"Baby Fish" Bento

Monday, 4/23/12 - At Z's co-op preschool, one of the songs the teacher does is called "Baby Fish." It's really simple and involves bigger and bigger finger, hand, and arm motions to go along with the Mommy Fish, Daddy Fish, and Giant Whale that come after. [Looked on YouTube. Couldn't find a video of it.] I skip the Whale and add a 'Big Sister Fish' in between Baby and Mommy. I started singing "Baby Fish" to Baby E to calm her down, and I hold her feet and rotate her legs when I do it. She loves it! Calms her down and helps relieve her gas! So I started calling her Baby Fish when I'm talking to her, or talking about her to Z. Hence the name of this lunch!

I packed her Baby E-themed lunch in one of our EasyLunchboxes.

Baby Lunch

Baby spinach, yellow carrot flowers, apple-and-cookie-butter "sandwiches,"
ham and mozzarella on a tortilla, Baby E, baby raisins (currants,) and Baby Goldfish Crackers

Her lunch is peanut-, tree-nut, and dye-free. (The Goldfish crackers and Trader Joe's fruit leather use natural food-based dyes.)

Baby Foods: My NatureBox this month had a packet of dried currants in them. Z, who for quite a while now has refused to eat raisins, demanded I add some to the trail mix (also from my NatureBox.) She loved the "baby raisins" so I *had* to add some to her Baby Lunch!
And a while ago Goldfish Crackers were on super sale ($1/bag!) so I bought a variety to fit potential future lunch themes. Baby (Gold)Fish! Perfect!

Apple Sammies: I thinly sliced apples and spread some Trader Joe's Cookie Butter (like Biscoff spread) in between. Yum!

"Baby Fish": To make Baby E, I used my faces cutter to make a head out of mozzarella and then cut facial features into it. I cut hair out of some fruit leather (and saved the rest in a baggie for another time.) I put half a leaf of baby spinach behind the cheese face to make the features show up better.

Mama Fish's Lunch

Spinach salad w/red and green lettuces, purple and yellow carrot scraps, dried pear bits (chopped up from dried pear slices from my NatureBox;) and dried cherries, sesame seeds, Chex crumbs, and cashews left over from a fancy Chex Mix Gramma Barp made a while back, that SOMEONE ate all the Chex's out of... Tossed on some Rainbow and Baby Goldfish Crackers to see if I like them with the Raspberry Vinaigrette (they taste crazy-good with Russian dressing!) Special K Savory Herb Crackers, extra slices from her apple, and crunchy peanut butter. [I prefer the Goldfish with the Russian dressing. Nuts or seeds add a more complementary crunch with this sweeter dressing.]

Normally I would keep the Goldfish separate, but I had planned on eating lunch within an hour from prepping my bentos, so I figured they'd be safe. And they didn't fit with the crackers and the Smidget container in the little compartment. In hindsight, I should have moved the Smidget to sit atop the salad, like I normally do. Ah well. They weren't soggy, but they weren't as crispy either. No worries. I forgot to pack a fork as well, so an epic fail all around. 

I got a big "THANK YOU for the cookie spread on my APPLES!" Yay, me! While I had to trot it out a few times throughout the day (lunch before school, snack after school on the way to E's 4-month check-up, and as an after-appointment snack,) she ended up eating everything except the Baby E face. Because it was "too a-doy-rah-bow!" [adorable]