It's the day before Halloween and while I've enjoyed playing with the Halloween seasonal toys, I'm just about tapped out of any new ideas! Luckily I was saved by this super cute tutorial I found on
dash recipes.com It shows you how to make these super easy kooky bats treats,but I made a couple of healthy changes for my version.

In this lunch and snack bento we have:

1. Two kooky meatball bats (instead of donut balls) Bats are made from meatballs, tortilla and nori glued together with mayo, cheese eyes and sunflower seed fangs.
2. Two bat chicken nuggets 
3. A container of extra mayo.
4. (Orange) cherry tomato with pumpkin pick
5. Grapes and green apple wedges

In the snack bento there was :

1. Same style bat (this time) made with homemade mini pumpkin muffin and homemade ginger snap cookie wings. Wilton candy eyes and almond slice fangs
2. Grapes with bat bento picks

OK, that's all for today's food. I hope all my blog buddies and family in the US East coast are safe, dry and warm! We'll see you tomorrow on Halloween Day!!  Whoo-hoo!

Halloween Sweeties

I tried my hand at making some fun candy corn shapes today for Missy Lulu's snack bento. I love candy corn and my lovely mother sent me some just for the fall season; the bright colors just make me think of the upcoming holidays and seem all the more festive having them around.

In this snack bento there was:

1. Two candy corn sweeties (marzipan rolled over baked croissant rolls)
2. One cherry tomato
3. sliced pumpkin shaped chicken nugget
4. Grapes and clementine orange wedges

I decided after taking the photograph that I would remove one of the sweets; Missy Lulu had a large lunch and I want to try to ration the all the sweet things in store with each day approaching Halloween day. And of course today she came home with an empty bento.

Keep it simple Thursday

Keeping things simple today. Still full of Halloween spirit but have almost reached the end of my Halloween idea bank! Today I decide to buy time with some simple picks and the cute stickers already on my little one's bento box and containers.

In this bento box there was

1. Turkey rolls with mozzarella on  long pumpkin sticks...was a big hit from yesterday!
2. Small container of peach yogurt with the pumpkin sticker on top.
3. Grapes with ghost pick on top.
4. Orange juice to drink

Nothing too spectacular, but still in the theme of things and destined to come home with an empty box! I like that well enough!! 

M-W Halloween Lunches

Wow it's so easy to get behind these days!! It seems like the rush for the holidays starts right now, and there's a ton of activity right up until New Years! I'm still cranking along with Halloween themed bentos though, I hope to make it right up to the 31st! Here's the lunches from Monday through today!

Monday:

In this bento lunch there were

1. Frankie's Boy Monsters...spinach pancakes garnished with nori and cheese.
2. A small container of passion fruit yogurt (In love with these tiny reusable containers  I bought from Ohayobento.com !!Super tiny and the lid snaps on tight!! Score!!!)
3. Grapes and sliced apple with ghost pick.
4. Box of milk

Tuesday's Bento:

In this bento lunch there were

1. Costumed kids as bunnies...Ham wrap sandwiches with cheese lettuce and mayo.
2. Mini pumpkin pie pockets...made with homemade pumpkin butter! Yummy!
3. O.J.

I got the idea for the tiny trick or treat holders from the wonderfully amazing Rina of Bento School lunches!! See here for her super adorable teddy bear bento version! (I love her wonderful ideas as much as her beautiful personality!!) She's such an inspiration and motivator for me!

Wednesday, October 24 Bento Lunches
I love making arts/ crafts and baking with my girls. Today was or bake day and we made pumpkin butter drop cookies for her snack bento today.

1. I made owl like eyes with a carrot nose from the cookies
2. Turkey rolls  with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella on a long pumpkin pick.
3. Cucumbers with dill dipping sauce in the tiny container.
4. Boxed milk to drink

Little Miss Baker!

The delicious results!!!!

Like tiny mouth fulls of pumpkin pie!

Daddy's Lunch for today...

In his bento he had

1. A scary Krusty the Clown hogie sandwich. Krusty is made from cheese, tortilla, nori and food safe marker over bologna.
2. Sides of olives, cherry tomatoes, wasabi almonds and marinated onions.
3. Sliced tomato for his sandwich.

That's it for now! Whew!!

Linking these lunches to What's for Lunch Wednesday week 126!

Happy Skeleton Jack- O'- Lanterns

Yesterday Isi brought home a bag of lovely lihapiirakka or savory pies of yeast dough or puff pastry filled with cooked and seasoned ground meat; mixed with rice, and onions. The yummy pies can be rewarmed in the microwave, or eaten just as they are from the bakery; which is how we usually eat them. But today, I have on my Halloween season glasses!!! I saw skeletons when looking at the flaky, savory pies...

 

In this bento lunch the girls had:

1. The Lihapiirakka fashioned into happy Jack-O'-Lantern Skeletons; with carrot arms and a pumpkin (clementine) head.
2. Cherry tomato with a witch hat pick
3. Mozzarella ball ghost on a ghost party pick
4. Grapes with bat picks
5. Moon cut cucumbers
6. Individual fruit jellies (from my local Asian market)

We all sat down and ate this little meal picnic style. We gobbled everything up including the lettuce! I barely had to wash the bento boxes...but I did ha ha! ^-^  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Ghostly PBJ

Whew...that was a Spooktacular time at the Halloween blog hop yesterday!!! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and found lots of clever ideas to put a little Halloween spirit in your next meal! I always spend so much time lost in all the post, that I'm much too exhausted to do anything  special;...so after a big hop function, I am thinking a nice, simple peanut butter and jelly bento is in order!

In this bento we had:

1. A Ghostly Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich
2. Grapes with ghost picks
3. A tiny pumpkin...(a clementine actually)
4. A small container of chocolate raisins and pine nuts
5. A boxed milk

Nice and simple!

1, 2, 3 Ahh-ha-ha-ha

I'm thrilled to be participating in my second blog hop! One of the most exciting holidays for the bento enthusiast is Halloween; and I'm so pleased to be able to share with you! My entry is a tribute post to the late Jerry Nelson, voice of  Count Von Count, who passed away this year at the age 78.



Image from cbsnews.com


 The Count is both a favorite of Missy Lulu and myself.  We love playing math games with the Count on Sesame Street.org. The skits are the same as ones from my childhood! I can definitely say she was quite excited to see today's bento lunch!!

 

In this bento lunch she had:
3 Flying bats on ruby red grapes
2 Bat wing meat balls
And 1 Count Von Count Ah-ah-ah!

Count is made from a simple pancake batter mixed with four tablespoons of Taro Bubble tea powder.
The pancakes came out lovely, purple and delicious! The other details were made from marzipan, nori and cheese. The Count's cape is simply tortilla and nori.

Thank you Jerry, you and the Count hold a special place in our hearts!


Now head over to Diana Rambles for your next Halloween Themed Bento! Everyone Have a Very Happy and Safe Halloween!

Halloween Muffin Tin Lunch

It's Halloween season again!! Halloween is one of the most enjoyable times for most bento enthusiasts like myself! I just love cruising the Internet and seeing all the spooky creativity out there! I still don't do the fully creepy bentos (even though I love being grossed out happily by those that do!)Never the less I'm starting out my Halloween season with a muffin tin Monday!

In this Muffin Tin Meal there's

1.  A witch's brew gone all wrong (Mac'n' cheese)
2. One egg (pumpkin patch) on peas
3. The bewitching hour (Turkish yogurt and homemade applesauce)
4. Two chicken nugget witches
5. Witches brew kiddie cocktail (Frozen o.j. and milk)

Making a Party out of a regular Monday! Lol

Linking this lunch to Muffin Tin Monday at Michelle's Journal Corner. Be sure to check it out!!

World Animal Day with a sneaky little villan

A sneaky little villain was revealed in my daughter's lunch today, and here he is...!

"Wait a minute," you say, "how is that sweet little guy a villain?" Look a little bit closer...

It's Swiper the Fox!!  But no worries, friends! Swiper's not snatching anything today; he's just joining my friends and I in a wonderful blog hop celebrating October 4th, 2012 World Animal Day. I'm absolutely thrilled with all the wonderful creativity shared by all my bento blogging community friends. Be sure to travel through-out this amazing cyber zoo and enjoy our crazy world of wildlife!!!

This bento contained:

1. A Swiper the fox pizza, topped with white and yellow cheddar cheese slices. Nose and whiskers are cut from nori.
2. A cherry tomato, with a bit of carrot on a bento pick.
3. Flashed boiled edamame.
4. Two huge blackberries and a few sweet red grapes.
5. Orange juice. 

All done here ? Well the fun continues!!  Cruise on to my friend Anna at Becoming a Bentoholic for another cyber animal exzibit!

A monkey and his little red boots

Wednesday for lunch we had Dora's little friend Boots the monkey! I found a nice tutorial on how to make him as open face sandwich here:http://www.nickjr.com/recipes/boots-open-face-sandwich.jhtml
This is what I turned out:

In this lunch they had:

1. A "Boots"  open face bologna sandwich with radish eyes, nori, and slice of tomato mouth.
2. Penne pasta with a white cream and chive sauce.
3. Green beans
4. Banana and grape flowers
5. Cucumber slices with a cherry tomato

This week has been quite busy for me. I wanted to make a Boots the monkey face for Missy Lulu's snack bento but ran just so behind time I had to take a quick shortcut!

In her snack bento Missy got:

1.  A Homemade Banana apple sauce muffin topped with Boot's boots! (Boots made from Marzipan)
2. Flash boiled and salted edamame (She LOVES these!)
3. Grapes and pear slices

See the little Dora and Boots Barans? Guess who made them!! Gosh I love this home laminator seriously!(  ^-^ )

Linking this lunch to What's for Lunch Wednesday week 123

I'm the Map!

Both my girls love Dora the explorer. We watch her DVDs in the evening and even had a Dora themed party when my oldest turned three. I had done a Dora themed muffin tin lunch and bentos before, but today I decide to have a Dora week before all the Halloween celebrations begin. It's nice that the show has so many great characters so it's really easy to spread out over a week! Today our Dora celebrity is Map or (Karta in Finnish t.v.)

In this muffin tin lunch we have:

1. A "I'm the map" vegan burrito made with soy vegetable protein and yummy vegan tomato based sauce. I added carrots just in case the girls missed grated cheese.
2. A side order of Spanish rice with black beans, garlic, corn and soft rice in a Tex-Mex tomato sauce.
3. A side cup filled with sweet corn
4. sliced cucumbers and a cherry tomato
5. A serving of fruit puree of blueberries and apple sauce.

This was the snack bento Missy Lulu took to school.
 

In this snack bento she had:

1. A" I'm the Map" burrito, this time filled with home made apple sauce and cinnamon.
2. A banana wedge and sliced apples.
3. A cup of raisins
4. Boxed o.j.

Despite the meal being totally vegan my two girls munched away without skipping a beat! Vegetarian/ vegan meals are definitely something I am willing to incorporate into our meal routine. It's always a good idea to eat heavy meats and dairy products in moderation, so this is an experiment I really needed to learn from.

Linking these meals to Muffin tin Monday and Bento Blog Networks Bento of the week: totally vegan.

Afro Ballerina and Daddy's Po Boy lunch

I had originally wanted to enter this fluffy haired princess in for the dance theme at Bento Blog networks "Bento of the week challenge but when I saw everyone went with ballerina's I made a quick switch in plans. Instead I shared this little cutie with my girls for lunch today and entered her here!

She's the ballerina based off of the one in Susan Yuen's Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook. It's the first Bento Book I ever bought! I kept everything the same but I gave my girl some "Divalicious Big" hair! Lol!

Here's the whole lunch...

Today we had rice and green peas with our "Ballerina girl." She's made from bologna, Edam cheese, nori and a few cupcake sprinkle embellishments. In the main box there's Tamagoyaki with nori, broccoli, tomatoes and a couple of meatballs. For dessert there's a ton of fruit; plumbs, grapes, nectarines and oranges.

I packed Isi's lunch in his brand new Laptop lunch box, which I bought last year but haven't used until now...but boy it is nice!! I made a favorite from New Orleans..a shrimp Po Boy!

Please forgive my lousy photography... I gotta start some research to get better...but that's after the laundry list of mommy duties I have to do! But the food was great..so says the Man!
He had a great big sandwich with spicy Remoulade sauce (In the container). Along with the sandwich he had two side salads; coleslaw and avocado, corn and red bell pepper salsa. For sweets he had huge black grapes, a ripe fig and his favorite treat Halva, a Middle Eastern sweet sesame fudge like treat! He loved it all!


 Linking both lunches to Whats for lunch Wednesday, week 121.

Donald and Daisy Dance!

I got the cutest new bento box from my local grocery store City Market. Fin's just love Donald Duck and my Hubby has collected the Donald Duck comic books since childhood! I've always loved Donald's cartoon and chuckled at his explosive temper!  But Mr. Duck is full of smiles today...guess he's got a date! ^.^

  My new bento!

   See why Donald's so perky, going out dancing with his lovely lady Daisy Duck!! 

In this bento lunch there is a simple All American Turkey Sandwich and Lays vinegar potato chips. I added grapes, plum tomatoes and a wedge of apple. For an extra treat there's a chocolate ball decorated with Daisy's signature hair bow.This little bento was shared by me and the girls!

The Drawing is made on slices of Edam cheese with food safe pens. I love these food safe pens... I was up at 6am this morning with my drawings and a cup of tea; the best mommy free time ever!


Linking this bento lunch to Bento Blog Network Bento of the week Dance.

Autumn Family Picnic!

My family and I had a lovely Sunday. Simply a little lunch and a play in the park is all it takes to make me fall in love with the crazy-ness that is daily family life! The weather was sunny, breezy and warm; my children happy and giggling; my husband kind and funny, (or kinda funny ha ha!) and a yummy bento lunch for us all!

I have been buying these "Tommies" plum tomatoes for some time. These are the bright red little tomatoes that are so small and sweet, my children consider them treats! I love the packaging they come in as well,(I've collected 8!) with the happy clown face and neat little tops...perfect for picnic packing!

These picnic bentos contained a Ramen noodle cold salad tossed in  thick dressings and extra veggies. (A spicy hot Buffalo wing dressing for my Hubby, and a slightly sweet peanut, sesame oil and ginger dressing I bought from the local Asian market for me and the girls.) On top of the salad  were the "Tommies", sliced carrot and cucumbers, chicken nuggets, a pile of cilantro, lime wedge and quail eggs dressed as the Tommies clown. I thought the whole thing turn out cute! ^.^

                   Fruit for dessert!

                   Every thing's packed and ready to go!

I'll show you how to make these little clowns. I used quail eggs, (easy to eat in one bite), but a chicken egg would work fine!

First I cut a large carrot into coins and cut out a lions mane with this quail egg cutter tool.

                Cut off the bottom third of this ring to make the clown hair.

 Then used the mouth from a facial expression cutter for the clown's large eyes.  Use a white cheese, I used  a slice of Edam cheese.

                   Cut out pupils out of nori.

                   Make a slice in the pointed end of your egg, about a third of the way through.

Pinching the egg with your thumb and pointer fingers, slide the half circle ring inside the egg, where you made the cut.

Dress your clown head with the eyes. Use picks for the hat and clown nose. I used a tiny nori cutter to make the clown mouths.

                   And there you have it!

I'm going to try and update my blog every other day. Doing a post each Sunday is too overwhelming, because I get so backed up with photos, and as you know I have tons to say! Lol! So I'll be back Tuesday!

 KIKI ^_^