Firefly Kaylee and her Frilly Dress
November 9, 2012
I am just now recovering from the flu and fairly happily spent the duration of the bug in bed with my iPad watching the short-lived but awesome series Firefly on Netflix. The 10th anniversary special for the series airs on 11/11 (http://science.discovery.com/tv/firefly/10-anniversary) and I can’t wait! To celebrate, some of my geekier bento friends and I are having a Firefly-inspired blog hop, starting at 9am PST. I went live a little early so please check back and catch the rest of the hop!
My big challenge was making a fun lunch that would work for me as a Firefly fan and Cora, who has no idea what I’m talking about. Then, I saw the episode in which Kaylee gets to dress up in a frilly pink dress and knew I found my hook 🙂 I usually avoid the overly-girly with Cora, but every once in a while I make an exception for all too-selfish reasons. This was one of them.
I decided to capture the end scene in which Kaylee curls up on her bunk, gazing at her pretty dress (decorated with strawberries pureed and mixed in with cream cheese and a touch of natural food color) and eating treats. In this case, she is eating cream-cheese stuffed strawberries and an apple (sliced up of course!). To commemorate her beloved ship, we have melon and pineapple fireflies in the corner.
I realized that this might not be enough food so I added another layer to the sandwich. I called it a ‘hidden dress’ to Cora. She then decided the hidden dress needed to be decorated too.
Then Cora decided the dress was so pretty Kaylee needs to be wearing it. And she needs to have a face. And she needs to have hair. Hair that is blond, like her.
And there you have it – a lunch suitable for a Firefly fan AND a particular 4 year old girl. Kinda
Don’t forget to follow the Firefly to the next blog and check out Shannon’s celebration of the Firefly anniversary special. Shiny!
To make this lunch I used:
Princess Pig
November 7, 2012
Last night, I read The Princess and The Pig to Cora, then this morning made her lunch from my memory of the pig princess. I should have looked at the book, she needed more bling!
To make this lunch I used:
Finally! A Mermaid!
October 25, 2012
Cora has been asking for a mermaid lunch for quite awhile. So, far, I’ve gotten away with a variety of under the sea themed lunches, but I really wanted to honor her request without resorting to one of the sexy mermaid cutters I saw everywhere. I spent a little time studying different cartoon mermaids (no, NOT Disney) and came up with a design I could feel good about. So, Cora finally got her mermaid lunch!
I made our girl using a shark cookie cutter. I cut off the fins and the head, and used a small circle cutter to make her head. Her hair is made from organic, dye-free cheese curls
To make this lunch I used:
Fall Leaves
October 24, 2012
To make this lunch I used:
Fun Lunchbox with a Fun Lunch to Match
October 23, 2012
I’ve had this really fun lunchbox in my collection for the longest time:
Although I love it, I haven’t used it yet because I really wanted my lunch to live up to the box itself. Needing inspiration one day, I looked to the box and decided to make a lunch to match it
Almond Butter and Jellyfish Lunch
October 22, 2012
Cora really wanted a mermaid lunch, but I don’t have a mermaid cookie cutter, and I refuse to buy one of those Playboy mudflap versions of a mermaid that I found when I originally searched for one. For now I mollified her with an under the sea lunch featuring a jellyfish, but I think I am going to have to come up with something soon!
To make this lunch I used:
Cute ‘n’ Creepy Halloween Lunches
October 16, 2012
Wow! Time is really flying – I can’t believe Halloween is almost here already! We’ve been getting into the spirit with goofy witches in the front yard, silly ghosts in the back, and lots of creepy and cute fun in Cora’s lunches. My bento blogger buddies are doing the same and we have a zillion great ideas for dressing up YOUR lunches. Make sure you click the button at the end of this post to hop on through. You don’t want to miss it!
In the first lunch, a clumsy witch has fallen into her cauldron (an almond butter and marmalade sandwich) while the pile of melon jack-o-lanterns and a veggie-juice bloody skull laugh at her. I made the skull by freezing our homemade veggie juice (beet, carrots, kale, spinach and apple) in a skull candy mold. It’s not really suitable for a school lunch, it will melt too quickly. So, I ended up stirring it into Cora’s coconut yogurt to give her a nice creepy swirl of color. I used mini food cutters to make impressions for the faces on the melon pumpkins and scored lines using a sharp knife. The cheese bats were made using a moth fondant cutter, and then trimming the bottom with a scalloped edge cutter.
The second lunch is a cheese sandwich jack-o-lantern, watermelon patch of more jack-o-lanterns, ghost potato chips, ghostly string cheese and quail egg eyeballs. The ghost and eyeballs are decorated using natural food colors. Love that stuff!
The third lunch is a last minute quickie. Seriously, I only spent 15 minutes on it from conception to finish because we got a late start this morning. The ghost is an almond butter and marmalade sandwich in front of a cheese slice house with a Babybel jack-o-lantern. The cute kiwi monster with cheese monsters was inspired by Another Lunch. In the third compartment, our clumsy witch finally climbed out of the cauldron and stumbled into a vat of coconut milk yogurt (a tardy mama’s best friend!).
Don’t forget to check out the blog hop, starting with Beth’s super fun post on A Boy & His Lunch
To make these lunches I used:
Rawr Here Come The Big Cats!
October 4, 2012
Today is World Animal Day and my bento buddies are at it again. In celebration we are having another big bento blog hop, with each lunch celebrating a different animal. So, click the button at the end of this post to check out all the wildlife (and some cute animals too!)
I selected a cheetah because I did one pre-blog last year and I’ve been itching to do another. Cora insisted that the cheetah will be lonely without a lion and a tiger to keep her company, so it evolved into a big cat lunch.
Our cheetah is a cheese sandwich with cheese and fruit leather features. I held the eyes, nose and ears on with strands of raw spaghetti. She is hanging out in a pile of cheese curls (it aint easy bein’ cheesy!)
The cheetah has a lion friend made from a hard-boiled egg with cheese, soy paper and fruit leather features.
Our watermelon tiger cubs are romping in a pile of blackberries. Yum!
To make this lunch I used:
Next up on our zoo tour is an adorable octopus by the one and only JeeJee (of AllThingsForSale and CuteZCute
CuteZCute Cat Lunch
September 26, 2012
I was so excited when my new sample of the CuteZCute kit arrived! I immediately plopped it in the dishwasher (top shelf) so I could use it the very next day. This thing is so dang cute! This morning, I couldn’t wait to dig in, but first I had to decide which cute critter I wanted; panda, frog, pig or cat. I opted for the cat – look how cute it is!
Our cute kitty has a lot of fun in store! There is a quail egg, cheese and spaghetti mouse to chase, a plum buckwheat noodle ball of yarn to dismantle and a passel of watermelon kittens to wrestle.
To learn more about the CuteZCute cutter and stamp kit, check out this fun tutorial by JeeJee from AllThingsForSale and the creator of CuteZCute, and stay tuned because I plan to use this set A LOT!
To make this lunch I used:
Goofy Bunny
September 25, 2012
Cora was digging around in my picks and found the goofy teeth pop (thanks Kendra!). I’ve always wanted to do a sandwich with one after seeing this adorable post about bunny lip pops. So now was my chance!
Our goofy bunny is a Wowbutter sandwich with a touch of chocolate hazelnut spread and decorated with cheese, raw spaghetti and fruit leather. He has a quail egg bunny and raspberry yogurt pretzels keeping him company
The lunch is finished with watermelon bunnies and apple chunks
To make this lunch I used:
