Bagel Surprise

Sometimes I do lunches at night and other times, I wait until the morning. This never works out as well as I run out of time and am in a mad panic. This happened the other day when I got distracted looking at all the Black Friday deals!

So I had to throw something together quickly for the kids before I left for work. As I grabbed these mini bagels, I noticed that the middles kind of looked like mouths. (Yes, it's happened, I now see weird qualities in food products). It worked out well as all I did was shove some icing eyes into them, stick a flag in to make the orange segment into a boat and throw in some pretzels. Tada - a lazy persons bento! Even the mini bagels look horrified - haha!

Sweet Treats Bento

Been wanting to do this lunch for a while, I've been thinking about it ever since I got these pics that you will see in the fruit. They are so cute - they look like treats (ice cream, donuts, cupcakes) from the side but are animal faces if you look at them from the top. I like a good multi-use product!

Both kids are getting the same, the only difference is the 3 year old will get mini rice cakes instead of pretzels as she isn't a fan.

Cupcake sandwich with sprinkles stuck into the bread and a fruit leather cherry. Cut up a paper cup for it's... paper cup LOL. I'm most proud of my "cake" in the yellow container. It's just a chewy granola bar cut into pieces with a square of fruit leather with sprinkles pressed into it. Craisins in the blue container with a pick that holds messages. Strawberries with those picks I mentioned above and pretzels.

Peanut Butter Bear

I've been at home with this terrible cold thing. Kept the 3 year old home today with me as she is congested and it seemed like the best thing to do. It's become apparently however that she and I do not have the same thing. Mine is the "want to lay on the couch and recover" strain and hers is the "want to monkey around, get into everything and generally cause mayhem" variety. Let's just say the 2 are not compatible!

Anyway, with her being home, no packed bento today. I did pack a quick one for the 6 year old but it was pretty standard so no pictures.

Here's what she got though. She said she was going to eat every bite and surprisingly, she actually did.

Peanut Butter Bear using rice cakes (regular and mini) and raisins for the face.

Caterpiller (fail - she thought they were turtles) with cucumbers and yellow peppers, dip, a "haystack" of yellow peppers with a pick and melon boats.

She also got a Motts sugar free applesauce with a melon boat and a pick, which you can see in this picture:

After eating she said, "Mom, when I'm big, I'm going to make cute lunches too". I said "Yep, you can make them for your babies when you are big" and she said "And you can have more babies to make them for". Um, no. One thousand times... no. I said "I'm happy making them for the babies I already have". To which she said "But you don't have any babies...." and gave me *the look*. Errr.... right. Cause lord help you if you ever refer to her as a baby!

Lego For Lunch Bento

So I was lying on the couch - err.... doing something productive..... when I just had this compulsion to make the 6 year old a Lego lunch for tomorrow. Wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do it but it's usually easier to do girly lunches so when I have a good one for my boy, I'm all over it!

I knew for sure though, that it would involve this tool. I got this on a whim and man, I use it all. the.time! It cuts 2 sizes of little circles and an oval and white long thing pokes out what you've cut. I use it for eyes, the oval I use for mouths (cut one then cut another inside to make a smile)... it's very handy! You can get it at All Things For Sale for 4.99 - if you click the button on the left and order anything, I get a 5% credit voucher to use - just sayin' :)



Anyway, I got a little punch happy with it but knew it would be awesome for Legos!

For the sandwiches, I punched out circles out of the top piece of bread then little round tubes out of the cheese and stuck them in the holes.

Strawberries have fruit leather circles, as does the cereal bar. I cut up a Babybel cheese to look like a minifig and added eyes and a mouth with fruit leather - (remember the oval cutter above, that's how I made the mouth) I printed off some minifig pics to stick in there as well - you can see them better in the 2nd picture.



Pics are taken on our Lego table which I highly, highly recommend getting if you have kids that enjoy Lego.

Now if you think I was doing that again for the 3 year old, oh no - one time only deal! She got a flower theme (I know, it's like my old standby) with flower sandwiches with fruit leather detail. There are some carrot flowers, another mini sandwich in veggie booty and rice cake pieces and flower strawberries with flower picks.


In case I've never mentioned it, they get other things as well for snacks. They usually get their box plus yogurt for lunch. I don't take picture of the snacks because it's kind of boring. Usually a baked item (homemade muffins, granola bars or whatever), more fruit and something like sugar free applesauce.

Animals... Perhaps?

Catching up on last weeks lunches as today was a holiday and they had, surprise, surprise PB&J. I'll admit, every Sat/Sun for lunch, they eat PB&J. The 6 year old because his school is nut free so it's fun for him. And the 3 year old, because she believes peanut butter should be its own food group and served at every meal. I think she needs a peanut butter support group.

Anyway, you might have noticed the title of this blog post and the Perhaps? it because I'm not totally sure that this is an animal I made, ha! I told the 3 year old she had a kitty in her lunch and while she enjoyed it, she came home and told me she was pretty sure it wasn't a kitty. Whatever happened to getting credit for trying?!

I rolled up deli meat to make the "kitty" - s/he has goldfish crackers for ears, cucumber eyes, red pepper mouth and a piece of cracker for the tail. The bow is a pick. Then veggie booty, a variety of crackers and melon with animal picks.

The 6 year old who doesn't eat meat but does eat dairy got:

Crackers with animals cut out of cheese - I wrap these up these stacks before packing it all up so that the cheese doesn't dry out. Then a cup of sugar free applesauce, a few fishy crackers and a cereal bar. Finally melon with a strawberry and grape flower. He normally doesn't comment much on his lunches but apparently he thought the flower was "super cool".


The other day, I ran into Safeway to get something and saw this whole wheat pasta in the shape of bugs. Knew my kids would dig it so I grabbed it and made pasta salad for the 3 year old as that's her other obsession. The 6 year old had a sort of mac and cheese, bug style. They both eat *every bite* - AND *the 6 year old did not complain*. Holy crap, someone call Guiness, we have a new record. Plus, they thought it was hilarious to tell everyone their mom gave them bugs for dinner.

The 3 year old took leftovers for the next 2 days:

Tasty Transportation

The 6 year olds grade 1 class is doing a unit in transportation. Decided he needed a lunch to go along with it - well, actually they both needed a lunch to go along with it as mama only has so many ideas!

Used the big Lock N Lock container with the inserts from my square Lock N Lock.

Strawberry boat in a sea of grapes. Babybel cheese in a car paper cup. I cut out an extra I had to put on top. Fruit twists with truck picks. Crescent pizza "wheels" with rocket picks. And finally, a train sandwich on a track made of crust.

The crescents are a fun lunch item. I had an extra thing of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls in the fridge so whipped these up. Take them out of their packaging and pinch them so it is one long piece of dough (it comes perforated for the crescents). For the 3 yr old no dairy chick, I spread with pizza sauce, sprinkle with meat and chopped peppers and roll width wise. Cut little slices, put on a baking sheet and bake until the bottoms are brown (usually 10-12 minutes). For the 6 year old, I skip the pizza sauce and do peppers, meat and grated cheese. They can be frozen in ziplock bags to have on hand.

For the 3 year old's dairy free version of this lunch, I replaced the Babybel cheese with red peppers cut out like boats and like I said above, no cheese in the crescent "wheels".

Beautiful Butterfly Bento

So the 3 year old and I were shopping at Safeway the other day - something I rarely do as I leave that up to my husband and the kids on Sunday mornings! So going to the grocery store is kind of fun for me - I always get sucked into new and fun items. (Yes, this is probably why I am not allowed to participate on Sundays - ha!)

Anyway, she spotted this butterfly sandwich cutter by Evriholder and of course we had to get it. We always seem to luck out for cute cutters at Safeway - and frankly, for $2.99, I couldn't resist!

It's unique in the fact that it cuts it into two pieces down the middle, unlike the other ones we've had.

Tried it out last night so here is her butterfly bento from today. Normally I make the sandwich then cut it all but this time I cut both pieces of bread separately so I could do the holes for the jam to show through in the top piece. The middle thingy of the butterfly (whatever the technical term is for that) is a long strip of red pepper. She enjoyed it but she did say at first she thought it was licorice. Sorry, sister!

In the left corner is half a Kashi cereal bar. It had a line up the middle so I cut a fruit leather flower and let the line be the stem. Stuck a pick in to hold it.

Then, cantaloupe flowers and a little square of mini rice cakes, all packed in the larger rectangle Lock N Lock box.

Halloween Wrap Up!

I know we are over Halloween but I have a few things I have to post before we can kiss it goodbye for another year!

First, here's a Halloween bento made by Angela, she says she's a beginner but it doesn't look like it, does it?!

The last thing is I thought I'd post what we had for dinner on Halloween before trick or treating!

The 3 year old and I had these as she can't have dairy - mummy dogs! Strips of crescent rolls wrapped around hot dogs and baked. They were so good!

Then for the 6 year old who doesn't eat meat but can eat dairy, I did pumpkin grilled cheese (with cucumber stems):

And finally, dessert! Frankenstein vanilla pudding with a little food coloring (it made it light green, hard to tell) and the dairy free version, jello! His "hair" is crushed Oreos.

Kids loved it! We were supposed to have our sweet neighbour boys over to join in but it didn't happen this year due to germs. I'll have to come up with something else fun for next year them!

Halloween Wrap Up

Guys,

If you have any Halloween lunch pictures, send them my way!

I'll do a post tonight with the things from Halloween that haven't been posted yet. And then it's on to new and fun things!

kimineurope @ hotmail.com and title it Halloween Bento.