My Epicurean Adventures

A food blog about cooking quick & easy, healthy(ish) meals that my family loves + fun lunchbox ideas for kids with nut allergies and more!

Thanksgiving Lunch Hop: What I’m Grateful For

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Welcome to the BentoBloggersandFriends Thanksgiving Lunch Hop! Let me start by saying that I just LOVE these seriously awesome gals and guy! I’m grateful for them because they’ve taught me SO MUCH while constantly cracking me up! And because without them, I wouldn’t be here blogging now. While there is SO much more that I am thankful for in my life, here are my top three.

Little Sis ♥
I’m thankful that at least I have one child who loves to eat, just like her mommy and daddy. What’s so awesome is that this girl actually naturally eats healthy. She loves her fruits and veggies and enjoys trying new things most of the time. She will sometimes even prefer to eat an apple over a bowl of ice cream, though that apple would never hold up against a lollipop or a piece of candy. So, I’m grateful that she enjoys her food and is open trying new things. One of my most successful techniques in getting her interested in something is just to eat it in front of her without offering her any. And while I’m eating it, I’ll throw in a couple realistic sounding “Mmmm’s”. 4 out 5 times she’ll ask if she can try some.

Thanksgiving Lunch Hop

In Little Sis’ Thanksgiving Lunch:

  1. Indian girl sammie w/ Applegate Naturals turkey deli meat, salami and muenster cheese on Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat bread.
  2. Flower-cut organic carrots from Papa Spuds w Ranch dressing in the side container
  3. Fresh raspberries and blueberries
  4. Homemade Iced Pumpkin Cookie – YUM!

Big Sis ♥
I’m thankful that while Big Sis does NOT like fruits (especially strawberries!), she DOES like her veggies. Her fresh fruit repertoire is quite small: apples (Fuji’s only), the occasional banana as long as it’s perfectly ripened and a few blueberries when she’s in the rare mood. She can be forced to eat cantaloupe and oranges once in a while, but we recently decided the pain in doing that just barely outweighs the benefits.

Her daddy and I have finally come to the conclusion that we just need to give her a little freedom in that department after years of struggle. So now we let her choose whether or not she’ll eat fresh fruit or freeze-dried fruit (apples, pears and pineapple) or applesauce (which now counts as a serving of fruit) instead. Her veggie list, I’m happy to report, is much more varied. She eats broccoli, carrots, asparagus, peas, sugar snap peas, cauliflower, edamame (wait, does that even count?) without any fussin’. I guess if I HAD to choose fruits or veggies, I’d choose veggies!

I’m also grateful that while she has a severe tree nut allergy, Big Sis can and does eat peanut butter safely, something her Little Sis cannot do. So, I’m thankful that at least one of my sweeties can enjoy peanuts, worry-free, especially since they too often appear in the ingredients list of things that you’d never guess had peanuts! For this reason, their lunches are pictured separately… because Big Sis requested a peanut butter and jelly uncrustable for lunch.

And I’m so grateful that even though both my girls have severe peanut/tree nut allergies, we live in a world where people are more aware and understanding (mostly) and that products are clearly labeled to help us avoid them. For this, I am very grateful.

Thanksgiving Lunch Hop

In Big Sis’ Thanksgiving Lunch:

  1. Peanut butter and jelly uncrustable using Nature’s Own Whole Wheat bread topped with…
  2. Pilgrim Girl Snack (see Bento Monsters‘s post on how to use the Cute-Z-Cute cutter to make your own girl!) w/ muenster cheese face, salami hair, flour tortilla bonnet, nori eyes and a Simply Fruit Roll-Up mouth
  3. Flower-cut organic carrots from Papa Spuds
  4. Peeled Snacks Apple Clusters
  5. Homemade Iced Pumpkin Cookie

Daddy ♥
I’m grateful to have a sweet, loving, caring, hard-working, wonderful husband who affords me the ability to stay at home w/ my girls (when they’re not in school!) to cook, blog, hang out w/ my friends (eating bon bons of course) and even play volleyball on occasion while he slaves away at work. He’s full of fun and energy, he’s understanding, he plans fun trips for us, he helps out around the house (a lot) and even leaves the toilet seat down!

Even though he isn’t on my “To-Make-Lunch-For” list, I jumped at the chance to make him one yesterday. It was nothing fancy – no picks or faces or even a treat – just a healthy salad w/ the fixin’s, all chopped up, just the way he likes it. Because, we both joke, eating a salad is just way too much work with all that chewing.

Thanksgiving Lunch Hop

In Daddy’s Thanksgiving Lunch:

  1. Chopped spinach salad topped
  2. Shredded carrots
  3. Broccoli slaw
  4. Tomatoes
  5. Vball buddy Glen’s salsa which he won’t share the recipe!
  6. Leftover Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Tostadas from my Mexican Fiesta

So, in a nutshell, I am so very thankful for these little guys (girls, actually, and they are swapped from their lunches):

and this guy, aka Sweetie, for making my life just.happy.

Now let’s hop on over to Crazy? Maybe!‘s blog to see what she’s thankful for!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Feel free to make my day by leaving me a comment, following my blog via email, Facebook or Instagram. The more the merrier, of course!

Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

To check out items used in my posts or some of my favorites, simply click here: “Products I Love“. Purchases made using these links earns me a little extra cash to support my bento habit, which Hubby certainly appreciates. Haha! So, THANK YOU, should you choose to purchase any of ’em!

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Comments

  21. Rebecca

    What a precious and lovely tribute to each of your family members. I am also blessed with children who naturally eat healthy foods. We are a food allergy family, too! Your daughters' lunches are adorable!

    Reply

    • happyvballgirl

      Awwww, thanks so much for the sweet comments, Rebecca. Cheers to the allergy moms and kids who like to eat healthy! At least they make one thing easier for us. 🙂

      Reply

    • happyvballgirl

      Thanks so much, Eileen! The costumes and pic were made last year but i just couldn't help but repost for this. 🙂

      Reply

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