Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty fun bento for Amy to eat at gymnastics last Saturday.
ham sandwich with Hello Kitty stencil in cinnamon
Hello Kitty shaped boiled egg, carrots sticks
craisins in the mini Hello Kitty container
green grapes, blueberries, strawberry heart

She ate everything except the blueberries. I only put a few as I just keep hoping she'll try them. Not yet.

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Hey Mouseketeers!

It's M I C K E Y  M O U S E!
green grapes, Mickey Mouse cheese sandwich
Mickey Mouse egg, grape tomatoes & carrot sticks
blueberry & raspberry cup

My black food writer marker was not cooperating and was looking kind of green really. So I had a brilliant idea to paint the egg and cheese ears with black food colouring. I saw it done here ages ago. Well, basically I made a mess. The bento looks OK but my hands don't! I also question whether this is going to make a mess when she eats it. It's all blotted and truly I only used the tiniest drop but it went a LONG way. I only touched the brush to the food colouring one time for each item! anyway, I might still try it some other time and just try to remember to be more careful!

I should mention that this is an at home lunch for Heidi. So it's not packed super tightly as it does not need to be transported :)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Heart snacks

These are from Friday (hot lunch day). I think that they would be great for Valentine's Day. They have all of the elements: chocolate, teddies, pink & red, hearts.

Amy
yogurt covered raisins, heart shaped strawberries
heart shaped watermelons, chocolate teddy grahams

Rose
exactly the same with a different container & presentation.


Saturday, January 28, 2012

Stars!

Heidi's Lunch
vanilla yogurt (sprinkles in the little cup), blueberries & raspberries
chocolate teddy grahams, honeydew, cantaloupe & strawberries
craisins, star shaped sandwich with fruit leather topper


Rosie's Lunch
star shaped boiled egg, blueberries & raspberries
chocolate teddy grahams, honeydew, cantaloupe & strawberries
craisins, star shaped sandwich with fruit leather topper

Friday, January 27, 2012

Cute bunnies...

Amy's lunch
bunny shaped boiled egg, grapes & clementines, teddy grahams
cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, craisins
bunny face ham sandwich




I heart you berry much

Red themed lunch for Heidi
yogurt covered raisins, raspberries, red goldfish
strawberry hearts, craisins, heart shaped sandwiches with sprinkles

This would be a nice Valentines day lunch too :)

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Hearts

Amy's lunch
cantaloupe, honeydew melon, goldfish, grapes, strawberries,
craisins, heart sandwiches with fruit leather topper & sprinkles

Rose's lunch
cantaloupe, honeydew melon, goldfish
strawberries & blueberries, craisins
heart sandwiches with fruit leather topper & sprinkles

I made an all red lunch for Heidi so I picked all of the red goldfish out of the coloured package and gave them to her :) I'll post that one soon.



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Princess Crowns

Princess crown sandwiches for 2 of my little princesses :)

Pink for Amy
diced peaches, clementines, honeydew melons, craisins
popcorn, ham sandwich crown

Blue & Green for Rose
blue vanilla yogurt, sprinkles in the HK cup
honeydew melon & clementines, craisins
popcorn & a bologna sandwich crown



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Lookin' Green

Green themed lunch for Heidi. 
green vanilla yogurt with sprinkles in the green cup, honeydew melon,
popcorn with green sprinkles, craisins, bologna sandwich - frog prince


 I started out making her sandwich with the frog prince lunch punch and then remembered that Bento Blog Network has a green theme this week. I have been wanting to participate in those for weeks now but I never remember to get it together. So a few quick changes of plan and Viola! Green themed lunch.

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Snack day!

A simple snack to go with pizza school lunch for Rose:
  • cucumber flowers
  • grapes
  • carrot sticks
  • honeydew melon
  • bit of ranch dressing in the mini green cup


Sunday, January 22, 2012

975 to go ...

Paper chain links that is. We're working on our Family Fun List #34 - make a 1000 paper chain. Since we are a family with 5 able paper chain makers, it probably wouldn't take us that long to just go ahead and make a huge paper chain. While it would be fun and we can marvel at the magnificence of 1000 links, it's not all that challenging. So we're kicking it up a notch and writing on each link the title of a book that either Amy has read by herself or one that has been read to Rose & Heidi &/or Amy. Basically each link represents a children's book read in some fashion. So far we have 25 links completed. Woo hoo!
I didn't come up with this idea right away on Jan 1st, and we really have just started this past week. I think we will need to step it up a notch on the reading to make up the time, but I believe that we can get it done. Here are our chains so far. (Since taking the photo I have added one more link.)

I am currently letting them make 2 separate chains that we will join together later. Mostly so that Amy can see her reading chain on it's own and track her personal reading progress. I am going to have her write the book titles on her own links from now on for the handwriting practice, this week  we have both written the titles.

The only hiccup in the master plan is figuring out how to keep the duplicates out of the chain. The littles tend to want to have the same books read over and over so I don't know what to do about that. So far it hasn't been an issue since it's only been a week. The plan is not to read 1000 different books, just 1000 books so I might not worry about the duplicates and just try to encourage variety with trips to the library etc. Anyone have any suggestions about the handling of duplicates? If someone has an idea for an easy system I can keep the duplicates out. Once we go over 100 books I know I won't be able to remember which ones are on the chain and which ones aren't. My memory is good, just not that good - there's a lot of other stuff floating around in there! I also don't want to skim through a list of 100's of books each time we read one either.

Comments & Suggestions welcome!

2 lions roar

... or they smile very sweetly.  These lions definitely have the friendly feline look ;)

Heidi's lunch
honeydew melon & blueberries, popcorn, yogurt covered raisins
clementines, grapes, lion face sandwich

Rose's lunch
exactly the same except different picks!

Amy was at home sick so no packed lunch for her. It was a very short illness and she's just peachy again. Thank goodness it didn't spread throughout the family - well except to me but I'm A - OK now too :)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Fishy, Bunny, Panda

Fishy Lunch for Heidi
diced peaches, fish shaped boiled egg, yogurt covered raisins,
string cheese, honeydew melon, grapes,
stacked cheese fish sandwiches on very thin bread

Everyone else was getting 2 eyes on their sandwiches today, so Heidi wanted 2 eyes too. So -- it's a four eyed butterfly fish!! haha.


Bunny Lunch for Amy
diced peaches, bunny boiled egg, yogurt covered raisins, granola bar
honeydew melon, grapes, ham bunny sandwich
Amy wanted her bunny egg to have 2 different coloured eyes :)

Pandas for Rose
diced peaches, boiled egg, granola bars, yogurt covered raisins
honeydew melons, grapes, ham & cheese panda bear sandwich

When I send unwrapped chewy, store bought granola bars they seem to break up a bit in their lunch boxes. I am trying out leaving them in the wrapper and so far it seems better. They just bring the wrapper home with them.

 
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It's a lion - really!

Lion face lunch for Rosie. It was a busy morning and time was running out. I was planning on using shredded cheese for the mane but there was no time, so I tried out the foodwriters. They never workout nicely on bread for me!

grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots
yogurt covered raisins, honeydew melons, ham & cheese lion sandiwch.

I thought of another plan for a fast and easy lion face but I had already cut the bread. Doh!
Next time.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Elephants

Elephant's for Amy

grapes, strawberries, cucumbers, carrot sticks
yogurt covered raisins, honeydew melon
Ham sandwich

Amy ate almost everything out of her lunch - yay!

The most delicious chicken salad wrap. Ever.

Seriously. I wouldn't joke about chicken salad. It's my own recipe that has developed over the years. Now it's perfect - so I'm going to share the love :) Ozzie and I had it for lunch today - YUM!



Curry Chicken Salad Wraps
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (any kind, even leftovers, but white meat is best)
 4-5  10 inch flour tortilla wraps
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup finely diced celery
3 scallions finely sliced, white & green parts
1/2 cup peanuts, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage (I eyeball it)
1/2 cup shredded carrots
(you can substitute about 2 cups bagged coleslaw mix for the cabbage & carrots as a time saver)

Sauce:
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp mango chutney (I like Sharwood's green label)
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp curry powder - I use Durkee
salt & pepper - if your peanuts are salted, go lightly with the salt or even omit it

I put all of the sauce ingredients in my magic bullet and whiz it for a few seconds. You could probably whisk it if your mango chutney isn't too chunky, or use a regular or immersion blender. In a meduim bowl combine all of the other ingredients (except the wraps!). Pour the sauce over and mix until everything is coated well. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavours develop. Next, fill and roll the wraps. It ususally makes about 4-5 wraps depending on how much filling you use in each one. It's also good on toast or straight out of a bowl!! I used spinach wraps today, but really I think it tastes best on plain flour tortilla wraps.

Frog Prince

Heidi's Froggy Lunch
grapes, strawberry, honeydew melon, string cheese
yogurt covered raisins and a cheese froggy sandwich



Monday, January 16, 2012

Beary-cute bento

Amy's beary-cute gymnastics bento.

  • stacked PB sandwiches
  • grapes
  • peanut butter in the mini cup ( to dip her carrots)
  • carrot sticks
  • cucumber slices
  • bear shaped boiled egg
  • honeydew melon



She still wanted extra carrot sticks - so she ate some of mine too!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Strawberry Cream Surprise

The girls made a fun dessert tonight. It's out of our children's cookbook by Anabel Karmel - Children's First Cookbook. It was pretty fun and very tasty!
It was easy for them to make together. Bash up some meringues. Mash and slice strawberries. Layer in a glass with strawberry ice cream. I didn't have to help with this except reaching some of the items from the cupboards, freezer etc. and read out the directions.

Rose's turn mashing


Amy slicing strawberries


Heidi's turn mashing strawberries



Ready to eat! We added a bit of whipped cream and left out the mint from the recipe. We also used pink crushed meringues instead of white.
 

They each made two, one for themselves and one for Daddy, Mommy or Nana. Delicious!

Superfast hearts bento

This was a fast bento to put together with not many "frills". It's Heidi's rainy Saturday lunch to eat at home while her older sisters went to gymnastics.
  • grapes
  • carrot sticks & celery sticks
  • ranch dip in the blue mini cup
  • honeydew melon in the heart silicone cup
  • peanut butter sandwich with heart cheese toppers

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Mickey Mouse

Gymnastics day bento for Rosie

  • grapes
  • peanut butter sandwich
  • ranch dip in the orange cup
  • celery sticks, carrot sticks, grape tomatoes
  • honeydew melon
  • Mickey Mouse boiled egg



All packed up in her Sassy box and ready to go to gymnastics.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday = snacks. Hello Kitty & Pooh

Almost made it through the day without realising that it was Friday the 13th! The oldest girls only needed a snack to go with their hot lunch, Heidi only takes a drink. Friday mornings are the easiest <3


Amy - Hello Kitty
honeydew melon, grapes, teddy grahams and a HK boiled egg

Rose - Pooh Bear
grapes & honeydew melon with pooh bear picks
teddy grahams and a Pooh boiled egg

Only a few teddy grahams, a couple of grapes and the boiled egg yolk were left uneaten. (well plus the hot dog bun since Amy doesn't like the bun!?!)

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Plain Jane Lunches.

We had a week of some pretty plain lunches. Amy had snack duty at school this week so with the extra bit of morning prep work, lunch making time was shortened and I didn't snap any photos most days. Here's one day from the past week.

Heidi's lunch
grapes, goldfish, fruit snacks
honeydew melon with a sad giraffe pick! and  ham d& cheese sandwich triangles

Amy's Lunch
grapes, teddy grahams, fruit snacks
honeydew melon, ham sandwich with a fruit leather elephant.

I think it was strawberry fruit leather - I finally found it back in the grocery store - they moved it!

Rose's Lunch
grapes, teddy grahams, fruit snacks, honeydew melon
ham sandwich triangles


Saturday, January 7, 2012

Snack Day!

Everyone has pizza lunch at school today - so a little bit of fruit for Amy & Rose to go with it. Both girls have the same: honeydew melon, grapes and a mini PB heart sandwich. I used Pepperidge Farm very thin sliced bread so it's a true mini!

Amy


Rose

Friday, January 6, 2012

Snowy lunch

I bought the girls some cute new magnets for their planetboxes. They're called Winter Wonderland. So I made them a bit of a snowy, white lunch to go with it.



Amy's Lunch
popcorn, apples, carrot sticks (and PB in the HK cup)
fruit snacks, snowflake sandwich with sprinkles

Amy did not want yogurt, so she got snowman noses instead!

Rose's Lunch
popcorn, vanilla yogurt with sprinkles in the penguin cup
apples, fruit snacks, snowflake sandwich with cheese cutouts

Heidi's Lunch
It's the same as Rose's except *slightly* different snowflake