We Should Be Folding Laundry

For lunch today I packed a heart-shaped chicken sandwich. I just used heart-shaped cutters to cut the bread and then made the sandwich.

Next to the sandwich is a silicone cup full of bite-sized pretzels. Before you drive all over town looking for these pretzels, I need to tell you that these actually came from a bag of Chex mix. Cam won’t eat the cereal part so I pull out the pretzels for her. Then I eat all the cereal and other tasty bits. It’s a win win.

I also packed some raw broccoli with little flower-shaped colby jack cheese pieces and some sliced grapes.

Today I thought I’d mention a little trick that always works well for me. If you are using any sort of cutter to cut shapes out of bread, meat, cheese, and even veggies and your edges aren’t coming out as neat as you’d like, try this: Press your cutter down firmly and rub around in a circular motion at the same time. Doing this on top of a cutting board works best. This will help to trim your edges so they look crisp and clean.

Also, if you’ve been looking for the teeny food cutters that are super popular in bento-blog land, try looking for fondant cutters in a baking or craft supply store. If you’re in the U.S. check out Micheal’s and Joann’s Fabrics. Quite often there will be a 40%-50% coupon in the paper on Sunday. You can usually find a set of fondant cutters for around $3-$4 after coupon.

Happy Friday everyone! No bento today. Camryn has a Dentist appointment during her normal lunchtime so her Daddy and I are taking her out to lunch after her appointment.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Cass

Can you tell I was a bit rushed this morning? That sandwich is a hot mess. Oh well, like I always say, this is real life and things are not always perfect in real life.

For today’s lunch, I packed cam a “fruit salad” of pineapple and mandarin oranges. Can I call it a fruit salad if it’s only two fruits? She also has broccoli and the last of the yellow tomatoes.

In the big section I packed a panda sandwich filled with a thin layer of chocolate spread, half of a cheese stick (because that’s about all the cheese Cam will eat at one time), some Angry Birds graham crackers, and a little piece of chocolate as a treat. I don’t normally pack candy in her lunches but we got a really good report today during our parent/teacher conference so she more than deserved a little something special today.

For today’s bento, I used my cut and seal sandwich cutter to make a few small heart-shaped sandwiches. I also packed a cheese stick, some Nilla Wafers, raw broccoli and 4 yellow tomatoes.

For today’s bento lunch, I made Cam two small bear-shaped chicken sandwiches. She still not crazy about sandwiches unless they have chocolate on them so I’m trying to warm her up to lunch meat sandwiches a little at a time. She did eat a chicken sandwich for lunch on Saturday. She wasn’t crazy about it but she ate the whole thing so I’m hoping she ate a little at lunch time today.

Right next to her sandwiches, I sliced half a mozzarella stick & put small animal picks in each piece which should make it easier for her to eat. Next to the mozzarella cheese are some Cheez-Its.

On the far right side, I put some steamed french green beans & yellow tomatoes.

I was running later than usual this morning so I didn’t have time to snap a more flattering picture. I do think that this lunch goes to show that you don’t have to invest in actual bento boxes to pack a bento style lunch. You probably already have something in your kitchen cabinets that will do just fine.

Today’s lunch was packed in a sandwich container that I got for free when Rudy’s was doing an awesome promotion a while back where if you sent them a picture of a drawing your child had done, they would put it on a sandwich box & ship it to you for free! I was all over that one.

I love this box because it’s a bit wider than most sandwich boxes so my silicone cups fit and I can really pile up the fruit or veg.

For lunch today, Cam has half of a chicken sandwich, grapes, and a cupcake left over from our Halloween party last night. I also packed her some tortilla chips in a separate container.