lunch with a twist

It's fun to turn an old favourite into something new. Just add a twist! Roll, wrap, or cut your food into a new shape. It's all in the presentation.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: pbj sandwich twists; apple rounds & soy cheese; dark chocolate w/almonds; dried fruit (apricots for Ryan, raisins for AJ); pickles; carrot; green olive.

I hadn't bought any soy cheese since some time during the last school year. Ryan has been asking and asking for it, so here it is. His favourite is Vegan Gourmet's Monterey Jack.

Plan B

First day of school. Done this many times. You'd think I'd know better.
What do the boys want for lunch?? Sushi. I knew that two weeks ago. Fine. I ALWAYS have such ingredients on hand.
Or do I...AJ and Ryan's lunches: rolled smoked Tofurky slice; carrot; rice triangle; 2 peanut butter cookies; striped apple slices; sesame tofu; steamed asparagus.
As you can see, this is NOT sushi. It's rather difficult to make sushi when you have one half strip of nori left, no cucumber, and a brown avocado (it looked good from the outside!). But the sushi rice was ready and cooled, so I whipped out the onigiri shapers and made rice triangles. And extra triangles and rice balls to freeze. Because you never know when you might need to resort to plan B!

As if a change in plans wasn't enough...Ryan's angst about the first day of school (though he said he was very excited) translated into incessant whining about EVERYTHING. AJ was waiting patiently by the door for me to pack his lunch, but I still needed to zip outside to snap a few photos of their bentos.
I asked AJ to move. I reached for the doorknob.
And then came another wounded seal cry from the floor as Ryan complained with renewed fervor about not being about to tie his shoelaces right.
I turned.
And it happened.
His bento slid right off the board I was carrying it on and upside down onto the kitchen floor.
Crap.
In 5 minutes they needed to be at school. So I did what I had to do...
I scooped up the food from the floor and stuffed it back into the bento. It looked clean enough. Ten second rule, right??? And it still looked nice. Whew. Quick, take a couple of pictures, shove it in the lunchbox with a cold pack and a drink. And get them the heck out the door asap.













So here they are, refusing to crack smiles, waiting to go in to school on their first days of 1st and 2nd grade.

What Kids Like

Making a bento lunch for a child may satisfy a parents desire for a healthy lunch. But it also serves the purpose of hopefully making that child crack a smile when he opens up that healthy lunch away from home.

Often as parents creating lunches, we think about what our children like, and even what their peers like, when deciding on a theme for the day's lunch.

With less than a month to go until most schools are back in session, I've started thinking about what to make during those first days and weeks. There are various sources I draw inspiration from, but mostly I just look around at what my children like to do, what they like to play with, & what they enjoy for entertainment.





















Two year old Maia will be taking a lunch to preschool 2 days per week starting in September. Aside from the very obvious Hello Kitty bentos that will inundate this blog, I've been mulling over what other things she likes. Swinging, ice cream, Littlest Pet Shop, Team UmiZoomi, the beach, the farm, slides, her blue bear and Jessie dolls, pirates, pink hats, boots, pickles. That's probably enough to get me through Thanksgiving!

Nate will only need a small snack 4 mornings per week, so I probably won't go the bento route often for him this schoolyear.

But both AJ and Ryan will be eating in the school cafeteria at the same time this year. This will be AJ's first year bringing a lunch, and he is very excited. I foresee a more laid back approach for Ryan, but definitely some Bakugan, Toy Story, ZhuZhuPets, Pikmin, Pokemon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Monopoly, math, pizza, and the inevitable SpongeBob Squarepants.
Something that might be fun during the first few weeks is to create bentos around the theme of "What I did over summer vacation", such as: camping, croquet, letterboxing, Harry Potter, banana splits, Lego, pool, karate, mini golf, etc.

I haven't purchased any new bento boxes or equipment, so I will rely on my creativity and the kids' requests to guide me. How do you decide on your bento theme for the day? Do you plan ahead or wing it? What are your kids' back to school must-make themes?

Food Rebellion

With the conclusion of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC friday night, I thought a little food rebellion was in order! I just picked up a new Star Wars Thermos at Target this week, along with a new lunchbox and sneakers for both boys (their shoes literally fell apart within days of each other over the spring break).
Ryan's lunch: small pbj sandwich on 12 grain bread embellished with the Jedi order symbol on soy cheese; mini corn muffin; a strawberry; 2 gherkin pickles; Thermos of vegetable black bean
soup
with 8
veggies
(onion,
shallot,
carrot,
celery,
purple
topped
turnip,
parsnip,
butter-
nut
squash,
kale)...
and a
base of
vege-
table
broth
and
tomato
(which is
most definitely a fruit folks! Though technically speaking so is the butternut squash!).

If you haven't already done so, please consider signing the Food Revolution Petition to improve public school lunches in the U.S. and the support the training of cafeteria staff.

Also consider contacting Congress to urge them to support the Healthy School Meals Act. To Learn more about it you can visit the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine's Healthy School Lunches website.

In case you haven't watched Food Revolution yet, here is a YouTube link to one of the highlights! You gotta watch! It's the Jungle Flames flash mob from episode 4.

I have noticed a lot of new beginner bento bloggers popping up lately, and a resurgence of posting on other older blogs. Yay!

And just last week I received
a new award from Heather
of Don't Forget Your Lunch.
She makes lots of cute lunches
for her 3 boys using the
Laptop Lunches system.
Thanks Heather!

I love the variety of lunch
blogs out there. If you're
not feeling inspired to make
lunch some days, just get online and browse what others are doing and you're sure to come up with something healthy and delicious!

O Bento Tree

Ryan's lunch: baby carrots; pickles; roasted almonds; Tofurky sandwich tree w/apple ornaments & soy cheese star; peanut butter sandwich crackers; mango gel cup on the side.

small packages & silly boys

It was
early
release
at 1pm
for the
public
schools
today,
so a
lighter
lunch...

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of bean,
vege-
table,
barley
soup;
soy
cheese
squares;
herb crackers; a tiny Pez pack leftover from Halloween.

Next I wanted to show Nate's preschool snack, not because of the food so much as the size of the container. Bento snacks and lunches are meant to be packed efficiently, tightly arranged so that there is little excess space. This container is only holds 130ml and can fit in the palm of my hand, yet properly filled it can easily hold a nice snack for a preschooler.
Nate's snack: 2 dried apricots; 4 grape tomatoes; 3 squares of soy cheese; 3 herb crackers.

Any of you with multiple boys knows just how silly and crazy they can get. Besides the blocks and cars and toilet talk...









As I was getting Maia ready
for bed I walked in on a
conversation about "space
diapers" and they all started laughing hysterically.

And on our afternoons hike,
Ryan was "the King", AJ
was "the Queen", and...









...Nate was "the mad dragon", of course!

Don't worry, once the
snow starts to fly I won't
have all these daily
hikes to bore you all
with!

AJ wanted to climb this
pine tree. I thought this
picture looked even better
turned 90 degrees counter
clockwise, LOL.

never a dull moment

A weekend full of kid craziness...saturday rain, sunday hikes, and monday back to school. The food was nothing to write home about today. Heck I probably shouldn't have even bothered blogging it! Some mondays are like that...
Ryan's lunch: veggie crisps; carrot sticks; grilled nutritional yeast cheez sandwich; mango gel cup on the side.

But even with the older boys off to school (Nate only has preschool t/th/f mornings) there was still plenty of wild rumpus. Nate was riding his horse "Rocky" while playing musical instrumentas while battling an exercise ball. Go figure! Maia was mightily amused...
Thank goodness for the great outdoors!






















Our
Sunday
after-
noon
hike
was
almost
complet-
ely foil-
ed by
flooding
from
satur-
day's
rain...

in addi-
tion to
the
trail
clearly
not
being recently maintained...
Maia is happy to hike for hours as long as we keep moving...

Boo

Boo.
Ryan's lunch: tofu salad roll w/"BOO" rice cheese letters; Sweet & Sara toasted coconut marshmallow; orange bell pepper & olive "pumpkin"; underneath the pumpkin is a layer of carrot sticks, and under that a layer of gherkin pickles; blanched baby greens (spinach, tat soi, beet greens) dressed w/soy sauce.

Maia loves to dress up, so she should be all set to go on Halloween!

Disney bentos

Score! Today was the grand opening of the new Disney Store at the mall. We got in line with the rest of the first 200 people at 10am. The boys were each given triple lollipop bouquets, and all 4 kids got free Mickey Mouse ears at the register. And guess what they had...
Yes! Disney bentos! I combed even the biggest Disney store in Florida and could not find them. Not even the employees there had any clue what I was talking about. But lo and behold they're at our local mall now for only $5.50 each! And better yet, this week all the lunch gear is on sale for 3 for $12!! Sooooo, if anyone does not have access to a Disney store and would like to trade bento shopping items with me, or if you have dough in your PayPal account, I would be happy to make another quick trip this week and pick some up. Or I may go back anyhow and pick up another for a giveaway.

Here are the boys outside the store with their lollipops...and AJ inside eating his with his Mickey ears on...









Nate was quite the sticky
mess by the time he got home!

Here is a closer look at each bento...

The Handy Manny bento
has a blue top and a yellow
base. Inside are two yellow
removable sub-sections.
There are no measurements
written on the bottom, but
the size of this bento is in
between the size of our most
widely used sizes, so without
doing the water displacement
trick, I'd guess it's about 350-
420ml, probably 400...about
right for the average 4 year
old. Definitely very boyish
with cool construction theme.


Forgive me for not being
up to date on the names
of all the girl Disney char-
acters...Maia just isn't old
enough yet! This princess
bento is the same size as
the one above. The top is
a pretty lilac colour, the
bottom pale green. I'm
sure Maia will get a lot of
use out of this in the future!
I just love this one, mostly
due to the lack of pink, LOL.
Maybe I'll use it first, or
I'll make a little snack for
Maia and I to share on
Nate's next field trip. It
also has nice sub-containers.

The other girly bento is
quite pink, but with a
tomboyish acorn shape,
and Peter Pan? Tink?
Goodness I'm horrible
with the princess flicks.
Somebody is sure to
set me straight!
Anyhow, this bento is
two tones of pink, and
has the coolest sub-
division inside...a larger
compartment under where
the graphic is, and a long
mini container under the
acorn cap. Very cute! If
I had to venture a guess,
I'd say this is a 450ml size.

The last bento is this tall
Toy Store theme. Inside
it is really a two-tier bento!
I was really excited to see
this when I opened it up,
but the top layer is kind of
difficult for a child to remove
carefully, so I think I may
save it for taller items that
require the added height
this box offers.
Regardless, I love this box
thanks to all the cool pics
of each character...Woody
and Buzz on the top, and
on the sides, Rex, an alien,
Slinky Dog, and Ham. All
of our kids are big Toy
Story fans. This box would
be useful for more than
just food as well.

Ryan chose a few other
Toy Story items: a 3-D
placemat and a rocket
shaped plate...
I'm surprised there were
no Mickey bentos. How
I'd love some of the other
older characters. I've seen
some listed on eBay over-
seas, but this gives me hope
that maybe bentos are catch-
ing on enough in the U.S.
that we'll get cool stuff too!

Bad Badtz Maru

I love Badtz Maru. He's one of the few Sanrio characters who are cute and boyish and cool at the same time. This bento coordinates perfectly with Ryan's metal Badtz Maru lunchbox.

Ryan's lunch: green beans dressed w/soy sauce; sliced cucumber; a small wheel of corn; a pickle; spicy baked tofu; mashed potatoes; a side of watermelon.

I remember buying this
bento from an outdoor
vendor under the elevated
highway near the Shinbashi
train station in Tokyo. Back
then I thought the 600 yen
price seemed a bit steep for
a little plastic bento, but
if only I could get character
bentos for that price back in
the United States!

It seems fitting that Badtz
Maru's birthday is April 1st,
April Fool's Day. He's one
cool dude penguin.

Spongebob's 1st Day of School

It was Ryan's first day of 1st grade, and AJ's first day of kindergarten today. Sorry to disappoint, but AJ will only be going to half-day kindergarten, so no lunch needed this year! Horror! So I'll try to make Ryan's count extra...
Ryan's lunch: the centerpiece was a Spongebob made of yellow rice, garnished with white soy cheese, nori, tomato, & bread crust. To the left is leftover spicy baked tofu with mushrooms & onions. To the right is Spongebob's best friend Patrick made of Yves vegan bologna, on a bed of blanched spinach, with a few raspberries tucked in on the bottom. As a side treat I included a little container of corn nuts. And for special drink I bought Ryan a blueberry soymilk yogurt smoothie.












Not
trying
to fool
you,
this is
Nate's
lunch
for
grandma's
house
while
I take
AJ to
kinder-
garten
orient-
ation.
His
first
full
half
day is
tomorrow.
Nate's lunch: 1/2 pbj
sandwich; raspberries;
peanuts; a pickle;
blanched spinach.

He was very excited
about the new Spongebob
container, and I saw him
shaking it as he went out
the door, so there's no telling the condition it was in by lunchtime! If only I could photograph that! Oy.

On to AJ's walk to kindergarten...he was very eager to get going, running ahead with Dada...





















We'll see what he thinks
of it all after he's had a
few days to settle in with
his new teacher & friends!