Is your house like mine where Minions are always a hit? Whenever I'm at a loss for what to make for a fun food art lunch my go-to characters are Minions. They are fun, easy to make, and of course love bananas! I've made many versions of Minions over the years but this is my first football-themed Minion lunch. I felt it was fitting for this time of year.

Oklahoma University Sooners College Football Lunch

About ten months ago my family moved from the San Francisco bay area to the Oklahoma City area. We only knew one or two people, but a job opened up so we moved across the country. Having lived in California for most of my life, I didn't know much about Oklahoma. Before we moved we did our homework and learned as much as we could about the history and culture here. However, nothing could prepare us for what is like to live in a college football metro area where 90% of the people are diehard fans of either Oklahoma University or Oklahoma State University. You choose either the Sooners or the Cowboys, but never both. I can't confirm this, but I think this college love might be part of a native Oklahoman's DNA. The SF bay area is a pro sports region so this love for college football was pretty much foreign to us.

Fast forward ten months and my kids have been influenced by their friends and classmates into rooting for Oklahoma, especially when it comes to football. I don't mind as long as they keep their love for the Raiders, A's, and Warriors as well. This new found obsession is why I made them an OU lunch, in the OU school colors,  to take to school. Here is how you can make your own, or adapt this to whatever football team your kids root for.

A Fall Football Apple Sauce Lunch

I partnered with Tree Top for this sponsored post but all opinions are my own.

Fall is here again which means a few things are certain. There is school busyness, pumpkin spice everything has arrived, and football season has started. I can't help with your pumpkin spice problem right now, but what I can do is help take away your lunch stress and mix it with some football fun. With this lunch I love all the Fall colors on the tree sandwich, and the great thing is I know that my kids will devour the Tree Top Apple Sauce. The football is a no bake oatmeal energy snack so it will help your children get through their school day! Find out how to make this lunch using the recipe below.

Let's Play Ball with a Lunch and a Fun Game!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Let's Play. I was compensated, but all opinions are my own.

Is your family into playing sports or even just having a ball while playing outside? This is what this lunch is all about. Also, I'm really excited to tell you that I am partnering with Let's Play to give parents some exciting ideas on how to get outside and play in fun and healthy ways! Periodically, I will pass on recipes for a healthy and fun lunch and then show you a great game that will get the whole family outside and active.

Let's Play is an initiative from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group which gives families the tools, places, and inspiration to get active together on a daily basis. They partner with KaBOOM!, which helps build and improve playgrounds, and Good Sports, which provides grants for sports equipment! How cool is it that this year I get to be a Play Ambassador for such an exciting partnership? Of course being active helps families live balanced lifestyles, but it also is an important part of helping kids grow physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. If you want to find out more about how Let's Play will help close to 10 million kids by 2017 visit them at LetsPlay.com, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.Today's lunch would be fun to make for a special day where you take it out to the park to eat and then play the game "Bucket Ball" described below. Directions for the game are on the Let's Play website. Both the lunch and the game are easy and don't call for many supplies!

Ingredients
Whole wheat bread
Sliced white cheese
Grilled chicken strips
Broccoli
Hummus
Mandarin orange
White cheese round covered in red wax
Yogurt covered raisins

Directions
1. Cut a football shape from one slice of bread. Repeat with second slice. Cut football stripes and laces from one piece of white cheese. In main container, place one slice of bread, top with grilled chicken, and put the second piece of bread on top. Arrange cheese pieces on top of football as shown in picture.

2. Surround football with broccoli and fill a round container with your child's favorite dipping sauce. Place container in the middle of broccoli. I used hummus because it is healthier and tasty.

3. Draw basketball lines with black marker on the skin of a mandarin orange. Place in side dish.

4. Cut off the top of the round of cheese covered in red wax. Cut pentagon shapes out of the cut wax and place back on cheese to make it look like a soccer ball. In second side dish, drop in yogurt covered raisins and place soccer ball cheese on top.

5. Take lunch out to your favorite park and play "Bucket Ball" game shown below (directions for game play are on the Let's Play site).

Bucket Ball
My family loves to go to the park. However, sometimes you need to have something a little different to play. Actually, Bucket Ball can be played almost anywhere! You can play it in your backyard or just a large grassy area. It can be played with 2 or more players. The more the merrier, though. Don't let adults skip out on the action either. It's important for us parents to get out and be active with our kids as well. 

The beauty of this game is that the basic idea is simple but it's fun and competitive for little kids and older kids alike. It also helps kids to count and work together. Plus, it lets everyone run around for short bursts of time. Head on over to my article on Let's Play to see the directions. 

Week 18: A Super Lunch: Oakland Raiders

Week 18: A Super Lunch!  Last night was the Super Bowl, so I decided to go with a football theme for the lunch today.  Our house is filled with Raider fans (including my kids) so I tried to use Raider colors.  Unfortunately, there aren't many healthy foods with silver and black coloring so I did the best I could.  This turned out to be another easy lunch that you could make at home and even adapt to your own home team, except the 49ers, I forbid that!

The Raiders football is just a PB&J sandwich with some cream cheese on top.  I used food coloring for the black parts a few grey sprinkles for the silver.  I also used some silver sprinkle type balls for the accents in the black grapes.

I also threw in some goldfish crackers and then finished it off with slices of cutie oranges to add some more color.  If your team has different colors there are many more options you could do to make it fun.  I can't wait for baseball season to do an Oakland A's lunch, yellow and gold will work great!

I also want to thank Justin Starratt for the design of my new logo and header.  He did an awesome job which allowed me to redesign my blog.  Also, thanks to Pete Rich for setting it up and his help in the design area.  My site looks so much better now!

Remember to follow me on Pinterest and Twitter and go Raiders!
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