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.

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

I hope to get a shopping guide up shortly

Our almond butter and banana kitty is giving us a quick wink before pouncing on the yummy strawberry mouse sneaking behind her (thanks Bentoriffic!). If she misses, she still has a raspberry mouse hanging around on top of buried berries topped with vanilla yogurt. Kiwi and pineapple kitties are rooting her on from a bed of yogurt covered raisins.

This cute kitty is one of the adorable characters in the CuteZCute cutter set. Want to win one of your own? Enter the CuteZCute Giveaway, open through Wednesday, February 13.

To make this lunch I used:

This winter, Cora fell in love with the Octonauts. I wanted to explore new ways to use the CuteZCute, so I decided to make Captain Barnacles, the polar bear. Since it was near Christmas, I put him in a fruit leather santa hat and gave him kiwi and pineapple snowmen to play with. I rounded out the meal with diced Quorn cutlet with a small cup of mustard for dipping.

The polar bear was made by adapting the cute panda character in the CuteZCute cutter set. Want to win one of your own? Enter the CuteZCute Giveaway, open through Wednesday, February 13.

To make this lunch I used:

In this cute lunch an impish frog eyes a tasty looking fly. Almond butter and jelly frog-wich with cheese and fruit leather embellishment, berries buried in vanilla yogurt decorated with a fruit leather and cheese fly, strawberry flowers and honeydew melon flowers with a froggie imprint, in one of the beautiful new Brights from EasyLunchBoxes

This cute frog is one of the adorable characters in the CuteZCute cutter set. Want to win one of your own? Enter the CuteZCute Giveaway, open through Wednesday, February 13.

To make this lunch I used:

This winter, the Veggie-Bento household has been under siege by a viral invasion. Actually, make that multiple viral invasions. As you’ve seen, I did not manage to post my lunches during that time, BUT I still made cute lunches . Looking back, at least 75% of those quick and easy, but CUTE, lunches were made using the CuteZCute. I love love love this set! I wake up, tired and late (at best) and have no idea what I am going to make. I reach for the CuteZcute, and the rest of the lunch just comes together. So far, I have used it on both of Cora’s staples – cheese and almond butter/jam sandwiches, with cut outs in the bread itself, cheese, fruit leather or all three. Some of my favorites are in the pic above and will get their very own posts over the next few days. And, here’s the best thing, I have just begun to scratch the surface. There are already loads of brilliant (and yummy) ideas to be found on the CuteZCute Pinterest board.

To celebrate my triumphant return to blogdom, I am honored to be hosting a giveaway – you can win your very own CuteZcute set! To win, you need to visit CuteZCute and leave a comment below telling me which character is your favorite and ‘like’ CuteZCute on Facebook. You can also get extra optional entries by showing Veggie-Bento some love and sharing this giveaway. You have until midnight EST Wednesday, Feb 13 to enter and the winner will be picked the next morning. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize by email before I pick again. Open to domestic and international entries, so UK friends go for it!

If you can’t wait that long to get your own set, or need to buy a bunch for friends (they make GREAT gifts for families with young kids) you can buy them on Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cheese sandwich with fruit leather features, raspberries in plain Greek yogurt, watermelon and pineapple fall leaves

Cream cheese and banana English muffin sandwich with fruit leather and cheese features, watermelon and kiwi fall leaves, baby carrots and hummus

To make these lunches I used:

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:

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:

Natural Food Color