Under the sea

There is a peanut butter sandwich under the crab. There are 2 crab cheese, a sausage octopus, sausage and whole wheat pasta crab and jellyfish. Blood oranges, cheese cutouts, and ABC pretzels.

I really am not a huge fan of this type of sausage. Or hot dogs for that matter. The minions love them though! To make them, all you do is break off spaghetti to shorter lengths, push it into your sausage and then cook it. Just follow the directions on the box for cooking the spaghetti and it will turn out perfect. The minions played with their sea creatures for a bit before devouring them. Don't let the picture fool you! There is also half a peanut butter sandwich in there as well as 2 crab cheese aka crab ragoon. I served these with some extra ABC pretzels. We made a game of figuring out the letters before the boys ate them.

And today I spelled out their name or nickname with pretzels. Yes... I have a minions that we call Pork. We are slowly weaning him off it. He's not fat and is quite the opposite. Just like his other 2 brothers, he is below the 5th percentile. Yes, my 2 1/2 year old wears 12 to 18 month size clothes. Sadly they all inherited my genes and are short. Pork got his nick name from the fact that he eats non stop. Not only does he finish his own plate and any 2nds or 3rds you put on it, he will  also eat what his brothers leave on their plates. We actually take him away from the table. I swear he has a black hole in his stomach.

Boy and Elephant

Bologna boy and "B", with a peanut butter sandwich elephant, cheese "3" and "E", Pasta salad, pear slices (running under boy and elephant), Blood Oranges, and grapes.

I think my cell phone takes better pictures than my camera.

The pasta salad was left over from the night before. There really was not enough left over for an adult, but perfect amount for 2 little boys!

The letters and numbers are random in case you were wondering. Both of them can count to 20 or beyond and know their ABC's. So now I am teaching them to recognize letters and numbers. What better way than to incorporate them into lunch! Food makes everything fun.

A bento for my Minions.

 Veggie ramen noodles, bologna cut outs, carrots, grapes, and curried eggs.

First of all, I need to apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. My camera is having some issues. I know I should really get a new one, but I am having problems talking myself into spending that type of money for a camera when I can deal with it and spend it on the minions instead.

Today's lunch was partly by request. I had just put my eldest on the bus for his PPI class (he is a high functioning autistic) and his younger brothers were requesting noodles for lunch. We had just had pasta the night before, so I decided to make some ramen noodles. Now, I know they are very fatty and not very good for you. But well, my boys are small and could use some fattening up. In attempts to make it a little more healthy I added some carrots, corn, and broccoli.

The eggs are hard boiled eggs that I put in my egg molds. Then I sliced them in half and made them into curried eggs. I made sure to show the boys that they came apart and the filling was yummy. Sometimes my 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 year olds need some encouragement to try foods. The eyes and mouths were colored with a food markers I picked up in the cake aisle in the grocery store.

Next I looked through my collection of cookie cutters and cut out a duck and 5's out of bologna aka flat hot dog. Or that is how my minions refer to it.  Then I sliced up some baby carrots and put some grapes into a cupcake cup.

Egg dumplings.

steamed carrots and zucchini. Dan Jiao (the Chinese egg dumplings), spinach, and pan fried gyoza (veggie filled) and Blood Oranges. Fiesta Lime Onigiri filled with some leftover BBQ Pork, Tamagoyaki (spinach in it) and mushroom.

I saw a post someone made on Cooking With Dog's Facebook page about Dan Jiao. Apparently you use scrambled egg as the gyoza wrapper. It is commonly used in soup.  I did not wish to have soup, but I thought I would give it a try. Now, the recipe I found had you put raw meat filling into the egg and said that the soup would finish cooking the meat in the filling. Since I was going to eat it as is, I made tiny little lumps of filling and cooked it first.

Now, you have to work fast or they will not seal, but first you make a small round of scrambled egg. before the top side becomes solid, add your filling on one side. Carefully flip one side over it so it creates a half moon. I found that 2 forks worked great for this. The egg being still runny will allow it to seal. Wait a minute and flip over the dumpling so that the other side can cook.

Once you get use to cold egg, these are actually quite good!

First Bento. Salmon lettuce wraps and curried eggs

I was given this box for Christmas. It is a nice small 2 tier box. As you can see, I managed to pack it pretty full. I am on a Weight Watchers diet and I try to keep all my lunches under 8 points.

Wrapped in the lettuce is salmon salad. It consists of canned salmon, shredded carrots, celery, some dill relish, a little low fat mayo, and some hot sauce. I then rolled some of it up in the lettuce and made a lettuce cup with some in it too.

The gyoza are veggie filled. I discovered if I use mushrooms in the mixture, it fools my brain into thinking there is meat. Therefore I feel fuller. I am assuming it is due to the texture. Anyway, in the gyoza is spinach, mushrooms, garlic, carrot, and zucchini. I sprayed a little bit of cooking spray in a hot pan and pan fried them.

The eggs on celery were an interesting discovery. They are called curried eggs. I was surprised how good they were. It is just mashed up egg, a small touch of low fat mayo and a bit of curry powder. All I have to say is Yummy! The celery provided a nice crunch.