– [Jennifer] Hey guys, and welcome back to Bunches of Lunches. Today I'm back with another week of fun but easy lunch ideas, and this week I'm making all hot lunches and no sandwiches at all. Oh yes, and all of the lunches this week are super quick and easy to make, no complicated recipes
or anything like that. Now, if you're new here, please hit that red Subscribe button and go ahead and click
the bell notification. That way you won't miss out
on any of our new videos. And, speaking of missing out, did you guys happen to catch yesterday's video? I made a special lunch for
one of my favorite YouTubers, Moriah Elizabeth, and seriously, I think it was my favorite
lunch I've ever made, so definitely go check out that video if you haven't already, I will link it down below. And without further ado,
let's get onto the lunches. Hey fans, and welcome to Meatless Monday, which is just like it sounds, there is no meat in today's
lunch and we're cool with that. And as you can tell, I'm kind of going with a Mario theme today.
Now I love Mario, and his game on Nintendo was super popular when I was a kid. We didn't have Fortnite,
we didn't have Minecraft, we had Mario, but I have to
say, I was really bad at it. But anyway, back to the lunches, and since it's Meatless Monday, I'm going with a vegetarian chili. I have an excellent recipe for this, I will link it down
below if you're curious, but basically this is just leftovers. The best hot lunch, I
think, are always leftovers. Now, I'm not going super crazy
on the Mario theme today, but I do want to make a fun
little treat for the lunch. For this I'm using some red apples, some marshmallows, and some toothpicks, and basically by
combining a slice of apple and half of a marshmallow I'm left with something
that kind of looks like a toadstool from the game.
For our vegetable today I'm gonna go ahead and throw in some sugar snap peas. The kids have really been
liking these recently, so I'm gonna put as many
as I can fit in here. Now, to go along with our vegetarian chili that's already in the thermos, I'm gonna go ahead and give the kids some shredded cheddar cheese and a little squeeze bottle of sour cream, and that way, they can top their own chili when they're ready to eat it. My kids really like when
their lunch has a DIY aspect. Up next in the lunch I'm
gonna throw in some crackers, and since this is a Mario-themed lunch I went with these star-shaped ones, and to make these star
crackers even better I'm gonna take my food-writer pen and draw a couple of eyes
on just a few pieces, not on all of them,
I'm not gonna go crazy, although I could, but not today.
It'll make the lunch look cute but it won't take a lot of time. Next I'm adding a very special
treat to today's lunch, I know the kids will love it, it's just a bag of
Mario-themed fruit snacks. And last but not least,
the drink for today, I'm gonna throw in this good
old fruit punch drink pouch. I get these from Trader Joe's,
and they're pretty good, they don't have as much sugar
but the kids still like them. Now that is everything
in the, wait a minute, I don't think that there's
enough fruit in this lunch today.
There's really just a few
little slices of apple, so I'm gonna go ahead and throw in a mandarin orange as well. It just fits so nicely in their lunch box, and now the lunch is complete. Okay guys, the lunch is over now, it's time to see what they thought. First up I have Lily,
what d'you think, Lil? – [Lily] My favorite was the oranges. – [Jennifer] Yeah, I have to say, these oranges are actually really good. Sometimes I get them from the store and they're really sour
and it's kind of a bummer, but these ones are really good, and Lily ate her whole orange.
– [Jackson] I really like
the cheese crackers too. – [Jennifer] Okay, Jack, what did you think of today's lunch? – I liked it.
– What was your favorite part? – [Jackson] The cheese stars. – The cheese crackers?
– Mm-hmm. – [Jennifer] Okay, Kenzie,
what did you think? – [McKenzie] It was really good. – [Jennifer] Did you like
putting your own toppings on your chili?
– Yeah. – [Jennifer] Kind of a DIY. What was your favorite part? – [McKenzie] Hmm, my favorite
part was those crackers, like the star crackers. – Mm, they're good, huh?
– Mm-hmm. We'll see you tomorrow. – [Jennifer] Hey there,
and welcome to Tuesday. Today I'm super excited about the lunch because I'm going with sort of a carnival slash circus theme. I found all these things at Hobby Lobby quite a long time ago, and I've just been holding
onto them for the right week. Now, I'm a huge fan of the
show The Greatest Showman, so I love this theme. Let me know in the comments down below if you've ever seen The Greatest Showman. It's definitely one of my top five favorite movies of all time.
Now, there's a lot of different
foods that come to mind when I'm thinking about the
circus and the carnival, but I decided to go with something I know my kids would love
and that's mini corn dogs. These are chicken corn dogs,
they're already fully cooked, so all I have to do is pop them in either the microwave or the toaster for about five minutes. Now that these are nice and hot I'm gonna go ahead and
stick them in my thermoses, and when I'm packing foods
like this in the thermos I also like to add a little
piece of paper towel. The paper towel can absorb
any extra moisture in there. I don't expect these to
stay crispy until lunchtime, but they should stay warm. To go along with these mini corn dogs of course I'm gonna give the
kids some ketchup and mustard. Next I'm gonna throw in
some cucumber slices, but these are really
special cucumber slices because for my birthday last week I got a new vegetable cutter, super exciting, I know, but it is to me 'cause I love making lunches fun.
So for this cutter I can actually make crinkle-cut cucumbers,
see, just like that. It was really easy but
you do have to be careful with these cutters because
they're super sharp. For our fruit today I'm
going with a combination of red grapes, green
grapes and blueberries, and I went ahead and added them
to some picks just for fun. Now to go along with this lunch
I had a hard time deciding between adding popcorn or peanuts, but I went ahead and went with peanuts because I did popcorn last week. But these are actually roasted and salted in-the-shell peanuts. These definitely make me
think of the carnival. Next to that I'm gonna add this teeny tiny Greek yogurt tube. And then last but not
least, the treat for today, of course, is some circus animal crackers. Now, my kids kind of think
of these as a baby cookie, so I'm not quite sure
if they'll like them, but I just think they're so cute and they totally go with today's theme.
– [All Children] Lunch is over now. – [Jennifer] And here's what they ate. Good job guys, what did you think of the circus slash carnival lunch? – [Lily] I liked it, it was cool. – [Jennifer] I thought
it looked really cool. It definitely reminded me
of The Greatest Showman, which I love that movie. D'you guys like it? – [Girls] Yeah. – [Jackson] No. – [Jennifer] No, well, two
like it and one doesn't. Okay, so tell me, what
was your favorite thing out of this entire lunch? – [McKenzie] My favorite thing was the corn dogs, yeah.
– The mini corn dogs, yeah. – [Lily] I like those too. – [Jennifer] You know what
this lunch was missing? – [All Children] What? – [Jennifer] Cotton candy. – Oh yeah.
– But no, we didn't do that. What about you, Lily,
what was your favorite? – [Lily] Animal cracker. – [Jennifer] The kids asking me what kind of animals these crackers are, but it's really kind of hard to tell. Kenzie, did you say your favorite? – [McKenzie] Yeah, I said the corn dogs. – [Jennifer] Oh, all right,
well, we'll see you– – [McKenzie] Tomorrow. – [All Children] Bye.
– [Jennifer] Hi fans,
and welcome to Wednesday. Whenever I'm looking for new food ideas I literally will walk up and down the aisles at the grocery store just to find some new
interesting things to try. So for today's lunch I'm
gonna start by heating up some of this vegetable tikka masala. It's already fully cooked, it's vegetarian, it's gluten-free. Now, I've had this before
and I think it's really good, but I don't think my
kids have had this kind, so we shall see. I'm gonna go ahead and serve
this with some brown rice, this is just leftover brown
rice from the night before, so all I had to do was heat
it up, super quick and easy. Now, just a few thermos tips. I always like to pre-heat my thermoses by adding some boiling hot water, and let the hot water hang out in there for about 30 minutes, then I dump it out and
quickly add my food.
And sometimes it can be really messy trying to get the food into the thermos, so I use this really wide funnel. This is made for canning, but it works perfect
for filling thermoses. I'll go ahead and put a
link to the one that I have on Amazon if you want to check it out. For our vegetable today I'm gonna throw in some cauliflower with some ranch, but this is actually a
Greek yogurt-based ranch, so it's a little bit lighter. And then for the fruit today I'm gonna add something I know Lily
will be excited to see.
She's been asking for these for days 'cause she loves them. These are the apple-mango
fruit sauce pouches, and I get these at Trader Joe's. Next up I have a snack that none of us have tried ever before. I think they're called chatpata mazaa, I have no idea, (laughs) you'll have to let me know
in the comments down below, how do you pronounce that? I'm not sure, but this was on the aisle with sort of the Indian food at Walmart, so I thought we could give them a try.
They say that they're baked and made with whole grains
and they're not spicy, so we shall see if the
kids like them or not. Next up from that same Indian food section of the grocery store I found these interesting little cookies. These are called Hide & Seek. It's like a square cookie
with chocolate chips inside. The packaging claims that these are made with the world's best chocolate, but at the end of the day
it's a chocolate cookie so how bad can it be? So that box has several of these packages which are kind of big, I think the kids could probably
share just one package. And then last but not least, I'm gonna throw in a
tiny can of mango juice. You guys will also be seeing these juices in our special subscriber lunch video, which comes out tomorrow,
so stay tuned for that.
And there you have it, there's everything in the lunch for today. Okay guys, lunch is over
and I'm so surprised that 'most everything is gone, especially this, I wasn't
sure if they'd like it. I was really surprised about these snacks, they smelled different,
something I'm not used to, but they actually taste really good. Jackson loved them, but
the girls, not so much. I don't know, Kenzie,
what was your favorite? – [McKenzie] Hmm, my favorite was actually the Hide & Seek cookies,
those are delicious. – [Jennifer] Yeah, these are so good. I've never had these before but apparently they're
really popular in India, so let me know if you like these. What do you think, Lily,
what was your favorite part? – [Lily] My favorite was the crackers.
– The little cookies?
– Yeah. – Oh. – [Lily] I like the mango-apple sauce too. – [Jennifer] Yeah, she liked them so much she ended up having two of them. So Jackson, we already know
that you really like these, but did you like anything else? – [Jackson] I liked the rice. – [Jennifer] The rice was good too? Yeah, you liked the curry? – [Jackson] Mm-hmm. – [All Children] See you tomorrow. – [Jennifer] Hey guys,
and welcome to Thursday. Now, the goal for today's lunch
is to keep it gluten-free. I know a lot of you guys
have special dietary needs, and I want to try to
work those in the lunches as often as I can. So for today's lunch
I'm actually gonna start by heating up some of these gluten-free chicken nuggets from Trader Joe's. Now, these are actually
really good chicken nuggets. I know some are quite
questionable in quality, but these ones are really good,
especially for gluten-free. Even if you don't have to be gluten-free these will still taste good to you. I like to bake these in the
oven until they're crispy. It doesn't take very long 'cause they're fully cooked already, and then I just stick
them into the thermoses.
Now, to go along with the chicken I'm going to make a special
honey mustard sauce, and I don't really have a recipe for this, but what I like to do is take half mayonnaise and half mustard, next I'm adding a teaspoon of honey, followed by a little sprinkling of garlic powder and onion powder, and adding a little
shake of salt and pepper, and then I just mix it all together, and I kid you not, this
tastes just as good as the honey mustard
sauce from Chick-fil-A. Next I'm gonna throw in plenty of veggies, a combination of celery and carrots, and I'm not gonna forget the ranch, again, this is the yogurt-based ranch, so I just have a little bit
of that in this container.
For the fruit today I'm
adding a scoop of blueberries, except for that blueberry,
where does he think he's going? Blueberries do not taste
good in honey mustard. Next I'm gonna throw
in another yogurt tube, this is the Chobani Greek yogurt. And then for an added snack
today I'm gonna throw in Bugles. Have you guys ever tried these? They're actually really good. But wait a minute, oh no, I forgot, Bugles are not gluten-free, you guys, this will not do for today's lunch, yeah, there's wheat in these,
I'm gonna put those back. Let's see, Doritos, I'm pretty sure Doritos are gluten-free. Yes, I think they'll be fine, so we'll go ahead and put Doritos instead. And then last but not least, I have a sweet treat for the lunch.
These are oatmeal and
chocolate chip cookies, these are gluten-free and they're vegan, so I'm excited to give them a try. And there you have it,
it was a close call, but we made it, this lunch is gluten-free. – [Lily] Lunch is over now,
and here's what we ate. – [Jennifer] Overall the
kids did really well today, in fact, all of the
chicken nuggets are gone. Even Miss Lily, who's not
usually a fan of chicken nuggets, ate all of them, didn't you?
– (giggles) Yeah. – [Jennifer] And I think I know why. Everyone really liked the honey
mustard sauce that I made. I will definitely be making that again. But nobody ended up wanting any chips, so we still have all the chips left over, let's save those for another time. What did you think, Lily,
what was your favorite? – [Lily] The chicken. – The chicken.
– Yeah. – [Jennifer] And you
really liked the mustard? – Mm-hmm.
– And I'd have to say, these guys were just okay,
they were kind of hard, so for the price I'd probably make my own from scratch next time. What about you, Kenzie,
what did you think? – It was really cool.
– What was your favorite? – [McKenzie] I really
liked the chicken nuggets.
– [Jennifer] Yeah, everyone
really liked those. – [McKenzie] And usually
I don't like mustard but I really liked the honey mustard. – [Jennifer] It's very good. What d'you think, Jack?
– I really liked it. – [Jennifer] (laughs) You always say that, but what was your favorite? – [Jackson] Um, it's the chicken. – [Jennifer] The chicken, is
it definitely the winner today? – [Jackson] See you tomorrow. – [Jennifer] Hey fans, and happy Friday. For today's lunch I'm bringing back something I used to do
quite a lot last year, and that was having breakfast for lunch. It's brunch, we're having brunch, okay, yeah, we're having brunch,
it's breakfast and lunch. Anyway, I wanna go ahead
and make some oatmeal.
It's been a long time since
I've made oatmeal for the kids, and again, this is a gluten-free oatmeal. I get this at Trader Joe's
and it's pretty good. Now, for my kids, they enjoy
peanut butter and honey added to their oatmeal, so that's what I'm gonna do for them. To go along with our breakfast for lunch I'm also gonna throw in this
strawberry yogurt smoothie, some celery with peanut butter, they love to dip celery in peanut butter. Next I'm going to did some dried apricots. I found these at Trader Joe's, and it's three individual packages, and it was only like a buck, 50, so these seem really
convenient if you're on the go, they're easy and quick
to throw into lunches. Next I'm gonna throw in
some of these pea crisps. These are the Trader Joe's version. They're pretty much exactly like the ones I get from Costco though. Next I'm gonna add this
teeny tiny baby pear to the lunch today.
It is so cute and tiny, and they're perfectly ripe right now. And then to drink today the
kids have a choice between water or they can pick one
of these juice bottles, and these are in the fruit punch flavor. And there we have it,
there's Friday's lunch. – [Jackson] Lunch is over
now and here's what we ate. – [Jennifer] Good job, all right guys, what did you think of breakfast for lunch? – [Jackson] It was interesting. – [Jennifer] Yeah, what's
your favorite oatmeal topping? – [Jackson] My favorite's
actually bananas. – [Jennifer] Oh, I'll have
to put bananas next time. I think we're almost out of bananas. What about you, Lily, what
was your favorite thing today? – [Lily] My favorite is
the strawberry yogurt and the apricots.
– [Jennifer] What about you, Jack? – [Jackson] I just liked
the strawberry smoothie. – [McKenzie] My favorite
was the Inner Peas. Make sure to come back tomorrow
for the subscriber lunches. – [All Children] Thanks for
watching, see you next time. ♪ Two of us together ♪ ♪ I need only you in this crazy world ♪ ♪ 'Cause we've got love ♪ ♪ Love ♪ ♪ I need only you here with me ♪.
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