bento #89

Bento school lunch in a hurry? No problem. I grabbed two silicone cups. Put a handful of grape tomatoes in one, a stack of cucumber coins in the other. Then I put a handful of Boulder Canyon Rice & Adzuki Bean chips in one corner, and a whole wheat snickerdoodle cookie cut in half in the other corner. I always give our daughter a sports bottle of water to take with her school lunches.

Oven French Toast with Orange Apple Syrup

Can you tell that I love breakfast foods?! This recipe is from Florida's Natural seen here at their website. We liked it very much. For our version pictured above, we used almond milk in place of the milk, and we happened to have fresh Florida oranges (a birthday gift sent from Hale Groves from my Mother-in-law) that we squeezed in place of the bottled juice.

Oven French Toast with Orange Apple Syrup (from Florida's Natural)
Ingredients for French Toast:
•2 eggs
•1/2 cup Florida's Natural® Brand Premium orange juice
•1/4 cup milk
•1 tsp. vanilla
•1/4 tsp. cinnamon
•1/4 tsp. nutmeg
•8 French bread slices, cut 1-inch thick
•1/4 cup melted butter

Ingredients for Orange Apple Syrup:
•3/4 cup Florida's Natural® Brand Premium orange juice
•1/4 cup brown sugar
•1 medium apple, cored and thinly sliced
•1/2 tsp. cinnamon
•1/4 tsp. ginger
•1 orange, peeled and cut into sections

Instructions:
In a medium bowl whisk together all French toast ingredients except French bread and butter. Dip both sides of French bread in mixture and place in buttered 13 x 9-inch baking dish; pour remaining mixture over bread. Refrigerate overnight or bake. Before baking, drizzle melted butter over French bread. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, in large skillet combine 3/4 cup orange juice and brown sugar; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture is bubbly. Add apples, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and ginger. Continue cooking until apples are tender; add orange sections.
Serve over French toast.

bentos 86, 87 & 88

 bento for HF: grapes, regular pringles, string cheese cut into chunks, carrot coins, bridge mix, and a lara bar (peanut butter cookie)

 grapes, lara bar, pringles, cheese, carrots, and 2 gingerbread men

grapes, cheese, strawberry yogurt, star-shaped carrot coins, a turkey and cheese star-shaped sandwich, and a dark chocolate heart.

mpm: week of February 14th

for more menu ideas or to submit your own go here

This is totally late for this week, but I haven't been posting my menus for a while so it's better late than never, right? On Sunday, I made this sweet pork in the crockpot with lime cilantro rice and black beans. I repurposed the meat to use up for 2 or 3 days. I added 1 cup more of salsa and for the black beans I omitted the oil.

MONDAY

Loaded Nachos (I added a little bit of chopped leftover sweet pork). These were delicious!

TUESDAY

Homemade Taquitos with leftover sweet pork. Super easy! {Microwave 10 tortillas inbetween 2 paper towels for 45 seconds so they are pliable. Spread 1/4 cup of desired meat in center of tortilla. Add a sprinkle of cheese and roll up tight. Place seam side down on cookie sheet. Brush taquitos with oil and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve with salsa and guacamole.}

WEDNESDAY

potato soup in bread bowls (recipe to come)

THURSDAY

breakfast for dinner: biscuits n' gravy

FRIDAY

pizza night: veggie pizza!

SATURDAY

leftovers for dinner

SUNDAY

meatball subs :: fruit

valentine bentos

Daisy's school bento: (bottom) heart-shaped sandwich with strawberry preserves (it fit perfectly on the little tray under the lid), strawberry fruit leather hearts. (top) carrot coins in flower shape, silicone heart with pistachios, silicone heart with jumbo olives and a little panda pick, a quarter of a fuji apple with checkered pattern cut out. I put a little baran (bento grass) to separate the apple from the strawberry pocky sticks that you can't really see in the picture. I put a bundle of 8 with a little ribbon for her dessert.

 At home bento for the boys: they are identical. heart shaped turkey and cheese sandwich, pecan sandie on top, cluster of grapes, heart shaped strawberries, and olives on picks.

Bento for daddy: heart shaped turkey and cheese sandwich, pecan sandies, olives, pistachios, strawberries and grapes. Simple, yet it did the job for a Valentine's lunch.

fun snacks for kids: apple smiles

Remember these? My mom made these for me occasionally when I was a little girl, but they had peanut butter spread on the apples instead of honey, like I used in the ones pictured above. We have a kid with a peanut allergy here, so I have to get creative sometimes.

These are super easy to make and pretty much self explanatory.

You will need:

• mini marshmallows
• apples (with red skins preferably)
• peanut butter (we used local raw honey-it was delicious!)

1. Cut and quarter an apple.
2. Cut each quarter into slices of desired thickness (depending on how big you want the lips)
3. Spread peanut butter or honey on one side of the apple wedge. Place your marshmallow teeth on top of the peanut butter.
4. Spread peanut butter on an "upper lip" slice and place on top of the row of marshmallows.
5. Enjoy!

I've been a bad blogger, but I did a guest post a couple of weeks ago over at my lavender ave. It's all about menu planning! Check it out and have a look around. She does a lot of fun things over there.