Grover at the End of the Book Lunch
March 30, 2012
Looks like we are heading into a season of lunches based on books. The Monster at the End of the Book is one of my childhood favorites, so I love that its one of Cora’s favorites too!
Cheese grover (dyed blue with natural colors) bricked in with almond butter and marmalade wall
The lunch is finished off by fruit walls and Cora’s special addition – a snow scene. Not sure how it fits but she insists it’s snowing at the end of the book. She picked out the cutters, went to town on a slice of cheese and then climbed up on a stool to place them in the lunchbox. With all that, I had to concede that yes indeed, it is snowing at the end of the book!
To make this lunch I used:
Roaring Good Lunch
March 29, 2012
Cheese quesadilla lion with cheese and raw spaghetti features
Egg mouse with cheese ears and spaghetti whiskers and tail. To make the ears, I cut out two small leaf shapes and froze them to stiffen them up and make them easier to work with. I cut a small slit for each ear into the top of the egg and pressed the pointed end of the leaf into each.
I finished the lunch with rainbow carrot, watermelon and kiwi stars
To make this lunch I used:
Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus Lunch
March 24, 2012
Cora and I were reading the other night and it struck me this would be a fun lunch. While I waited (and waited and waited) for her to fall asleep, I plotted and planned and the next day it easily came together
Cream cheese and banana pigeon sandwich with cheese embellishment (dyed blue with natural food color), carrot beak and fruit leather letters
Pineapple bus with kiwi wheels and steering wheel
Hard boiled egg car (dyed green with natural food color)) and rainbow carrot stars
Finished off with a banana and strawberry hearts
To make this lunch I used:
Spring Bunny Bento Lunch
March 21, 2012
Spring is here! To celebrate, we made a couple cute bunnies hopping among the flowers
Almond butter and marmalade bunny, butterfly and flower sandwiches with fruit leather features and my big secret, held together with dried whole wheat spaghetti (it softens by lunch time)
I finished the lunch with apple flowers, raspberries, a naturally dyed (beet powder) egg bunny, mandarin orange and strawberry flower and carrot tulips
To make this lunch I used:
Smart Girl Lunch
March 19, 2012
Cheese sandwich with fruit leather features
Hummus and carrot ice cream cone
I finished the lunch off with slices of egg with fun shaped yolks and berries
To make this lunch I used:
Funky Bird Lunch
March 16, 2012
Cora made a funky bird from a paper and sticker project and she loved it so much she glued it to the door of her room when I wasn’t looking. I thought it would be fun to make a similar sandwich. The tail is a fan that is meant to go perpendicular to the bird but that didn’t photograph well so I turned it for the picture
Cheese bird sandwich with cheese and fruit leather features
Carrot nest with cucumber birdie, cucumber nest for bird picks and dressing squeezie bottle with ranch dressing
I finished the lunch with cheese curl worms, fruit leather letters, raspberries and strawberry hearts
Cora inspired this lunch just in time for the Bento Blog Network Bento of the Week theme, birds. Check it out, there are always some really cute lunches linked up! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite starting Tuesday!
To make this lunch I used:
St Patrick’s Day Bento
March 13, 2012
Today I am participating in a St Patrick’s Day Bento Hop with some really amazing bento bloggers. We decided to have the hop a little early so we can help anyone looking for lunch ideas later this week.
Cream cheese and cucumber shamrock tea sandwich, fruit rainbow and a pot of goldfish at the end of the rainbow 🙂
I highly encourage you to check the whole hop out, starting with Obento Mamma. There are some great ideas and a whole lot of cuteness in there!
To make this lunch I used:
I got the great technique for the sandwiches from Vegan Yum Yum
FunBites Fun!
March 7, 2012
Today I am going to demonstrate and give away a FunBites food cutter
For the longest time I went back and forth about buying one. They look so cute and fun but I wasn’t sure the shapes would be a match for my simple cartoon bentoesquing style. So, I put it off. But now FunBites gave me my choice of style to review AND an extra to give away to one of my beloved readers. Yay!
The first morning I opened it up and just sat staring at it, not sure it was going to click. So, I sliced up a piece of bread to play with. Then Cora came in the room and took over. It was love at first sight! And we had so much fun, it was like playing with the little geo tiles that Cora loves at school and I play with on my favorite iPad game. Together we quickly came up with so many fun shapes:
Happy person
Cute kitty
Tall tree
Really strong person carrying a lot of presents (this one was all Cora, can you tell?)
Sailboats
While Cora continued playing with the bread shapes I got to work on her lunch and ended up with…
Funny Bunny FunBites Lunch
Almond butter and marmalade bunny FunBites sandwich, strawberry, cream cheese and fruit leather rabbit, pretzel carrots, cheddar bunnies, strawberry flowers The next day, I was drawn to continue playing with the FunBites and ended up with … Cheese sandwich FunBites forest with naturally dyed cheese, owl egg dyed orange with natural colors, baked BBQ chips, strawberry flowers Cora had so much fun playing with the shapes I was a little afraid she would play instead of eating at lunchtime. But, she demolished the bunny and ate most the forest. Not bad! And now, you can win one of your very own! You will get one entry for each of the following steps. The first two are mandatory to win, but the rest just give an opportunity to increase your chances of winning. Please make a new comment for each action you take because I will use a random number generator to pick an entry within the number of comments I get. That random number will correspond to the winning comment. The winner will be picked after 5pm PST on Monday, March 12 and I will post his/her name on the Veggie-Bento Facebook page. The winner will have 2 days to send me a message to claim the prize. Unfortunately, I am limited to US residents only. 1. Leave a comment on this page and tell me which FunBites product you will choose, FunBites Luv It or Cube It 2. Like FunBites on Facebook 3. Like Veggie-Bento on Facebook 4. Share the link to this post on Facebook 5. Share the Veggie-Bento Facebook page on Facebook But wait, there’s more! Some other wonderful Bento Bloggers are also giving away FunBites. So you can quadruple your chances by entering their giveaways as well. Speaking of giveaways, yet more wonderful Bento Bloggers are giving away other stuff (its a giveaway bonanza this week!) I really shouldn’t tell you about them because I want to win, but I want to support these wonderful women even more! If you don’t win, or can’t wait to get yours, FunBites has kindly extended an offer for free shipping on their site, FunBites.com, Just enter coupon code ‘MarchMadness’ when checking out. Have fun!
FunBites Forest
FunBites Giveaway!
Please enter one comment for each of the following before 5pm Monday, March 12
More Giveaways!
Free Shipping on Funbites
Un-bearably Cute Lunch
March 5, 2012
Cora has a new coloring game that has some really cute animal cartoons. One of my favorites is a bear, who is making an appearance just in time for the Bento Blog Network Bento of the Week theme, bears. Check it out, there are some really cute lunches linked up! Don’t forget to vote for your favorite!
Cheese sandwich bear with fruit leather and cheese features, clutching a gummy fish vitamin, forest salad with quinoa dirt, carrot flowers, asparagus trees and cheese sun, pink egg bear dyed with beet water, goldfish, yogurt pretzel, pineapple bears and strawberry hearts
To make this lunch I used:
Cute Rice Critters
March 3, 2012
Thanks to some great bento bloggers that are a terrible influence (closed group but very welcoming to newcomers), I received yet another shipment of goodies from All Things For Sale. One of the items was a set of rice molds so cute that Cora declared she now likes rice! So, I scrapped my hazy plans for yet another Seuss lunch and went to town with the new set. Cora helped and we had a great time! Luckily, I had a container of Annie Chun’s Rice Express sticky rice because I’m not sure I could make rice that is sticky enough on my own
Brown rice cute critters with cheese and fruit leather features (next time I’m going to stuff them!), carrots, cucumber sticks, hummus with natural food color cute faces stamped in, strawberry hearts
You can find this set at All Things For Sale. You can also see the kit in action on other foods on the All Things For Sale blog
The cheese was colored using natural food colors from Chocolate Craft Kits
