Today’s bento has sliced carrots & grape tomatoes in the small section. In the opposite section there is a chicken sandwich (yes chicken) sitting on top of some all natural fruit snacks. I also put some Scrabble Cheez-Its next to the froggy sandwich.
Camryn ate a chicken sandwich on Saturday so I’m hoping she’ll eat it at school as well. Here’s hoping.
Today’s bento has a piggy sandwich in the bottom tier. I had a few heart-shaped sprinkles left in my baking cabinet that I thought would be perfect to spruce him up a bit. The top tier has pineapple & mandarin oranges in the heart-shaped cup, grape tomatoes, and two skewers with salami and mozzarella cheese on them.
If you wondering why I’ve been making so many nutella sandwiches lately, it’s because my daughter has said on many occasions that she does not like sandwiches. I’m trying to change her mind ever so slowly. At first, she was only taking a few bites of her nutella sandwich. Now she eats the whole thing. In time, we’ll slowly warm up to meats and cheeses as well as other fillings.
No school for my kids tomorrow which means not only that we’ll all be sleeping in past 5 tomorrow, yay! But also that Daily Bento will be back on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
Cass
We’re back! It’s been a rough few days. The little one has been super sick so she’s been eating mostly veggie soup for lunch. She finally went back to school today after being home for a week so I thought she needed a super special bento for her first day back. Also, my new bento stuff showed up yesterday afternoon. Perfect timing!
Today’s bento has grapes and grape tomatoes with a little mozzarella bunny on one side. On the other side, I made a winky cat head nutella sandwich with my new Cute Z Cute cutters with pink glitter sprinkle ears & a pink sugar nose. It’s sitting on top of Space Adventure Goldfish. She loved it & so did the other kids at her lunch table. Winning!
Well, I did it again. I needed to be up at 7, but somehow turned off my alarm & woke up frantic at 8. This is becoming an inconvenient trend. Especially since we need to leave no later than 8:15 to get my daughter to school on time.
I thought for a second about not doing a bento post today but then, after some consideration, I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to keep things real & show you that bento making doesn’t have to be time consuming. Of course it looks much better if you have more time to make things look “just so” but if you’re pressed for time you can still do a pretty decent job. They key is planning.
It helps me to have a game plan the night before. If I can make the bento at night, I do. Then I can just pull it out of the fridge & put it in the lunch box. I don’t recommend cutting fruits or cheese the night before. Fresh fruit & cheese can go downhill pretty fast once you cut it. But you can slice meat & veggies, portion out chips, crackers, goldfish, pretzel sticks, fruit snacks, dried fruit, or anything else that will keep overnight. Keeping all your bento supplies in one spot close at hand helps speed things along too.
Tuesday’s bento came together in about 5 minutes. One tier held 3 blueberry mini muffins that we made last night. The other tier has carrot sticks, cheese hearts, salami rolls & a diced apple. I also made a smoothie for her thermos & packed some extra crackers.
I used Camryn’s larger Hello Kitty bento today because her smaller ones just wouldn’t fit everything she wanted. I’ll be very surprised if she eats all of this. In any case, what you see pictured above is what she asked me to pack. She has grape tomatoes, sliced celery, sliced carrots, mukimame (shelled soy beans), Space Adventures Goldfish, & a couple muffins we made on a whim last night (I included the recipe below).
In her purple container she has yogurt over fresh strawberries & a few rainbow sprinkles.
Instant Oatmeal Muffins
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup yogurt – we normally use vanilla but all we had in the fridge was strawberry which worked just fine.
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp veg oil
1 egg
1 packet of Instant Oatmeal – any flavor. We used banana bread.
1 tbsp flax seeds
chocolate chips – if desired
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or drop in liners.
Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flax seeds & an oatmeal packet in a large bowl & whisk together.
In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, oil, egg & milk until combined.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture & stir to combine.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Scoop the batter into the prepared tin, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way. For mini-muffins, use a mini-muffin tin & scoop 1 tbsp of batter into each muffin cup.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed.
* The flax seeds are totally optional. My kid eats them like they’re going outta style so I put them in everything. If you don’t like ’em, leave ’em out.
Today’s bento has teeny seedless cucumbers, grape tomatoes, cheese cubes & salami rolls in the bottom tier. I found the cucumbers yesterday at the produce market near my house. At 3 for $1 I couldn’t pass them up.
The top tier has pancake sandwiches filled with nutella & sliced bananas. My pancake recipe is below.
Cam’s Favorite P’cakes
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup Silk Fruit & Protein (we like peach/mango)
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
Whisk everything together in a bowl until just combined. Batter should be slightly lumpy. Heat a pan or griddle to medium. Add desired amount of batter and cook until bubbles form on top & edges are dry. Flip & cook until golden brown.
I used half a tablespoon of batter to make these tiny pancakes. For regular sized pancakes, use about 1/4 cup of batter.
* You can also use the same amount of regular milk, unflavored soy milk, almond milk, whatever floats your boat will work.
Cam’s Tuesday bento has sliced carrots, tiny grape tomatoes, & cucumber flowers in the bottom tier. She has apple slices, salami & turkey rolls, Colby jack cheese cubes & some crackers in the top tier.
To keep sliced or cubed apples from browning you can soak them in a little pineapple juice diluted with water. Lemon lime soda works well too. Of course you can always soak them in water that has had a few drops of lemon or lime juice added but we find that this can make apples taste too tart.
You may have noticed that there was no “Daily Bento” last Friday. Cam bought her lunch that day but told me on the way home from school that she would not be doing that again. The fruit cup that they served was less than satisfactory, the brownies had vanilla frosting on them, and the lunch lady did not give her enough time to choose what she wanted. Needless to say, the whole experience has turned her off from buying her lunch.
So we’re back to bento! And that’s fine with me.
Her Monday bento has sliced carrots & green beans in the bottom tier. The top tier has tiny grape tomatoes, Colby jack cheese slices wrapped in salami, cheez-its, and 3 vanilla creme brulee flavored rice cakes.
.jpg)
We Should Be Folding Laundry 