Thanksgiving theme Lunch #7 (Turkey Bento)

My husband was recently out of town this week and I'm all messed up because schedules and routines were off.  We had a fun filled day yesterday and I meant to get a post in, only to realize I had to fix Tuesdays - and that made me distracted - so here it is Thursday and I've got posts to make up.

Plated Lunch:

 - Round turkey sandwich from Whole Wheat bread, edges are "stuffed" with Orange and Red Bell Pepper (no, my child did not eat all of these, but he did make an effort), and Cheetos.  Face is cheddar cheese, chocolate sprinkles for the eyes and a slice of strawberry for the "gobble" part.

 - Additional slices of strawberries make the "red" leaves and 

 - Nutter Butter snack size cookies with Hershey Kisses attached making two cute acorns.

Bento Version:

 - Smaller version of the round Turkey sandwich from Whole Wheat bread, edges are "stuffed" with Orange and Red Bell Pepper, and Cheetos.  Face is cheddar cheese, chocolate sprinkles for the eyes and a slice of strawberry for the "gobble" part.

 - Strawberry slices for "red leaves"

 - Toothpick of cheddar cubes

 - Nutter Butter snack size cookie with Hershey Chocolate Kiss attached making a little acorn.

Pilgrim Hat theme Lunch #6 (Thanksgiving Bento)

I missed Monday.  I apologize. Last week, I wasn't thinking that my dear Mr. Man was off work and so I had a day off. I went to the gym, did some paperwork, paid some bills - and he fed them and took them to the park.  Naturally, Mr. Man did not design a Veteran's Day theme lunch as I would have.
So, we'll put that out for later and focus on today's.

(*Update*) I usually visit the blog and make sure my posts are correct, but I was in a hurry, so it didn't update of course. My apologies!


Plated Lunch:
I found some adorable melamine plates at World Market that are Thanksgiving themed.  I was happy to add them to the plate instead of the paper white.
 - Pilgrim Hat Turkey Sandwich made of pumpernickel bread with Vermont Cheddar for the white strap and slices of a cheddar cheese stick for the buckle
 - 1 little pumpkin marshmallow
 - Whole Wheat tortilla (small 1/4 slice) rolled into cone shape with celery sticks to make a "cornucopia"
 - Small cup of Applesauce because that just fits with the season
 - Pilgrim hat of Reese mini PB cup with orange icing and stuck to a half of oreo cookie.

Bento Version:

  - Pilgrim Hat Turkey Sandwich made of pumpernickel bread with Vermont Cheddar for the white strap and slices of a cheddar cheese stick for the buckle

  - Small red silicone cup of applesauce

  - Red grapes 

  - Mellowcreme pumpkin

  - Whole Wheat tortilla rolled around carrot and celery sticks as a cornucopia

Thanksgiving theme #5 (Pumpkin/Leaf Bento)

  I have been trying to include little treats for the kids out of what is left in the Halloween candy bucket...that bucket needs to leave my house. I'm finding myself digging in it.  I know an easy way, but I just hate the idea of wasting candy and just throwing it away. And, I do love candy.  You could tell me that the next piece of candy in that bucket would make me gain 10 pounds...I would eat it. It. Is. Horrible. Candy has always been my weakness. Back in high school, when I could eat like a teenager and never show it, my lunch would sometimes be a Snickers and a Slurpee from 7-11. Oh, the good old days. What I would do for a Slurpee (Icee) right now.

    

Plated Lunch:

 - Salami and Cheddar Cheese stick rolled onto a toothpick with some Potato Stix underneath as "hay."
 - Pumpkin shaped sandwich (peanut butter) with three fruit snacks on top. I've gotten my kids off of all fruit snacks, so this was a special treat.
 - Apple slices cut out with a pumpkin cookie cutter.

Bento Version:

 - Leaf shaped sandwich (peanut butter) I made two sandwiches and stacked them.
 - Salami and cheddar cheese on a toothpick
 - Apple slices cut out with a pumpkin cookie cutter
 - Mini silicone cupcake liner with raspberries
 - Fruit snacks

Happy weekend to everyone! See you on Monday!

Thanksgiving theme #4 (Turkey Leg Bento)

     Today's lunch features a sandwich shaped into a "turkey leg."  I thought it was a bit clever to make something that looked like it, but the pumpernickel bread made the picture a little dark.

Plated Lunch:

 - Watermelon and strawberry flowers on a small bed of lettuce leaves.  Also Carrot sticks and Halloween Kit Kats arranged around them. (Still trying to use up that Halloween candy)
 - Pumpernickel bread with cream cheese and turkey. Mozzarella stick as turkey "bone" leg.  Left over chicken nuggets I made the other night that I added onto tooth picks for mini turkey legs.

Bento Version:

 - Pumpernickel bread with cream cheese and turkey. Mozzarella stick as turkey "bone" leg.
 - Autumn flower (watermelon) with lettuce 
 - Red raspberry acorns and some grape acorns too, since my little one loves spearing things with those pretzel sticks.
 - Three Nutter Butter cookies for dessert

If you have a minute, leave me a comment and let me know what you think of all of these. Coming up with ideas surrounding the theme of Thanksgiving is proving to be tricky, but we'll get through this month with some repeats, but always keeping it fun and imperfect. Thanks for stopping by!

Thanksgiving theme lunch #3 (Turkey Thanksgiving Bento)

    Today is one of those days where I fulfill my "I make no promises," approach.  We had a playgroup this morning, the kids were incredibly grumpy - and mommy included, so I rushed lunch preparation so I could get Thing 2 down for a nap as quickly as possible.  Therefore, the sandwiches and apples are super sloppy - they still ate well though. And again, it is about presentation to the kids, not an award show.

    I got this idea from Cute Food For Kids where she shows you how to do a turkey sandwich. Cute Food For Kids is also a great site with lots of fun pictures from all different sites and great ideas for just about everything.  For this particular sandwich, I did shred up some deli meat and stick it under the small circle too. My kids wouldn't be happy with just cheese. But you can always modify these things. That's what makes it so much fun.

Plated Lunch:
 - Ham and cheese sandwich made like a turkey.  The link to the pieces and instructions are above. My food marker did not work well on the dots for the eyes.  I believe that is mostly due to the oils in the cheese, but I tried.
 - Apple slice made like a feather
 - Two pretzel sticks with strawberry slices on them (like arrows)
 - Pumpkin mellowcreme for dessert.  Too much sugar from yesterday, so I cut down today.

Bento Version:
 - Ham and cheese sandwich made like a turkey.  The link to the pieces and instructions are above. 
 - Strawberry slices, apple feather slice
 - Teddy Grahams.  You could almost dress these guys like little pilgrims. (*hmmmm...) 

Thanks so much for visiting! 

Thanksgiving Theme Lunch #2 - Cornucopia (Thanksgiving Bento)

    The kids and I have been exploring resources online and learning about all things Thanksgiving.  Yesterday, we colored a cornucopia through a teachers pay teachers website that is really awesome (color by letter) and my son really enjoyed the activity.  We discussed things that might be seen in a cornucopia and that it signifies abundance - for which we give thanks.

Sticking to that theme, I decided to incorporate a cornucopia for lunch today.

Plated Lunch:

 - Two "acorns" made using snack size nutter butters, melt chocolate chips in microwave, dip one side of cookie in melted chocolate and then stick a Hershey Kiss on top. Let set - and add a little dob of chocolate on the other side for the stem
 - Turkey and a Whole Wheat Tortilla, rolled up in a cone shape.  Added in a piece of broccoli, watermelon, blueberries on a toothpick, some shredded red cabbage, strawberry, a piece of lettuce and one left over Mellowcreme pumpkin.  I don't usually have this much sweet stuff on there - but my little guy was quick to point out that the cornucopia was missing a pumpkin!
 - Small pie crust filled with orange colored vanilla yogurt. Supposed to look like pumpkin pie
 - Pumpkin shaped pasta

Bento Version:

 -  Small pie crust filled with orange colored vanilla yogurt. I made this by putting some left over pie crust trim into mini silicone cupcake liners and just baked for 7 minutes at 350. Supposed to look like pumpkin pie;
 - A small whole wheat tortilla rolled up with deli turkey and stuffed with kiwi, blueberries on a toothpick, a piece of pineapple, a raspberry, some shredded red cabbage, spinach leaf, and a strawberry;
 - One little acorn made from a Hershey Kiss adhered with melting chocolate to a NutterButter snack size cookie;
 - Pumpkin shaped pasta

Thanksgiving Theme Lunch #1 (Thanksgiving Bento)

    Good Monday morning to you all!  I had a nice weekend packing up all the Halloween decorations, cookie pans and cutters.  Although I was a little sad at first, it became much more exciting as I dug through my stash searching for things that I will get to use this month.  Plus, we are still in the "fall/autumn" season, so I don't have to get rid of the leaves. All of the leaves are really starting to fall and turn the official brown - boo....but inside we can still use the colors to emulate the beautiful reds, oranges and yellows. 

    I will put a note in here that this month will probably have some repeats because you can only do turkeys, pilgrim hats, pumpkins, leaves, etc for so long.

Plated Lunch:

 - Turkey sandwich is just a round cut sandwich filled with cream cheese and stuck strawberries in for the feathers.  The little "turkeys" face is a piece of ham just cut with a knife, cheese for eyes (with a food marker for the dots) and a carrot nose

 - Autumn Mix Pile: Red grapes stuck with pretzel sticks (acorns), Apples cut into leaves, pepperoni slices...also using a leaf cookie cutter, and some provolone cheese using the leaf cookie cutters as well.

Bento Version: 

 - Red silicon cup with regular size goldfish

 - Circle "turkey" sandwich: cream cheese filling, strawberries for the feathers.  I used a slice of deli ham and just cut away a small portion for the "turkey's" head.  Topped with provolone cheese for eyes (with food marker dots) and a carrot nose

 - Sugar snap pea pods with an "acorn" made out of a pretzel stick stuck on a red grape

 - Apple and provolone cheese slices cut out with a leaf cookie cutter

Halloween Theme Lunch #12 (Halloween Bento)

Okay, okay. It's the end of the Halloween week, so I'm going to be done with the Halloween theme.  I need to start focusing that it's November and only 59 days left of the year! Wait, WHAT!?!?!?!

I've been sketching down a few ideas of turkey thoughts and trying to come up with a cornucopia of ideas. (a la Three Stooges - yuk, yuk yuk).  And there's Veteran's Day coming up, so that will have to be something patriotic.  I am also working on some ideas for crafts.  Even though I'm pretty dedicated to food here, I hope to share some ideas or attempts that I may try.  Pinterest is such a wonderful site and has given me some fun projects to put on my "to-do" list.

And now - for what you are here for...

Plated Lunch:

 - Halloween Pretzels (that we received Trick or Treating); I love these!
 - Apple slice eyes, sugar snap pea nose and half an Oreo to make a silly face
 - Last bit of Halloween Pasta mixed with a parmesan alfredo sauce, leaf cookie cutter cheese slices
 - Ghost Fluffanutter sandwich with two chocolate chips for eyes

Bento Version:

 - Apple Slice (left side)

 - Cup of Halloween pasta mixed with alfredo sauce and topped with two cheese pieces from a leaf cookie cutter

 - Sugar Snap peas

 - Halloween Pretzels

 - Half of an Oreo (along side of the pasta & cheese)

 - Ghost Fluffanutter sandwich with peanut eyes and chocolate chip mouth

Halloween theme Lunch #11 (Pumpkin Bento)

I can't admit that Halloween is over.  As I said before, it is 2nd on my list of favorites. I'm just not ready to put away the cookie cutters and fun yet.  Sure, the decorations can come down - but not the cookware.  As it turns out, I have supplies I didn't even use this month! 

So, when I settled down with my nice glass of wine after two and a half hours of trick or treating, it came to me: use the baking molds and make little pocket sandwiches!

I got this Halloween baking cookie pan as a gift, and kept trying to get to a point in the day when I could make some cookies...but with two little ones, it just didn't happen. But with some store bought bread dough, lunch meat and cheese - presto - little pocket sandwiches you can serve hot or cold (well, I mean AFTER you bake them.)

And who says, you can't bake Halloween cookies in November?!?! I've got another 30 days to try!

Plated Lunch:

 - Two pocket sandwiches with Ham and White cheddar. (How-To do this)

 - Snickers candy (for dessert) - I have to take this off when Thing 1 sits down to eat, or he will eat it first!

 - Potato stix and a Mellowcreme pumpkin

 - Roasted pumpkin seeds - he ended up not liking these, even though I sprinkled with Italian seasoning, garlic powder and parmesan cheese

 - Cheese candy corn - I made this with Vermont orange cheddar, Kraft American cheese, and a Baybel.  You can see my post on that here.

 - Pumpkin cookie cutter with apple slice

 - Carrot pumpkins - My little guy is not keen on carrots, so I only gave him two.

Bento Version:

 - Two pocket sandwiches with Ham and White cheddar. (How-To do this)

 - Pumpkin seeds (I ended up taking these out for her, because she's still a little young)

 - Apple slices made with a pumpkin cookie cutter

 - Carrots cut into pumpkins

 - Potato stix and a Mellowcreme pumpkin

 - Cheese candy corn - I used a Baybel (white), Kraft American cheese (yellow), and Vermont Orange Cheddar (orange).  More on that here. (posting coming soon)