Grazer's Delight

This Week's Bento Lunch

Calling all grazers! If you're looking for a lunch to enjoy all afternoon, this one's for you. Everything in this lunch can easily stand on its own giving you a series of small meals to get through the day. 

Click here to view this full menu and nutritional information.

Wake Up and Bento

This Week's Bento Lunch

 

Whole grains contain a number of vitamins and antioxidants that have been proven to have a positive impact on our overall health, so it’s important to get at least three servings a day. To help meet this recommended daily allowance, we decided to make a batch of whole grain pancakes for lunch. That’s right; as long as you use healthy ingredients even a treat like pancakes can be good for you! 

Click here to view this week's full menu and nutritional information. 

17% Off Now Thru St. Paddy's Day

Eating and Reading for National Reading Month

We’re so excited to share some amazing bento lunches and great reviews of books sure to make it to your “must read” list! Be sure to check in here every Wednesday in March as we honor National Reading Month with lots of fun, creativity and inspiration for lunch time and story time.

Fiesta Fun

If you’re looking to add a little fun to your healthy eating routine, this fiesta lunch is for you!

• 1/2 Veggie Burrito
• Green Salad
• Italian Dressing
• Tortilla Chips
• Mineola Tangerine

Nutritional Information:

510 Calories / 59g Carbs / 14g Fat / 22g Protein / 690mg Sodium / 16g Sugar

Weight Watchers points - 11

Clickhere to view additional details on this lunch. 

Easy Monday

Monday can be rough, so we’ve put together a low calorie and very quick to pack bento lunch to start the week off on the right foot. What’s in your lunch box today?

  

Orange Bell Pepper Slices

Mini Plum Tomatoes

Spinach Dip

Sweet Potato Chips

Pineapple Salsa

Blackberries and Orange Slices

Nutritional info:

516 Calories / 44g Carbs / 35g Fat / 9g Protein / 651mg Sodium / 22g Sugar

Click here to view the details on this lunch.

Perfect Portions Make a Deliciously Nutritious Meal

This lunch menu featuring chicken and cheesy rice with avocado and tortilla chips by Dana White is sure to make you completely forget about the fact that you’re cutting calories!

Chicken and Cheesy Rice

By: Dana White (http://danawhitenutrition.com/)

3 ounces grilled or roasted chicken breast

1 serving Cheesy Rice (link also below)

¼ cup diced avocado topped with fresh lime juice

½ oz tortilla chips (about 8 chips)

1 serving seasonal fruit

Nutrition Info Per Serving: Calories: 500; Total Fat: 18 grams; Saturated Fat: 3 grams; Total Carbohydrate:  48 grams; Protein: 35 grams; Sodium: 269 milligrams; Cholesterol: 74 milligrams; Fiber:  7 grams

http://danawhitenutrition.com/recipes/cheesy-rice/

Happy Hanukkah!

This Week's Bento Lunch

Traditional Hanukkah menus often include latkes as a way to symbolize the drop of oil that burned for 8 days and 8 nights following the rededication of the holy temple. Over the years, these traditional potato pancakes have evolved to become extremely versatile and can now be found in a number of variations. Although there are many options available, we decided to keep our latkes traditional and served them with sour cream and apple berry sauce as part of this fun and tasty holiday lunch. 

Click here to view this week's full menu.

Get Your Greens!

Getting your greens doesn't have to be a drag! Dress up a salad with fun garnishes and panda picks, make a bear shaped egg, plus a side of delicious dip and you will have the most festive and fun-to-eat salad, ever! 

Find this weeks Full Menu details here. 

Quinoa Pilaf Power Lunch

Quinoa is an incredibly nutritious grain that can fill you up while giving you tons of energy. Mix it into a pilaf with a side of summer squash and cherries. Finish off your lunch with a special, healthy sweet treat and you have got a real power lunch! 

Click here to see this weeks Full Menu details. 

Top 8 Weelicious Lunch Tips

1. It’s all about balance! When you’re packing lunch, always make sure to pack fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, and protein in every meal.

2. Fill it Up: Always keep your favorite shelf and refrigerator staples on hand. I keep a list on the fridge to remind me of everyone’s favorites:

    

- Nut butters (almond, peanut and sunflower butter are great choices)

-Cream Cheese

-Cheddar, mozzarella or your favorite cheese (sticks, bricks, shredded or slices)

-Pesto (goes great with pasta, rice, quinoa, as a sandwich spread or to make an Egg Pesto Melt)
-Pasta (a variety of shapes like ziti, macaroni, rotini or more)

-Bananas (to eat on their own, sliced and added with honey and nut butter on a sandwich or added to Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies)

-Baby carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumbers or any of your child's favorite veggies

-Dehydrated, frozen, or dried fruit

-Plain Yogurt (to mix with honey, maple syrup, mashed bananas or granola)

-Bread (bagels, english muffins, tortillas or your favorite loaf bread)

3.  Re-Use! Bento style containers are a great way for kids to see all of their choices of food without having to open a ton of  plastic bags. Laptop Lunches colorful reusable bento lunchboxes can be stacked and used on their own or in their outer container bento box and placed into a cute, insulated bento bag. We’ve had ours for years and they’re still good as new.

4.  Double and Freeze: When I make a recipe, I try to double it and freeze it, so that I always have it on hand for lunches. I cook all of our favorite foods and treats like cookies, bars, pancakes, doughnuts, waffles and more in freezer safe containers so all I need to do is defrost one or two homemade foods.

5.  Eye Appeal: Cutting foods into fun shapes and sizes can make all the difference in whether your child will eat them. Try using a melon baller for watermelon or cutting cucumbers into sticks or coins with fun shape cutters. 

6.  Leftovers! There’s no reason you can’t turn last night’s dinner into today’s lunch. Turn chicken fajitas into a quesadilla, chicken in a crock pot into slices of chicken with a dipping sauce, or last night’s brown rice into a beans and rice burrito.

7.  Variety is the spice of life: Switching things up day to day in a lunch box can keep kids nutritionally balanced while excited at the same time.

8.  Treat for your sweet: Putting a little something sweet can put a big smile on your little one’s face. Whether it is a cookie or even a little note, that last addition can go a long way.

Catherine McCord is a mother of two, as well as the author and creator of the blog Weelicious, where she  shares her recipes and culinary inspirations for families and wee ones. She recently wrote her second cookbook, "Weelicious Lunches" which is available on the Laptop Lunches website, here. 

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

This lunch is a fresh and festive way to brighten up your day. A zesty quinoa salad, with pita and hummus, plus a side of mango is an easy gourmet lunch to pack on the go, whether for work, school or play!

Click here to see this weeks Full Menu details. 

Tofu Fajitas

Turn up the heat on your lunch and spice things up with delicious tofu fajitas! Wrap up your tofu and veggies in a grilled tortilla with a squeeze of lemon and some of your favorite salsa, finished off with some sweet pineapple. Fajitas are a fun healthy way to make a delicious and festive lunch! 

Click here to see this weeks Full Menu. 

Summer Lunches With Love - from MamaBelly.com

By Nina Holstead
MamaBelly.com

Even though it is summer we are still packing lunches for work, camp and trips to the beach and pool. I love going shopping with my kids this time of year so they can pick out fresh fruit and vegetables for their lunches!

This summer lunch contains:

• a simple herb salad and cheese wrap, 
• a mini pepper, 
• blueberry yogurt topped with fresh blueberries and 
• A few farm fresh strawberries. 

The perfect lunch for work!

My kids prefer smaller portions and a variety of choices. The Laptop Lunches Bento Lunch Box makes packing several food groups so easy. No matter if you are packing for camp, school, or a day at the pool, with the right prep you can pack this lunchbox in under 5 min!

This colorful lunch contains:

• a mini pepper and baby carrots, 
• blueberries with a few raspberries, 
• strawberries, 
• Goldfish crackers,
• three mini stamped ice cream sandwiches filled with nut butter and 
• Yogurt topped with fresh raspberries. 

Here a few tips to make packing lunches a little easier:

• Pick out the fruits and veggies you plan to pack with your kids at the store. They are more likely to eat them if they got to decide which ones to pack or try.
• Prep prep prep! Wash the fruits and veggies when you get home and store them in a container in the fridge ready to go. That way healthy snacks are always available and you save time when making lunch. I often shop and prep on Sundays so I am ready for the week. 
• It is so much easier to plan and pack at night after the kids are in bed then in the morning when you are rushing out the door! So, pre-pack what you can and store the Laptop Lunches containers in either your fridge or on the counter until you need them.

• --> I filled the containers that need to be refrigerated the night before and placed them in the fridge. Take advantage of the fact that two of the Laptop Lunches containers have lids (but you can also cover the containers with plastic foil if need be). I highly recommend the Bento Buddies if you pack lunch every day since you get 4 lidded containers in the set! I filled one container with crackers and pre-cut the bread to save time in the morning as well. I used a fondant plunger to make the ice cream shaped bread but even a simple cookie cutter can make lunch more fun! I started with one star shaped cookie cutter 2 years ago. I just place the bread back into the bread bag and seal it. That way I only need to fill the sandwich in the morning. With a little prep packing a healthy and colorful lunch is fast and fun!
• Don't forget last night's left overs! They make great lunches the next day!

• Always have some healthy snacks in the fridge you can add to your lunchbox in the morning when you are short on time.
• Freeze juice pouches or to go yogurts to keep your lunchbox cold and the drink and food fresh on hot summer days!

This Laptop Lunches bento box contains:

• left over macaroni and cheese with carrot flowers
• cheese crackers
• fruit gummies
• a peach, sliced
• a yogurt to go and
• a frozen juice pouch to keep the lunch cold until it's time to eat

Have a great summer!
   ~Nina, MamaBelly.com 

Follow Nina and her lunch making adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

Pasta Salad Picnic Lunch

Need to get out of the house? Pack a bento picnic lunch filled with pasta salad and greens and take yourself on a lunch date! With a side of whole-grain pretzels, sunflower seeds and grapefruit, this lunch will give you a little break from the mundane.

Click here to see this weeks Full Menu details! 

Mediterranean Marvel

This bento lunch is a Mediterranean Marvel, filled with the best of the regions delicious foods--- from Italy to Greece! Packing this bento lunch is like giving yourself a mid-day vacation!



Click here to see the Full Menu details

Falafel Stuffed Pita

Greek Salad with a Whole Wheat Pita Pocket stuffed with Hummus, Falafel, Olive Tapenade and Greens - Opa! Pita pockets are a fun and healthy meal on the go for all ages. The zesty flavors and crisp veggies will brighten your lunch hour and leave you feeling satisfied and happy!

Click here to see this weeks full Menu. 

Burrito Bonito

This cheesy, black bean burrito is deliciously filling and still happily healthy! Burritos are easy to make and can be filled with any assortment of your favorite, fresh Mexicana ingredients! The possibilities are almost endless with what you can create for your own Burrito Bonito.

Click here to view this week's Full Menu

Holiday Health and Happiness

This Week's Bento Lunch

Following these stars will lead you to a well-rounded meal that will help you through those last minute shopping and holiday details. We hope your holidays are filled with joy, happiness, and of course, bentos for everyone! 

Click here to view this week's full menu.

We're offering free DVD's!

Laptop Lunches is pleased to announce that we are currently offering a free copy of the Healthy Lunch for Kids DVD with all product orders of at least $100!

This DVD is filled with information and ideas for packing healthy lunches for your kids year round! Supplies are limited, so don't miss out!