Food, Family, Fun.

I made myself this quick little bento to eat before swimming lessons. We have a busy day tomorrow and I have to fast for a blood test. starting now! It's going to be a quick turnaround from my Dr's appointment to swimming lessons tomorrow morning and I know that I will be starving by then! 

I packed myself - grapes (hidden), blueberries, honeydew mini stars, cottage cheese with one sliced strawberry, carrots and cucumbers from our garden and some Baked Naturals cheddar crackers.

Under the sea lunches for the girls. Heidi was up feeling very ill in the middle of the night and is staying home from school with a fever. I hope she's better soon. I am desperately trying to get to the last bit of sorting out from the room switch but something keeps popping up! I don't mind a day of cuddling on the couch with my little darling though :)

Amy's Lunch

carrot sticks and cucumbers, goldfish, sharkbites

honeydew melon, grapes and a starfish sandwich

Rosie has almost the same packed in her planetbox

I added a small container of ranch dip for her veggies and gave her S'mores goldfish instead of cheddar.

Even though Heidi was sick last night and had a fever this morning, I still packed her a lunch in her EasyLunchbox and put it in the fridge. If she's not interested I can always eat it!

Heidi has peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cheddar goldfish with grapes & honeydew melon.  It might be difficult to see in the picture but those are small portions of fruit and crackers in the hopes that she will eat something.

Here are some things that I used for these lunches:

lemon  Greek  yogurt, grapes, popcorn

watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, fruit snacks

ham star sandwiches

I actually made two more star mini sandwiches but as they didn't fit neatly, Heidi ate them with her breakfast!  The star cutter feels like it waste a bit too much bread otherwise. As I made my sandwich first and then cut it out it wasn't the kind of bread to freeze and save for bread pudding! I made the Greek yogurt star last night. I left some white and filled a star cutter, then coloured the rest pink and filled it in around the side. Then I removed the cutter and tried to fix it a bit with my knife as it didn't come out like a perfect star. Next, I froze the whole thing so that it would be nice and cold by lunchtime the next day. I always put a frozen ice mat in her lunch box but it just seems so hot out that I'd rather give it that little extra chill. I put a little paper towel underneath in case it sweats as it defrosts. I don't want her to end up with mushy popcorn! I also put a little spoon in her lunch but it wasn't in the photo. I have noticed some other bloggers making frozen yogurt shapes in a little mold. That looks super fun and I am going to give that a try too!

broccoli, yellow cauliflower, carrot stars, 2 rice stars, corn, meatballs

2 cherry tomatoes from our garden

apple stars, babybel cheddar cheese, kiwi and strawberries

I included a teeny little spoon and a mini cup (saved from takeout) of BBQ sauce for her meatballs.

The broccoli and the cauliflower are lightly steamed, the carrots are raw since she wanted them crunchy.

shared on:

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

Life is C R A Z Y! I have barely been able to snap a photo in the morning, let alone tweak any last minute bits. My teachers used to always write "neatness counts" on my work since I usually did not spend the extra time to complete my work in the tidiest manner. I feel like all of the lunches from the past week would have had that little reminder on them! haha.

heart shaped boiled egg (sort of squished!), strawberries, cantaloupe,

nutter butter bites & mini nilla wafers, heart shaped cheese sandwiches.

Rose

star shaped boiled egg, strawberries, cantaloupe & grapes

nutter butters & min nilla wafers, heart shaped ham & mustard sandwich.

I don't have 2 heart egg molds and there was NO TIME in the morning to mold two heart shaped eggs one after the other so Rose has a star egg. I was going to make her a a whole star theme and then she said she wanted heart sandwiches. She doesn't even like her clothes to match so I think she was perfectly happy - LOL.

The hearts were cut using a Wilton comfort grip flower cutter and then I just used a knife to make it into 3 hearts. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I really love using those comfort grip cutters for sandwiches as they cut so nicely through the already made sandwich. When I use plastic cutters (even lunch punch ones) it's always neater to  cut each piece separately and then assemble the sandwiches. The instructions say that you can cut through a ready made sandwich but it always seems to smash the bread too much. There has not been any extra time to cut individual parts and then assemble sandwiches for 3 kids' lunches. I might go back to assembling all of the lunches sans sandwiches the night before giving me more time in the morning.

diced peaches, 1/2 clementine, yogurt covered raisins, granola bites

honeydew melon, pineapple, ham sandwich with cheese topper

Rose

diced peaches, 1/2 clementine, yogurt covered raisins, granola bites

grapes, honeydew melon, ham sandwich with cheese topper

Heidi

diced peaches, grapes, yogurt covered raisins, granola bar

clementine, ham sandwich star

Stars for Heidi - just because :)

boiled egg, triscuit crackers, grapes on star picks, honeydew,

cucumber stars, carrot sticks, celery sticks, grapes tomatoes

Stretch Island Fruit Co cherry fruit leather star cutout

Peanut butter star sandwich with a cheddar topper

We are eating at home today and when she saw that Rose had 2 dips (one being yogurt) she wanted some dip too. So I gave her some ranch dip and she then proceeded to dip everything in it - LOL. She's still eating even though everyone else is finished!!

Heidi's MTM today is a star theme.

Amy's Star Lunch

carrots, cucumbers & peanut butter dip, yo kids cherry yogurt

apple stars, apple cutout and grapes underneath, icing decoration starfish

bologna star sandwich with a ham cutout

Rose's Star Lunch

three changes:

she has French dressing dip and a cheese cutout on her bologna sandwich
Rose has a clam shaped icing decoration since we were out of stars

Come and check out other fun lunches on:

I have been making bento lunches and muffin tin meals for the entire school year but only recently did I begin blogging about them. So I decided to share a few of my past favourites including my very first bentos ever :) I had been looking at some blogs online, and had scouted out my local shops & baking supplies for some fun items. Then I placed an order online for some "fun stuff". It took a few weeks for my order to get here so this was made before it arrived with a cookie cutter that I already had and some cupcake picks I found in the baking aisle of a local store.

Amy's first ever bento made during summer holiday 2010

as a "practice run" before starting the school year.

Then I did a little more blog surfing, local shopping (found a large set of animal cookie cutters!) and then dug out some silicone baking cups that I had, and made these for the girls' lunch.

Amy: Caterpillar Lunch

 PB Caterpillar sandwich, ants on a log, carrot sticks,

butterfly crackers, blueberries & strawberry ( I was attempting a flower!)

Rose: Crocodile Lunch

 PB crocodile sandwich in a swamp of goldfish,

mixed berries, carrot sticks, string cheese, grapes.

The next day I made these. This was the first time packing them up and taking them out with us. Previously we were just eating lunch at home.

They travelled better than I expected!

Amy: Seahorse lunch

Ham seahorse sandwich, string cheese, carrots,

watermelon & blueberries, apple cinnamon mini muffin, grapes.

Rose: Froggie Lunch

Cheese froggie sandwich, grapes, string cheese & carrots,

apple cinnamon mini muffin, watermelon & blue berries.

Then finally one of my orders came so we had actual bento boxes to use.

 I made these that same day!

Amy: Butterfly Lunch

Butterfly crackers & cheese, grapes, cucumber slices, raspberry & black berry ( attempting another flower!), steamed broccoli & carrots, Ham butterfly sandwich.

Rose: Turtle Lunch

I have been getting tons of use out of those animal cookie cutters as the girls prefer sandwiches for lunch on most days.

I still have tons of lunch photos including many Muffin Tin Meals.

I'll get to posting some of them shortly.