No Place for Hate Blog Hop

The Bento Bloggers and Friends are back for another blog hop, but this one is for a great cause to show our support for those that travel the tough road. If you haven't been bullied at one time or another chances are you know someone who has. Some have it so rough they lose all hope, and resort to drastic measures like school shootings or suicide. No one should have to live like that, in fear, or hide who they are to "fit in". So we say Make Lunch Not War! There is no place for hate at the lunch table or anywhere else. If you see something, say something! Here are just a couple of the disturbing stories making headlines lately.

11-Year-Old Boy Attempts Suicide After Being Bullied for My Little Pony Passion

To help with Michael Morones Recovery Fund check out GoFundMe.

 North Carolina school bans boy’s “My Little Pony” lunch bag rather than confront its bullying problem

My son's school has a group called C-squared that meet once a month to come up with acts of kindness to do around the school. Their goal is to facilitate the No Place for Hate atmosphere and create a bully-free school.   Promote Prevent : Preventing Bullying  and Stop Bullying.gov are just a couple of the many resources available to help you and your family take action to stop bullying. Let's work together to make the world safer for our kids. 

 So come hop along with us and raise awareness and bring a little more kindness and understanding to the lunch room and every room. Click the button at the end of this post and check out all the wonderful lunches.

C-Squared 

 In this lunch :

• Smiley Face - Jelly sandwich
• C and 2 Trader Joe's Schoolhouse cookies
• Carrots with Smiley face ring
• Heart Strawberries with Stop sign

With over 150 members Giddens Elementary School is promoting a culture of kindness. I hope this hop will inspire you and your schools to keep it going. Now click the button below and see what The Lucky Lunchbox has in store next.

Pso Long Psych

Tonight is the series finale for Psych. I admit I am a newbie to the series. So that meant a lot of Netflix binging. So sad to see it go. In tribute I dedicate this lunch with pineapple deliciousness. If you watch closely you will find a pineapple in every episode.

Are you a fan of pineapple? 

In this lunch : Pineapple Bento

• Power greens salad with ham and pineapple beach shirt, provolone Psych
• Cucumbers
• Bacon wrapped asparagus, provolone psych
• Grapes
• Mushrooms

Can't wait to watch and see what happens to Shawn, Gus, and the rest of the crew, its sure to be a fun finale.

Here's some fun Psych lunches my Edible Geekery friends have made :
Bent on Better Lunches

Bento for Kidlet

Chaos and Confections

Organized Bites

What's in Our Lunch Bag

There are probably more out there, if only Shawn were here to lead me to them.

World Down Syndrome Day!

Hip hip hooray is 3-21 today so let's celebrate all of those who have a little extra to give the world. There are few people who can love unconditionally, see hope no matter what challenges they face, and always live bigger and better than anyone. I'm speaking of course of my awesome friends with Downs Syndrome. I have always had a special love for all of those blessed to have an extra 21 chromosome and those who are lucky enough to meet them. So pull up your socks and put a little extra love in your heart.

Every Piece Matters 

In this lunch : In his TARDIS lunch box

• Puzzle - Jelly sandwich
• Strawberry hearts
• Carrots
• Goldfish cookies
• Chocolate milk

Here is our post from last year:

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine on your windowpane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

~An Irish Blessing

Lucky You 

In this lunch : 

• Clover - Jelly sandwich
• Leprechaun Kid Bait - He lured the kids into his pranks by leaving this tempting treat, mint M&Ms and rainbow marshmallows
• Green grapes with leprechaun ring
• Celery with peanut butter and hat ring

 Exterminate Hunger 

 

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Irish Dalek - Peanut butter and jelly
• Rainbow Airheads candy from the cloud
• Rainbow fruit salad - Strawberry, cantaloup, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, and grapes

Our little monkeys had a blast with their Leprechaun visitor. They baited a trap hoping to catch a glimpse, but were out smarted and pranked.

 A lucky breakfast with magic cups, when they poured in their milk it turned green.

 Their trap with coins to lure in the leprechaun, and of course a note on each side requesting toys.

 He worked all night, and well....when nature calls...

 Graffiti on the bathroom mirror.

 Magic green water in the sink too.

 Booby trapped their rooms...more than dirty laundry and toys on the floor anyway.

He sprung their trap and left a booby trap of his own, rainbow slime. He lured them in with gold candy (rolos) and kid bait (green M&Ms and rainbow marshmallows). They fell for it, got slimed, and got a couple new Star Wars action figures as a bounty. 

Here's a look back a some fun lunches from last year:
Lucky Cyberman

 Lucky Lunch

 Pot 'O Gold

 Lucky Kangaroo

Who you lookin' at?

February fun continued with some familiar faces. The best part was their reaction since their inspirations had run dry, every morning was a complete surprise to them as they checked out their lunches before leaving for school.

Dave - Our favorite minion 

Despicable Me 2

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Dave - Jelly sandwich, marshmallow eyes, nutella details
• Despicable Me Minion graham crackers and pick
• Heart strawberries with Stuart ring
• Celery with peanut butter with Kevin ring

Emmet 

The Lego Movie

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Emmet - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with candy eyes, uniform - cutie orange slicds
• Carrots
• Strawberry hearts

Silly Monster 

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Monster - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, candy eyes, ring pop mouth, orange slice crazy hair
• Carrots
• Heart strawberries

This is what happens when I "just cut the crust off", I just can't help myself. But its ridiculous how fast and easy it was to scare this up.

3.14159265359

It's Pi day! So I say let them eat pie! We have celebrated with gluten free pizza, and gluten free and sugar free strawberry pie.

Russo's Chicken Rustica 

Gluten Free Frozen Pizza that actually tastes good!

Gluten Free Sugar Free Strawberry Pie 

Pillsbury Gluten Free pastry dough

 1 cup Stevia in the raw

1 pint fresh strawberries

 1 Tbsp organic kosher gelatin

 3/4 cup water

Directions: 

Dough - Just as directed on the container : Preheat oven to 425F. Knead dough until not flaky. Roll half the dough between 2 layers of parchment paper in a 9" circle, peel one layer of parchment off and gently flip into pie pan, then peel to release other layer of parchment.Repeat for top half...or cut into a bunch of pieces for Pi.

Filling - Wash and slice strawberries, layer half in the bottom of the pie shell. The other half smash well and mix with 1 cup of Stevia. In a medium sauce pan bring 3/4 cup water just under boil and whisk in 1 Tbsp of gelatin. Take off the heat once well blended, then stir in the smashed strawberry mixture. Pour over into pie shell. Top with other half of the pie dough.

Bake - 425F cover crust with foil for 30 min, then remove it and bake additional 10-20 min. I gave it 9 and it was well done, but still yummy.

I had some dough leftover so I made a Pi pocket with a spoonful of 4 berry jelly inside. They turned out beautiful. As luck would have it I popped them out of the oven at...yep 3:14 this afternoon. I didn't plan that, but it was too cool not to grab a quick picture.

This year we are linking up to some of our blogging friends and linking all of our Pi day food. Please check out Bento For Kidlet and keep the party going.

Last year's Pi day salad can be found here:

Whatever Wednesday

Wednesday...hump day...the I don't know what to make and you don't care day. Ok maybe they do care, but they certainly gave me the "whatever" roll call when I asked the night before what to make for their lunches. I decided I wanted sleep over packing lunches so I went to bed with no creative juice in my brain. I awoke to the same 30 minutes to get them up, fed, and packed as any other day. So I grabbed the first to cutter in the drawers and this is what they got. Why am I telling you all this? Because regardless of how much or how little effort I put into their lunches they always love them. Some have been elaborate art pieces and some are no more creative than the closest tool to reach my un-caffeinated (fear not the coffee was brewing) hand.

Texas 

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Texas - Peanut butter and jelly sandwch
• Easy Lunchbox mini dipper - ranch dressing
• Heart strawberries
• Carrots

Darth Vader

In this lunch : Monster containers from Target dollar spot

• Darth Vader - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Carrots
• Heart strawberries

Lost in Space

While little Blue monkey enjoyed a visit from our local planetarium at school last month, Green monkey got Star Wars. Fun lunches for both space cadets, no matter how you play in space.

NASA  

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Space shuttle and astronaut and star - peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Goldfish cookies
• Carrots
• Cutie with star cute out and strawberry hearts

Tie Fighter 

 

In this lunch : 

• Tie Fighter - peanut butter and jelly sandwich with Trader Joe's cinnamon schoolhouse cookie cockpit window
• Carrots with Darth Vader ring and light saber pick
• Strawberry hearts with Storm trooper ring