Bakin' pancakes, bakin' bakin' pancakes...

Sprout asked if she could have a muffin in her lunch & I said yes, I'd bake some, but while they were baking I got sidetracked & burned them! And of course I didn't have enough ingredients for another batch. But I did have some pancake mix... so I baked some pancake muffins... & they turned out all right! Imagine a dense, pancake flavoured muffin. Next time I'll mix together a little maple syrup & icing sugar to drizzle over them... 

I baked the pancake muffins in a pumpkin shaped Wilton silicone baking mold. I don't know if it's available in this size anymore, but I found a mini-muffin version!  I spritzed the cups with coconut oil so the shaped muffins would pop out easily, poured in pancake mix 2/3 full, & baked them at 350 until they looked ready - about 15 minutes. Side note: Baking pancakes got the bacon pancakes song from Adventure Time in my head :)

I packed Sprout's lunch in her PlanetBox Shuttle. The pumpkin shape got me thinking about a fall theme so I used orange & pumpkin shaped silicone cups, & chose squirrel, acorn, & mushroom picks to embellish her strawberries & carrots, cutting the latter in bite size pieces since she has a loose front tooth, & a mushroom treat box filled with dark chocolate covered raisins. I also gave her some spiced pistachios - she loves those - & some orange Yami yogurt in the PlanetBox's Little Dipper. 

I added some more fun touches with a colourful woodland print cloth napkin, a happy little stainless steel spoon, & a Lunchbox Love note. This one is from Volume 92 & has a joke on the flip side.

I just love that little spoon. I have several - they're my favourite coffee stirring spoons - they make me smile :)

Edited To Add: I forgot to add a pic of Sprout's after school snack. Her loose tooth was really wiggly when she got home from school, too wiggly to bite into anything - but she wanted apples & a peanut butter sandwich - so I used my FunBites cube cutter to make them bite size:

Scrapbook paper background is Perfect Day from Thankful Collection by Bella Blvd from Scrapbook.com

FunBites Triangles Giveaway!

FunBites have added a colourful new shape: orange triangles! FunBites are fun to use tools that make it easy to cut food into fun, bite sized pieces - perfect for toddlers or picky eaters! Invented by a mom and her kids, FunBites are dishwasher-safe, BPA-free, and 100% made in America. FunBites come in squares, red or pink hearts, and now, triangles!

The new Triangles FunBites cutter makes 10 right angle triangles - 2 big and 8 small - exactly enough to create 2 fish shapes :) 

What else they can create is up to your imagination! 

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I made Bella a cheesy vegetable garden after school snack :)

I used the cutter on one slice of lightly toasted white bread and one of wheat to make Birdie these lemon curd pinwheels from the small triangles. (I ate the 4 larger triangles - I love lemon curd!)

Make a grilled cheese sunshine :) Allow the sandwich to cool a little first!

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How to use your FunBites cutter on sandwiches with sticky spreads without making a gooey mess: Spread your sandwich filling on the bottom slice of bread, but don't top it with another slice - instead... Place the top slice on the cutting surface & press the FunBites cutter into it - but don't pop the cut bread pieces out yet! Lift the cutter keeping the top slice bread pieces stuck in the cutter shape, and place it on top of the bottom slice. Press the FunBites into the bottom slice. Rock it back & forth.  Now use the popper to pop out perfect shapes. No mess!

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I have 3 FunBites Triangles to give away!

FunBites has generously offered to send one of their brand new cutters to 3 lucky Bent On Better Lunches readers! 

Giveaway Closed

Disclosure: I received a FunBites to review.  No other compensation or payment was given. All opinions & descriptions are my own.  Giveaway open to US residents only. Prize will be provided by FunBites.

There's something fishy about our FunBites :)

Yesterday FunBites unveiled their newest shape - triangles! Confession: I already have one! FunBites sent me mine in advance, to take a few pictures for them, but I couldn't post anything I made with them until they were officially revealed :) My little girls love "fishies" so of course that shape jumped right out at them and they wanted fishy snacks.

You can make 2 complete fish shapes from one press of the cutter:

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Here's Birdie's lunch from yesterday:

Triangle shaped peanut butter sandwich bites topped with a cheddar goldfish, and a triangle cantaloupe & watermelon fruit salad. I made way too much food for her little belly, and had a lot of sandwich left over.

That's okay, I used her leftovers in Pickle's fish mosaic sandwich:

Bella put her own lunch together, in her Laptop Lunches bento box with the larger Bento Buddies container, and added a few triangle picks to go with the new FunBites shape:

She has tomatoes, cantaloupe, a croissantwich, and an Odwalla bar.

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The Triangle FunBites will be available soon!

I'll be doing a giveaway, watch for it!

Mother's Day FunBites Giveaway

Since this was supposed to be a Mother's Day giveaway,  I was going to have my littlest sproutlet make ME a lunch using her favourite FunBites cutter... but she just didn't want to cooperate :)

No, she didn't want to make mummy a heart sandwich, she wanted to make pizza hearts. She reminded me that I did say "last day" (meaning any day prior to today) that we could make pizza hearts. So that is what we did. Using our brand new extra special RED Luv it!

We've made pizza hearts several times since seeing Bento for Kidlet's Pull-Apart Heart Rolls. We usually cut the hearts out first, then spread sauce on top and sprinkle them with cheese - but when I let Birdie help, a lot of sauce and cheese ends up burned to a crisp on the baking sheet - so this time we tried a different method. I let Birdie spread the sauce & sprinkle the cheese before we cut out the shapes, as she demonstrates in the photos:

 

 

I folded the dough in half, then helped Birdie cut the hearts out & put them on the tray, so there are no photos of those steps, but you get the idea :) We also took the leftover bits and twisted them into pizza breadsticks! Yummy!

They may not be the neatest but other than that they came out great! Birdie loves to help in the kitchen, and brushing on pizza sauce with a pastry or barbecue brush is like food painting fun for her. For more tools you can let your tot help out with, check out this MOMables post by Michelle of Creative Food:

10 Kid Friendly Kitchen Tools Little Helpers Should Have

The FunBites hearts pull apart easily & are full of doughy pizza deliciousness!

So easy I'm sure Sailor Boy could manage to help the sproutlets make them for me for Mother's Day! Oooh, or how about a cinnamon bun version! The frosting would dribble & pool in the nooks & crannies, mmmm...

Want to win a FunBites Luv it heart cutter? 

FunBites is sponsoring an exclusive giveaway of 4 RED cutters for Bent On Better Lunches readers only! You can't even buy these red ones yet :)  But if you prefer, you can choose the original pink ♥

Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations winners! No, I didn't forget how to count... One of you commented that you'd like the pink Luv it... and since I have 4 red to give away... bonus winner! Please email me within 48 hours to claim your prize :)

Lunch On A Stick : Linky Party!

Today is Something On A Stick Day!

Pickle almost always takes a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. It's the only kind of sandwich he likes. I usually cut it in fun shapes with a Lunch Punch or cookie cutters, but today, he's getting it on a stick!

I just got a whole bunch of these long skewers from BentoUSA, and I used my FunBites cutter to make the bite sized squares. His lunch on a stick is packed in a yubo lunchbox with a sprinkle-topped yogurt and a couple of Oreo cookies topped with a Trader Joe's yogurt covered cookie star.

The sproutlets' school is even getting in on the fun - the hot lunch today is pizza on a stick!  So that's what the others are having :) I had mixed emotions when I saw that on the menu - I'm glad they are doing something fun, but also slightly bummed that I won't be making lunch on a stick for ALL the sproutlets - if you follow the blog you know I love to put food on a stick :) Ah well, there's always tomorrow - any day is a good day for something on a stick!

Stuff used for today's lunch:

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Happy Something On A Stick Day :)

* You don't need to have a blog to link your Something On A Stick! You can link photos hosted on Facebook or Flickr  too, as long as you have the Privacy settings to Public :)

This Little Piggy...

This little piggy was made with our CuteZcute!

I made Birdie a little piggy bento :) She has a checkered Pacific Rose apple, watermelon cubed with FunBites, Sunburst tomatoes, and a cheese sandwich piggy - packed in a pink Sassy box. I love the Sassy On the Go Feeding Set for toddler & preschool bentos. It's just the right size for small appetites, versatile, inexpensive, and easy for Birdie to open and close - and it's cute! And the CuteZcute Animal Friends Cutter & Stamp makes sandwiches that perfectly in either side of the divided container :)

Stuff I used for this lunch:

Linked to:

Edible Geekery : Super Mario Power Up Lunch!

Eatsa Mario! I finally made a Super Mario lunch for my Bella, she's been asking for one ever since we got the gummy candies shown in the lunch. Inspiration finally struck when I bought some fat round cherry tomatoes and thought they'd make great Fire Flowers :)

Bella's Power Up lunch is packed in her PlanetBox & contains:

• Cherry tomato, cheddar & mozzarella Fire Flowers
• Galia melon initial M for Mario
• Fig Newtons with a bento pick Super Mushroom
• Carrot Coins (& another mushroom bento pick)
• Galia melon Stars with chocolate chip sliver eyes
• Turkey & cheese Mystery Block sandwich
• A Super Mario gummy fruit candy treat

I love how the Fire Flowers turned out ♥ To make them, I sliced a few circles from a piece of string cheese, used a round cutter to make slightly larger cheddar circles, then stacked them atop a cherry tomato speared with a flower stem bento pick. The eyes were dabbed on with food colouring marker. The rest of the piece of string cheese I used is tucked underneath the stems. 

The Mystery Block cheddar ? was made using my FunBites Cube it! cutter. Bella was super excited about her Super Mario lunch. She was having her breakfast while I was putting it together and kept walking over to peek and squeal... I hope it was as much fun to eat! It was certainly fun to make :)

Some stuff I used for this lunch: