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!

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

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.

Pasta Salad and Winner

Just realized I didn't draw for the winner of my favorite food picks. Congrats to Jen G! (Email me your mailing address to kimineurope @ hotmail.com and I'll fire them out to you!)

So here is your challenge for next week. Pack your child a bento - any form, any fashion, doesn't have to be fancy. Then send me a picture (see email address above) so I can post it! I'll give you all next week to whip something up and then the following week I will post any pictures. I'd love for this blog to be a communal sharing of lunch ideas. Feel free to send any recipes, lunch ideas or anything else!

OK, on to a lunch.

This was the 3 year olds lunch yesterday. She LOVES pasta salad. LOVES. As in does a happy dance when she sees it (she takes after her mother, we like a good happy dance). We had it for dinner so she got the leftovers. I used up several different pastas as each bag just had a bit left. And before you think I'm fancy, I use the Clubhouse mix which is awesome. You mix oil, vinegar and the seasoning packet and toss with pasta and veggies. So good. Hers is how she prefers it, with cucumbers and yellow peppers.
Some long skinny carrot strips under the bowl. Honeydue melon with animal picks and a cereal bar cut into flowers - the heart pick is stabbed through a dried cranberry. Easy and quick.

Mickey Monday!

This is for the 3 year olds lunch tomorrow so it's getting named Mickey Monday!

This lunch is packed in large Lock N Lock container but it didn't work with the 3 inserts so I just used some other random containers.

I made a PB&J sandwich and cut out the circle with a large cup (then ate the rest for my lunch today!) Stuck 2 mini rice cakes in as the ears. The eyes and nose are flattened out raisins and the mouth is a strip cut out of a piece of fruit leather.

I totally admit to the cucumber Mickey being kind of freaky but hey, it's the thought that counts! Cut up cukes and peppers with a Mickey sauce container that has salad dressing for dipping. The other container is strawberries with a red bear pick that we will pretend is a mouse because it worked with the Mickey colors!



Feel free to repost this on FB and I always love your comments!