For this week's What's For Lunch Wednesday bento, I decided on a "Winter Wonderland" theme for our after-gym Goodbyn lunch on Tuesday.
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The Boring Stuff:
Snowflakes: I cut up a string cheese stick into little "snowflake" medallions.
Frosty Branches: We got some new organic whole-wheat jumbo pretzel sticks at Costco. They taste odd, but good.
Pine Needles: I had already put the green beans in the lunch Monday night (since the Goodbyn is too big to fit in any of my insulated bags, and since it's only out of the fridge for a little over an hour between leaving the house and the end of gym class, I pack as much as I can the night before and refrigerate the whole thing, so the box starts out chilled.) I was then checking out the week's Muffin Tin Monday submissions, and saw the entry from The Young'ns call the green beans in her tin 'pine needles.' Genius! I added a festive mushroom/greenery pick from Bake It Pretty. There's a Cinnamon Apple Sauce cuppie underneath, and two Tupperware Smidgets with ketchup and Ranch.
Three Bears: I just got animal forks, spoons and sauce cups from Daiso's bento section, and this was a perfect opportunity to use them! I chose bears on a loose connection. Bears. Hibernate. Winter. Polar Bears. Whatever. Plus, there was no way I could justify an Elephant or Ladybug!
Snowman Tangerine: I probably got this idea from Melissa at Another Lunch. Looks like a cross between her orange with leaf pick and Snowman egg. I used one of my new Bake It Pretty winter hat picks (don't see them, looks like they're no longer available) and Wilton Food Writers
(I only got the red and green set, which were on super sale at Joann's.)
Reindeer and Hay: I got the reindeer hot dog idea from Two Bears Farm's MTM Monday night after most of my meal was assembled. I had already planned on the Mac and Cheese (left-over from her after-nap snack on Monday,) and just figured I'd sprinkle some Parmesan on it and call it 'snow.' But this genius idea made the Mac and Cheese so much better, and solved my worry about not having enough protein in this meal.
I snapped a small pretzel knot in half, nibbled open a space to make them look more like antlers (I had such a terrible time in the past trying to break them into antlers, this was was MUCH easier, if slightly grosser for the recipient.) I used my food writers to make eyes and a nose. Since I was doing this part Tuesday morning, I opted to be quick and lazy and use the red food writer, rather than trying ketchup. I put it all in a small KidsKonserve container.
Marshmallow Snowman: Two marshmallows secured with a toothpick. Hat pick. Little cracker stick arms. Food Writer face. I used a small orange bento pick and shoved it through from the back to make the pointy end into a nose.
Olive Penguins: I had two of these olive penguins left over from Monday's party. I stuffed my carrot scraps and split olives underneath.
Little Z was delighted with her lunch. In fact, I threatened to eat all the fun stuff if she didn't cooperate in getting ready that morning, so she was more helpful than usual.
The kids who were getting ready to leave all flocked around her lunch too. The regulars are getting used to us bringing something fun, so if they remember, they come to check it out. Now even the moms are telling me they're inspired to try fun things with their food because of these! Hooray!
I was inspired by a link one of my friends posted on Facebook about AnotherLunch's cute foods. I had been wanting to blog about something, and had started taking pictures of crafts and stuff we were trying, but didn't really have any focus until Melissa inspired me! I found Michelle's Muffin Tin Monday through her, and bentolunch.net's What's For Lunch Wednesday through Shannon's submissions to MTM. I've met so many fun people online, and this is all so much fun! So I am so glad that what I do can inspire people too.
She loved spooning the sprinkles onto the applesauce. I didn't have winter-y or Christmas-y sprinkles, so the best I could find was an orange-yellow-white mini ball mix from Halloween. So, kind of like snow!
She ended up eating half of the green beans; the olive penguins and most of the extra olives; and all the cheese, pretzels, and hot dog. She ate very little of it after gym, but most of the rest after nap. The applesauce spilled bringing it back home, so I threw it out. She nibbled, licked and took-apart and re-assembled the snowmallows, but I ended up throwing them out rather than bring them back home.
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| Cheese "snowflakes," Reindeer hot dog w/hay (mac and cheese,) Snowman tangerine, Water, Marshmallow Snowman 'Frosty Branches' (pretzel sticks,) Bear Fork and Spoon, 'Pine Needles' (green beans,) Applesauce; Ranch, Ketchup and Bear (sprinkles) containers; Olive penguins. |
The Boring Stuff:
Snowflakes: I cut up a string cheese stick into little "snowflake" medallions.
Frosty Branches: We got some new organic whole-wheat jumbo pretzel sticks at Costco. They taste odd, but good.
Pine Needles: I had already put the green beans in the lunch Monday night (since the Goodbyn is too big to fit in any of my insulated bags, and since it's only out of the fridge for a little over an hour between leaving the house and the end of gym class, I pack as much as I can the night before and refrigerate the whole thing, so the box starts out chilled.) I was then checking out the week's Muffin Tin Monday submissions, and saw the entry from The Young'ns call the green beans in her tin 'pine needles.' Genius! I added a festive mushroom/greenery pick from Bake It Pretty. There's a Cinnamon Apple Sauce cuppie underneath, and two Tupperware Smidgets with ketchup and Ranch.
Three Bears: I just got animal forks, spoons and sauce cups from Daiso's bento section, and this was a perfect opportunity to use them! I chose bears on a loose connection. Bears. Hibernate. Winter. Polar Bears. Whatever. Plus, there was no way I could justify an Elephant or Ladybug!
Snowman Tangerine: I probably got this idea from Melissa at Another Lunch. Looks like a cross between her orange with leaf pick and Snowman egg. I used one of my new Bake It Pretty winter hat picks (don't see them, looks like they're no longer available) and Wilton Food Writers
(I only got the red and green set, which were on super sale at Joann's.)
Reindeer and Hay: I got the reindeer hot dog idea from Two Bears Farm's MTM Monday night after most of my meal was assembled. I had already planned on the Mac and Cheese (left-over from her after-nap snack on Monday,) and just figured I'd sprinkle some Parmesan on it and call it 'snow.' But this genius idea made the Mac and Cheese so much better, and solved my worry about not having enough protein in this meal.
I snapped a small pretzel knot in half, nibbled open a space to make them look more like antlers (I had such a terrible time in the past trying to break them into antlers, this was was MUCH easier, if slightly grosser for the recipient.) I used my food writers to make eyes and a nose. Since I was doing this part Tuesday morning, I opted to be quick and lazy and use the red food writer, rather than trying ketchup. I put it all in a small KidsKonserve container.
Marshmallow Snowman: Two marshmallows secured with a toothpick. Hat pick. Little cracker stick arms. Food Writer face. I used a small orange bento pick and shoved it through from the back to make the pointy end into a nose.
Olive Penguins: I had two of these olive penguins left over from Monday's party. I stuffed my carrot scraps and split olives underneath.
Little Z was delighted with her lunch. In fact, I threatened to eat all the fun stuff if she didn't cooperate in getting ready that morning, so she was more helpful than usual.
The kids who were getting ready to leave all flocked around her lunch too. The regulars are getting used to us bringing something fun, so if they remember, they come to check it out. Now even the moms are telling me they're inspired to try fun things with their food because of these! Hooray!
I was inspired by a link one of my friends posted on Facebook about AnotherLunch's cute foods. I had been wanting to blog about something, and had started taking pictures of crafts and stuff we were trying, but didn't really have any focus until Melissa inspired me! I found Michelle's Muffin Tin Monday through her, and bentolunch.net's What's For Lunch Wednesday through Shannon's submissions to MTM. I've met so many fun people online, and this is all so much fun! So I am so glad that what I do can inspire people too.
She loved spooning the sprinkles onto the applesauce. I didn't have winter-y or Christmas-y sprinkles, so the best I could find was an orange-yellow-white mini ball mix from Halloween. So, kind of like snow!
She ended up eating half of the green beans; the olive penguins and most of the extra olives; and all the cheese, pretzels, and hot dog. She ate very little of it after gym, but most of the rest after nap. The applesauce spilled bringing it back home, so I threw it out. She nibbled, licked and took-apart and re-assembled the snowmallows, but I ended up throwing them out rather than bring them back home.
Wow, so creative. I wish I had the time and faith that making "cute" food might actually encourage KP to eat more. As it is she survives on nuts dried fruit, and air. I tried making a bento lunch once and none of it got eaten. Happy Holidays and thanks for visiting/commenting. mymommymakesit
ReplyDeleteVery cute!!! I going to have to make the reindeer hotdog
ReplyDeleteHere's a cute one I haven't seen before. Very cute! Thanks for all your link-ups at Bento Blog Network!
ReplyDelete