Halloween Ghost Theme Lunch #4 (Ghost Lunch Bento)

Hello again!  Today's lunch is ENTIRELY a ghost theme.  I wish I had more supplies, because the ideas that I had to make all sorts of ghost "food" were running in my head last night as I laid down to sleep. So that just means another day of spooky ghost lunch! 

Halloween has GOT to be my favorite season (after 4th of July).  That's right folks, Christmas is 3rd on my list.  Christmas is a great time of year (and they make way more food that is already a Christmas theme), but maybe that's why it is third; I can't be as creative. Of course, that is a good thing because you can only do so many things with sandwiches.

- Vanilla yogurt in a small cup with chocolate chip eyes and chocolate sprinkles for a mouth
- Mozzarella cheese stick cut in half, food markers for eyes and mouth and a candy corn to give them little hats
- Apples, using a small bell shaped cookie cutter and food markers for the eyes.  Some of the apple pieces, I just improvised and made into other similar ghost shapes so they weren't all the same.
- Peanut butter and fluff sandwich with little candy eyes and a chocolate covered candy corn for a mouth. (seriously, have you tried these? The chocolate covered candy corns are so yummy! They are made by Brach's.)

Bento:

- Ghost shaped fluffernutter sandwich with chocolate chip eyes and a little more fluff for the mouth.
- Apple Ghosts using bell shaped cookie cutter (and mom nibbled off the bottoms; hey, a girl's gotta eat!)
- Mozzarella Cheese sticks with candy corn hats
- Vanilla yogurt cup with chocolate sprinkles for eyes and mouth

Farm Lunch (Bento Farm Lunch)

Today, we planned a day to head out to a fall festival at a local farm.  They had hay rides, corn mazes, farm animals, apples and tons of slides! We really enjoyed the day there and there is definitely something about the fall colors that make me so happy!

Since we were packing a lunch to take with us today, I opted to make it sufficient for both of my little people.

 - Tractor sandwich (I don't have a fancy cutter, so I just notched a square out of it), added Oreo wheels and a pretzel stick for a "pipe" sticking out of the tractor.
 - Cheddar cheese stick under there
 - Broccoli "orchard" trees
 - Bologna pig (on top of parchment paper because I added the little square sandwich under for Munchkin)
 - Saffron rice rectangle with two little sprinkle eyes and a carrot nose
 - Potato Stix (these are my favorite and my kids thought it was wonderful to be eating "hay" like the animals!)
 - Pumpkin candy corns for dessert (after all, just one small oreo cookie wasn't enough! and mom needed some candy too!)

Halloween theme lunch #3 (Halloween Bento too)

Greetings!  Today's lunch was a bit of a rush.  We got home later than usual because we went to a book sale (I have a huge obsession with old books), so I started prepping everything late.  I had in my head what I wanted the Bento to come out like, but it didn't stay long enough for me to take a picture.  And my kids were already hungry, so I didn't bother re-taking the picture or re-setting the pieces.

However, I should mention that my little one eating the Bento said "bat" and "monster" so she got the idea. It's not about perfection - the kids just like the fun of it and it's important to remember that.  

Today's plate is:

 - Raemen noodles colored green with some pumpkin shapes cut out of a cheese slice

 - One cup full of peach yogurt with apple wedges sticking out as legs, a piece of fruit leather on top and white chocolate writer for eyes and a crunchy candy in the center.

  - Sandwich of turkey and bread with butter,  Eyes are yogurt raisins, avocado nose and cheese and apple pieces arranged as a "stitched" mouth.

Today's Bento is:

  - One cup of peach yogurt with chocolate crunchies that I added through a bat cookie cutter.  Some of them spilled out, but no worries, right?

 - Cream cheese and bread sandwich cut out as coffin.  I used the white chocolate writer on top as the "RIP"

 - Apple slices thinly sliced as a mummy/monster - candy corn teeth (which did not cooperate) - and white chocolate writer for the eyes.

  - Toothpick skewered with avocado slices as hair, or monster teeth.

In hindsight, I should have done the candy corn as horns on top and the skewer as teeth. 

Halloween Season, Lunch #2 (and one for Bento too)

See, I told you I would follow through.  Okay, okay - it's only Day 2....19 more to go (21 times to make a habit, right?)  
Today's lunch is more of a pumpkin theme.

We'll start like a clock - at the top where the 12 is - and go clockwise.

Cup of pumpkin themed macaroni & cheese - 2 toothpicks broke in half with candy corn speared on them; cheese slice using a pumpkin cookie cutter, chocolate chips for the eyes and an apple slice on the mouth; peach slices cut out with a leaf cookie cutter - (just peel the peach and cut into 1/4" slices all around); Pumpkin cookie cutter with white bread, also used the cookie cutter on a thicker slice of turkey that I had the deli do. I think they used a #2 thickness.  I used butter inside the bread, but also colored the butter with food coloring to do the outside and did the green stem with a food marker. Lastly, I used the left over pieces of cheese from the pumpkin slice - and made eyes, nose and mouth.

For the bento version, I scaled down the cookie cutter into finger sandwiches she could pick out of there. 
- She's not really a fan of butter, (plus I didn't want mess) so I used pumpkin flavored cream cheese and turkey breast. 
- I put a small piece of banana in there with two chocolate chip eyes and food marker for mouth. I stuck the toothpick through the banana as a way to give this "ghost" a hat, but it slipped a little. 
- I did the peaches again with her too, only I ka-bobbed them onto a toothpick. She loved eating them like this!!  
- Pumpkin themed mac & cheese stacked in the upper corner
- One cup of mandarin oranges filled up, then arranged on top like a pumpkin with a pretzel stick stem and small apple slice leaf.

Halloween lunch (Halloween Bento Lunch)

I'm making a comeback...Really, I mean it.

Too much of my life has passed and I've had these great posts in my head, but I don't sit down and do it.  That ends today, October 17th. I've gotten back into cooking a lot, baking even more, and exploring kid friendly recipes because Thing 1 is at a perfect age to help me in the kitchen (and wants to!)

I've made a lot of lunches at home for my kiddos and I try to keep it fun.  I have read a lot of cool blogs that discuss a "main plate" lunch with the kids just picking what they like from it. And, with all the creativity that goes into a themed lunch, I think it is good to do this.  In the meantime, I'm doing individual lunches and made this one today for Thing 1.

Halloween lunch:
Mozzerella cheese stick wrapped in spaghetti noodles and pretzel sticks for arms and legs (food grade marker made black eyes); small cup of Count Chocula cereal with Halloween marshmallows on top; cinnamon cream cheese and white bread bat-shaped sandwiches (metal cookie cutter); vanilla yogurt with food coloring to make orange - green spoon as leaf and pretzel sticks again as stem (pumpkin).

This could certainly be packaged in a small bento box or lunchbox to take to lunch for kids in school.
I did the same concept for Thing 2 (younger) and did on a smaller scale for her - so I took the opportunity to make a bento box for her.  I cut the cheese stick in half, smaller cups of yogurt (small piece of green apple as the leaf) and cereal with one marshmallow. I also stacked two small bat sandwiches under the "mummy" along with another two on the side. Again, these had cinnamon cream cheese in them.

Actually making Asian food (instead of ordering)

I have a crazy obsession with Asian food, but besides the obvious stir-fry, any meal beyond that and I'm using the keypad on my phone to order it.  Plus it's delivered - quick!

I have recently overcome this obstacle and found myself exploring more into recipes of Asian flair...my latest success was Asian Pork in the crockpot and making tacos and other meals with it.  But, I made a HUGE mistake because I didn't write it down, bookmark the site, or rip the page out of the magazine.

In an effort to remember not to do this again, I just stumbled across this recipe and I have to make it.  At least when I make it this time, I'll have the link.

Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Lemongrass Dressing

This looks awesome and sounds so delicious.  I'm off to explore the kitchen and see if I can successfully conjure this dish up.  More to follow!

Candy Corn Cheese

First, let me apologize for this picture.  I was trying to finish the lunch for the kiddos and this was a last minute thought.  I wanted to add some cheese to their lunch, but I was growing tired of just using cookie cutters.

I cut slices of: Vermont Cheddar (Orange layer), Kraft American (Yellowish layer), and Baybel in the red wax (White layer).

Cut rectangles all the same size and stack on top of each other.  For this, I did 6-7 rectangles for each of the orange and yellow layers.  Next, unwrap the Baybel cheese and cut in half.  Depending on how thick your orange and yellow layers are, you may have to shave off some thickness from the Baybel wheel.  Line up as shown and then using a knife, cut two 45 degree angles making the signature triangle shape of a candy corn.  I slid the knife under this to transfer it to the lunch plate and bento.  

In the bento, I placed it on top of a chunk of apple underneath the cheese so that it would sit together nicely - and who doesn't love apple and cheese together? YUM!