Tuesday, March 22, 2011

WFLW - Ribbit, Rabbit!

It's Spring. I know. And Easter is coming up soon, yes. And I have a ton of cute chickie/ducky/bunny stuff. But... my new frog bento box arrived last week, and I never got a chance to use it before haring off to my sister's house! And it was on sale! Squee!
So. You get a froggy bento!
Lower tier: The green grapes were on their last legs, so I weeded out the firmest ones I could find, to add a little more green to the color scheme. Plus brand-new raspberries we bought on Sunday, and a few apple slices left over from my turn to bring preschool's Parent Ed snack Monday morning. I sloshed them in some cinnamon-pear cider from Trader Joe's, since I didn't have any apple juice. Apparently it made for a very pleasant taste.
For the pasta in the green silicone muffin cup (mine are from Cost Plus World Market,) I used some spiral noodles I had bought originally to do a spaghetti monster for my Halloween monster bento. Tossed them in some olive oil, and added "powdered cheese sauce" from the bulk section at Winco. These are actually leftovers from Monday's lunch. I popped in a pink frog face fork pick (now they come in green, darnit!)
I used a bear head cutter to make the frog face cheeses, and my food writers to draw on the features.
Green grapes and raspberries, spiral pasta with cheese sauce,
apple slices, and Swiss cheese froggies
Top tier: We have some garlic hummus wasting away in the fridge, and she loves hummus, so I thought it would be fun to put some into my silicone bear cup, which can be made to look like a frog! I was lazy and just punched a face out of Swiss scraps, rather than bother with the nori. I put in way more celery and carrots than I think she'll eat, so I compensated by making my lunch very small. And I've got a little disposable cuppie of Ranch to bring along because she'll hog all the hummus in case she eats all the hummus without eating all the veggies. And I figured she might enjoy hummus on the whole wheat pretzel rods, so I tossed a few in to fill out the box.
Celery, baby carrots, pretzel logs, garlic hummus
My lunch:
Sweet potato bite, pesto crescent roll, crackers, orange chicken;
Celery, raspberries, Swiss scraps, PB, apple slice
I think this is the first time using my red rabbit bento box as well. I had to have it. I love the tiny little bunnies looking up on the lid! Plus it's Year of the Rabbit. And I was born in the Year of the Rabbit... so I'll be turning 36 24 this year!
The top tier of my bento has a sweet potato bite from Trader Joe's that I made for my MOMS Night Out on Saturday, as a potluck appetizer. Flaky shell, sweet potato, and candied pecans. Yum. I tucked in a pesto crescent roll (one of only two left over from Monday's preschool Parent snack!) I cut it in half to make it fit. I also added some leftover orange chicken, but since I didn't have any leftover rice, I put in a crisp flatbread cracker (with everything. Garlic, caraway, onion, salt, etc.) that I snapped in half to fill up the space. Just found these at Costco. Pretty tasty.
For the bottom tier, I packed some celery for me, but instead of hummus, I put some peanut butter in a mini red silicone cup. I tucked in the last apple slice (it didn't fit nicely in her bento, and the three in hers fan out so well!) and a few raspberries to fill in gaps.
I don't really like Swiss, but I hated seeing the scraps from her froggies go to waste, so I packed it in a square cup from Daiso. But I couldn't resist putting the bit with the face punched out of it onto the PB for contrast!
I used my plastic grass baran in both lunches rather than the reusable silicone ones because the grass fit the theme a little better. Plus. You know. I have a ton of it.

After scooping out and eating most of the hummus with her spoon, she ate a few noodles and a pretzel, then saw my peanut butter. She had a little celery with my her peanut butter, and ate most of the pulp (leaving the strings.) After jabbing the froggy face cheese a few times with the froggy fork pick, she ignored the cheese. Under duress (because she wanted the Trix yogurt I had brought as well) she ate some carrots and a few more noodles. Fine by me!
I ate *all* of my lunch [except the bulk of the peanut butter, which she bogarted.] Plus the rest of her veggies.
And other tha the cheese face on the hummus, she didn't seem to appreciate my efforts. Well. The other mommies thought it was cool, so at least I had a mildly appreciative audience! Plus she did a great job at gym class, staying with the group, instead of clinging to me and making me stay with her the whole time, so I'm a little more forgiving!
*BPA-free green fork and spoon came with a travel case for $1 at DollarTree

Check out the other (far more) creative bento meals submitted this week!
Bento Lunch

     

1 comment:

  1. Well done. I like the idea of the cinnamon-pear cider over the apples. Sounds good!

    ReplyDelete

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