2014 Winter Olympics Blog Hop

Today's post is part of a Blog Hop featuring lunches related to the 2014 Winter Olympics. I have been excited about preparing for this, especially since we have been out of a regular schedule the last few weeks due to weather-related school cancellations and sickness. But, this week school was open every day, so I was much more motivated to pack fun, tasty lunches.

Speaking of snow days, I recently remembered that I spent quite a few of those watching Winter Olympic events. Ice skating, bobsled, and luge are some of my favorites. I have happy memories of watching those at home and at my babysitter's as a kid.

This first bento was prepared in our blue Sassy box for my daughter's lunch. She had mini peanut butter sandwiches shaped and stamped to resemble three of the Sochi Olympic mascots (polar bear, leopard, and hare) sitting on a bed of "snow" (Pirate's Booty). She also had cucumber slices, carrots, celery, blueberries, grapes, and strawberries with a USA pick. For treats she had a Milano cookie and a gold "medal" chocolate.

For an evening craft, we were making paper dolls from a little book she received at Christmas. I found the three closest to the mascots and created little bronze, silver, and gold medals. I then wrote a little note for my daughter on the back. She was excited about the medals - to her they were "fancy necklaces" :)

The next bento, in a Sistema box, was for my son's breakfast at daycare. In USA-themed colors, he had Frosted Mini Wheats, Cutie slices, cucumber, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes. This was packed along with a yogurt tube and applesauce.

That day, my husband and I had matching bentos packed in EasyLunchboxes. We had tomatoes and cucumber on long star picks, celery and carrots, a Cutie, grapes, and blueberries in star-shaped silicone cups, Cheez-It Snack Mix with a star-shaped pretzel on top, and curry chicken salad in a red silicone cup with a star pick. I also packed a whole wheat pita to go along with the chicken salad.

I included star (winners) napkins and selected my red and blue EasyLunchbox lids to match the theme of cheering for the USA's Olympians.

My daughter's snack was also packed with a red, white, and blue theme in mind. She had Frosted Mini Wheats, Cutie slices, a string cheese, and grapes and blueberries on a red heart-shaped pick.

On another day this week, my daughter had a USA themed lunch featuring sushi rice shaped into stars, a Babybel cheese, ham cubes with a heart flag pick, Cheez-Its, and grapes on star picks. This was packed in a single layer of our blue Bentgo box.

That same day, I packed lunches for work in our Planetboxes. My husband and I had blueberries and strawberries with a star-flag pick, turkey rollups, raspberries in a blue star-shpaed silicone cup, a gold "medal" chocolate, chipotle-lime cracker chips, and white chocolate covered pretzel rings arranged and colored with food safe markers to resemble the Olympic rings. My husband's lunch had a tiny American flag.

And, mine had a tine little white hare similar to the Sochi hare mascot.

That same day, my son's daycare breakfast included strawberries, blueberries, a piece of granola bar, snowflake-shaped Ritz crackers, and yogurt covered raisins.

On another day of work lunches, I decided to feature the events. I liked the simplicity of the event logos this year so I printed some and made small picks of each event.

 I also replicated the logos for bobsleigh and speed skating using Jello.

These pictures show the complete assembled lunches. We had curried chicken salad on a ciabatta roll with fruits and veggies on the side. Sochi is spelled out in the small cookies.

The last lunches were created with an emphasis on Winter Olympics. In Bynto boxes, we had turkey rollups, snack mix below the large snowflake cutout, berries on snowflake picks, veggies with Sochi spelled in alphabet picks, a Cutie, and strawberries.

My daughter's lunch that day was also Winter themed. She had Pirate's Booty "snow", mini fudge cookies with a flag ring, strawberries, carrots, celery, blueberries on a snowflake pick, ham pieces in a blue star cup, and a Babybel.

Lastly, I used silicone cups in the colors of the Olympic rings one morning for my son's breakfast at daycare and for my daughter's morning snack. My daughter had blueberries in the blue ring, chocolate chips for the black ring, red grapes in the red ring, Goldfish in the yellow ring, and cucumber slices in the green ring. 

My son had grapes in the blue ring, raspberries in the black ring, snowflake crackers in the red ring, yogurt covered raisins in the yellow ring and blueberries in the green ring. He also had yogurt (not pictured).

I had fun packing these Olympic-themed bentos this week and I am looking forward to watching some of the events. Please click on the button below to visit the next stop on the blog hop at Eclectic Lamb. I am sure you will want to see how she has incorporated the Olympics into bentos.

A Lovely Lunch for February

This lunch full of hearts was something I packed for my husband on Valentine's Day 2013. I started this post on that day and never got back to it. Oh well, it is perfect for sharing now at the beginning of this February. He had a heart-shaped turkey sandwich topped with a Love decoration, Goldfish in a pink heart cup, a mini pink cupcake with heart-shaped sprinkles, heart-shaped marshmallows, and heart-shaped candies in the treat section.

 He had heart-shaped strawberries, a hear-shaped piece of apple, and grapes on a pink heart pick.

 He also had a pasta salad filled with hearts. It included rotini noodles, cherry tomatoes, and heart-shaped celery and peppers. Outside the pasta salad were mini heart-shaped cucumber pieces.

 I had included the little red fork because it matched the Valentine's theme, but I later realized it wasn't too realistic or useful when a lot of the pasta salad came back uneaten and he explained that he couldn't eat fast enough with that little fork.

I placed a paper heart on top of the lid of the pasta salad container and included a napkin decorated with hearts. I remember that this lunch was fun to make. It was packed in our Planetbox, which is one of my favorites for adult lunches.

Santa Comes to Lunch and is Featured in the Blog Hop

This post contains affliate links.

Welcome to my blog. I am happy to be taking part in another Bento Bloggers & Friends Blog Hop. I love these and they FORCE me to make time to post to my blog. I pack and photograph five bentos a day, but I cannot seem to find the time to post on anything resembling a regular basis. I love the hops because I factor in time to getting around to putting my stuff up on this blog, and they give me a fantastic chance to see what ideas other people have. Please make sure you click the button at the bottom of this post so you can follow through to see what is up next in the hop so you can gather ideas too.

Lately, I have found it difficult to find fresh produce of high quality and this has affected some of my inspiration for making cute lunches. Fearful that I might not be able to find colorful fruits and vegetables for the bentos for this post, I decided I needed to have a different approach. I have been thinking for awhile about making my own bento picks and I have made a few easy, disposable ones with toothpicks and stickers or toothpicks and printed images. This time, I decided to try making picks with Shrinky Dinks.

I had some sheets of plain Shrinky Dink material so I chose some images to trace and color. I used a black Sharpie to trace the image on the Shrinky Dink sheet and then I colored the images with colored pencils. I chose images of Mickey Mouse for my son's bento because he has loved watching Mickey's Christmas Carol during the last weeks and he is becoming a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan. For my daughter, I chose My Little Pony images because she often requests that as a theme for lunches. All of the figures are wearing Santa hats and I did a couple of traditional Santa Claus faces also.

I was careful to round the edges when cutting the figures out because the edges of Shrinky Dinks can be pretty sharp, especially after baking. And, I decided to cut some with the long "pick" part to stick into food and others without.

Then, I placed them on a sheet of parchment on a baking pan and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since I had my phone handy and I had to watch to see when they would be finished, I decided to take a video. It is not great quality, but if you look closely (and past my reflection), you can see Mickey start to rise up and contract as he begins to shrink. Every time I make Shrinky Dinks, I have a moment of panic when they begin to curl and flip around, but then they straighten out on their own and everything is fine.

This is a photo of the picks after they cooled. I love the way the color is intensified. And, I was pleased that I had basically guessed the correct size for the length and width of the "pick" part. I used a dab of glue to stick plastic picks onto the backs of the ones that I cut without the extended piece.





My son, who will soon be three, takes breakfast bentos to daycare in the mornings. For him, I packed two (stacked) strawberry jam Mickey and Minnie sandwiches, blackberries with a Santa Mickey pick, Cutie wedges with a Merry Christmas pick, and strawberries with a Mickey wreath pick. He also had cucumber slices and Frosted Mini Wheats stuck in the back. I had ordered the Mickey cutter and press weeks ago. Shipping was delayed, but they magically showed up the day before I planned to pack this bento :).

My daughter, who is in first grade, takes a snack bento for the morning and a lunch for midday. I used one of the Shrinky Dink Santa picks in her snack. She had Frosted Mini Wheats, strawberries, green grapes, and a "Santa's sack" full of toys (3-D Monopoly piece gummies). Look closely to find a doll house, dog, and two toy cars.

For lunch, my daughter had a mini Santa-shaped peanut butter sandwich, raspberries, grapes and cucumber slices on picks, carrots and cherry tomatoes (behind the picks), mini saltines, almonds in the little green container, and half of a Cutie tucked under the Santa and Christmas tree gummies (from Target).

I was pleased with how the picks turned out. I was a little concerned that the color might rub off, but that did not seem to be a problem even when I touched them with wet hands after washing the fruit. I did notice that the blackberries had a tendency to stain, so if I make another batch, I might opt to stick with the method of gluing on a separate plastic pick.

Last, I will share matching bentos I made for the road this past Saturday. They do not feature Santa, but I like the way the reds and greens came together. They included blueberries on red and green ornament picks, red and green tortilla chips, red sweet peppers, mini saltines, almonds, Christmas tree peanut butter sandwiches, and a few red and green M&Ms. I took a quick picture of these on the tree skirt before we headed out the door to see A Little House Christmas at our local children's theater.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please be sure to click the image below to visit Loving Lunches and see how Santa has come to lunch over on Jackie's blog. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

A Batty Lunch and Other Halloween Themed Food

Today, my daughter has a bat-themed lunch. She has Goldfish in a homemade bat-shaped silicone cup, grapes on bat picks, carrots, celery, and a tomato all packed in one layer of this box. The top layer holds a sleeping bat peanut butter sandwich hanging from pretzel branches above a few spider-shaped sprinkles for a snack when the bat wakes ;). The sandwich was made with my new toy from CuteZCute. Just like earlier CuteZCute products it is very functional and a well thought out bento tool. It comes with presses for three other animals that will show in other lunches soon.

For breakfast at daycare, my son has a few Mini Wheats, sunflower seeds, grapes on a ghost pick, watermelon pressed with a Jack-o-lantern cutter, and strawberries. I also gave him a tube of yogurt.

My husband and I have matching lunches today. We have watermelon, strawberries, a salad, mini ham biscuits, and pumpkin-shaped tummies.

My daughter is getting over a cold and hasn't had a big appetite lately, so today's snack is light and packed in a small box from a set of nesting boxes. She has a green cup of sunflower seeds, apple slices, and a few frosted Mini Wheats. 

Food for Monday

My daughter is getting over a cold and requested "healthy foods" :). So, for Monday's lunch she has Sunburst tomatoes on pumpkin and bat picks, cucumber slices, strawberries, honeycrisp apple slices, sunflower seeds in the yellow container, Goldfish crackers in the homemade ghost-shaped silicone cup, a couple of pumpkin-shaped gummies, and Jasmine rice molded in the shape of a pumpkin. This is packed in our Spencer box from Pottery Bard Kids.

 

Her morning snack is packed in a new nesting box I ordered from All Things for Sale. She has a Lucky Charms, part of a granola bar, raspberries and grapes on pig picks and a slices of Colby cheese. 

My son's breakfast for daycare is also packed in a new box which I think is super cute and just the perfect size for him. He also has Lucky Charms, a piece of granola bar, strawberries, raspberries, and grapes. I think he will be excited about his new box because he is really into trains lately.

BBF Frightful Fall Hop (And, a Return to My Blog)

Wow, it is amazing that October is well under way. The weather rapidly turned cool and the leaves changed colors marking the time for another Bento Blogger's and Friends Blog Hop. Last year's Halloween Hop was my first with the group and I am so happy to be joining in on the fun again this year.

I decided on witch-themed lunches for this post. First, I will share my daughter's. I used a cookie stamp to press a witch face onto her peanut butter sandwich and then I decorated it with food safe markers. Grapes and mandarin oranges are beside the sandwich on paper picks saved from last year. Below the fruit is a stack of cucumber slices. I used a Linzer cutter to cut a witch's hat out of red pepper and stuck it inside the top slice. The right side of the box holds sugar snap peas, carrots, tomatoes, pepper pieces, and slices of plum.

I made a few grape-flavored, bat-shaped gummies and placed those in the thin upper tray of this MyBentoMeal box. I also taped a die-cut witch on top of the box for fun.

My lunch was packed in a Planetbox. Grapes, plum slices, and mandarin oranges are in a silicone cup wrapped in a paper web with witch's boots poking out the top. Tomatoes on a witch pick, cucumbers, carrots, peas, and peppers fill the long top section. Peanut butter sandwiches shaped like a witch head and boot are included alongside chipotle lime cracker chips, with a grape bat gummy in the center section.

My husband's lunch is very similar. His includes sandwiches shaped like a witch's broom and hat. He doesn't care much for food marker so I only used it on the broom.

For fun, I added a die cut black cat to my Planetbox and a witch to my husband's. And I included a cute witch napkin in each of the three lunches.

My daughter has a morning snack each day since her class eats lunch quite late in the day. I packed grapes on a pumpkin pick, Halloween Crunch cereal in a homemade pumpkin silicone cup with a black cat pick, and oranges with a homemade Frankenstein pick. I held this box together with a decorative rubber band from Target that happened to include some Halloween colors.

 




My son is 2.5 and doesn't really understand Halloween yet so for his breakfast for daycare I stuck with something he does like: Sesame Street. In his Elmo "picnic box" as he calls it, I packed half of an Odwalla Chocolate Kick Kids bar, a mini cup of yogurt, mandarin oranges on an Elmo pick, oatmeal squares with a Cookie Monster ring, and grapes with a Big Bird pick.

 

Please be sure to click the Frightful Fall Blog hop button to make sure you continue your around the loop. I know you don't want to miss any of the incredible creativity displayed by the members of this group! Have fun preparing for Halloween!

Spooky Lunches

It has been a VERY long time since I made time for blogging, but I have been packing bentos almost daily for two years. Things have settled down a bit in my life recently and I am going to try to take time to develop my blog and use the massive backlog of photos I have. This post includes a few recent lunches, beginning with my daughter's "Spooky" bento.

She had ham pieces on pumpkin, ghost, and bat picks arranged in a spider shaped silicone cup. That layer of the box also included a Babybel cheese, carrots, sunflower seeds in the small yellow cup, and a couple of candy corn, pumpkin-shaped pretzels. The other layer held cucumbers on a pick, apple slices, tomatoes, and red pepper slices. This year, my daughter has recess directly before lunch and she has been finishing her entire lunch nearly every day.

My husband and I had leftover barbecue chicken, a fresh tasty coleslaw made following this recipe, veggies and fruit. These were packed in our Lock&Lock boxes with the barbeque in a silicone cup so that it could easily be removed for heating. I packed the bun for the sandwich separately.

My daughter's morning snack included half of an Odwalla bar, mandarin oranges, grapes on a Zoe pick, and a piece of cheese.

My son's breakfast for daycare was packed in our Dr. Sears' Nibble Tray. It held Lucky Charms, a couple of pumpkin-shaped pretzels, oranges, a few Mini Wheats, grapes, and peach yogurt. He is so happy to be having his own boxes of food to take to "school" this year. He generally eats everything.