March recap

March was a long
month. So lots to
cover. Best to stick
all the lunches in
one post.

Stuffed pasta shells,
grapes, carrots,
strawberry, mini
muffin.


English muffin sand-
wiches decorated with
rice cheese "peach
blossoms", pickle,
carrot, mini muffin,
steamed asparagus,
grapes, strawberry.

And for Maia...
carrots, steamed
asparagus, 1/4
sandwich, pickle,
dried apricot, strawberries.


Orange
"Puffle"
english
muffin
pizzas,
carrots,
mini
muffin,
steamed
broccoli,
grapes.












And breakfast for lunch: home fries, steamed broccoli, mini tofu asparagus quiche, whole
wheat bagel with Tofutti cream cheese.

Thermos of leftover
pasta & broccoli
casserole.

Side of honeydew
melon.






Maia's
Hello
Kitty
lunch:
cucu-
mber
slices,
Hello
Kitty
sand-
wich,
straw-
berries,
carrots,
pickle
slices.

I got
out the
old
Hello
Kitty
toaster
for this one. I remember buying it while visiting a friend outside of Chicago, then carrying the big box with me on the train and through the windy city streets in the city. But I was very happy to have it!

Next up: pizza sandwiches (to imitate the school lunch menu of French bread pizza that day), carrots, mini muffin, dried apricots/raisins, cucumber slices.
Below are just simple sandwiches & tater tots w/sides of ketchup.












Maia's lunch: cantaloupe, Terra chip exotic potato chips, snap pea crisps, steamed broccoli, a pickle.

Canta-
loupe,
bagel
chips,
rice &
bean
burrito,
steamed
broccoli,
pickle.













Kid-made lunches:
pbj sandwiches,
carrots & pickles.









St Patrick's Day!
steamed asparagus,
soba noodles, honey-
dew melon, green
banana muffins,
pickles.













Below: honeydew
melon, tater tots w/
ketchup, burrito.













Grilled nutritional yeast cheeze sandwiches, pickle, carrots, green grapes, steamed broccoli.

Brown
rice w/
chik'n
donburi,
cucu-
mber
slices,
carrots,
straw-
berry,
green
grapes.











Leftover vegan
pepperoni pizza
from Peace O' Pie
restaurant, orange
slices, steamed
broccoli, mini
muffins.





Wrap sandwiches,
green grapes, carrots,
steamed broccoli,
pickle.








Maia's lunch: sliced wrap sandwiches w/rice cheese flowers, strawberry, green grapes, pickle, steamed broccoli & asparagus.
Finger food lunches: Green grapes, steamed broccoli, carrots, cucumber slices, peanuts & chocolate chips, spelt bunny pretzels, dried apricots/raisins.

Nate's snack:
cucumber slices,
pickle, carrots,
green grapes,
strawberries.







Rice & chick pea curry, honeydew melon, steamed broccoli.

Carrot
sticks,
cucu-
mber
slices,
raisins/
apricots,
pickle/
straw-
berry,
tofu
salad
sand-
wich
rolls.








Cantaloupe and
honeydew melon
chunks, sour pickles,
carrot sticks, mini
banana blueberry
muffins.






Melon, pickle,
carrots, spelt
bunny pretzels,
mini muffin.








Stuffed pasta shells,
strawberry, steamed
green beans, carrots,
smoked Tofurky slice,
mini banana walnut
muffin.






Maia's lunch: strawberry, steamed green beans, 1/2 english muffin pizza, pickle, smoked Tofurky slice, carrot sticks, cucumber slices.

Hello Wednesday

Hello lunch...
Maia's lunch: 1/4 english muffin; carrots; broccoli; red grapes; pickle; Tofurky slice.










Here's Maia just before
leaving for preschool. I
dressed her in her Hello
Kitty jumper & tights to match her Hello Kitty shoes...her last day wearing them as she is clearly outgrowing them.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
home-
made
pizza;
broc-
coli;
grapes.

Oh the
pizza...
last
night I
thought
I had a
brill-
iant
idea:
butter-
nut
squash
grated
onto pizza. Ya know, it would camoflage itself like shredded cheesy stuff, taste sweet & savory, and be well-received by all. Little did I know it would cause double tantrums...from the older boys of all people! Luckily two of the four pizzas I made had alternate toppings. So the boys had leftover spinach & black olive pizzas for lunch. ...And I had quite a lot of pizza to eat myself!
Above is the delicious looking squash pizza that only Nate & I enjoyed.
I even put crumbled sage in the crust mixture to compliment the squash. I made one pizza intended for just me (Dada is in Texas again)... butternut squash, caramelized onions & kalamata olives. It was superb.

Who's on first...

I can't decide which lunch should be in the spotlight today. Hmmm... I guess I'll go with ladies first, LOL.

Maia's
lunch:
snap
peas;
rice
trian-
gle;
broc-
coli;
car-
rots;
pickle;
vege-
table
gyoza;
Tofu-
rky
slices.





Maia also had 20 pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies tagging along with her today for her class and wednesday's class to decorate. But of course I was too busy taking pics of all the lunches and getting Ryan ready for his field trip to even remember to take a pic. Maybe someone will get a photo of them decorating the cookies at school.

Ryan was off to the
Museum of Science in
Boston today with the
Sage gifted program.
The M.C. Escher exhibit
is one of a handful they
have been looking forward
to. I contemplated cutting
some simple geometric
pattern out of nori and piecing it together to look like an Escher drawing, but ultimately I decided to stamp an image on soy paper with edible ink markers. Of course that meant I needed a stamp of an image...so I just had to carve one myself.

Ryan's lunch: mango gel cup; Escher rice triangle; vegetable gyoza; broccoli; Tofurky flowers; carrots; pickle.

Here's a closeup...And here's the stamp...
And AJ needed a lunch too. Nothing fancy, but I did manage to fit a bit of last night's apple crisp in for him.
AJ's lunch: rice triangle; vegetable gyoza; pickle; carrots; Tofurky flower; mini apple banana muffin; leftover apple crisp; broccoli.

And I didn't want to leave Nate feeling left out, so he got a nicer snack than usual for preschool...
Nate's snack: snap peas; vegetable gyoza; rice triangle; carrot; broccoli; pickle.

Hello Kitty!!

It's finally time for Maia's first preschool lunch!

Maia's lunch: Hello Kitty rice face; steamed broccoli; carrot flowers; edamame; Tofurky flower.

I thought I was going to be faced with making 3 lunches and 4 snacks this morning, but Ryan saved me the trouble by throwing up all over his bed and his brother's bed last night. I'm so glad all the sheets had just been washed...not. So only AJ needed a lunch. And we were providing the preschool snack today, so I made 4 dozen mini muffins, enough to put in all of the kids' snacks.

AJ's lunch: mini pumpkin muffin; cucumber slices; edamame; rice ball; carrot flower; steamed broccoli; Tofurky flower.

Can you tell that Tofurky slices were on sale this weekend?? LOL. They can be shaped into cute things pretty easily. More often than not I create lunches based on what's available on sale versus buying specifically for a bento design.

Maia turns 2

A quick post about Maia's second birthday, before I start unloading my camera. I've got some recipe posts lined up. :-)


































If you can't tell from the
pictures, Maia gots lots
of Hello Kitty for her
birthday. I'd been saving
the Hello Kitty building
block (kind of like Lego)
for quite a while. I had
picked it up while in
Tokyo and it has both
English and Japanese characters, and the completed set makes a Hello Kitty scene.
Most of her gifts came from her two grandmothers, with plenty of Hello Kitty among those as well.


































There were many outfit changes to accommodate new dresses. I just realized I have more pics on my phone that haven't been unloaded. But I ended up buying a Moo Cluck cake because our oven broke!