Family bentos (#16, 17, 18)

This morning was a bit of a rush, so I'm glad that I had just done some food shopping for our upcoming Spring Break trip to the beach house -- it meant I had easy stuff to grab for my "assembly line" bentos.

My husband's bento is in the blue containers (upper left), mine is the yellow containers (lower left) and my son's was the white container with the soda.

We all had ham and cheese (hubster and I had some salami and "grown up" cheese), cashews/peanuts, and some mini candies. I didn't have much in the way of veggies, but I think we'll survive.

Diabetes: this is a 75 carb meal
GF: gluten in the crackers and Kit Kats

Dad's bento (#15)

We had leftover cheesy chicken noodles after dinner last night, so I packed these up right away in a divided Tupperware container. This morning, I added slices of pepperoni (and one cut into a heart and placed on the noodles!), crackers, green peppers, cheese wedges, and a sliced strawberry.

For good measure, I added a Reese's Cup pack to his lunch bag.

Mom's bento (#14)

We had a rotisserie chicken this weekend, so I made chicken salad with the leftovers and added a cup of sliced almonds and craisins to mix in right before I ate. (If you add them earlier, the almonds get mushy and the craisins leave "interesting" blobs of pink on the chicken.)

I included a strawberry, but realized that I needed to slice it to get it to fit into the bento -- so I took care of that after I'd already posted the picture to the blog.

The Smartie was supposed to be my treat, but.... the moment I smelled that Reese's Cup, I had to slip that into my bag as well.

Boy's bento (#13)

We only had one piece of bread this morning (eeep!), so I made a half PB&J and happily discovered that it fit be-yew-ti-fully into the bento. I used a piece of silicon baran to separate it from some sliced green peppers. I filled the lower tier with Cheetos, but my son has asked that I only include a small amount of Cheetos -- apparently, it's just too much to try and finish in the short amount of time they have to eat.

I added a yogurt and a pack of Starbursts to finish out the meal.

Diabetes: this is a 75 carb meal
GF: the bread contains glutens

Dad's Bento (#12)

I was dying to use my new "bone" food picks and meatballs seemed like the perfect choice! I tucked baby carrots and sliced green pepper around them and filled the bottom tier with Cheetos.

I tucked some chocolate squares in the bag for a treat.

Boy's bento (#11)

More meatballs -- which my son loved, even though they were still cold. He ended up not touching the celery or peanut butter, but loved having a small soda (one of those 6 oz cans) in his lunch. (It's such a treat for a diabetic to have real soda.)

I included an "Oatmeal to Go" because I came across a couple in our rescue kit (the lunchbag we take everywhere with us, filled with 15-carb, quick-acting sugar treats to reverse a low blood sugar.) I'm trying to make sure that we use up all the gluten-containing foods before our appointment with the GI doctors... just in case.

While I'm still secretly hoping that The Boy does not have Celiac Disease, I feel rather ready to take the plunge and go fully gluten free. A good friend sent me her unused bread machine -- so I've got that going for me, which is nice. ;) I've also been reading tons and tons of library books on GF cooking, finally finding a few that I wanted to actually buy. Plus, I realized that we actually eat a lot of meals where it's easy to remove/replace the non-GF ingredients.

Diabetes: This is a 75 carb meal.
GF: There is gluten (or contamination of glutens) in the oats. The meatballs also contain breading.

Dad's bento (#10)

This was the first day using the new bento boxes from Ichiban Kan. And... yes... I've already placed another order. :o)

I was a little concerned that they were too small for our appetites, so I used a 2-tier box plus a snack box for my husband's bento.

It includes a turkey and cheese roll-up (mayo and mustard), Cheetos (which, after packing up and sending off, I was suddenly unsure whether the hubs liked Cheetos!), peanut butter celery, sliced strawberries and 2 cookies.

Um... he texted me after lunch and, apparently, it was a lot of food. Oh well. The hubs has been working such late hours the past two months that it's never a problem if I overpack -- it gives him something to eat later in his day.