Day 55- You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man....

Peanut is reading the Gingerbread man in kindy right now so that inspired this lunch with brocolli and cauliflour tree (ornaments attached with ranch dressing) on a bed of lettuce (also attached with ranch) and gingerbread men sandwiches (the big one is jelly and cream cheese (no ranch nearby) and the little one is ham and cheese with candy cane and bell cut outs and strawberry angel.

Day 54- Fun Yogurt etc

Yogurt with small "fruity pebbles dessert topping" (can't be ALL healthy ALL the time! Kashi breakfast bar cut up with strawberries and oranges, sugar snap peas and carrot sides.

End of Year Gift for the Teachers....

Seems like we have soooo many...Let's see we have the woman who cares for both Bear ft and Peanut on breaks when I can't, the kindy "home room teacher", the specials teachers for art, PE and Music as well as the math teacher and then there is the front office lady who also helps lunch and helps with car pool who Peanut just "loves"....What to do? Bought some cool cards with inserts and on one side Peanut signed her name (and Bears for the daycare teacher), and she also cut out and pasted on pictures which she picked out...I wrote this saying down on each that always makes me tear up, and included fun matchy gift cards for the main teachers (kindy, math and day care) and just the cards with pics for the rest... We had fun...

Day 53- Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Left Overs

Home made italian sausage spaghetti sauce with angel hair pasta (apparently they now make this stuff with added protein which DH picked up by accident?), steamed green beans with tumeric and butter, orange slices with raspberries and wheat roll side.

Day 56- Holiday Spirit

Rice noodles with crab, peas and carrots and nori "tree" on lettuce...Home made blender Carrot salad w/raisins and some extra cherry filling from a pie I made for a "treat"...

Day 52- Mini Sliders

Mini sliders on wheat bun with cheese, with fresh tomato and lettuce slices, raspberries, cookies and a side of ketchup.

Day 51- Quick lettuce wrap

Ham and cheese wrapped with lettuce secured with left over birthday "pick" (from the BDAY cake-I'm the person who takes those home and rinses them off), with dried banana slices, oyster crackers, brocolli, letter animal cookies and a side of ranch dressing.

Day 50- Shrimp cocktail

Cooked cooled shrimp on lettuce with chedder cheese "ring" side, wheat thins, strawberries, snow peas and carrot sticks with a few dried craisins for color.

Day 49- Mice

Peanut has been begging for this lunch forever! She really likes the little mouse idea. So we made it....Unfortunately...ahe said she dropped the whole thing! Poor baby! The lunch ladies gave her a hot lunch though... Mac and cheese cupcakes (made previously and defrosted) with snap peas, carrots, strawberries and a ham and cheese mouse with banan, grapes and bunny grahams for snack.

Day 48- Bears

Boiled egg colored in beet juice, cuke salad with dill and beets, Rice and Nori bear, grapes and soy sauce.

Day 47- Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs with creamed spinach and star shaped beets and dried apricots.

Day 46- Breaded prawns with rice noodles

Breaded prawns (dipped in egg and mayo, rolled with bread crumbs, fresh parsley and dill) on rice noodles with cheese and cuke flowers with left over pumpkin pie and grapes.

Day 45- Pinwheel Sandwiches

Cream cheese and more of that home made strawberry jam with grapes, carrots and cukes for lunch. Grapes, celery and carrots with Nutella dip for snack.

Day 44- Macaroni and Cheese Please!

I made a batch of Mac and Cheese "muffin" this weekend. Yum! These freeze great for lunches and taste good cool.

Day 43- Breakfast for Lunch-Butterfly Pancakes

I tend to get real creative with dinner and Monday's lunch on Sunday evenings and typically use a lot of leftovers from dinner and Sunday breakfast fixings. This lunch is blueberry pancakes cut with a butterfly cookie cutter, fresh berries cut into flower shapes by peanut, omelette spinach and swiss cheese rolls (omelet made thin with waterand just cooked on bottom of pan until set, and asparagus wrapped with brocolli with a tiny container of syrup.

Day 42- Rolled up turkey and cheese with wheat thins and ranch dip

with monkey pick

Day 41- It's a Dog Eat Dog World

Sunflower butter and apricot preserve sandwich on sliced persimmon with black berries and corn.

Day 40- Jazz it up Orange Chicken

No school on Monday due to teacher planning day (How many of these per year can we possibly have!?). Bear turned 2 years old instead so we had a great time together at home and had a wonderful family party with cake! Yum! Then I was sick with the flu all day Tuesday . Luckily Peanut had lunch at school on Wednesday. Orange chicken for dinner Wednesday night and for lunch later today (Thursday). Not very inspired today so here above is the Bear's cake and lunch,  before jazz and after.....Left-over orange chicken on rice with steamed brocolli, and plum slices with blue berries. With sugar free vanilla pudding with "sprinkles" for a treat.

Day 39- Puzzle Time

Turkey ham and avocado sandwich with cheese pizzle, carrots and tomatos and blueberries. Home-made blueberry scone and  fresh blueberries for snack.

Day 38- Fairy tale mushrooms

Tuesday we had lunch at school and yesterday was a snow day! 12 inches out here. We had a blast at home! For Thursday lunch, these guys were just too cute not to try one time. We made the bodies out of mozzarella cheeze slices cut with a juice glass and then angled with and botter knife and then traced the same on slices of salami which I used a drinking straw to "polka dot". Used 4 "dots" for cheeks and Peanut cut the eyes out of Nori using a punch. We also cut up strawberries and canned "baby corn" with black olives, and served on a bed of rice noodles left over from dinner.

Yay snow day!

Day 37- Muffin Tin Monday

Inspiration from Muffin Tin Monday Blog which doesn't do bento, but is none the less inspirational if a little bit too much for my small time eater:) (http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/search/label/Muffin%20Tin%20Monday). We made blueberry muffins over the weekend. For lunch today I threw those in a four square box with some  vanilla yogurt mixed with peach and nutmeg, some carrot and vertical sliced cukes and kiwi. Twizzler from Halloween to eat as treat "after everything else"...

Day 36- A Ghoulish Feat

Ham and butter on wheat shaped like a ghoul with cheese and cherry tomato pumpkins, orange cauliflower clouds oranges and peach gelatin (home made with fruit juice and knox gelatin-this was a huge hit). The ghost was apparently a big hit at school with Peanut's friends.

Day 35- Yogurt and Other Healthy Stuff

Every day this week seems like Peanut has been coming home with nearly full bento boxes, because according to her "they had candy for snack so she wasn't hungry (go healthy school!),  so I went real simple today with a 4 part lock and lock, a breakfast bar, some organic vanilla yogurt, orange and raspberries, and cucumber slices (basically, all of her favorites), and tucked in a candy corn napkin. She ate the cucumbers and half of the orange at least!

Day 34- Ghosts and Bones

String cheese ghosties with caraway seed eyes on pumpkin shaped american cheese slices. Served with manderin oranges in their own juice, edamame and "scooby Doo" bones with dried apples for snack.

Day 33- Spiders and Pumpkins Oh My!

After an entire week off of school and my first week ever off of work without my cell phone ringing non stop! Now we are starting to get into the Halloween mood! Lunch today was meatball spiders with angel hair legs (they get mushy enough by lunch, if inserted when hot to not cause any issues), a tangelo pumpkin with nori features, carrot pumpkin "slaw" and marinara sauce on a bed of angel hair pasta and "green stuff" (cucumber skin). Grapes for snack.

Day 32- The Hungry Caterpillar

At this moment "The Hungry Caterpillar-by Eric Carle" is Bear's favorite book so this is what inspired this one. I found a dozen of these online and unfortunately the only photss I took came out somewhat washed out but I love this idea. The Peanut put "caterpillar" holes in the slice of salami, the swiss cheese, the pickle, 5 oranges etc with a hard lastic drinking straw from one of those big gulp drinks you get at theme parks and zoos. We used a cherry tomatos for Mr. Caterpillar's head and formed the body from rice on a big leaf to make him feel "all better" topped with a cherry lollipop which she was under strict instructions not to eat unless she finished everything else (if she wasn't hungry still, she could bring said lollipop home to eat for snack as a special treat).

Day 31- It's a Bugs' Life

Ants on a log for snack.... Cherry tomato lady bug with ramen legs on a bed of black olives, apples and tomato flower on little smokies and cheese slice for lunch.

Day 30- Kindy Sight Word Snack

Just because I can... I made cinnamon/sugar and butter croutons out of wheat bread spread with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and a teensy bit of sugar using cookie cutters (Peanut's job was to find all the letters that corresponded with this weeks' "sight words"-she did great!), and then I stuck them under the broiler for a few minutes and also made some garlic butter croutons for our dinner salad at the same time (pretty good- had never actually made croutons before but there is a first time for everything!). I put the croutons on top of a bed of dried craisins for today's snack...

Day 30- The Little Red Hen

This weeks' inspiration is kindy study of "The Little Red Hen". Hen made of ham with carrot and Nori accents, chick from hard boiled egg soaked in tumeric and water (made some with some Vege-Salt added for myself to snack on-yum!), on a bed of sushi rice cooked in my rice cooker with cucumber "wheat to be picked and threshed". Threshed wheat cucumber and "bread" apples (I know I am stretching it here but it is cute!:)

Day 29- PB & J- Quick Lame Lunch

Make a sandwich with sunbutter and fresh strawberry jelly on whole wheat bread, cut off the crust and cut it into little rectangles. Throw in some black olives, a cute bear pick and a barely peeled orange and good to go! (Lunch $1.00). Show up late for parent teacher conference because you got stuck late on a work conference call you just couldn't bear to hang up on though you probably should have ($150.00 est.), and then hear rave reviews from one of the moms you see standing outside about what great lunches you pack for your kid (awesome). Come home to your kindergardner hiding her face because she just knows Ms. M has told you all about her kissing that boy during recess! Priceless!

Day28- Mouse in the House/Hickory Dickory Dock

Since Peanut is now "really in to"(her words, not mine), the little animal lunches, I decided to humour her and continue on with them while also stretching my own mind in more productive ways then reminiscing about the two weeks I have left working for and helping a company I have given 8 years to for apparently no reason, transition. :) I told the Peanut that her "job" was to come home and tell me what she learned at school that day and to thus help me come up with "lunch" ideas. Today was Nursery Rhymes: Hickory Dickory Dock...The Mouse Ran up...You get the point? If you peruse bento blogs as frequently as I do, you will note that many mommy bento "artistes" might take such a theme to the point of sculpting Grandfather clocks out of mozzarella cheeze purchased in quarter pound chunks from the local chacuterie replete with Nori hands and faces blown from egg yolk suspended with sugar or some such. I admire these woman and do not think these endeavors a waste of time. In fact, I can see myself doing such a thing with only a bit more prodding. But...For the time being....I am too darn busy!

My mouse is made of plain old lunch meat (ham), cut in circles using a juice glass and the ends of two small floral cutters (a votive candle holder bottom might work as well?) with Nori features. The ears are set on two ends of a hard boiled egg (I boil these 6-8 at a time every third week or so for breakfast, lunch making and snacks), served on top of angel hair pasta with butter and fresh dill (left over from shrimp pasta dinner from last night).Sides of  cucumber/dill "salad", jello, and grapes.

Day 27- Monkey See/ Monkey Eat

This might be more aptly called the "trained monkey" bento. My colleagues and I were joking several weeks ago about the possibility of "politically bent" bentos (still an idea). Starting with the idea of sending a "donkey" bento with the name "jack" spelled out in cheese to certain members of certain departments as a "welcome lunch". I made this lunch for the peanut with no pun intended (at the time) after our nightly talking time she told me she wanted a "monkey bento" next (she helps plan these as well as make them). Since I am not exactly up to my usual game quite yet since last week's news, this box was made well after Peanut was in bed for the night ... Sandwich is sunflower (peanut free) butter, honey and banana slices, with banana tail, grape tomatos and celery stick jungle, with a pear/apple/pretzel tree for snack.

Day 26- Pot Stickers Bento

Another evening meal of you guys can have anything you want that " we have in the freezer". Potstickers it was! My entire division was laid off; all of my people and myself. Boo! Lunch was quick and made for the Peanut alone. Potstickers cold are edible per Peanut. Potstickers covered in strawberry infused organic, no sugar applesauce are icky. Note: Do not put sauces etc by themselves unseled in the 4 square Lock & Lock container. Snack was dried pears from Costco. Lucky for everyone; I pre ordered hot lunch for Peanut tomorrow!

Day 25- Peek-A-Boo Sammies

This is being posted after another really bad day, when one remembers what is truly important (family) and holds them as close as they can and then asks them to call the shots.:) The Peanut made the peek-a-boos and somewhat mangled the bread with mommy's help (my rectangles came out a little uneven after a well-deserved glass of wine). The sammies are made with butter ("we" no longer like cream cheeze and pb is off limits at kindy) and apricot and strawberry preserves. Watermelon and orange slices for desert with cucumber flower, tomato, mayo and dill salad served in the orange rind. This one was a very popular lunch.

Day 24- Caterpillar Lunch....

I got the idea for this little guy off of parenting.com, (actually before I started even making these lunches, this was one of the first places I found ideas for "cute lunches")  butI  just hadn't yet gotten the "time" to try him out. Now that I've gotten the hang of it though, I've tried my own version which required a lot less forethought and more importantly work, but he still looks cute! The original is made with mashed potato (which Peanut "will not" eat-her words not mine) and scrambled eggs with spinach from Parenting.com (http://www.parenting.com/gallery/how-to-make-a-caterpillar-bento-lunch-box). Ours was made half as small for a kindy appetite with an edamame snack, plain old scrambled eggs, and mozzarella cheese and watermelon slices addes to boost up the celery legs (to keep them from "running" around" the box during home to school transport).

Day 23-Flower Garden Bento

Today it is all about what the Peanut wants and the Peanut has only two requests: flowers and avocado. Peanut loves avocado! To keep the avocado from browning we sprinkle with Crystal Lite Lemonade (pears get soaked in this). Slice this with some of that apple smoked gouda, chedder cheese, ham, peeled pear, and kiwi and the Peanut gets to work with cutting and sneaking tastes when I am not looking. The base is sushi rice which I make in one of my  favorite kitchen appliances of all time: My Black and Decker 3-cup rice cooker (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-RC3303-3-Cup-Cooker/dp/B002CVTT52). Served with celery sticks and black olives (I buy by the can and keep in tupperware for a week or so to use for lunches, snacks and dinners, or freeze in batches in ziploc bags). Little container holds low sodium soy sauce to season the rice with. Peanut loved filling this guy up using a little suction straw deal.

Day 22- Busy Mom has a Bad Day!

Okay let's face it. We all have these days! Some days I feel like a super woman; able to juggle children, marriage, career, house-hold all in one hand. Some days I can whip together a totally inspired, made from scratch  healthy meal and lunch all before bedtime and before my work computer even cools down. And some days I just hit the freezer and throw chicken nuggets (organic of course) in the microwave for the kids, and hubby and I fend for ourselves. This is the day I have to lay off two employees. This is a day that really sucks!

Lunch is cooked chicken nuggets, watermelon and kiwi and carrots and mushroom with ranch dip. This picture taken by a mom too uninspired to dig up a scrapbook page back ground at this time, does however, showcase our super cool Lock & Lock thermos and three part container (they make all my cool tupperware style "boxes" as well, and have great deals on their website from time to time where you can get things like these thermos (plural "thermi?") for cheap for sets of 2: http://www.locknlockplace.com/servlet/-strse-template/event_happy/Page
). It also showcases the cute click open BPA free snack container I found at the Dollar Store. Love the dollar store and any dollar bins at the grocery store, Target, Micheals etc for great bento supplies BTW.

Day 21- Lunch on a Stick

I got way too many shadows in this picture, but this was a none-the-less popular lunch and also very easy. This was also fun to make with Peanut and had to keep the Bear very busy because he kept hitting us up for scraps while we assembled it. Basically just trying to use up everything fresh that needed to be used before it hit expiration (as well as some of the ham we had for dinner), stuck them all on broken down b-b-q skewers, seperated by cupcake liners cut off from the base, and voila. For the veggie course we have olives, tomatoes and mushrooms. For the protein/grain course: cut up dinner rolls, ham, and some smoked apple gouda that peanut loves even though she says she now "doesn't like cheese;" and for the fruit course: kiwi, black grapes and the last of the seasons watermelon. Wheat thin sticks (which both kids disliked BTW) and grapes for snack.

Day 20- Left Over Spaghetti Casserole Lunch

This is left-over spaghetti casserole with some fresh parmasan from last night's dinner with baked ritz, celery sticks and multi colored grapes. Very very quick and easy lunch. Peanut will eat the cooled cheeze dishes better than the hot ones for some reason?

Day 19- Homemade Kolache Lunch

I made Kolaches with sausage and chedder cheese over the weekend (recipe found online: http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-sausage-kolaches-37793) but didn't get to use left overs for lunch until today since Peanut tried lunch at school yesterday. Our school offers healthy lunches so she gets to have those once a week to give mom a break.The tomato ketchup was from Chic-Filet and the lunch was served with grape tomatos and our all time favorite food: grapes (green this time). For snack was squeezable organic, no sugar added cinnamon applesauce which I found at Walmart of all places. Peanut actually isn't a huge fan of any sauces (much to my bento dismay since there are so many cute containers for sauces available) but I threw it in there for looks more than anything else. This lunch was served in her giraffe bento:

Day 18- Bunny eggs

Hard boiled eggs are also a peanut favorite. This egg was shaped with a mold to look like a bunny face but is very difficult to see in this picture. Served with orange slices, black grapes and carrots with brocolli stems with grapes and yogurt covered pretzels for snack.

Day 17- Dogwiches

DD loves puppies. That is what inspired the dogwiches cut with juice glasses with Swiss, American and Nori features, watermelon flowers, a cuke and cherry tomato skewer and graham crackers for filler. Graham crackers and craisins in cute sandwich baggies from the Target dollar bin for snack. Dogwiches can be made with a multitude of fillings but we made ours with butter, ham and thin cuke slices and cut all three out of one sandwich/ two pieces of bread.

Day 16-Easy Cheesy

This is what you do when you have a reputation to protect and 5 minutes in which to fix lunch because you worked late. Half a banana, cheese, turkey and pita chips in a flower  cookie cutter and celery sticks with banana half and yogurt pretzles for snack!

Day 15-Chicken on a stick and Quinoa

More dinner left overs. Chicken "on a stick" (drumstick) is one of our family favorites. This was tarragon lemon garlic chicken (a wonderful recipe) which I use to make about 12 drumsticks at a time usually. Tastes great cold as well.

Day 14- A not so boring Ham and cheese sandwich

Hame and cheeze sandwiches cut out with bottom of a glass (I freeze all the bread scraps for stuffing later on and give all the meat and  veggie and fruit and cheese scraps to the kids for late afternoon snack). I cut flowers out of cucumbers and kiwi using mini flower cookie cutters and also cut some grapes into flower shapes. Most of the ingredients were already in use for the chef salad we had for dinner the prior night.