March 22, 2013

A Kiss-and-Make-Up Bento

I must admit, yesterday was a sort of tense day in the house. I had to work in my office and my husband was taking care of our kiddos. The Preschool Kiddo was just coming off of being sick and was extra super clingy. The Baby Kiddo is, well, a baby — although he will sit by himself pretty relaxed, he still needs to be held and tended sometimes, which is difficult when the other one is stuck to you like glue. My sweet husband did tend to them both though (plus got a couple of important house tasks done) and was doing a pretty good job. This situation wears down even the most patient of parents, though; and add a third child — well, soon you have a screaming baby, a tantrumy Preschooler and a Kindergarten Kiddo with hurt feelings. I wish I could say that when I got off work I was patient and helpful, but honestly, I was just thinking I needed to finish some paperwork to finish my job and then log onto work again to answer some questions. And by the time I got off work it was dinner time, Kiddos were hungry, tired, and crazy — I was grumpy I couldn’t get my work done, they were wound-up, husband was tired… well, short tempers all around. I won’t lie. There was yelling. There were frustrated “ARGHs.” There were unkind words from all parties involved, to all parties involved.

In the end, it was one of those days.

At bed time, Kindergarten Kiddo confided in her dad that she felt we were all being mean to her last night. And when he told me, I felt rotten. I didn’t want to be mean. I didn’t want her to feel that people were being mean to her in her own home. I wanted to say I was sorry but when he told me, we were two hours past bedtime.

I felt I needed to make amends. Right that minute.

So I made a Kiss-and-Make-Up Bento — very late at night, since I couldn’t sleep. It looks like a Valentine’s Day bento with all the hearts and love, but really that’s all I wanted to give her. Hearts and love. We did make up this morning with hugs, and I showed her the bento I made last night. And today there were soft whispers (so as to not wake the baby!) There were walk by kisses. There were gentle words.

And a happy kiddo and a slightly sleep-deprived but happier mom.

Sandwich PB&J stamped with a *heart* you sandwich stamp I got from Target’s Dollar Spot
Sides Strawberry cut into a heart; apples cut into hearts; craisins skewered on heart food picks.

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March 21, 2013

The Second Day of Spring Bento

Yesterday was the first day of spring but I never do bentos on Wednesdays, so today I made a spring flower bento. I’ve made a few before and will certainly make more– flowers are just so versatile!

And the details:

Sandwich PB&J as always. I’m trying to get out of this rut, I SWEAR! I try other stuff but we always go back to this because it is requested… also, it’s the only thing that isn’t constantly sent back uneaten. Maybe I should just come to terms? LOL. The flower middle is a cantaloupe ball on top of a pink flower food divider.
Sides Under the green grape flower is kiwi and a cantaloupe ball. Also, on top of the yellow flower food divider, another tiny cantaloupe ball. One of the little containers has pistachios in it and the other, yogurt covered raisins.

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March 17, 2013

Pancake Art: Leprechauns and Hearts

I have a lot to learn about pancake art… it really is an art! You need the right tools, the right temperature, the right consistency. Alas I will never be a pancake artist! Not for not wanting to, but because after much study (ie, youtube tutorials and several craft blogs), gathering the right tools and all that stuff, I made pancake leprechauns for St. Patrick’s Day breakfast. There was much ooohing and ahhing from the kiddos. However, it wasn’t the awesomesauceness of the illustrations, nor the care it took to brown certain parts of the pancakes and not the others, or… oh forget it. They oohed and ahhed over the leprechaun’s eyes.

They were chocolate chips.

Alas 2 chocolate chips and three bites later, the smaller kiddo proclaimed she did not like pancakes and the older one did not like (REAL CANADIAN BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN BROWN) maple syrup.

Blasphemy.

This heart I just made for myself. To eat by myself after ushering the kids outside to play and putting the littlest one to nap. And I ate it alone, and happy, WITH MAPLE SYRUP.

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March 15, 2013

Leprechaun bento with a Rainbow side

In keeping with the St. Patrick’s day theme, today’s bento is an Elmo leprechaun. A couple of weeks ago, the kiddo and I were shopping and found an Elmo cutter at the supermarket. Ever so caring, she thought her sister would love an Elmo sandwich and begged me to buy it. So here I am, trying to get some work out of that Elmo cutter! I’m also making use of a Christmas present from my cousin-in-law: a mustache cutter! I love this mustache cutter– so fun.

Sandwich PB&Jam as usual. The eyes have (dried) blueberry pupils and a mellowcreme pumpkin reshaped nose. The mustasche is the crust end of the sandwich.
Sides Green Grapes and kiwi cut into shamrocks; in the additional container, I put strawberries, clementines, green grapes and dried blueberries.

Today I used:

St Patricks Day Theme Food - Fun Bento Lunch

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March 14, 2013

Three days to St. Patrick’s Day Bento

With three days until St. Patty’s, I thought a bento to commemorate was in order! In the full sized Steeltainer container, the Kindergarten Kiddo got a shamrock (PB&J) sandwich along with a couple of little treats — some gold coins and a third of a rainbow sour belt! Despite the little bits of candy making up some of this bento, most of her lunches are fairly healthy. For sides today, she had a stick of fresh mozarella and a little bowl of green grapes.

My Preschooler Kiddo often talks about how I only make “pretty lunches” for her sister and it’s true; Preschool Kiddo gets her lunch from the preschool, so there is no need to pack a lunch for her. I think that makes her feel left out so since she doesn’t have school today, I packed her this extra little bento (in the snack size Steeltainer ) with my shamrock scraps.

On to the details!

Sandwich PB& Jam as usual. I’ve been trying to include other types of non-sandwich lunches on non-bento days and sometimes they get eaten and sometimes not… still experimenting. To build the four-leaf clover, I just cut hearts up and gave them a smaller heart-shaped “window.” The peanut butter has a little green food coloring and the jam is on the inside part of the window part of the sandwich, so that it doesn’t show through. Nesting heart cutters were perfect for this! The little four leaf clover was made of my window scraps.

Sides In the large bento, a sandwich ball wrapped with a Rainbow Sour Belt and 3 chocolate coins (the funny thing about these coins is that they’re actually not just generic coins but in fact they’re Euros! That cracks me up.) Not pictured in the large bento are the extra green grapes and the stick of fresh mozarella that I put in her lunch as well.

In the small bento, a cutie orange broken up into the classic orange flower, with a green grape middle.

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March 8, 2013

…And Ferb!

To every Phineas, there is a Ferb! Kinda stoked that they came together back to back!

Sandwich As usual, a PB&Jam sandwich; eyes are candy melts with black circle sprinkles; hair is carrot greens (we get lots in our CSA box!)
Sides Craisins topped with a marshmallow British flag — Ferb’s British, so it seemed like a good side! Plus, I’m pretty sure a marshmallow treat (colored with edible markers) will be well received at lunch

My sketch:

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March 7, 2013

Phineas and Perry!

I’ve been wanting to do a Phineas and Ferb bento for a while now, since my kiddos are big fans of P&F. For this one, I tackled Phineas and Perry the platypus.

For this bento, I did a little experiment and found out you can actually microwave a candy corn pumpkin and it becomes pliable enough to shape into a platypus beak! Just a little tip — don’t overheat the candy because it becomes MOLTEN CANDY LAVA inside and will tear the top three layers of your fingertips off as soon as you try to touch it. I’m amazed I still have fingerprints. Apparently, the difference between clay-like candy corn and Mt. St. Candy Corn Pumpkin is merely seconds. The first (and most painful) time I microwaved it, I did it for 10 seconds. Yeouch! The second time I did it for 5 and it was still too hard. Third time was a charm at 7 seconds and was much easier to handle at that point being a little hotter than warm and not fire-pits-of-Hell hot. Microwave times may vary, though, according to your microwave.

Sandwich Back to PB& Jam (Peach this time!) on whole wheat. Unfortunately, my grilled cheese Dr. Seuss was a bust for the kiddo. She just didn’t like cold grilled cheese. I don’t blame her. Hair is cheddar cheese (enhanced with some food marker); eyes are two white melting wafers with blue mini-m&ms.
Side Dried blueberries with shaped white melting wafers for the eyes (topped with brown mini M&Ms) and a re-shaped candy corn pumpkin for the beak 😉

I also thought it would be fun to show you the sketches I make to plan out my bentos (sorry for the funky colors, it’s a quick phone shot).

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March 1, 2013

Dr. Seuss’s Birthday is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss’s birthday and we wanted to commemorate with a Fish (grilled cheese) sandwich! Fish is my favorite character from the Cat in the Hat. Honestly, there were a few more things I wanted to do but we ran out of time. I spent too much time trying to get the fish’s eye right, I think. It’s ok though because I call it a subtle hint of Seuss 😉

Sandwich Woo hoo! We’re off the PB&J and today it was grilled cheese! The fish I made with a template from a print out used on sliced cheese. The eye was a flattened out piece of Marshmallow Bit(s). The fish was outlined and drawn in edible markers, as was the goldfish bowl.
Sides Fuji apples and (not pictured) a mandarin.

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February 28, 2013

A Hot Air Balloon Ride

A quick bento today because it’s made up of some simple stuff — an orange, a sandwich, and some funny people food picks.

Sandwich PB&Jam with a fruit leather heart; air balloon ropes made of Rips Whips.
Sides Mandarin orange from my aunt’s MIL’s backyard (they are tiny!) I also added an extra small container of more oranges and some grapes to this (but not pictured)

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February 26, 2013

Sandwich Sushi, Take 2

I don’t usually do bentos on Tuesdays anymore, but I had a request for a sushi bento (either with real sushi or sandwich sushi, the kiddo left it up to me) and since I didn’t have real sushi stuff on hand, I went ahead and did sandwich sushi. I’ve made a sandwich sushi lunch for her before but this time I varied it a little bit by covering the “california rolls” in natural fruit roll ups. There was a specific request for “ebi nigiri” too, so I got a chance to put them in too!

Sandwich(es) California rolls are made in the same way that sandwich cupcakes are made and then covered with fruit roll ups (natural variety) as skin. The pink and green filling inside is made out of a pink and green sunflower seed. The ebi nigiri is made out of PB&Jam sandwiches topped with orange slices and held together with fruit roll up. The tails are food picks.
Side Today’s side is just a little green tea jelly candy — my cousin gifted us a beautiful box of gorgeous Japanese candy and this was in the box and happened to look like wasabi. Not pictured, I also put in some fresh pears in her lunchbox as she has declared she loves pears 🙂

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