Mardi Gras Mélange

Sailor Boy & I lived in New Orleans some years back, until shortly after we had our first sproutlet ... wow, I guess that would be 10 years back then! Doesn't seem that long ago... The people we met, the experiences we had, and that colourful city itself - it's all still quite vivid in my mind - and Mardi Gras there is unforgettable! Beanstalk was born in the Crescent City, the only one of the 5 sproutlets not born here in Washington State. He's proud of that difference, and considers Mardi Gras a sort of personal special day, so he was pleased to see King Cake on the breakfast table this morning. I didn't take a picture before they each had a piece, but here's what's left :)

It wasn't a real King Cake - I know I've mentioned before how baking challenged I am - I cheated with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls from the can, a little extra frosting, and coloured sugar crystals :) So much easier!

The sproutlets have a mélange of Mardi Gras colours in their lunches:

My NOLA baby boy was thrilled to see his bento full of purple, green & gold. He has white cheddar popcorn - Smartpop, his favourite, a treat to have in his lunchbox - as well as some Mardi Gras yogurt pretzels - 2 treats today, lucky boy! Purple, green (and red) grapes, and a mandarin orange (orange is sort of gold) which he'll hopefully eat before the sweets - riiiiight :)

The pretzels were an easy treat - I heated several on a plate in the microwave for 20 second increments until the coating began to look shiny (melty), quickly sprinkled on the coloured sugar, then popped them in the fridge for 5 minutes before packing them in the lunches. I bought a rainbow assortment sugar shaker yesterday - I could do this for every holiday!

Bella 's EasyLunchbox is also filled with purple, green & gold goodness. She has cucumber "doubloons", cheddar crowns, a little salad (including a new like, spinach leaves!), golden globe tomatoes, purple grapes, and green grapes - a little reminiscent of Mardi Gras beads? - and sugared yogurt pretzels.

It's Tuesday, breakfast for lunch day at school. Pickle loves having the pancake hot lunch on Tuesdays, and today was no different, but he also wanted a Mardi Gras lunch, so he asked me to make him a "home lunch" as well. I made him a "King" sandwich and packed it in a gold sandwich box :)

The pancake hot lunch includes sausage and fruit, which he never eats, but he does eat the Yami yogurt cup that also comes with it (he loves those little individual cups with the peel-off lids) so with the addition of the PB sandwich, he'll have a pretty full tummy today!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

For more Fat Tuesday Fun, visit:

Stuff I used for today's lunches :

 

Happy Holiday Monday!

It's Family Day in many provinces of Canada - although my home province of British Columbia won't officially observe it until 2013 - so Happy Family Day to my fellow Canadians! Lucky for me, it's also a holiday here in the USA - it's President's Day - so I get to spend Family Day with my family :)

I made patriotic lunches for some of my little American sproutlets. Pickle had a peanut butter sandwich, & yogurt (not shown). I tried to make his sandwich look like the American flag did when the first president of the United States, George Washington, was in office. 13 stars & 13 stripes - sort of :

Good thing I consulted Wikipedia because Pickle asked how I knew that's what the flag looked like, and then he asked to see proof! He counted too :)

The little girls had heart and star muffin tin meals :

Mozzarella string cheese stripes, red grapes on blue heart picks, hard-cooked eggs shaped with heart & star egg molds, little peanut butter sandwiches, strawberries, and yogurt with red & blue cupcake sprinkles.

Sprout and Birdie had been playing fancy dress-up just before lunch :) Watch the sleeve of your wedding gown in your yogurt Bean Sprout!

#77 & #78

I'm more than ¾ of the way to my goal of 101 peanut butter sandwiches!

Today was a 2 peanut butter sandwiches day. 

Pickle was very pleased to to be eating #77 & #78 :)

See them all here.

Too Cute To Eat

I made sweet little Hello Kitty bentos for the little girls' lunches yesterday:

Hello Kitty is a hard-cooked egg, cutified with a pink Hello Kitty egg mold, and embellished with food markers. Her little friends atop the strawberries are picks available from All Things For Sale, as are the cutters used for the cheese. I turned a muffin cup inside out for the applesauce - it makes more of a bowl shape that is easier to scoop a spoon against the side of. The applesauce is topped with a slice of strawberry, and surrounded by seedless red grapes. A few berry rice cakes are in there too :)

Well, Sprout wouldn't eat her egg. She didn't want to eat Hello Kitty! "I want to save her!" she told me and insisted I put Hello Kitty eggie in the fridge. Birdie made an angry face when she saw the applesauce. "I hate applesauce!" she told me in a tone that said I should have known that, crossed her arms, and wouldn't even sit down in her chair until I removed the offending fruit cup from the bento. Birdie had no qualms about biting into her Kitty-faced egg though!

Later, while the girls were having an afternoon snack, I was on the phone, and Sprout overheard me telling my friend that she wouldn't eat her Hello Kitty egg, "I suppose she doesn't like to eat food with faces" I said. "No!" piped up Sprout, "It's because it's cute, so I want to keep it! But see! I can eat a face!" and she arranged her snack like so:

I stand corrected :)

Stuff I used:

Spring is NOT in the air today...

... but it IS in Bella's bento... a little bit :)

Bella has cheddar flowers, Spring print Ritz crackers, grapes (there's a 2nd layer under the flower cup), tomatoes topped with ham tulips, carrot tulips, & celery. The carrot had a split in it so just had to make a 2nd split for the tulips. I attached the ham tulips to the tomatoes with cute little tulip picks from AllThingsForSale, and secured the cheese stack with a bunny pick from Daiso. A pretty Spring-y lunch to brighten this gloomy rainy day - I hope :)

Nothing cutesy for Beanstalk - he was less than thrilled about his Valentine's Day hearts bento. I did still sneak a little sunshine in - Sun-Maid raisins (made from grapes & sunshine, right?) and Spring print Ritz - but only the ones with the sunshine, not the flowers or butterflies :) 

To answer Jenn of Bento for Kidlet's question from the other day, "where do you take your lunch pictures?", I take mine on our front porch too! The light is best there in the mornings, although on gloomy days like today, the "best" light still isn't very good! :)

Pickle wanted pancakes. Fortunately for him (because I am not good at making them), when Sailor Boy makes pancakes, he makes lots so we have extra to freeze - so I only had to reach into the bag in the freezer :) He has separate spoons for the yogurt and the peanut butter cup - he likes a fresh spoon - and a dipping cup of maple syrup, covered in Glad Press'n Seal.

Stuff I used today: