another lunch

EasyLunchbox & Lunch Punch bento lunches - g'day mate! & beep beep!

2012-01-31T11:58:00.000-06:00

My girl Paige was carrying on and on about neeeeding a bento for lunch today. "You haven't made me a bento in practicality forever and ever!" she whined. Poor thing. ;-) But it was easy (and fun!) enough to dish up a couple cute lunches before preschool.

Paige's lunch:

Packed in an EasyLunchboxes container:
- peanut butter & blueberry preserve sandwich, cut with a Lunch Punch "Landwich" shape - Australia!
- whole grain Goldfish crackers (to fill the Great Barrier Reef area)
- a few koala cookies
- mixed fruit, speared with a couple cute bento picks, a mighty croc and a dingo ("the dingo got my grapey!") (from this set).
- I added a little fruit leather heart to send my love to Kiersten, the Lunch Punch creator. Mwah!

Tyler's lunch:

Also packed in an EasyLunchboxes container:
- same peanut butter & blueberry preserve sandwich, but cut with the Lunch Punch "Vroom!" car shape
- some organic vanilla cookies, featuring electric cars (cute!) (from Whole Foods)
- whole wheat pretzel sticks
- mixed fruit
- a hand-cut lightning bolt to mirror the cookies. That lightening bolt was trickier for me to cut out than I'd like to admit!

My little car lovin' boy was thrilled with his car sandwich. He said "honk honk!". So cute. :)

note: The Australia cutter is part of the not-released-yet "Landwiches" set of Lunch Punches. They are not available for sale, but this Aussie one was part of a promotion for Bega cheese that took place in Australia several months ago. I was lucky enough to get one of those ones.

bunches of bentos: Goodbyn Bynto and Lock & Lock boxes

2012-01-26T09:05:00.000-06:00

I have been a tad lazy in recent mornings and haven't been taking lunch pictures. The dark and dreary (and often drizzly) mornings make me want to curl up and pull the covers back over my head. And sometimes that's exactly what I do. As a result, there isn't a lot of extra minutes for snapping pictures before packing up the backpacks and shoving the boys out the door.

But I came across some bento pics from recent weeks that I never posted. So here they are! It's their time to shine. Or at least, not be lost and forgotten in old picture files.

First up, a Goodbyn Bynto box lunch:

- granny smith apple slices (dipped in juice to prevent browning)
- Whole Foods cereal bar and homemade granola bar, and Ritz crackers
- turkey and cheddar cheese

Judging by the bento pick with the ornament on it, this bento predates Christmas!

Second up, another Bynto box lunch: (I could have sworn I had posted this one! I can't find it on the blog though...still, I apologize if this one's a repeat!)

- carrots and grapes in a jumbo silicone cup
- turkey and cheddar cheese, cut into bunny head shapes
- mini saltine crackers

To cut those bunny heads I used a small metal rice shaper tool, like this one.

And finally, a Lock & Lock lunch:

- mini saltine crackers
- Whole Foods cereal bar
- homemade granola bar
- carrots
- turkey and cheese, cut with an elephant cutter (discontinued special offer from Jello YEARS ago)

This box seems to be out of stock at a couple places I checked. I'm not positive, but it looks like it might be getting replaced by this new style. Not sure what I think about that!

Has anyone bit the bullet and bought a Bynto lately? I have to say, I'm kinda wishing I had tried it sooner. We love this box! It's been the most-used box for Ethan's lunches since getting it. :)

recipe: Crunchy Cheese Crusted Stovetop Mac n' Cheese

2012-01-23T07:57:00.000-06:00

Mmmm, have I got a treat in store for the macaroni and cheese lovers out there! I'm sharing a super yummy recipe I created for a delicious mac n' cheese. It's good. Real good.

The recipe is right over HERE, click to pop on over and ~~drool~~ read all about it. :)

FunBites giveaway WINNER ANNOUNCED

2012-01-22T11:08:00.001-06:00

Howdy ho!

Thanks to random.org, the winning commenter was #32 -

I am sorry for the horrendous picture! I am now operating on a Mac and don't know how to do a screenshot. Ha! Too much to learn.

The Harper Family! Congratulations! I'll zip your contact info to FunBites and you will hear from them shortly.

Another giveaway should be up this coming week, especially for likers of the Another Lunch Facebook Page! Over the last few days we passed the 7,000 mark! Crazy! Fun! I'd like to celebrate by having a giveaway -- bento goodies from my mega stash! Yay!!

Sure hope everyone is having a nice weekend! Me, I'll be cleaning out a big closet and loading it with pillows and blankets, preparing for the kiddos to sleep in tonight. Tornado weather is a'comin our way. Shout out to the southern peeps - keep an eye on the weather forecasts! I didn't have a clue until a friend alerted me this morning! Sigh.

FunBites review & giveaway

2012-01-13T08:52:00.003-06:00

Do you know about FunBites? They are new to the lunch scene, making some really neat food cutters.

FunBites are unique in that they cut food into many bite sized pieces in one fell swoop.

They are a two piece cutter set. The outside piece does the cutting, then the inner piece pops all the bite-sized bits out easily.

The pink cutter is called Luv-It and creates a mosaic of bite sized pieces into a heart shape. In this case, french toast.

The green cutter, Cube-It, makes perfect little squares. Rows of cute french toast squares. So tidy and uniform.

I am especially smitten with the square cutter. What can I say? It's hip to be square. :) It is is the perfect size to make square cheese pieces on mini saltine crackers.

The FunBites cutters are very sturdy and well made. BPA free and dishwasher safe and all that good stuff. :) They can easily cut through a variety of foods.

One of my favorite things I've made with FunBites are mini sandwich stackers. Teeny tiny, perfectly square sandwiches.

FunBites is providing one of their cutters to one lucky Another Lunch reader. One winner will get to choose either the heart cutter or the squares cutter and FunBites will zip it right on over. :)

Giveaway:

- leave a comment telling which FunBites cutter is your favorite, Luv-It or Cube-It?

- for an extra entry "like" the FunBites Facebook Page (leave an extra comment stating you liked them on Facebook if you choose to do this - that extra comment is your second entry!)

IMPORTANT - make sure there is some way for me to contact you! Leave an email, or have your name clickable to a profile or something. If there is no way for me to reach you then I'll have to draw another entry!!

This giveaway will run until next Friday, January 20. I'll close comments late that night and announce the winner that weekend. Wheee! Winner will be chosen at random, of course. :)

AND because FunBites is so super cool they are offering FREE SHIPPING if you order through their site, FunBites.com using the coupon code "anotherfunlunch". Sweet! Coupon code expires February 14, 2012. Thanks, FunBites! :)

disclaimer: FunBites provided these two cutter sets to me for my review, and are providing one cutter set to the winner of this giveaway. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own! :)

*** Comments are now closed for this giveaway, thanks!***

Laptop Lunches bento & rosemary bread recipe

2012-01-12T10:21:00.001-06:00

This is a momentous event, this bento lunch of Ethan's today!

Packed in a Laptop Lunches box:
- carrots and grapes
- granola bar
- turkey and cheddar cheese
- homemade rosemary bread

First of all, I think it's the first time he's ever taken a Laptop Lunches box to school. Which is funny because I bought this box before he started Kindergarten thinking it would be his main bento container. Then he turned out to be a light eater at school and the box was just too big for his appetite.

Secondly, I think this is the cutest cheese, ever! It's just the usual cheddar cheese I always use (bought in big blocks from Costco and sliced at home), but I used cutie patootie little bento cutters to make that adorable bear face. Squeee! I am eternally grateful that my ten-year-old boy still thinks things like this are really cute too. :)

Thirdly, did you see that there is BREAD in this box?!! Bread, folks! My kid is eating bread! This is my child that has only eaten bread if it is toasted or grilled and comprised of sourdough. Period. But I made some homemade rosemary bread several days ago and he flipped for it, gobbling it up just as fast as I could cut it. I made a second batch yesterday and this small piece is all that was left. He saved it asking it to go in his lunch for today. Yay!

The rosemary bread is devine. If you are familiar with the bread from Macaroni Grill, you'll love this too because it tastes exactly like it. YUM!

(sorry for the goofy picture. I took it with my camera phone.)

Rosemary Bread Recipe

1 C. warm water
1 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. yeast

Combine these three ingredients in a glass bowl and leave it alone until the yeast gets all happy, bubbly and foamy. This can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes, depending on how fresh the yeast is and the temperature of the water and the room.

When everything is puffing up and looking weird add:
2 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Mix it all up. When you are getting close to everything being all incorporated add the rosemary. I used dried crushed rosemary, but fresh would surely be lovely too. I'll be doing that when our herb garden is up and growing this summer! For full strength rosemary bread add 2 Tablespoons of rosemary (this is the right amount for Macaroni Grill knock-off bread), use less if you like a more subtle rosemary flavor.

Continue to mix, add flour if needed until the dough is not longer sticky, and you can knead the dough into a soft round. Knead for ten minutes, got to get that gluten going!

Oil a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil. I use the same bowl I mixed the dough in, to save myself from washing extra dishes. ;-)
Put the dough in the oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Leave in a warm place for it to rise for one hour, until doubled in size. (I leave mine in the oven, turned off, but with the oven light on).

After an hour of rising, punch down the inflated dough and divide in half, then in halves again. This will leave you with four small rounds of dough. Allow the dough to rest for five minutes.

While dough is resting prepare your baking sheet. Wipe with extra virgin olive oil, or use parchment.
Place dough on baking sheet, allowing several inches of space between.
Brush or spray (I use this oil sprayer filled with EVOO) each dough round with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Allow to rise again for 45 minutes, until doubled again.

Bake in a preheated oven at 375 for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. For a more golden and crunchy crust, pull out half-way through baking and brush/spray with EVOO again.

This will yield 4 loaves of bread that are about 7" round.
I crunched the numbers for nutritional breakdown.
For a half-loaf (making this recipe yield 8 servings):
calories: 193
fat: 5.2 grams
carbs: 29 grams
fiber: .8 grams
protein: 5 grams

I hope you enjoy! We sure are! :)

back to school with Bynto lunchbox :)

2012-01-05T10:37:00.000-06:00

Buh-bye, holidays.

School resumes for us today. Well, for some of us. Owen is home "sick" with pink eye. Blech!

Ethan's lunch for today is packed in our Bynto lunchbox.

In the top section:
organic granny smith apple slices (dipped in some fruit juice to prevent browning) and organic baby carrots in a silicone cup.

middle section:
peppered turkey and cheddar cheese (cut with a mini beary cutter).

bottom section:
pretzel sticks.

And Ethan's snack (if you tilt your head to the side you'll barely notice how crooked the photo is!):

Grapes and mini saltine crackers, packed in a small two section Lock & Lock box.

Every time I post a bento with mini saltine crackers I get questions asking where I find them. So here it is - They are from the brand Premium and come in a regular box. I usually find them stocked next to the oyster crackers. If you have a Publix you can get them buy 1, get 1 free this week. :)

the best use for a plastic zip-top baggie ever

2011-12-31T11:09:00.001-06:00

The world's best use for a plastic baggie, like ever.

It's not for lunch.
It's not for leftovers.
It's not for use as a piping bag.
It's not for a makeshift icepack.

The best use for a plastic zip-top baggie is to safely seal away a Kindle to read in the bathtub!

No more soggy pages stuck together and drying into ripples that don't lay flat anymore! No more attempting to balance a heavy book out of the water while trying to relax.

Never thought I'd appreciate a plastic baggie this much. ;-)

I'm not sure this baggie trick will work on readers that use a swiping motion on the screen, but since the Kindle has buttons on the sides for page-turning, it works like a charm!

After a few years of being interested in a Kindle, I finally got one this Christmas. I went with the bare-bones cheapest model. I didn't want any bells and whistles on an e-reader, I just wanted to be able to read, period. The less fancy, the more likely my children will keep their hands off it! I still need to learn all the ins and outs of Kindling (that's a verb, right?), but so far I'm really enjoying it.

When I'm not reading on my Kindle is chilling in this adorable cover/case I ordered from etsy. :)

You know, for love of elephants. :)

Coincidently, the first book I read on the Kindle was Water for Elephants. I had hesitations about reading it, because as I shared before, I really despise the circus, but the story did not attempt to make the circus endearing (nor, go out of its way to villainize it... animal circuses tend to do that well enough on their own!).

I'd love to hear from Kindle users any tips or tricks you have! So far I know that I can get one free download a month from the Kindle Lending Library for being an Amazon Prime subscriber (I got Water for Elephants as my December freebie!).

Just yesterday I learned of the Kindle Daily Deal, where one title is severely discounted. I got The Handmaid's Tale for $1.29 the other day, but missed The Life of Pi, which was available for only 99 cents the day before I found out about the Daily Deal!

What are your public domain favorites? I love the bevy of free downloads in this category! I'm starting in on Pride and Prejudice (I'm embarrassed to admit I've never read it) and working my way (slowly) through Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.

Happy reading!
Oh! And Happy New Year's Eve! Be safe out there! :)

Beary Christmas and snowmallows lunch

2011-12-22T11:14:00.000-06:00

We are on Winter Break from school, but we are still on the go (sigh!) and needing to eat. :) Today we have haircuts (got to look our best for Santa tomorrow!) and last minute errands to run.

Paige's little snacky lunch for today.

She has a mishmash of holiday fun foods:
- grapes
- Goldfish crackers, holiday edition
- marshmallow snowmen (and snowgirl)
- deli rolls (turkey bologna and provolone)
- cucumber slices
- hard boiled egg

The marshmallows are lined up on cute bento picks to look like snowmen. :) I used my food safe markers to dot on some faces and buttons. My red marker has seen better days and their mouths look wonky as a result!

The hard boiled egg is molded in a bear shape. But I didn't use the usual bear-shaped egg mold, I used an onigiri (shaped rice) mold. It is part of a 3-piece set set a sweet friend surprised me with a while back. :) I actually can't hardly cook rice to save my life (I'm a disgrace to real bento makers worldwide!), so I repurposed it to shape eggs. :) The bear has a little holly decoration on one ear nub, I drew on using my favorite food safe markers.

The process was the same as using a regular egg mold (see tutorial on how to make shaped eggs here), but I had to use a smaller egg and hold the pieces of the rice mold closed with rubber bands since rice molds don't clip closed.

Paige's little Beary Christmas holiday bento is packed in our leaflet tight bento box. . :)

lock & lock bentos: a couple holiday lunches

2011-12-20T10:06:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of Ethan's recent holiday bentos. :)

Lunch from Friday, I think.
- Wheat Thins crackers
- grapes
- homemade granola bites (with holly sprinkles) in mini silicone cups
- turkey and cheddar cheese

I added some fun Christmas sprinkles to the granola bites to spruce them up a bit, and the cheddar cheese is cut into gingerbread man shapes with a mini cutter (from this set).

Today is our last day of school before Winter Break! Yay! Although the kids get out early, at noon, and there is no lunch period, being that Ethan's lunch time is usually at 10:30am he has a lunch-sized snack for today. He'd come home famished otherwise. :)

- sliced kiwi fruit
- organic baby carrots
- homemade granola bites (with candy cane sprinkles) mini silicone baking cups
- Goldfish crackers, holiday mix

Both these bentos are packed in a "4 square" Lock & Lock box.

Happy holidays, everyone!! :)

trying the Goodbyn Bynto lunch box on for size

2011-12-19T09:22:00.000-06:00

I've had this baby Goodbyn box, the Bynto, for a couple weeks (I ordered it from Amazon), but haven't had the time to do a really good review post of it yet. But, I can say that we like it a lot! Ethan's used it for school lunch several times and it's a big hit. The Bynto and the new Lego bento box are tied for Ethan's affections at the moment!

This lunch in the Bynto consists of:
- turkey rolls
- pear wedges
- cereal bar
- crackers

The turkey rolls are secured on cute bento picks, and the pear slices are contained in a jumbo silicone muffin cup. I LOVE those jumbo muffin cups, but their size prevents them from being used in most of my bento boxes. I am so happy that they work perfectly in the new Bynto. :)

I'm hoping to get to a thorough review post of the box soon, comparing it to it's big brother box, the Goodbyn. But I can say this: it's much smaller, it fits in a standard lunchbox, and the lid is easier to put on & take off (much!). I'm trying to think hard to come up with something I don't like about it. But the truth is, I can't. And I'm trying to talk myself out of ordering another one. I do have four kids after all....

Laptop Lunches winter snowflake lunch

2011-12-14T19:59:00.001-06:00

A wintery snowflake lunch for my little girl.

This wintery lunch consists of:
- popcorn (leftover from the previous evening movie snack) with jumbo snowflake sprinkles
- grapes
- clementines
- mini pb&j circle sandwiches with snowflake tops

The snowflakes atop the sandwiches are made from provolone cheese. The snowflake shapes are from a set of mini Christmas cookie cutters, and the details were made using a tiny bento cutter (from this set and this set) and a teeny straw.

This lunch is packed in a Laptop Lunches box. :)

cute Christmas snack: How the Grinch became a Kiwi

2011-12-13T19:07:00.000-06:00

I have been stewing over how to make a Grinchy kiwi guy for a few weeks. The thing about the Grinch, is that he's a big meanie. And kind of scary. And I haven't exactly had a lot of success trying to make food look menacing (just take the nervous jack-o-lantern sandwich, or demented frog toast, for example).

The most pressing issue I had was figuring out what to do about the Santa hat. A cupcake pick just wouldn't do. I fooled around with fashioning one out of fruit leather, but that was wonky and the color was all wrong. But then when browsing Pinterest one night, I saw some little brownie bites topped with strawberry and frosting Santa hats (link). Strawberries! A strawberry Santa hat! Of course!! So then it on like Donkey Kong. Or, on like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, in this case.

He's a mean one, this kiwi dude. This Grinch is a peeled kiwi fruit, topped with a strawberry and mini-marshmallow Santa hat. He is propped up in a mini silicone cup (it's actually a heart shaped cup. Don't tell the Grinch!).

Another detail I pondered beforehand was how to make his sinister eyes. Icing eyes are much too cute for the Grinch. And then as I was sorting through Halloween candy to pluck out the pieces suitable for our gingerbread houses, I saw banana Laffy Taffy. I remembered immediately how the people in one of my favorite cute cupcake idea books often sculpt their decorations from Laffy Taffy. Perfect!!

I rolled the Laffy Taffy out nice and thin, cut out the right shape, and then colored the middles with my fave food safe markers.

I'm mostly pleased with how he came out. This Grinch was definitely the hardest kiwi guy I've made so far! I had been so focused on figuring out the hat and the eyes that I didn't realize he would need that creepy curvy mouth. I gingerly carved out his mouth with a steak knife. Probably not the best tool for the job. I would have done it differently had I thought about it beforehand. As it was, I had him all done and then realized after the fact that he still needed a mouth. Whoops! :)

One of my favorite details ended up being his eyebrows. I think they helped pull off the sinister look needed to be truly Grinchy. I like how they jut up off his face.

Paige's response: "Whoa! Mama, why did you make a mean monster Santa? He's not friendly at all! What? He's the Grinch? You mean that scary guy who tried to snatch Christmas?! Mama!! That's not nice of you."

Ah, well. Can't please 'em all. :)

Kiwi guys! Get your kiwi guys here!:
Little Bunny Foo Foo Goon
Frankenstein
Angry Birds Grandpa Pig
Kermit the Frog

breakfast burrito brunch bento

2011-12-13T09:24:00.000-06:00

This was a simple little brunch bento Paige had the other day. I had a morning appointment and my breakfast girl needed to eat on-the-go.

Since she has been on an egg kick (just for the last, um, two years or so, give or take....), I made a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, cheese and a little ham. I wrapped a little napkin around the burrito to help keep it rolled up while she ate.

Sides are pretzels, clementine orange (with cute panda picks) and there are raisins in the little panda cup.

Paige devoured the contents of this bento in about 2 minutes. Okay, maybe four. Maybe.

Warning: don't get between my girl and her breakfast.

Tyler's breakfast-on-the-go consisted of a (reusable) baggie of Cheerios, a banana, and a sippie cup of milk. I didn't take a picture of it. ;-)

another Lego bento box lunch

2011-12-12T08:55:00.000-06:00

Ethan insisted he take his new Lego bento to school today. He was absolutely giddy over it. When you can get a 10-year-old boy giddy over something like a lunch, well, you know it's something special. I had debated holding on to the new Lego bento until Christmas, but I'm kinda glad I didn't now because the poor kid might have just exploded if he had to wait all of winter break to take it to school to show off. This morning while eating breakfast he kept opening his lunchbox to peek inside, just to grin at the giant Lego brick and say "it's so cool!". Ha! :)

Today's Lego lunch:

- a row of Wheat Thin crackers
- a mini Lego container of sunflower kernels
- turkey rolls on homemade Lego bento picks
- strawberries in a jumbo-sized silicone cup

As far as I can tell these Lego food containers come in two sizes, large (which is what our big blue bento box is) and then small, which is really pretty mini (which is what the green inner Lego container is).

For some size comparisons, I took this picture.

So the big blue one is the main bento box, which fits nicely in Ethan's regular Pottery Barn retro lunchbox (seen here), then the mini Lego container is only like 4" long, this red one is the same as the green one that I packed inside today's bento (seen above). Lastly, I placed a regular old "real" Lego just so you can see the size differences.

Most of the Lego boxes at The Container Store are toy boxes and storage boxes and some of them are really big! If you order make sure you check measurements, and the description should state if it's suitable for food (and the ones that are will also say it's dishwasher safe). Also, if the photo shows it full of Legos, then it's probably meant (and sized!) for storage. :)

new bento box: Lego lunch!

2011-12-11T19:11:00.000-06:00

Hello big blue Lego brick bento box!

When I found this new bento box recently I had to get one for Ethan. HAD to! The boy only lives, breathes and dreams of Lego's. And now he can eat in one too! I came across it at The Container Store. We finally had one open up not far from home and I had to venture in on my first kid-free escape I could manage. When I discovered this box there I was thrilled! I've seen them periodically online, like in stock images in various weird places, but couldn't figure out where they came from. Mystery solved!

His mega Lego brick bento box holds his usual packed lunch foods: turkey rolls, cheddar cheese, kiwi fruit, crackers and a strawberry cereal bar.

The kiwi is chopped and in a jumbo sized silicone muffin cup with a Lego bento pick, the turkey rolls are also secured with Lego picks.

Lego bento picks! I made those using the same easy peasy technique shared in the tutorial: how to make cute bento picks. :)

The Lego cheddar cheese was made by cutting tiny circles with a wide straw and painstakingly placing the minuscule round nubs in place on rectangles of cheese. It was fun to surprise Ethan with the Lego'ed-to-the-max lunch, but I don't think I'll be making Lego cheese again anytime soon (or ever). It was a pain in the you-know-what.

To say Ethan was excited about this new bento box would be an understatement. He was totally stoked. :)

I know it can be hard to get a clear idea of the size of the box. I don't think it's as massive as it appears. It fits perfectly in Ethan's Pottery Barn Kids retro lunchbox with plenty of space left for an ice pack and drink container.

Lego mania! Who else has a kid or two (or three) vying for Lego's? Ethan is psyched about the new Dino sets. And there are a lot of Star Wars sets he still pines for. Not to mention Alien Conquest (that's Owen's fave), Ninjago, Pharaoh's Quest.... So many Legos, too little dollars. Ha. :)

bento lunch: Elfish delights in a sandwich box

2011-12-10T17:09:00.000-06:00

"Mama will you PLEASE make me a bento? How about a Cwissmas one? Please, please, puh-leeeeeez!"

She was relentless today, that girl child of mine. Good thing for her that #1 she's cute, and #2, I had made some boiled eggs the day before and was needing them to get eaten up.

Packed in a sandwich box, there is a boiled egg in a silicone cup, two little sealed ham and cheese sandwiches, green grapes and a clementine orange. A happy elf pick adds a little cuteness.

I made the boiled egg into a snowflake shape using my ice cream sandwich molds (the process is described here). I think it turned out pretty well, but you can kinda see how it is discolored towards the bottom from the yolk being close the surface.

The sealed sandwiches were made with a Pampered Chef sandwich press. I've had that thing a really long time, but gave up on it long ago because I couldn't ever get the sandwiches to turn out well for me. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong back then for them to turn out so poorly, because just recently when I came across it I tried it again and it all worked out just fine! Maybe it's all the years of lunch making experience I've accrued since my last attempt. Haha.

Paige was delighted with her little lunch. We are in the throws of Elf on a Shelf excitement here, so she was tickled to find a little elf in her bento box. :)

Bento lunches: Christmas twins

2011-12-09T08:48:00.000-06:00

These two lunches were for my two littlest kids earlier this week. It was a big day. The day I finally got my booty Christmas shopping! I was starting to have panic attacks that I wasn't ready at all. And now I've only got the stocking stuffs to go. Whew!

Anywho, these were the lunches I packed for Paige and Tyler, who went to the babysitting place while I stimulated the local economy.

Tyler's lunch:

Paige's lunch:

They are exactly the same! So much easier to pack lunches quickly that way.
Packed in Sassy boxes, they both have:
- mixed fruit: clementines, strawberries, blueberries
- pretzels
- sandwiches

I love how the sandwiches turned out! I used ice cream sandwich molds to make them. So easy! To add just a little extra touch I used a tiny diamond-like mini cutter to take out the center of the snowflake.

Twin Christmas bentos. Aw.

the lunches with lousy photos

2011-12-08T12:36:00.004-06:00

I tell ya, if it's not one thing it's another around here lately! I've moaned about my computer enough lately (it's in transit to get a new hard drive as I type!), but then yesterday morning I go to take pictures of these lunches and my camera makes a funny sound and a message pops up saying there is a bad lens connection. What?! *groan*gumble*sigh!*

I apologize in advance for the lousy photos. I took them with my phone and they came out pretty blurry.

Paige's lunch was packed in a Laptop Lunches box.
- clementine oranges and blueberries
- cucumber slices
- leftover grilled chicken sausage
- pasta salad with mini cheddar cheese hearts

I kinda tried to make a snowman out of the clementines. I'm not sure if that was an appetizing idea. You know what they say about yellow snow. I'm not sure what they say about orange snow. ;-)

Tyler's lunch:

Packed in a Nibble Tray he had the same foods, minus the oranges.

These two kids are pasta fanatics. They have never met a noodle they didn't like. :)

JOY in a bento lunch box

2011-12-07T20:30:00.001-06:00

I hate when I have a lunch idea, no matter how simple, and in the process of actually packing that lunch my scattered brain forgets everything.

Ethan's lunch, packing in a "4 square L&L":
- peppered turkey and cheddar cheese
- kiwi fruit
- Wheat Thin crackers
- strawberry cereal bar and homemade granola bite

The turkey has some cute alphabet picks that spell out JOY. I had meant to include a little foil wrapped chocolate that looks like the earth (just like the one in the World Series bento of yesteryear!), so this would be a Joy to the World bento. But... I forgot. Doh.

quirky snack: it ain't easy being green

2011-12-06T09:15:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago I took my oldest son, Ethan, to go see the movie Hugo.

Cheesy grins, before they became popcorn grins. :)

Prior to to the film there were previews, of course. One of them was for the new Muppets movie. As I watched the trailor I couldn't help but come to two conclusions.

#1 Amy Adams is adorable.

#2 Kermit the Frog looks like a kiwi.

Can you guess what happened next? :)
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I had to do it or else the idea would haunt me forever. :)

Kermit is my latest kiwi guy. He's got a fruit leather mouth liner (that sounds weird), and his collar is a slice of cucumber that is cut with a star-shaped cookie cutter, propped up on this upside down flowery shaped bento silicone mini cup. The thing that really makes Kermit recognizable are those eyes.

Icing eyes wouldn't do for this guy. Kermit's eyes are made from m&m's, mint m&m's to be exact. :)

Truth be told, I've never been much of a Muppet fan (though that old cartoon Muppet Babies was a fave) (am I totally dating myself with that confession?). But I have been a lifelong Sesame Street lover, and Kermit did have many appearances in that 'hood back in the day. :)

Kermit the Quirky Kiwi was quickly devoured by my little miss piggy, Paige. Nom.

Wanna see more kiwi guys? I've got the beginnings of a little kiwi guy collection going on. :)
Angry Birds Grandpa Pig
FrankenKiwi / KiwiStein
Little Bunny Foo Foo Goon

EasyLunchboxes (x2) dashing through the snow

2011-12-05T14:04:00.000-06:00

My girl's lunch the other day. I'm not sure which day. I'm all discombobulated since my computer crashed awhile ago. Ya know how I said it was resurrected? That didn't last. A couple days later it died again. It looks like I need a new hard drive. On a computer that is less than a year old. Curse you, technology!

All this to say, I'm all out of whack and off ~~kilter~~ schedule. Hence, two posts this last weekend (when I usually don't post on weekends), I'm at the mercy of my husband's laptop now and he usually needs it for work, so my access is limited. Sigh!

What was I saying? Oh, my girl's lunch the other day. Here it is:

Cute lunch contents:
- reindeer dashing through the snow (grilled cheese and marshmallows)
- blueberries in a mini heart-shaped silicone cup
- applesauce with holly sprinkles
- pine tree cucumbers

I love that giant reindeer cutter. It's much bigger than most standard cookie cutters. I'm not sure where I got it from, World Market, I think? perhaps? Despite its big size, it still leaves a lot of scraps. Perfect to chop into bite-sized pieces for my toddler boy.

My camera battery went kaput just as soon as I took Paige's lunch picture (technology is out to get me, I tell ya!), so this one was taken with my phone. Somehow in the phone-fetching process I got the background turned around so the stripes are now in a different direction. Whoops!

Tyler had:
- grilled cheese bites
- marshmallows, blueberries, yogurt covered pretzels in a pine tree shaped silicone cup
- cucumber scraps (leftovers from Paige's cut-outs)
- applesauce with holly sprinkles

Both meals are packed in EasyLunchboxes. To make sure the applesauce didn't seep or leak I added a tiny piece of plastic wrap to that one section before putting the lid on. They were carried in an "official" EasyLunchboxes carry bag, keeping the containers upright, so there wasn't any mess. :)

more sweet snacks, the Sunday edition :)

2011-12-04T18:10:00.000-06:00

These darn donuts. Too fun to play with and make cute. :)

The kids loved their donut snacks the other day, but Ethan wanted to sample the snowman and Paige was requesting a reindeer. It's not often we have donuts in the house, so there was no time like the present to make more cute snacks for them.

Ethan's sweet snack, with donut guys on the left and apples and carrots on the right:

Paige's sweet snack, with apple slices and cucumbers on the left and donut guys on the right:

These are much the same as the previous donut snacks, with just a couple changes. I perfected the antler shapes - I knew the last ones didn't look right, but after breaking a dozen pretzels and not seeing the right shape show itself I just did what I did. It wasn't until I saw the photo that I realized I just needed to snap off the top loop. Duh! :)

Other changes: Rudolph has jelly beans for a nose and I got a couple candy corns for the snowmen. I got just a few from one of those bulk bins of candy at the mall. This was nice because I was able to only get what I needed (rather than buy a big bag) and I sifted through the candy corns a little to scoop out the "defective" ones missing the white tips. The candy lady looked at me like I was a nutterbutter when I went to pay for my few pieces of candies and waved me out of her store without paying! Sweet deal. ;-)

Another fun addition for the snowmen are their hats. I found my Christmas bento supplies this weekend (I store the holiday and season-specific ones separately because I don't have kitchen space for ALL of it to be in there all the time) and these cupcake picks are a great topper. :)

The blue box is my PaperChase box, and the green one is a new addition. It's a Leaflet bento from Amazon. They are exactly the same size and come with the same inner dishes, but the green box has white inner boxes. This is a great alternative for anyone who wanted that PaperChase box that is no longer available!

fun (not so healthy) Christmas snacks

2011-12-02T18:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I needed to go to the gym and I had missed my morning window of opportunity, so I had no choice but to take the kids along after they got out of school. Ethan hates being dragged to the gym after school, and Paige is usually not so keen on the idea either (though she always likes to go in the morning... I think she's just tired after being at school all afternoon).

Anyway, to sweeten the deal (literally) I whipped up these fun snacks for them to take.

Packed in our small 2-section Lock and Lock box, Ethan has a Rudolf the Red Nosed reindeer treat and a pile of baby carrots (reindeer love carrots!). The Rudolf treat is a chocolate covered mini donut, decked out with pretzel antlers, icing eyes, and a red m&m nose.

Paige had a similar snack, packed in the same type of snack box, her bento holds a snowman treat and blueberries. Her snowman is a powdered donut decorated with mini chocolate chip eyes, mini m&m nose and fruit leather smile. I would have liked to use a candy corn for the nose, but I didn't have any. But I remembered that the Frosty the Snowman song states that he has "a button nose and two eyes made out of coal", so there ya have it - an orange button nose (there's actually two, the first one fell down in the hole, so I added a second one on top).

Donuts at the gym. There's got to be a joke in there somewhere. :)
While I tend to be downright Scroogey when it comes to Halloween candy and treats, I really let loose come December. 'Tis the season of peppermint bark, peppermint taffy, Candy Cane Joe-Joe's.... cookies will be baked, candy will be plentiful, cavities (and calories!) be darned. :)

let me pick your brain about giveaways

2011-12-01T13:11:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! Will you do me a big, huge, favor? Tell me what your thoughts/feelings/opinions are on giveaways. Specifically, about giveaways on THIS blog, Another Lunch. Since, you know, this is the blog I make decisions for. :)

If you can spare a second, please vote in the following poll. If you have any comments or thoughts you'd like to share, please do so in the comments.

I really appreciate it! Thank you!! :)