Fall Picks!

Today's Fall-ish bento for Bella was a perfect example of what my friend Kendra refers to as "pickography" - that's when you make a bento with nothing really artistic done to the actual food, no carvings or shapes, just plain food, "where picks and cups and accessories do all the work."  You may know my friend as bloggess Ludicrous Mama of Biting The Hand That Feeds You (and if you don't, check out her blog).  Pick a theme, any theme... if she doesn't have a pick for it, they probably don't make one!

Bella's EasyLunchbox is packed with carrot sticks, turkey & cheddar wraps secured with Autumn Leaves cupcake picks, a tomato in a yellow flower cup, & grapes embellished with a flexible plastic Sunflower pick:

The picks I chose were inspired by the sunflowers I had seen in the courtyard of her school the week before. Sunflowers make me smile. I hope the simple touches to her lunch made her smile :)

Look! Gnome Lunch!

Bella requested a Clif bar & fruit for lunch today. I made it cute:

Her EasyLunchbox contains a Clif bar decorated with a garden gnome cupcake pick, sunburst & cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, dried strawberries, and in the little mushroom box, a surprise chocolate treat.

Some of the stuff I used to make this lunch cute:

Thank you to my buddy erin of feeling a little lunchy for the gnome picks!

Panda Pick Love!

I love having bento accessories for those mornings when I'm rushed or just not feeling up to doing much. This morning I woke up feeling dreadful and was going to tell the sproutlets to have school lunch, but none of today's choices appealed to Bella.  No worries, with the help of a handful of bento picks and silicone cups, I made this cute & colourful lunch in minutes.

She has a Foldit flatbread sandwich made with leftover chicken & cheddar cheese slices, a fruit leather rollup cut in half to fit the EasyLunchbox, baby carrots & a radish, and sunburst tomatoes, decorated with panda bento picks. Bella loves pandas. A little panda sauce container holds a Hershey's Kiss.

Stuff used for this lunch:

Linking up to the 150th week of 

What's For Lunch Wednesday!

Congratulations on this milestone Shannon!

Pirates Don't Change Diapers Muffin Tin Meal

Wednesday was Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I read the small sproutlets a pirate bedtime story. Birdie really liked it and took it to bed with her, so yesterday I read it to her again and made her a muffin tin meal to go with it. I'm a longtime admirer of Keitha's Story Themed Lunches, and wow, kudos to her - tying a book into a meal is harder than it looks - and she does it every school day! So here is my imitation = flattery tribute lunch pic, Keitha-style :)

As you can see, our copy of the book is well-loved :) 

Pirates Don't Change Diapers, written by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon,  is a sequel to How I Became A Pirate, (which we also loved). In the book, Jeremy Jacob gets a visit from his pirate friends, who wake his baby sister Bonney Anne from her nap and then must help take care of her. And of course, pirates don't know how to take care of a baby!

 

The baby in the book, Bonney Anne, has strained spinach for lunch. I didn't have any spinach, but I did have broccoli, so I substituted that - it's green! I made a little wailing Bonney Anne from cheddar cheese, and just happened to have a daisy bento pick just like the flower in her baby hair :)

The rest of the lunch is just a little bit pirate-y in general. She has parmesan goldfish, anti-scurvy oranges, grapes on swords, white cheddar Pirate Booty, and mozzarella cheese X-marks-the-spot with one piece of the cheese stuck through a skull & crossbones cupcake ring. 

Birdie loved the pink pirate ring best!

 

I love the Bonney Anne skull & crossbones on the back cover of the book!

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ 

Did ye catch the Talk Like A Pirate Day Bento Booty Treasure Hunt blog hop I took part in? Nay? Arr, what are ye waitin' fer? Th' hunt is only on 'til Sunday night... don't miss yer chance t' find th' treasure!

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ 

Hello Kitty Preschool Lunch in Goodbyn Mix & Match

Peek-a-boo! A pretty Hello Kitty snack & lunch peek through the lids of Birdie's Goodbyn Mix & Match containers :

This preschool lunch may look like party food, but it's really a pretty nutritious lunch, in just the right portions for my 3-5 year old. I know, some of you might be saying "Fruit snacks? Those are NOT nutritious!" and of course, you're right, but I'm okay with my little ones having occasional sweet treats as long as they are in moderation and in addition to a healthy meal.

I love this Mix & Match container set from Goodbyn! It comes with a matching, stackable snack set & sectioned meal set (as well as an undivided box suitable for a sandwich), and a little dip container! Birdie's snack container holds gummy fruit snacks, apple wedges, and baby carrots. 

Her small meal container holds a small peanut butter sandwich topped with a little Hello Kitty peanut butter sandwich, a hard-cooked egg (made with an egg mold), some grapes & strawberries, & a little yogurt she could either dip the fruit in, or eat with the little spoon I included. It may not look like a lot of yogurt, but the Goodbyn leak-proof dipper holds about the same amount as is in a Minigo cup - only scooped from our large tub for a fraction of the cost! 

I used food colouring markers to embellish the egg and sandwich, the dip cup is decorated with a Goodbyn dishwasher-safe sticker, and the little Hello Kitty's bow is actually a food pick! Little touches make lunch lots of fun :)

Goodbyn's Mix & Match line also includes matching drink bottles, a great rounded ice pack (water-filled - no blue goo!), & it all fits into the Goodbyn insulated lunch bag by Arctic Zone: 

 

Goodbyn food containers are made of BPA-free, pthalate-free, dishwasher-safe recyclable plastic.

●  ●  ●  ● 

Back To School Giveaway!

Tiny Wiggles sweetly gave me the set of bento picks I used for Hello Kitty's hair bow. And sweeter still, they're going to give a second set to one lucky reader! The set comes with all the picks shown above and below: 2 party hats, 2 bowler hats, 2 ball caps, and 2 bows. Tiny Wiggles carries more cute food picks and other fun mealtime accessories, as well as lunch gear like the Goodbyn Eco System Mix & Match containers I packed Birdie's lunch in.

My favourite pick from the giveaway set is the bow; it's so versatile. Yesterday I used it as a hair bow for a Hello Kitty, but it could also be a bow tie, or the ribbon under a kite... What would you make with these picks?

Good luck!  Giveaway Over - thanks for entering!

One more thing... Hats off to some of my bento blogger friends, they sure found some creative ways to use these picks! Check them out:

• Biting the Hand That Feeds You Goldilocks And The 3... Bunnies?
• Healthy Eating Starts At Home Summer Mealtime: Under The Sea
• Molly's Lunchbox Fast & Fun Lunches with Chobani Champions
• Lunches With Love Choo-Choo and the New ELB Mini Dippers
• Bento for Kidlet Friday Vlog: Kidlet Makes Lunch!
• Veggie-Bento A Quackin' Good Day At School
• A Boy & His Lunch Hats Bento
• Creative Food Elephant Bento
• Zoe's Lunchbox Flutter-Bye 

Happy Strawberries in Laptop Lunches

Today's lunch reminded me why I rarely try my hand at kyaraben (also charaben - short for character bento). It takes skill & patience to make those itty bitty faces! I'm always amazed by the creations of bento artists like Ming of Bento, Monsters, Jee Jee of BentoUSA, & Bobo of Making Bento Is A Blessing, they are truly edible art!

I did plan to make a family of smiling strawberries. I have a whole set of accessory food picks given to me by Tiny Wiggles (I'll soon be doing a review & giveaway of those) but I quit at two berry people! Birdie got them, and her sisters got plain strawberries. I braced for the "no fairs" but they never came! The older girls admired their little sister's cute lunch then dug into their own, hooray! Really, the only difference was their berries didn't have bows and faces, theirs were still colourful and yummy :)

     In Birdie's Laptop Lunches bento box:

• graham crackers
• strawberries - with smiling mozzarella faces
• carrot sticks
• grapes - and one tomato
• yogurt - with a smattering of coloured sugar sprinkles

Birdie: "Oooh, happy strawberries! And baby strawberries! I love dem! Dis one's de Mummy and dis is de Daddy and dose are de babies!" 

I love how even though both strawberries are sporting bows, one is a Daddy :) Way to look past gender stereotypes Birdie ♥

Some of the stuff I used:

 

Tooth Fairy Lunches

Yesterday was National Tooth Fairy Day! Maybe. There seems to be some confusion over whether it's August 22nd or February 28th. Both dates are fine by me, otherwise these tooth picks would be sitting gathering dust for the rest of the year - unless someone lost a tooth - or had a dental appointment - okay I guess they'll get used pretty regularly after all :)

Tooth Fairy is a peanut butter sandwich on wheat & white wheat - I made her of both so that I could pop the star out and flip it over for contrast. The Lunch Punch imprints the fairy image, but cuts the star right through. The girls also got celery & cheese toothbrushes, grapes and tomatoes on tooth picks (haha), and a Chobani Champions greek yogurt.

Pickle got a Tooth Fairy sandwich but I'd need a magic wand to get him to eat celery, tomatoes and grapes! He wanted his in an EasyLunchboxes like the others though, so I obliged - and added alphabet biscuits. Here's his:

These lunches were being eaten at home so the tooth picks (hahaha), yogurt cups, and juice box sticking out of the EasyLunchboxes weren't a problem, but for a school lunch, I'd have to arrange things differently. And since we are practicing for back to school lunches, that's what I did:

Though the Chobani Champions cups fit in the medium section, the lids wouldn't close with them in there, so I took them out. I usually buy the larger tub of Chobani to scoop my own portion from (and cover with press-n-seal, since the ELB is not spill-proof) anyways, but we had these left over from camping. They could also just be packed separately since they ARE self-contained. This freed up a space to move the grape skewers into, and the tomato tooth picks, with only 2 per pick, fit in the smallest section. Success! The lids went on :) We also had juice pouches left from camping so the sproutlets got those too. Pickle's lunch I left as is, since he normally takes his sandwich in sandwich-sized boxes, not EasyLunchboxes.

Edible Toothbrushes!

The celery & mozzarella toothbrushes were so easy.  The pieces of string cheese fit perfectly in the curve of the celery, I didn't need to attach them with anything! I used a mini cutter from a bento cutter set to make bristles but I think they'd be cute even without that detail.

The girls loved the celery toothbrushes - Bella even hammed it up pretending to brush her teeth with hers, and insisted I get a pic for her Facebook Wall  :)

Want some tooth picks?

I have heaps of these tooth picks, so I've decided to share them.  Like I said, they'll be fun to make special lunches for kidlets who've lost teeth, are visiting the dentist, getting braces off, or to add a smile to lunch :)

I've made 3 packets of 8 teeth, and will send 1 packet each to 3 readers :) Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below: Giveaway Closed
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You can leave a comment even if you don't want to enter, but you must enter via the widget as well as comment to be included in the prize draw. Good luck! but the Giveaway is Closed.

Lunchtime, chop chop!

We got a cute little chopsticks and cutlery set as a bonus gift in our last package from BentoUSA / All Things For Sale, (which Bella claimed), and the girls have been all about the chopsticks ever since. Every night they ask if supper is something they can eat with chopsticks - and they have such fun when they get to. I while back I read this blog post at Minivan Stiletto - Making Food Fun : Eating with Chopsticks - and I'd been meaning to make them fun chopstick lunches ever since, so today I did.

Sprout had a muffin tin meal full of little piggy picks - stuck in her carrots, grapes, and noodles - and a little piggy soy sauce bottle too. A smiling tree trunk pick turned her broccoli into a happy little tree:

Birdie's muffin tin featured her favourite animal - elephants. Even her chopsticks have elephants on them :)  She had cherries instead of grapes though. And both girls had a fortune cookie.

Bella just wrapped up her Musical Theater Camp, so I added a touch of music & theater to her lunch, with a comedy & tragedy drink stirrer as a skewer for her ham & pineapple and a music note silicon baran separating it from her grapes. She also had some baby carrots, broccoli decorated with musical note picks, noodles, and a fortune cookie. Her child-size chopsticks fit perfectly in the cutlery compartment of her Laptop Lunches bento box.

●  ●  ●  ● 

Pickle's peanut butter sandwich was a pair of feet. They were kind of little, but he also had yogurt - and a fortune cookie. No fruit or veg though :( He won't eat applesauce anymore *sigh*

I had a fortune cookie too - it said:

Yay!