Lunch for my little Wizard

I wanted to make a lunch with a UK theme today, to go in Bella's new Union Jack lunch bag - but I couldn't find my Union Jack flag picks, and didn't have any particularly British food either, so I went with a Harry Potter theme... after all, Hogwarts is "the best school of wizardry in Great Britain" (according to Hagrid) ... so there's my UK tie-in :) I know my little Potterhead will agree!

Here's Bella's new & already beloved Dabawalla lunch bag, in Union Jack design. It's awesome! It's very roomy, with interior mesh pockets for ice packs & to keep drinks upright, & an exterior pocket for a notebook, a phone, or a small snack. It looks & feels really well-made, of a cool insulating material that's an environmentally friendly alternative to neoprene. And yes, for those who care, our EasyLunchboxes can sit upright on the bottom :) We love it.

★   ★   ★

I wouldn't call today's bento an amazing example of bento artistry... the theme pretty much came from the cupcake picks... but Bella was pretty excited about it, and that's all that matters :)

 Bella's Harry Potter EasyLunchbox contains:

• turkey & cheddar tortilla roll-ups
• red & green grapes
• baby carrots
• whole grain Fig Newtons 
• & cantaloupe "Golden Snitches"

Gotta love inexpensive cupcake picks for a quick & easy theme lunch!

Lunch was packed in:

Gingerbread Men!

Sometimes a lunch gets something stuck in my head. All morning I've had this singsong line from the nursery tale running through my head: Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man! *sigh*  The best remedy for an annoying earworm is sometimes another earworm... maybe I should go play some Duran Duran - Rio usually does the trick ;)

A friend sent us some adorable gingerbread man/peppermint sweet cupcake picks, which inspired gingerbread man lunches that came out decidedly holiday-ish... and it's not even December, this is early for me! 

Pickle's yubo lunchbox (with handy dandy drink holder attached) contains peanut butter sandwich gingerbread man, a pocket sandwich, & a spiral sandwich speared with one of the cupcake picks. He also has a pandan wafer straw broken in half, a peanut butter cookie & a gingerbread man. His yogurt even has tiny gingerbread men sprinkles!

I went easy on the cute for 6th grader Beanstalk's LunchBots Trio bento, and skipped the cupcake pick :) He has pistachios in a LunchBots Dip, grapes, a peanut butter sandwich "cookie" topped with a pandan wafer straw & a mini gingerbread man, a granola bar, and some yogurt raisins. 

There was meant to be apple slices in place of his granola bar... but we didn't have the apple I thought we did (or someone snacked on it after I last looked).

Bella's EasyLunchbox is full of cuteness, with heart-speared red & green grapes, cantaloupe balls + cupcake pick, mini gingerbread men cookies, baby carrots, & gingerbread man sandwiches.

These gingerbread men are savoury and sweet - they're turkey & cheddar on wheat, with bento pick buttons & candy sprinkle features :) 

Stuff used for these lunches:

A Leafy Lunch

Yesterday we woke up to our first frost, which reminded me that winter will be here soon, and I hadn't yet made my littles an Autumn muffin tin meal! So I did:

They had baby carrots, NatureBox roasted garlic pumpkin seeds, grapes, peach yogurt with sprinkles, peanut butter on honey wheat leaf mini sandwiches, & a couple of sweet treats - a Trader Joe's maple leaf cookie that tastes like waffles & syrup, & a pumpkin spice marshmallow.

We don't have a Trader Joe's nearby; the cookies were a gift from Ludicrous Mama of Biting The Hand That Feeds You, as were the sprinkles. They're actually sea turtles! But I think they look more like autumn leaves  :)

The little leaf sandwiches were made with pastry stamps. So cute & easy!

Happy Monday!

I packed a smiley apple half in my Beanstalk's LunchBots Quad. The X's for eyes don't mean anything, I was just playing with my v-cutter tool :) He also has grapes, peppered beef jerky, & cheese crackers.

The folks at Fiber One sent us some boxes of chewy granola bars to try. Both Beanstalk & Bella liked them, and we've tried all the flavours now.  I only wish I could buy them unwrapped so they'd be trash-free, but they are convenient for Beanstalk to stick in his pocket for an afternoon snack between classes.

♥   ♥   ♥

For Bella, I packed a thermos of tomato soup, and a LunchBots Trio of fruit, veggies, crackers & yogurt pretzels.

Her cantaloupe cubes are skewered with a pink flamingo cupcake pick, and the Sunburst & Cherub tomatoes with a pink flamingo cocktail pick. Both flamingos were gifts from fellow bento bloggers Lori of Pink 'n Punchy Lunches & Bobbi of Bobbi's Bentos, respectively - as part of a pick swap - fun!

Also fun - I found a Lunchbox Love note with a bit of flamingo trivia on it!

It's Cyber Monday! Lunchbox Love is offering 60% off everything on their site! Use coupon FB60THANKS at www.sayplease.com

Stuff used for these lunches:

Thanksgiving Break!

I hope all who celebrate American Thanksgiving had a happy one! 
We thought ours would be little & quiet since Sailor Boy is away, but some of our Canadian family surprised us with a visit, so our home was filled with love & laughter & no empty chairs. My sweetie was still missed of course, but the sproutlets were sufficiently distracted from moping :)

Pickle loves turkeys - not to eat though, he'd love to have one as a pet! I promised him I would not cook a turkey this year - but I did make him some cruelty-free "turkey" peanut butter sandwiches:

Aren't they cute? They're not MY bright idea though - I copied Bento for Kidlet's clever gyoza / dumpling press turkey sandwich.  Hers is neater though, and doesn't have a wonky eye :) If you wanted to try your hand at making some, this is the gadget I used: Helen's Asian Kitchen Dumpling Press. Perfect for making a leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwich bento ;)

Thanksgiving may be over, but it's still Thanksgiving Break! And since I don't have to pack school lunches, I've decided it's a good time to take a break from bento too, and spruce up the blog.

Wish me luck, that I don't make a big mess of it!

In the meantime, if you're doing any online shopping this Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday, here are a few of my favourites to consider adding to your list:

* Disclosure - Those ARE affiliate links, so if you buy any of those things, I do get a referral payment, but, they also really ARE my favorites - I could have linked to anything, right? :)

11/24/13 - Bento for Kidlet now has a tutorial for making these little turkeys! They'd be perfect for a Thanksgiving leftovers turkey bento!  Click the pic to learn how :)

Veggie Tales!

♫ If you like to talk to tomatoes,
If a squash can make you smile,
If you like to waltz with potatoes,
Up and down the produce aisle... ♪

Veggie Tales bento school lunches for my sproutlets :

♫ Gotta be... Veggie Tales! ♪

I'm pretty sure  these don't need much of an explanation.... in any case, I don't have time to write one! If there are any questions about the contents, you are welcome to ask them in the comments and will answer later today :)

A Lovely Lock & Lock for Sprout

Sprout wanted to take her Hello Kitty lunch box today, which only holds our smaller lunch containers like our Japanese bento boxes, the Sassy box, LunchBots, Lock&Lock, and Goodbyn Mix & Match. She chose the Lock&Lock four square box, because "it has the easy lid".

I prettied it up with some colourful square silicone cups, and filled it with her choices for today: Granny Smith apple wedges, strawberries, Parmesan Garlic Triscuit Thin Crisps, and cheddar cheese.

Last time I packed her a full-size ice pack, Sprout complained that her lunch was too cold, so this time I put a single "ice pillow" in just the cheese section. I bought several water-filled pillow ice sheets and carefully cut them into smaller sizes as needed for perfect fit cold packs in various containers.

I didn't take pics of the other sproutlets' lunches today. We were rushed. 

Happy Monday!

Stuff used for this lunch (or similar):

Thank You Sweetie!

It's almost American Thanksgiving! Another holiday, another Bento Bloggers & Friends Blog Hop...  right? Well, yes...  but maybe not what you're expecting... Instead of the traditional turkey, pilgrims, & pumpkin pie themes, one of our bloggers, Ludicrous Mama of Biting the Hand That Feeds You, came up with a twist: A "What are you thankful for?" theme!

I'm thankful for a lot of things, but most of all for my Sailor Boy, who not only puts up with my flaws & quirks, but somehow finds them cute, and who, after 17 years of marriage, I'd still rather spend time with than anyone else.

Thank you Sweetie! I love you ♥ Enjoy your lunch :)

Sailor Boy's EasyLunchboxes bento contains:

• Strawberries & cantaloupe - with an anchor pick - because he's a sailor, and because he's MY anchor
• Romaine salad with carrots & cucumber, & mandarin dressing in an EasyLunchboxes Mini Dipper (on the side)
• Turkey kielbasa "hearts" left over from our pierogi skillet supper
• Skewered cherub & sunburst tomatoes (Thanks Mamabelly for the Southwest Airlines heart swizzle stick "skewers"!)
• Pistachios - because I'm still nuts about him after all these years
• & a Babybel cheese decorated with wedding ring picks and carved with the words "I still do." ♥

That's the perfect Lunchbox Love note for this lunch, don't you think? It's from one of the Lunchbox Love for Loved Ones sets from Say Please. On the flip side is a bit of trivia. This note's fact was a funny coincidence to me, because I had joked with my blogger friends that what I was most thankful for most days was coffee, so maybe that would be the theme of my bento :) I was kidding (sort of), but coffee ended up being a part of the lunch anyways, heheh:

Now click the button to hop over to Licious Lunches and see what she's thankful for & how she's expressed it in a bento!

This Lunch Is Out Of This World

My Mia Bella came up with her lunch's theme, chose the ingredients & accessories, & arranged the food, all by herself. Out of this world is right!

Bella's EasyLunchboxes bento contains:

• a turkey & cheddar sandwich
• habanero spiced almonds 
• Fig Newtons 
• cantaloupe
• & English cucumber slices

I was really impressed with all the little details! You can't see the other slices of cucumber, but each one has a shape cut out of the center - a star, a planet, and a crescent moon.

She even stamped a star into the top of a Fig Newton and used my food colouring markers to put a smile on her star-shaped sandwich - so cute!

I think she did an amazing job!

Click the flower to see more bentos by Bella

I packed Sprout's Bynto. It's red & green to match the juice box left over from her birthday party on the weekend. Clifford is her kindergarten class mascot. She has some baby carrots & a green apple wedge, Fig Newtons, apple juice, mozzarella string cheese, red grapes, & a mini bagel peanut butter sandwich. 

The space above the juice got filled with reusable ice cubes after I took the pic.

Stuff used for these lunches:

The star sandwich cutter came from Dollar Tree, the crayon & apple from a baking supply shop, and the star silicone cups were a gift from a friend.

March of the Penguins

No school today, in observance of Veteran's Day in America & Remembrance Day in Canada. I didn't blog all of last week's lunches though... 

Did you know a group of penguins is called a waddle? I didn't know it, but I just looked it up... So, here is our waddle of penguin lunches from Wednesday :)

Sprout's penguin lunch was packed in her yubo lunchbox. She had penguin PB sandwiches, a Chobani Champions greek yogurt, cantaloupe "salmon", and some penguin gummy treats.

Beanstalk took his PlanetBox. He had checkered apples, goldfish crackers, grapes, & yogurt raisins with his penguin gummies & PB sandwiches.

Pickle's yubo was missing (it's since been found) so he took his PB penguins in a sandwich box in his Built Gourmet Getaway lunch bag.

Bella's penguins got sugar eyes. She also had penguin gummies & cantaloupe "salmon", plus grape tomatoes on star picks & grapes on penguin picks.

I also packed her an Easy Lunchboxes mini dipper full of spiced almonds for a snack, and a Lunchbox Love note.

I chose the note for what it said above... it wasn't until after I took the photo that I looked on the back and saw the trivia... and wow, spooky coincidence! :

Apparently I got a little carried away with the sandwich cutter; Sprout & Bella only ate half of their sandwiches. 2 penguins = 1 sandwich, oops. But it worked out, Pickle had their leftovers for an after school snack :)

Stuff used for these lunches:

Edible Geekery : Lunch is shiny!

It's hard to believe it's been a decade since the first & only season of Firefly premiered! It's still one of my all-time favourite sci-fi shows, & I still miss it! So I'm really looking forward to watching the Science Channel's 10th Anniversary Special this Sunday - so much so that I had to make a Firefly-themed bento lunch for my Sailor Boy - even if we weren't doing a blog hop ;)

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

Sailor Boy's Laptop Lunches bento is based on a scene from the (intended) pilot episode, Serenity. It contains dinosaur shaped turkey & colby cheese sandwiches on a bed of Romaine salad. On the side, a heart-shaped hard-cooked egg, Babybel cheese carved with "Shiny", and strawberries. Browncoats will get the references :)  

Stegosauraus: "Yes... Yes... This is a fertile land and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land and we will call it... This Land." 

Tyrannosaurus Rex: "I think we should call it your grave." 


Stego: "Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" 

(That's my favourite. I've got that on a t-shirt.)

T-Rex: "Ha ha ha, mine is an evil laugh, now die!"

Just for fun, I made Pickle a Land-wich.

I'm wearing the t-shirt. I take terrible one handed photos.

I also included a Lunchbox Love note. It's the last day to enter my giveaway for an assortment of those. If you haven't already, click here to enter when you find yourself back here after finishing our Firefly blog hop :)

If you're curious or nostalgic, here's the clip of Wash & his dinosaurs:

Now hop along to Veggie-Bento and see how Lise makes a Firefly bento pretty for her 4 year old daughter!

PS I made the button & I'm quite pleased with myself.
I think it's more shiny than the lunch!