Spongebob Pain-in-the-Squarepants

I must have been delirious. Or, after several days and night on my own while Hubby was out of town, cocky with pride at getting them both to sleep early enough I could actually get up and do something. It's the only explanation for why I foolishly decided to whip up a character lunch. Now, I'm no Karen from What's in John's Lunch Bag, but I figured I could whip up a Spongebob on my own with very little prep or planning. Suuuure. Why not?

Gah.

Spongebob Pain-in-the-Squarepants

Braising mix "seaweed" with carrot "sea anemones," pineapple, PB-Nutella Spongebob,
American cheese "Patrick" starfish, Spongebob froot snax and chocolates

First off, I hate Spongebob. Not only is the cartoon worthless, the character annoys me. But my daughter, before she ever even saw the show (an event I regret deeply,) wanted Spongebob things. She chose Spongebob over Dora when choosing Band-Aids. And back when we were first potty training, she even chose a packet of Nickelodeon underpanties because some had Spongebob on them! *Sigh.* Fine.

Under the Sea: I got a bag of "braising mix" lettuce in my CSA box, so decided to let her try some out. She likes "lettuce chips" and these have different colors and textures which might be fun. Plus they looked a lot like underwater plants! I added in some carrot flowers so she'd have some veggies to eat if she didn't end up liking the lettuces. And they kind of look like something you might find on the ocean floor...

Whooooo Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?: This was a no-brainer. When brainstorming what kinds of Spongebob-ish things I could incorporate, I remembered that his house is a pineapple! Score! I had just bought a can of pineapple rings, really for no purpose. She hasn't really been willing to eat pineapple, when it's in fruit salads and such. I don't even know if she's ever even tried it. But this might be the impetus she needs to give it a go!

Patrick: Patrick is Spongebob's starfish friend. So this was an easy way to incorporate that. I just used a mini star cutter as many times as would fit on a slice of American cheese (this was the last part I did, and I was too lazy tired to slice some CoJack or Mozzarella) and then tucked the scraps underneath in both mini polka-dot cupcake liners. I had originally toyed with the idea of cutting out one big cheese star and then using food markers to make a Patrick like Jenn at Bento for Kidlet shows in her drawing on cheese character-making tutorial, but then I remembered how well the Spongebob had gone, which cured me of any lingering urge to go ahead and try.

Spongebob Treatpants: I had a packet of froot snax from a Spongebob-themed goody bag from some birthday party (probably one of my nephews'... we don't get invited to many parties...) that I had been saving for just such a lunch-occasion. And I had just bought the Spongebob chocolates on after-Easter clearance at Party Time (where I found the polka-dot mini cupcake liners on clearance as well!) I put them in a Spongebob treat box from Target's Easter clearance (I also found Disney Princess crown-shaped and Lightening McQueen car-shaped ones! Happy happy joy joy!)

SandwichBob: I cut both slices of bread free-hand before adding on peanut butter and Nutella. It all went downhill from there. 

I figured I could paint with cocoa powder and water again, like I did with SkippyJon way back whenever. I used a plastic-bristled brush I keep with my supplies for using on food. It worked okay. But then I was at a loss for the white. Sugar? Not white enough. Ahh. Powdered sugar... but how to get it to stick? Water dissolves it (discovered the hard way) so that won't work. I tried using a butter knife to scoop it up and kind of pile it on where I wanted it (using the knife as a guide.) Not awesome results. So I tried using my finger to rub some around where I wanted it. Best results so far, but still totally lame looking. Oh well. I dabbed on some peanut butter in roughly a tie-shape, to get the red sugar sprinkles to stick. And in the eye area for blue sprinkles. And then all over the place since I didn't have a circle cutter small enough to use as a guide.

I decided to give up and go ahead and get out my frosting tubes (I keep them on-hand from various kits and such that I get, or if I find some on clearance.) I didn't have blue, but I settled for a teal get for the eyes. While I was digging through to look for black (I could have sworn I had black from a Halloween kit...) I found a tube of white. So I squirted it around sloppily for his shirt. teeth and eyes. I settled for purple in place of black and glopped it around sloppily too. Good enough. Done! As you can see, the teal and purple colors started bleeding into the bread fairly quickly. Ah well. She'll be thrilled to get frosting on her sandwich, and luckily she isn't a perfectionist when it comes to MY work.

Mama's Lunch:

Spinach salad w/carrots, strawberries and almonds. Raspberry vinaigrette in
mini container. Apples w/PB, Special K Whole Wheat crackers, string
cheese nibblets, mini cupcake

I used up the last of the organic spinach (it was on it's last legs. I had to weed out slimy bits. Ew.) And I actually got a whole little carrot to myself. Not scraps! 

Since Hubby has been out of town these past few days, I've gone to McDonalds roughly 126 times. Just kidding. Sort of. I have gone an inordinate amount of times since he left on Sunday though. I even went by on my way home after dropping Z off at preschool to get myself lunch. On my way home. Where I have food I could have eaten instead. Ah well. No one died. Anyway, I had apples left over from a Happy Meal (mine. I wanted to get her a Squinkies toy so I ordered myself a Happy Meal. Don't judge.) Paired them here with some peanut butter. Crunchy, of course!

I have more crackers hiding under the cupcake and the flexible silicone cup holding the cheese. The cupcake was on after-Easter clearance at Target. Still good for another week! Wa-hoo!

Both lunches in our EasyLunchboxes.