Checking Out the "Competition" - Keeley McGuire

Keeley McGuire makes cute and healthy lunches for her daughter, Little Miss. Keeley is another bento-er who makes fairly easy-to-accomplish lunches, but she makes them look amazing! Rather than using an inhuman amount of crazy skill to make, say, a life-like portrait of someone out of food, she uses the same techniques I do: cookie cutters, picks, and food markers, usually in an EasyLunchBox. Only hers look WAY neater and less hastily-tossed-together than mine do. So I kind of hate her. Just a little bit. Too bad she's so darn NICE.

One of my most recent favorite lunches of hers is the Reindeer Games bento (part of her Christmas Countdown lunch series!) mostly because turning gingerbread-men-shapes upside-down and making them into reindeer is just sheer genius! Right? I soooo wish I had thought of that first!

Another fantabulous bento she did was a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. She not only made a caterpillar-sandwich that is eerily similar to Eric Carle's art, but she used a straw to poke holes through all the foods - chosen to match what the Hungry Caterpillar ate throughout the book! And in back she made a beautiful butterfly with Rainbow Goldfish in a baggie and a clothespin body. Too cute!

I almost didn't want to share this one, because her 3 Little Pigs bento makes mine look like it was slopped together by a preschooler. But it is just So. Stinkin'. CUTE!

Wait, did I say her stuff was all sane and easy to replicate? I spoke too soon. For a Veggie Tales-themed lunch, she went all-out. You'll have to read her post to see just how much thought and work she put into this one! I cannot imagine going through this kind of effort for anything. Seriously. I mean, I might spend an hour or more making a themed lunch, but it only takes me that long because I'm inept and messing it up, and not because I'm putting that much effort into it on purpose!

Now if all that awesomeness doesn't make you just a weeee bit jealous, she also makes food from recipes. And rubs my face in it posts about it! These Junior Mint cookies are making me drool.

Find more fun lunches (like her Domo and Birthday bentos! I think the cuteness may just cause my head to explode) and recipes at the Keeley McGuire Blog, and/or check her out on Facebook!