Deli Sandwich Skewers

So I have a confession to make.  I'm not one of those moms who whips up a beautiful packed bento style lunch for the 8 year old each day.  In fact he usually gets a sandwich, a container of fruit, and some other sort of "side" like cheese flavored crackers, graham crackers, cheese sticks, or fruit leather.  The fanciest I go is to spread cream cheese on a whole wheat tortilla and roll it up.  However yesterday school was delayed two hours due to "wintery mix," so I had extra time to do something special.

Back in November, I found these cool skull and crossbones appetizer picks on a Halloween clearance table.  They seemed perfect for growing boys' imaginations and I had originally thought they might find their way in to his birthday party next October.  I remembered them while packing his lunch and, after a bit of searching through the party items in the basement, found them begging to be used.  (Okay, so not really begging, just longing.  *grin*).

I then found a few forgotten cheese sticks in the fridge and brought out the honey ham the 8 year old loves.  Cubes of cheddar cheese would have been better, but the 8 year old has a thing about cheddar cheese.  If you don't tell him it's cheddar (like in cheese sticks), he will suck it down.  If you tell him what it is, he refuses to touch it.  And since he's figured out that the blocks of cheese in the fridge are cheddar, he's not touchin' it.

Now preferably, I'd have put cherry tomatoes on his skewers too, but he won't touch anything the thinks a tomato touched, so that's pretty much out.  

I knew I'd have to work a bit late this afternoon after taking the 8 year old to school two hours late, so I made up some skewers for myself.  Mine have cubes of cheddar, pieces of smoked turkey, and cherry tomatoes on plain ol' toothpicks.  For the 8 year old I sent along some cheese flavored crackers (his current favorite) and some cut strawberries.  For myself, I packed some gluten free crackers and some blueberries.

These skewers would be fantastic with different types of meats or cheeses and even with some fruit.  Peaches, tomatoes, and cheese would make a great combination.  Or ham, swiss, and cucumber.  The addition of sourdough or foccacia cubes would also be yummy. Use your imagination and go wild.  

The 8 year old was so happy with his lunch he declared it "Awesome meat and cheese shish-kabobs!" complete with touchdown hand signals.  Cute bento lunches for the win!