Fall Themed School Lunch

We are so excited that it's Fall! There's so many fun things to do with Fall themed lunches. There's lots of ways to make a Fall themed lunch due to the fact that there are holidays to celebrate, seasonal foods, changing colors, and all sorts of fun things going on. Think of those things as you make your kiddos lunch and you'll be sure to find inspiration! For extra inspiration to help you along the way I'm going to be posting the Fall themed lunches I'll be making! Here's the first one! 

In this lunch I packed:
- A ghost sandwich (recipe below)
- Pretzel sticks
- Monster Mandarins (recipe below)
- Black Forest Little Monsters fruit snacks
- Pumpkin Pie Smoothie (recipe below)
- A note, to encourage those developing reading skills and put a smile on my girls face. Using black or orange paper in October is a great idea to keep with the theme. I'm sure you could also find little note paper shaped like pumpkins, leafs, cats, etc. for added cuteness. I chose to call my little pumpkin in the note by drawing a pumpkin. These little details add to the Fall theme.
- To add to the Fall theme: a jack-o-lantern straw, and a jack-o-lantern fork. Luckily I had these items on hand, but they can be found at Target if you don't.
- Cloth napkin and ice packs of course. I just used ones we always use, as we don't have themed ones. I'm sure they exist though if you're interested. I've been thinking about ordering a set of holiday themed cloth napkins so we'll always have one for the holidays.

Ghost Sandwich:
Ingredients: 
- Bread
- Sandwich fillings (I used SunButter and a chocolate hazelnut spread
- A ghost shaped cutter
- A black food safe marker

Assemble your sandwich however you normally would, and use the cutter to produce a ghost shape. Once you've got that use the black food safe marker to draw on a little ghost face. Boo!

Monster Mandarins:
Ingredients:
- Mandarin oranges
- Eye food picks, which you can find here

This is a great example of how it can be super easy to make lunch adorable. I try to keep most things simple like this so they can be done by busy parents like myself. All you need to do to make Monster Mandarins is put some mandarin oranges into a container and then stick in some of the eye food picks. Viola!

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie:
Ingredients:
- Pumpkin puree
- Almond milk (or whatever kind of milk you'd prefer)
- Pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 a banana

Add all the above ingredients into a blender and blend it up until you have a yummy smoothie. Adding more milk or more banana as needed to adjust the thickness. I didn't measure the amount of pumpkin puree I used, or how much milk I used. I just added in what I thought I would need to make enough for my daughter's smoothie and have some left over as well, so it'll vary for everyone. Just do what you feel and you'll have a delicious seasonal drink in the lunch box in no time. I added in a jack-o-lantern straw to really up the cuteness and stick to the theme.

Get ready for lots of super cute, healthy, and fun Fall themed school lunches!