Bento Kid: Pretty Yummy!

Mia Bella packed this pretty & fun lunch herself, with a little prep work help from me - I chopped the cantaloupe & celery and baked the muffin :

Her EasyLunchbox is a salad bar of sorts :) Celery sticks with a dip cup of peanut butter, baby carrots, tomatoes, cucumber slices, cantaloupe chunks, & a carrot muffin. Cute little animal picks look like they're snacking on her lunch!

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Fun stuff used for this lunch:

You can find all these colourful accessories and the EasyLunchboxes at BentoUSA, one of the generous sponsors of my big blog birthday giveaway!

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Bent On Better Lunches Big Birthday Giveaway!

It's my little lunch blog's birthday! My 2nd blogiversary :)

And, I have gifts! Not to keep, to give away! Hooray!

• From EasyLunchboxes, a set of EasyLunchboxes containers in your choice of Classic or Brights & a cooler bag too!
  I ♥ our EasyLunchboxes: A Rainbow of Lunch Possibilities  
• From BentoUSA, a $25 gift voucher to pick out the bento accessories of your choice! ♥ You could get everything I used in this lunch that isn't included in this Giveaway, and more!
• From The Lunch Punch, makers of my favourite sandwich cutters, the Sweet Set, which includes the birthday cake I used today, plus a cupcake, bubblegum machine, & ice cream cones!
• And, in case you could use a little help deciding what to make for lunch, from MOMables, a 3 month MOMables menu subscription PLUS a $25 Amazon.com gift card to buy lunch gear!
  Go Back to School with MOMables!

Pretty much everything you need to pack lunch, except food!

Thank you EasyLunchboxes, BentoUSA, Lunch Punch, & MOMables!

You've been a big part of Bent On Better Lunches since it's beginning and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share your awesomeness :)

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To enter, simply leave me a blog comment. Say anything! 

Then check it off in the Rafflecopter widget below. Like the giveaway sponsors for bonus entries, & tweet daily for even more chances :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pin this image for a bonus entry!

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Lunch is an almond butter on honey wheat birthday cake sandwich with sugar sprinkles, carrot sticks, strawberries, raspberries, & grapes.

Stuff used to make  this lunch:

 

Giveaway open to residents of Canada & USA only. One entrant per household please. Thank you!

Friends Share: Stop for Lunch!

The sproutlets were in go, go, go mode today, it was hard to get them to stop for lunch - even though it was fun bentos! I've been meaning to do a melon ball stop light lunch ever since I picked up the fun traffic sign paper it's sitting on. It's not the first time I've been inspired by a sheet of scrapbook paper :) 

Bella helped a little with this one, she peeled & cut the carrots & scooped the melon balls! Then she snacked of the not-so-round ones while I packed the rest of her lunch. The stop sign is a pepper jack cheese sandwich on honey wheat - sweet & spicy! On the side she has dried strawberries & a protein bar.

Pickle's lunch is his usual, a plain old peanut butter sandwich, yogurt & string cheese - but made cute with a car-shaped silicone cup, a candy stop sign, and alphabet cookie cutters. And I found the perfect Lunchbox Love note to tuck in: "Did you know? Americans spend an average of 8 months waiting at red lights during their lifetime." Pickle loves trivia :)

Pickle's lunch is packed in EasyLunchboxes! I rarely pack his in them because they aren't leakproof enough for yogurt when your kid is as rough & tumble with their lunchbox as my little man is :) But my favourite bento shop BentoUSA recently added the perfect solution to their inventory... 

These water-tight 4 oz sauce cups that fit snugly in the medium section:

 

They even fit with both their lid & the EasyLunchboxes lid on! Hooray!

I know that for many, not being able to pack really wet stuff is the only drawback to the EasyLunchboxes. While the Mini Dippers are fab, they are smaller & don't fill that section. I'm so happy to have found these versatile & inexpensive containers that do! Find them at BentoUSA :)

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This isn't the first time I've packed a lunch with a traffic light in it - I've got one featured in Cooking with Trader Joe's : Easy Lunch Boxes!

Of course, that's not how it looks in the cookbook, that's just the photo that I submitted... the bento pictured in the cookbook was professionally styled & photographed - fancy! But I designed it & wrote the instructions :) 

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Some of my blogger friends have made traffic stopping bentos too...  

Bento For Kidlet is unstoppable!

Bento School Lunches dreams of hitting the road...

Zoe's Lunchbox takes a road trip!

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All pictures belong to their blog owners. Click on them or their attached links to see the full posts on the original sites. (If you would prefer not to be featured, please let me know and I will remove your image.)

Breakfast Bento for Birdie

Rise & shine, it's breakfast time! Birdie's having a summer morning bento of fresh cut strawberry flowers, carrot suns, cheese tulips, bunny grahams, apple blossoms, and yogurt with a garden of sweet sprinkles.

My friend Ludicrous Mama of Biting the Hand That Feeds You recently shared an article she had read, about a study that showed young children prefer many colours and choices on their plate. According to the study, "Children are most attracted to food plates with seven different items and six different colors." Birdie does love her Zak! Nibble Tray, which has 6 sections (9 with with the dip attachment!) Sprinkles are a fun way to add even more colour and kid appeal, and if you count them, she's got her 7 items in 6 colours :)

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Some stuff used to make this bento:

Left-behind Basic Bento Lunches

Here are some school lunches I never blogged for reasons:

Cheese quesadillas for my little monkey Mia Bella, with honey ham rolled & secured with monkey bento picks, & cucumber slices, some cut with a flower shaped cutter, packed in our Leaflet tight bento box.

Ham roll-ups again, this time secured with cocktail swords, a mini bagel, grape tomatoes, carrots & celery sticks, packed in EasyLunchboxes. There was probably cheese in the bagel, but I don't remember for sure...

Cherry tomatoes, concord grapes, celery & carrot sticks, topped with cheddar cheese stars. I remember this one because she was still hungry when she got home, it would have been better as a side bento with some soup!

A classic Beanstalk's choice bento from ages ago, all fruit & grain. Quaker Whole Hearts cereal, Clif KidZ bar, & Granny Smith apple wedges. 

And, another fruit & grain Lock & Lock lunch. Grapes, star crackers, mini bagel, & harlequin apple. My boy's a creature of habit...

These are all pretty basic bentos, nothing amazing about them, but I think they're good examples of how basic doesn't have to be boring - small touches like a couple of cute picks, a little detail with a paring knife, something cut with a cookie cutter, or even just arranging the food in a pattern, can make an ordinary lunch a little more appealing :)

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Some stuff I used for these lunches:

Friends Share: UFO bentos... Out Of This World!

Today marks the 66th anniversary of the Roswell UFO incident... what do you believe crashed into that ranch? The truth is out there...

The sproutlets' grandparents are visiting today, so I'm not making UFO bentos, but I did make one last week, for World UFO Day. And here's a fun bento I made last summer, as one of my submissions for the Cooking with Trader Joe's : EasyLunchboxes cookbook. 4 of my bentos are featured in the cookbook, but this space alien one wasn't one of the chosen ones:

The fruit alien reminds me of Boinga from the Backyardigans; she may have been an unconscious inspiration :) My Boinga is made with a clementine, 2 grapes with raisins stuck in them, and one more raisin stuck in a slit cut into the orange peel. Beneath her are white cheddar cheese stars atop carrot asteroids. Her rocket spaceship, planet & stars are peanut butter sandwiches.

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Here are some my favourite UFO & space alien bentos made by others:

The adorable marbled cheese aliens in this space-themed bento by Cass of We Should Be Folding Laundry make me smile :)

I adore the egg UFO in this PlanetBox bento by the talented Lise of Veggie-Bento. Lise's alien & UFO creations are also featured in the Cooking with Trader Joe's : EasyLunchboxes cookbook!

I've loved Sarah of Bentoriffic's Happy Little Aliens since I first laid eyes on this cute little one-eyed guy & his three-eyed cohort.

I totally dig this colourful Alien and UFO bento by Ariani of Bebento-Kids! I've only just recently discovered her fantastic bento blog, and don't know how I've never come across it before - but I'm glad I finally have :)

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All pictures belong to their blog owners. Click on them or their attached links to see the full posts on the original sites. (If you would prefer not to be featured, please let me know and I will remove your image.)