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For the lunches in this post, I used transportation cutters, food markers, and Yumboxes as part of the 3 Tools, 4 Bloggers series over at Wendolonia. I have enjoyed reading all of the other posts in this series and was happy to have a chance to participate.
I was a little low on produce when packing these lunches, but still pleased with how they turned out. Using the transportation cutters helped me to turn some of the ordinary items I had on hand into something more special.
This lunch in the pink Yumbox was prepared for my daughter. I used the cutter shaped like a ship to cut colby cheese, apple slices, and to make shaped tortilla chips (details on those are at the end of the post). I decorated the cheese slices with food safe markers and paired them with round saltines. I pressed the imprint of the cutter into the apple slices and placed those in a silicone ship-shaped cup along with some grapes in the fruit section of the Yumbox. In the veggie section, I packed carrots, asparagus, and cucumber slices on a pick. The homemade ship-themed tortilla chips were in the grains section and the protein section held ham rollups on nautical picks. The treat section held some colorful fish candies.
I used a blank Lunchbox Love note to write a message that said, "Time to set sail on a fun summer!" to go along with the ship theme. My daughter took this lunch to a birthday party where pizza was being served. She isn't a big pizza fan so she was happy to have this and enjoyed all the ships.
My three year old son also took a transportation-themed lunch in a Yumbox to that party with similar foods, but a granola bar instead of ham.. For his, I used the car-shaped cutter and some cute road sign picks that my friend over at eclecticlamb.com picked up for me on her recent trip to Japan. He was really intrigued by the cheese decorated to look like cars. He usually isn't a big fan of cheese, but he did try it this day. He did like the crackers, chips, fruits, and veggies. And, all of the star candies were eaten.
I waited for a long time before buying a Yumbox. After I first used it, it quickly became one of my favorites. It is easy for my kids to open and close and keeps everything separate even if turned upside down. I also love the fact that these boxes lie flat in our new Gabby Kids' Chiller lunch bags by Fit & Fresh with plenty of remaining room for a drink and ice packs.
My daughter has the version of the bag and my son has the glasses version. Both have washed and dryed easily.
For tips on how I made the shaped tortilla chips, you can continue to read below, or you can click to move on to check out lunches created by the three other bloggers in this week's post of the 3 Tools, 4 Bloggers series over at Wendolonia.
For the tortilla chips, I first I brushed a couple of tortillas with olive oil and lightly salted.
Then, I cut out the shapes using the cutters.
Then, I placed them on a pan and baked for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can faintly see the imprint of the ship and car shape on some of the pieces before baking, but it was more faded after baking as you see below.
For the shaped apples, I first sliced thin sections of apple and then used the cutters.
I soaked the pieces in some a water and Fruit Fresh mixture before packing so they wouldn't brown.
