summer lunches & a bento

A simple, yet organized bento. Carrots, a peanut butter and honey sandwich cut into squares on Dave's Killer Bread (I used natural peanut butter, and local raw honey incase you wanted to know), cantoloupe, and a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, cut into 1/4's. She always takes a water bottle with her. She ate school lunch twice this week per her request. Her school serves pretty healthy lunches, so she will probably choose 2-3 days per week to eat there.

During the summer, bentos made an appearance every now and then. But, almost everyday, I served lunch for the 3 kiddos the same way whether we were indoors or outdoors. Wanna see? It's kind of like a giant bento. I went to the dollar store and got this platter with a domed lid. Then I just put in whatever we had on hand. This first one the kids told me they wanted everything to be orange. I did my best. They LOVED eating their meals this way. So I still do it for lunchtime and dinner when I don't have any plans.

 carrots, veggie straws, clementine orange segments, cheese cubes, and not orange cucumbers

 carrots, raisins, pretzels, bean burritos cut in 1/3's, bananas, animal crackers, and olives in the middle.

 blueberries, carrots, cheese cubes, quesadillas, chips, cucumbers, and grape tomatoes.

 carrots, cucumbers, bean burritos, strawberries, cheddar crackers, and olives

cheese cubes, hard boiled eggs, roasted sweet almonds, carrots, laughing cow cheese wedges, raisins, rosemary crackers, olives

 goldfish, cinnamon muffins, cheese cubes, carrots, grape tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs

 pb&j sandwiches, kiwi fruit, pistachios, chicken apple sausage, chips, and cucumbers

 mangoes, graham crackers, cucumbers, carrots, raisins, ham and cheese sandwiches, and grape tomatoes

cucumbers, raspberries, cheese sandwiches, tortilla chips, carrots, gingersnap cookies, salsa

Kind of a lot of pictures, but you can see the variety and possibilities of what you can put in these. Whatever they didn't finish at lunch, I would leave it out and offer it as snacks when they told me they were "dying" of hunger. Usually everything got eaten up. They did get sick of carrots and cucumbers. We always have those on hand though.

back to school special

 First bento of 3rd grade: I tried to make it resemble a butterfly. Can you see it?! The two pink silicone cups contain an egg and pistachios. The "body" is a stack of baby carrots, and the head/antennae are green grapes. The little bear thingies are a chinese cookie called, "Golden Bear" for a treat. Simple, yet, some of her faves for her first day.

This is Day 2 bento: salad with croutons, little container of dressing, 3 gingersnap cookies (Which she said she gave away), an applesauce cup, and a heart shaped peanut butter and honey sandwich. The bread is Dave's Killer Bread. The sports bottle is water.

police bento and bentos 93-96

Even though it is a Japanese police car, I still have to have one or two of these, don't you think? Love this little bento box. Saw it at Wendolonia. You can buy it here.

Speaking of bentos, I've got a few I haven't posted. I'm still being lazy and stressed!

 Easter Bento: Peanut Butter and honey bunny sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread, mandarin orange, baby carrots, Annie's Bunny Grahams (some inside the egg also).

 This is inside the Laptop Lunchbox. Potato and rosemary pizza cut into pieces, Liberte yogurt, strawberry slices, pistachios, and a brownie for dessert. Utensils and a water bottle fit perfectly on the side.

 World's UGLIEST St. Patrick's Day bento: Yogurt cup with rainbow of fruit surrounding it (strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and a couple of rolos at the end for the pot of gold. Half sandwich on the other side with a super UGLY cheese clover on top. haha! Oh well. Sometimes they are just ugly.

A Spring bento for daddy: Ham and cheese sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread, carrot sticks, pistachios, kiwi slices, and a small handful of chocolate kisses.

bento #90

I have been such a lazy cook lately! But here is a bento that I am pretty proud of. Daisy was pretty proud to take it to school too.

Left side: yellow tulip cup with pistachios, a hard boiled egg, a silicone cup of kiwi slices, and a little bitty lemon cake bite.

Right side: a couple of pieces of sweet and sour chicken with a giraffe pick, a bed of fried rice with carrot flower on top. The green stem is from a peeled english cucumber. I just used one of the peelings and cut it in strips to create the stem.

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.

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.

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.

I still make bentos . . .

It's been forever since I posted anything about bento! Yes I still make them, but I have not been good about photographing them. And when I do photograph them, I don't post them. So there you have it. I've been incredible lazy in the blogging department for, a while.

This is a very simple bento, but one of my favorites, aesthetically. I found the world's tiniest apples that fit perfectly inside a bento box. For the main part of the meal, I made wagon wheel shaped pasta with peas and parmesan cheese. For a special little treat, I filled a little cup full of Hello Panda cookies from the local Asian market.

bentos 79 & 80

organic fuji apple slices, 2 wedges of light laughing cow swiss cheese, 2 Rosemary La Panzanella crackers, and leftover Mike & Ikes from our movie date.

This is an ugly face sandwich. It's pb and grape jelly with cheese face shapes, pretzels, apple slices, and carrot sticks with a little container of caramel underneath for the apples

bentos 77 & 78

These photos turned when I uploaded them. Oh well. These bentos are definitely similar as you can see.

Bento 77 on top:  cucumber coins, a plain mini chocoloate cupcake, mozzarella cheese chunks, 1/2 of a banana, and rice and bean chips.

Bento 78: cucumber slices, monterey jack cheese chunks, a mini pb and chocolate cupcake for dessert, 1/2 of a banana, rice and bean chips, and a almond granola bar.

In other food news this week: I have been baking batch after batch after batch of chocolate cupcakes and peanut butter frosting. I'm trying to come up with the perfect recipe. So far I've found the perfect cake. It's a dark chocolate fudge. The pb frosting I am not happy with yet. Last night's version came out more like a fondant. It was basically a peanut butter cup in cupcake form. So far the peanut butter frosting recipe I posted is the best so far. My reason for so much baking is I want to own my own bakery someday and I need "perfect" recipes, you know? HF takes them to work so other officers and dispatchers can taste test them. They aren't much help. Each batch gets a "these are the best cupcakes ever!" result. I enjoy making their tastebuds happy however.

Also, I've been spring cleaning my kitchen. Reorganizing cupboards, getting rid of things I no longer use, organizing recipe binders, and menu planning.

We are beginning to harvest our garden and do lots of weeding. I will take pics soon so you can see our humble garden.

And lastly, my almost 2 year old son has been wreaking havoc around the house. I found dark brown food handprints going down the stairs to the basement one day, and the next it was Tapatio handprints, including nice thick smears on the carpet steps. In an effort to exert his independence, he refuses to be uncivilized any longer and demands a fork or a spoon when he eats. I would say he gets about 10% of the food in his mouth. He has also excelled in climbing. His newest discovery is the bathroom cabinet above the toilet. He can climb up there and explore inside the cabinets. He discovered that he does not like the taste of deodorant, but he does enjoy exchanging toys for toiletries. This morning I found a zhu zhu pet inside in exchange for q-tips. While this is the stuff memories are made of, my days are filled with very messy cleanups and laundry as you can imagine. But he does get an A for effort.

bentos 74, 75, and 76

All of these bentos were for HF to take to work this week. Taquitos cut in half to fit, little container of salsa, a grapefruit, segmented, and put in a heart-shaped silicone baking cup, and a coconut cream pie slice for dessert.

Chicken salad sandwich on a French hamburger bun, 2 nectarines, cherries, carrots, and a cup of sweet and salty nut mixture. It has yogurt covered raisins, cashews, peanuts, and pretzel pieces.

Tuna on whole wheat (it's a local made bread. just 5 ingredients- stoneground wheat, honey, yeast, salt, and water), cantaloupe, cucumber slices. What's not pictures is that I included a chocolate peanut butter cupcake, a yogurt cup, and a string cheese. I don't remember what this container was called. Maybe snapware? But it stacks on top of each other and snaps on the sides so they stay in place. The lid on top also snaps in place on the side. It's a very handy dandy size for grownups.

bento 73

pirate's booty snack, Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, watermelon wedges, and Apple and Gouda Chicken sausage. This is in the Laptop Lunch box.

bento 72

This is a traditional bento box. It stacks and there's a separate lid that goes over the bean soup portion. This is white bean and pesto soup with strawberries and a roll.

 I actually made this one for HF to take to work. He eats smaller meals now, but more often. So this was dinner for him, but he also needed 2 additional meals for a regular shift. So I also included veggie chips, more fruit, raw vegetables and a sandwich.

bentos 69, 70, and 71

chocolate muffin, blueberry muffin, peanuts in the shell, apple with checkered cutouts, cheese flowers next to apple.

strawberry slices, apple slices, turkey rolled up and sliced in thirds, veggie chips.

chocolate muffin, apple, carrot sticks, cheese cut in flower shape, and goldfish crackers.

bentos 65, 66, and 67

3 taquitos cut in half, cheese cubes, mini carrots, cup of grapefruit segments

bran muffin, margherita pizza, grapefruit segments, mini carrots, little cup of peanuts

I couldn't get this picture to turn the right way. Anyway it's a tomato chopped with a teaspoon of ranch drizzled over the top, a sheepherder bun, mini carrots, and some cheese cubes.

bentos #63 and #64

cantaloupe, veggie straws, cucumber wheels, and a jam sandwich with cheddar cheese flower on top

bran muffin with cheddar flower on top, peanuts, veggie straws, and cantaloupe

These were made in the sassy baby mealtime on the go feeding set. I saw them at Burlington Coat Factory for about $5 a piece so I bought 3 of them. They really are handy dandy for bento making. Works for all three kids. But probably too small for HF.

bento #62

This is in a new bento box called Snapware. It's kind of like a lock & lock but a little deeper I think. It works great! This bento is pepperoni and tomato thin crust pizza cut into pieces, carrot coins, apple slices with lemon juice to keep color, and 1/2 of a blueberry muffin and 1/2 of a banana muffin. I've  been making lots of muffins lately. The kids love them for any meal or any snack.

bento #61

Sometimes I like to keep things traditional, you know? This is breaded teriyaki chicken, noodles with green beans, cabbage, and carrots, and 2 little onigiri (no filling and no seaweed, just a little basting of teriyaki on the outside. They are triangle shaped). A little apricot in the upper right for dessert. Daisy loved this bento. I was amazed at how much food I could fit in this thing by the way. I'm using the red dragonfly box seen here. This is the first bento book I ever bought. I love it. It is very traditional and simple. And Daisy doens't mind eating things room temperature.

KD you wanted to know how to keep the yogurt and applesauce from leaking in the laptop lunchbox post I did. Well, that set comes with 2 lids for 2 of the containers. In the other boxes, you can put a little bento accessory on top which is like a credit card sized piece of plastic that rests on top to contain it (Sorry can't think of what they are called at the moment). But, mostly I find that the lids press down right on top of the food and it only gets on the lid of the container and not anywhere else.

bentos #58-60

bean and cheese burrito cut in half, strawberry whipped yogurt, cucumber slices, and assorted cut up fruit

bento at home: yogurt, fruit, a "natural" hotdog, piece of lemon cake

whole wheat crakers, carrot sticks, apple half with checkered pattern cut out, cheese stick cut into 1/4s, golden raisins sprinkled all over.