AJ's yellow Pikmin

Only AJ needed lunch today, since Ryan was going to be at a dentist appointment over lunchtime.AJ's lunch: green grapes; steamed broccoli; cucumber flowers & leaves; sandwich of smoked Tofurky, Veganaise, lettuce, & melted Daiya cheddar on wheat bread; spicy baked tofu; carrot flowers. The Pikmin is made of vegan rice cheese & white soy cheese.

This is exactly what AJ
asked for, including "lots
of green stuff to look
like leaves in the forest".
Imagine my pickiest eater
asking for that!

And there's a good reason
he got just what he asked
for... Yesterday I made one of my biggest lunch blunders to date... I put the WRONG bento in the WRONG lunchbox. Yep, I made two different lunches, and I accidentally put the Toy Story one into AJ's lunchbox. His solution: eat NO lunch. He drank his drink, but otherwise came home starving, whereupon Ryan convinced him to share the leftover bento with him. Not sure what a good idea that was, but AJ agreed. So we had a talk about mistakes, I told him I'd be extra careful that it didn't happen again, and if it did I implored him to at least try to eat some of it even if it didn't meet his expectations.
Now secretly I'm thinking: JUST MAKE IDENTICAL LUNCHES from now on!

Nate had to bring along a cupcake for a friend's birthday, so I gave he and Maia equally small snacks: cucumber flowers, 1/2 a Tofurky slice, Trader Joe's flat pretzels.

Pizza Planet Pikmin

Ever heard of Pikmin? If you haven't, you're too young! We used to play the original Pikmin on the GameCube before we had kids. Then Pikmin 2 came out. There is a version available for the Wii now I believe. But Pikmin 3 has been in the works for what seems like FOREVER, and our boys are once again impatiently anticipating its supposed release this fall.

AJ's red Pikmin lunch: rice triangle w/goma shio & a red pepper Pikmin; green grapes; green olive; Cluck-phrey Chic-A-Roos; plum slices; cucumber strips; carrots; green beans; smoked Tofurky "flower".

I've gotta say I love
being able to set my
iPhone or the iPad
nearby when creating
character food. The
image is right where I
need it and I don't have
to run back and forth
to the big computer.

I was putting Ryan's lunch in a Toy Story bento, so I made him a pizza planet rocket. Of course when he saw the Pikmin that AJ had asked for he was jealous, so it looks like I'll be making more Pikmin bentos soon!

Ryan's
lunch:
rice
triangle
with
soy
cheese
and
red
bell
pepper
Pizza
Planet
ship;
smoked
Tofurky
"flower";
green
beans;
carrots;
cucu-
mber
strips;
Goody Good Stuff summer peaches fruit chew; Cluckphrey Chic-A-Roos; green olive; plum slices; green grapes.

trick or treat

PUMPKIN SEEDS!!!!!! One of my most favouritest things about this season!!












A relaxed day of autumn
goodness, with roasted
veggies: purple potatoes,
sweet potatoes, butternut
squash, carrots, parsnips
& turnips.

Maia wore her harvest
dress, and Ryan played
some of his funky toys
from his school party.

It was soooo windy we decided not to try lighting the jack o' lanterns. Maybe tomorrow night...before I break them down and cook them up to save for winter recipes!!

And now for the Halloween costumes...Pikmin!










































AJ sure had quite the stash before we removed all the non-vegan candies! We sent most of it away with grandma to do with it as she pleased. But the kids still had ample treats to stuff themselves silly with before bedtime. Maia tried her first raisins and Annie's fruit snacks. I did not expect her to participate in the trick-or-treating, but she wanted to go right up to people's doors and pick something to put in her pumpkin bag, just like her brothers. Too cute.

Vegan Mofo III is now complete! See you next year! Or hopefully tomorrow...

too much to do

Totally ran out of time this morning! I had grand plans to make a cat out of a darker medium, but resorted to rice cheese with the intent to added nori stripes to him, but not even that materialized before it was time to shuffle the boys out the door to school...

Ryan's
lunch:
cous
cous
w/nori
witch's
hat,
rice
cheese
cat,
and a
broom
made
of a
pretzel
stick,
kizami
nori &
thinly
sliced
leek;
green
beans
w/soy sauce; meatless meatballs.

The broom looked a little neater until my first leek tie fell off because I'd cut it too short, so I left it longer the second time, but the broom bristles got quite ruffled in the process.

What I needed the time for this morning was preparing a platter of food for AJ's kindergarten Halloween party. The school nurse declared the 1st grade rooms "no food" zones due to so many different food allergies, but AJ's half day kindergarten was allowed "fresh fruit, canned fruit, fruit juice & water", since they ONLY have nut and dairy allergic children! The room parent and I chatted about plans and decided we'd break the rules and include raw carrots...gotta have orange & black for Halloween after all! I brought tiny boxes of raisins to donate to the goody bags, along with this:
Halloween party platter: cantaloupe "maple leaves"; gherkin pickles (hey, biologically they're a fruit!); baby carrot & black olive "pumpkin"; orange "smiles". The platter was returned to me empty, so I take that as a success. AJ said he had a great time. But the big fun was their Halloween parade with all 5 kindergarten classes to show off their costumes to the rest of the school and next door to the assisted living residence where they were also read a Halloween story.

It turned out to be
a perfect fall day for
the parade. AJ was
recognized by the
older kids (who were
more likely to be
familiar with video
game characters) as
a Blue Flower Pikmin,
and the boy in front
of him happened to
be dressed as Mario. (Two years ago AJ went as Luigi from Luigi's Mansion.)

It's hard to tell AJ is even
wearing a costume though.
Here's a slightly better
picture of him leaving for
school in the morning.

As if I weren't busy
enough, I wanted to make
some cupcakes for one of
my husband's employees, so I spent yesterday doing that--saving back 3 for the boys--and I managed not to make any extra for myself!
Stay tuned for another crazy day of Halloween fun tomorrow!