Having fun with Steele Lunch trays

I love muffin tin lunches, with the bits of food in each section and the element of " bento style creativity," to make eating a pleasure to children. Foods in a muffin tin also has a  nostalgic t.v. dinner feel that was always a hit with me and my little sister growing up in America. The next step
are these  stylized Steele sectioned trays. For me they're perfect; all the fun of the bento and comfort of a hot oven meal. Here are a couple I've done for the girls:

This is a lovely steel tray is from the company Din Din. It's wonderful because it can go in the oven and dishwasher. Also the sections really encourage you to use all the food groups for healthy eating! Here, they had:

1.   a bowl of tomato soup with basil
2.  an orange wedge mouth, slice grape tongue, cheese teeth
3.  cheese eyes and a cherry tomato nose, 
4. two small salmon balls with cheese details and a taste of spinach hair 
5.  a little cottage cheese with cheddar cheese sliced head and ears. 

 The theme was parts of the body this particular week. (In the Elmo bento above was a fruit leather and peanut butter sammie, cheese and fruit for Missy Lulu's snack time at playschool.)

I couldn't resist this Hello Kitty steel tray set from Bento Craft. It even came with a cover (Shown up top) and a carrying case bag. But I will only use the trays for hot home meals for the girls. The food:

1. Beef Stew...still using plastic bowls till Baby stops throwing them. Smh
2. Oven fries
3. Ketchup for dipping
4. Sliced cucumbers and mozzarella ball on food pick
5. Strawberries

Another lunch here:

Served:

1.  Hello Kitty Pancake with fruit leather hair flower and cup cake decor nose 
2. Sliced oven potatoes, Ham and green beans
3. Wilton muffin cup with nectarines and a Hello kitty cupcake ring
4. Carrot hearts with a Hello Kitty pick
5. Apple sauce made from our own apple tree!

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 ^_^

Back to Leikkikoulu (Play school) week!

Yes it's back to playschool with Missy Lulu! It's been a wonderful summer for us, but my oldest was quite ready to head back to her playgroup/day school. I have her going later in the day so we can spend time doing art projects and playing together in the mornings. Also a added plus of having a late starting school day is sharing a nice bento lunch with her and little sister!

First day drop off with "Baby Sunshine"!



 Monday's Bento: Back to School Apples

On Monday for lunch the girls had "nalle-pasta" which is teddy bear shaped pasta with a cream sauce and a little cheese cut out apple shape. With the pasta dish they had steamed broccoli, a tomato wedge and cucumber slices. A tiny apple and a few red grapes added color and sweetness to the lunch.

Monday's Snack Bento

The girls both got a half of PBJ, a grilled chicken drumette, and a few grapes for their snack bento.

Tuesday's Pencils Bentos

On Tuesday the girls had sliced chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, sauteed spinach with white sesame seeds and  another apple from our apple tree. I topped  mash potato with pencil shaped cheese slices decorated with food safe pen. For snack they had a PBJ with one nugget apiece, juice and grapes.

I've had a writing exercise time with Missy Lulu everyday when Baby Sunshine takes a morning nap. I love the Letter of the week exercises from the AMAZING BLOG Confessions of a Homeschooler I plan on having art projects and early learning exercises that correspond to our chosen theme of the week. "A is for APPLE." Fits perfectly!

Wednesday's Gold Star Bentos

For lunch Wednesday the girls had vegetable curry under a bed of cous-cous. I put a cheese "gold star" cut out with nori details on top of the cous-cous. Along with the warm curry they had steamed broccoli, a cherry tomato, mozzarella ball and slice cukes. For lunch's dessert the ladies had sliced nectarines and a one princess cookie!


Wednesday's snack

Here, the girls had a jelly star sammie, a meatball, and a few grapes.



Thursday's Bus Bentos

For lunch Thursday, they had fish sticks, tiny rice onigiri yellow school buses, steamed broccoli and a whole sliced nectarine. In the yellow container was ketchup for the fish sticks.

Snack was a cheese and garlic mayo sammie. Accompanying the Bus sammies were fish sticks, grapes and juice.

Painting with finger paint and apple slices for our back to school week theme!


Friday's Blackboard Bento

Friday's bento was my personal favorite! To wind up back to school week, the girls both had sliced minute steak and steamed rice. They had the usual veggies of steamed broccoli, tomato and sliced cucumber. For Friday's fruit there was sliced nectarines and a strawberry. To tie in  our back to school theme I made a simple butter cracker with nori to look like a tiny blackboard; the "writing" is sliced cheese.

Friday's Snack Bento

For Friday's snack both girls had a couple of crackers with nori, two tater tots with ketchup in the container, grapes and milk.

I think it's going to be a wonderful year! See you all next week! (^_^)

My Little Pony Week!

"A week of My Little Pony?" Awesome!! My oldest is a huge fan of these sweet technicolor cuties; and I knew she would be completely enthralled with each day of this fun girl toy themed week! She voted Rainbow Dash as her favorite...no surprise there!! But I loved how Apple Jack turned out! What do you think?

Monday: Mini Chicken Pinky Pies!
 

For lunch the girls had Chicken Pot Pie for the first time, and they were a hit!! These were a simple mix of roasted chicken pieces; a creamy veggie sauce, and the happy smile of Miss Pinky pie! Along with the individual pie, the girls had steamed broccoli, sliced nectarines and strawberries. My oldest picked up on the balloon picks being Pinky's cutie mark in a flash...clever girl! Missy Lulu now goes to playschool in the afternoons giving me plenty of time for her snack bentos everyday. Today in keeping with our theme she got a Pinky Pie PBJ (Peanut butter and Jelly) sammie topped with a marzipan Pinky Pie. Along with that she had a single strawberry,a quail egg, and a few grapes. I also squeezed in a fruit juice box to wash everything down.

Tuesday: Twilight Sparkle The lunch was boring and plain today with just the star symbol of Twilight Sparkle. Yes, I tried making tiny unicorn faces to add to the bento, but I just couldn't get it right...I gave up! I was disappointed, but the girls didn't seem to mind and munched up lunch just fine, which was great! In this lunch they had sushi rice topped with stars and veggie falafel balls. I packed Missy Lulu's favorite mozzarella balls with cherry tomato and cucumber stars. They also had a few sweet Finnish strawberries as well. Nice enough then!

Twilight Sparkle does appear for snack bento though! Yay! I tried my hand with the food safe pens and I had a blast...hehe! Here we have a simple cheese and garlic mayo sammie..(Yes, she loves garlic mayo!)a falafel ball and grapes. Everything is kept tight and neat with the juice box and Twilight was in perfect form for snack time.

Wednesday: Shutterfly Wrapped Sushi Ball Today was a another bento learning experience for me. I was trying to make a wrapped sushi ball with pepperoni butterflies and soy wrapper (Mamenori) Shutterfly. I saw it working clearly in my head, but reality was slightly different! LOL ! I'll try again with less attempt at details, for a less muddy look. Anyway, we have a sushi rice ball topped with my attempt of a mamenori Shutterfly. The girls both had fruit cocktail, a grilled chicken drumette, a tiny  tomato,  butterfly cucumbers on a pick (Shutterfly's cutie mark), and a princess cookie.

I am a big fan of the blog Bento for Kidlet. Jenn's artwork is so fantastic and inspiring for me, plus her sense of humor is great and really witty. She gives a dynamic tutorial on how to use food safe pens to create wonderful art for bento! Do exactly what she says, and impressed you will be!! I tried her technique again for Missy Lulu's snack bento and I loved how it turned out! Here, she had another PBJ (with a cheese drawn Shutterfly), sliced chicken nugget and grapes.

Thursday: Aplomb with Appledash!
By Thursday I felt as if I really knew what I was doing ! Ha! It was pretty easy food and yummy! Breakfast for lunch; with pancakes and applebutter, scrambled cheese eggs, and a sweet little apple from our back yard apple tree! The Appledash is made from cut out cheese and the food pen again...I'll lay of those after my fun for this week! ^-^

 For the snack bento there was another fluffy pancake with applebutter (in the sauce container), and another tiny apple. I was really pleased and the girls ate everything!

Friday: Rainbow Dash!
 Last day with the pony bentos! Today I made Missy Lulu's favorite pony, Rainbow dash.

It's a simpler wrapped rice ball with the mamenori (soy paper, sushi wraps). I used the food pen and three colors of bell peppers for the tail. My one year old had a simple wrapped rice ball with three colors of bell pepper rainbow.

This was a lot of food for both little ladies...got carried away so I was... ahem, forced to eat all their leftovers! For lunch there was pop corn shrimp, rice balls, steamed broccoli, small baby corns, tomato stuffed with mozzarella, grapes and nectarines .

For the snack bento Missy Lulu and Baby Sunshine had a super treat!

Nutella sammies with Rainbow dash and rainbow marzipan figures. Also extra pop corn shrimp,  juice and grapes. Missy Lulu loved having a Rainbow dash lunch today and loved the whole week really! I had a blast making this weeks theme! I guess she's going to flip when she gets all the "real" My Little Pony toys for her fifth birthday in October!! ^_^ Shhh!