How to Create Halloween Themed Lunches with Cookie Cutters - Spooktacular Creations

Halloween is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than by adding some spooky flair to your kids lunchbox? In this post I will share several Halloween themed lunches that I've created with cookie cutters. Here is a link to many more Halloween themed lunches.

Here are some supplies that you may need:

• Cookie cutters in various Halloween shapes (bats, ghosts, pumpkins, cats, and witches, to name a few).
• Fresh ingredients for your desired lunch, such as sandwiches, fruits, vegetables, and cheeses.
• Condiments and spreads (cream cheese, ketchup, honey, etc.). We usually use honey as our food 'glue'.
• Cute food picks or food-safe markers.
• A dash of creativity and a spooky spirit!

Below is how I created these four lunches.

In this lunch: Main compartment contains a Jack-O-Lantern sandwich and a baby seedless cucumber. For the Jack-O-Lantern I used a two sided cutter to cut the shape of the components and then used the other side for the cut-outs only on the top slice. A bit of crust serves as a stem. I used our lettering cookie cutters to leave a faint (spooky?) BOO impression on the cucumber. In the upper right section there is a mandarin orange with a small celery stick as a pumpkin and stem and below them are some strawberries. In the center I included some fruit snacks. Packed in our leak-proof Yumbox.

In this lunch: For these I used my larger bat shape cutter and added eyes and mouth cut from fruit leather ( a dab of honey to glue the features). Above these bat sandwiches there are organic carrots and celery sticks with a BOO pick, and to the left of those are some bat shaped pieces of mild cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I used the same small cutter for both the cheese and the cut-out of the apple half. In the center are Annie's organic fruit snacks. Perhaps dark pumpernickel bread might have been more typically bat like, but what I used here seems to make the little red eyes a bit more startling. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox Rover.

In this lunch: For this lunch I have a sandwich topped with a mozzarella cheese ghost which I shaped with a cutter and decorated with bits of raisin ( tiny dab of honey used as glue for the features), and using another small cutter, I included a tiny headstone shaped piece of crust and also a "BOO" pick. On the right side I have included some strawberries, cucumber slices, and some chunks of cheese. Packed in our leak-proof Yumbox.

In this lunch: Above a bagel with cream cheese filling I put a flying witch on a broom. The witch was shaped with a cutter, the hat was made from nori, and the broom from a bread crust. For the sides I included some apple slices, some green grapes and some M&Ms. Packed in our leak-proof Yumbox.

These lunches were all very easy and quick to make, but most of all they were really FUN to make!

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Halloween Ghost Pizza with Recipe

Any pizza lovers out there? My hubby and Nikolai love pizza and they can eat them served hot or cold. We baked a batch and saved some for the next day's lunch.

Ingredients:

• One tube refrigerated Pillsbury biscuit dough
• 1 bottle of organic pasta sauce
• 2 slices part skim mozzarella cheese (for the ghosts)
• Sliced olives

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°.
2. Roll or pat biscuits into 2-1/2 in. circles. Place on greased baking sheet or non-stick sheet. I love our baking sheet which has wide handles!
3. Add pasta sauce on top of biscuits.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and remove.
5. Using a small ghost-shape cookie cutter, cut a ghost out of each cheese slice.
6. Immediately place a ghost over each pizza; add pieces of olives for faces.
7. Pack in his Laptop Lunches after the pizzas cool down.

You can recreate something similar with different cheese cut outs for sure. I've also made Pizza Mummy and Jack-O-Lantern Pizza with English muffins that you can find here.

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How To Cut String Cheese Ghosts For Halloween

We are back and it's almost October which is my favorite month of the year. This will be a short post, but I'll have another longer post coming up soon. We are doing well and I hope the same for you :-) It's "College Time" for Nikolai and many others. We are naturally very proud of our son's achievements as he goes off for his junior year.

I've created several ghost themed lunches over the years that are very easy and great fun. Cutting the string cheese to look like ghosts is my favorite part. I'll be sharing with you the method I used for the string cheese.

You can make some cute ghosts similar to the ones I made quite easily.

You will need:

• String cheese
• Paring knife
• Toothpick, food safe marker or sunflower seeds

Method:

1. Cut the string cheese into half.
2. Using a knife, make a slit in the middle and almost 3/4 way down.
3. Make a few more additional slits till you get 8 legs or less.
4. I used a toothpick for these particular face accents. Just poke the toothpick on the cheese to create the eyes and mouth. I've used food safe marker before and I've seen sunflower seeds being used. These are just some ideas, you might have others.

Below are just a few Halloween lunchbox ideas with these string cheese ghosts.

In this bento lunch (packed in a Planetbox): I used a ghost shaped cookie cutter for the sandwich and raisins for the facial details. Honey was used as glue for the raisins. Sides were dye free choc sunflower seeds, Annie's organic crackers topped with a couple of ghost string cheese, seedless green grapes with a ghost cupcake pick, organic baby carrots, organic granola bar and seedless red grapes.

In this bento lunch:

• Grapes and strawberry slices watched over by a ghost pick.
• Sweet bell peppers carved into jack-o-lanterns above bed of lettuce.
• Ghost shaped sandwich topped with provolone cheese, eyes and nose are made from nori with fruit leather letters. Smaller ghosts are from mozzarella string cheese cut into half with sharp paring knife and food safe marker for eyes and nose. Packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

BOO is the first word of the Halloween season and the theme of this lunch. The main compartment of this lunch contains three mini pumpkin shaped sandwiches which I used a small pumpkin cookie cutter to cut out. I used the letter cutters to cut mild cheddar cheese to put on top of these and a couple pieces of string cheese to make the ghosts by first cutting it into half and then making cuts lengthwise for perhaps a little more than half their length and then spreading them apart to give a bit of a spooky look. I simply used a toothpick to make some indentations for the eyes and mouth, but you could also use a food safe marker. I included a piece of granola bar upon which I added letter cookies from IKEA, and in the smaller sections below I have celery sticks and organic baby carrots on the right and a silicone pumpkin shaped cup holding some grapes and a ghost pick. This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

Below is my first ever string cheese creation in 2011 (12 years ago)! Wow, how quickly time flies.

In this bento lunch:

• Ghost shaped sandwich with turkey ham and Colby cheese. Topped with Asiago cheese and candy eyes
• Ghost shaped string cheese
• Seedless black grapes
• Cheddar crackers behind ghost marshmallow
• Organic baby carrots

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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5 Ways To Make Halloween MUMMY Themed Lunches

One of our favorite months of the year is here, October, which brings us cooler weather and Halloween! It's also time that we start thinking of fun foods to create, from cookies or cupcakes to school lunches.

Here are five ways that I've created Halloween MUMMY themed lunches in the past. 

The first two are quite similar, one I used a bear shaped cookie cutter and the other a gingerbread man cookie cutter.

In this bento lunch 1: Bear shaped sandwich topped with mozzarella cheese bandages, candy eyes and a spider cupcake ring. Organic baby carrots with a monster hand cupcake pick, Annie's organic fruit snack, seedless black grapes, orange yogurt topped with fruit leather which I free hand cut to look like Jack-O-Lantern. I included a Lunchbox love note with this lunch which was packed in a leak-proof Bentgo box.

In this bento lunch 2: Mummy shaped sandwich. I used a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter for the sandwich, candy eyes on nori face. Stripes of Provolone cheese for Mummy's wrappings. Seedless black grapes and cantaloupe. Sliced organic carrots and sliced cucumber.

Pizza is always popular with Nikolai, he doesn't mind eating them either hot or cold. I found a great recipe for pizza mummies from Weelicoius site and I found her instructions are very easy to follow. These pizzas are made from English muffins and the result was very tasty indeed, but I've also made some out of Pillsbury biscuit dough which you can find here.

In this bento lunch 3: English muffin pizzas. The one on the left is Jack -O-Lantern with mozzarella cheese cut with my Jack-O-Lantern cutter. The other is a mummy pizza for which I used strips of string cheese and a couple slices of a black olive. Above and to the left are some organic baby carrots and to the right is a container of apple sauce decorated with a mummy cupcake ring. This lunch was packed in a Bentology living lunchbox.

In the next lunch, instead of using thin strips of cheese as I did before for the bandages, I tried something a bit different this time. I used tortilla to make some roll-ups and then cut another into thin strips to make the bandages. I found that it helps to stick them in place at the ends with just a tiny dab of honey or some other sticky condiments.

In this bento lunch 4: A couple of Mummy tortilla roll-ups with candy eyes. Top right: Seedless black grapes with a cute Mummy cupcake ring.
Bottom right: Edamame (Eat-a-mummy?) in a spider silicone cup.
Far right: Mozzarella string cheese, I used food safe marker for the facial details.

In this bento lunch 5: Mummy sandwich cut with a circle cookie cutter, provolone cheese cut for wrapping strips, nori and candy eyes.
Apple sauce with a grape big spider (body is one half of a large black grape, the other cut into legs). Peach slices. Edamame with a mummy cupcake ring. I also included a Lunchbox love note from the joke edition. LOL! What did the mummy say to the detective? Answer: Let's wrap this up!! This bento is packed in our ECOLunchbox Solo Cube.

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Happy Halloween, everyone!

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4 Fun Halloween School Lunch Ideas: Ghost, Jack-O-Lantern, Bats and Witch

Halloween is my favorite time of the year to pack fun lunches, not only do I enjoy making them, I also enjoy admiring those made by others.
Nikolai still isn't sure what costume he wants and I guess we have to start brainstorming soon, real soon! I'm more of a foodie than a tailor/crafter, so sewing a last minute costume is out of the question, lol.

Here are 4 fun Halloween themed lunches which are quite easy and totally doable. They are all packed in our leak-proof Yumbox.

Bento lunch 1: Main compartment contains a Jack-O-Lantern sandwich and a baby seedless cucumber. For the Jack-O-Lantern I used a two sided cutter to cut the shape of the components and then used the other side for the cut-outs only on the top slice. A bit of crust serves as a stem. I used our lettering cookie cutters to leave a faint (spooky?) BOO impression on the cucumber. In the upper right section there is a mandarin orange with a small celery stick as a pumpkin and stem and below them are some strawberries. In the center I included some fruit snacks.

Bento lunch 2: For this lunch I have a sandwich topped with a mozzarella cheese ghost which I shaped with a cutter and decorated with bits of raisin, and using another small cutter, I included a tiny headstone shaped piece of crust and also a "BOO" pick. On the right side I have included some strawberries, cucumber slices, and some chunks of cheese.

Bento lunch 3: Above a bagel with creme cheese filling I put a flying witch on a broom. The witch was shaped with a cutter, the hat was made from nori, and the broom from a bread crust. For the sides I included some apple slices, some green grapes and some M&Ms.

Bento lunch 4: Here are a couple of bat sandwiches which were shaped with a cutter and decorated with fruit leather eyes and mouths with a cheese stick below and a granola bar above. Above right are some apple slices and green grapes and below left are some sweet red bell pepper slices.

These were all very easy and quick to make, but most of all they were really FUN to make!

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

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Zombie Halloween Bento

This year, my Halloween themed lunches seemed to be the easiest of all, thanks to my collection of cookie cutters. I did not even carve or attempted to carve or take time to cut food into cute shapes, just too lazy busy well, something anyway, lol!

I don't know WHAT to think of the Zombie threat. Hubby likes to watch some of the zombie shows (Just for the acting? That's what he claims anyway!) and I'm not real sure that the Zombie thing is only a Halloween time problem, but they are spooky, and that makes this a great time, right?

Below is a Zombie bento lunch that I made for Nikolai. The cookie cutter that I used was also purchased from our local Michaels store.

In this lunch are a couple of zombie sandwiches, perhaps more cute than scary! Alongside are some baby carrots and some red seedless grapes with a couple of eyeball cupcake rings and hiding on the far right is a string cheese which I used a marker for the features (on the wrapper). It was fun to make and it all fits nicely in his Bentology Living lunch box.

Have a fun Halloween!

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Ghost Halloween Lunch and Ghost Pizza with Recipe

I made a stop at Trader Joe's during the weekend and got carried away with all the yummy fall foods, purchased a couple of carts full of them and shared some with friends. They have those cute ghost and bat shaped potato crisps and they are so cute and very yummy! Their pumpkin cookies are delicious, as is their pumpkin pancake mix, from which hubby made pumpkin pancakes yesterday. I especially like the pumpkin tea, pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin coffee, and pretty much everything pumpkin. It all has that 'Fall has arrived' flavor which taste so good.

I've created several ghost themed lunches over the years that are easy and fun. Cutting the string cheese to look like ghosts is my favorite part. I'll be sharing with you the method I used for the string cheese as well as my favorite mini pizza recipe.

The photo below shows an example of one ghost themed lunch that is quite easy.

You can make some cute ghosts similar to these quite easily.

You will need:

• String cheese
• Paring knife
• Toothpick, food safe marker or sunflower seeds

Method:

1. Cut the string cheese into half.
2. Using a knife, make a slit in the middle and almost 3/4 way down.
3. Make a few more additional slits till you get 8 legs or less.
4. I used a toothpick for this particular face accents. Just poke the toothpick on the cheese to create the eyes and mouth. I've used food safe marker before and I've seen sunflower seeds being used. Just some ideas.

In this bento lunch (packed in a Planetbox): I used a ghost shaped cookie cutter for the sandwich and raisins for the facial details. Honey was used as glue for the raisins. Sides were dye free choc sunflower seeds, Annie's organic crackers topped with a couple of ghost string cheese, seedless green grapes with a ghost cupcake pick, organic baby carrots, organic granola bar and seedless red grapes.

Any pizza lovers out there? My hubby and Nikolai love pizza and they can eat it served hot or cold! I've made this fun Halloween themed pizza for lunch a while back. I plan to make it again soon but I'm afraid I'll not have enough time to post the new lunch and recipe. Here is the older lunch with recipe. You can recreate something similar with different cheese cut outs for sure.

Ingredients:

1. One tube refrigerated Pillsbury biscuit dough
2. 1 bottle of organic pasta sauce
3. 2 slices part skim mozzarella cheese (for the ghosts)
4. Sliced olives

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°.
2. Roll or pat biscuits into 2-1/2 in. circles. Place on greased baking sheet or non-stick sheet. I love our baking sheet which has wide handles!
3. Add pasta sauce on top of biscuits.  
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
5. Using a small ghost-shape cookie cutter, cut a ghost out of each cheese slice. 
6. Immediately place a ghost over each pizza; add pieces of olives for faces. 
7. Pack in his Laptop Lunches after the pizzas cool down.

In this bento lunch:

• A couple of ghostly pizzas made with Pillsbury biscuit dough, tomato and basil organic pasta sauce topped after removing from oven with mozzarella cheese cut to ghost shape and black olive accents.
• Top Left - Organic peas with a ghost pick.
• Top Right - Peach slices topped with mozzarella cheese mini ghosts.
• Far Right - Fork wrapped in cloth napkin. 

It's easy and tasty, bake a batch and save some for the next day's lunch.

Our favorite products:

 

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Day Of The Dead Halloween Bento

I purchased several cookie cutters from our local Michaels craft store last year and had a great deal because when I got them it was after Halloween. I think I paid less than $1 each since they were clearance items. Can't beat that right? As always with this time of year, we have so many activities planned  and my calendar is almost full till around Christmas. All is FUN and I actually can't wait. It's the inner child in me, lol!

You may have noticed that I've not used food safe marker in a long time, years maybe. That's because Nikolai simply won't eat any cheese or bread that I colored with the food safe markers. Every single time he would come home with untouched food which I had, I thought artistically, colored. I'm not sure as to why. I have asked him but he just kept quiet. I learned, however, not to color his food anymore. I thought this lunch would look nicer if I've colored the faces but I'm sure that he'd not eat the top part if I'd done that.

In this bento lunch (packed in a Planetbox): A couple of day of the dead stamped sandwiches, seedless grapes with a skeleton hand, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, Rice Krispie bar with a spider cupcake ring, sugar snap peas and organic baby carrots.

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Jack - O - Lantern Halloween Bento

The countdown to Halloween begins! I have to refrain from looking at Halloween decorations! Whenever I enter a store to purchase groceries or any other items, my legs will automatically take me to the Halloween section, LOL. Last year, I went overboard and now I find I have a huge excess of Jack-O-Lanterns, witch hats, caldrons, and spooky plastic body parts, bats, and spiders. Not a few extra, rather way too many!

For my first Halloween lunch of this year I'll share my favorite Jack-O-Lantern!  I'll try to make at least a few other very simple ones soon. You can find my previous Halloween lunches HERE, over 50 of them. Here is my first one of this year and it's my favorite, the Jack-O-Lantern. Nikolai spotted some cute Babybel cheese with Halloween wrappers at the grocery store. I promise, this time it's not only me.

In this bento lunch:

• A Jack-O-Lantern sandwich made using cutter for the eyes and mouth.
• The same cutter was used to cut the cheese over the seedless red grapes in the pumpkin shaped silicone cup.
• Sugar snap peas.
• Babybel cheese.
• Apple slices.
• Crackers with a 'BOO' pick.

 This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

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Frankenstein Bento

Halloween is on a Saturday this year which means that it's not that hectic to us compared to being on a weekday. Of the many spooky icons available for the Halloween season, Frankenstein is one of the most famous. Therefore, I've chosen this not so scary Frankenstein to be my last Halloween themed lunch of 2015. I am quite happy that this year I managed to post all of the Halloween themed lunches before October 31st! I've created a couple of other Frankenstein lunches in the past and this one, I think, may be the easiest to make of them all.

In this bento lunch:

• A Frankenstein monster sandwich with the crust trimmed to use as his hair, eyes of mozzarella cheese and raisins, mouth and scar freehand cut from fruit leather, and a couple of picks from my space themed collection.
• Top left are some organic baby carrots with a creepy skeletal hand which I purchased from Michaels craft store.
• Top right is half of an apple carved into a Jack-O-Lantern in a pumpkin silicone cup. This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween, and a wonderful weekend!

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Jack-O-Lantern Bento

It looks like I've gotten into some kind of Jack-O-Lantern mode lately, from my bento lunches to my home decorations. We have a wooden doll house or, since Nikolai uses it for his collection of bears, perhaps I should call it a bear house. My hubby made this cute little bear sized house for Nikolai many years ago. It has three stories with different flooring in all the rooms from carpet and marble to wood with a beautiful roof top, and fully furnished. Several weeks ago I spotted some adorable little pumpkin shaped string lights, got them for the bear's house, and used them to decorate it along the roof and in one of the rooms!

For this lunch I made a simple and free hand cut sandwich into a Jack-O-Lantern. Packed in a Planetbox.

In this bento lunch in Planetbox: Main compartment contains a sandwich topped with mild cheddar cheese carved into Jack-O-Lantern with a bread crust stem and a leaf food pick. The sides are some ghosts and bats veggie chips which I purchased from Target, a ghost marshmallow in the center, organic baby carrots with hummus in the small dipper, a brownie and some seedless grapes in a silicone cup with a Jack-O-Lantern pick. 

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Ghost Halloween Lunches

I thought I'll combine these two ghost themed lunches in one post. We will be on a long weekend since Monday and Tuesday there will be no school and I am expecting to only post one or two more Halloween themed lunches next week.

I love creating these ghosts with my Japanese octopus cutter, I think they look cute and are not such scary ghosts. Nikolai had pizza bites and I topped it with ghost Mozzarella cheese. First, I baked the mini pizza bagel bites which I found in the freezer section of the grocery store and when they were done, I topped with the ghost shaped cheese. I started cutting the ghosts while I was waiting for the pizzas to be done in the oven.

In this bento lunch: Pizza bites topped with ghost shaped Mozzarella cheese slices, ghost shaped veggie chips which I purchased from Target, organic pear pieces with a ghost cupcake pick and the far right is a string cheese for which I used a marker on the outside wrapper of the cheese to make it ghostly. This lunch was packed in a Bentology living bentobox.

The next lunch was ghosts Halloween pasta. I purchased the Halloween pasta at World Market and cooked it in the morning with some leftover diced chicken and Italian seasoning. I topped the pasta with ghosts shaped Mozzarella cheese. His sides were organic baby carrots with an eyeball cupcake ring, Annie's organic fruit snacks, apple slices and seedless grapes. This lunch was packet in a leak-proof Yumbox Panino.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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Mummy Halloween Bento

This was a very easy and fun to make mummy lunch. I used a bear shaped cookie cutter to create the mummy, for which I got the inspiration from one of my older posts where I used a Gingerbread man cookie cutter to create the mummy. You can find that post here.
I wanted to surprise Nikolai with this lunch but had to tell him not to panic when he sees it at lunch time. He is afraid of spiders and that cupcake ring might startle him. I don't want him jumping or shouting and getting into trouble at lunch time, lol.

In this bento lunch: Bear shaped sandwich topped with mozzarella cheese bandages, candy eyes and a spider cupcake ring. Organic baby carrots with a monster hand cupcake pick, Annie's organic fruit snack, seedless black grapes, orange yogurt topped with fruit leather which I free hand cut to look like Jack-O-Lantern. I included a Lunchbox love note with this lunch which was packed in a leak-proof Bentgo box.

I'm not crazy about spiders either, but for me it is the startled expression in the mummy's eyes that makes it really scary!

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Pizza Mummy and Jack-O-Lantern Pizza with Recipe

Pizza is always popular with Nikolai, he doesn't mind eating them either hot or cold. These pizzas are made from English muffins and the result was very tasty indeed, but I've also made some out of Pillsbury biscuit dough which you can find here. As often is the case, we doubled up the recipe and decided to experiment a little creating different themes.

Nikolai helped with the pizza faces and I think this is a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen. Often times I get him to help in the kitchen with activities from whisking and cutting to cooking and baking. It's also a great time and opportunity to teach him valuable skills for his future. His favorite question to me is usually, "Mom, what is your secret ingredient?" LOL.

In this bento lunch: English muffin pizzas. The one on the left is Jack -O-Lantern with mozzarella cheese cut with my Jack-O-Lantern cutter. The other is a mummy pizza for which I used strips of string cheese and a couple slices of a black olive. Above and to the left are some organic baby carrots and to the right is a container of apple sauce decorated with a mummy cupcake ring. This lunch was packed in a Bentology living lunchbox. You can find the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 2 english muffins, cut in half
• 8 teaspoons pizza sauce
• 2 mozzarella cheese sticks
• 1 slice of mozzarella cheese
• Black olives

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400℉.
2. Place the English muffin halves on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes.
3. Remove muffins from oven and spread 2 teaspoons of the pizza sauce onto each English muffin half.
4. For the Mummy: Peel the mozzarella sticks into strings and decoratively arrange them on top of each English muffin. Place the sliced olives on top of the cheese to create eyes.
5. The one on the left is Jack -O-Lantern with mozzarella cheese cut with my Jack-O-Lantern cutter.
6. Bake them for 3 more minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
7. Enjoy!

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Halloween Bat Bento

We have so many party invitations and fun activities especially from this weekend onward. As always, we are unable to attend all of them and it's so difficult to choose which ones we could attend, and which to politely and regretfully pass.

I made this simple bat bento which includes a couple of bat shaped sandwiches. For these I used my larger bat shape cutter and added eyes and mouth cut from fruit leather. Above these bat sandwiches there are organic carrots and celery sticks with a BOO pick, and to the left of those are some bat shaped pieces of mild cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I used the same small cutter for both the cheese and the cut-out of the apple half. In the center are Annie's organic fruit snacks. Perhaps dark pumpernickel bread might have been more typically bat like, but what I used here seems to make the little red eyes a bit more startling. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox Rover.

My hubby thought that the bats should be upside down as he said that is how they are usually seen. While it might have been extra creepy for those who know such things, I suggested that they probably do their flying orientated as shown. I actually looked this up, and there indeed are white winged vampire bats and while they do hang around upside down they don't do it with their wings spread. Spooky to me!!

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Jack-O-Lantern Tortilla Lunch and Cinnamon Tortilla Chips {with recipe} for Halloween

Jack-O-Lanterns are among my favorite symbols of fall, I especially love to look at the many variations of them. The ones I like best are those which are hand carved and  highly detailed with much imagination and creativity.

I made the ones for this bento out of tortilla. I used my Jack-O-Lantern cookie cutter to cut the tortilla to pumpkin shapes and to create the faces. To the right side there is a string cheese upon which I used a marker to draw a ghost face on the outer wrapper. In the top left section there are some seedless green grapes and pineapple pieces shaped as pumpkins with a cute pick.

On the bottom left are some cinnamon tortilla chips. These baked cinnamon sugar tortilla chips are so delicious and really quite easy to make. I used a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to cut out the tortillas to pumpkin shapes and then baked them in the oven. Scroll down for the recipe.

Cinnamon Sugar Flour Tortilla Chips Recipe (you can substitute spinach, whole wheat or any kind of tortillas according to your preference). You can also double up the recipe and alter the ingredients to your liking. My family loves cinnamon, thus I used a little extra here and in my other cooking much of the time.

Ingredients:

• 4 flour tortillas (medium size)
• 4 tablespoon sugar
• 2.5 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 3 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
3. Melt butter in a small bowl.
4. Using the cookie cutter, cut pumpkin shapes out of the tortilla.
5. Dip the cut pieces of tortilla in melted butter (shake off the excess), and coat with cinnamon sugar.
6. Place coated tortillas on the lined baking tray.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and let the chips fully cool.
8. Enjoy!

This lunch is packed in a Planetbox Launch and I included a Lunchbox Love note in his lunch bag.

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Halloween Spider Bento

It's pumpkin season and I love anything pumpkin especially the foods, flavored coffee and tea. I baked some pumpkin spice muffins for tea time and saved some of them for the next day's breakfast. Nikolai asked if I could pack one for his school lunch and the spider idea came to my mind.

Since I did not bake the muffins in our spider silicone cups, rather I just popped one into it when they were done, added a couple of candy eyes and nearly instantly I had a pumpkin spider.
His sides were roll ups turkey slices which I put into another spider cup, organic baby carrots with a spider web cupcake ring and seedless green grapes. This is the easiest spider themed lunch I've ever made. I've made a couple in the past, one out of bread which you can find here and another was from pancakes which you can find here.

As for the message on the banana, I used a toothpick and wrote BOO on the banana peel, can you see it? At first it will be tough to see, but after several minutes the message will begin to darken, and by lunch time it will be easy to ready. This lunch was packed in an Ecolunchboxes solo cube.

Nikolai noted that unlike my pumpkin muffin spider, REAL spiders have eight eyes! He is actually quite correct in that, but no way I would let him talk me into eight candy eyes!

Note to self: If a message is written on the banana peel before preparing the lunch, it will have more time in which to turn darker before I snap the picture.

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Boo-tiful Halloween Lunch

It's October and it's my favorite time of the year. Actually, for me, it's starts from Halloween and lasts until New Year with lots of fun activities, foods, gatherings, some travel, the joyous feeling of the festivity, etc. We have so many things planned especially for this year! We also feel that Nikolai is growing up too quickly and we want to spend as much quality time with him as possible. Our family time together is and has been our no 1 priority and now we want to make it even better.

This is my first Halloween bento lunch of this year and I may not be making that many compared to previous years. Not that I don't want to, but I am afraid that I might not be able to blog them in time before Halloween. Anyway you can find my previous years Halloween themed lunches here.

BOO is the first word of the Halloween season and the theme of this lunch. The main compartment of this lunch contains three mini pumpkin shaped sandwiches which I used a small pumpkin cookie cutter to cut out. I used the letter cutters to cut mild cheddar cheese to put on top of these and a couple pieces of string cheese to make the ghosts by first cutting it into half and then making cuts lengthwise for perhaps a little more than half their length and then spreading them apart to give a bit of a spooky look. I simply used a toothpick to make some indentations for the eyes and mouth, but you could also use a food safe marker. I included a piece of granola bar upon which I added letter cookies from IKEA, and in the smaller sections below I have celery sticks and organic baby carrots on the right and a silicone pumpkin shaped cup holding some grapes and a ghost pick. This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

Are you ready for Halloween? This past weekend we made a start on our decorating, and believe it or not it actually gave me a start when we arrived home in the evening and the car's headlights  briefly illuminated a scarecrow which I'd temporarily forgotten that I had placed by the front door!
This lunch is linked to: 

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Jack-O-Lantern and Pumpkin Patch bento #627

Jack-O-Lantern is one of my favorites to create every year; it's easy and there are many ways to create the face. I made this one with the cheese inside the sandwich cut to the shape of a pumpkin with the top slice cut to reveal the mild cheddar cheese for the glowing eyes, nose, and cheeky grin.

The other day, I carved half an apple with jack-o-lantern features and today I used nori with a little dab of water to create the face. The pumpkin patch is pumpernickel bread topped with mellowcream pumpkins made with real honey from Brach's. This lunch was packed in his Trudeau fuel Everest sandwich box.

This will be my last Halloween themed bento for this year. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween, and a great weekend!

In this bento lunch:

• A Jack-O-Lantern sandwich in a Pumpernickel pumpkin patch.
• Slices of carrot cut to pumpkin shape.
• Apple with nori Jack-O-Lantern accents.
• Two small pumpkin shaped treats.

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

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