A Dolphin and a little negotiation

Despite my desire to pack a nice variety of cute lunches for my little B, ultimately, it's all about her.  She developed a nasty cough yesterday, and I felt the need to get some extra veggies in there, so I told her we were packing some nice vegetable soup in her lunch today.  She agreed, but we had to negotiate the rest.  She wanted some more asparagus and grilled cheese to go with it even though she had grilled cheese yesterday and asparagus the day before.  So be it.

So, today's lunch is vegetable soup in her thermos, dolphin and heart grilled cheese (cut with the dolphin/heart lunch punch), asparagus, some goldfish and a little container of applesauce.

Chicken Soup and Grilled Cheese

It's snowing pretty good where we are today, and I wasn't sure last night if we were going to have a snow day or not, so I didn't prepare lunch, just in case of a snow day.  Weather turned out not as bad as they thought, so we're off to school.  I just needed to pack something simple, with some warm soup.

So today we have chicken soup in her thermos, a couple of mini Hello Kitty grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh veggies, grapes, and some Hello Kitty biscuits.

Piggy Pizzas

Two mini piggy pepperoni pizzas today, along with some asparagus, cherry tomatoes, strawberry yogurt and a few mini fudge stripe cookies.

Preparation Notes:  These little mini pizzas are favorites, and they are really easy to make.  For this one, I used the CuteZCute cutter, but you can use any cookie cutter or simply leave them round.  I cut the pizza "crust" from a whole wheat sandwich thin.  I pop them in the toaster oven for a few minutes to get just a little crisp.  I put some squeezable pizza sauce on top, then layered on some mini pepperoni.  Then I top with the pizza cheese that I chop up a bit so it melts nicer and little pieces don't stick out over the edges.  Then it goes back into the toaster oven long enough to melt the cheese.  After it comes out, I put it on a cooling rack and add the decorative pepperoni cut outs on top.  After cooled, I place in her lunch box and it goes in the fridge.

In the morning, I preheat the toaster oven, and pop the little pizzas (and in this case the asparagus) into the oven long enough to heat through and crisp up the crust again.  I put them out on a cooling rack while we get ready.  Once everything is cooled all the way to room temperature, I put it all back in the lunchbox and it's ready to go.  This way it only takes a few minutes of prep in the morning, but nothing is soggy or soft from having been in the fridge.

Also shared at:

Hearty Leftovers

Today we have N'Anna's favorite leftovers, meatloaf.  Nothing really cute except for the silicone heart cups.  She's got cheesy broccoli rice with the meatloaf, and in the other container, some corn off the cob, craisins, and orange Jell-O with mandarins.

Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse lunch today.  I was browsing some other bento blogs, and the little one saw a cute cat and mouse lunch and said "I want that, I want that!".  I told her she'd have to eat another sandwich (which normally objects too), but she still wanted it, so I decided I'd give it a try.

Ham and cheese cat sandwich, mouse hard boiled egg, green beans, checkerboard apple slices and a couple of mini chocolate chip cookies.  The cat sandwich was made with the CuteZcute sandwich cutter, and there's some basic directions on making the mouse on the website below.  I used shredded cheese for the whiskers instead of dried spaghetti.  I cut a tiny "X" with the end of a knife to insert the cheese into.

Here's the one she saw:  http://eatsamazing.co.uk/lunch-boxes/another-cat-lunchbox

On another note, one of my favorite bento blogs is giving away some really adorable food picks.  Actually, I'm hoping that I will win - but thought I'd share anyway.  :)

   http://www.bentomonsters.com/2013/01/bento-berries-giveaway.html

A Few Flowers

Just a really simple lunch today.  N'Anna is more often requesting what she would like to eat in her lunch.  So if you are noticing some repetition, it's by request.  She asked for Spaghetti-O's and Meatballs (in her thermos) and a clementine with a cherry.  I filled out her box with a couple of cherry tomatos (which she never tires of), and some flower shaped garlic toasts.

Elmo and Oscar

N'Anna isn't much of a sandwich eater.  She really, really, really hates peanut butter, and usually if I send a meat and cheese sandwich, she eats the inside and bread comes home (although I guess that's ok really).  I was all excited today when she asked me for a ham and cheese sandwich, because I could use these really cool stamping Sesame Street Cookie cutters I got (I won a $50 Visa gift card in a drawing and decided to splurge on them and some other bento stuff I'd been wanting).

So, Sesame Street today.  Oscar the Grouch ham and cheese sandwich, a few olives, a cherry tomato with an Elmo cupcake pick, crinkle cut carrots (there's some ranch dressing for dipping in the little green container), two Elmo watermelon slices and a few grapes.

Also shared at:

WALL-E and EVE

I know it's an old theme, but we've not yet done a WALL-E lunch.  N'Anna wanted tomato soup and crackers in her lunch tomorrow, and I thought a hard boiled egg would be a good way to get some protein in there.  I've kind of been wanting to make an EVE egg - so there you have it.  WALL-E is a slice of cheddar that decorated with a food color marker.  Really bummed it smeared, but I really didn't want to waste it just to make it a little cuter.  Mini saltines under WALL-E, a chunk of cucumber, and some diced peaches round out lunch.

Butterflies - and some local bento shopping finds

Butterflies today.  We have a hot dog with cheesy broccoli rice, cucumber butterflies, cinnamon applesauce and three little Hello Kitty cookies.

Shopping tip:  I put together a "Fun Lunch Pack" gift basket for a charity silent auction to benefit N'Anna's school today.  I found some really great deals on some lunch products and thought I'd share.

Toys-R-Us had all of their remaining lunch products on clearance, and I picked up a cute thermal lunch box and a thermos super cheap.

I stopped into an Everything's a $1 store and they had some great locking lid, leakproof food containers in a bunch of shapes, sizes and colors.  Some of them even had the freeze pack that snaps into the lid.  I picked up several for my gift basket, and several for us - for $1 a piece!  They also had sandwich crust cutters in three different shapes.

I ran into my TJ Maxx store for something entirely different, and near the check out counter was a whole display full of bento boxes and various food containers.  I picked up a bento box just for me.  It was a clear locking lid style box with a divided top tray for just under $5.  They had more traditional style divided and stacking bento boxes in lots of bright colors for great prices.

Happy shopping!

I Heart Bears

Today N'Anna Bee has some chicken soup in her thermos and an I Heart Bears theme.  Little bear cheese sandwiches, heart shaped carrot bites, a clementine which I tucked a maraschino cherry and bear pick in, and a few pink and white mini marshmallows.

Bento Monsters Giveaway

A really great Bento Blog I just love is having a giveaway.  Here's the link:
http://www.bentomonsters.com/2013/01/400th-post-giveaway.html

Sauteed Ravioli

Today we have some sauteed cheese ravioli and meatballs.  There's some marinara for dipping in the little green container under the mini cookies.  We also have green beans and some pomegranate seeds.

Also shared at:

Strawberry Shortcake

Today we have Spaghetti-O's and meatballs in her thermos (not pictured), and a Strawberry Shortcake theme.  Some sugar snap peas, a cherry tomato with string cheese on a pick in the back, some sliced strawberries, and a couple of chocolate covered strawberries.  The little pink container also has Strawberry Shortcake pictured on the lid.  I picked it up at an Everything's a Dollar store quite some time ago.

Piggy Dogs

We're finally back at our normal schedule.  Today she's got a couple of piggy dogs, green beans, a cherry tomato, diced peaches, a couple of mini chocolate chip cookies, and there's some ketchup under the cookies to dip the dogs in.

I made the piggie dogs with a hot dog cut in half using this tutorial from motheringcorner.com:  http://motheringcorner.com/2012/11/22/piggy-family-hotdog-buns/
I used a Pillsbury crescent sheet though instead of homemade bread dough.

Sorry we've been MIA

Sorry for being MIA for so long!  We had a long Christmas break, which was really wonderful.  Then N'Anna B and I both came down with the flu or a nasty virus.  We've been quite ill all week.  Hopefully, we'll be better by Monday and back to school and work - and back to bentos.

Hoping to anyone reading that you and yours stay well!

Monkey Pizza

Mini monkey pizzas today.  We also have some cucumber slices, a couple of hot dog bites, a cherry tomato, a few mini chocolate chip teddy grahams, and half a banana (etched with a monkey).

Alphabet soup

Chicken alphabet soup in the thermos with "ANNA" mini grilled cheese sandwiches, orange and yellow carrots, a cherry tomato, and a little ranch in the orange container.  Also stuck in two little Hello Kitty biscuits.