Category: Yummy

February 19, 2015

Happy Lunar New Year: The Year of the Sheep

Happy Year of the Sheep! 😀 It’s a simple lunch for the preschool kiddo today 🙂 She wanted in on the fun. I thought a smaller Lunchbot box might be appropriate, since this one eats like a bird! Gung hay fat choy!

In this lunch:

Main Two mini peanut butter sandwiches
Sides Part of a banana carved with the year, a nut mix with yogurt covered almonds, and a couple of chocolate coins.
Also included but not pictured Probiotic strawberry smoothie

Today I used:

Share on Tumblr

February 12, 2015

One in a Minion Valentine’s Day Bento

Eventually the time comes when every bento-er must make a minion lunch! For me today is that day. I’ve been meaning to make a minion lunch for a while now, but when I saw a “One in a Minion” Valentine’s Day card, I knew it had to become a bento theme. What’s better than a silly declaration of love, in the form of a tiny, yellow henchman? And by the way, I was totally singing “One in a Minion” ala Boston More than a Feeling-style.

Main A PB&J sandwich with a piece of cheddar on top. Sounds a bit icky, but I attached it with peanut butter. My kiddo is happy to lick it off, lol. The way I made the main minion:

I cut a smile out of the piece of cheddar and I use a tiny cutter that I have to make little teeth from leftover bread.
I also used some crossed to back it and heart sprinkle for his tongue.
I also took a large Wilton eye and I drew a brown iris around the black pupil for depth.
I also took a heart sprinkle to make the eye highlight.
I used a black foodwriter marker to draw the goggle strap and a few hairs on top.
I also lined the eye with a little aluminum foil for the goggle.

Sides Minion graham crackers (with heart sprinkles on some of them — not all! I’m not crazy 😉 ), one small banana cut into two with drawn on details. The eyes are just the smaller Wilton eyes with irises and (one) eyelid drawn on. I just cut into the banana for the little hairs on top (naturally browning) and cut the mouths in the same way.
Also included but not pictured An unusually large cutie mandarin!

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

February 2, 2015

Groundhog Day Bento

Happy Groundhog Day! Today, an oversized hamster sees or does not see his shadow and eerily predicts weather patterns in the forseeable future. It might work in Pennsylvania, but it doesn’t really work in California, land of perpetual springy weather… seriously, it’s 50 degrees when I drop off the kiddos at school and by pick-up, it’s 70. So, my large rodent friend, it doesn’t work here.

BUT it makes for a fun bento lunch. So today’s lunch is a groundhog peeking out of his hole 🙂

In today’s lunch:

Main PB&J groundhog in his hole. I did this by first cutting a circle out of the bread and then cutting a bear-head from the CuteZCute cutter out of the circle. I positioned the bear head ears down so that the bear’s ears actually became the groundhog’s paws; I wanted to make them a little more defined, though, so I added small circles for the paws. I put peanut butter over the top of it all. I used the same small circles for his jowls, two mini-chocolate chips for his nose, a little bread for his teeth, and a teardrop shaped mini-cutter for his ears. His eyes were store-bought candy eyes.
Sides Mandarin orange flower with a blueberry middle; huge red grapes with butterfly/flower picks for spring.
Also included but not pictured Yogurt and a banana.

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

February 2, 2015

Super (Watermelon) Bowl

Congrats, Pats!

Once again, it was Super Bowl! I’ll be completely honest again: I am not a football fan… BUT I am a fan of Super Bowl parties. Full-family get-togethers with some of my favorite families, including jumpy houses that will tire the kiddos out (and a frozen slushy margarita machine?!). Yes, please!

Once again, a potluck watermelon to the rescue. This year, I had a whole idea in mind that included the idea of a pigskin, but yeah, that did NOT work out. I even started to make it a tutorial but alas, big fail made me re-evaluate the design and do over the other 3/4 of the watermelon for a more traditional design.

Originally, it was just the football but then it looked so eh, that I decided to carve out the team logos as embellishments. If I had had more time, I think I would’ve reworked the design to have different levels. However I came up with this in a pinch.

I know it looks like the carvings took longer than anything, but really it was minimum effort, maximum impact—using the right tools, it was much easier than it looks. Instead, what took forever and a half was the watermelon football (there’s no tool that I know of that makes a football shaped watermelon!). It is REALLY difficult to get a proper football shape… very few wrong cuts can totally change the look of it. Also… um, I completely forgot (in my football shape fervor) to leave the white parts of the watermelon to make the white parts of the football (oops!) so I took the rind and cut it up in strips and improvised (attaching the rind with toothpicks). Lots of improvisation on this one!

In this watermelon, I used:

Share on Tumblr

January 27, 2015

Amazing Women Series: Frida Kahlo Bento

This week’s Amazing Woman is Frida Kahlo. My kiddo loves art and I wanted her to know an artist in her own right who was quite prolific in her lifetime. She had several adversities to overcome (childhood polio, problems with her leg, etc.) and she expressed herself through art by examining herself and creating tens of self-portraits. Frida had a strong opinion and voice at a time when women were not given much credit. She had beliefs and ideas and stood up for her ideals, so in that way, an interesting person to learn about. So far, she’s been my favorite to paint in the series because she has so many visuals to pull from.

Unfortunately, rushing around this morning, I forgot to add a note about her, but we’ll be talking more about Frida Kahlo when we read the book, Who Was Frida Kahlo?

In this lunch:

Main PB&J with a re-creation of self-portrait of Frida painted with food dye on mozzarella cheese. Around the sandwich, I put a “frame” of trail mix.
Sides Mandarin oranges with wafer flowers and Frida’s spider monkey, Fulang-Chang, done in a kiwi.
Also included but not pictured Yogurt.

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

January 20, 2015

Amazing Women Series: Coretta Scott King Bento

For this week’s Amazing Woman, I chose Coretta Scott King. Yesterday being MLK day, I thought Coretta was an appropriate choice, as without her, there would be no MLK day (she is the one who lobbied and won national holiday recognition for her husband). Also, Coretta was a leader and an activist in her own right and not just in reference to her husband. She did a world of good and I thought she was an amazing woman for the kiddo to learn about.

In today’s lunch, I put in a note about Coretta Scott King:

Coretta Scott King was a person who fought for all people to be treated equally. When she was young, she went to college to study music and then she became involved in peacefully protesting against those who wanted to separate people by the color of their skin. She married Martin Luther King, Jr. and with him, she changed the world we live in.

I’m still looking around to find a good book to continue the conversation with the kiddo about this amazing woman (so if you know one, put it in the comments, please!)

In this lunch:

Main PB&J with a portrait of Mrs. King in edible dough (this is a very thin piece) painted with food dye. It’s not visible here, but I have some luster dust in my decorating cabinet, so I put a tiny bit on her pearls for a bit of shine/contrast.
Sides Blueberries with mozarella music notes (to reference her music studies); a clementine with a peace sign written in Sharpie.
Also included but not pictured Yogurt and another clementine for an extra at snack time.

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

January 15, 2015

Amazing Women Series: Sacagawea Bento

For our second week of the Amazing Women series, I chose one of the most interesting of native women: Sacagawea (with a hard “g,” apparently). A girl, really, because she was only sixteen when she joined the Lewis and Clark AND a pretty kick-butt girl because she had a baby in the midst of the journey. In most lore, she is said to have lead the party but through a little research, I found that while she did lead them at times, she was mostly a skilled negotiator with tribes they encountered along their exploration, a good communicator having spoken several different languages, and a knowledgeable naturalist that could provide the party with wild plants that were edible or medicinal. She had a short life (25 when she died) but she had a great influence on American history.

This week’s book? Who Was Sacagawea?

In this lunch:

Main A cream cheese sandwich topped with a piece of mozzarella painted with her portrait (loosely based on her $1 coin) painted with food dye
Sides Goldfish (representing the fish-heavy culture of the Shoshone people, to which Sacagawea belonged) and an orange with wing food picks (as her name translates into “bird woman”)
Also included but not pictured Yogurt

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

January 11, 2015

The Chicken Cake

So my husband took up a hobby, errr, obsession this past year. He became a (sub)urban farmer. He’s actually always been a farmer at heart (having grown up on a farm) but this year he took it to the next level and volunteered to take care of some chicks temporarily while they were old enough to go to a friend’s flock. Well, temporarily became permanently as he cared for his chickens. Their names were “Toasted Marshmallow” and “Salt and Pepper” when we got them, but I re-named them Red and Crazy Eyes (ala Orange is the New Black). I’m not terribly fond of chickens in real form (although they’re quite the egg-layers), but I am in edible dough form. So… a Chicken Cake!

I’m not going to claim to have made this cake though. Seriously, the day was ultra-super-packed with things we had to do (the night before as well), so I bought this tiny cake (couldn’t have been more than a 6 incher) which was blank on top (except for the cake dust on the sides) and put my edible animals (and eggs/nest), since they were fairly quick to make (one episode of a House re-run to make all of the stuff on this cake). The letters I made with fondant. This buying of cake and decorating it in the way that I want is what I call the Middle Party Way. Some may call it a cop-out, but I call it making it work 😉

For this cake, I used:

Share on Tumblr

January 7, 2015

Amazing Women Series: Marie Curie Bento

Kickin’ off the new year with a girl empowering bento! My kiddo has gone into full-on science mode lately. We are in the middle of science fair and its her favorite subject. So to kick off my Amazing Women series with a Marie Curie bento!

Admittedly, thinking up stuff for this bento was a little hard. I did a little research on Marie Curie and she’s a hard person to do in a bread portrait! But then I figured out the wonders of painting her on the bread (with food dye and a brush!). It took a little time (about 15 minutes for the portrait), but it was a fun little project after the kiddos have gone to bed. Also, how do you explain the discovery of periodic elements to a second grader? I decided a quick post-it note would do the explaining:

Marie Curie was a great scientist who discovered two chemicals, called Radium (RA) and Polonium (PO). She also invented a portable x-ray machine that could be taken out to where it was needed. Marie Curie won two very important prizes in science. Her help and work helped future scientists with their work for a better world.

For fun, I bought her an age-appropriate book on Marie Curie, called Who Was Marie Curie? Hopefully, we can learn more about this fascinating woman.

In today’s bento:

Main A Marie Curie PB&J! 🙂 As mentioned before, I painted her portrait with food dye and a (food safe) brush.
Sides Black and green grapes (hinting at individual molecules) and the PO and RA are made out of cheddar. A half apple with a beaker carved into it.
Also included but not pictured Yogurt

Today, I used:

Share on Tumblr

December 17, 2014

Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch Bento

I’ve been thinking about this bento for a while… I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It’s such a fun movie. My kiddos, however, are not so crazy about it. They watched the freaky live version (allowed by their dad NOT their mom) and now my middle kiddo calls it the “scary Christmas movie.” I can’t allow that! So today, to promote my love and convince the middley kiddo to watch the animated (TRUE!) version, I made her this bento yesterday for lunch.

Today we are also part of the Bento Bloggers and Friends’ Eat, Drink & Be Merry Holiday Hop! See the link below to check out the next lunch in the hop!

In this lunch:

Main PB sandwich of Cindy Lou Who with edible dough antennae 😉 You can’t really see it, but I supported them with some toothpicks for presentation. The kiddo was eating at home, not at school, otherwise, I would’ve supported them some other (less fragile) way. Little bow food picks.
Sides A little Grinch made out of a green grape, a slice of banana and a strawberry (with a little bread ball pom pom on top), all skewered with a toothpick. Also, a carved apple of Max, the Grinch’s dog. The dog was a pretty intricate carve and I wish I had had a knife that made more slender cuts, but oh well. One thing that I advise when making a more intricate design on an apple is to draw it out with edible marker and then cut along those lines. MUCH easier than eyeing it.
Also included but not pictured Graham cracker bunnies, peanuts

Hop on over to the next blog on our Holiday Hop!

Share on Tumblr