Almond Butter and Jellyfish Lunch
October 22, 2012
Cora really wanted a mermaid lunch, but I don’t have a mermaid cookie cutter, and I refuse to buy one of those Playboy mudflap versions of a mermaid that I found when I originally searched for one. For now I mollified her with an under the sea lunch featuring a jellyfish, but I think I am going to have to come up with something soon!
To make this lunch I used:
Cute ‘n’ Creepy Halloween Lunches
October 16, 2012
Wow! Time is really flying – I can’t believe Halloween is almost here already! We’ve been getting into the spirit with goofy witches in the front yard, silly ghosts in the back, and lots of creepy and cute fun in Cora’s lunches. My bento blogger buddies are doing the same and we have a zillion great ideas for dressing up YOUR lunches. Make sure you click the button at the end of this post to hop on through. You don’t want to miss it!
In the first lunch, a clumsy witch has fallen into her cauldron (an almond butter and marmalade sandwich) while the pile of melon jack-o-lanterns and a veggie-juice bloody skull laugh at her. I made the skull by freezing our homemade veggie juice (beet, carrots, kale, spinach and apple) in a skull candy mold. It’s not really suitable for a school lunch, it will melt too quickly. So, I ended up stirring it into Cora’s coconut yogurt to give her a nice creepy swirl of color. I used mini food cutters to make impressions for the faces on the melon pumpkins and scored lines using a sharp knife. The cheese bats were made using a moth fondant cutter, and then trimming the bottom with a scalloped edge cutter.
The second lunch is a cheese sandwich jack-o-lantern, watermelon patch of more jack-o-lanterns, ghost potato chips, ghostly string cheese and quail egg eyeballs. The ghost and eyeballs are decorated using natural food colors. Love that stuff!
The third lunch is a last minute quickie. Seriously, I only spent 15 minutes on it from conception to finish because we got a late start this morning. The ghost is an almond butter and marmalade sandwich in front of a cheese slice house with a Babybel jack-o-lantern. The cute kiwi monster with cheese monsters was inspired by Another Lunch. In the third compartment, our clumsy witch finally climbed out of the cauldron and stumbled into a vat of coconut milk yogurt (a tardy mama’s best friend!).
Don’t forget to check out the blog hop, starting with Beth’s super fun post on A Boy & His Lunch
To make these lunches I used:
Rawr Here Come The Big Cats!
October 4, 2012
Today is World Animal Day and my bento buddies are at it again. In celebration we are having another big bento blog hop, with each lunch celebrating a different animal. So, click the button at the end of this post to check out all the wildlife (and some cute animals too!)
I selected a cheetah because I did one pre-blog last year and I’ve been itching to do another. Cora insisted that the cheetah will be lonely without a lion and a tiger to keep her company, so it evolved into a big cat lunch.
Our cheetah is a cheese sandwich with cheese and fruit leather features. I held the eyes, nose and ears on with strands of raw spaghetti. She is hanging out in a pile of cheese curls (it aint easy bein’ cheesy!)
The cheetah has a lion friend made from a hard-boiled egg with cheese, soy paper and fruit leather features.
Our watermelon tiger cubs are romping in a pile of blackberries. Yum!
To make this lunch I used:
Next up on our zoo tour is an adorable octopus by the one and only JeeJee (of AllThingsForSale and CuteZCute
Goofy Bunny
September 25, 2012
Cora was digging around in my picks and found the goofy teeth pop (thanks Kendra!). I’ve always wanted to do a sandwich with one after seeing this adorable post about bunny lip pops. So now was my chance!
Our goofy bunny is a Wowbutter sandwich with a touch of chocolate hazelnut spread and decorated with cheese, raw spaghetti and fruit leather. He has a quail egg bunny and raspberry yogurt pretzels keeping him company
The lunch is finished with watermelon bunnies and apple chunks
To make this lunch I used:
We All Scream for a Cute Lunch!
August 2, 2012
Today is Ice Cream Sandwich Day, so how can I possibly resist making an ice cream shaped sandwich (or two)?
Ice cream shaped almond butter and jelly sandwiches, decorated with fruit leather scoops.
The lunch is finished with mini scoops of melon and a hard-boiled egg “ice cream’ alamoding a cake slice silicone cup filled with cheese stick pieces. Ya, it’s a bit of a reach, but I’m only half unpacked, so I decided to go with it!
To make this lunch I used:
Tingaling and the Glump
July 23, 2012
Cora is so excited we just earned a new Moshling, Tingaling, the lucky cat. I have to admit, this one is a real cutie so I was looking forward to this lunch as much as she was!
Tingaling is a cheese sandwich with fruit leather and soy paper accents. Her whiskers are uncooked spaghetti, and her ears are held in place with spaghetti as well.
Look out Tinagling, there is a Gump plum hiding in the pile of cherry lucky coins! In the other compartment are broccoli, carrots and cucumber drizzled with Ranch dressing.
To make this lunch I used:
Gallery of Vegetarian Fun Lunches
July 21, 2012
As I mentioned before, chaos is reigning in the Veggie-Bento house(s) right now. I have soooo many lunches I have made, so I thought I would share a handful in a gallery
It is safe to assume all sandwiches are cheese, berry cream cheese and banana, or almond butter, jelly and coconut butter, and sides are usually hummus, yogurt, eggs, veggies, fruit, crackers or yogurt-covered pretzels. If there is a food or technique you don’t recognize, please ask about it in the comments!
Some of these pictures were processed when I was first experimenting with watermarking my images, and some are pretty obnoxious. I apologize in advance for any blinding headache they cause!
To see a picture at full-size, click the thumbnail below. To come back, just use your browser’s back button.
To make these lunches I used:
Happy Birthday Lunch
July 10, 2012
Last week was Cora’s birthday, and she reveled in being the Special Girl on her Special Day. She asked for a birthday crown and sent me back, not once, but twice to make her birthday lunch better. We also had to do her hair over again a few times. Once my girl decides something is going to be special it better be SPECIAL!
I started with this lunch, with a cheese sandwich cake decorated with pinwheel picks, birthday candle pretzels with vegan marshmallow flames (turned yellow with natural food color) on the side and a fruit leather ‘Happy B-Day’ above. In the side compartments are berries decorated with a sparkly pick and coconut yogurt with a frozen yogurt butterfly.
Cora insisted that the candles should be *in* the cake, so I moved the pinwheels to the berries. That left a gap so I added a slice of cake silicone cup with goldfish crackers.
Round 2 was deemed better, but something was still missing – ice cream! Turns out I forgot about the ice cream picks because someone had absconded with them ages ago. Cora quickly rectified the situation and now we have the perfect birthday lunch!
For a fun finishing touch, I decorated the cover of her Easy Lunch Box with festive stickers
I owe a lot of thanks for this lunch (and for so much more) to the wonderful ladies who lunch, the Bento Bloggers and Friends. From Kendra, I learned to make the cake sandwich. She in turn learned it from Cristi. From Cristi and Keeley both I got the wonderful idea to freeze yogurt. I also stole, I mean, borrowed the idea for the pretzel candles but just cannot remember my source. If you recognize them, please leave me a comment. I really want to give due credit!
- Biting The hand birthday cake sandwich
- BentOnBetterLunches birthday cake sandwich
- BentOnBetterLunches frozen yogurt shapes
- Keeley McGuire yogurt stars
To make this lunch I used:
Celebrating Independence – Happy July 4th!
July 4, 2012
I’m not much of a fan of bombs bursting in air, but we do love independence in our house, and are so very thankful to have it! All Cora can talk about is “America’s birthday” even though HER birthday is tomorrow. (side note: I totally ordered her not to come on the 4th and right from the bat that uber-independent child tried her best to defy me. I still won out with her arriving in the wee early hours of July 5, but it was a close one!
To celebrate the day, I just had to make another lunch. This time we have a cream cheese and banana sandwich decorated with more cream cheese and berries. Alongside is a huge strawberry with the coolest tinsel food pick towering over it (I laid it on its side for transport and told Cora to prop it back up to ‘celebrate while eating her lunch’). In our slice of pie silicone cup are white yogurt covered pretzels.
The lunch is finished with pineapple and watermelon fruit stars and a hard-boiled egg kinda molded into a star (the egg was a little small for the mold).
For more 4th of July fun, visit my Fourth of July Fireworks post, then follow the blog hop linked at the end. Several amazingly talented bento bloggers joined in the fun and the lunches are so cute!
To make this lunch I used:
Fourth of July Fireworks
June 29, 2012
My super talented bento blogger friends are hopping again! Today we are getting a head start on July 4th with a Patriotic Bento Blog Hop. Make sure you click the button at the end of the post to see Cristi’s cute creation celebrating Canada. Sounds fun, eh?
Cora’s cheese sandwich is a fireworks display decorated with cheese and fruit leather. The vegan marshmallow clouds are holding adorable pinwheel cupcake picks. They really spin, Cora is going to LOVE them! I probably should have saved them for her birthday lunch next week, but I couldn’t resist!
The patriotic lunch is finished with a vanilla coconut yogurt flag (decorated with blueberries and raspberries) and pineapple and watermelon stars. I put a cling wrap layer on top of the yogurt to keep it from spilling. This lunch is pretty light on complex grains, but she eats a ton of crackers and pretzels at snack time, so I’m not worried. Now veggies is a whole ‘nother story. At least we manage to slip carrot juice and spinach into her morning smoothies!
Don’t forget to hop!
To make this lunch I used:
