crumbly and full of bubbles to imprint well, but this local brand worked great! Too bad my kids both prefer the dry bubbly brands.

Lunch for Little Sis

GF PBJ; organic carrots, apples, clementine

E just got a simple lunch. She doesn't eat enough to warrant an entire robot, and eats very little bread from her sandwiches anyway. I couldn't justify wasting so much just to be fancy!

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Road Trip to Grandpa's!

My dad lives several hours south of us on a large plot of land on a river. He's working on building a house there, so he conscripted his gaggle of kids and our spouses, along with some of his friends, to come and help dig the foundation. Or something. I mostly wrangled kids.
I packed lunches for the long drive, to avoid unnecessary stops along the way, and to make sure we'd have safe options without any food dyes, gluten, or dairy!

My dad eats gluten-free for health reasons, so I knew he'd have many safe food options, plus we brought a cooler of other foods for us to eat for the weekend. Good to go!

Lunches for the Girls

GF ham and goat cheese sandwiches; organic tomatoes, carrots, strawberries

Saturday, 9/6/14 - I had to pack fast, since we were trying to head out early to get more foundation-digging in for the weekend. So I went simple and easy with these lunches.

Lunch for Mama

GF PBJ, mini Ocho Peppermint bars, organic grapes and strawberries 

I'm not a fan of ham and cheese sandwiches, so I made peanut-butter and jelly for myself. Yum! I also front-loaded on fruit instead of veggies. I'm the Mama. I can do that. (Plus they'd be in the back seat, and not influenced by my veggie-less example!) And gave myself some yummy candy treats. Did I mention that I'm the Mama?

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Z mostly ran around the farm with her older cousins (7 and 9,) and they mostly played in and around my dad's camper and the big dirt hill near where all the other adults were digging. I took charge of the two little ones, E and my niece (4,) who wanted to explore the giant "marshmallows" in Grandpa's field.

While my dad's property abuts the river, it's difficult to access. But just down the road is a little beach next to a bridge. My sister and I took the kids there to play for a bit. Z loved splashing and wading through the water, but E is a bit more squeamish! She pretty much stuck to the dry sandy area!

When it started getting dark, we all set up tents to camp out overnight, to continue the digging (and child wrangling) on Sunday. The girls were very excited to camp out in their sleeping bags on inflatable mattresses. Or in E's case, to sleep in MY sleeping bag with me. Whoo-ee, she releases a ton of heat! Hahaha! But it's a great way to wake up!

Leftovers to Lunch: Vegetarian Soft Tacos

I had plenty of ingredients left over from our vegetarian soft taco dinner the night before, so packed some up for lunch the next day! You can check out the dinner version I posted on Instagram!

Soft Tacos for Mama

Leftover fried corn tortillas, cumin-paprika beans, leftover homemade salsa

Wednesday, 9/3/14 - I prefer my "soft" tacos a little crunchy, so instead of steaming the tortillas, I fried them up a bit in a pan. Yum! They aren't as good the next day, as they get a little stiff and chewy. But the leftover fillings helped soften them nicely.

The beans had been heated in a frying pan with some cumin and paprika... I added just a hint of cumin for the ones I gave the girls at dinner the night before, and added more seasoning for Hubby and myself after pulling theirs out.

The salsa is made from roasted poblano peppers, onion, and green tomatoes (that had turned red... oops!) I didn't pack any goat cheese for mine, since I preferred them without at dinner.

DIY "Quesadilla" for Z

Leftover fried corn tortilla, organic strawberries, goat milk Gouda, olives, Vegan Spinach Ricotta, organic carrots

The girls generally don't like Mama's "all mixed-up" food, so I tend to serve the meal elements separately for them when I can. Z ate her beans for dinner the night before, but wanted cheese and olives on her tortillas. She likes it that way, so I tried them again for school lunch. Like a DIY Pizzable, but without the sauce!

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Leftover Beans for the Toddler

Van's GF Everything crackers, leftover cumin beans, Vegan Spinach Ricotta; organic carrots, apples, grapes

E hadn't been a fan of the tortillas or cheese at dinner, so for lunch I packed crackers instead. I gave both girls some dairy-free spinach ricotta I had made for a noodle dish earlier, in the hopes that they'd make a nice dip for their veggies. Newp. Mama enjoyed it though!

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