one more day

I figured since it’s Easter Monday back in Canada I would carry the Easter celebrations over one more day with a bunny inspired bento that I made for Maribel last week.

For the top some yummy grapes ripened for nibbling along with some cherry Jell-O in a flowered cupcake cup.

And for the bottom box a little bunny cut from a classic pb&j with a few fruit leather carrots surrounded with bunny tails-aka mini marshmallows. 

Funny tale about these fluffy little balls of confection…when I went to add them to M’s lunch the bag was nowhere to be found. I mean NOwhere. I searched high and low quite literally and even in my #1 suspect’s room while she still slumbered only to come up empty handed and a little defeated. So when the little sneakerella woke up I had to ask…

Me: Maribel, do you know where the marshmallows are?

M: No

Me: Are you sure? I wanted to put some in your lunch today

M: Oh wait! Maybe they are in your (bed) room.

(after a brief moment and some rustling coming from under my blankets at the foot of the bed)

M: Oh here they are. How did they get in there?

M'yesss how did they get in there???

As pictured here we had a similar instance with the parmesan cheese that mysteriously disappeared. I still haven’t found the empty container.

character bentos

We’ve been hit with the Phineas and Ferb bug big time in our house. It’s such a cute little show that our whole family enjoys. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve watched each.and.every.episode via Netflix. Oh and of course we can’t forget the movie…aye ya yi. 

So for a little bento surprise I made Maribel a little Phineas and Ferb sandwiches. I had an epiphany and used my kitchen shears to hand cut the character shapes from the bread and cheese. It worked out really well since I don’t have cookie cutters their shapes. Never mind the spider cup. I needed a cup and that was the first one I grabbed. Organizing the bento supplies are next on my list..... 

Mmmoving right along,

 And then there’s her Hello Kitty sandwich. I have to say that this one was a quick impulse and I was a tiny bit pleased with myself on how it turned out. *insert cheesy grin here* She did have more nutritious things in the top part of her bento like fruit and vitamin gummies and such, but I kind of just slapped those together so I didn't take a photo. This is prettier anyways.

That's all for today. I am in party planning mode for the big numero 5!!!!! I'm not going to go there right now because to be honest, I'm still in denial...* whimper*

bento lessons learned, please take it from me...

Before I share Maribel's bentos for the last fortnight I first want to share a few things I learned about making cute lunches late at night.

Lesson #1: Do NOT attempt to make "cute" bentos at 2 in the morning. Just don't do it. You will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #2: Cut the shaped bread before adding the pb and strawberry jelly filling. Again, you will see why in a moment. 
Lesson #3: No matter how many warnings you get from your darling little angel that they "do not want cheese so please don't put it in my lunch, mommy" maybe they mean it when they say that they "promise" they "won't eat it." and then leave the lunch with the soggy cheese out in a warm car for several hours after school so that the left behind cheese can have time to be one and meld with the bento box. Um hmm.

Let's just move on shall we...

So to start the week with Monday's lunch which was the last week of August. It was late but I was feeling creative but had no theme in mind so I drained a mandarin orange fruit cup and formed a pretty little orange flower to go with rolled deli ham, multi grain gold fish crackers, vitamin gummies, mini marshmallows, vanilla crackers with some fruit leather butterflies to go with the left over edible Easter grass I had to make a nice grassy bed for the mozzarella flowers.
See...no theme unless you use the "sky" and the "sea" kind of theme but then how would pork fit into the sea thing? Is there a fish out there that is considered "The Pork of the Sea" 'cause I know tuna is considered the "Chicken of the Sea" but what about something tying to the pig? Brace yourself, this is gunna be a long blog post at this rate. Any ways she ate everything and loved the grass but left the cheese flowers. This should have been my first clue.

Tuesday's are school pizza days so I get a day off of making lunches, thank goodness!!!.

Tuesday night was the wake up call. Again I waited until waaaaay late to make her lunch and while my creative juices flow late a night I'm thinking I might just save those late night creativity juices solely for paper crafts because clearly they don't work well with food crafts. Clearly. Let's see, the top box was alright with a sliced apple with some blueberries, bear fruit leathers, vitamin gummies and a rice bear with some Italian dressing to go with the rice. Hey, she's four so what ever she wanted to put on her rice was fine with me.
And then came the awakening moment...the bottom box.

Here is where I learned that it might just be a good idea to wait to add the peanut butter and red jelly to an animal shaped lunch because after I had cut it out, the poor thing started oozing red jelly everywhere making it look like it was bleeding to death. It's not even Halloween so I couldn't just go with it. I had to do something. So I thought I would surround the dolphin with some chocolate babies. Yeh, now the dolphin looks like it was in labour for days because after adding the candied eyeball I'm sure it has the "what was I thinking" expression that us mothers have had cross our minds once or twice. So of course I couldn't stop while I was blundering along, oooh nooo. I decided I would try out the new food markers I had purchased just days prior and write a little message to my little boo. In BLOOD RED to match the bleeding dolphin mommy. So lessons #1 and #2 were learned at such a cost. *sigh* I digress.

Thursday's lunch I really felt like I had to make up for Wednesday's fiasco so I got the creative juices flowing  but I didn't wait until the wee hours of the night to make her lunch. Ha HA! Lesson #1 learned. Top box had some animal crackers, vitamin gummies, grapes and blueberries and a penguin filled with ranch dressing for the broccoli and carrot sticks in the bottom box. We had hotdogs for supper so I use the last leftover dog and made her some crabs and octodogs on a nice broccoli sea bottom with a nice cheese sun lifted up with carrots beaming down. So this is where Lesson #3 comes in to play. Since Maribel had been leaving her cheese behind and I know she likes cheese I made it a point to show her the fun cheese sun and inform her that it is made from cheese and that she likes cheese. (see Lesson #3 point in the quotations for her warnings that I chose to ignore) Ok. Point taken.

So with the following week being the holiday week and all, I only had to make two lunches. I have to say that this week was a success since I chose to listen to her warnings and made her lunches right after supper. Wednesday consisted of leftovers: corn on the cob cut off the cob, grilled chicken, tomatoes, teensie bit of salt for the corn, strawberries stuffed with chocolate chips, gummies, chocolate goldfish, and grapes. Not a crumb was left behind. yessss!

And finally Thursday's lunch. Another success. Since it's still technically summer for another couple of weeks I thought a couple of ice cream cone pb and J sandwiches would be fun with the rolled turkey meat, sliced peach, tomato balloons, gold fish crackers and gummies. Again, nothing was spared. Woo hoo.

So onward to another week of making lunches and discoveries while adhering to the first 3 lessons learned and hopefully the next few discoveries won't be as um, how should I say, frightening to the bento world...
Happy lunch making!

>^..^<

loving lunchtime

Maribel completed her first week of Pre-K and everyday I ask her how her day went she replies with,
"Good. I made new friends. And I have a boyfriend!" oh my...this just reinforces the no dating until 16 rule but hey, at least she's enjoying her lunches.

For Tuesday's lunch I ran out of regular bread so I used one of those flat bread things that are a super yummy alternative to sandwich bread or hamburger buns to make her pb&j's. I love them and think they are real tasty and so does M. Well, usually she does. For some reason she only took a couple of bites out of one and left the other. Oh well, more for me C: The rest of her lunch includes chocolate graham gold fish, carrots with ranch dip in the monkey sauce container; cut strawberries; cheese; and Juice Plus gummies.

My lunch wasn't as fun but still provided sufficient nutrition which included fat free yogurt; carrots with fat free Italian dressing for dipping (in the blue container); 1/2 cup sliced strawberries; Melba toast and Laughing Cow Blue cheese. I only ate one and saved the other for another days snack.

Wednesday I forgot to pick up bread so I improvised and made M's favourite, tuna. Yup, my girl loves tuna with crackers to scoop it with. Her lunch also included some animal crackers, vitamin gummies, grapes, fruit squeezie and juice box.

My lunch was the start of the second phase of my healthy eating plan (I don't use the "D" word) and with this phase I get to add a larger portion to the food selections and some protein. Yay! So I made a chicken salad with some Melba toast for scooping, 15 little whole grain gold fish -yes I counted each one; cottage cheese, yogurt, and a nice salad.

Wednesday night I finally made it to the grocery store so I picked up some bread for sandwiches and made missy pants some dino pb&j sanny's and punched out some fruit leather hearts for his spikes and added some animal crackers. She also got some of her favourite ham rolls, carrots, vitamin gummies, tomatoes or "Panatoes" as she calls them and punched out cheese clouds which are kind of hard to see but they are there under the "panatoes". Oh and some applesauce.

My lunch I also decided to have a little fun and punch out my ham sandwiches in Dino shapes. I also included some punched out clouds in my fat free cheese to go along with my broccoli and carrots and for dessert I had some yummy blackberry yogurt which is my favourite yogurt by far. Mmm so delicious!

I have to say that while making these lunches do take a little extra time they are totally worth it to see the smile on M's face when she sees her little bento box in the fridge. Now I'm off to address this boy situation...

>^..^<

ready or not

Well the day has finally come. Yup. Today was that day where Maribel started Pre-K. She was so excited to go to a real school and meet new friends. She had no problems going to class and making herself right at home while I walked back to my car fighting back the tears. I'm tough but not that tough when I see how happy she is to be there. When she came back she couldn't wait to tell me all about her lessons and that she has new friends and some of them are boys, hee hee.

So now I am back making lunches and since I'm eating about the same amount as my mini me I started making some mommy bentos. I mean, the stuff is out already so why not?

For M's lunch she had some grapes, rolled turkey meat, vitamin gummies, pb and honey sandwiches and some chocolate graham goldfish in a Hello Kitty egg. When I got her lunch back she ate everything but 3 of the little sandwiches because I was informed that the bread wasn't "soft". Picky picky.

My lunch isn't as fun. Salad with dressing and sliced cucumbers with a side of cottage cheese and leftover mashed potatoes. I have to admit, M's chocolate goldfish look mighty appealing right about now...

>^..^<

sweet tooth

We’ve had quite the week of crazy events what with M’s dental visit and wicked thunderstorms that blew down our fence but I did manage a couple of Bento goodness for our little boo. Yay me!

For Monday’s lunch I wanted to see if she’d eat hard boiled eggs again if she was involved with the shaping process this time. If you remember her last reaction to the shaped egg she was less then thrilled to bring it back. But here’s how they work.

While the eggs are boiling prepare a med-large bowl of iced water then when the eggs are ready start peeling them while they are still warm but be careful not to burn yourself. I ran them under the tap to help take the edge off but when the egg is peeled quickly and gently guide it into the mold and seal shut. Place the mold(s) into the iced water and let it sit for at least 5 minutes or longer if you can.

Once the time is up and you are ready to make the lunch, just rinse off the egg, pat dry with a paper towel and serve. She loved it!

For her lunch I cut the egg in half and took out the “yucky” yolk and threw a little salt in the tiny bear container for seasoning. I also included vitamin gummies,sliced turkey rolls, pb&j sandwich bears, peanut butter cookies, and high heels with a crown shaped fruit leather. She ate it all. Yesssss.

Friday’s lunch had a bit of a theme that sums up our week. Since it’s been raining like crazy I thought a fish theme would be fun. Oh and teeth.

This lunch included chicken noodle soup with some gold fish crackers, vitamin gummies, sugar free apple sauce with some sprinkles, SpongeBob crackers, sliced turkey rolls, some cheesy pretzel fish and cheese molars. I was supposed to use a circle for the fish heads (eww fish heads? ok that sounded kinda gross) but all I had was an egg shape so I used that instead. I will be investing in some circle cookie cutters for next time fo sho.

I wanted to celebrate her bravery during her tooth extraction so I carved out some teeth from stringed cheese. I couldn’t help it. Hee hee. Although I would totally be alright if we never have to go through a tooth extraction again. Totally 100% okay with that.

>^..^<

bento's back

I've taken a little break from making bentos mainly because I got so busy that I would forget to make lunches. I know, bad mom award goes to me. again....but I'm back and why not surprise my little onion with a little bento love, right?

So today's lunch and snack included applesauce with some fun sprinkles, vitamin gummies, star burst fruit leathers, turkey rolls, grapes, Sponge Bob crackers and dinosaur shaped pb&j sandwiches.

I've noticed I'm a little rusty so I'll be checking out some bento blogs for some inspiration. *sigh* Those mom's seem to have it all together. Someday I'll be like that, just right after I rewash the load I keep forgetting in the washer....

>^..^<

you've got a friend in me

We are all so excited to pick up our copy of Toy Story 3 that came out yesterday. Every time Maribel saw a commercial advertising it’s release, she would get super excited (like, jumping up and down excited) and say, “We will be buying that when it comes out, right Mommy?” Sure thing, baby.

For fun I themed M’s lunch in a toy story theme with Toy Story shaped Kraft Dinner, Mr Porkchop's hotdog coins; Rex's cheese footprints;Toy Story cheese-it’s; fruit leather (hand cut) cowboy hat; raspberries; and a cereal bar.

Just a tip: Do not decide to go through all the old toys to thin them out for the upcoming holiday right after watching Toy Story 3. For someone like me who tends to personify everything, you don't really accomplish much. Everyone stayed.

Notice I said "everyone" like they're real and have feelings...
>^..^<

oh red riding hood, what big lunches you have

This weeks bentos I thought I would make it a themed event! I mean, the fun holiday is right around the corner and Maribel will be little for only a short time so why not make the most of it, right?  She picked out her costume on  her own this year, so independent.

Monday Witchy Bento

Monday:

I was feeling a little witchy and tried my hand at making some witches fingers out of a cheese sticks which later I found out that Maribel thought they were crayons. Fingers, crayons-I can see the similarity. the rest of the lunch included cracker sticks; rolled turkey slices; strawberries and pineapple people; skewered grapes; and witches brooms.

Tuesday: No Bento.
Lucky duck went to Disney with her Daddy while Mommy had to work. So not fair!

Wednesday's Ghostie Bento

Wednesday:
Ghosties: I went with a ghostie theme this lunch with some tombstone PB and honey sandwiches with a little message and licorice strings; grapes, a pumpkin orange, ghostie cheese sticks, and candy corn with a candy pumpkin. To draw the faces and messages I used black glitter icing. At the end of the day I found out that the icing on the pumpkin ran so it didn't look like a pumpkin so she didn't eat it. Oh well. I have my eyes on some food safe markers for next time.

Thursday Ghoulie Bento

Thursday:
Ghoulies: I've been seeing a lot of these mummy wrapped dogs in the toddler snacking circle so I thought that would make for a fun little lunch theme. I found instructions to make them here. The rest of the ghoulie parts include some carrot sticks for ghoul legs; pumpkin orange with no face this time; gummy eyeballs and licorice guts; ghoulie grape heads; ketchup and ranch for dipping; and cheese fingers. 

Friday Little Red Riding Hood Bento

Friday:
I thought it would be fun to send Maribel to daycare in costume so I themed her bento to match. After everything was made I realized it is a very yellow lunch. That's okay, I'm sure she won't notice...
Cheese crackers; fruit leather woodsman; pretzel 'chopped wood' sticks; Mandarin orange flower picked for Grandma;

Oh Grandma, what big ears you have. - wolf ear shaped PB and honey sandwiches
Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have. -gummy eyeballs for dessert
Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have. -apple slices dipped in lemon juice with almond slivered teeth.

Have a spooOooky Friday!

The spooky lunch ideas used are found here :o)

>^..^<

tennis anyone?

Doesn't she look like she's getting ready for a round of tennis? She dressed herself if you couldn't tell. ;o)

Well it was another week of Bentos and another week of Maribel telling me that she doesn't like rice, cheese, pickles, kiwi, and egg which is kinda surprising because she eats all of these things all the time. I'm not sure where this sudden dislike for foods is coming from but I'm ready to nip it in the butt. Variety is the spice of life, or so I'm told. Not the same ole, peanut butter and honey sandwich with grapes and turkey meat over and over and over and over and over and over again. *sigh*

Monday

Monday:
I went to bed early Sunday so Monday morning I slapped this lunch together in record time. Only to find out that there is no Miss Patty's. Oh well, she got to eat it anyways. This lunch included Juice Plus gummies, celery sticks, turkey rolls, grapes, cheddar cheese bears, peanut butter and honey bear stamped sanwhiches, and tulip fruit leathers.

Tuesday

Tuesday:
Another rushed morning so lunch included grapes, a cut up cereal bar, Birdy cheddar cheeses (untouched and later wilted *sigh*,) vitamin gummies, peanut butter and honey dinosaur sandwiches, and ants on the log that I later found out that she only licked out the peanut butter and ants and left the log. That stinker. 

Wednesday

Wednesday:
Another simple lunch which included grapes, carrots with ranch dip inside the cute girl monkey sauce container, iced animal crackers, Juice Plus gummies, peanut butter sandwich that I could have decorated or something but didn't, and applesauce with sprinkles.

Thursday

Thursday:
Felt a little creative and tried my hand at making Octodogs. At least I *think* that’s what they are called,  left over stuffing, carrots with ranch dip in the boy monkey sauce container, pretzels, Noah’s ark and animals fruit leather, and Juice Plus gummies. 

Happy Octodog

Maribel doesn’t like buns with her wieners so this is a nice alternative to giving her a plain dog straight up. To make Octodogs you basically cut the hot dog in half and carefully slice halfway up the wiener shaft *stop laughing* four times to give eight tentacles. Using tongs, hold the Octodog by the “head” in boiling water and watch the tentacles curl. It’s super neat and easy to do.

Friday: no bento.
I did not need to make a bento today because Little Miss Stinkerella is spending the day at Disney with her Grandpa. Lucky duck!  

You may have noticed some new bento boxes..well Vic sent me this link for cheap bento boxes and stuff so of course I had to expand my supplies. I already know I'm obsessed but Miss Patty gave me an A+ for presentation so that was enough justification right there...


Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up. I'm so looking forward to it this year with the breath of fall's cool air on my neck. Ahhh. 

>^..^<

bento beginnings

Maribel had her first full week of Bento lunches and I have to say I am getting faster-ish at making them. I found that if I make her lunches the night before that really cuts down our morning time hustle. I’m all about less stress these days. 

Friday 

Last Friday: I finally got a chance to try out the cute egg molds and I like it. I made this lunch Thursday night for Friday's lunchtime so that I had enough time for the eggs to cool off in the little molds. It worked great!!

Bunny egg mold

At lunch time, Miss Patty (her daycare teacher) opened it up and set it out for Maribel. Because the egg was very "egg" smelling, Maribel leaned into her lunch and took a couple wiffs, then leaned back for an assessment. She leaned in again for a couple more sniffs and leaned back again and said very serious like, "I think it's dead."
*sigh* That's my girl.

sorry, no photo :o(
Monday: I cheaped out and just rolled up some lunch meat and used the food picks and I used a cute bear mini cookie cutter to cut out a fruit leather. I stacked the bears and set them aside to put everything else together and when I went to add the bears I noticed they were gone. Maribel was standing there with some full cheeks so I asked her where the bears went. She just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. Little sneak. I didn't add any "dead" things this time and everything else was prepackaged stuff so no photo. It was boring.

in a rush so *again*, no photo. sorry :o(
Tuesday: I hadn't learned my lesson from yesterday to make her lunch the night before so I scrambled to make her lunch and head out the door on time. Tuesday's lunch consisted of little chicks cheddar crackers, drinkable applesauce, turkey rolls on picks, cereal breakfast bar, elephant punched fruit leather and a yogurt. I also added a sliced Kiwi for the first time and I was so happy she likes Kiwi. She has such a picky pallet these days.

 Wednesday

Wednesday: I felt creative and punched out several little guys from a fruit leather and used the butterfly punch for the peanut butter and honey sandwich. I wasted nothing on the fruit leather and punched as many little circles as I could get to decorate the sandwich and the cheese. I tried making a little crab from the cheese but it ended up looking like whiskers to me. So whiskers it was. Does it look like whiskers to you? yeah, me neither. Nummy grapes, cute up breakfast bar, and of course some rolled up turkey meat. Her fave. 


Bad Mom Award. No Bento :'o(
Thursday: No lunch because I am a negligent monster. I stayed up so late preparing for my office Multicultural day and I forgot to make her lunch; then woke up late and had to rush out the door. I know, I know. I'm a terrible mom. Poor thing was so sad she didn't have a lunch. When I came home Joe told me that Maribel cried when it was lunch time because "Mommy didn't make my lunch!" It broke my heart and I felt even worse!! 

Friday

Friday: She has daycare all day today instead of her usual half days so I packed a phatty one to include snacks along with lunch. Notice I used a "ph" instead of an "f" to be sure that I'm not mistaken for packing a high FAT lunch. Not that it matters too much as she's a ball of energy and would burn it off after 5 minutes of play. Oh to have that energy... Her lunch includes peanut sanny's, bunny fruit leathers, yogurt, grapes, Juice Plus gummies, Kiwi (this is new and she loves it. Yay!!) and roasted leftover turkey roast.

To ensure success I ask Maribel what she liked in her lunch that day and I try to add variety for the opportunity to try new things. If she doesn’t like something I won’t add it again. I'm really enjoying making these little lunches especially when she likes them! I hope to get more creative and daring and try some molded rice sculptures. I just want to make sure M will eat them before I go through all the effort. She loves rice but after the hard boiled egg incident I'm not going to risk her not trying something that I know she likes.

Happy Friday!!
 >^..^<

bento madness. madness I say!!!

Before I left for Canada I ordered some cute lunch boxes and accessories that I learned were called Bentos. I bought them because I wanted something cute and fun to help me with my portion control and it turned into something else.
A monster!!!

And so it begins. The pig head is a single level box found at the Dollarama. It was the only one left in the store so yoink. I so wish we had a Dollarama here in Orlando. It seriously rocks!  The shark box is a snack box found at Publix and the Hello Kitty box along with the top left and top middle box were bought at the T&T Super Market while in Edmonton. I wish we had one of those here in Orlando too. *sigh* I'm getting homesick already. How is that possible?

The two yellow rectangle boxes and the triangle boxes were purchased from this cute online shop BentoBonanza. I love that they have a spot for the cutlery and chopsticks and that it fits the Target dollar spot cutlery I buy for me Maribel.

I seriously can't wait to try out these egg molds. Basically you boil your eggs and while they are hot you peel the shell and gently fit it into the mold and submerge in ice cold water to cool down and they come out in that shape. It still boggles my mind a bit but I couldn't resist the chance to try them out. I'll let you know how it goes. I also fell in love with the little monkey jam containers. I think the banana as the spoon is so darling. Maribel gravitated to those right away and are already a favourite.

No Bento box is complete without some way to cut the sandwiches into fun shapes for a cute presentation and well, it's also one of the only ways to get them to fit into those tiny boxes. I found the butterfly and dinosaur sanwich cutters at one of Target's dollar spot and ordered the fun animal shaped cutters from BentoBonanza along with the food picks. Maribel liked eating her rolled up lunch meat from these sticks so much that she used the sticks to pick up every bit of her sandwhich. So silly.

Other Bento goodies include: silicon grass food seperaters; little animal cups from the Dollarama; purple trainer chopsticks for Maribel from her Aunty Vic; Wilton silicon cupcake cups from Michaels, little sauce containers with animal heads.

So I think this is a good start. And upon further research on what to fill these little treasures I came across a couple blogs that are so inspiring and have since added to my ever growing blog reader list. Wendolonia and Another Lunch. I think what I love so much about these is that they use leftovers which makes lunches easier for the busy morning rushed mom that I am.

So here is my first Bento. This is Maribel's for daycare today. I'm a long ways away from my lunches looking like any of the fun ones linked but I'm a newbie and will pick it up as I go along.
I fear I may turn into a Bento monster. It is a full moon after all.

>^..^<