Wendy Copley's Blog, page 11

The Week in Bentos: August 4 – 8, 2014

Both of my boys were at day camp last week, so I have a full week of lunches to show you. It was Augie’s first time ever going to camp, Wyatt’s gazillionth time. I was so proud of the way Wyatt helped his little brother and showed him the ropes. It really made Augie’s camp experience fun and low stress. And for some reason the stars aligned and the kids made lunch-packing easy peasy too. Read on to see how:

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

On Monday both kids were happy to have the exact same lunch. People — this never happens! Or it happens so rarely that it’s OK for me to say it never happens. I used the Laptop Lunches bento boxes for both kids and they each had BBQ potato chips (a special first day of camp treat), champagne grapes, carrot sticks, sugar snap peas (Augie only), and they each had sunbutter and jelly sandwiches — Chewbacca and Hulk for Augie, Chewy and Captain America for Wyatt. I also tucked a granola bar into the side of each box for their morning snacks.

Tuesday

And then it happened again! Identical lunches two days in a row! Both boys had leftover pasta in thermal jars for the main part of their lunch and they each had a side car with nectarine chunks, carrots and snap peas. I separated the fruit from the veggies by putting it in round and square silicone baking cups and I threw in the boys’ personalized forks from BellaJackson Studios for the pasta and nectarines. The thermal jars are from LunchBots (top) and Thermos (bottom).

Wednesday

Guess what! The kids had the same lunches again! Apparently they were so similar that I only photographed Augie’s bento, but his is basically the same as Wyatt’s so I’m sure you’ll survive without the photo. They had raspberries, blackberries and strawberries from the farmers’ market, teddy grahams, ham roll-ups, and veggies with dip. Augie had the carrots, snap peas and red pepper dip you see here, along with a mini dipper full of hummus. Wyatt had radishes and pepper strips with ranch dressing. Both lunches were packed in a Laptop Lunches box.

Thursday

Thursday we shook up the lunches with slightly different configurations. I packed Augie’s lunch in the PlanetBox and he had strawberries, blackberries, a blueberry cereal bar, hummus, carrots and mini tacos.

I packed Wyatt’s lunch in the Yumbox Panino and he also had mini tacos, a blueberry bar, blackberries, and strawberries. I swapped in radishes in place of the carrots Augie had.

Friday

Friday morning the kids were bickering like crazy and I kept having to break up fights and holler at them to get ready for camp so things were hecka hectic. I was pressed for time so I made these crazy simple lunches: pizza goldfish, apples and sunbutter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Normally they go crazy for lunches like these, but on this day they barely ate anything.

Saturday: Special Bonus Bentos!

On Saturday, our whole family took a day trip to Sacramento so I packed everyone an EasyLunchboxes bento to save some time and money. The boys’ bentos are on top and they had identical lunches again. It was touch and go there for a few minutes because Augie had asked for a PB&J sandwich, but he changed his mind at the last minute and had the same salami, baguette, madeleine, apples and Pirate’s Booty as his brother.

My lunch is in the lower left. I had curried chicken salad in place of the salami, but the rest was the same as the boys’ lunches. Zach’s lunch was the biggest departure. He had the salami on the baguette and swapped carrots for the apple.

We are headed into our last week of summer vacation this week! The boys won’t be in camp so I won’t have lunches to share next Monday, but be sure to check back later this week because I’ll have fun back to school giveaways every day!

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

15 Minute Meal: MorningStar Buffalo Chik Burger

Ahhhhh….summer dinners! I love summer meals for all the terrific, delicious, in-season fruits and veggies that you can eat, but I hate summer dinners because I hate cooking dinner in the summer. I don’t like heating up the kitchen when it’s hot, or cooking when I’m tired from a trip to the beach or the playground or wherever we’ve been all day. On nights like these I want to get in and out of the kitchen as fast as possible so I can relax with my family.  One of my favorite dishes to make on nights like these is MorningStar Farms Buffalo Chik sandwiches.

Zach and I have been making these for easy dinners since before the kids were born. That’s more than 10 years for those of you who are doing math in your head right now. They are dead simple and hecka tasty. We like the Chik Patties from MorningStar Farms in particular because they are low in fat and calories and they’re an easy way to go meatless.  In the years since we started making these, MorningStar Farms came out with a buffalo-flavored version of their Chik Patties, but we like to stick with the original ones because we have more control over the spice (and we can leave the spicy sauce off altogether for my youngest).

Here’s what you’ll need to make these:

MorningStar Farms Chik Patties Original
whole wheat buns
buffalo wing sauce
gorgonzola or other bleu cheese
lettuce leaves and tomato slices (optional)

Yes — only four ingredients! So easy!

And here’s how to make them:

Heat the Chik Patties according to package directions. When the patties are heated through toss them with a little buffalo wing sauce. Place the patties on the buns along with lettuce and tomato (or leave it off if the kids are picky). Sprinkle a little crumbled bleu cheese on top and close them up with the top bun.

I like to serve these with celery sticks for the buffalo wings feel and some kind of salad.

What do you cook on super rushed or I-don’t-feel-like-cooking nights?

Visit www.morningstarfarms.com to find exciting new ways to enjoy MorningStar Farms® and spice up your kitchen.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Muppets Most Wanted Bento Box

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Blueprint Social for Disney.

I loved the Muppet so much when I was a kid. I looked forward to watching The Muppet Show on Sunday nights all week and I remember running home from playing with the neighbor kids so I didn’t miss the beginning. I had a Kermit doll sitting on my bed and a poster of Miss Piggy hanging on the wall at the end of it. So obviously I was excited when Disney rebooted the Muppet movies a few years back. I wanted to revisit my old friends, but more importantly I wanted to share the Muppets with my boys. This weekend we watched the most recent installment, Muppets Most Wanted. (The movie will be available on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD August 12th at Disney.com but we got a sneak peak.) It’s jam-packed with all my favorite Muppets, of course, and it also has about a zillion cameos and songs. The kids thought it was hilarious (yay!) and after watching it I was inspired to make a Muppets bento box.

Shall I show you how to make one too? Yes, of course I should!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

sliced whole wheat bread
deli-sliced havarti cheese (or other white cheese)
deli-sliced ham
mayonnaise
strawberries
sugar snap peas
teddy bear crackers

Equipment:

3-section bento box
paring knife
pig cookie cutter/stamp
jewel picks
black food marker

And here’s how I put it together:

I started by cutting the bread for a Miss Piggy sandwich. I cut two head shapes with the outer cutter, then I stamped a pig face on one of the slices of bread. (I saved the bread scraps in the freezer to use for bread crumbs or something later.)

Once you have the basic shapes for the head, it’s time to cut some hair. Miss Piggy has beautiful platinum blonde hair, so I chose a slice of havarti cheese to mimic it. Lay one of the bread pieces on a slice of cheese and then use it as a guide to cut Piggy’s hair out with a paring knife. I went with her classic long wavy hair-do, but you could do any other hair style you like!

The ears on the cutter I used didn’t match Miss Piggy’s pointier ears, so I cut them off and made my own. I squished the cut pieces down flat with y finger to make them easier to handle, then used the knife to cut them into tear-drop shapes. Once I had everything looking just right, I “glued” the hair to the bread with a little bit of mayo and then glued the ears on top of that. The inside of the sandwich was filled with ham and some of the cheese scraps. (Reserve a bit of the cheese for later).

After I assembled the sandwich I noticed that Miss Piggy’s hair was a bit droopy. If you’re less uptight about these things than I am you could just leave it, but I wanted my girl to look her best, so I stuck a couple toothpicks in each side of the sandwich to prop her hair up. Just remember to warn your kids that they’re in there so they don’t bite down on them at lunch time!

Add the sandwich to the largest section of the bento box. I had a lot of extra space left at the bottom so I filled it in with strawberries. And then I added some jewel picks because we all know how Miss Piggy loves bling.

Next we’re going to add Kermit into the lunch. I tried making an accurate likeness of him, but I couldn’t pull it off, so instead I decided to go for a symbolic representation. Good enough! I started by trimming some sugar snap peas so they were as long as the bento box is tall. Then I stood them on end in one of the side dish sections.

Next, I cut a couple of semi-circles and a pointy collar from the reserved cheese scraps. The eyes definitely needed Kermits signature pupils, so I drew those on with a black food-safe marker. Finally I laid the cheese bits on top of the snap peas. It’s not the perfect Kermit, but it will do!

The last touch was to add some teddy bear crackers to the remaining compartment. Who do they look like? Fozzie, of course!

Ta da! Muppet in a lunch box!

Muppets Most Wanted is available on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD August 12th at Disney.com.

Follow The Muppets on social media:

Facebook
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And find more ideas for Muppets fun here:

The Week in Bentos: July 28 – August 1, 2014

We are heading into the final stretch of summer guys! Last week was Augie’s final week of preschool and this week he is attending day camp for the first time. Changes are afoot in Wendolonia-land! Wyatt was home last week so I only have Augie-bentos for you today, but the last lunch in this post might be one of my all-time favorite bentos, so be sure to read to the end!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

We started off the week with a quick-to-put-together Yumbox lunch: turkey meatballs with a mini giraffe fork, strawberries with an elephant fork, a fruit and nut bar (Taste of Nature brand), tiny little champagne grapes, cucumbers and carrot sticks.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I sent the lunch I made for last week’s 3 Tools, 4 Lunches challenge. Get the details about this lunch here.

Wednesday

I tried to make Wednesday’s lunch cute, but honestly I think it was a bit of a failure. It wasn’t bad or anything — it just didn’t end up being very cute. I packed Ninja turtles gummy snacks, farm cookies in a squirrel cup, tomatoes from our garden, a whole mess of blueberries, and  a smiley face sandwich made with sunflower seed butter and jelly.

The sunbutter sandwich was a bit of an experiment. Augie has been able to take nuts and peanut butter to preschool for the past few years and they are a staple item in his lunches. He really loves nuts. Next year he will be headed to a 100% nut-free elementary school (the same one my older son attends) so I am hoping he’ll be happy with sunflower seed butter as an allergen-safe alternative. I decided to try out the sunbutter in advance of school starting and both kids seem to like it OK. Yay!

Thursday

Thursday was Augie’s last official day at preschool (sniff!) so I asked him if he wanted a special lunch to celebrate. He absolutely did and he asked for a “silly Star Wars” lunch, with a happy Darth Vadar. I have to admit that that his request stumped me, but after a little talking back and forth we came up with the lunch above.

I started with the easy stuff: blueberries with a storm trooper ring for decoration and red bell pepper strips guarded by Luke Skywalker. Then I added  pickle light sabers, because pickles are just inherently funny and when you pair them with light saber picks you’ve got comedy gold.  Finally, I made goofy Darth Vader and Yoda sandwiches. I started by cutting the basic shapes with a couple of our Star Wars cookie cutters, then I made smiling mouths with a small crescent cutter. I filled the sandwiches with sunflower seed butter and jam and then glued icing googly eyes on top of the bread with a small dab of the sunbutter.

Success!

Friday

I didn’t pack a lunch for Augie’s very last day of preschool because we all headed to a local park for the annual preschool picnic. It was a pot luck, so I brought one of my favorite pasta salads but the kids were so excited to play with their friends that they barely ate anything at all.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

 

3 Tools, 4 Lunches: EasyLunchboxes, CuteZCute Cuddle Palz, and Animal Picks

It’s time for the tenth and final installment in the 3 Tools, 4 Lunches series I’ve been running this summer. (Yeah, yeah — we only have three lunches this week. I know.) Each week, I’ve challenged some of my bento blogger friends to make lunches with the same three tools. It’s super fun to see how each person uses the tools in their own, unique way and I’ve been really inspired by the demonstration of how versatile these tools can be!

Here are the tools we used this week:

EasyLunchboxes bento box — This popular lunch box has appeared a lot in this series for good reason — it’s inexpensive, versatile and sturdy as all get out!
Cuddle Palz — This versatile and hecka cute cutter/stamper set is the newest offering from CuteZCute and it’s quickly become a favorite in our house.
Animal Food Picks — This set comes with 10 picks in a variety of animal designs. There’s also a tree trunk you can use to turn fruits and veggies into little trees. Fun!

And here are the lunches we made:

The first lunch I have to share this week was made by Astrid Lague from Lunches Fit For a Kid. Astrid used the CuteZcute cutter to make a tortilla grilled cheese with a tiger face. The rest of her lunch consists of lettuce,  a mini vanilla cupcake, apple, champagne grapes, and trail mix.

Here’s how Astrid describes her start with bentos: “I got started packing bentos when my daughter was in kindergarten, but didn’t start blogging until she was in first grade – so I have been blogging for about 5 years.  I love packing as waste-free as I can, and I love to make healthy food fun and delicious.  In addition, The Boy is a Type 1 diabetic, and blogging his lunches makes it easier for the school nurse to check his carb count and dose his insulin correctly for what he eats. It’s also good to pack lunches for The Hubby and for myself, so that we have a healthy and less expensive dining option during the work day.”

Picture courtesy Nina Holstead, Mamabelly

Next up is a koala lunch from Nina Holstead of Mamabelly. Nina’s Easylunchbox contains a peanut butter CuteZCute Cuddle Palz koala bear sandwich holding a pepperoni fork  and about to devour some celery bamboo. She also packed a carved apple tree with a koala peaking out from behind and some fresh grape tomatoes decorated with leaf picks. Read more about Nina’s cutie patootie lunch on her blog.

Nina is a  Military Wife and Mom of four and enthusiastic about packing healthy and fun lunches. She packs lunches for her kids and for herself and since she loves cooking you can even find the occasional recipe on her page. She packs bento boxes because she loves creating something fun and special for her kids while making sure that they eat a balanced and healthy diet. Her favorite part of bento-ing is the smiles she gets at the end of the day when the kids come home from school and tell her they loved lunch!

Finally, I have this orange and green tiger lunch to share today. I made a peanut butter tiger sandwich with the Cuddle Palz set, then filled in the rest of the space in the large section of the EasyLunchboxes bento box with some carrot sticks. I also added some pizza flavored goldfish crackers for the tiger to fish out of the river and a few melon trees for his jungle.

Do you have these tools? How do you like to use them?

But wait! There’s more! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

 

The Week in Bentos: July 21-25, 2014

Whew! I’m a little later than usual with my wrap-up of last week’s lunches. It’s been a busy week in Wendolonia-land with a fun but exhausting trip to the BlogHer ’14 conference and a couple of tight work deadlines. But I am SO dedicated to sharing my kids’ packed lunches with you that I persevere! Read on to see what my kids ate last week. PLUS — a dad-made lunch!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

Monday morning, Augie asked for a ham and butter baguette sandwich again. (He ate about 5 of these last week, too.) He also had strawberries with a little frog pick, teeny little champagne grapes and a Persian cucumber. This was packed in our yellow sandwich box.

And I packed this lunch for Wyatt in our Laptop Lunches bento box: a big chunk of baguette, leftover ribs from dinner, strawberries and champagne grapes. The only trouble? He didn’t need a lunch for his day camp. Doh! I forgot his camp was over at noon and didn’t realize until this was already packed. It did make lunch time easier when he got home though.

Tuesday

On Tuesday Augie took this lunch I made for last week’s 3 Tools, 4 Lunches challenge to school. You can get all the details on this lunch here. This was packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Here is what I found when I opened his lunch box after school. Lots of food left in this lunch box — most of the blueberries and cucumbers and the biscuit was untouched. All he really ate was the ham. This is pretty unusual for him because he has a big appetite at lunch time, so I sat him down at the table when we got home and he finished it then.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we tried our new Yumbox Panino lunch box for the first time! The original Yumbox is one of our favorites and Yumbox is a long-time sponsor of this site, so I was very excited to try the new configuration of this box when they offered me one for review. This new version has a large section that can fit a full-sized sandwich along with three smaller sections for side dishes. So far, I am really liking this lunch box and though I’ve only used it a few times so far, I think it’s a great option if you’re looking for a new lunch box for back to school.

This lunch was designed by Augie and executed by me. Or in other words, he bossed me around and told me what to put in it the lunch box and I did what he said. He had a couple celery sticks, carrots, a Cuddle Palz tiger pb&j, mango chunks, champagne grapes and some white cheddar popcorn.

Thursday

Augie enjoyed using the Yumbox Panino so much on Wednesday that he asked if he could have it again on Thursday. (The lunch box apple doesn’t fall far from the bento tree, apparently…) I gave him cucumber spears, salami slices in a square silicone cup, a guitar pb&j, carrots, celery, cashews and blueberries.

Wyatt had been opting to take granola bars to camp for his snack most of the week, but we were out on Thursday so I packed him this little snack box with salami slices and mini Saltine crackers. I used to pack  him little bento snacks all the time in Kindergarten, but I haven’t done it for a long time. This was good practice for me because I’ll need to start making these again when Augie starts Kindergarten in just a couple of weeks!

Friday

On Friday I was off at BlogHer so my husband, Zach, packed Augie’s lunch. Though he is perfectly capable of making lunch for the kids, I do it almost exclusively because it’s kind of my thing….you know?

He packed this lunch in our monbento box: salami slices, carrot sticks, strawberries, half a hot dog bun, a banana and some white cheddar popcorn.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

A French Lunch? Oui! Oui!

Just a quickie note to tell you that I’m over at the Little Passports blog today sharing a tutorial about how to make this French lunch! Head on over and read the post to get the details.

3 Tools, 4 Lunches: EasyLunchboxes, Animal Picks, and Noah’s Ark Mini Cutters

Each week for the last few months, I’ve been challenging a few of my bento blogger friends to make lunches using the same three tools. My goal is to show how versatile these tools can be for making creative lunches while also showcasing some bloggers who you may not be familiar with!

Here are the tools we used this week:

EasyLunchboxes bento box — EasyLunchboxes makes a great product for everyday bentos. It’s sturdy, versatile and economical so it’s a favorite with lots of bento packers.
Animal mini-forks/picks — The grumpy giraffe in this set of bento picks is one of my all-time favorite picks. I don’t know why his expression amuses me so much, but it cracks me up.
Wilton Mini Noah’s Ark Cutters — These were one of the first bento tools I ever bought and I’ve used them regularly for more than six years! They are great for little kids’ lunches and can be used on cheese, fruit, veggies, bread, lunch meat and in lots of other ways too.

And these are the lunches we made:

Let’s kick things off with this Noah’s Ark bento made by Kathy of Eclectic Lamb. Kathy made the ark sandwich from Naan bread and some softened cream cheese mixed with unsweetened cocoa powder. She used the Noah Cookie Cutters to cut the animal shapes from a flour tortilla then 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). You can read more about this lunch on her blog.

Here’s how Kathy says she started packing bentos: “I studied the Japanese language and culture in college so I have known about the art of bento for a long time. Before starting my blog I often made cute food and sometimes bentos for my nieces and nephews. After starting my blog I made many more bentos. My 3 year blog anniversary was last week.”  Kathy’s favorite thing about packing bentos is thinking about new themes and ways to present the food in a creative way. She also enjoys being the aunt that makes cute food.

Kristie Winget from Beneficial Bento is the mom behind this lunch.   She made a peanut butter sandwich topped with a carrot lion, a cheese and nori panda, and a salami elephant, with strawberries on top. On the side is a checkered green apple, carrots, cucumber, and yellow tomatoes.

Here’s how Kristie got started with bentos: “I started making bentos after looking for ways to add more healthy food to my family’s lunches. I started trying out my new skills on my husband, who said, ” I don’t care if my lunch is cute as long as it tastes good.” After a few weeks, I discovered he had quietly been posting pictures of all his lunches on facebook! Our friends started asking me how I made his lunches, so I decided to start a blog to show them. I’ve been blogging since 2011, and I still make lunches for my kids, husband, and myself. And last week I made our 1 year old grandson his first bento sandwich shaped like a panda. His review? “Mmmmmm!” which put a big smile on this grandma’s face!”

You can find Kristie’s cloth napkins, bento bags, and more in her Etsy shop. Some of her lunch recipes can be found in Cooking with Trader Joe’s Cookbook: Easy Lunch Boxes.

Finally we have a lunch I made for my preschooler, Augie. I made this lunch on a regular Tuesday morning, and I wanted something cute, but still fast and pretty easy. The most complicated part of this lunch was the elephant biscuit and even that was very easy. I placed the mini elephant cookie cutter on top of the biscuit, then traced around the inside of the cutter with a purple food-safe marker. After I had the basic outline drawn on, I removed the cutter and filled the rest of the elephant in with the ink. I also used the giraffe and bear cutters on a slice of cucumber which I placed on top of some short cucumber spears. I poked the picks into some blueberries and ham spirals to round out the lunch.

Do you have these tools? How do you like to use them?

But wait! There’s more! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

 

The Week in Bentos: July 14-18, 2014

I have lots of lunches to share this week because both the kids were at preschool and camp. Mostly they are pretty plain (ie: totally do-able) so hopefully they’ll give you some ideas. Also: we are taking a new lunch box out for a spin!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

On Monday, Wyatt took his Laptop Lunches box to day camp. He had nectarine chunks, cherries, a chicken drumstick and a brownie.

Augie took out new Goodbyn Hero lunch box for a spin! He had watermelon chunks, a brownie, cucumber slices, hummus, a chicken drumstick and some cherries.

Goodbyn sent me the Hero, along with a lunch bag and a few other goodies to try out. So far, I’m liking the Hero a lot. It’s quite a bit deeper than most of my other lunch boxes, so that’s been a bit of an adjustment when I’m packing it but it also gives me a lot of space to work with so I have a little more flexibility in that regard. The kids both give it two thumbs up.

Tuesday

It was Wyatt’s turn to use the Hero on Tuesday. I sent a granola bar, ham and butter on a baguette, grapes and bunny crackers.

Augie also had a ham and butter baguette, along with cucumber slices and grapes. This was packed in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I packed what I think of as “this and that” lunches for the kids. I pulled little bits from the fridge and made this lunch for Wyatt in our black divided bento box: hamburger cookies (from the Japanese dollar store), radishes, a few slices of baguette, two strawberries, blueberries and a sliced bratwurst that was leftover from dinner the night before.

Augie’s lunch was packed in our Yumbox: sliced cheddar hot dog, watermelon, cucumber slices, blueberries, some ham on baguette slices and a little hamburger cookies.

Thursday

On Thursday Wyatt had an apple sauce pouch, blueberries, mini saltines and a plain ol’ peanut butter and jelly sandwich all packed into a Laptop Lunches box.

Augie had blueberries, cucumber, a pb&j, and saltines. I had to cut the crusts off the sandwich so it would fit in the lunch box, much to his delight.

Friday

On Friday, Augie had celery sticks, yet another ham sandwich on baguette (have you noticed my family is newly addicted to these?), a granola bar, grape tomatoes and nectarine chunks. I poked some cute garden picks into the tomatoes and nectarines and packed this up in an EasyLunchboxes bento box.

Wyatt had to stay home from camp because he was sick, so no packed lunch for him.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

3 Tools, 4 Lunches: LunchBots Trio, Lace Cutters, and Romance Mini Cutters

It’s time for another installment of 3 Tools, 4 Lunches! Each week I recruit three bento lunch packers and challenge them to create a lunch using the same three tools. My goals are to show the variety of ways different bento tools can be  used and to showcase some talented bento-ists who you may not know about yet. We’re on our eighth week of this series and the lunches are still kicking butt and taking names!

Here are the tools we used this week:

LunchBots Trio – this stainless steel box is divided into three sections — great for kids or adults who are watching their portion sizes.
Wilton Mini Romantic Metal Cookie Cutters – a versatile set of mini cutters with flower and heart motifs.
Lace decorative cutter set – mix and match the cutters in this set to create many different designs from cheese, lunch meat, fruits and veggies.

And these are the lunches we made:

The first lunch was made by Kathy from Eclectic Lamb. She packed strawberry rice (she pushed a whole strawberry into the center of the rice) and then used the blossom cutter to cut strawberry slices and decorated with black sesame seeds. The next compartment holds raw spinach leaves with toasted sunflower seeds. She used decorative cutter on a slice of mozzarella cheese. And the bottom area is filled with green grapes and toasted hazelnuts. You can read more about this lunch on Kathy’s blog.

Eclectic Lamb is a vegetarian food blog with an eclectic mix of fun and mostly healthy food. Kathy features bentos, themed meals, and parties that she prepares for her husband, nieces, nephews, friends and sometimes herself. On July 18 Kathy will celebrate my 3 year blogiversary with a bento tools giveaway. She purchased the items during a vacation in Japan, so be sure to stop by and enter!

Photos and bento boxes courtesy of Sarah Felder of Bentoriffic.

Sarah of  Bentoriffic began packing bento boxes about 4 years ago to encourage her daughter to eat more fruits and vegetables. Along the road, she decided to eliminate all meat and dairy from her diet. She, her husband and two young girls are all plant based vegans who often eat gluten-free too. She considers bento boxes one of her creative outlets for cooking and enjoys doing so because her children love and appreciate it. She also loves packing bento boxes because they eliminate waste of food with reusable containers so it’s a very Earth friendly way to pack.

The main dish in Sarah’s lunch is a trio of beet wraps made with red quinoa, beets, lemon and other seasonings and rolled up in beet greens. In the bottom of the LunchBots Trio are sugar snap peas, local heirloom carrots cut into pretty spring shapes and a scalloped beet heart in the bottom garden of flowers and butterflies.  In the top left of the container are heart shaped strawberries on the bottom.  On the top is a large slice of dragonfruit cut with the lace decorative cutter. This lunch is dairy free, meatless and gluten-free. Oh yeah…and gorgeous! Find all the details on this lunch at Bentoriffic.

photo courtesy of Venia Conte, Organized Bites

What?! Pac Man from all those lacy, flowery tools?? Dude — Venia over at Organized Bites blew my 80′s child self away with this lunch!

The open face cheese sandwich has two slices of bread underneath, so that her daughter, Scout, can assemble it before digging in. To create the black background, there’s a layer of Trader Joe’s Seaweed Snack under the sandwich, red gem lettuce under the veggies, and blackberries beneath the melon ghosts. She flipped the tulip from the Wilton Romance Mini Cutters to create the ghosts from thin slices of melon, rainbow carrots, and cucumber. The eyes were a snap to cut using two of the holes from the Lace Cutter to do a pair of peepers at a time. She stacked multiple ghosts to get as much fruit and veg in there as possible…there’s a thin layer of carrot and cucumber sticks under the lettuce, too. Surprise!

Here’s how Venia describes her blog, Organized Bites: “I love colorful, fresh ingredients, and try to pack as much variety as possible into Scout’s bentos. You won’t find any meat in her meals. But, don’t let that discourage you from, hopefully, gaining a little inspiration about how to add more fruits and veg to your lunch box…just substitute your favorite protein for our plant based ones.

Scout would go hungry if forced to forage from a school cafeteria. As a choosy vegetarian, there just aren’t many options for her on the menus. Fortunately, she loves fresh fruits and vegetables, so it’s easy to create fun, colorful meals for her to take to school. And, while Scout loves all the design elements I put in her in lunches, creating fun lunches is as much about keeping the process fresh and fun for me as it is for delighting my daughter. But, that’s definitely a bonus!”

And here is the lunch I made for…myself! I don’t often pack bentos for myself because I’m usually home at lunch time, but the day I had this lunch I was running a bunch of errands and I didn’t want to end up eating junk while I was out and about. The top left compartment is filled with grilled zucchini and corn salad that I packed into a pink flower cup (because moms of boys need to use their pink flower cups every chance they get).  I topped it with a scalloped cheese heart. The next compartment holds a stack of crackers and pieces of ham cut to look like doilies. The bottom compartment has sliced nectarines and more cheese cut into lacy shapes. The cheese I used was Tillamook garlic chili pepper cheddar and though it sounds like an odd combination, it is incredible paired with ripe nectarine.

Do you have these tools? How do you like to use them?

But wait! There’s more! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.