A Hallowe'en lunch that almost Hallowasn't

I wasn't going to bother making Hallowe'en themed lunches. Bella & Beanstalk are having festivities in their classrooms, for which I made oatmeal pumpkin and oatmeal banana muffins, and with other parents contributing food as well, they didn't need lunches today. But then at the last minute I decided to make Pickle, whose class isn't having a party, a Hallowe'en-y peanut butter sandwich after all.

Pickle likes muffins, and I had a mini Hersehy's bar, one of his favourite treats, so I decided to use an Easy Lunchbox for it's separate sections. We're out of yogurt, but I hope having a chocolate treat will make up for that. I made him a haunted house peanut butter sandwich, using the end piece of bread for the roof, with a wee bat and ghost hovering over it. I also cut little tombstone PB sandwich bites to tuck around the chocolate bar. I wrote RIP on one with a toothpick and Hershey's syrup. He may not eat that piece - we'll see :) He snuck a peek while I was packing it and is very excited, says he can't wait until Hallowe'en lunch time! Yay!




Here are some of the muffins I'm sending to the Fall Festival parties:

Bean Sprout & Birdie's lunches are still up in the air :)

Boo!

Today's lunches were full of friendly ghosts :)

A family of mozzarella & cheddar quesadilla ghosts, with cherry fruit leather eyes. Beanstalk said that red eyes means they are evil, which made Sprout cower a little, silly sproutlet - but I assured her that cherry eyes means they are sweet. I love the baby ghost marshamllows.  I gave them Dutch chocoladehagel eyes. Bella asked for some pink ghosts so I cut some out of ham, and gave them cheese mouths.
Woooo-ooooo!

Peanut butter sandwiche spooks for Pickle, using 2 different Wilton cookie cutters. I gave them some little marshmallow ghost friends for a treat, but no chocoladehagel eyes - Pickle doesn't like sprinkles!

One peanut butter ghost sandwich in each Sassy box, plus some little cheddar cheese ones (obscuring a tot-sized handful of goldfish crackers ) and some little tomatoes speared with a green pick and some pretzels - pumpkins in the pumpkin patch? Okay,  so that's a stretch - oh well, not everything has to be something  :)

I'm submitting these lunches to the Bento of the Week meme... but just for the fun of it, they don't stand a chance to win :) Click the link to check out all the FANTASTIC Hallowe'en bentos and see why not!

Happy Diwali!

A very happy Diwali and prosperous New Year 
to all those who celebrate the Festival of Lights!

I slept in big time today and we barely made it out the door. No pics of the sproutlets' lunches, but don't worry, you're not missing anything, they were not at all artfully arranged - but they were nutritious and packed with love (heheh, nod to my fellow scary bento mommies). Oh, I do have a pic of Pickle's though, I already had his sandwich made up. It's not as colourful and intricate as the gorgeous Rangoli designs I've seen delicious sweets arranged in during Diwali, but hey, it's a peanut butter sandwich :)

I made Birdie and Sprout some cute little egg, tomato & cheese "Diwali lamps" for after preschool snack, and read to them about the Hindu holiday. They gobbled the eggs up - and they didn't eat eggs until I started making them "cute" - yay for new healthy foods! Silly Sprout said "Hey, it's like birthday candles! Is Diwali also because of my birthday?" (It's her birthday today) ☀

I Love Fall

Today is such a beautiful Fall day. The sun is shining, but the air is cool and crisp, and the colours of the turning leaves in the trees out my kitchen window are warm and cheery. And I have a Fall shaped muffin tin, yeah! I  ♥ Fall.  So I put lots of  ♥ 's and X's and O's into lunch this Muffin Tin Monday:

Gala apple hugs & hearts, cheddar hearts, carrot hearts (I cut these by hand, they came out not bad!) mozzarella hugs & kisses, spaghettios (more hugs), and heart shaped rice, that kind of fell apart when I put it in the cup, oops! 

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Pickle had a hug & kiss peanut butter sandwich with a little heart cut from the middle of the O.  Maybe I should have arranged them in the other direction, so it didn't spell "ox"... I hope he gets it!

Bella took spaghettios in her pink Thermos Funtainer, with kiss & hug shaped fruit & veggies on the side. I forgot to take a pic since when she takes a hot lunch I don't pack it until just before we leave,  so it's still nice and hot by lunch.

Muggle Munchies

My little muggles are in for a treat today! I found some little boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans among the Hallowe'en candies, oh about a month ago, and decided to buy some and stash them away for a Harry Potter themed lunch. Amazingly, they survived all this time in the same house as candy addict me! OK, so I forgot I had them :)

Ham topped with a lightning bolt chunk of cheddar cheese (Harry's scar) mini grilled cheese Sorting Hats, carrot wands (I divided a fat carrot into long sticks and whittled them - kind of fun - made lots of carrot shavings for my lunch salad), little broccoli baby mandrakes, and of course, the Bertie Bott's candy beans. Hope they don't get any bogey flavoured ones!

Pickle's peanut butter sandwiches are not what I was going for...  I tried to cut them in Harry Potter scar-like lightning bolt shapes, but couldn't do it to save my life! I don't know what my problem was... the fact that I didn't have my morning coffee, the distraction of my bickering sproutlets, my lack of artistic talent... yeah, most likely all three :) Anyways, here's what he ended up with :

The top sandwich is somewhat lightning shaped - if you're not picky - and beneath it are more failed attempts. I know my boy will still be happy with it  ♥ 

Bento Lunch #55 & Rainy Day PB, No J

Bits & bobs for my Bella today. Birdie didn't eat her ham roll-ups yesterday, so I gave them to Bella today. Since the ham was already in a Sassy box segment, I gave Bella one of her sister's Sassy boxes instead of her usual Easy Lunchbox. She thought it was cute, but "a little bit babyish for school". Noted ;)  Mandarin orange segments, celery sticks, leftover pancakes from breakfast, and cheddar cheese hearts. Think I hit all the food groups :)

We woke up to rain, which the little girls were excited about, they love an opportunity to use their Hello Kitty umbrellas. Pickle doesn't have an umbrella, but he sure does want one...  He's not getting one though, it wouldn't last a day in his possession! I know this from experience, and the early demise of several umbrellas...

Poor Pickle... I made him an umbrella PB sandwich to cheer him up - and it did :) He was very keen on the handle, and promised to bring it home - and he did :) The handle was part of a chocolate treat one of the kids received last year - I have a few of them - I washed them and saved them thinking they might be useful for something some day (Sailor Boy hates when I save random STUFF for just in case, heheh) and they were!  The clouds and rain drops I cut freehand, like you can't tell, haha. If anyone reading this knows of a cloud shaped cutter (or weather set) please, post a link in a comment, thanks!

Pooh, I forgot to take a pic of Birdie's lunch. She had leftover pasta, topped with cheese cut in puzzle pieces again (she liked that the day before), packed in a Hello Kitty box. Sprout stayed home from preschool today, so she had the same thing, but in a bowl - and she covered hers with a mountain of grated parmesan I mean, stinky cheese :) She LOVES stinky cheese, would eat it solo if I let her...

Lunch Box Round-Up

Eek, I'm so behind in EVERYTHING! Laundry, housework, GROCERIES! And blogging too... So, no time to make 2 days worth of posts... I'll borrow from my friend Becka at Just a Bunch of Momsense and do a little lunch box round-up :) Here are lunches from today  and yesterday :

The little girls got honey ham rolled up and secured with little monkey picks, mandarin orange slices, pretzels, and 2 cheese puzzles (made with my Lunch Punch) in a little container. I stuck a note on Birdie's lid for whichever preschool aide unpacked her lunch.

I guess I forgot to take a pic of Bella's ... no, wait, today she took a Thermos Foogo container of Campbell's Spaghetti. Which, I have to say, rocks for keeping food hot! She says it was HOT when she opened it at lunch - and I believe her, because what was left in the container was still warm after school!

Yesterday all the girls got mini grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot and cucumber flowers, and apple wedges. Bella's sandwich had ham on it as well, and she got a little caramel dip. Bella said it was all delicious; her Easy Lunchbox came home empty :)

Aren't the mini grilled cheese sandwiches cute? Bella saw this little loaf of "cocktail" bread and asked for it. "Pleeeease?! It's whole grai-ain..." Smart girl.  I took a picture with my ugly old frying pan and spatula in it for scale - please don't judge me by my cookware...  :)

Pickle's peanut butter sandwiches were an airplane in the clouds yesterday, and 2 puzzles today, both made with Lunch Punches. I don't know what's up with the puzzle sandwich photo - the bread looks furry to me... heh, maybe I've just had too much coffee...

I use smiles as punctuation A LOT ! Just an observation :)

Rainbow Bright & Slightly Spooky

Bella got muffin cups in her lunch today, a rainbow selection :)

I didn't have any blue food so I put blue seal picks playing with cheese balls in the blue cup ;) Ham roll-ups in the pink, carrot stars in the red, cheddar hearts & bunny crackers in the orange,  sweet bell pepper in the yellow, & celery in the green. All things I know she likes. I think the celery looks like it's smiling :)

When I pack things that might tip or spill and make a mess, I like to fill the empty space with something to keep things from moving around. Most of the time I use a cloth napkin - it acts like tissue paper does in a gift box, keeping things in their place. Today I used lettuce - it's like edible tissue paper - plus it will help the veggies stay moist, and Bella likes lettuce so she'll probably eat it!

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I made Pickle's lunch slightly spooky and a little more fun than usual. He was sort of upset this morning and didn't want to go to school, so I promised him a treat in his lunch to look forward to. He loves plain milk chocolate, especially if it has the Hershey's brand on it, so he'll be happy to find the Hershey's chocolate ghost. He also got bat peanut butter sandwiches, a few marshmallow ghosts, and a bowl of Cheerios with a little bottle of milk. Fun!

I know I've said it before, but I just love this Sistema container! Cereal on the bottom, sandwiches and treats in the tray, all separated, sealed, and compact.   I just had to buy another one with pink trim for Bella's salad lunches :)

Hey, I have a button now, if anyone wants to link to me! 

<center> <a href="http://bentonbetterlunches.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h35/merrycrismess/BentOnBetterLunches/BentOnBetterLunchesButton1.png"/></a></center> A big thank you Charlene of Bentos for Bella &
Honeysuckle Designs for making it for me! Happy Monday everyone!

Angry Birds Sandwich

Here I go, hopping on the Angry Birds lunch wagon! Not sure what took me so long, Pickle is crazy about the game :) I've never played it myself, but I'm familiar with the characters - who isn't ?

Pickle's favourite is the Red Bird, so he was a given, and I decided to make a little King Pig as well to make the lunch more filling. I'm really pleased with how it turned out! Completely edible, and no artificial colouring :) 

The Red Bird's body is a peanut butter sandwich made from wheat and white wheat bread. I used dark wheat for his tail feathers, pupils, and eyebrows, and wheat crust for his beak. His features are "glued" on with peanut butter. 

The Pig King is a peanut butter sandwich on wheat, with white wheat features. His pupils, nostrils, and crown are made from crust. I used different sized drinking straws to cut the little circles.

This sandwich was time consuming, but fun! I don't normally do this much - a quick press of my trusty Lunch Punches is more my speed for the average school day - but since there is no school today (conferences again) Pickle had lunch at home,  and it was the perfect opportunity for me to get to see him opening a special lunch.

It's very plain to see that he absolutely loved it :)

    

In fact, he loved it so much, he refused to eat it - he wants to save it! I had to make him a plain peanut butter sandwich to eat. *sigh* Lesson learned - make the lunch look good enough to eat, not too good to eat!

Looking for Angry Birds lunch ideas? Look no further!

This week's Bento of the Week theme was Angry Birds!

Last Minute Lunchables

There's no school today because of parent/teacher conferences, and we had the other half of yesterday's candy corn pizza to warm up,  so I didn't give any thought to lunch...  until Sailor Boy reminded me, minutes before we needed to leave the house - that the little girls still had preschool. Gah! Fortunately they were already dressed. Here's what I hastily packed in their lunches:

They can't all be works of art, right...  and I had to leave myself enough time to snap a photo ;)

Candy Corn Pizza

Oh yes, candy corn pizza! I've been waiting a year to make this, since I saw it in my Ghoulish Goodies cookbook last year! 

Mozzarella, tangy sauce brushed over sharp cheddar, and a mix of cheddar and mozza make the candy corn colours. This is Bella's, with more sunburst cherry tomato "pumpkins" by request, and a clementine Jack O'Lantern, inspired by Lunches Fit For a Kid. Birdie & Sprout have the same thing, except they have only 1 slice, and regular red tomatoes, since they pronounced the golden tomatoes "yut" and "yucky",  respectively. On sight. *sigh* Silly picky sproutlets.  Bella got a few pieces of real candy corn too, but not the little girls, they can't be trusted to eat their lunch before their sweets as Bella can :)

Pickle has candy corn peanut butter sandwiches, made with white wheat, regular wheat, and dark wheat bread sections. I think this came out super cute! I wanted to put a chocolate syrup ghost face on his yogurt but didn't want to push my luck, the dark wheat may be asking enough of him...
Maybe tomorrow :)

I'm starting to get into the Hallowe'en spirit! I've had the porch decorated for Fall for a few weeks now - mostly with leaves, and some sunflowers,  then this past weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch, and now that our pumpkins are out there waiting to be carved, it looks more Hallowe'en-y than just Fall-ish... time to put up the candy corn and Jack O'Lantern light garlands! 

Here we are at the Pumpkin Patch this past Sunday - sans Beanstalk, who preferred to go to a friend's house - he doesn't like the corn maze or hay ride. The rest of us enjoyed it though! It was a beautiful day too.

The cookbook I got the pizza idea from - a gift from my mom,

 along with this other one full of fun Hallowe'en ideas :)

   

Fall Lunch, Time Crunch

It's a really good thing I had most of the lunches made up last night, because my alarm did not go off this morning (since I forgot to set it) and I only had half an hour to get 5 sproutlets fed, ready, packed, and out the door. It was close, but we made it!

Bella took pumpkin shaped pizza quesadillas, with little pumpkins and oak leaves cut from the scraps, oak leaf cheese and cucumber slices, and golden sunburst cherry tomatoes on shamrock picks - meant to look like pumpkins with stems - close enough right? :) We'd never tried the sunburst tomatoes before - they taste just like the red ones but they are orangey-yellow, fun for a change. For a treat, she got butter cookie leaves, and a few little Halloween themed marshmallows that are supposed to look like ghost shapes (the white ones do, saved them for later this month) but we both thought the orange and brown ones looked more like leaves.

Yep, I'm still on a Fall theme kick - it IS my favourite time of year :) Oooh, and I got some Fall-themed muffin tins this weekend - we went to Party City for some Halloween stuff and Sailor Boy saw me eyeing them and laughed and said "Oh just get them, you know you want them" ♥

Anyways, back to today's lunches... 

Bean Sprout & Birdie took snacky bento lunches in their Sassy boxes. Scrabble Cheez-It crackers (I have to say, these crackers are cute but they are not very tasty, we won't buy them again) plus pretzels for Birdie, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, red grape tomatoes and sunburst cherry tomatoes, and baby carrots.

Pickle has his usual yogurt and peanut butter sandwiches of course - a puppy in his doghouse (Lunch Punch) and a bigger dog and bone (Wilton cookie cutters). The bigger dog is a bit muddy, heheh (peanut butter smears, I was messy in my haste this morning).

Beanstalk took a MOMables lunch. No, you don't get to see it, MOMables lunches are for subscribers only :) If you're not familiar with MOMables, check out their website: http://momables.com/ or visit their page on Facebook for more information on this time-saving service. If you've been thinking of trying out a subscription to MOMables, now is a great time to do it! All of October’s subscription fees will be donated towards the Cancer treatment of young Joseph Scott. If you're already a MOMables subscriber but want to help this brave little boy and his family, please join me in donating directly. ♥