Roooaar! The Dinosaurs are here!

Today I was issued a challenge....well, I don't think the teacher's realized it, but they sent home a challenge for me! In Lynden's monthly newsletter they let the parents know what they will be studying and learning about this month......DINOSAURS.  Perfect!! Now, how will I pull off a Dinosaur Bento box, with no dinosaur anything in my house?.......How will I do this? with a little dash of fun and a sprig of creativeness of course!

First I started off by (hold your breathe for the geek in me coming out) tracing how big my slices of bread were on a blank piece of paper!  I then continued on to draw out a dinosaur (to the best of my abilities anyway) on the paper.  I cut it out as a stencil and then went to work on cutting my bread, meat and cheese to match......voila, just that easy and we have a sandwich!

A dinosaur has to have trees of course, so add in the snap peas with the tree holder picks I have.  Then with some creative searching online, I found another cute idea.....A dinosaur mama and her little blue dino egg of course! I boiled the eggs then while still hot I cracked the shell and then put it in food coloring for a bit (could have stayed in there longer though, the coloring on the egg is really faint, but it leaks through where the shell is cracked and makes a cute little cracking pattern on the egg).  A dinosaur mama and her little blue dino egg of course! This is too fun and really coming together easily (at first I was kicking myself for not buying the dinosaur cutter I saw in the store about a week ago!)

For her first nutrition break box I put in a few mixed veggies (carrots, snap peas, red peppers and cucumbers), a few blueberries and the banana-chocolate chip loaves she helped me make the other night (recipe below).

So here you have it...Bento-a-la-dinosaur:

Here's to her learning all about the dinosaur land this month!  Thought I might as well kick it off with some fun for her (and her class I am sure, as they laugh at how crazy I am).

Banana Bread

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 sugar (or any sugar substitute of your choice)

2/3 cup margarine (I used coconut oil substituted 1:1 instead)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup mashed bananas (about 3-4 bananas)

2/3 cup sour milk (put a bit of vinegar into your regular milk to sour it a bit)

- Cream sugar, marg/coconut oil, eggs and vanilla together in one bowl

-  Mix your flour, soda, salt and sugar into another bowl.

- Add bananas to the wet ingredients and mix well.

- Add dry ingredients alternately with sour milk until well blended

- Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes for large loaf, 25 minutes for muffins, and 35 minutes for mini loaves

- use toothpick to check that center's are cooked completely through

* you can add yummy nuts or chocolate chips in the mix before you bake, or sprinkle just on top instead, and I also sprinkle cinnamon on the top before baking too, YUM!

ENJOY!

Twas the week before Christmas!

With school coming to a close tomorrow I thought I would post our fun week of Christmas Bento Boxes from this past week.  Perhaps you might gain some inspiration and prepare some fun meals over the holiday break to surprise your little ones (or big ones!).

Frosty: Mixed veggies with dip, snowman sandwich with cheese scarf and of course some marshmallow snowballs, white cheddar "snowballs" popcorn, crackers with meat and cheese

Jack the Elf: green grapes with raspberries, red and green goldfish, cranberries, Babybel cheese, starred cucumbers, and an elf sandwich

Oh Christmas Tree: mixed veggies with dip, cottage cheese with cucumber and red pepper holly, raspberries, bits and bites, Babybel cheese, our cute Rudolph rice krispy treat, and a Christmas tree sandwich.  (Oddly enough, this lunch box came back cleaned right out, except the rice krispy!!! she only ate the nose off it and left the rest....love that she loves healthy food instead!)

Winter Wonderland: carrots and dip, snowflake sandwich with extra flakes (edible cupcake toppers are the little flakes), sliced apples in lemon water to keep from spoiling, Babybel cheese, and white cheddar popcorn snowballs

Santa? or a Helper?: mixed veggies, Babybel Cheese, cute bear sandwich, red and green goldfish, reindeer rice krispy snack, mixed fruit

I hope this gives a bit of inspiration for some fun lunches to come over the holiday break!  ENJOY!

Reindeer Anyone?

Just wanted to share a super cute and EASY treat you can make and put in lunches or for school treats for the class!

Just need to make rice krispies (or even easier, buy a box of pre-made ones), and have a bit of melting chocolate, and some smarties...

Santa's Newest helpers!

Great idea from Meet The Dubiens

You could also get very fancy and use a gingerbread man cookie cutter flipped upside down like these cookies use

Have fun with it!

Waste not, want not....

One of the biggest questions that I got when I first started posting about Bento Boxes was, "seems like a lot of waste, how much food gets wasted when you are making the lunches?"

This lead me to documenting the waste for a week.  Its surprising but there isn't a lot at all, so there is no worries about much waste.  The largest waste you will see is bread.  With the sandwiches being cut and the shape of the bread, there is quite a bit of bread that goes daily, but I use that for another use.  I take the leftover bread, cut it into little chunks, and freeze until I have a full bag.  Then I put the waste to good use instead of the garbage!  I turn them into yummy homemade croutons for us!  Voila, reused nicely!

The little bits of other waste is basically just from cleaning out fruit or veggies and it is normal waste you would have whether you cut shapes into your lunches or not.  That waste I throw into my composter and use to grow my veggies in the summer, YUM YUM!  Or the little bits of vaggies (like when I cut a flower out of cucumber slices), I have for a nice crunchy night time snack :D  If there is leftover meat or anything, I will roll it up and put a cute little character pick into it like the character is rolling the meat down the road, more fun of course!

So, here is the lunch and waste I had for this week....

  

- Day 1:  Swiss Cheese crackers, yogurt covered craisins, some rolled up skewers of meat and cheese, choc chip cookie, veggies, and mixed fruit.

Waste: tried rolling the bologna but the pick ripped through it and it made it too hard to use it unfortunately

- Day 2: Frog bologna sandwich, used leftover meat as a meat and cheese skewer, cucumbers with the outside thrown in for a reverse fun design, cookie wafers, and mixed fruit.

Waste: Just cucumber peels, a little bit of meat, and of course the breadcrumbs ready to be frozen and used later! 

- Day 3: Teddy Bear sandwich with red pepper nose, leftover meat rolled up, babybel cheese, cheesies, mixed veggies and mixed fruit.

Waste: little bit of meat, veggie leftovers from cleaning them out, and then croutons to be :D

- Day 4: Homemade blueberry pancakes, mixed veggies with ranch dip, cookie, cheese string cute up and half a pear.

Waste: half a pear was used in the lunch, but then I ate the other half as my snack....then just bits of the blueberry pancake I trimmed off to make it nice looking

So there you have it...not a lot of waste if you really take a look.  Sure, some days might make a bit more waste, but this is a pretty typical week from bento lunch making...not too bad if you ask me :D  A good trade off for a fun lunch to eat!

You guys surprised at the waste amount?  Convinced yet to do your own Bentos?

Playing Catch up Part 2.....

In my attempt to "catch up" the blog, I just wanted to share a few more Bento Boxes I have packed this year, prior to this blog...

This was my very first Bento box, before I bought anything, and just using what I had around the house for food and baking tools :D  My mom was here visiting from California and thought I was nuts as I giggled away the whole time in the kitchen.  She just about died when she saw what I had made....

And a few more random creations....

 

Loved using shredded carrots for something bite size, fun, and of course for crazy hair!  I also like throwing in random things to surprise her like the frog!

 

Boiled eggs I swear are the worst for me!  I have SUCH a hard time peeling them...I need help!  I loose half the egg while peeling it seems but, I will persevere and keep practicing!  I have been told the key is to put some baking soda.  I tried that the last time and it did seem to get better, but still not perfect (guess this is not a good time to be a perfectionist!)  Love using Jello jigglers in lunches too

Jello Jigglers

-Prepare jello just as directed on package, but add (when you are dissolving the jello powder in hot water) 1 pkg of Knox Gelatin (found right with jello at grocery store) for small jello box, or 2 pkgs with the large jello boxes.  This makes it last and not turn into goo in the lunch while it waits to be eaten.

 

Was fun trying out my egg moulds, this one was a rabbit and I think she was a little surprised to see me alter even her eggs haha.

 

Fruit leathers are a cute and easy way to add details to something (like the puppy's face).  And how about that cute little ladybug? Love it!

Hope this gives you guys a few more ideas and some inspiration along your path!

What are your go-to ideas? or food?  Have you perfected the perfect boiled egg?

Bento Supplies Give-Away Alert!

Anyone who is interested in starting Bento-ing, or who wants some more supplies should head over to this contest and enter to win some great products for Bento Boxes!

Holiday's Gift Giveaway
3 Prizes to be won!


Good luck!

Bento for sick days too!

Well, tis the season and it seems like all are being affected by the wonderful winter colds.  My lil munchkin was out of commission for 5 days, and then another 2-3 days she was ok to go to school but still not 100%.

A few days were spent on the couch watching some good classic Christmas movies, temp being taken every couple hours, and not much food being consumed......but, there is always room for a bento box to bring the spirits up of your child.  I had packed this lunch the night before hoping that she would be ok to go to school, but once we got her up in the morning we knew it wasn't a school day.  So, instead she got to open and eat her special Bento Box at home, and mom got to see the reaction for once!

Nothing says wonderful like seeing the smile on your lil munchkin's face when she opens up her lunch to find NEMO :D

    

Raspberries, blueberries and some great vitamin C mandarin oranges, Jicama cubes, BabyBel cheese, Nemo with ham inside and cheddar on open face, with grape bubbles below, cucumers and cheddar cheese rice crackers

Hopefully everyone in your house is avoiding the winter cold!