Thursday with Piggies

 Thursday's messy lunch;
-Apple with Sunbutter
-Half sunbutter and strawberry jam sandwich on Rudi's gf bread
-Date roll with coconut
-Popcorners kettle chips in an unbleached wax paper bag

Between the sunbutter fingers and the Popcorners crumbs, it will be like tarring & feathering them.

Thursday breakfast;
Piggy faces and circles cut from Wellshire Turkey Ham slice and egg sheet, with Glutino round crackers.We're moving away from breakfast foods like gf waffles, cereals, and yogurt, and trying to serve the kids regular food in the morning. I don't like how devoid of real nutrition breakfast-y foods tend to be. It will likely be a slow transition, since the kids love empty carby waffles, but I think we'll get there. Especially if it's cute.

UPDATE: They both loved breakfast and lunch! The lunchboxes came home mostly empty, with the exception of the girl's apple. She ate a few clementines after school though, so it all worked out.

NO co-mingling of food permitted

Excuse the grumblings, I thought the pic would be right this time, but it rotated itself (grummel, grummel).
Tomorrow's lunch is a bit of an experiment. This is another Systema box, but this one has no divider, which opens up the options somewhat on the inner containers. Inner containers are very serious business when you have a child with a "no co-mingling of food permitted unless under very specific circumstances which can and will change with absolutely no warning" rule.

Tomorrow's menu:
Peter Rabbit organic apple/butternut squash puree pouch
Raw cauliflower & broccoli (maybe I'll be surprised)
Glutino gf crackers
Wellshire Turkey ham cut into circles
Single Andean Dream quinoa/coconut cookie

Snack:
Home made rainbow trail mix with golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dehydrated mandarin oranges, dried apricots, peanuts (in round containers at top).

The kids seem to be enjoying having the little flannel napkins tucked into their lunch. At home, they like to have a small towel on the table in case of spills, and I think the napkin is an adequate stand-in.

UPDATE: As expected, the broccoli and cauliflower went untouched. I'll keep trying. The crackers and turkey circles were a big hit, and the boy asked me to pack them again. He also said that he didn't like the orange pieces or the blueberries in the trail mix, and he didn't eat them. The girl also didn't like the orange pieces, but said that they weren't too yucky to eat. :)

New lunch boxes!

Our new (systema) lunch boxes arrived this afternoon, and the kids are quite excited to try them out tomorrow. Unlike the laptop lunchbox, they both are able to open these independently, which will be very helpful when I'm not able to join them for lunchtime.

Top section:
Pizza bagel half made with Udi's gf plain bagel, daiya dairy free cheese, and spaghetti sauce (the girl doesn't like much cheese)
1 organic turkey hot dog, cut into bite sized pieces for dipping

Bottom section:
Small container of dried cranberries, golden raisins, peanuts, and Enjoy Life chocolate chips
Tiny dipper of ketchup
2 large garlic stuffed green olives (girl) / 5 tiny Greek olives (boy)
Homemade rainbow flannel napkin

Snack (not in photo):
Organic nut and fruit bar

I've been taking the easy road with some of the lunch choices. It can be so difficult to get protein into the boy, and he's fairly reliable with the salty/smoky ones. We only recently got rid of soy when I started reacting to it, but since we already can't do wheat, dairy, mushrooms, or white beans, we had to find another source of protein to replace it. The only other major source of protein the boy could eat was black beans, and he was starting to rebel against eating them every day. I had been either vegetarian or vegan for going on 28 years, so it was a difficult decision to start adding poultry to our diet (from local/ethical, antibiotic-free, chemical-free sources). However, it's really made a difference. He's eating better, trying new foods occasionally, and his growth has improved.
For the coming week, I'm going to work on increasing the veggies, and including less animal protein in the kids' lunches.