I made this easy bento for my 16 year old niece to take to school. She loved the fun book box and it’s contents!
Container: Book Bento Box
Contents: Onigiri filled with black beans and salsa, spinach face details, broccoli, baby carrots, green grapes, blackberries
My niece turned 16 this week. I made this “sweet” themed bento for her to bring to school for lunch on her birthday. She loved it!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cooked Nishiki rice, cooked broccoli and cauliflower (in a little vegetable broth). I used an ice cream cone cookie cutter to shape the vegetables, placed rice around the cookie cutter, then carefully lifted off the cookie cutter. I sprinkled a little bit of paprika on top of the rice.
Top Right: Junior Mints
Bottom Right: Yellow bell pepper (cut with cupcake cookie cutter), edamame
Outside of Box: Nutella to Go
I was inspired by Little Caesars Soft Pretzel Crust Pizza commercial to try it. I don’t have any Little Caesars locations near my house so my only option was to try making it myself. Mine does not look as beautiful as theirs. Also I like my pizza crust thin and crispy so I am not sure why I liked the idea of pretzel pizza. This was a planned dinner with leftovers for lunch meal. I would not make this again but if you like deep dish or soft pizza crust you may enjoy making these.
I mostly followed this pretzel recipe but made small rounds (easier to boil and will fit in a lunch box). I cooked the pretzel rounds plain for about 8 minutes (time will vary depending on the size of your round). I then sprinkled the edge with salt, spread with tomato sauce and covered with cheese. I then continued baking until the bottom of the crust was brown and cheese melted.
Basic Instructions: Follow a soft pretzel recipe but make small rounds and only sprinkle salt on the edge. Bake for part of the cooking time, take rounds out of the oven and add sauce and cheese. Bake until cheese is melted and the crust is done to your liking.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Pretzel crust pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese
Top Right: Carrots
Bottom Right: Apple
Today I am sharing 5 different lunches that used the same cookie cutters. I bought the fork and spoon at the Seria 100 Yen Store on my trip to Japan last March. I was so excited to find these two cute cutters for less than $1.00.
I made this lunch for my husband. I am guessing that he put the fork and spoon back in the bread before eating it but I am really not sure.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Peanut butter and black raspberry jam on wheat bread, fork and spoon cut-outs
Top Right: Greek yogurt, cinnamon
Bottom Right: Synder’s Pretzel Spoonz
Top of Box: Banana
I made this pasta lunch for my 15 year old niece.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Broccoli and slivered almonds
Bottom Left: Blueberries
Right Side: Pasta with tomato sauce, Naan bread fork
I made this quick lunch for myself. The cheese fork and spoon made it fun.
Container: LunchBots Trio
Top Left: Chickpeas
Top Right: Rice with Cheddar cheese fork and spoon
Bottom: Raspberries and snowpeas
I made this place setting quesadilla lunch for myself.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Cheese quesadilla with food marker details, cheddar cheese fork, knife, and spoon
Bottom Left: Blueberries
Bottom Right: Dry Roasted Edamame
I asked for help when brainstorming ways to use my fork and spoon cookie cutters. My 10 year old nephew gave me the idea for this meal.
Hey diddle diddle, The Cat and the fiddle, The Cow jumped over the moon.
The little Dog laughed, To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the Spoon
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Green and red butter lettuce, dish (tortilla with food safe marker), spoon (Colby-jack cheese)
Top Right: Baby carrots with dog (cucumber), Ha Ha – laughing picks
Bottom Right: Cow (Pepper-jack cheese), moon (Colby-jack cheese)
I hope that this article inspired you to play with your food. If you want to make sure you don’t miss what I will make next, please subscribe to my blog by email. Thanks!
I am a nearly lifelong vegetarian. When people hear that I am a vegetarian they often worry about the amount of protein I eat. There are many thoughts on protein including that most people eat too much protein but here are 5 vegetarian meals (1 vegan) with a load of protein. So no matter what reason you have for looking for a meatless meal that contains a lot of protein, please enjoy these delicious meals.
In these meals I feature quinoa, lasagna, angel hair pasta, couscous, chickpeas, and lentils. Side dishes include Greek yogurt, Kind bar, pumpkin seeds, edamame, ricotta cheese, and sunflower seeds. The containers used are EasyLunchBoxes. When preparing healthy meals at home or on the go EasyLunchBoxes helps make the meal convenient and attractive.
These meals contain between 21 and 26 grams of protein.
This satisfying meal is low on calories but high on protein (21 grams). I enjoyed this Quinoa & Black Beans recipe from Eating Well and plan to eat it again soon.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Quinoa & Black Beans – 162 cal, 6 grams protein
Top Right: Raspberries and blueberries
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon – 90 cal, 15 grams protein
I developed this recipe myself. I made it somewhat plain but I still found it to be delicious. Of course you can season to your own taste. This meal contains 26 grams of protein.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Lasagna roll-up with tomato sauce – 326 calories, 24 grams protein
Top Right: 1/2 of a Almond and Coconut Kind bar – 95 calories, 2 grams protein
Bottom Right: Spinach leaves and carrots – low calories, small amount of protein
Easy Lasagna Roll-up (1 serving)
1 cooked lasagna noodle – 86 cal, 3 grams protein
4 oz. Cottage cheese – 90 cal, 10 grams protein
Dried herbs, salt & pepper
1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese – 80 cal, 8 grams protein
1 cup Tomato Sauce – 70 calories, 3 grams protein
Preheat oven to 375. Spread some tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Mix cottage cheese and herbs. Spread cottage cheese mixture on cooked lasagna noodle and roll it up. Carefully place in baking dish, seam side down. Spread some tomato sauce on top of the lasagna roll-up. Sprinkle the top of the lasagna roll-up with Mozzarella cheese. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until the tomato sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted.
This Cold Peanut Noodle salad is a favorite recipe in my house. I choose high protein sides so this Vegan meal contains 26 grams of protein.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cold Peanut Noodles with Cucumber – 290 calories, 11 grams protein
Top Right: 15 grams pumpkin seeds – 85 calories, 4 grams protein
Bottom Right: 100 grams edamame – 120 calories, 11 grams protein
I found this couscous recipe to be a little dry but you can add lemon juice or more oil if you want. This meal has 25 grams of protein.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Couscous Salad with Chickpeas – 351 calories, 11 grams protein
Top Right: 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese with cinnamon – 216 calories, 14 grams protein
Bottom Right: Apple
This lentil and feta salad has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I prefer it with more vegetables and less lentils but this time I made it as the recipe is written to include more protein. This meal has 26 grams of protein.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Lentil Salad with Feta Cheese – 309 calories, 20 grams protein
Top Right: 1/4 cup Sunflower seeds – 186 calories, 6 grams protein
Bottom Right: Green grapes
No matter your reason for eating more protein, I hope that you can enjoy some of these meals for lunch, dinner, or even breakfast as part of a healthy meal plan.
Disclaimer:
I am not a nutritionist. I planned these meals based on previous knowledge and internet research. Since many sources have varying nutritional information for the same item, I do not guarantee the calorie and protein counts.
Today I am sharing 10 new Halloween lunches. I made these for my husband, friend’s daughter, my Mom, my Dad, and myself. I enjoy making cute food for anyone who will eat it and luckily I have no trouble finding volunteers. In this article, I feature quesadillas, pizza, sandwiches, and a calzone.
I made this spider themed lunch for my Dad since I knew that I wanted to make a deviled egg and he likes them.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cheese quesadilla with food marker details, salsa in a Mini Dipper (I put the top on after taking the photo)
Top Right: Blackberries
Bottom Right: Deviled egg cut with crinkle cutter, black olive spider
I made this candy corn themed lunch for my Mom. I modified the recipe a little to make it more crispy than the original recipe.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Candy Corn Quesadilla (I basically used this recipe but did not use chicken and cooked it for 10 minutes before putting the cheese on top and used Gouda instead of the Tillamook cheese)
Top Right: Pineapple and coconut
Bottom Right: Air popped popcorn with orange and yellow Reese’s Pieces
I made this friendly ghost lunch for myself. The picks were from Lindt Halloween chocolates.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Ghost shaped cheese quesadillas with melted chocolate chip eyes, salad mix
Top Right: Diced cucumbers and tomatoes
Bottom Right: Red grapes
I made this Jack-o-Lantern calzone for myself. It was so much fun to make and eat.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Calzone made with pizza dough and filled with ricotta cheese, spinach, and a lot of pepper), I cut pumpkin face details with cookie cutters. I then baked it.
Bottom Left: Pumpkin shaped melon
Bottom Right: Almonds
Mini Dipper: Pizza sauce
I made this simple lunch for myself using CuteZCute Cuddle Palz.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Tiger CuteZCute Cuddle Palz wheat sandwich with almond butter, mini cheese pumpkins made with a cookie cutter and Colby-jack cheese
Top Right: Cantaloupe
Bottom Right: Sugar snap peas
My husband ate this pizza ghost lunch. He especially enjoyed the ghost strawberries.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Ghost shaped cheese pizza (without sauce)
Top Right: Strawberries with white candy melts and semi-sweet chocolate details. I was inspired by this.
Bottom Right: Salad with radish pumpkins
I made this for myself because there was no one else around on the day that I wanted to make it. Skulls are not my favorite but I am very pleased with how it tasted and looked. I was inspired by Organized Bites to put Trader Joe’s Baked Cheese Crunchies behind the sandwich.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Skull sandwich with wheat bread, peanut butter, and strawberry jam, Trader Joe’s Baked Cheese Crunchies
Top Right: Cantaloupe
Bottom Right: Sugar snap peas
When I asked my friend’s daughter what type of Halloween bento she wanted, she said “black cat”. I was happy to make this lunch for her.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Peanut butter on pumpernickel bread cat, matchstick carrots, Cheddar cheese jack-o-lanterns with food marker details
Top Right: Cheez-It’s Scrabble Junior crackers
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries
I made this skull pizza meal for husband. I added the “bones” because he likes chocolate covered pretzels.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Skull shaped pizza with basil details, spinach (background)
Top Right: White candy melts covered pretzel sticks (bones), plain pretzel sticks (underneath)
Bottom Right: Blackberries
I made these happy Jack-o-lantern quesadillas for myself.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Jack-o-lantern cheese quesadillas (I cut the face out of one side using a Jack-o-lantern cookie cutter, I then browned it by itself on my stove with cooking spray on the pan. Afterwards, I cooked the pumpkin shape with cheese and the cooked Jack-o-lantern cut-out on top at low heat until melted.
Top Right: Snow peas
Bottom Right: Blackberries and orange segments
I hope that you now have a few Halloween themed food ideas to make in your own kitchen. Enjoy!
Linking to:
My 17 year old nephew likes pumpkin pie so when I thought about making a lunch with pumpkin, I immediately thought of him. I made this lunch and gave it to him in time to take to school. He was very thankful!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top of Photo: Homemade pumpkin flavored cream cheese (I used less sugar and I actually gave him two Mini Dippers of this), pumpkin yogurt
Left Side: Homemade sesame and poppy seed bagels
Top Right: Butter lettuce salad with carrots
Bottom Right: Miniature pumpkin pies – my nephew liked these, I also gave some to my husband and he said that they were missing a spice. He was right the recipe did not call for ginger which is a common ingredient in pumpkin pie
Some people may not understand it but I truly enjoy making and eating cute food. So of course, I made some new Fall/Autumn themed lunches. This collection includes quinoa, sandwich, quesadilla, vegetable potato salad, pizza, onigiri, tortilla chips, and rice lunch ideas.
I made this delicious meal for myself. I used a mini acorn cookie cutter as my stencil for the paprika.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cooked quinoa with shredded white Cheddar cheese, acorn stencils with hot paprika
Top Right: Snow peas with leaf pick made from a sticker and toothpick
Bottom Right: Squirrel shaped melon
This is one of my favorite leaf themed meals. I get so much pleasure from making things with my hands. Cutting out the oak leaf shapes from potato and bell pepper was relaxing and memorable. This lunch was previously published here.
I made this simple owl themed lunch for my husband.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread with white and orange Cheddar cheese details, pupils drawn with food safe marker, ears are made from the crust.
Top Right: Cashews
Bottom Right: Raspberries
I made these leaf pizzas as a planned lunch on a night that I made pizza for dinner.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Fall leaf shaped pizza with red and yellow bell pepper
Top Right: Colby-Jack cheese leaf cut-outs
Bottom Right: Apple leaf cut-outs with cinnamon
I love the shape of the Ginkgo leaf and longtime readers know that I enjoy making lunches with quesadillas. This Ginkgo shaped quesadilla lunch was previously published here.
I wanted to make some leaf onigiri so made this for myself for dinner. It was delicious!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Zucchini sauteed in water with Knorr Homestyle Vegetable Stock, leaf onigiri made with cooked Nishiki rice and cookie cutters, cinnamon is on the left leaf, hot paprika is on the right leaf
Top Right: Cashews
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon
This lunch was an experiment. I used shredded carrot mixed with hot Nishiki rice to form this maple leaf. I did not love the carrot rice but I also don’t like to drink carrot juice. If you love carrots, you may enjoy carrots with rice. Red lettuce made a striking background. It was previously published here.
These open-faced cream cheese and cinnamon oak leaf sandwiches were made from Naan bread.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cream cheese and cinnamon on Naan bread
Top Right: Applesauce
Bottom Right: Tomato, feta, paprika
I made this leaf sandwich for the daughter of a friend. It was previously published here.
Another simple quinoa lunch with a leaf stencil.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Quinoa with melted Cheddar cheese, leaf cookie cutter used as stencil with hot paprika
Top Right: Blueberries
Bottom Right: Cherry tomatoes
These leaf shaped tortilla chips and salsa made a wonderful lunch on a sunny fall day. It was previously published here.
My niece made this squirrel in a tree lunch it was previously published here.
I am not thrilled with this falling leaves lunch but decided to include it anyway. I used cinnamon in the cream cheese instead of using dye but it does not stand out much from the color of the rice.
Container: ECO Lunchboxes
Main Container: Cooked rice, broccoli stalk, cinnamon cream cheese, cooked beets
Round Container: Cashews
I hope that you enjoyed seeing my fall themed lunch ideas. If you want to continue seeing my creations, please subscribe to my blog via email. Thanks!
I made this lunch for my husband. I decided to make a snack themed lunch to give him something different. He enjoyed it so I am now planning another one.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Pretzels, Town House Crackers, Cheddar cheese, cashews
Top Right: Celery with Peanut Butter
Bottom Right: Raspberries
Not in Photo: Yogurt
I enjoy coming up with new shapes for homemade bread. I had fun matching the fruit and vegetables to this theme.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cat shaped bread with food marker details, peanut butter in Mini Dipper
Top Right: Carrots shaped as fish, sugar snap peas
Bottom Right: Strawberry mice without tails
I made this lunch for my husband. He also had another pumpkin bread and yogurt. This was my first time making my own cinnamon cream cheese. I just added cinnamon and a little bit of sugar to softened cream cheese.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Homemade pumpkin shaped bread with a piece of pecan for the stem, sugar snap peas, cream cheese with cinnamon in a Mini Dipper
Top Right: Red grapes
Bottom Right: Pumpkin Pretzels (I made a quick and easier version, not as beautiful but my husband did not complain)
Today was Shel Silverstein’s birthday so along with some of my Bento Bloggers and Friends we are having a bento blog hop. I love The Giving Tree book so it was a natural choice for my lunch theme.
My husband ate this meal. For artistic purposes it does not have a lot of food but he had several more pretzels, cheese, and yogurt on the side with this meal. It was his idea to make soft pretzels for the tree trunk. My nephews were visiting when I made the pretzels (I timed it so I would have help eating them) and one mentioned that the pretzel was bent; that was my goal. I struggled with how to make the tree stump that is found at the end of the book. Somehow I remembered Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. My grandmother who is now 97 loves them.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Tree: Homemade soft pretzel, spinach leaves
Apples: Cherry tomatoes with leaf picks
Tree Stump: Little Debbie Swiss Rolls cut in half and stuck together with a little bit of chocolate frosting, chocolate frosting details
Mini Dippers: Mustard
Please click on the button below to continue on this hop to see what Venia from Organized Bites created.
Today is Elephant Appreciation Day so it seems like a perfect time to share elephant shaped food. Today I have 7 new food ideas with elephants and 3 previously published ones. Elephants were my sister’s favorite animal when we were growing up. Her favorite stuffed animal was Ellie the elephant. I used many different techniques in this compilation: sculpted mashed potatoes, cookie cutters (pizza, sandwich, vegetables, fruit, pancakes, tortilla chips), stencil, homemade bread, and rice ball.
I enjoy making bread and am always looking for new themes to try. I blogged about this elephant bread lunch here.
I made this elephant tortilla chips and hummus lunch for myself. I often make shaped tortilla chips but for this lunch with tortilla chips and hummus I was influenced by this from Eats Amazing.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Elephant shaped tortilla chips, cherry tomatoes
Top Right: Hummus with hot paprika
Bottom Right: Elephant shaped apple slices with cinnamon
I made this for my nephew on a day we went to the zoo. This lunch was previously published here.
I made these pancake elephants for my 10 year old nephew for lunch at home. I used an elephant cookie cutter when pouring the pancake batter but it did not work out great so I also cut them with the cutter after cooking. I think that they ended up cute but it was not a quick and easy process.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Elephant shaped pancakes, maple syrup in Mini Dipper
Top Right: Red bell pepper
Bottom Right: Green grapes with elephant pick
My husband ate this lunch on a day we went to the zoo. This lunch was previously published here.
We made this as part of various animal fruit kabobs for a Zoo themed Baby Shower (fruit kabob with elephant shaped melon, blueberry, watermelon, and pineapple)
My husband ate this pasta elephant bento for dinner. I did not have any fresh fruit in the house but had some cookies in the freezer.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Elbow pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. Red and green bell pepper elephant shapes.
Top Right: Red and green bell pepper elephant shapes.
Bottom Right: Snickerdoodle cookies
I was thrilled with how my mashed potato Babar turned out. He looks more informal than his suit from the books – maybe he is wearing pajamas. When I was a child I was not a fan of Babar but my friend had the books. I was inspired to make Babar as part of this collection after reading BentOnBetterLunches World Elephant Day post. Recently, I borrowed Bonjour, Babar! from the library (6 classics). I enjoyed reading them and so did my nephews when they visited.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Babar: Head – mashed potatoes with a little butter, shredded Cheddar cheese, and a tiny bit of Wilton black food coloring gel (I shaped the mashed potatoes after it chilled in the refrigerator for awhile), Tusks – white Cheddar, Crown – orange Cheddar cheese, Eyes – I dipped a toothpick into black food coloring gel, Body – mashed potatoes with a little butter, shredded Cheddar cheese and cooked broccoli.
Top Right: Roasted Soybeans
Bottom Right: Sliced strawberries and blueberries
I wanted to make an elephant onigiri so I made this meal for my husband. It did not turn out as cute as I had pictured it in my head.
Container: LunchBots Trio
Top Left: Elephant onigiri (rice ball), dried blueberry (eyes), lettuce
Top Right: Lettuce mix with Colby-jack cheese (cut up scraps from another lunch), sliced almonds
Bottom: Red grapes
I made this meal for myself. I found it delicious and satisfying.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Quinoa with shredded Cheddar cheese (melted in the hot quinoa), hot paprika sprinkled on mama and baby elephant stencil that I printed onto card stock and cut-out with a craft knife.
Bottom Left: Roasted zucchini with pine nuts
Bottom Right: Raspberries (from freezer – they look a little frosty in this photo)
I hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed preparing it for you. If you want to receive my blog updates, please subscribe by email.
Arrr! I have two lunches today for Talk Like a Pirate Day, a Lego pirate and a pirate map pizza.
I made this for my 10 year old nephew for lunch at home. We were not sure if this would be good enough to blog. But in the end I decided to share it. I thought that I had a plastic pirate sword but could not find it. I made one from candy melts but it turned out a little strange.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Lego Pirate (Naan bread covered with cream cheese, painted on food coloring for face and body, peg-leg is cinnamon, white candy melt eye and detail on shirt, semi-sweet chocolate hat with white chocolate skull, sword is white candy melt with a little black food coloring), cheese quesadilla (background)
Top Right: Cucumber
I made this for my husband’s lunch (for the next day) at the same time that I made a pizza dinner.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Pirate map pizza (tomato sauce, mozzeralla cheese, red pepper, green pepper, mushroom, zucchini) – there are two map pizzas in this lunch.
Top Right: Pirate treasure chest chocolate with white and semi-sweet chocolate
Bottom Right: Sliced celery with Monkey Pirate pick (sticker that I stuck to a toothpick)
Bottom Right: Strawberries
I did not start playing taking piano lessons until I was in the 4th grade. I remember thinking that my Mom should have put me in lessons much earlier. I thought that I was too old to start taking music lessons. But after I asked for lessons she did find a piano teacher for me and I took lessons through high school.
I made these lunches over the summer when I spent a lot of time with my niece and nephews. Many of these instrument and music themed lunches are very basic. I tried to include instruments that kids often study: piano, French horn, cello, voice, saxophone, guitar, trumpet, tuba, harp, violin, and drum.
Piano
My 15 year old niece made this piano out of nori (seaweed) for herself.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Cherries
Bottom Left: Green beans
Right Side: Cooked Nishiki rice, nori, music picks
French Horn
My 12 year old nephew plays the French Horn so I made this lunch for him.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Raspberries
Top Right: Pretzel Crisps
Bottom: Brazil nuts (in Mini Dipper), French Horn strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, green beans
Cello
I made this for my 12 year old niece. She plays the cello.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Cello pita sandwich with nutella and food marker details, almonds and cashews
Top Right: Carrots
Bottom Right: Cherries
Voice
I thought that voice would be a good addition to this collection so I made this lunch for myself (I am not a good singer).
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Broccoli, rice, cheese singer with food marker details, cheese notes
Top Right: Black beans with sauteed onions
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with blueberries
Saxophone
I made this lunch for my 14 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Green beans
Bottom Left: Blueberries
Right Side: Walnuts, Pretzel Crisps, Saxaphone strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread
Guitar
I made this cheese mashed potatoes guitar lunch for my 12 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Mashed potato and cheddar cheese guitar with black olive details, spinach leaves
Top Right: Blackberry yogurt with fruit flat musical note
Bottom Right: Green grapes
Trumpet
I made this lunch for my 10 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Trumpet strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, orange bell pepper, red bell pepper
Bottom Left: Bugles
Bottom Right: Blueberries
Musical Notes
I love the combination of pasta, beets, and blue cheese but I don’t like my pasta to get pink. My LunchBots trio was the perfect box for this lunch I made for myself.
Container: LunchBots Trio
Top Left: Penne pasta with blue cheese
Top Right: Spinach leaves and musical note shaped beets (I used a cookie cutter)
Bottom: Pistachios
Tuba
My 15 year old niece plays the Tuba so I made this lunch for her.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Peanuts
Bottom Left: Raspberries
Right Side: Tuba strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, salad
Harp
This is supposed to be a harp. I packed it on a day that I packed food for my Mom and 12 year old niece to eat while they were out and about. They did not know what this was supposed to be. Their guesses were Hershey Kiss or heart.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Cottage cheese with peaches
Bottom Left: Green grapes
Right Side: Harp Pita with nutella (food marker details), carrots
Violin
I made this violin lunch for myself.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Walnuts
Top Right: Pretzel Crisps
Bottom: Radish, strawberries, Violin peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread
Treble Clef
My niece designed and ate this lunch, we made it together. It represents the lines and spaces of the Treble Clef – Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and Fantastic Americans Crave Enchiladas
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Enchiladas with black beans, sauteed onion, and cheddar cheese, salsa, Treble Clef on tortilla with food marker details, letter picks
Top Right: This is supposed to be fudge. I wanted to buy fudge but it was difficult to find this time of year. I quickly made fudge but the consistency is wrong so I guess my candy thermometer was wrong or I messed it up somehow.
Bottom Right: Cucumber boy with matchstick carrots
Bass Clef
My niece designed this lunch, we made it together (my 10 year old nephew drew the markings on the cow), and my 10 year old nephew ate this meal. It represents the Bass Clef – All Cows Eat Grass and Good Boys Do Fine Always
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Bass Clef cheese quesadilla, food marker lines, Bass Clef symbol flour tortilla with food marker details, letter picks
Top Right: Grass (snowpeas)
Bottom Right: Cow (cheddar cheese with food marker details), matchstick carrots
Drum
This is supposed to be a drum. I gave this lunch to my 12 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Onigiri (rice) drum with cheese details, matchstick carrots
Top Right: Walnuts
Bottom Right: Blueberries
Which musical instrument did you play or does your child play? Did I include it here?
Friday night my husband and I took two nephews to see the movie Dolphin Tale 2. So of course I made my 10 year old nephew this dolphin themed meal. My 12 year old nephew had some snacks and dessert because he ate pizza at an after school party.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Dolphin shaped cheese quesadillas (he ate the scraps on the side), blueberries
Top Right: Orange bell pepper with Winter the dolphin pick
Bottom Right: Red, White and Blue Goldfish crackers
I am joining my Bento Bloggers and Friends on this Roald Dahl Day Hop. Please use the button at the end of this post to continue on to see the other Dahl themed lunches in this hop.
When researching books written by Roald Dahl, I found The Enormous Crocodile. As soon as I saw the cover I decided that I wanted to make crocodile shaped spinach bread. I borrowed the book from my library and read it in preparation for making this lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Crocodile Spinach and Parmesan bread with string cheese teeth and eyes (food marker pupils), blueberries
Bottom Left: Cucumber slices with “DAHL” letter picks
Bottom Right: Hummus with orange and red bell pepper “kids”. In the story the crocodile wants to eat children.
Please continue on the hop to see Keitha’s fabulous creation at Keitha’s Chaos.
My 15 year old niece requested this lunch. She wanted a main course pie and pie for dessert. I love getting food requests and enjoyed making this meal. My husband had it for dinner the night before and this meal was planned leftovers for lunch.
My husband and niece loved this zucchini and cheese pie with potato crust. Since I am particular about eggs in things, I liked that this does not use eggs. Most similar recipes call for eggs.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Zucchini Cheese Pie with Potato Crust (I reduced the scallions, onions, and did not use the bay leaves), spinach leaves
Top Right: Pistachios
Bottom Right: Mini Peach Pies (I made my own pie crust)
Here are some (mostly easy) ideas for making a sandwich more fun to eat. Most of these techniques are quick to make. Try these at home or in a packed lunch.
1. Fun Picks – Just stick a pick in it. Eye picks make a fast and fun face sandwich. I added a pea pick for the mouth. You can buy picks at BentoUSA or Eats Amazing UK.
2. Cookie Cutter with 2 types of bread – In this example I used wheat and pumpernickel breads. We normally eat wheat bread but I keep pumpernickel bread in my freezer to have on hand for fun details or something different. I served the wheat bread bat with the lunch. There are so many possibilities with this technique. You are only limited by your cookie cutters and types of bread that you and your kids will eat.
3. Sugar Shape – Use a cookie cutter, a little butter and colored decorating sugar to make your sandwich standout from the crowd. In the example below I pressed a star shaped cookie cutter into my top piece of bread. Then, I added a little bit of butter and carefully sprinkled colored sugar inside the cookie cutter.
Here is a basic photo tutorial.
4. Carrot Letters – This technique takes a little bit of time but not too long. I actually find it relaxing to cut shapes out of food. Think of all of the words you can spell with carrot letters! Thinly slice carrots and cut letters with small cookie cutters. If you will not transport your sandwich upright the letters may shift but you can “glue” them on with some Peanut Butter or WowButter. You can also pack a cloth napkin on top to help prevent shifting. I previously published this lunch here.
5. Cheese – Adding cheese in a cute shape is a tasty way to add fun to your sandwich. The example below actually shows several techniques (cheese, food marker, and carrot). I used a knife and two different colored cheeses to make this ship. I drew details on the sail with food safe marker. This lunch was previously published here.
6. Candy Eyes and Food Marker – This is really two techniques. Occasionally I like to use food safe markers to draw on my food. I use Americolor food coloring markers. The eyes in this example are Wilton Candy Eyeballs. If you are concerned about the eyes moving, you can try to glue them on with Peanut Butter or WowButter.
7. Cookie Cutter Shape Cut-Out – This simple technique adds a lot of visual appeal. Use a cookie cutter to cut a shape and show the sandwich filling underneath. I previously published this lunch here.
8. Sprinkle Shapes – There are so many sprinkle shapes available to add fun to your sandwich. This technique is best if you will serve the sandwich at home or carry the sandwich flat (not sideways) in your bag.
9. Dried Fruit – Make your sandwich special with dried fruit. In this example I used dried blueberries for the eyes and nose and half of a dried apricot for the mouth. It was fast and easy but so cute!
10. Toast Stamp – The toast stamp in the example was actually in a set of two that I found in a dollar store. I pressed the stamp into the top slice of bread. Then I toasted both pieces of bread. This lunch was originally published here.
I hope that this article will inspire you to easily transform your sandwich into something fun to eat. Whether you try one technique or combine several techniques you are only limited by your imagination and what you or your kids will eat.
Linking to:
Here is another featured ingredient lunch. I made this for my 10 year old nephew. He was not a fan of the maple vinaigrette but I liked it. I had house guests for breakfast the same morning and served them the apple muffins as part of their breakfast. A planned leftover muffin made this an easy lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Lettuce with slivered almonds, apple (dipped in water with some lemon juice), cheddar cheese
Top Right: Apple with cinnamon
Bottom Right: Apple Streusel Muffin – without the glaze
Today is National Skyscraper Day so I made two different themed lunches. They may not look like skyscrapers but I made them for myself and they were enjoyable meals.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Polenta with black beans
Top Right: Cashews
Bottom Right: Green grapes
This was my attempt at a famous skyscraper in NYC but I will not name it because I think that my result does not look like it. But this was a fun and enjoyable meal that I prepared for myself.
Container: LunchBots Trio
Left Side: Cheese quesadilla with food safe marker details
Top Right: Black beans with cucumber stars
Bottom Right: Salad with carrot and sunflower seeds
I made this simple lunch for my husband on a day that I made a different shaped bread meal for someone else and I also wanted to make him a shaped bread meal. With a lack of ideas, I decided on the first letter of his first name. The raspberries have nothing to do with the letter E but they are his favorite and I had them in the refrigerator.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Letter E shaped homemade bread (there are two “E” breads stacked on top of each other)
Top Right: Cheez-It’s Scrabble Junior crackers
Bottom Right: Raspberries
Not Pictured: Cheese sticks
I love shaping bread into fun shapes. Click here to see my other shaped bread creations.
I made this learning with the head, heart, and hands themed lunch for my 12 year old nephew. The order is counterclockwise because I knew that my nephew would prefer more fruit than vegetables.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Head (thinking): Angel hair pasta with spaghetti sauce, Parmesan cheese, Head (Naan bread) I put a layer of Parmesan cheese under the bread to protect the bread from getting soggy.
Hand (doing): Carrots with Hand (cucumber)
Heart (feeling): Green grapes with strawberry heart
Mini Dippers: Ranch dressing and cashews
I made this “Hit the Books” themed lunch for my 15 year old niece on her second day of school. She is a great student so she does not need the subtle reminder in this lunch. But it was fun to make this simple theme. There is quite a bit of rice in this book shaped onigiri so I hope that this lunch is more filling than it may look.
At the bottom of this post you will see the Jam Tarts that I also included in my niece’s lunch. There are 5 kids in the family and I made 3 jam tarts for each of them with their school year decorated with pie crust.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Book shaped onigiri with nori shaped hand and filled with black beans and salsa. I used a mini loaf pan to shape the cooked Nishiki rice into the shape of a book. I lined the pan with plastic wrap, put in some hot rice, pushed down with plastic wrap, added a mixture of black beans and salsa, then added more hot rice and packed down using plastic wrap between my fingers and the rice. I then picked up the plastic wrap to remove the packed rice from the pan. I painted on the book spine with a few drops of food coloring mixed with a tiny amount of water. Then I cut out the hand with some dried seaweed (nori). Salad surrounds the book.
Top Right: Cashews
Bottom Right: Green grapes
Back to School Jam Tarts: I was very pleased with these. After I took the photo I told my husband about this being a snapshot in time (the current grades of the kids). My husband said that someone (not knowing the meaning of these) may think that I could not count. I was impressed that he could joke so early in the morning.
I made the crust the night before but I rolled, filled and baked these in the morning before school. These could be made the night before and you can use store bought pie crust.
Roll out pie crust. Use a 2.5 inch round cookie cutter or similar sized glass to cut pie crust rounds. Carefully put each pie crust round into non-stick or greased mini muffin tin cups. Partially fill each pie crust cup with fruit jam. (I used black raspberry and strawberry jams but only the black raspberry is in the picture.) If you overfill, the jam will bubble up while cooking and while edible will not look as clean. Cut pie crust scraps into numbers with small cookie cutters. Place numbers on top of the jam.
Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until pie crust is lightly browned.
This was a simple but satisfying lunch that I made for myself. My inspiration was fresh asparagus from my mother-in-laws garden. This container was perfect to showcase it.
Container: LunchBots Trio
Top Left: Campanelle pasta with a little olive oil and peas
Top Right: Green grapes
Bottom: Cooked asparagus with lemon zest and toasted hazelnuts
I made these simple lunches for 2 of my nephews on a day that I made an elaborate dinner for them. Cookie cutters made these sandwiches quick to make. I let them have Popchips because they prefer eating something other than sandwiches at my house so I wanted to give them a special treat.
My just turned 10 year old nephew ate this goat shaped sandwich at my house.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Popchips, red bell pepper, salad, red grapes, strawberry jam on wheat bread, candy eye
My 12 year old nephew ate this cow shaped sandwich at my house.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Brazil nuts, red bell pepper, spinach, strawberry jam on wheat bread, food marker details, red grapes, Popchips
When my 15 year old niece asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I said painted clothespins to use as clips or a cute bento lunch. My thoughtful niece made both for me! I was delighted to eat this lunch! It was so beautiful and delicious. Plus she incorporated my favorite animal (lamb).
It was a rainy day so instead of a hike we went to the Eastman House Museum. We ended up eating our lunches in the car. (I made my nieces lunch and will post it a different time). There was a grassy area near the parking lot where I took the photo of this lunch.
Container: Rubbermaid TakeAlongs Divided
Top Section: Rice, broccoli, zucchini, carrot, Lamb (cheese quesadilla)
Bottom Section: Cottage cheese, blackberries, Butterflies and flowers (white chocolate)
These are the beautiful and useful clips created by my niece. She made categories that she know I will use (a very special gift).
It was a wonderful birthday and I am so thankful to be able to share it with my talented niece.
My friends 9 year old daughter loves Minions so when I asked her what theme lunch she wanted, naturally she requested a Minion theme. We were both very pleased with how this turned out.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Minion quesadilla – flour tortillas with Colby-jack cheese and black beans, details drawn with a food safe marker
Top Right: Pistachios with Minions drawn on with food marker. I have drawn on pistachios several times but the first time I was inspired by these footballs created by Becoming a Bentoholic. My friends daughter was the artist for these.
Bottom Right: Minion banana. I drew on the banana with a food safe marker. I was inspired by this lunch created by Lunchbox Dad.
Here is a close-up of the adorable Minion pistachios.
I know that this may not look like a cow but my 15 year old niece enjoyed this lunch and I had fun making it. I tried to copy the cow from a book I bought while in Japan this year. I used spinach instead of seaweed, carrot instead of ham, and baby carrot instead of hotdog.
Container: ECO Lunchboxes
Cow: Rice, radish, carrot, spaghetti (to hold on the carrot nose), spinach
Other Contents: Sauteed zucchini in olive oil with dried basil, snow peas, asparagus, mini sweet peppers, cherry tomato, red grapes
This is another lunch in my featured ingredient series. The ingredient dill is used in each recipe in this lunch. I have a lot of dill in my herb garden this year. I am enjoying looking at it from my kitchen window. I think that it looks beautiful.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Tortellini Salad with Dill – I did not put it on skewers
Top Right: Strawberry Spinach Salad (I did not use the green onion or the dressing)
Bottom Right: Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream
The girls in my life enjoy butterfly themed lunches. But I think that any gender can enjoy a butterfly themed meal. For most of these lunches I used butterfly cookie cutters. As long time readers know, I have a large cookie cutter collection and it keeps on growing. Here are 12 butterfly themed lunches that I made. Included at the end of this post are links to 10 more awesome butterfly lunches made by my bento friends.
I made this for my 15 year old niece. She is always happy to have rice for lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Nishiki rice with cooked broccoli (I put the broccoli inside a cookie cuter, packed cooked rice around it, then removed the cookie cutter)
Top Right: Fruit yogurt with frozen butterflies (I used a silicone mold)
Bottom Right: Green grapes
I made this rice butterfly for my 15 year old niece. I packed fruit, vegetables, and nuts around it.
Container: ECO Lunchboxes
Contents: Nishiki rice butterfly with corn, peas, cheddar cheese, and carrot (I pressed hot rice into a cookie cutter with plastic wrap to protect my hands), strawberries, blackberries, asparagus, snow peas, Brazil nuts
My 15 year old niece also ate this berry rice with butterflies lunch. I made the berry rice by mixing a few frozen berries into hot cooked rice.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Pistachios
Bottom Left: Watermelon butterfly (I used this cookie cutter)
Right Side: Berry rice (mix a few frozen berries into hot cooked rice), carrot and cucumber butterflies
I used Grands biscuits to make this easy butterfly pizza.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Butterfly pizza with Grands biscuits (olive and spinach details)
Top Right: Cucumber butterflies
Bottom Right: Romaine lettuce salad with carrot butterflies
I made this salad with butterfly quesadilla for myself. It was a fun and tasty lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Raspberries
Bottom Left: Brazil Nuts
Right Side: Mixed lettuce and spinach salad with sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, and a butterfly cheese quesadilla (food safe marker details)
I made this butterfly rice salad for my niece a few years ago. It was previously published here.
I made this butterfly cheese and crackers lunch for my friends young daughter a few years ago. It was previously published here.
I actually prepared this butterfly girl lunch for myself. I was inspired by seeing a friend’s daughter wearing butterfly wings.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Butterfly girl (snow peas, carrot, grape, tomato), Nature’s Earthly Choice Easy Quinoa Blends – Quinoa & Broccoli
Top Right: Almonds and cashews
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with peach butterfly garnish (additional peaches are under the yogurt)
My middle niece ate this butterfly macaroni and cheese lunch last year. It was previously published here.
I created this butterfly sandwich lunch for my friend’s 9 year old daughter.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Butterfly cucumber (with flower picks)
Bottom Left: Blueberries
Right Side: Wegmans Fruit Twist, Butterfly peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread with cheese butterfly details and picks (antenna).
I made this mashed potato butterfly meal for my 15 year old niece. It was previously published here.
My friend’s 9 year old daughter enjoyed this butterfly bread meal.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Homemade butterfly shaped bread with Colby-jack cheese butterflies.
Top Right: Raspberries with daisy and ladybug picks
Bottom Right: Raspberry Greek yogurt with raspberry garnish
I hope that you enjoyed seeing these. Here are some more butterfly lunch ideas from my bento friends:
Simple and Cute Butterfly Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches
Butterfly Salad Lunch by Blame it on the bento
Butterfly Applewiches by Becoming a Bentoholic
Butterfly Crackers with Ham and Cheese by Food for Harper
FunBites Butterflies by Biting the Hand that Feeds You
Flatbread Butterfly by Eats Amazing
Butterfly Sandwich with Butterfly Fruit Kabobs by Bentoriffic
Gluten-free, Soy-free, Dairy-free, and Nut-free Butterfly Sandwich Lunch by Chaos and Confections
3D Butterfly Cut Outs by Little Miss Bento
Cat in Garden Bento with Purple Potato Butterfly by Beneficial Bento
I made these two lunches for my teen nephews to take to school. They have similar ingredients but are different. They could be made for the same person on 2 different days or as I did for 2 different people on the same day. I used black beans leftover from dinner.
To see 12 taco lunches go here.
This lunch was for my 14 year old nephew. He requested a taco salad. I wanted it to be different than the last taco lunch I made for him.
Top Container: Divided container
Contents: Tostitos Hint of Lime Flavored Tortilla Chips, homemade cinnamon tortilla chips, Nutella in Mini Dippers
Bottom Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Black beans with onions sauteed in olive oil, with tomato sauce, and some hot sauce
Bottom Left: Watermelon
Right Side: Tomatoes, Mexican cheese blend, black olives, lettuce
Smooth taco sauce in Mini Dippers
I made this lunch for my 17 year old nephew. He wanted black bean quesadillas. I packed a lot of food into this lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Black bean quesadillas with black beans with onions sauteed in olive oil, with tomato sauce, and some hot sauce and Mexican cheese blend
Top Right: Salad with carrot and radish
Bottom Right: Watermelon
Nutella and Salsa in Mini Dippers
In plastic bag: Homemade cinnamon tortilla chips
My nephews enjoyed these lunches. I made these lunches easier but using some of the same ingredients (cinnamon tortilla chips, Nutella, lettuce, Mexican cheese blend, black beans, and watermelon). But I think that they are different enough that the same person could enjoy these meals two days in a row.
My town has a day in the July when there are town wide sidewalk sales, garage sales, and yard sales. My niece and nephews enjoy searching for treasure at these sales and I agreed to drive them around and walk to sales with them. My 10 year old nephew requested a garage sale themed lunch. We ate on my front porch.
This lunch is not pretty but I don’t think that most garage sales are pretty. It has an assortment of items for sale – pink Legos, tennis racquets, and a dresser. You never know what you will find at a sale.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Strawberry yogurt Lego bricks (I froze yogurt in this silicone mold)
Bottom Left: DeCecco Racchette pasta with green peas
Right Side: Cheese quesadilla background with cheese quesadilla dresser (details drawn with food safe markers), snow peas, raspberries
I was happy today to guest post over at Student Bento. I wrote an article about ideas to use pasta, flour tortillas, rice, homemade bread, and potatoes in your lunches. It includes some of my favorite lunches. Please go check it out.
Today is National Raspberry Cream Pie Day. I love food days, it gives me delicious ideas for my blog. If I did not read about this day and I did not have a blog, I probably would not have made this pie. My husband, niece and nephews are glad that I made this. They loved it!
This slice did not come out perfect but it was delicious. I originally intended to make this recipe but I could not find chocolate wafer cookies. So I made this crust and the filling that I originally planned to make.
Happy Raspberry Cream Pie Day!
I am joining my Bento Bloggers & Friends on this Back to School Basics lunch hop and giveaway which is open worldwide. We have awesome prizes so please hop through to collect the letters and enter the code in a Raffelcopter on the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog. Today I am sharing what I consider basic essentials for making cute bento lunches.
EasyLunchBoxes: These boxes are one of my favorite lunch boxes and I use them often. I use a bag that allows it to be carried upright without turning the lunch on it’s side.
Cookie Cutters: I use cookie cutters to cut and shape a variety of food including: bread, flour tortillas, rice, mashed potatoes, vegetables, fruit, cheese, pizza dough, and cracker dough.
Silicone Cups: These are great for adding color, separating food, holding small amounts of food, and holding food that you don’t want to heat when heating the rest of the lunch in a microwave.
Picks: I admit that I don’t use picks as often as I could but they do add a bit of whimsy and fun to a meal. My niece and nephews seem to enjoy having picks when I use them.
Planned Leftovers for Lunch: This is a simple lunch made with the tools shown above. I like to plan leftovers when I prepare dinner. For this lunch when I made pizza for dinner the night before, I made some mini pizzas in cute shapes using cookie cutters. This is supposed to be a cow but I think it looks like a sheep. Some shapes work better than others but they are all fun. When I use a cookie cutter on pizza dough I have to use more flour on the dough than usual when I roll out the dough and cut it.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Homemade cow shaped cheese pizza, spinach leaves, chocolate, green grapes
Bento USA and Eats Amazing (UK) are some online stores where you can buy bento supplies.
Here is your codeword piece from my blog. Continue on to the other blogs in this hop to collect all of the pieces to spell the codeword.
Please click on the button below to go to the Jackie’s blog – Loving Lunches and to collect your letter and number.
Once you have the collected all the pieces from visiting each of the blogs in this hop. Please enter our giveaway on the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog.
My 15 year old niece and I went raspberry picking at Chase Farms. It is a beautiful place for u-pick. I needed fresh raspberries to make this featured ingredient lunch. I also needed raspberries to make a Raspberry Cream Pie for National Raspberry Cream Pie day on Friday. Also my husband loves to eat raspberries.
I made this raspberry featured ingredient bento meal for my husband. I tried everything except for the muffins but my my husband, niece and nephews enjoyed them. My favorite of the recipes is the green beans. I loved the combination with a hint of garlic.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Raspberry Orange Muffins
Bottom Left: Green Beans and Raspberry Hazelnut Toss
Right Side: Raspberry Fruit Dip (in Mini Dippers – I put on the lid after taking the photo), french bread, raspberries
I enjoy building a meal with several recipes that use the same ingredient. Click here to see more of my featured ingredient bento meals.
I made these lunches on days that I wanted to keep it quick and easy. Many of these were for outings with my niece and nephews and I made the lunches from ingredients I happened to have in my house.
I made this for myself on a day I went raspberry picking with my niece. I made pasta for both of us and prepared them differently. I just came up with this combination as I was prepping the lunches. It was healthy but delicious!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Elbow pasta with snow peas, red bell pepper, toasted slivered almonds, salt and pepper
Top Right: Red grapes
Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon
I made this for myself on a day I went raspberry picking with my nephew. I ended up going raspberry picking twice this year because the first time only black raspberries were ripe. I did not take photos before I left the house so this photo was quickly taken at the raspberry farm. They had picnic tables available where we had lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Mini wheat pita, hummus
Top Right: Brazil nuts
Bottom Right: Strawberries
I made this for my niece on a day that we went raspberry picking. It was fast to use my ice cream cone cutter on bell peppers to decorate this lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Elbow pasta with a little butter, black pepper and Parmesan cheese, red and yellow bell pepper (I cut the ice cream cone shape with cookie cutter)
Top Right: Walnuts
Bottom Right: Red grapes
I made this lunch for myself on a day my nephew and I went hiking. I guess that many of my favorite foods happen to be green.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Green grapes
Bottom Left: Pistachios
Right Side: Snow peas, almond butter sandwich on pumpernickel bread
I was running out of time on a day that my nephew and I went raspberry picking so I made him a sandwich. Since I know that he prefers non-sandwich lunches I gave him a special treat of BBQ potato chips. I try to be the Aunt that gives them fun food.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, granola bar, Brazil nuts
Top Right: Strawberries
Bottom Right: BBQ potato chips
My nephew ate this lunch at home. It was leftovers from a featured ingredient raspberry lunch that I will publish next week. He is always happy to eat a muffin lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Green beans, raspberry muffins
Top Right: Walnuts
Bottom Right: Raspberries
I made this lunch for myself. I had some watermelon leftover and thought it would be fun to put it in a bento lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Watermelon
Top Right: Cottage cheese with cinnamon
Bottom Right: Romaine lettuce with carrots, red cabbage, tomatoes, walnuts, and cheddar cheese
So although I love to make themed cute food, sometimes I just quickly throw together lunches from ingredients I have in my kitchen. Quick and easy can be attractive and delicious.
Linking to:
I am happy today to participate in the 3 Tools, 3 Bloggers series at Wendolonia. Each of us used the EasyLunchBox, Animal Picks, and Wilton Noah Cookie Cutters in our lunch. Visit Wendolonia to see how each blogger used the same tools.
I made the obvious theme with these tools since it is a theme I have considered for a long time. This was a meal I actually made for myself. It was fun to eat and delicious. I did not add sweetener to my cocoa cream cheese. It complemented the cinnamon sugar animal crisps in this meal.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Naan bread Ark with a mixture of cream cheese and unsweetened cocoa powder (I used a toothpick to draw lines on the ark), blueberries
Top Right: I used the Noah Cookie Cutters to cut the animal shapes from a flour tortilla. I brushed on some olive oil, sprinkled on a mixture of cinnamon sugar and baked them at 375 until crisp (about 5 minutes but watch them closely).
Bottom Right: Carrots and sugar snap peas
Linking to:
I made these lunches for my nephews and myself on a day we hiked at a nature preserve. One of my nephews wanted a Canadian Goose themed lunch. The other nephew wanted a beaver dam lunch. I used the opportunity to make a dragonfly themed lunch for myself.
I used a lot of the same ingredients to make these lunches somewhat easy to make. The goose took the longest of these three lunches. The beaver dam was easy to make but I made it earlier so it could set. I packed it with an ice pack. It was still a little messy to eat but the kid did not complain.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Dragonfly shaped cheese quesadilla (2 on top of each other), snowpeas, blueberries, pistachios
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Beaver shaped wheat sandwich with strawberry jam (food marker details), yellow bell pepper, beaver dam (I used this recipe without the peanuts and tried to shape them to look like a beaver dams. I made 1/2 a batch and everyone ate the extras for dessert).
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Pistachios, snow-peas, pumpernickel and wheat bread sandwich with peanut butter (neck) and strawberry jam (body), white details (cream cheese)
It was a beautiful day for a hike and these lunches made it a little more special.
Linking to:
Edited: The giveaway is now closed. I will notify the winners.
It is that time of year again! I am celebrating my 3 year blogiversary with a giveaway in appreciation for my readers. During my trip this year to Japan, I went shopping for these prizes. There is one prize for a person with an United States of America address and one prize for a person with an international address (outside of the U.S.A.) The international prize is a smaller (lighter) one but I think a good one. I bought the same cookie cutters for myself since I liked them so much.
Items in the USA prize:
Items in the International prize:
How to Enter:
Important!! Please read the Terms and Conditions of this giveaway!
Prizes cannot be shipped to P.O. Boxes. Winner will be randomly selected by a random number generator and notified by the email submitted with your comment. Entries that do not fulfill the mandatory requirements will be deleted. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are in no way associated with this giveaway. If you’ve chosen to subscribe by email for an additional entry, you must still be doing so at the time of the drawing or you will be disqualified, and I will draw again. I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner. This giveaway ends Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. (Edited: The giveaway is now closed)
I am honored today to participate in the 3 Tools, 4 Lunches series at Wendolonia. Each of us used the Lunchbots Trio, Lace Cutter, and Wilton Romance Mini Cookie Cutters to make our lunch. Visit Wendolonia to see how each blogger used the same tools.
I was inspired by the tools to create designs. It was a simple lunch to make but delicious to eat!
Container: LunchBots Trio
Top Left: Strawberry rice – I pushed a whole strawberry into the center of the rice. I used the blossom cutter to cut strawberry slices and decorated with black sesame seeds.
Top Right: Raw spinach leaves with toasted sunflower seeds. I used the lace cutter on a slice of mozzarella cheese.
Bottom: Green grapes and toasted hazelnuts
I made a shark watermelon for my nephews 6th birthday party. I followed the directions from watermelon.org for this shark. I only made a few changes. I did not cut the watermelon pieces into triangles and I put blueberries at the base instead of watermelon. Also I could only find red Swedish Fish so I did not put any in the shark’s mouth. I used a blueberry for the eye and attached it with a small piece of spaghetti.
My husband and I took our nephews to the zoo. Of course I made themed lunches for each of us. They were quick to make with cookie cutters. The only template I had to make was for the flamingo.
My husband loves pizza for lunch so I made an elephant pizza for him.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Broccoli, Elephant shaped cheese pizza, peanuts, strawberries
I prepared this flamingo lunch for myself. I tried putting an eye on it but thought it looked better without.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Broccoli, brazil nuts, spinach, Naan with homemade strawberry cream cheese
My 12 year old nephew requested a penguin lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Penguin pizza, spinach leaves, penguin shaped cucumber, Penguins crackers
My nephew who is now 10 ate this elephant themed lunch. My cookie cutter was too big for the bread so I cut the head out separate. I should have added an ear.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Granola bar, jelly sandwich on wheat bread, candy eye, peanuts, green pepper
Linking to:
This week I had my niece, 5 nephews and my sister-in-law over for lunch. Since I had recently received the new CuteZCute Cuddle Palz I thought it would be the perfect time to use the set for our crowd of 8. I made bento lunches for my three youngest nephews and the rest of us had lunch on a plate (pasta, vegetables, fruit, cheese) with cute Cuddle Palz tortilla chips, muffins, and cookies.
These cutters were easy to use and clean afterwards which is always a plus. I loved that the faces had a stamp and a cutter side. I used the stamp for the cookies and the cutter side for the sandwiches and tortilla chips.
My 9 year old nephew requested a Koala lunch. He helped to assemble it.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, sugar snap peas, hazelnuts, and strawberries.
I made this simple bear lunch for my 6 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Red pepper, red grapes, peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread
I made this simple tiger lunch for my 3 year old nephew.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Contents: Baby carrots, blueberries, cheese sandwich on wheat bread
I was inspired by this to make Cuddle Palz tortilla chips. I used flour tortillas, brushed with olive oil and baked. We served them with salsa. Everyone enjoyed eating these adorable chips.
Originally I planned to use the Cuddle Palz with cheese for the faces on these apple muffins. But since I had the pieces from my tortilla chips, I saved time and used what I already had. My 9 year old nephew put the faces on the muffins.
I made cut-out sugar cookies and sprinkled with sanding sugar before baking. I decorated the tigers with a Wilton’s Black Decorating Gel tube I had leftover from our How to Train Your Dragon Viking Ship.
I had so much fun using the Cuddle Palz set that I know I will use it again soon. It has so many possibilities to create fun food. Please visit the CuteZCute website for information and inspiration.
Disclosure: I received the products shown here for review. I was not financially compensated. All opinions stated here are 100% my own.
In celebration of the Japanese holiday Tanabata, I made this lunch. Last year I hosted a Tanabata Dinner Party for my niece, nephews and my husbands young cousins.
Tanabata is a Japanese star festival. According to a folktale, Hikoboshi (star Altair) and Orihime (star Vega) were lovers and separated by the Milky Way to only meet once a year. Typically people celebrate on July 7 but some regions of Japan celebrate on a different day.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Angel hair pasta with star shaped carrots and homemade Hikoboshi and Orihime Tanabata picks. I resized these, printed them, cut them out and then taped them to wooden picks.
Top Right: Hazelnuts
Bottom Right: Carrots and cucumber stars
I wanted to use my tennis racquet pasta in a different way so I made this lunch. I used homemade French Bread dough to make tennis balls. The pasta racquets with peas makes a cute side dish.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Homemade tennis ball bread made from French Bread dough and food safe marker details (after baking), peanut butter in Mini Dippers.
Top Right: DeCecco Racchette pasta with green peas and Italian dressing
Bottom Right: Sugar Snap Peas
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This lunch may not look pretty but some of it was delicious. For this meal I tried something new for me, I made savory food with rhubarb. This is a continuation of my series of featured ingredient lunches. I have many more planned for the upcoming months. Hopefully they will be more attractive than this one.
I grew up with rhubarb in my family garden. It was also in my Grandparents garden. In the spring we often had rhubarb and strawberry desserts. When I married my husband and I moved to a rural area, my mother-in-law was surprised that I had experience with rhubarb. Maybe it is an unusual ingredient for people to use. I never had to buy it from a grocery store but I occasionally see it there. I usually have a stash in my freezer. I wash it, cut into about 1 inch pieces and freeze in freezer bags.
Please tell me in the comments if you have ever tried rhubarb.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Indian Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb – I loved this recipe but I did make a few changes. I did not use the mustard seeds, used frozen ginger, and omitted the raisins and cilantro. I will definitely make this again! But I love Indian food.
Top Right: Rhubarb Apple Salad – this was not my favorite recipe in this meal but it was sort of fun to eat rhubarb that was not in a dessert. If you do not like tart, this is not for you but if you enjoy sweet (apple) and tart (rhubarb) try this.
Bottom Right: Sour Cream Rhubarb Coffee Cake – the batter was thicker than I expected but it worked out and my husband and 12 year old nephew loved this cake.
My nephews and I used Grands biscuits to make individual pizzas. We made one of them in a puzzle shape using this to create this make your own pizza lunch. It can be a small meal or a hearty snack.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Grands biscuits puzzle pizza, tomato sauce in Mini Dippers, mozzarella cheese in silicone cup
Top Right: Cucumbers cut with puzzle cookie cutter, it came with a jigsaw puzzle.
Bottom Right: Red grapes
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Since I was a child I loved holidays and celebrations. Making cute, themed food is a fun way to celebrate and mark the event. This year I enlisted my niece, nephews, and husband to eat these Independence Day / Patriotic themed meals early so I could share them with you. Only 3 of these meals were previously published on this blog.
This meal was a last minute idea that came about because I had leftovers from my Garden Tea and some Fourth of July themed meals. I enjoyed this meal for lunch.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Radish, pretzels, United States shaped almond butter sandwich on wheat bread
Top Right: Blueberries and raspberries
Bottom Right: Cherry tomato, fresh mozzeralla, and blueberry skewers
My 17 year old nephew ate this patriotic meal at my house.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Watermelon cut with this cutter
Bottom Left: Pistachio nuts (I drew on them with food safe marker)
Right Side: Cheese quesadilla, drew stars with food safe marker
Not Pictured: Salsa
I made this attractive meal for Flag Day in 2013. It actually won Featured Bento of the Week at the Bento Blog Network for their Patriotic category. It was previously published here.
My husband ate this as part of his lunch. He is a huge fan of raspberries so I try to include them when planning a meal for him.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread (bell crack drawn with food safe marker), blueberries
Top Right: Raspberries
Bottom Right: Pretzels
One of my nephews made this lunch a few years ago. He cut out the sandwich pieces by himself. It was previously published here.
My 9 year old nephew ate this meal at my house. I tried giving him red pepper hummus for the first time. I hoped that he would like it better than regular hummus. He did not like it.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: USA shaped bread made with homemade French bread dough (the “U” and “A” have cinnamon sprinkled on top, mozzarella cheese stick
Bottom Left: Red grapes
Bottom Right: Cucumber
Red Pepper Hummus: In Mini Dippers
I made this Independence Day themed muffin tin meal in 2013 for my nephew who was 12 at the time. It was previously published here. Muffin tin meals are popular with my niece and nephews. I think it is because they get at least 6 different things to eat.
My 12 year old nephew ate this meal. I put a reject flag under the “1776”. Usually when I make shaped bread, I make at least two versions. One of his brothers ate the accepted flag bread that is featured in this post.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: 1776 and U.S. Flag shaped bread (made with homemade French bread dough)
Bottom Left: Strawberries dipped in melted candy melts and sprinkled with blue sanding sugar
Bottom Right: Toasted pecans
My 15 year old niece helped me to made this basic meal for my husband on a night that he was not feeling well.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top Left: Blueberries
Bottom Left: Raspberries
Right Side: Patriotic Star Pasta with a little butter and Parmesan cheese, parsley star garnish
My 17 year old nephew ate this for dinner at my house. I think that the black beans (hidden under the other ingredients), greek yogurt, and chips made this a filling meal. I was inspired by this taco salad flag.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Shredded lettuce, star shaped radish, salsa, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, black beans with sauteed onion, some hot sauce, and some plain tomato sauce (not visible, under other ingredients)
Bottom Left: Greek yogurt with cinnamon star (I used a star cookie cutter as a stencil for the star)
Bottom Right: Blueberries
In a bag: Tostitos Bite Size chips
My husband ate this cheese quesadilla meal. He loved the special pretzels I made for him and said that I could make them anytime.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: Star shaped cheese quesadillas with EasyLunchBoxes shaped quesadilla as the background
Top Right: Strawberries with American flag pick
Bottom Right: Plain and white candy melt covered pretzels with red and white sprinkles
My 17 year old nephew ate this Flag bread among other things at my house one evening.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Left Side: American Flag bread with sanding sugar
Top Right: Toasted pecans
Bottom Right: Blueberries and watermelon
My 15 year old niece came up with this fantastic idea to make fireworks out of two types of potatoes.
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Night sky (purple potatoes – mashed), fireworks (white potatoes – mashed)
Bottom Left: Patriotic fruit salad (strawberries, banana, and blueberries)
Bottom Right: Radish
I was inspired by this to make a cream cheese and jelly open faced sandwich for myself. It was delicious!
Container: EasyLunchBoxes
Top: Cream cheese, strawberry jam, and dried blueberries on Naan bread
Bottom Left: Cherry tomatoes
Bottom Right: Dried cranberries, slivered almonds
I hope that you enjoyed seeing these ideas and now have some inspiration to make your own patriotic themed lunch, dinner, or snack.
Eclectic Lamb 
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