Children's Dental Health Month lunch...

Good Thursday to you, Friends!! I have a super cute lunch to share today. My original plan was to make this lunch much earlier this month than now, but life sort of got in the way....better late than never, right?

February is National Children's Dental Health Month. Each February, the American Dental Association (ADA) sponsors NCDHM to raise awareness about the importance of oral health.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Tooth decay is the number one chronic illness in children.
• 51 million school hours are lost each year to dental problems.
• Research shows that if a child’s tooth decay goes untreated, it can lead to tooth loss, speech problems and even loss of self-esteem.

Developing good habits at an early age and scheduling regular dental visits helps children get a good start on a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums.

Both of my kids have been seeing their dentist since they were 2 years old. They are pretty comfortable with her, and usually don't give me much fuss when they have a dental visit (as opposed to a visit to the pediatrician). Hmmmm....maybe that has something to do with that treasure box they get to rifle through after their visit. 

So, to support NCDHM, I made a happy tooth lunch. The little green tooth in the lunch is actually a keepsake holder that the dentist gave Z on his last visit to store the teeth that he has lost. But, Z has yet to lose any teeth, so I repurposed it as a mini M&M holder. (He actually has 2 of these so I didn't feel very bad using it.) Myra over at Mommy and Me Lunchbox also made a super cute lunch to support NCDHM, also.You can see Myra's fun lunch HERE.

Kim over at Stuffed Suitcase also has an awesome Dental Month post.... 6 Tips to Help Kids Keep Healthy Teeth. Stop by and visit Kim's blog and shower her with lots of  comment love.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*Natural Selects ham and Swiss cheese sandwich with Swiss cheese tooth on top. I used sprinkles and gel icing for the face.
*pretzels
*sweet corn with homemade 'I love my smile' pick
*red seedless grapes
*mini M&M's in the little green tooth container
*linked to: Eats Amazing/ Fun Food Friday
                  Sun Scholars/ For the kids Friday

Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:

The Lego Movie Emmet lunch...

Can you guess from today's lunch what movie our family went to see this past weekend? Yep...The Lego Movie. Z absolutely loved it, and I have to admit it really was cute. Over the past several days, Z has been drawing pictures of all the movie characters and playing the movie with his own Lego collection. I've had this cute Lego lunchbox for some time now, but don't use it very often because it's very small. But, it's so stinkin' cute that I had to bring it out so that I could make an Emmet lunch.

This lunch is packed in a Lego lunchbox.
*Applegate bologna and cheddar cheese sandwich with cheddar cheese Emmet on top (I cut out the shape of Emmet's head with a knife and then used a black food safe marker to draw in the hair and face.)
*pretzel snaps
*red and green seedless grapes with homemade Lego picks
*carrot rounds, black olives, and red cherry tomatoes in the small red Lego box
*There are a couple pieces of grilled chicken hiding underneath the Emmet sandwich.
*linked to : Eats Amazing/ Fun Food Friday

       Here is a look into the small red Lego box.











Some of the things I used to make this lunch:

Fast cars and ROYGBIV...

Happy Friday, Friends!! Boy, what a busy week this has been. My oldest son is in the advanced chorus at school, and it's that time of the year for them to participate in every singing competition out there. So, this week has been filled with after school practices, uniform fittings, and the like. There's been little time for blog posts....oh well! That's the life of a mom and I love it. I'm sure many of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about.

So, I'm going to combine 2 lunches in this post.

First up....a car and street sign themed lunch. I love these stamped car shaped sandwiches. So cute!!!

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*stamped car shaped Applegate bologna and cheddar cheese sandwiches
*Applegate hotdog pieces
*strawberries and grapes
*carrot rounds and a pickle
*Bugles
*pasta salad in the blue cup
*linked to : Sun Scholars/ For the Kids Friday
 


Lunch #2 has a rainbow theme. How many of you remember the acronym used to remember the colors in the rainbow? Yep....ROYGBIV....so strange that I have never forgotten that. So, this is a ROYGBIV lunch minus the I for indigo....not enough room in the box for Indigo, plus I didn't really have an indigo colored food handy. Sorry indigo! I added an extra bit of fun with coordinating color crayon shaped food picks.

This lunch is packed in a Lock-n-Lock rectangle storage container.
*Applegate hotdog pieces
*carrot rounds and orange bell pepper sticks
*cheddar cheese Ritz Bitz

*green olives and baby dill pickles

*Trix cotton candy flavored yogurt (We love Trix yogurt. It has no artificial colors, preservatives, or sweeteners, and it tastes great.)

*purple seedless grapes and Craisins

*linked to: Eats Amazing/ Fun Food Friday

                  BentoLunch.net/ What's for lunch Wednesday

Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:

The cute car shaped cutters and stamps can be found HERE

Planters NUTrition peanut butter rollup

My little guy loves peanut butter, and he loves bananas. I found a very interesting peanut butter mix at the Dollar Tree the other day...Planters NUTrition banana granola nut energy mix. Since it was brand name Planters, I decided to give it a try. It is very thick, chunky, and crunchy, so if you don't like chunky peanut butter, this is definitely not for you. It has a very subtle banana flavor and little bits of granola and nuts mixed in it. The little guy really liked this peanut butter, It is all-natural, made with real bananas, and is very nutrient dense. I would consider it more of an adult peanut butter (it would be great on Ritz crackers). But, I'm glad Z likes it. Yay!!! I can change up the 'ole PB&J a bit now.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*Planters NUTrition banana granola nut peanut butter and all-fruit spread tortilla rollup
*cheddar cheese pretzels
*Pink Lady apple wedges
*sweet peas with carrot rounds on top
*green grapes with a few yogurt covered raisins
*linked to: BentoLunch.net/ What's for lunchWednesday 
                  Sun Scholars/ For the kids Friday



Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:

Tasty tuna salad lunch...

Happy Monday, friends! Friday's lunch was a very special and important lunch to me, but it did take quite a bit of time to make. So, today's lunch is easy leftovers....tuna salad from this past weekend. I added a few fun flower picks, and Presto!...an easy, but cute lunch.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.

*tuna salad made with white albacore tuna

*Ritz crackers

*carrot rounds and black olives

*Halo mandarin orange and blueberries

*all-natural applesauce

*half of a Lucky Charms cereal bar

*linked to: Becoming a Bentoholic/ Leftovers on Fridays

Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:

Go RED for heart health...

Hi Friends! I hope you all are having a great first week of February. I am so excited to share today's lunch with you. Most of you know that February is the American Heart Association's Heart Month. The AHA promotes Heart Month to raise awareness about heart disease and how people can prevent it. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths is caused by heart disease. Today, February 7th, is set aside as National Go RED day where the AHA urges people to support the fight against heart disease by wearing (or promoting) the color red.

This month has very special meaning to me for a couple reasons. A few months ago, my older brother had an episode with his heart which resulted in his being diagnosed with heart disease and several blocked arteries. He also had an arterial clot in his heart which very well could have ended his life.These 2 issues resulted in his having a double bypass operation.While a double bypass alone is terrifying, my dear brother took a stand for his faith and chose to do a bloodless double bypass operation. I am happy to say that he has recovered well from this and is taking his heart health seriously now (um, yeah, he better be!!). I am so proud of my brother for his courage and conviction during this time. He is a very wonderful awe-inspiring man.

I also support Go RED day for another wonderful man that sadly succumbed to heart failure over 12 years ago. This man happened to be the father of my very best bestie in the world. I spent many fabulously fun days at my bestie's house as a kid, and I have very fond memories of him. I will forever miss his dry sense of humor and his terrific penmanship.

So, in keeping with the Go RED theme, today's lunch features all red foods (well, minus the pretzels). Today's lunch also honors 2 very great men....my brother Tony Howell, and my bestie's father Keith Arps.

The Lucky Lunchbox encourages all of my readers to "know your numbers". The five key markers below are good indicators of your heart health. By keeping these numbers within a healthy range, you can greatly improve your heart health and reduce your risk of heart disease.

1. Blood pressure

2. Blood sugar

3. Cholesterol
4. BMI
5. Weight

Now, on to the lunch!
This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
* heart shaped peanut butter and all-fruit spread sandwich with cheddar cheese 'know your numbers' (I used a light spray of Wilton Color Mist in red on the sandwich.)
* pretzel balls
* heart shaped red bell peppers with homemade 'Healthy Heart Healthy You' pick
* heart shaped red delicious apple with mini heart cutout in center
* red Hershey's kiss
* linked to: Beneficial Bento/ Fancy sandwich Friday

Some of the things, or similar, things, that I used to make this lunch:

CuteZCute panda lunch...

I love using cute cutters to make a lunch special. And I especially love the CuteZCute line of food cutters and stamps. The CuteZCute animal friends deco cutter kit has to be one of my favorite fun food tools to use. With this kit, you can cut a sandwich into the shapes of a panda, frog, cat, or a pig. They are all absolutely adorable, and this cutter is very easy to use (which is key for me as I don't like to create lunches that are difficult or labor intensive.) I have chosen the panda cutter for today's lunch.

I also used the CuteZCute Animal Palz  kit to make the frozen yogurt panda. I froze the yogurt into the panda shape and added it to the other yogurt in his lunch. It will thaw before lunchtime, and the frozen yogurt helps to keep the other yogurt cold. I love doing this with yogurt. You can freeze it into any shaped mold (silicone ice cube molds work great) that you may have, then add the frozen shape to the lunch. Presto!!.....cold and cute yogurt at lunchtime.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*CuteZCute panda peanut butter and all-fruit spread sandwich
*baby carrots and red cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing in the little panda pot
*Halo mandarin orange with panda pick
*pretzel snaps
*Yoplait lemon dye-free yogurt (the frozen panda is Trix strawberry-kiwi. We love Trix yogurt as it has no artificial colors or flavors.)
*linked to: BentoLunch.net/ What's for lunch Wednesday
                  Polkadots on Parade/ Wow Me Wednesday
                  Five Little Chefs/ Fantastic Thursday


Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:


The large green silicone cup can be found HERE.

Star Student fairy bread sandwich...

Well, this is the last day for Z to be the Star Student of the Week. This has been a good week for him, and I think he's a bit disappointed that's it's over. He really enjoyed being the line leader all week. Here's one last star themed lunch to end the week. I used my Pampered Chef cut-n-seal to make Z a sealed star fairy bread sandwich. I have simple how-to directions for making a fairy bread sandwich HERE.

This lunch is packed in Easy Lunch Boxes.
*almond butter and all-fruit spread fairy bread sandwich with star cutout and rainbow sprinkle center
*honey wheat pretzel sticks
*red cherry tomatoes and carrot rounds with 'Star Student' pick (I cut out the carrot centers with a mini star cutter.)
*Fuji and Granny Smith apples and green grapes (I cut the centers of the apples out with a small star cutter and then swapped the centers.)
*Hershey's mini Mr. Goodbar in the orange suitcase style cup
*linked to: Funky Polkadot Giraffe/ Too Cute Tuesday
                  Following in my Shoes/ I Heart Lunch



Some of the things, or similar things, that I used to make this lunch:


The cute orange suitcase style silicone cup can be found HERE.