Sharknado Cinnamon Rolls!

Yesterday was a gloomy, rainy day, but I didn't mind, that made it the perfect day to stay in and watch Shark Week on Discovery, and since it was a little chilly, to bake!  The sproutlets love cinnamon rolls, and watching Sharknado 2 the other day, I got the idea to make Sharknado rolls!

I took the easy route and used Pillsbury Grands! place & bake cinnamon rolls. I frosted them while they were still warm, and while the icing was still all melty, sprinkled them with shark shaped Wilton sugar sprinkles. Easy peasy!

Aren't they fun? Sugary sharks swimming in a swirl of sweet icing atop cinnamon roll tornados. Of course the kids loved them!

Today was another gloomy day, and the kidlets asked if I would bake Sharknado rolls again. I kind of did... just not cinnamon rolls... but that's for tomorrow's post :)

Speaking of baking... Eek! Have you seen these Fred and Friends Snack Attack Cookie Cutters? 

I totally want to bake some shark attack cookies for my next snack attack! Too bad I don't own them - yet :) But my friend Keitha does, & she used hers to make a Shark Week breakfast for her little guy - complete with ketchup blood! Check it out on her blog, Keitha's Chaos!

Here's one more pic of my sharky cinnamon rolls, because I'm hungry!

An Elephant Lunch Parade for World Elephant Day

Today is World Elephant Day! I packed Birdie's lunch in her Boon Trunk Snack Box. Nothing fancy - the box itself makes the lunch fun :)

She has mini croissants, grapes, honey ham rolls, a Babybel cheese, & a banana. I tucked some reusable ice cubes next to the ham to keep it extra chilly until lunch. And I used a mini cutter to cut a little birdie out of the Babybel wax, then stuck the cutout to the box, for an extra cute touch :)

The Boon Snack Box is quite roomy. The largest compartment is big enough for a juice pouch or small squeeze pouch. The lid is easy for a kid to take off, yet stays on securely when carried. It's pretty cute!

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Birdie has loved elephants since she was a toddler - she even chose an elephant theme for her 3rd birthday party :) So, we have a lot of elephant stuff, including bento accessories, & I have made a lot of elephant lunches - so I'm marching out my favourites for World Elephant Day:

Pink Elephants Lunch Parade

I like the smiling blue elephant cupcake ring I put on the string cheese :)

Parent & baby elephant sandwich made with a Lunch Punch Critter Cutter embellished with sugar eyes. So sweet ;)

3rd birthday bento!

Elephant Garden Muffin Tin Meal

Elephants & Carrot Peanuts :)

There's an elephant pick party in this lunch! I added a crown to the Lunch Punch sandwich - it reminds me of Babar & his family :)

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And this adorable bento is not mine, but I wish it was! I so love those elephant buns. It's by Eclectic Lamb, bento maker & bread artist extraordinaire!

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It's an Elephant Party & all are invited! 
Link your elephant food below :

An InLinkz Link-up

It's Shark Week!

Discovery Channel's Shark Week is one of our favourite summer traditions! So I was setting this stuff out tonight to make my 13 year old a shark-themed bento tomorrow, when I remembered he has oral surgery in the morning! He'll be wanting soft foods only for a few days, and probably only ice cream tomorrow, so my lunch plan would have to change. That's okay - like Fin in Sharknado 2, I'm just making this up as I go along ;)

Shark Lunch Alert!  With a bit of thought, I made use of Beanstalk's Laptop Lunches & the shark accessories for Pickle! He really liked the fun shark fact on the Lunchbox Love note, and the flip side too, which said "Don't be afraid to ask questions. That's how we learn." That boy loves asking questions, lots of questions :)  Shark fact card from Lunchbox Love for Kids Volume 9

I made a couple of peanut butter sandwiches with a shark cookie cutter. They were kind of small so I added a sandwich ocean floor beneath them - the perfect place to stick the bento pick letters. My picky boy never eats crackers so I only included 2 goldfish - in case he felt like trying something new (he didn't). A drop of food colouring made blue yogurt to stick the shark fin cupcake pick into, & I chopped a string cheese into triangle shark teeth. Sharks do have several rows of teeth, you know :)

Maybe Beanstalk'll heal fast & be back in biting form soon... as Marian Call sings in The Shark Week Song, "It be Shark Week all week through!"

And here are a couple of my favourite previously devoured shark bentos:

 

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Click the pic for the original post 

I've got a couple more fun Shark Week ideas I'm going to try to get to, though even if I do, I may not get a chance to blog them - so you should follow me on Instagram - I'll at least post a pic if I do!

Update: I did get around to making one of my sharkish food ideas - Sharknado cinnamon rolls! And also a shark lunch for Birdie, with a Sharknado pizza roll :) Click the pic to see all my shark week posts:

Happy Shark Week!

Some stuff I used to make these lunches:

A Birdie Bento for my Baby Bird

We haven't called Birdie Baby Bird in a long time... at some point the nickname evolved, but that's how it began - when she was a toddler she liked to chirp, just like a baby bird. I packed her a Birdie-themed PlanetBox Shuttle for lunch:

My friend Venia (of the lovely Organized Bites blog) sent me a birdie sandwich cutter she found at Target. It makes 4 birds (or chicks) that can be arranged as you like. I spread Birdie's cheese sandwiches around her yogurt-filled Little Dipper. I remembered I had some chick-shaped sprinkles in an Easter mix so added a smattering, & glued some sugar eyes on the sandwiches with honey. On the side she has grapes, a clementine, & tomatoes.

Since we planned to take lunch to the lagoon at the park, I added a cloth napkin & a happy little spoon atop the sandwiches, which besides being useful for eating & wiping fingers, fills the empty space & helps keep things from tumbling in a heap when the PlanetBox is carried. 5 year old Birdie's just learning to read so I chose a simple Lunchbox Love note for her:

I love the little bird that's on every Lunchbox Love note ♥

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Some stuff I used to pack this lunch:

Back to School Bento Basics & Blooming Bento

If you asked me for a tip about packing bento lunches, I'd probably tell you ...
You don't need to spend a lot on bento tools & accessories - spend some time playing around with what you have on hand first! You may discover you already have more bento-worthy tools than you thought - and the most important tools - your creativity & ingenuity - are free ♥ 

But I know you want the fun bento stuff anyways, so be sure to do the Bento Bloggers & Friends Bento Basics Giveaway Blog Hop! 

I skipped the bento picks & went back to basics to make this simple flower-filled EasyLunchboxes bento. I made the cheese sandwich flowers with a cookie cutter from the Wilton 101 Cookie Cutters set I've had since I began making bento.  I've gotten so much use from this set! It has the complete alphabet, numbers, animals, vehicles, sports, seasonal & holiday shapes, flowers, hearts, stars, & more... a little of everything. I also cut some carrot blossoms, arranged grapes in a flower design, & filled a Tupperware Smidget with candy-coated chocolate sunflower seeds for a colourful treat:

The small blossoms are organic rainbow carrots! They came in a bundle with the usual orange carrots, plus yellow & purple ones (which have gold centers!) They're so pretty ♥ They all taste pretty much the same to me though, I don't think I'd be able to tell them apart in a taste test :) To make the carrot blossoms, I sliced a couple of rounds from the end of each carrot & cut it into a flower shape with a vegetable cutter.

 

To make the grape flower I arranged a few on their sides in a silicone baking cup, nestled one in the center of them, & filled the surrounding space with grapes of another colour. Cherry or grape tomatoes work well too :)

Before I put the lid on the EasyLunchbox, I added a colourful cloth napkin to the main compartment. Tip: use a cloth napkin to fill space & keep food from shifting. Lastly, I tucked in colourful Lunchbox Love note, to brighten my sproutlet's lunch & day :) And I did remember to put the lid on the Smidget!

Most of the stuff I used to make this lunch: 

 

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So, going back to my beginner to bento tip...  to help you get started building your bento toolbox from what's already in your kitchen, I've made a list of items that come to mind :)

Bento Tools & Accessories Already In Your Kitchen!

• A sharp paring knife is all you need to make striped cucumbers, checkered apples, & carrot stars.
• Drinking straws can be used to cut out tiny circles, ovals, & crescents for details & features.
• Tweezers are handy for placing tiny details where they go. 
• Cookie cutters can be used to cut sandwiches, cheese, lunch meat, & some fruits & veggies.
• Cookie stamps can be used to make impressions in bread, and even some fruits, like watermelon.
• Cupcake picks make awesome bento decorations! Save some from all the parties you give & go to :)
• A melon baller makes fun fruit shapes, & tiny rice balls (onigiri).
• Vegetable crinkle cutters can be used for more than veggies :)
• An empanada (dumpling) press makes fun filled mini-sandwiches.
• Cocktail picks & drink stirrers make great skewers.
• Bottle caps & medicine cups do double duty as circle cutters.
• Play dough cutters & accessories make brilliant bento tools! 

I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting, too. So while all those cute bento picks & themed cutter sets are fun to collect & use, you can take your time acquiring them while you use what you have. As you develop your skills & discover your style, it'll be easier to decide which items you really want  :)

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And hey, maybe you'll be a winner in the Bento Bloggers & Friends Back To School Bento Basics Giveaway ... the Grand Prize is a $70 gift voucher to BentoUSA ... what a bento shopping spree that would be!

Even if you don't win a prize, you'll get valuable tips from the Bento Bloggers & Friends that will make the blog hop worth your while - it'll be a bento learning experience :) Now, pay attention, here's how to enter: 

Take note of the letter & number on the blackboard puzzle piece below. Next, click the button beside it to hop to Lunches Fit for A Kid to see what tips Astrid has for you & get the next piece in the puzzle. Keep hopping & collecting puzzle pieces until you get to the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog, where you can enter the Giveaway! You'll need to put all your puzzle pieces in numerical order to spell the answer to a mandatory question in the Rafflecopter widget, then follow the instructions there to get more entries. Good luck!

   

More details about prizes & stuff in the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog post. Now go! Hop!