Give Thanks Bento

Happy Monday! Tomorrow is Nikolai's Birthday and Thanksgiving is just a few days away. That being so, it is a good time to give thanks to all of you, and welcome those of you who are new to my blog. For you who are new here, Nikolai was born on Thanksgiving day and his birthdays usually comes with the Thanksgiving holiday. We are always super busy planning and arranging for his birthday party as well as hosting Thanksgiving dinner, I would say that for us it is as busy as, perhaps more busy than, the Christmas holiday.

Every year his school has Thanksgiving luncheon, we will be joining them for lunch tomorrow afternoon so I'm not going to make him a birthday bento this year. Nikolai knows that he is my daily dose of joy filling my life with love, laughter and fun!

This is a Thanksgiving season bento for today. I used mild cheddar for the lettering, a babybel cheese to make the turkey, which has a cheddar cheese beak, raisin eyes, carrot feet and body, feathers, and wattle made of apple. The nice people over at SayPlease.com generously sent us some of the new holiday edition Lunchbox Love notes, and I included one from their Thanksgiving Edition Volume 4 with Nikolai's lunch. This lunch was packed in his Fit & Fresh container.

Also, tomorrow is the last day of school for this month, yay! Happy Thanksgiving!

In this bento lunch:

• Main compartment: Sandwich with mild cheddar lettering, babybel cheese turkey and granola bar with Lunchbox Love note.
• Top left: Apple slices.
• Bottom left: Cucumber slices with a turkey cupcake pick.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack this lunch.

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Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cow Jumped Over The Moon bento

Do you remember the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon......? I was organizing Nikolai's room the other day when I came across a collection of nursery rhyme cd's to which he listened when he was little. I guess I'll have to make the cat and the fiddle themed lunch in near future.:)

I created the cow from my Animal pals cookie cutter set, the moon from my circle cutter set, and packed this fun lunch in his Fit & Fresh container.

In this bento:

• Main section: Cow and Moon sandwiches. Moon topped with mild cheddar cheese (of course everyone knows the moon is made of cheese ;-) and the cow is decorated with provolone cheese, fruit leather, tiny chocolate chip and candy eye.  Also in the main section I included a granola bar.
• Top-right: Organic bell pepper slices and organic baby carrots
• Bottom-right: seedless green grapes with 'tree' pick

This lunch is linked to Eats Amazing Fun Food Friday.

Here are the supplies or similar that I used to create and pack this lunch.

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Butterfly Quesadilla and Bread Roll-Ups in Easylunchboxes

I had some tortilla on hand, so I made a quick and easy quesadillia for Nikolai's school lunch. When I cut up the quesadilla so it would fit in a lunchbox, I thought this one might look like a butterfly if I added a piece of string cheese for the body. :)

The second bento is an example of what can be done almost in less than five minutes. As some of you might agree, there are days when plans change on short notice and you need a quick solution such as this.

Both of these lunches were packed in his Easylunchboxes container.

In this bento lunch:

• Quesadilla cut into four wedges, mozzarella string cheese and a couple of picks.
• Cucumber slices and baby carrots.
• Organic kiwi slices in a silicone cup.

Here is a super easy and quick bread roll-ups lunch. I used a rolling pin to slightly flatten the bread, spread with SunButter and roll.

In this bento lunch:

• Bread roll-ups in jumbo silicone cup, cucumber slices and organic baby carrots.
• Mozzarella string cheese cut into pieces.
• Seedless green grapes with a Mickey pick.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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Stop Light bento

Happy Monday! I have seen several cute stop light food creations online and I decided to make one for Nikolai's school lunch.

I made the green go light from cucumber peel, the red stop light is from pepperoni and the yellow caution light is from mild cheddar cheese, each of these was cut with a small circle cutter which was also used to cut the top piece of bread after I'd trimmed the crust from two sides. After assembling the sandwich as normal the three fillings just plop into the holes I made for them. I packed this lunch in his Yumbox Panino.

In this bento lunch:

• Main compartment: Stop light sandwich, granola bar with a cupcake pick.
• Top-right: Organic baby carrots and cucumber slices.
• Center: Cashews
• Bottom right: Organic kiwi slices and seedless red grapes.

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Homemade Uncrustables For School Lunch in Fit & Fresh Containers

The nice people over at Fit & Fresh contacted me and offered to send me some of their products to try out. They have some very nice containers, from which Nikolai selected the colors that he preferred. They sent us the bento lunch kit with an insulated carrier set, soft touch lid meal carrier and a dip n' dunk snack container. A different feature for their containers are their removable ice packs which can clip into the interior side of the lid. Their use is therefore optional, as the lid is secure either with or without them.

I recently acquired a Wonder Bread sandwich cutter sealer with which I made the square shaped Winnie the Pooh themed bento while for the other one I used a circle cutter and a fork.

I have seen Smuckers uncrsutables at the store freezer section, though I have never tried them. In addition, making your own has the advantage of your own choice of bread and also, just as important, your choice regarding what you put inside.
You could even make a big batch of them to keep in the freezer, so in a harried early am rush for the bus/school/work, you could just grab and go!

Below is the uncrustables made with our wonder bread sandwich cutter and sealer which accomplishes both operations in one press. I topped it with a Winnie the pooh cheese cutout.:) This Fit & Fresh container is from the bento lunch kit which has two small containers with individual lids and also an insulated bag.

In this bento lunch:

• Main compartment: Home made uncrustable with cheddar cheese Winnie the Pooh cutout, yogurt covered raisins in Pooh shaped silicone cup and ranch for dip in the cute Pooh container.
• Top right: Red grapes with a Pooh pick.
• Bottom right: Broccoli florets and bear shaped carrot slices.

Here is the uncrustables I made with my fork and, in this example, a circle cutter. With this technique, you can make almost any shape. The Fit & Fresh soft touch lid container is slightly different from the other one; the lid has a little pattern, the main container is aqua color and the ice packs are green in color. Nick selected the aqua color and it's the same color as his dip n' dunk.

In this bento lunch:

• Top left: Apple slices.
• Bottom left: Cucumber and carrot slices
• Main compartment: Home-made uncrustables topped with flower shaped cheese with silicone baran.

These lunches are linked to Eats Amazing Fun Food Friday

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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Airplane bento

There was no school on Monday and Tuesday, and during the weekend we had gone to our nearby air field for their Aviation Day displays and show which we all enjoyed.

Now is also the time of the year where many snow birds fly south to FL and the airports become quite busy. We have been thinking about visiting the in-laws during Christmas this year, but have to give it some more thought since the airports are usually the most crowded during the holiday season.

I made this simple plane sandwich using one of the cutters from my lunch punch transport set. It's easy to use and designed to capture the most amount of bread. This lunch was packed in a Goodbyn Hero.

In this bento lunch:

• Main compartment: Airplane sandwich, yogurt tube, choc covered sunflower seeds.
• Top left: Broccoli florets and baby carrot slices.
• Top right: Seedless red grapes.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack this lunch.

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