Menu and Shopping List for Jan 23-27

Well, onto another week! This week we’re going to have the following menus:

1. Pasta with pesto, orange slices and broccoli
2. Bean and rice burrito, salad with dressing, tortilla chips with salsa, mango
3. PBJ on an english muffin, banana half, broccoli and baby carrots with ranch dip, dessert of your choice
4. Hamburger on bun (or veggie burger!), fried rice, tomatoes and cheese, yogurt
5. Bagel chips with cheese and meat slices, sugar snap peas, grapes and ranch dip

Shopping List:

Breads

• Tortilla
• english muffin
• hamburger buns
• bagel chips

Dairy and Meat

• yogurt
• cheese of your choice
• lunch meat
• Ground turkey or beef for burgers (or beans for veggie burgers)
• sour cream (for ranch dip)

Produce

• oranges (we use cuties that are easy to peel and have no seeds)
• broccoli crown
• salad items
• mango
• bananas
• baby carrots
• tomatoes
• sugar snap peas
• grapes

Boxed and canned goods

• Pesto
• Pinto beans, canned (don’t forget to drain and rinse them before using!)
• rice
• tortilla chips
• ranch seasoning for dip (in the salad dressing aisle)

Day 33: Bento Days

Well this is where you’ll use your wonton wraps. I noticed my store was out of them, so I got egg roll wraps and cut them in fourths. Worked perfectly. What we do is just prepare our filling (ricotta cheese with whatever else you want, meat, mushrooms, spinach, etc) and then just place one tbsp of filling on one wrap, wet the other wrap on one side, and just place it over top, and press the edges to seal. Put it on a baking sheet, and bake at 350º for 10 minutes  and viola!  Homemade ravioli!

I also had to use Cuties today because our store was out of plums! Well, thats part of life right? Eating in season? Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Today's Menu:

• Homemade Ravioli 
• orange slices
• spinach salad with ranch dressing

Cost per lunch:  $1.19

Kid Rating:

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
10 min	10 min	20 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	438	18	53	16

Day 32: Bento Days

Todays lunch is a little expensive, just over a full dollar. I blame this on the price of eggs going up. :) But eggs are a healthy protien alternative, and really, a dollar for lunch is cheaper than getting school lunch ($2 per) and healthier!

Today's Menu:

• 2 hard boiled egggs
• 3 slices of melba toast
• strawberries and blackberries
• 1 oz of colby cheese

 

Cost per lunch:  $1.07

Kid Rating:

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	10 min	15 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	323	17	13	21

Day 31 Bento Days

Well, here’s a perfect example of living in the real world. I had Chili on Sunday night. I made enough to have left overs for the kids on Monday.. However, I was not betting on my husband literally polishing it off last night. So! I already put up the menu, the info, etc. However, I won’t have a picture because we didn’t have chili today. Thanks hubby! :)

Today's lunch is going to be very fun though, and I can’t wait till tomorrow morning to get a picture! Basically, you make mac and cheese. Now I’m going to use wide egg noodles (whole wheat of course) because I want to give my lion a curly mane, but use whatever you have or want! So. Fill your bento container with mac and cheese and then out of either cheese or lunchmeat, make a lions head with ears. I use nori paper to fill in the ears and then make the eyes, nose and mouth.

 

 

 

Today's Menu:

• Mac and cheese, lion style
• orange slices
• celery sticks
• peanut butter

 

Cost per lunch:  56¢

Kid Rating:

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	10 min	15 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	511	18	71	20

Shopping List and Menu for Jan 16-20

If you can find egg shapers or veggie cutters, those will help this week by making the presentation all the more fun!

Menu

1. Vegetarian Chili, parsnips and carrots, ranch dip, wheat crackers kiwi
2. Cheesy Lion with pasta, celery with peanut butter, orange slices
3. Homemade ravioli with pasta sauce, berries, salad with dressing, dessert of your choice
4. Hard boiled eggs, carrot stars, plum slices, melba toast
5. Grilled veggie panini, cantaloupe, yogurt

Shopping List:

Breads

• Melba toast
• Bread for your panini

Dairy

• eggs
• yogurt
• fat free sour cream
• cheddar cheese (either blocks or slices)

Produce

• parsnips
• carrots
• celery
• oranges or clementines or tangerines
• berries
• plums
• Veggies for your Panini (I use cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini slices, mushrooms and mozzarella
• kiwi
• cantaloupe
• Not really produce, but look for it in the produce section, with the vegan items. It’s won ton wraps and you can use these to make ravioli.

Boxed and canned goods

• wheat crackers
• Mostaccioli (pasta that is like penne, but not cut on the diagonal or ridged).

Day 30 Bento Days

 

So as we get back to it, I’ve got five new Bento recipes for you!

Most of them are easy peasy, not too much time involved, yet they’re healthy and balanced and nutritional. Which is what we need right? Good foods that are not only good for you, but good for your pocketbook and good for your time, which we all know is precious. This is a great Monday morning recipe, because if you’re like me, during the winter, on the weekends, chili is a staple. We make ours vegetarian because we don’t do much in the way of meat, but if you want, add some soy crumbles, or tofu, or even meat if you’re a meat fan.

Also, I paired carrots with parsnips for this lunch. Parsnips are a mild winter veggie that resemble carrots quite a bit. They’re very good and tend to take on the taste of things around them, in this case, the ranch dip which is made from ranch seasoning and fat free sour cream.

Also, you can use a little food cutter (they resemble mini cookie cutters) to slice up your kiwi in different shapes.

For the wheat crackers, feel free to use any whole grain, low in salt crackers, or throw a hunk of whole wheat artisan bread in there!

Today's Menu:

• Vegetarian Chili
• Wheat crackers or whole wheat bread
• Kiwi flowers
• sliced parsnips and carrots with ranch dip

 

Cost per lunch:  62¢

Kid Rating:

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	0 min	5 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	396	9	63	16

Shopping List for Jan 3 – 6

Here’s a shopping list of what you’ll need for this weeks Bento Days! Enjoy!

 

Meats

• Shredded chicken breast
• Hillshire Farms Turkey Lil Smokies or Turkey bacon
• Peanut Butter

Breads and Grains

• Whole wheat tortillas
• Pretzel Sticks
• pancake mix (or use your own recipe)
• Whole wheat bread

Fruits and Veggies

• kiwi
• corn
• black beans
• small Clementine or tangerines.
• baby carrots
• edamame
• apples
• misc veggies for your chicken wrap, whatever you choose. We use lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and bell peppers.

Canned Goods

• strawberry jam, sugar free

Dairy

• Cheddar cheese (shredded, for both mac and cheese and chicken wrap)

Treats

• Oatmeal cookies (your own, or  a brand with not too much sugar and fat)

Day 29 – Bento Days

Today's Menu:

• Chicken and vegetable wrap
• sliced kiwi
• pretzel sticks with PB
• corn and black beans

What kid doesn’t love a wrap? It’s complete finger food and has all their favorites inside. In this wrap, I use shredded chicken. I grill a chicken breast and then just toss it in my food processor and pulse for about 1 min, till it’s completely shredded. I mix that with a tad bit of light mayo and spoon a bit on to a wrap. Remember, you don’t want your wrap too thick. Then I add on veggies and wrap it up and slice it in half and stick both half in the box.

Also, shredded chicken keeps in the fridge for up to a week, you can use it at home as well, for salads. I usually have some on hand, so the times here aren’t including cooking chicken. Also, remember to rinse both your corn and beans (if you’re using canned) as most of the sodium will wash right off.

Cost per lunch:  62¢

Kid Rating:   

 

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	0 min	5 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	507	16	71	16

Day 27 – Bento Days

Today's Menu:

• Whole Wheat mini pancakes
• Turkey Little Smokies or turkey bacon
• 2 large scrambled egg
• Orange wedges

What kid doesn’t love breakfast when its not breakfast time? I think even us grown up like to have breakfast for dinner and lunch. So in this menu, you can use either turkey little smokies sausages or turkey bacon. I like to use the little smokies sliced longways. They’re precooked so I just simply boil them in a bit of water on the stove, which plumps them up and also removes some of the fat from them. I make pancakes, and just use 2 tbsp of batter for each mini cake. I put a bit of sugar free syrup in the dip container. Add in a yogurt of your choice and an easy peel or already peeled orange and you’re off and running!

And don’t forget, pancakes are one of those things you can make ahead and freeze in little baggies to pull out just what you need when you need them. I simply thaw them overnight and then toast the next day on a low setting on the toaster, as we don’t have a microwave. But a microwave will work too, just make sure you don’t put them in too long, they’ll get rubbery.

Cost per lunch:  65¢

Kid Rating:   

 

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
10 min	10 min	20 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	501	26	56	21

Day 26 – Bento Days

So as I promised, here are the next days menu. I know many of your children start back on Wednesday, however, our start back tomorrow, so there will be 4 days this week with lunches. I’ve tried to pick recipes that many of you will have most of what you need on hand, and perhaps not have to make a grocery trip at all to prepare these dishes. So lets dive in shall we? 

Today's Menu:

• Peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich (Rabbit style).
• Baby carrots and edamame with ranch dip (I use a toothpick to stab a few edamame so they can just dip and eat the beans).
• sliced apples
• Oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies

The fun part of this lunch is going to be making your rabbit sandwich. You’ll need 1 sandwich plus 1 slice of extra bread. Make your sandwich, I like to put PB thinly on both sides so the jelly doesn’t soak the bread and make it soggy. I also use sugar free jams only. They’re a tad bit more expensive in the store, but if you make your own, and canning jams is probably the easiest canning, then it becomes cheaper because of the lack of sugar. And it’s better for you!

So make your sandwich, and use a drinking glass upside down, a biscuit cutter or a round cookie cutter to cut a circle from the sandwich. You want it to take up most of the sandwich and simply leave the corners and crusts off. Then you’ll want to take another slice of bread, cut off the crusts and slice it into strips. I cut mine into four, because I have two children going to school. Cut yours how you wish. Put a very thin strip of PB down the bread and then put strawberry jelly on the bread and fold it longways. This becomes your ears. Simply place in the box next to the round face where the jelly is showing in the middle with bread on both sides. Do this with a second strip and you now have bunny ears! Use nori paper or carrots to make a face, and use very thin strips of celery for whiskers.

Cost per lunch:  86¢

Kid Rating:   

 

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
10 min	0 min	10 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	547	23	72	17