I was making the weekly lunches last night and thought it was time to incorporate some Valentine’s Day fun.
My girls love Valentine’s Day- the sparkles, the candy, pink and red everywhere… So here are a few really simple ideas I came up with to make their regular lunches more festive. I admire the people that are super fancy crafting everyday lunches into little monkeys and other works of art- but that is not my thing. I just try to find things that can be done really fast and still bring a smile to my little girl’s faces.
Really all you need is a heart shaped cookie cutter- grab the Hobby Lobby or Joann’s coupons and you can get a great deal there. Sur la Table has tons of shaped cookie cutters for $1.00 as well.
I have a few heart shaped cookie cutters because I actually use these a lot. It is nice to have a small one and a larger one.
Here is what I made this week:
DIY Lunchables- using the heart cutter on the pepperoni. You could also cut the cheese in heart shapes with just cheese and crackers or cut the cheese into hearts if you prefer a thinner lunchmeat.
Heart shaped fruit and sandwiches– my girls are small so I only make them half a sandwich. Another option would be to do a normal sandwich of your choice and use the small heart cookie cutter to cut a tiny heart out of the bread (similar to a thumbprint cookie) and you would have a full sized sandwich.
The small heart shaped cutter works perfectly on lots of different fruit- we have watermelon on hand so I used it to cut little heart watermelon to put on top of the berries.
Veggies and Dip. My girls love red pepper hummus and cucumbers as a snack so this works perfectly with the little cookie cutter.
You might substitute whatever dips your children like- ranch dressing, guacamole, salsa etc… These little reusable cupcake liners fit perfectly into compartment lunchboxes to hold condiments. (I would only do this with something nice and thick though.)
Caprese. My big girl loves grape tomatoes so I pack those with a little mozzarella cheese. The cheese would be very easy to cut into hearts with a mini cookie cutter. In this case I added a few heart marshmallows instead as a treat. I love the marshmallows because they aren’t as messy as candy and the girls love them. I grabbed a bag of these for $1 at Walmart and we pop them into hot chocolate or you could melt a tiny piece of chocolate on a graham cracker in the microwave and make super fast S’Mores.
Yogurt and fruit. This works perfectly with yogurt as well. Especially a greek yogurt which is usually much thicker. I just used the mini cutter on strawberries (or you could just use a paring knife and cut a little V at the top). There is granola on the side or you could add a much bigger fruit cup as a quick little snack.
Pink Milk. And this is a really fun little after school snack idea. I just added a few drops of food coloring to milk and the girls LOVED the pink milk. We have done this for St Patrick’s Day and April’s Fools with different colors and they always get a kick out of it. In this case less is more and I did 3 drops of color which was a little too much.
And if you happen to have any fruit leather handy- that is the simplest thing ever to jazz up a sandwich. I cut two hearts out of a piece of Stretch Island fruit leather and put it right on top of the sandwich. These little hearts could go on fruit salads as well.
I also like to browse the Dollar Spot at Target for little containers or napkins or cupcake decorations that I can incorporate into a regular lunchbox for more fun. Even just a tiny bag of glitter heart stickers added to the front of a Ziploc bag would be cute.
There are a lot of free printable Valentine’s available on Pinterest and you might even print a few of those to add as a lunchbox note.
Does anyone else have tips for jazzing up lunchboxes for Valentine’s Day?
See more fun ideas for lunchboxes here.
And see some ideas for easy children’s snack boxes here.
Suki says
I love the pink milk idea. I try to stay away from artifical food coloring, I am going to try to use organic beets as an alternative.
Charlene says
Suki,
I figured someone would mention that :). It isn’t the best choice but next time I’ll just use one drop I think for a light pink. I am sure there are more natural ways to get pink coloring out there but I haven’t researched them.
sara says
I dont have any kids but these are some super cute ideas!
Audrey says
Love these ideas. I wanted to add that I pack a holiday themed napkin (usually from the dollar store) in my sons lunch box the month of that holiday. Fun to have a turkey or snowman as a reminder to use the napkin 🙂
Charlene says
Audrey, I saw cute heart ones in the Dollar Spot and you are right. Easy way to make it a lot more fun.
Whitney says
Great ideas! The milk idea is so cute and will be a big hit at our house 🙂
Annie says
Wow ! Ur such an inspiration. These are such fun and nutritional choices. I got a bunch of ideas !! Thanks again
Nicole says
My little girl will total love the pink milk! Thanks for the cute ideas.
Julie says
Where did you buy those blue divided containers? I need something like that.
Charlene says
Julie I really like the blue one pictured there with the tomatoes. It is from Target and I just got it on clearance so they may have stopped carrying them. This is what it looks like
http://myfrugaladventures.com/2012/09/target-gerber-graduates-items-as-low-as-49/
Suki says
If you live out here in California near San Fransisco, Check out a Japanese $1.00 Store called Daiso. (http://www.daisojapan.com/) It is a haven for BENTO ware all for $1.00. They aren’t made in China but from Japan, better quality. They have everything for bento lunchboxes. I went there last year and went nuts because everywhere else will charge you 90% of what it actually cost! They have other stuff there as well, such as Japanese pottery and dishes.
Melanie Farmer says
So cute! Will you be my Mom? lol…
Katie says
You’re such a good mom! Thanks for the ideas. Jo-Ann’s has some great larger-sized cookie cutters with rubber grips. They’re pricey for a cookie cutter, but they seem to be the perfect size for sandwiches. I recently did a little tea party for my daughter and a few of her friends and we got a butterfly cookie cutter for some PB&J sandwiches. I’m going to keep my eye out for more cutters of that size. Gets my kiddos to eat all kinds of stuff they wouldn’t usually!