Orange Butterflies in Late Summer

It's a lazy Saturday here in North Carolina on the tail end of summer. Well, that's what I'm in the mood for anyway. The kids have other ideas. In an effort to harness their boundless energy, I enlisted their help to make this whimsical mid-morning fruit snack.

Creating orange butterflies is quick and simple, but fun to do. Just cut orange into slices, then quarter them for wings and use raisins or craisins for the body. You can create a raisin kabob by piercing them along a toothpick. Little boys especially like this task, as it's kinda like baiting a hook--but no critter is harmed in the process.

To create knockout apple slices, just peel apple, then slice and use a shaped veggie cutter to remove the center where the seeds are. Add in a few banana slices for some more tasty variety.

After making these, there was energy to spare so I got them to making freshly squeezed orange juice with some of the many leftover oranges. That was a nice diversion while it lasted. But I am now  discovering that seemingly every square inch of surface in the kitchen is sticky. Beware this common side effect of playing with your food.

Happy Bento'ing!
Star

Piggy Pizza Bento

School's out, but there's no break in packing lunches cuz summer camp marches on!

This week's bento features the stacked piggy container which I used to store my lil guy's cheese pizza slices.

He discovered that I had put four mini marshmallows in the little blue pig box and there was no stopping him from nabbing that before I could blink! Since he ate those before lunch, I filled it up again with raisins. We were so late that it was snack time when we arrived so I got to see his face when he opened it up at at school: shock and dismay!

Happy Bento'ing!
Star

Berries and Bears Bento Lunch

My little guy is off to summer camp today, so packed him a bento lunch of berries and bears. (Lest you think he's going hungry, there's mac and cheese in a thermos to go along with this!)

First bento lunch since school's been out, so feeling a bit rusty already. Bears are my go-to bento, so got back into it with this simple lunch of cheese sticks, teddy grahams and strawberries.

The theme for camp this week is "hats" so I'm curious what they have planned for the kids. Not quite as compelling as a typical theme featuring superheroes or dragons and such. One thing I do know is that he loves dressing up (usually as Buzz Lightyear or Ironman), so I'm sure he'll have a blast!

Happy Bento'ing!
Star

Banana Snail Fruit Snack

We endured record-breaking heat here in North Carolina yesterday. So when the sweltering sun hit us at high noon, it seemed a good idea to have a light fruit lunch.

The starring role in our fruit smorgasbord was Mr. Banana Snail. He got his smile from strawberry fruit leather and antennae from Chinese noodles. His shell is a slice of whole wheat bread stamped from a circular sandwich cutter and embellished with fruit leather semi-circles. Gouda cheese clouds float above him in the sky.

He looks happy on this hot day. At least until he got chomped on by my little guy. Bye bye Mr. Snail.

Happy Bento'ing!
Star

P.S. Thanks to Ms. Dubien for the inspiration on this idea.

Madagascar Penguin Bento

So, I had this goofy idea to make a Madagascar penguin charaben for the kids. It took a few tries to arrive at a character that resembles a penguin. This little fellow was created using banana slices and blueberries. The feet and bill are carrot bits, and he's brought to life with little candy googly eyes.

The kids had fun with this one, as you can see from only seconds later.

As I mentioned, it took a few attempts to arrive at the penguin. My first effort involved mini marshmallows, and it didn't quite get there, as you can see below. So, it's best that I tried again and was able to create a healthier version anyway.

But, my little guy didn't mind the bento blooper. He loves those little candy googly eyes!

Happy Bento'ing!
Star

Brave Bento Lunch

My daugher challenged me to another bento competition last night.

We'd been thinking about doing a bento based on the movie Brave, and I thought we could collaborate, but she wanted to work separately. In fact, she declared, "It's every man for himself in bento!"

OK, so much like our inaugural bento competition, we worked in separate areas of the kitchen and no peaking was allowed! This was easier than the usual bento lunch because we just used a plate as our canvas, rather than stuffing everything into a lunch container. I suppose it's technically not a bento lunch, but more rightly a bento snack.

Anyway, we used similar ingredients: carrot curls, babybell cheese and blueberries to craft Merida, the main character of the movie Brave.

Wow! Here is my daughter's Brave bento:

She arranged carrot curls for the hair and a babybell cheese for the head. She crafted facial features various veggie bits including cucumber peel triangles for the eyes, carrot shapes for the eyebrows and mouth. She even used tiny slices of blueberry skin to create the nose. I love the expression on her face. I do believe she captured the face of a fierce female warrior.

This Brave bento made me think of my own heritage of headstrong Scotch-Irish females. Here's my creation:

And here was mine 3 seconds after it was completed. Such is the fate of Kyaraben (character bento).

Happy Bento'ing!

Star

Piggy Bento Lunch

My two little piggies didn't want to go to school today. 

It's nearing the end of the year, and the motivation to get out the door and to school on time is certainly flagging. This morning my third grader said she didn't want to go to school because, "I'm tired and everything is droopy." That gave me such a chuckle that I had to give her a hug and let her be late. She's a straight-A student and has hardly missed a day this entire year, so she earned one lazy morning.

As for the piggy bento, my toddler got watermelon bites and cheese columns with adorable piggy bento picks, as well as a piggy cheese face atop crackers. The pink pig head container contained parmesan (why is the spell-check saying that's not right?) cheese. My little guy loves parm so much, he'd practically snort it if I'd let him. This I packed for him to sprinkle on the spaghetti that went via thermos. (I think it's time for me to get a multi-layer bento box, BTW.) In case you're wondering, those are raisins under the piggy head. And finally, the "joyful pig" box contained a little something sweet. In this case, two jelly beans. Just enough to make him smile. And that's what it's all about.

On another note, today was the last day to turn in our fundraising forms for the St. Jude's Children's Hospital Toddler Trike-athon at my son's school. Being that last minute is the only time anything gets properly done, we canvassed the neighborhood last night in an earnest request for donations. Thanks to all the kind neighbors who contributed!

Happy Bento'ing!
Star