Family bento style

 

I found this little bad boy in Target being clearance off.  It is a cute bento box and it is big enough for the family to have an outing. So I had to try it out. the blue bowls are open and the green bowls are separated into 3 compartments.

I served tropical fruit cocktail, ritz crackers with cream cheese and a salmon spread. Cookies, raisins, and fruit snack.  I included the fork picks to eat the fruit with and a spoon for the spreads.  I also had a towelette for each of us.

 

The kids loved it.  I had a few impressed onlookers.  I packed the container in a insulated grocery cooler with a jug of cold water and container of lemon aid with the towels packed around it (we went to the fountains).  The water and lemonaid kept the food cold while we did our errands in the morning.

~trish

Bento 18

It was pizza Friday, but I was in luck that chicken nuggets would do!  I am excited that these nuggets are from my mega buy at Publix.  So she  had 4 nuggets, 2 cheese crackers, carrots (from the garden), ranch dressing, strawberries, and a swedish fish.

I felt like I was light on the lunch, but I had to keep in mind that it was their Easter party day.  So those little bunny cupcakes was on her menu later. – Everything was eaten.

I did investigate a new bento maker’s style.  Of course, I snuck into her lunch and took pictures.

This was her snack style, since her daughter was having the pizza.    She is using little ice cream cones as holders for the pretzels.

Do you love her use of Easter egg containers?  I love it!  Here is a better picture of the bunny filled with pickles!.

I believe her older daughter is now requesting a bento style lunch too.

~trish

bento 17

More of the same.  except this time I put mandarin oranges in the mix.  So she had cheetos, strawberries, celery with peanut butter and raisins, crackers with cheese, and turkey and cheese roll ups.  I am having a problem getting the picks back home.  I am not really in the mood to have those disposable.

Bento 16

That wonderful pack of celery had to make it in.  SO!  Celery with peanut butter and raisins, turkey and cheese roll-ups (using the new fork-picks I got from Publix), strawberries, yogurt, cheetos, and a swedish fish.  Now I have had a lot of questions about the yogurt.  Well, this is what the  go-gurts look like, this one is banana split.

Now what is fun, is when you realize that there are other bentos in the class.  On our way yesterday, we found this one lurking the halls.  How neat was that!  The mom has her own blog and is at: http://ilovegreyskies.blogspot.com/

This is fun!  I also have another mom that just joined in and gave her kid, her first bento today.  I look forward to talking her into sending me pictures.

~trish

Bento supply found – reuse-able toothpicks!

From some of the other blogs, I have seen really cute toothpick things in the lunches.  I thought these were so cool and a nice addition to the bento.  I have been looking for 2 weeks and resigned that when I see them, then I will get them.  Well off at Publix, I found these in the clearance box.  I also then found tooth pick hearts at the Dollar Tree.

 

I also got so excited today!  On my way to take the girls to school, I seen another child and mom coming in with his bento box!  Oh, it was a super cool one.   I will have to steal a pic next time!

bento 15

Yes, we missed yesterday!  I was way too tired to be accountable for much!  So today the girls went to school with friendship bread muffins, strawberries, raisins, yogurt, and apple sauce.  I just got a starter of friendship bread the other week.  I made the bread as mini muffins, regular muffins, and loaves.  I figured it was the perfect mix for the lunch.  Of course, I forgot the spoons.  Thank goodness, the school had some.

Bento 14 – Pizza Day!

This is the last of my bunny pizza, I will have to make more.  This is not my typical, but the bunny’s cried for change.  I filled the box with pizza and strawberries.  I added a go-gurt and a few m&m’s.  Any complaints? YES!  She was not happy that the go-gurt and the m&m’s were not IN the box!  What kind of monster did I create?  It came back empty!  She ate it all, but apparently presentation and containment is an important factor at the VPK lunch table.  Who would have thought?
I did want to show the typical drinks with her lunch.  I have an old baby bottle (5oz) for her juice and then I give her a water bottle.  I give her the water bottle as a just in case measure of if she is still thirsty.  I feel like she has enough produce that she really doesn’t need the juice, but it is keeping up with the lunches.  My #1 actually prefers water over soda.  The other 2 will steal my soda in a heart beat.

Bento 12 & 13

Remaining cheese Quesada with cherry tomatoes, frosted animal cookies, raisins, and 3 swedish fish swimming across the lunch.  A little background on what I figure to be my actual lunch cost for her meals is less than $1 a day. 

The pink frosted animal cookies are a bag from the day old bread store that I bought for about $ 1.25.  All of these cookies you have seen in the lunches are from the same bag and also the few that are stolen from the bag randomly though out the day by all others.  I like to buy bags of small cookies because 3-4 cookies at that size is the perfect portion.

The swedish fish that swim in now and then are from the same box from the Dollar Tree.  I still have about half a dozen left.  I buy a couple of packages of the jelly type treats to help break up the lunches.  Although, the worms had My son “the bird” attack and have been completely demolished.  I do have 1 more secret stash of gummies!

Mini Sammies, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelons, a oreo (walmart brand), and gummy worms.  This is thanks to the produce man.  I picked up a flat of strawberries and a watermelon, so they made an appearance at lunch.  Everything was eaten, but the gummies.  #1 complained that they were too sweet.  I usually will not add my hubby’s beloved generic oreos, but I was afraid with the vast amount of produce there would be no staying power in their tummies.  I am sure you have experienced the 2 hours after a salad, you are hungry for more.  So the cookie was to help keep them filled.

Bento 10 & 11

 
Cheese Quesada strips, tomatoes, jell-o, cookies, raisins, and 1/3 fruit roll-up. – Ate everything.

Fluffernutters, tomatoes, cookies, raisins, and gummy worms.  I cut the sammies into butterfly for the oldest, 2 – year old just got it with the crust off.  Dealing with the time change, my energy is slightly less.  - Both eat everything.
Yogurt has now been requested.  Thankfully, I picked up go-gurts or something like that in the tube and froze them.  I think I got them for about $0.80 a box.  So I am ready for yogurt in the lunch. 
Got to keep up at the lunch table.  This effort is all in keeping the total amount spent at the end of the week down.  So campaigning to keep her lunch box happy for her eyes is just my way of keeping those hot lunches out of her desire.  And my money in my pocket.
~trish

Bento #9

Today was pizza bunny day!  3 cheese bunny pizzas, tomatoes with ranch dressing, jello, raisins, 2 swed-fish, and half a fruit roll-up.  I did skewer the tomatoes with toothpicks to help her dip them in the ranch  dressing.   She ate it all.
Apparently, her class is still investigating her lunch each day to see what she will have.  Their favorites to see is the bunny pizza and the little people sammies.

I think next week I will add in a sunshine grilled cheese.  I have the pampered chef sandwich maker.It looks like a little sun.

Bento #8

I did not miss yesterday.  Homegirl was not feel well, so she stayed home.  Today, she got left-overs and eat everything, but half of her corn pancakes.

So it was carrots from the garden and tomatoes with a side of ranch dressing.  I used a separate container with a lid, to keep the mess down.  She requested a toothpick for her to use to dip her tomatoes in the dressing.  Apparently, she is not willing to get her fingertips in the dressing with the tomatoes.  She also got some mandarin oranges and 2 gummy worms.  The left-overs was sliced chicken and 1 large corn fritter pancake topped with strawberry jam.

I made the corn fritters with Jiffy cornbread mix, made as instructed, with frozen whole kernel corn.  Then I poured them out like pancakes.

Everything in the box may look a little cramp, but this is actually a smaller box than usual.  So I had to do a bit of stacking within the box.  It is not as eye pleasing as I like.  And it was only possible to put one cup inside and it was on top of other things.

Tomorrow is pizza.  I pulled out 3 pizzas from the freezer that I made last week.  I am running into a small problem, one has already hopped away to hide in my sons tummy.  That bunny pizza was mostly, so I am in deep curiosity how he got it down.  So I had to go back to the stash of frozen bunnies for another one.  I also had to hide them.   The little home made pizza made from the walmart dough $0.47, tomato sauce and cheese are my children’s favorite.  It amazes me.  I think I could make these in mass quantity and freeze for last minute lunches.

Bento #7

Someone is having a growth spurt!  We did little people sandwiches, oatmeal cookies, tomatoes, mandarin oranges, raisins, gummy worms.  The older one is getting a jello and a fruit roll up. 

Now this time I had a huge learning experience.  I cut the pieces out individually and then pieced them together.  Well, too much work!  So I suggest for further people sammy making, make the sandwich as you like them, take a pastry roller (pampered chef) smash that sandwich down and then cut them out.  I recommend smashing the bread flat so that it is easier for cutting through the layers, without having the bread tearing.  Otherwise,  you will have a decapitated sammy man!

Bento #6

A little more excitement for lunch!  To keep it changing, I did meat and cheese roll ups that I cut in thirds.  I am using toothpicks to keep them together.  For added fun, I put a tomato on each end.  The cookie is a yummy girl scout cookie.  The pink cup is mandarin oranges and raisins.  The green cup is jello with a fruit roll-up cut into a third and 2 gummy worms.

I am a little nervous that this is not enough.  I am really missing some starches.  I might add a few crackers.

Bento #5

SUCCESS!  I was nervous.  But everything worked out, she loved her bunny pizzas and she didn’t feel as though she missed out on anything.  So a few remnant raisins came home and she ate everything else.  I added jello to the mix.  I put the silicone cups into a cupcake pan and poured about 8 cups.  I had intended to put diced strawberries in it, but they had turned.

I am loving that my girl is excited to tell me about her adventures in lunch time.  I like knowing that she is feeling loved by me, even when our days are apart.

I get all weekend to think up next week.

Pizza Bunnies!

So sometimes in motherhood we have compensate for being a poor-have it together kinda mom.  Well, tomorrow will bring the light that #1’s mom didn’t get her pizza money in for the month.  So while my child is eating her bento lunch, the other children will be enjoying the restaurant bought pizza.  What can a mom do?

Well, make her lunch better than theirs!  So what is better than a delivery cheese pizza, a bunny cheese pizza.

Now I will have a total of 12 little bunny pizzas for a cost of $1 or 2.  Nothing extravagant to make them.  I used packet of dough mix, my free tomato sauce, italian seasoning, and cheddar cheese.  I did used cake decorating gel to make the eyes, nose and mouth; they are kids, they won’t care about the gel being on a pizza.

Here are my ingredients.  I think all 12 bunnies took a total of 1 1/2 – 2 cups of cheddar cheese.

Now, I do not expect her to eat all 12 bunnies tomorrow.  I am going to freeze them and hope 4-6 lunches out of them.  If it works, I will have paid less than 50 cents a pizza for each lunch, which is half the price of the delivered pizza.

I now actually day dream about how to make her food different with minimal effort on preparing.  I am doing some reading on sushi rice molds and wonder if I can create something marvelous from yellow rice and vegetables, a favorite in our home.  I also seen a great picture on flicker’s Laptop Lunch group that showed a cheese Quesada sliced into slicks a great idea for meal there.  I could get 2 lunches out of it.

Well, I will keep thinking of more food.

Hybrid Craftin’ with my Digital Software

This is my Dollar Tree find!  The entire container was blue, I used some of my Indian Summer Fall Paper Stack by DCWV to cover the entire outside of the container.  I used a Sizzix Top Notes by Stampin Up for the red piece.  I needed to put a label on it.  So I went to my Story Book Creator and found some nice paper and typed out what I needed, I then add the butterfly and dragonfly and a doodle to the edges.  I turned them white, mostly for economic reasons, white is less ink than black.  I printed and cut it out.  I adhered all paper to the container with modge podge, I also created a protective layer of modge podge to keep the paper from getting ruined and to be able to wipe it clean.

So what did I put in it? Well, I am keeping the little gummie treats I get, the mini cookies, and peeps in there.  And the silicone cupcake layers.  The beloved lunch items were taking over my entire counter.  As they migrated around the counter, they began to taunt the children to taste them.  So in order to keep the bento treats in order and out of the sight of little tummies, I decided to contain them, prettily!

Oh a day with modge podge, is a good day.

Bento #4

Two girls will be going to school tomorrow.  I had to change it up, so no little sammies, I did layered ritz, cheese, and bologna.    I found the tiny little iced oatmeal cookies at the day Old Bread store.  A Peep Bunny on the raisins and sliced apples.

To keep the apples from browning, I actually keep a container of lemon juice and water, so when I slice the apples, I put them right into the container.  Doing this, works  well, since I do not use an entire apple.  So tomorrow night, I may not need to slice any more apples, unless another child finds them and eats them by then.

 

As for Bento #3, it came home a mess.  According to the daughter, she did not have enough time to eat.  For that fact, neither did she have enough time to put the lid on the container.  all those juicy left-overs was all the inside of her lunch box, huge yuk!  The tomatoes have lost some of their appeal to be the first thing to eat, so I am giving them the day off.  She did leave me a couple of fluffernutter stars.

Another bento!

Here is my 3rd bento.  It contains star fluffernutters (fluff and peanut butter) sandwiches.  The marshmallow bunny is laying on the raisins.  Diced apples are making an appearance, upon special request from #1.  I did dice  the apples and soaked them in lemon water to keep them from browning.  And of course, the child’s favorite  halved cherry tomatoes.

I did just pick-up the silicone baking cups from Jo-Ann’s, they were 30% off of the $9.99.  I also want to pick up the mini Easter cookie cutters that I just seen.  I figured more options for these beloved mini sandwiches.  I am ranking on the awesome mommy list around the lunch table.  The daily discussion is “how does your mommy make little people sandwiches?”  Of course my daughter loves the curiosity, so her response is a smile as she bites the little heads off.  Got to love it!

Bento #2 was loved, except for the carrots.  Hmm, I thought with the way they chow hounded them down at dinner, the daughters would have loved them.  #1 said the carrots had too much sugar, hmm, too much sugar.  I thought children were immune to too much sugar.

Bento lunches are definitely working well!  The effort is getting easier and not much more time than a tradition lunch, if not less.   Unlike  a traditional lunch, I do not have to get a bunch of zip-lock bags of several containers.  SO 2 thumbs up!

Bento – Day 1 and 2

Alright!  I made my first bento last night and received great reviews from the daughter.

Here is my first.

She had cheese sandwich men, cut from cookie cutters, cherry tomatoes cut in half, raisins with 1 swedish fish, pickle, and a chocolate bar mini.  Well, found out the chocolate bar is a no-no at school.  She did not like the pickle either.  I served this with a juice box and a water.

Tonight, I had to make 2 bentos, since my youngest will be in the 2 year old room for the day so I can get some laundry done. 

More sandwich men!  Sliced tomatoes, left over sweet carrots, 2 mini butter cookies, raisins, and a swed-fish.  As for those mini cookies, we love them.  They are called Grandma’s cookies and they are only sold at the Dollar General.  The sweet carrots are a favorite among the girls too.  I make them with butter, honey, and brown sugar.  I am using bottles for the juice.  I think it is cheaper than the boxes or pouches, especially when it is BOGO.

Preparing to Bento

Searching through all the blogs that bento, I got a good idea what I would need to make the kids lunches.  I am trying to ease into this process and did not want to spend too much, so I headed to the safest place for my wallet, the Dollar Tree.

Here is my loot!

These cute little containers are perfect.  I got 2 for each child.  The containers say that they can be frozen and microwave.  I also got the 2 sandwich cutters and some hand wipes for clean up.

Not bad for under $10.