Sweet Snowman Bento - Happy Holidays!

Well, we are back from the Bahamas - trip of a lifetime. Enjoyed every minute and even though I said I wouldn't, I did pack lunches. They weren't cute though :)

I am packing lunch for the 3 year old this week, she's still in daycare until Thurs. The 6 year old is out of school and hanging with my mom so she is in charge of his lunch!

This is what my little mama got today.

Snowman - Ritz crackers and peanut butter cracker-wiches (is that a word?!). Raisins for the eyes and buttons, fruit leather hat, carrot nose and pretzel arms.

Then strawberries with a Santa pick, cucumbers and a red and green mix made out of veggie booty and cranberries.

Hope you appreciate the "snow" I added around the container for decoration - I'm just so artsy LOL

Dolphin Days Bento

This is my last post for a couple weeks as we are off to the sun and warmth of the Bahamas tomorrow! The 3.5 year old has talked non-stop about meeting her "dolphin friends" as we will be doing a dolphin experience while we are there. So it called for, you guessed it, a dolphin lunch!

Both kids got the same only the 6 year old got the cheese pictured below.

Grapes with penguin and seal picks, goldfish crackers (kind of a given!) , dolphin sandwiches and fruit leather fish on the heart sandwich and Babybal cheese.
Now, just to keep you interested and coming on back, I'll let you in on a little upcoming giveaway. It's some sort of awesome, let me tell you. It's a brand new product from lunchpunch - and here's a clue... it might look a little something like this:


You know you want to rock the gumball sandwich! Stay tuned - giveaway coming up when we get home!

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.

Spoooooky lunches for yooooou!

Happy Halloween!!! OK, a day early but I'm the first to wish you that, right?

Here are the kids lunches for tomorrow - I'm sad Halloween will be wrapping up, it's been so much fun.

Here is the 3 year olds. Now, I know I don't usually send things like Oreos but I couldn't resist making an Oreo bat with fruit leather wings! I melted a couple chocolate chips in the microwave in order to stick on the eyes.

She also has a mini waffle sandwich (jam in between) - we get the Earths Best mini waffles. The stem is a piece of veggie booty and the face is fruit leather.

The boo is another mini waffle sandwich topped with a multigrained Ritz cracker with peanut butter and alphabet preztels to spell out BOO.

Then peach applesauce with a fruit leather pumpkin and a melon ghost with grapes. The spider is stuck into a piece of melon in an orange little cup as I had a space to fill!


The 6 year old is a lot of the same only he can eat dairy but his school is nut free.

So instead of the cracker/peanut butter, he gets preztels spelling out BOO on another waffle sandwich. He also got a Babybel cheese - I stuck a pumpkin I cut out of paper on top to make it Halloween-ish, and a pick to make the pumpkin stem.


Normally their snacks are pretty boring (yogurt etc) so I don't bother posting them. This one is cute though, so why not! I had left over plastic test tubes from a party favor we made so I used them in their lunch. I alternated raisins and Floridas Natural Fruit thingies (OK, not the official name) so it was (sort of) orange and black. Hey they are natural, they can't be THAT orange, right?


Can't wait to see what you made for Halloween lunches! Make sure you send them to me at kimineurope @ hotmail.com

Oh, and a shout out to new reader Rachel for posting a comment - love those comments and so glad you are enjoying the blog!

Pumkinhead Bento

I love my little pumpkinheads. The 6 year old lost tooth #6 today. When he smiled, I told him he looked like a jack-o-lantern. He made me smile and said "Hmm, no gaps. Guess you are just a regular pumpkin then".

I made something for the 3 year old to take into daycare tomorrow, think the kids and teachers will enjoy it. Used food coloring and made orange rice krispie squares, pressed it into a round dish and added a fruit leather face and paper stem.



I didn't do it for the 6 year olds class, the whole allergy thing freaks me out. However, I couldn't not give him a special treat so I made him a little rice krispie pumpkin. The stem is one of my flower leaf picks.

He also has melon and cheese and crackers. The orange Ritz would have probably be more pumpkiny but I'm a sucker for anything labelled "whole grain". Behind it in a little container is pita chips I made with a pumpkin cookie cutter. Take the pita, cut it up, spray with some cooking spray and bake. They are crunchy and delish!


And the 3 year old's lunch. No dairy makes it tricker. (Hello dairy allergy, you are cramping my theme style, go aaaaway! LOL)

She has pita chips with salsa (there is a pumpkin in the salsa but don't feel bad if you can't see it LOL), watermelon with a spider and orange flower picks, veggie booty with a black cat and finally, crackers with peanut butter and a fruit leather face.



And finally, this super cute lunch submitted by Amber!

Halloween by Lisa and Christine!

Thanks to Christine and Lisa for submitting these awesome Halloween lunches!

If you have any lunches you'd like to send in pictures for, please send them to kimineurope @ hotmail.com Right now we are loving Halloween but send them all in!

Happy Haunting Bento

The first Halloween bento! I decided I'd do at least 2, maybe 3 - because Halloween + bento = so much fun! So this is number 1 and both kids got the same thing.

Ghosty sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter with icing eyes and a Cheerio mouth. Spooooky, isn't it? You can buy a package of icing eyes at baking supply stores, they are cheap. I don't use them all time but my kids enjoy them as they feel like they are getting candy in their lunch.

Then, cantaloupe pumpkins cut with a small cutter and a black cat pick. A tip - I hide all the scraps under the cut outs so I don't waste it then layer the cute things on top.

Finally, had to have something orange and black so orange fishy crackers with black raisins.



I've got a few other ideas so I'll definitely make another on Halloween day and probably one more in between, depending on my time/energy/mojo/procrastination/laziness/general sloth like tenancies. Check back!

Just a small amount of cuteness....

Now, before you get any crazy ideas, not all of my lunches are cute. In fact, many are not so cute or even just plain boring.

This is the 6 year olds lunch from the other day. I was trying to throw his lunch together, leave for work and (oh crap, it's orange day) cover the 3 year old with orange stickers at the same time. Apparently no one in this house owns anything orange, who knew?

So I just try and add a little bit of cute on those days. Sometimes a little cute is better than no cute, right? I took whole grain alphabet pretzels (Blue Menu, from the Superstore) and pressed them into his sandwich to spell out his name. I added a hippo pick to his fruit and cut up his cereal bar so fishy crackers could swim around it. Quick, easy and done!



And speaking of orange day, Christine (who works at the 3 year olds daycare and is obviously much more organized than I am!) prepared this for her little boy:


Doing a one color lunch is always fun - or even a rainbow lunch!

Now, I need some comments on the following:

1) Halloween bento. Do I pack one on Halloween day because that makes sense or should I do it this week, so you can see ahead of time? Or maybe both? Let me know.

2) How the heck do I get people to post comments? I see lots of blogs and there are tons of comments so how do I get that happening? Do people not know how to comment? Or just too lazy like I usually am?? LOL I totally want this blog to be a network of sharing of ideas so I need to know you are out there! Random strangers, this means you too. Come on people, don't make me guilt you like this.

3) Finally, are there any themes you want me to bento? Any ideas? Tell me and I'll see what I can do. The rule will be I will only use what I have on hand so that I really have to use my old rusty noggin.

And what I did above is what one of the 3 year olds beloved teachers would call "the sandwich". Nice comment/yell at you/nice comment. HA! Is that not true, Krystal? And yet so fitting for a lunch blog!

The Pink Princess Pancake and the Blue Boat Bento

Doesn't that title sound like some sort of fairy tale?!

I wanted to make a princess lunch for the 3 year old - because what 3 year old girl wouldn't be into that? And if there is one thing we all know about princesses, they involve pink - lots of pink.

Her princess lunch consisted of blueberry applesauce with a princess ring stuck in it and watermelon with pink heart picks. The little containers have dried cranberries with a pink raccoon pick and a beautiful grape rose. At the bottom, tiara pancake (recipe below) sandwiches (2 pancakes with jam in the middle) adorned with raisins and fruit leather on a pink napkin.

The big highlight was the spoon. I got this set of 3 skinny spoons and forks the last time I was at Daiso and they have a seriously love for those little spoons, who knows why!



Now, I'm not a waster. I try and use all the scraps. So after I cut out the tiara pancakes, I had almost half pancakes left - but not really big enough to cut anything out of them. Sooooo, I trimmed them flat and they became boats for the 6 year olds lunch. I'm pretty sure he's glad he got boats instead of pretty, pretty princess.



I punched out fruit leather circles then punched out holes in the boats and stuck the portholes in. Little flags became the masts and you can't see it, but there are fruit leather waves.

Above, he has grapes with sea life picks and waffle mini pretzels with a cheese boat and fish, and more fruit leather waves. He enjoyed it but did file a complaint about his lack of ring!

On sports nights, we try and have some quick that we know the kids will eat and the night before it was pancakes, hence the leftovers. I always have a big container of homemade mix on hand to quickly throw them together.

Here is the recipe - now please note - this will make a big container - you will NOT use all this at once, this is to keep on hand! That could be mighty confusing!

Pancake Mix (to keep on hand)

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda

Mix together and store in an airtight container.

Now, when you want to use it, combine 1 egg, 3/4 cup of milk and 1 mashed banana in a bowl. Whisk in 1 cup of your mix. If you choose, fold in 3/4 cup of blueberries.

Cook pancakes in lightly greased pan.

So good and better than buying a bag of mix.

Bentos - By You!

This was so much fun, I'd love to keep it going! Send any pictures of your cute lunches to kimineurope @ hotmail.com and every couple of weeks (or when I get a few), I'll post them!

Quick shout out to Christine for always commenting on my posts and to Nic for posting about my blog on her Facebook yesterday. (Hi, Nic's friends!)

Here we go - your lunches! Make sure you leave a comment below and tell these ladies how much they rock for sharing their lunches!

These were Jen's first bentos - awesome job! She reported back that her kids ate every bite!


This bento is from Christine. She's seen my lunches for the last 4 years while caring for my babies and it's so much fun that she now has the cutest little boy to make bentos for!


This lunch is from Amber - she could have many lunches to make in years to come as her daughter is determined to marry my son! LOL


These adorable lunches are from Sarah. (We've just had our Thanksgiving here in Canada in case you are in the US and were wondering!)



And a Halloween one from Sarah:

Blast Off Bento

I bake a lot for my kids. I usually manage to cram it in once per week among my full time job, sports etc - sleep is over rated, right? Anyway, I like to bake and freeze - muffins, mini muffins, savory muffins, loaves, cookies - you get the idea. It lets me have a whole variety of things to pack for their school/daycare snack which is fruit and whatever I've pulled out.

Sometimes I get tired of making muffins hence why today I used one of my favorite pans - the multiple mini loaf pan! I had a new recipe I wanted to try and it ended up being so good as mini loaves.

Here they are, Banana Carrot with Raisins, yum.

And here is the recipe for you - this is to make it as a loaf:

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar (I used between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't use any)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I didn't use any)
I did add about 1/2 cup of raisins

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine oil and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; gradually add to the creamed mixture alternately with bananas. Stir in carrots and pecans. Transfer to a greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For my mini loaves, I baked them at 325 for 30 minutes.

Lunches were done early today as the kids went over to my mom's and are sleeping over. Love that Granny!

Now, before I start - the 6 year old is a pain lately and won't eat the veggies I try and pack in his lunch. I can get him to eat some at home (you know, with constant nagging, I'm not above it) but at lunch, they get returned every time. So I've given up. So while his sister is a veggie fiend, instead of the adorable veggies I gave her (as you'll see), he got a babybel cheese. I just thank my lucky stars (ha - goes along with the theme!) that my vegetarian kid isn't my dairy allergy kid!

So lunch for tomorrow is a Blast Off, space theme. I got some new cookie cutters and was dying to try the, aren't they the cutest? They cut the face out at the same time.


So we have a planet and star sandwich with mini cloud sandwiches to use up the rest of the bread. The cup is a rocket theme (that you can't see) with rice cake moons and fruit leather suns (ya, I know they look like flowers, I think they are LOL).

The cups above are grapes with space picks - I didn't have any suns so I used a lion turned backwards.

Finally planet veggies using the same cookie cutter and some randomly cut. I added a little thing of dip after the picture was taken.

Pictures of your bentos that you submitted will be posted tomorrow so check back!

Hodge Podge

First, if you have any pictures of lunches you've made this week, please send them to me to post! I have 4 so far and would love more! Email them to kimineurope @ hotmail.com

This is yesterdays lunch. It's a bit of a hodge podge, didn't make it the night before, not much time before work/school... that type of deal.

The first container has a garlic knot - we had them with our dinner and seriously best.thing.ever, we all fell in love! Super quick and easy, I'll post the recipe below! Some fishy crackers around it.

This is the 3 year olds - she also had honeydue melon and veggie booty. The last container is cucumbers and red and yellow peppers. There is dip inside the penguin container.

Took 2 seconds to throw together but they still enjoyed it!



Here is the recipe for the Garlic knots. I used Crescent Rolls as I had a thing of them in the fridge and didn't use the parsley. I also had to bake them a few minutes longer than called for.

1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

Roll each biscuit into a 12-in. rope and tie into a knot; tuck ends under.
Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; brush the warm knots with the mixture.

Dino-myte

Before I get to lunch, you know I have a love for the Lock N Lock containers, right? Well, I was cleaning out this huge drawer they all live in and it turns out, I don't just have a love - I have a problem! I swear, there weren't that many in there yesterday! Apparently I should be packing lunch for half of grade one or something! This will have to be our little secret. Please don't phone "Hoarders".
OK, lunch. The lunches started out using the DynoBytes sandwich cutters - I like these because they just cut off the crusts and don't waste much else. I picked up the dinosaur and dolphin ones while at Safeway one day, you know how they have those ends of random things? There. I dig them as I get tired of cutting the crusts off for my seriously anti-crust 3 year old. Why she has such a hatred for crusts, I'll never know. And here I swore I'd be one of those moms who never cut the off crusts. Never say never, especially with a diva in the house.



Today I used different containers, I used to use these all the time for my lunch but forgot about them. They are the Ziplock disposable ones (but I reuse them).

In the one section, homemade pumpkin cranberry cookies.

Next, apple slices in a checkboard pattern. This is SUPER easy, don't be scared off as it looks cool. You just score the apple in both directions then with a point knife, sort of pry off the skin squares you don't want. I normally don't pack apples because of the browning but I wanted to try a trick I had heard about. I was drinking a can of Sprite and apparently if you dip the apples in there, they don't brown. Sure enough, worked awesome. I packed these at night and they were still fine in the morning!

Then the dinos! Cut with the cutter listed above. Then I used another tip of a random flower cutter to cut the crust into spikes for their backs. I used baking sprinkles for the eye and mouth (and made the eye dot with an edible writer pen). The grass in the background isn't edible, it's a food divider called "baran" in bento land. You can get all sorts of baran so that your food items don't touch if you don't use sectioned boxes.

Finally, the part the 6 year old loved - a dinosaur joke.

Q: What kind of dinosaur keeps you up at night?
A: A bronto-SNORE-us

Hey, it's funny when you are six!

Leave a comment - please? I love knowing you all are reading this - otherwise I feel I'm chatting with myself! (Which is not all that unusual....)

PS - I have 3 photos so far of lunches you are packing, yay! Keep them coming, I will post them next week. Just pack a cute lunch of some sort this week, take a picture and send it to kimineurope @ hotmail.com . Doesn't have to be fancy or a work of art, just show us what you made!