Pasta Girl with Lots of Curls
April 28, 2013
Bento & Co is running a HUGE bento making contest with a trip to Japan as the grand prize. I just couldn’t let that one slip by, so I hunted through my pics for one that fit the rules (must involve pasta). The pic isn’t great and the quality of the photo is a big part of the competition so I am not really surprised I didn’t make the cut. However, I am VERY surprised some of my bento buddies did not. So, we decided to make some lemonade out of sour grapes and post a blog hop celebrating all of our entries. Click the button at the end of this post to see more (starting Monday morning)
Pasta Girl has mixed veg pasta curls covered in my special enhanced pesto (I add pureed white beans and sauteed spinach to make it milder and sneak in extra protein and vitamins). Her face, chest and bows are made from cheese. The dandy to her left is cut out of fruit leather and swimming in yogurt hiding a bed of chopped strawberries. Yogurt covered pretzels and raisins finish off the lunch. I think she’s cute, but clearly not prize winning. Cora enjoyed her, and that’s all that matters!
OK now it’s time to hop! Go check out Yenn’s cute Hello Kitty Pasta Bento over at Bento Makes Me Happy.
Eye Heart Ewe
February 14, 2013
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope wherever you are, whomever you are with, you feel loved, today and every day.
OK now that we are done with the mushy stuff, let’s get goofy, or really, geeky. As a kid I was the goob on the playground off in a corner with a puzzle book and I still love puzzles today. Guess that explains why I’m a web developer, don’t it? Anyway, when my lovely food geek bento friends decided to do a blog hop, I immediately knew a puzzle was in order. However, it also had to make sense to four year-old Cora, so I settled on a simple classic – the eye heart ewe rebus. Too bad I didn’t have ‘berry much’ to add to the equation 🙂
Alongside my big geeky declaration of love for my best girl is a hard-boiled heart of gold egg, yogurt covered pretzels and raisins, and yet another hearty fruit salad (kiwi, pineapple and mango).
You can (and should) keep getting your nerd on by hopping on through to Oh!bento. I’m sure you are going to love Keith’s brand of geeky fun, UK style. He promised lots of fiddly bits!
XXOO, L
Giving Thanks
November 15, 2012
This is going to be short and sweet. I am oh so thankful for my family. I can’t imagine life without Cora and my hubby. So, when my blogger friends and I decided to do a Thanks bento blog hop, I knew just what I wanted to do:
Almond butter and jelly people, cheese house with fruit leather hearts and soy paper drapes, fruit hearts and plain greek yogurt with natural food colored sprinkles and fruit leather letters.
Now, follow the thankful blog hop to see what Glory is giving thanks for this year:
To make this lunch I used:
Firefly Kaylee and her Frilly Dress
November 9, 2012
I am just now recovering from the flu and fairly happily spent the duration of the bug in bed with my iPad watching the short-lived but awesome series Firefly on Netflix. The 10th anniversary special for the series airs on 11/11 (http://science.discovery.com/tv/firefly/10-anniversary) and I can’t wait! To celebrate, some of my geekier bento friends and I are having a Firefly-inspired blog hop, starting at 9am PST. I went live a little early so please check back and catch the rest of the hop!
My big challenge was making a fun lunch that would work for me as a Firefly fan and Cora, who has no idea what I’m talking about. Then, I saw the episode in which Kaylee gets to dress up in a frilly pink dress and knew I found my hook 🙂 I usually avoid the overly-girly with Cora, but every once in a while I make an exception for all too-selfish reasons. This was one of them.
I decided to capture the end scene in which Kaylee curls up on her bunk, gazing at her pretty dress (decorated with strawberries pureed and mixed in with cream cheese and a touch of natural food color) and eating treats. In this case, she is eating cream-cheese stuffed strawberries and an apple (sliced up of course!). To commemorate her beloved ship, we have melon and pineapple fireflies in the corner.
I realized that this might not be enough food so I added another layer to the sandwich. I called it a ‘hidden dress’ to Cora. She then decided the hidden dress needed to be decorated too.
Then Cora decided the dress was so pretty Kaylee needs to be wearing it. And she needs to have a face. And she needs to have hair. Hair that is blond, like her.
And there you have it – a lunch suitable for a Firefly fan AND a particular 4 year old girl. Kinda
Don’t forget to follow the Firefly to the next blog and check out Shannon’s celebration of the Firefly anniversary special. Shiny!
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
Arrrr It’s A Pirate Bunny!
September 20, 2012
Yesterday was Talk Like A Pirate Day and I participated in a HUGE hope and giveaway (see below for details and to join in – it’s not too late!) Cora was not so thrilled to get a pirate lunch. But, being Ms Independent, today she woke up wanting a pirate lunch. A pirate bunny. I got so many great ideas from yesterday’s hop that I thought I would go ahead and honor her request. I managed to whip it out in less than half an hour!
Our pirate bunny is a Wowbutter and banana sandwich with cheese and fruit leather accents. He is protecting his treasure of carrot coins and pile of kiwi coins and raspberry gems (I couldn’t find my ring picks in time. I really wanted to make raspberry rings in the treasure pile. Bummer!). In the background are strawberry pirate ships setting sail on a sea of blueberries.
Avast, Thar Be Treasure!
To celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day yesterday a bunch of my bento buddies and I are having a big blog hop and GIVEAWAY that is still open!
Every blog in the hop has a piece of the map to the bento booty treasure – a big giveaway! As you go through the hop, collect the pieces and put them in the right order to find out where to enter! You’ll probably need something to write with, because there are 39 blogs to visit, which means 39 pieces to collect! 37 of the pieces will spell the URL, and 2 bonus words will be your entries to win (yes you get 2 chances to win!). You can start with my post from yesterday, Avast Me Maties, This Pirate’s A Beauty!
To make this lunch I used:
Avast Me Maties, This Pirate’s A Beauty!
September 19, 2012
To celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day a bunch of my bento buddies and I are having a big blog hop and GIVEAWAY! After you finish ogling m’ Pirate Lassy, continue on to find a scrap of map to the Pirate Booty and head off to claim yer treasure!
Our blond Pirate Girl is a Wowbutter and jelly sandwich decorated with cheese, soy paper and fruit leather. She has a nice big sword for protectin’ her treasures – a pile of Pirate Booty, black rice with an egg skull and crossbones, and fruit coins.
The skull and crossbones are made from a quail egg pressed into a skull ice mold, then adorned with picks.
Avast, Thar Be Treasure!
Every blog in the hop has a piece of the map to the bento booty treasure – a big giveaway! As you go through the hop, collect the pieces and put them in the right order to find out where to enter! You’ll probably need something to write with, because there are 39 blogs to visit, which means 39 pieces to collect! 37 of the pieces will spell the URL, and 2 bonus words will be your entries to win (yes you get 2 chances to win!)
Arrrr Here Be The Map
And Here Be A Plan
Needin’ some help organizing yer thoughts? Print this here chart to keep yer thinkin’ straight.
And Now, Away With You!
Check out Keitha’s sea-worthy wonders at Keitha’s Chaos and collect the next piece of the map!
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:
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:
