October is here at last! This is probably my favorite time of year to pack lunches - the weather is cool, school is back in session, and it warms a kid's ( and husband's) heart to open their lunch on a blustery day and get a little extra love from home. This is the time of year for me to pull out all my fun Halloween picks and cutters, and I FINALLY get to cut those orange mini bell peppers into jack-o-lanterns again, tee hee hee! ( also, I can laugh like a witch)
I had a BLAST last year making Halloween lunches, so I thought I'd kick off October by showing you all my favorites - the Best of Halloween 2012!
Last year I did a countdown to Halloween, starting 10 days before. Here are some of my favorite lunches, in order from 10 to 1:
I did two lunches for day 10, one for my husband, and one for my son. You can read about what's in them in this post, Ghost in the Pumpkin Patch
Day 9 was a family favorite recipe that I dressed up for Halloween, Recipe for Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie. This is a great dish to serve for dinner on Trick-or-Treat night, so you can send off the little ones with something warm and nutritious 🙂
Day 8 was a yummy chicken and black bean burrito, dressed up to look like tombstones. Read about my little bento "accident" here
For day 7 I made a Hello Kitty black cat bento, with some leftovers and some cool black "forbidden rice"- perfect for Halloween!
On day 6 I made my son a fun Halloween snack, including an easy mummy made from white chocolate covered pretzels:
Next was day ⅘ ... I found out I had been counting wrong, whoops! so days 4 and 5 were combined into one sweet snack bento to get me back on track:
Another Halloween lunch I loved was this Cute Little Ghost Bento, which was just another arrangement of protein, rice, and vegetables. Eating your vegetables does not have to be boring!
Next up - holidays are a great excuse to take leftovers and dress them up to be more exciting and new, as shown here in Leftovers for Lunch.( I loved that little jack o lantern!)
Okay, this last one ... I think should go in a Bento Bloopers file. I TRIED to make an egg that looked like a candy corn, but it ended up looking like a bald little kid! Oh well, I did like how the purple potatoes looked, along with the ghost and pumpkin cheese, and the olive bats... so I guess it makes the cut 🙂
Halloween Chef Salad
So there it is - all my best Halloween lunches from 2012! I hope this gives you some good ideas of your own, so you can make healthy food a lot more fun. Fun Halloween food doesn't just have to be all about candy!
Have a happy and healthy Halloween!