First Christmas Lunch

Sandwich with icing eyes and a raisin mouth
Melon
Veggie booty

Cucumber slices with a red pepper candy cane

Mickey Bento

Tomorrow we are California bound and off to see the Mouse! So todays lunch was an obvious choice. The hightlight being the Mickey head crackers that a co-worker brought back for me, they are adorable!

To cut Mickey's head for the sandwich, I used a bowl for the circle and the tops of a heart cutter for the ears. Worked out well! Raisen eyes and a craisin mouth.

Halloooooweeeen!

Today's Halloween lunch:

Happy Easter Bunny Bento

I pulled it off - here is the 4th and final lunch! I had to make a ton of chocolate popcorn for my husbands bake sale last night and it almost didn't happen. The guilt got to me though and here are Thursdays lunches!

3 year old - Annie's bunny grahams and crackers with veggie booty down the side. Rabbit sandwich with carrot ears, fruit leather whiskers and a pretzel mouth. She's being a diva and her fruit has to be separated at the moment....

6 year old. He will for sure come home stating that it didn't look like a bunny - I'll put money on it! Same thing only with grapes and rice cakes for ears. Oh and Cheecha puffs down the side (I have a small addiction to them!)

Easter Chickie Bento Lunch

Aww, an Easter chickie lunch for my chickie! And my dude, of course.

My old brain was fried so this one was tough!

The 3 year olds:
Easter egg  (I put those natural fruit nugget things inside), strawberries, Earths Best Organic mini waffle chick with raisin eyes and a carrot nose, rice cakes.

The 6 year olds is similar - only with grapes and peach applesauce.

Happy Easter Egg Bento

This one almost didn't happen - I got a little distracted out shopping and got home late. Considered not bothering but pulled it out!

Strawberries with a flower pick, Annie's bunny crackers, a mini bunny sandwich, Easter egg sandwich and some carrots. I punched holes out of the egg sandwich then stuck a baking sprinkle in each hole (and for the bunny's nose).

See you tomorrow!

Easter Bunny Bento

My grand plan is to do an Easter bento all 4 days the kids will be in school/daycare this week so look for them! Of course my grand plans don't always pan out but I'll try my best.

It's always nice doing bentos on Sundays. It's relaxing, I do it in the afternoon, the light is good for the pictures.... When I'm doing it after work, in between dinner/bedtimes, it's a little more hectic!

I have 2 for you this week.

First the 3 year olds - she's my veggie lover and my dairy allergy.

She has: deli turkey with a bunny fork pick, a bubby made out cucumbers and carrots (hey, I'm very proud of that one - isn't he cute?!) melon with a few bunny grahams in a yellow cup and finally wheat thins with a bunny pick.

The 6 year olds. He's my sensory issues/picky guy.

He has: deli turkey with a chick and bunny picks, wheat thins with a cheese bunny, more pieces of cheese for his crackers in a side wrapper (more on that in a second), some bunny grahams and some melon with a sheep pick.

My awesome pod-mate at work brought me those side dish partion cups (the wrapper looking thing holding the extra cheese) from Vancouver. They are awesome, they fold open and you push down so there is a bottom and then you can stick things into them. Love it! I like the baran pieces for separating stuff but those are way better as there is nothing touching or seeping through at the bottom.

Well, see you tomorrow for round 2 of Easter lunches!

St Patricks Bento Lunch

Since there won't be any reason to pack a lunch tomorrow, I made a St. Patty's lunch for my leprechauns a day early for daycare and spring break camp.

I'm terrible at free handing things so for the shamrock sandwiches I lightly stamped a heart cookie cutter in 3 places so I knew where to cut the bread. Works best if you do each piece of bread then add the filling inside.

I briefly considered coloring the peanut butter green but figured that was one step away from "cool lunch, mom!" and one step closer to "call in her reservation for a padded room".

So we have veggie booty, cut up cucumbers and dip in a clover case, Sunrype Fun Bites in a green package, cheerios with a single Skittle (loot bag candy I had confiscated) and the shamrock sandwich with a shamrock pick.

Don't forget to wear your green tomorrow or my littlest leprechaun would be more than happy to give you a pinch!

Easy Animal Bento

This was a quick and easy animal bento for the 3 year old from the beginning of the week.

Veggie booty with a bear baran (divider) peeking over, small animal sandwiches, her favorite raw veggies with a rabbit container of dip, melon with animal picks.

Enjoy the weekend!

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss Bento

A  quick bento to celebrate Dr Seuss! This was a quick one and I had to use my imagination as there is no way in hells high water that the 6 year would eat green eggs and ham!

Grapes as green eggs
One fish, two fish, red fish, goldfish?!
Green eggs - rice cakes and a mini M&M
A cat in the hat hat for a sandwich with fruit leather stripes
Party hats stuck into dried cranberries

Happy Heart Day Bentos

Happy Valentines Day! OK, a day early but you get the idea. I personally love all holidays, how could you not enjoy a reason to celebrate? I was quite excited that my daughter was born on Cinco de Mayo, can't beat a double celebration!

On to the Valentines bentos. The pictures are weak - but no natural light and all that, this is the best I could do.

The 6 year olds:

Strawberries with heart picks. Little heart cookies. Babybel cheese with a heart cut out. A little heart container with dried cranberries. Sandwich with a kiss and a hug cut out of fruit leather.

The 3 year olds is nearly identical. Due to her dairy allergy though, she has red peppers cut into hearts instead of the cheese.

 Spent tonight cutting hearts out of honeydew and cantaloupe and putting them on popsicle stickers for the 6 year olds grade one class. I'll try and remember to take a picture before they head off to school. He did remind me it was also pink and red day and informed me that there was no way he was wearing pink - so he's sticking to red.

The 3 year old is having red day but we are going rouge - we are busting out the heart ruffles. They are covered in hearts, can't get more Valentines than those pants!

Hope you have a great day with the ones you love!

I'm a slacker!

I swear, more lunches to come! I'm working 6 days a week until the end of March so things are a little hectic around Bento Diva land!

I am planning for some cute Valentine lunches for next week - are you?

Here are some pink and red food ideas!

Red pepper
Tomatoes
Apple
Watermelon
Cherries
Strawberries
Grapefruit
Red Grapes
Strawberry/raspberry jam
Cream cheese with a drop of food coloring
Yogurt (if you need coloring, just swirl some berries through it)
Strawberry jello
Cranberry juice

And thanks to Pintrest, I bring you these adorable food ideas for Valentines Day!

 

Stay tuned for Valentines lunches :)



Winner + Panda and Penguin Bentos

First a big congratulations to Bina, winner of the Sweet Lunch Punch set! And many thanks to Lunch Punch for donating those for the contest. If you haven't already, make sure you check out their website to see all the cool sandwich punches they have! I personally can't wait to get the puzzle one for the 6 year old and the princess one for the 3 year old.

On to tomorrows lunches. The 6 year old is doing a unit on penguins in grade one right now. It's pretty cute as their preschool buddies are coming to their class tomorrow to work on a penguin project with them. Soooo of course we have to have a penguin lunch, just a given, right?

We have a penguin sandwich with fruit leather, icing eyes and a cheese beak and a little cup of fish friends for him. A cup of applesauce with a penguin made out of fruit leather, icing eyes and a mini M&M I broke up. Way to maximize a single mini M&M, huh! Then melon with a homemade pick - I didn't have any penguins so I dug out one of the kids foam stickers and stuck it on a random pick.

Now for the 3 year old, I wanted to use up the fruit leather scraps so for her, I went panda.

I used a teddy bear cutter and added some fruit leather eye rings and for the nose, fruit leather on half a mini marshmellow. I still had some bread scraps so the panda got some babies. Then melon with pandas and little cups of veggie booty and mini rice cakes.

If you notice the 3 year old gets mini rice cakes and veggie booty alot, you are right. She is in that annoying "I don't have much time to eat" stage and I know if I put a little of those in there, she will definately eat those. And let me tell you, she is not a child you want to not eat - when she doesn't, she turns into a miserable mush.  I myself am in that annoying "Can't stop eating" stage and am a mush as result of it - haha!

It's a Gumball Lunch Party!

We are having a gumball machine lunch party - wanna come?

After my kids saw the lunch punches that made their ice cream sandwiches, they couldn't wait to have the gumball machine. Busted that one out for their lunches tomorrow, it looks so cute!

So we have the gumball machine sandwich with mini M&M gumballs. The little detail is fruit leather. See the animal pick? He's stuck in the "gumball" that was cut out. Then we have strawberries with hats - (hey, it's a gumball party!) and a babybel cheese with icing eyes sitting on top of a couple mini rice cakes.

The 6 year old wanted to know if I put gumballs inside the machine - I'm good... but not that good!

Don't forget to enter to win the whole set of 4 Lunch Punch Sweet cutters - enter via Rafflecopter on the post below this one!

Ice Cream Sandwiches!

I know, I know, it's been a bit of a dry spell around here! Trying to get back on track after the holidays, here's hoping!

So before Christmas, Kiersten, owner of The Lunch Punch, sent me the cutest sandwich punch set. Love it. Like, super love. It's the Sweet set and has 4 different sandwich cutter - a gumball machine, a birthday cake, ice cream cones and a cupcake. They come packaged in this sweet (get it? haha) little box, all ready to use! The best part is that they are awesome for boys and girls. I love princessy things and so does the 3 year old but I can assure you, the 6 year old doesn't want anything princess related showing up in his lunchbox. But ice cream - who doesn't love it?



Aren't they adorable? You will love them too! Wanna get your hands on them? Keep reading!

So anyway, this is tomorrows lunch - isn't it sweet? (I'm wearing that one out, aren't I...) Ice cream sandwiches with sprinkles, fruit with ice cream pics and a cucumber and red pepper cupcake.




On to the fun part! So Kiersten also sent a second set for me to do what I wished with, no conditions attached. We love that around here, don't we! Here is your chance to win the exact set I have!

You can enter below and can get up to 12 entries.

• Earn 3 entries by posting a comment on this blog post.
  
• Earn 3 entries for posting something about Bento Diva on Facebook (prior posts do not count)
  
• Earn 3 entries by tweeting something about Bento Diva
  
• Earn 3 entries by following this blog. If you already follow this blog, just add that you already follow into that box.
  

(I'm not a tweeter so you are on your own with that one! ha!) To start, either log in with Facebook or your name and email. Good luck! Contest ends on Jan 22, 2012.

(Please give rafflecopter a few seconds to load, it can be slow) a Rafflecopter giveaway