Thursday bento with a new find!

I found this great dinosaur cutter for $1 at JoAnn's Fabrics. I used pepperoni to embellish him! Adrian is having turkey and cheese dinos, grape trees, brownie bites (in the blue box) and  chex mix on the side. The orange flower box holds m&ms for his way home!

I love fall bento lunch

I got these great cookie cutter stencils a couple weeks ago...I added cinnamon so you could see the pumpkin face a little better...probably a little too much, my 3 year old said it hurt his tongue!

I need to find some fall plates somewhere...these are leftover Christmas from 2 years ago!

bento = need to go to the grocery store!

What's for lunch on Wednesday???

  So I really needed to go to the grocery store, but with my mom's birthday, church, community group and such, I did not make it before Adrian's KDO day. We went yesterday after school:) 

He had pepperoni skewers and fall cheese cut outs (pumpkins and leaves)

fig newtons

orange slices and ritz crackers

The green car had some m&ms

if you would like to participate in what's for lunch on Wednesday, go here



You will find a WEALTH of bento ideas!!!

Muffin Tin Monday Hello Fall Colors!!!

Fall is coming to South Texas...finally!!! so I am celebrating with fall colors...shades of browns, oranges, reds, yellows and greens!

We enjoyed bear graham cookies

cheese pumpkins and leaves

pepperoni skewers

oranges

ritz crackers

If you would like to participate in Muffin Tin Monday, click on the button at the top!

Happy Birthday Ludee!

 Pioneer Woman's Rosemary Skewers

 Roasted figs with goat cheese and bacon

 Pineapple pecan cheese ball and crackers

cutest pumpkin craft ever!!! and my mom's birthday menu

A friend of mine at Sweet Brown Sugars posted this link on facebook. I actually made one of these last year in MOPS but this is a great tutorial for exactly what you need to do....

posh pumpkins

My mom is a quilter with a closet FULL of scraps and fat quarters, so before heading out to my local craft and material supply store, I asked her to check for reds, browns, greens, golds and oranges...
I made 3 more pumpkins from her stash...technically to decorate for her birthday party this weekend. 

this was my original from a year ago MOPS craft! Don't you just love the fabrics my mom gave me from her quilt closet?

She just turned 65 years young while traveling in Nova Scotia with my dad and her brother, so we are celebrating a little late, but still celebrating!

We're having somewhat of a 
'Wine and Cheese' Night...

it will include 

Pioneer Woman's Olive Cheese Bread 
recipe here

 Pineapple Green onion cheese ball 
with crackers

Cream cheese with pepper jelly and crackers

Roasted herb mixed nuts

Pioneer Woman's rosemary skewers  
recipe here

wine, of course and punch...yum-o

goodbyn lunch

I forgot to post this on Tuesday, this was A's lunch...a little big, but still it worked out well. I switched the fruit around a little bit...trying to make sure it wouldn't be a big mess by lunchtime! He had watermelon, apple sauce (I ended up taking this out bc I needed to put the ice packets in!) and grapes
pepperoni and cheese triangle skewers
wheat thins
pb&j trains
cookies (I took out the pumpkin bread)
mini container of m&ms

the containers are really deep so it was a little more difficult for me to pack this one! I'm so used to cramming everything in.

Dino-mite!!!

My mom so graciously shared her $20 birthday gift from World Market with us...we bought this cute water bottle (the giraffe is sticking out his tongue!) and a huge insulated picnic bag...so mommy can pack up those huge goodbyns for everyone at the park!

I had to go back to my local grocery last night and return some rotten strawberries. I found this dino box on clearance! It was the ONLY boy thing left...they had heart sandwich cutters and heart boxes...and ONE lonely dinobox...for $1, this little guy found a good home! I didn't use the dino cutters on purpose...it's a little small. It's made to fit one sandwich. I used my new cups I found at Home Goods and filled them with one train pb&j cut in half, goldfish crackers, & pepperoni and cheese bears. The small green container holds m&ms and the blue side car holds grapes!

shopping find

Love a good bento find...I went to Home Goods (TJMaxx) looking for a food processor. My dad wants to replace my broken one because I've made him a zillion jars of salsa over the summer and he is in withdrawal since I haven't been able to make it! While looking in the kitchen section I came across come great cookie cutters and silicone cups (and at a really great price! much less than what I just saw on amazon for the exact same thing!)
I bought a marine life cookie cutter set which I'm REALLY excited about considering how I used my creative license a couple weeks back to portray Marlin (Nemo's dad) and Nemo as a heart and a heart with the middle cut out. I'm happy to say, we have fish, seagulls (mine mine mine) CAN you tell my little 3 year old watches Nemo every day???
We also have a seahorse (or as A so lovingly calls it a dinosaur), a shark, and a really fun looking starfish...oh my mind is racing with ideas for this week!
I also found a set of 12 silicone cups...red, purple, green and blue--really bright colors with a scalloped edge. I was with my mom and told her I wanted to try jello molds also. We have a couple GREAT family recipes I'll share closer to the holidays. I need to find them first!!! I'm going to try to also use my new pumpkin and leave silicone muffin tin to make jello molds for Thanksgiving.

Muffin Tin Monday

This weeks theme is shapes!
round grapes
triangle cheese
pepperoni circles
rectangle and circle cookies
star shaped PB&J
square crackers
in a super cute pumpkin and leaf shaped silicone muffin tin
Happy Fall!

Where do you buy this and that? How do you come up with this and that?

I just started bento-ing, so a LOT of friends have asked the same questions...where did you get your picks? your mini forks? your cutters? your boxes? I will try to answer as many questions as I can remember! Please, leave a comment if you have a question and I will get back to you!

First off, I must thank Care-In at Sweet Brown Sugars for posting pictures in the first place. She has been making bentos for her girls and gave me a wealth of ideas to share with you!

I bought my Sassy boxes at Babies R Us, but have been told they are also at Target. They come in blue and pink. I bought my Dr. Sears pineapple bento at HEB (a local grocery), but they are also on amazon.com. I bought my goodbyns from gilt.com, but you can find them on goodbyn.com or amazon.com. I have yet to use the goodbyns, but I'm looking forward to it. I love all of these for various reasons. The sassy boxes are small, but great for my 3 year old. It fits in his lunch box. I can give him a variety of foods. Everything is separated by airtight boxes. Same with the Pineapple. It is smaller, shallower, but I was able to get a good amount of food in there and the leaves come off and freeze!

My divided plates are all from Target, but not new. I buy things like this after Christmas or Easter at 50-90% off. My plain muffin tins are from our local grocery. My bear muffin cups are from Hobby Lobby. I just got blue stars and green circles from World Market and they had more girly ones...red and orange flowers I think. Hobby Lobby also has a set of pink and yellow flower muffin cups.

I have bought all my Japanese items on ebay. I used these two stores.

http://stores.ebay.com/SAKURA-ZAKKA-SHOP
http://stores.ebay.com/Retro-Pop-Tokyo

Make sure you buy from one store, ask for a invoice total and they will combine your shipping. From these two sites, I bought picks, mini forks, egg molds, mini sauce containers, and more picks.
My silicone cups are mostly from a Wilton train cupcake cake set. I used it for my oldest's 3rd birthday and love all the different shapes.

On to my cookie cutters...I have a few sets that I have had forever...bought after a season sale thinking when I have children, I'll make cookies. I have sets of hearts, snowmen, and Fall leaves. To add to that my mom let me go through her stash and I found a star, gingerbread man, snowflake and a dog. I found a mini duck and bear and a big car at Hobby Lobby. My stencil cutter set was bought on amazon.com.

Hopefully this will get you started. You can go to your local grocery and get a couple ziploc containers, a package of cookie cutters and start from there...it's really up to your imagination how crazy you get!

Lazy Rainy Weekend Bentos

Adrian's lunch consisted of
leafy cheese and pepperoni
wheat thins
grape skewers and lem lem (watermelon apples)
fig newtons

a FAMILY style bento. I used a thanksgiving vegetable platter (I got this years ago at Target on clearance)
We ate red bell peppers and carrots
grapes, watermelon and strawberries
crescent pepperoni and sausage rolls
goat cheese dip
and...it's Fall, so we had Pumpkin Bread...mmm

breakfast is calling!

My sweet little goose barely ate any of this...
I have to remind myself often these days...he's 3!!!
it's such a hard age of transition and learning...for mommy too! He has successful completed potty training, he's going to kids' day out twice a week (loves it) but we still wrestle with staying in church, sharing with baby brother, no pushing, no hitting, no yelling, he is asleep right now-has been since 2:30 or so. Why? because Mommy got everyone in the car because no one was cooperating. We drove down the interstate and by 3 or 4 exits both boys were out cold. Mommy got a much needed break and both boys got some beauty or should I say handsome rest. They need it...they're babies and they need to relax, regroup and re-energize themselves too...even if it is forced upon them with a relaxing ride in the car. 2 hours of peace and quiet...oh wait I hear the baby!

newest addition to our bento family

this is our newest bento box. He's huge. We might even name him. Goodbyn Lunch boxes come with stickers and a water bottle. You can put him in the dishwasher! I'm excited for my little boy to get to use this soon!

world market bento finds

I can't remember which blog I read about the Bento supplies at World Market, but I was happy to find some things still there when I made a stop today.
These are silicone baking cups. Big Blue Stars and Little Green Circles!
They also had Japanese cookies, pink and orange flower baking cups, CUTE kids' water bottles and small to medium sized Tupperware like Bento boxes!

Thursday Thursday

Okay, so I decided to try out our nibble tray for a very ducky snack lunch. The compartments are definitely small, but you can still get a LOT of food in there! He has cheddar cheese skewers and extra strawberries
pepperoni and cheese ducks
goldfish & wheat thins
strawberries with lion fork
grape trees (look closely...new picks..it's a tree trunk!)
pb&j duckies
panda cookies from Japan in the little car container (it's really an egg mold, but so cute!)

I rearranged from the top picture after I noticed it was upside down! oops!

lunch at home....and a package arrived!!!

From Japan with love...

Adrian went to sleep after his lunch and mommy got a package...from Japan!!! oh the fun we will have with lunch tomorrow!!!

Adrian's choo choo lunch(these divided plates were from Target, after Easter clearance)

Adrian went to sleep after his lunch and mommy got a package...from Japan!!!
oh the fun we will have with lunch tomorrow!!!

Baby food!!!

Andrew is quite the eater! He loves to put EVERYTHING and I mean everything...including the tires on our double stroller, the door stop on the wall, his brother's toothbrush, crumbs on the floor...in his mouth! So I am trying to positively use this energy he has to get him to try and eat new foods. He already has 8 teeth! I didn't quite get the picture of him shoveling the noodles into his mouth, so use your imagination!
So today was cheesey macaroni and avocado. yum!!!

a bento for little A and japanese cookies!

cutters and stencils...oh my!

Let the fun begin. I can't wait to try these out for my little A's October birthday and then Christmas!!! I did use the bear for a sandwich and you can sort of see the stencil. I think I'll have to use white bread or edible markers to really show the details better...but I'm looking forward to the possibilities!

Good morning bento! a beary good start to Tuesday

Today we have a beary bento!
Bear grape skewers
Bear graham crackers
Cheese and turkey Bear Sandwich (with my new stencil set)
Bear colby jack crackers
YUM!

Muffin Tin Monday and a weekend bento lunch

This is definitely a long shot, but the theme for MTM this week is movies...so the top picture is Finding Nemo, or as my 3 year old says...Fish.
You could say the pepperoni cheese skewers represent the coral, the anemone, the jelly fish??? The hearts represent Nemo's Daddy , Marlin, who lost a part of himself when Nemo was caught by the dentist...the goldfish...a little more obvious, the blue m&ms are Dora and the key lime yogurt with blue sugar sprinkles...the best I could do for the ocean!

Adrian was a hungry boy after he went to the park with Daddy. He got dinosaur PB& J sandwiches, grapes with mini forks, pepperoni & cheese skewers and potato chips...he picked these out the other day...Parmesan & garlic! yum!!

More Bento and muffin tin monday

I just love my new mini bear cutter and these bear muffin cups are the perfect size for a mid afternoon BEARY snack...
pepperoni skewers on bear pick
bear shaped cheddar cheese
in a bear muffin cup
Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy!!!

I was introduced to Muffin Tin Monday by Care-In at Sweet Brown Sugars. It's just another fun way to get your children to eat healthier foods and portions. I can even get my Big A to try new foods in a cute setting!

These are my new bear muffin cups. I saw these online and found then at Hobby Lobby and was happy to use a 40% off coupon. I've only seen these and a set of pink and yellow flower cups...we'll I'm a boy mom, so I thought these bears would be happy in our house of little bears. I can even use them for birthday cupcakes or Christmas brownies...big brown tummied bears...how cute!!!

He is still enjoying his bento lunches and usually eats everything in the box.
Homemade pepperoni & apple cheese crackers
extra sharp cheddar cheese squares and mini forks
fruit skewers
fig newtons
blue berry container of m&ms

more bento...

Adrian enjoying his bento breakfast...
cheese apples, watermelon leaves with sprinkles
breakfast sausage and a mustard smile:)

Adrian's first bento lunch!!! I posted this earlier, but here it is again...
peanut butter and jelly trains
brownie bite
cheese leaves
strawberry triangles
a note from mommy!

turkey and cheese pinwheels, cheese stars, goldfish and grapes
strawberry wafer cookie!

new stash of bento from Japan! mini forks and picks,
mini boxes for jelly beans, m&ms or ketchup!

Adrian LOVED using them with strawberries and grapes.
pepperoni and cheese skewers, veggie chips and fig newtons
and m&ms in a mini box

DINOSAURS!!!!

bento lunch using our new dinobites sandwich cutter!
pepperoni skewers, cheese stars
grape skewers, cereal squares and m&ms in a little yellow bear!