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Thursday, February 26, 2015


Gyoza Pocket Sandwiches and Puzzle bento in Planetbox Rover (2), Bento #679

As I usually make wontons by hand I almost forgot that I have this gyoza maker which I've used only a few times. I've collected so many bento supplies over the years and some get overlooked. When using it I found that you have to be careful as using too much filling will cause them to burst which makes for a still tasty but less than aesthetic presentation.

In the first bento I noticed that one of the cucumber slices looked like a smiley face, can you see it too or is my mind playing tricks with me, lol?
 
Scroll down for the puzzle bento which was easy to make with my lunch punch sandwich cutter.
These lunches were packed in a Planetbox Rover.

Gyoza pocket sandwiches, bento school lunches
In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment - Organic cream cheese and jam gyoza sandwiches.
  • Upper left - Cucumber slices and organic baby carrots.
  • Lower left - Cheddar popcorn.
  • Center - Choc covered sunflower seeds.
  • Upper right - Organic apple and orange slices
Here is the puzzle bento.

Puzzle bento school lunch, planetbox

In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment - Puzzle piece shaped sandwich with some cute food picks.
  • Upper left - Organic baby carrots.
  • Lower left - Puzzle shaped cheddar cheese (I used the same cutter).
  • Center - Yogurt covered star.
  • Upper right - Strawberries.
Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

 
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015


4 Roll-Ups Lunches in Easylunchboxes Urban

You know that we love our EasyLunchboxes containers, so we were quite excited when we received the brand new urban colors (charcoal, brown, gray and olive lids) in the mail a couple of weeks ago! We also own the Easylunchboxes classic and brights sets, and are thrilled to add the urban set to our collection.

Nikolai enjoyed these super easy and quick roll-ups lunches which were packed in our new Easylunchboxes Urban containers. Four roll-ups lunches, four different versions!

The first bento lunch was ham and Coby Jack cheese roll ups in a jumbo silicone cup, organic apple slices, broccoli florets, and Annie's organic cheddar bunnies in a silicone cup with a new cute pick from Bento USA . This lunch was packed in his Easylunchboxes urban with the charcoal lid.

Ham and cheese roll ups, Easylunchboxes urban, bento school lunches

The second bento lunch was tortilla roll-ups, pretzel crisps, cucumber slices in the main compartment. The sides are organic granola bar cut into half and orange slices.
This lunch was packed in his Easylunchboxes urban with the brown lid.

Tortilla roll ups, Easylunchboxes urban, bento school lunches

The third bento lunch was bread roll ups with a cheese wrapping into which I stamped fun faces. Again I used a silicone cup to separate it from the crackers, and organic applesauce in a leak proof mini-dipper. In another silicone cup I put some grapes with a pick and also included broccoli and a small container of ranch dressing. This lunch was packed in his Easylunchboxes urban with the olive lid.

Bread roll ups, fun cheese faces, Easylunchboxes urban, bento school lunches

The fourth and last bento lunch was a couple of simple bread roll-ups with organic baby carrots and rocket shaped cheese crackers from Trader Joe's. I also included the juicy plum and some cucumber slices with a pineapple pick.This lunch was packed in his Easylunchboxes urban with the gray lid.

Bread roll ups, Easylunchboxes urban, bento school lunches

Below is a collage for those who might like to pin.

4 Roll-Ups Lunch Ideas In Easylunchboxes

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

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Monday, February 23, 2015


Ninja Bento

Happy Monday and I hope y'all had a great weekend. The weather here is warming up a little so we went to the annual Greek festival on Saturday, it was great fun and the food was superb as always. My family calls me a 'foodie', 'cause wherever we go I have to check out the restaurants first. The new ones are great for when we are in an adventurous mood, and other times I adore those mom and pop restaurants. I'll better stop writing about food. I can go on and on.

Occasionally I have the memory of a bento idea refreshed when I look at a special bento box. I have always wanted to make a ninja bento but never did get to it, and this cute Kokeshi ninja bento box inspired me. I used pumpernickel bread (cut with a circle cookie cutter) with provolone cheese and nori for the facial accents. He also had thin cut slices of apple and sugar snap peas as sides.

Ninja bento school lunch

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

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Wednesday, February 18, 2015


Chinese New Year Sheep Bento Lunches (2)

Chinese New Year is tomorrow and it will be the year of the sheep. I may have to cook the reunion Chinese New Year Eve dinner this year. Even though it is not hugely celebrated in the U.S, I try to explain and teach Nikola the tradition every single year. I am sure those who are celebrating will be quite busy this week with last minute baking, filling 'ang pows' (red envelopes) with cash, cleaning and organizing your house etc.

I would love to wish everyone who celebrates 'Gong Xi Fa Cai'  and have a fantastic celebration with your family and friends!

Nikolai told me that the sheep I created in the first lunch looked like 'Shaun the sheep', to me, a sheep is a sheep, lol. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox Rover.

Sheep lunch, Chinese New Year Of Sheep
In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment - 'Sheep' sandwich. Top is larger circle of Provolone cheese with numerous smaller ones shaped with a cutter. Face is free hand cut nori with candy eyes and legs are black seedless grapes
  • Upper left - Wheat crackers.
  • Upper right - Cucumber slices with carrot alphabets.
  • Center - Yogurt covered star
  • Lower left -Organic kiwi slices with a couple of cute sheep picks.
Here is another fun sheep bento which I created using my CuteZCute animal palz. The main compartment contains organic cream cheese and strawberry jam sheep shaped pocket sandwiches (stacked) and a cheese stick. I used the sealer from the set as a separator and filled it with strawberry pieces. He also had cucumber slices and a little sheep pick. This lunch was packed in a cute book shaped bento box.

Sheep pocket sandwiches, Chinese New Year Of Sheep
 
Here are the supplies or similar that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015


Pancake Blueberry Muffins, Breakfast For Lunch {with recipe}

I have a couple of sheep themed lunches to post, but I just found out that today is pancake day and I decided to post this pancake bento first. We love muffins at anytime of the day and we are also huge fans of breakfast for lunch. I love the idea of baking several batches at a time and freezing the extras for super busy mornings, when we need a grab and go.These particular ones were baked yesterday and I've left some out for the next morning, the rest went into the freezer. As I have promised earlier to share the recipe, scroll down and you'll find it.

This recipe is one of our longtime family favorites. There are so simple to make, you get the ease of a muffin with the deliciousness of a pancake. There are gazillions of yummy pancake recipes out there but this one works for me, it's simple and I mostly have the ingredients on hand.

Pancake blueberry muffins, breakfast for lunch, recipe

I usually add frozen organic blueberries, strawberries and chocolate chips. You can also use bacon, ham and sausage pieces if you prefer adding meat.

Here is the recipe which I added blueberries.

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups Original Bisquick mix or any other brand that you prefer.
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • Blueberries
  • Pam non-stick cooking spray or muffin cups.
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350º.
  2. In medium bowl, stir together pancake mix and remaining ingredients (except blueberries) until moistened. Do not over-mix.
  3. Spoon batter into greased or paper lined muffin pan, filling ¾ full. Add blueberries in each cup leaving space in between them.
  4. There is enough batter to fill one dozen muffin wells.
  5. Bake at 350º for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Easy right? I included a couple of them with super cute Mickey and Minnie picks, in Nikolai's Easylunchboxes. He also had strawberries, seedless black grapes, granola bar cut into half and Greek yogurt with pure maple syrup in his leakproof mini-dipper.
I also made a batch the other day with heart shaped strawberries and you can find one which I included in Nikolai's school lunch here.

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

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Thursday, February 12, 2015


Love Is In The Air, Sweetheart Valentine's Lunch

Love is in the air and I have been feeling it more and more since last week. Just before Valentine's Day we celebrate fifteen fantastic years together and I am so happy that Valentine's Day will be on a Saturday this year. To make it an even greater weekend, Monday is a public holiday!

I saved some cupcake rings from last year and included one in this lunch which was simple and easy to create. Again, I used heart shaped cookie cutters. I used a large one to shape the makings of a thick sandwich, a smaller one to shape the watermelon pieces and the carrots in cucumbers, and one of my smallest for the cut-out hearts in the Babybel cheese.

I included a Lunchbox Love note in his lunch bag and this lunch was packed in a Planetbox Rover.

Happy Valentine's Day and have a fantastic weekend!

Love Is In The Air, Sweetheart Valentine's Lunch, Bento School Lunches
In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment - Heart shaped sandwich with a "sweet" cupcake ring.
  • Upper left - Pretzels crisps and yogurt covered raisins in a small heart shaped container.
  • Lower left - Babybel cheese, cucumber slices with carrot hearts.
  • Center - Watermelon heart.
  • Upper right - Heart shaped watermelon slices and seedless green grapes.

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

 
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Monday, February 9, 2015


Whooo Loves You Valentine's lunch

This is my first time making an owl themed lunch and I created it with heart shaped cookie cutters (except for the eyes), it was not as difficult as I had thought or imagined it would be.

I used the crust for the ears and wings, mild cheddar cheese for the beak and feet. For the eyes I used provolone cheese and raisins. Then I had him perched on a mozzarella cheese stick. 
This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

Whooo loves you, owl, Valentine's lunch

In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment: Owl shaped sandwich and a mozzarella cheese stick.
  • Top right: Sugar snap peas and a heart shaped cupcake pick.
  • Bottom right: Strawberries cut into heart shapes.
This lunch is linked to EatsAmazing: Fun Food Friday and  BentoBlogNetwork.com

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

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Tuesday, February 3, 2015


LOVE, Pinwheels and Macaroni & Cheese Valentine's Lunch (2)

I made these two lunches on different days, but both of them share the 'LOVE' theme as Valentine's Day approaches, so I am posting them together.

I included a strawberry pancake muffin in his lunch box. It was from my freezer stash, I heated it in the microwave for a minute. Muffins can also be thawed in the fridge or at room temperature for a few hours. Pancake muffins are one of our family favorites and I have a very easy recipe which I'll share in another post, after Valentine's day.
In addition he had roll-ups, which he seems to really like, to which I added lettering cut from fruit leather, sugar snap peas with a pick, seedless grapes and heart shaped strawberries.
This lunch was packed in a Lunchbots Quad.

Nikolai suggested to me after school that I should cut a small heart shape for the 'O', I thought that he was quite creative.:) The next day, I made Macaroni and Cheese for his school lunch and followed his suggestion. This lunch is linked to EatsAmazing: Fun Food Friday

LOVE Pinwheels Valentine's lunch

Here is the macaroni and cheese lunch with "Love U" organic turkey breast, and I used a small heart shaped cutter for the"O". Annie's organic 5 grain elbows and white cheddar is delicious. His side dishes in a Lunchbots quad were wheat thins, sunflower seeds in small heart shaped container, heart shaped cucumber slices, strawberries cut into heart shapes, and seedless red grapes with a xoxo cupcake pick. His Mac and Cheese was packed in a Lunchbots insulated container.

Love U Macaroni & Cheese, Valentine's Lunch

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

Shop LunchBots Shop LunchBots
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Monday, February 2, 2015


Linzer Heart Sandwich Valentine's Lunch

I hope y'all had a nice weekend. We had a great one and also celebrated Nikolai's straight A's report card. He has been a straight A's student since he started school and naturally we are so proud of him! My husband and I are quite confident that Nikolai will continue his great work. He is very independent and we don't need to pay much attention to his daily homework, which is a blessing! Occasionally, he will ask questions and we of course will help him find a path that leads to an answer and sign his binder daily. When his homework is done he'll have free time to do whatever he wants before dinner. After dinner will be his reading time, I mean family reading time, and then he'll get ready for bed and 'll get ready to watch my t.v series, I do watch a bit of t.v during weekdays.:)

I personally love Linzer cookies, they are quite beautiful and so delicious. I made this easy sandwich version with bread and organic strawberry jam.

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut the bread to size and then for the top slice only I used other cutters for the letters and smaller heart through which, when assembled, you see the strawberry jam filling. The small heart that was cut out of the bigger one made a cute companion for the main section. Packed in a Planetbox Shuttle.

Linzer heart sandwich, Valentine's lunch

In this bento lunch:
  • Main compartment: Linzer sandwiches (stacked)
  • Top left: Heart shaped cucumber slices
  • Bottom left: Strawberry heart above seedless red grapes.
Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack this lunch.
 
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