Unexpected Breakfast Bento.

This morning Clark woke up extra early and requested a box. I thought he meant a box to play in. It was only after  he started to roll his eyes back and do that odd head tilt he does that I realized that I was missing something. I asked him to show me the box he wanted. Clark opened up the bento drawer. So I let him pick out what box he wanted so I could fill it.

Clark

I made the minions several silver dollar sized whole wheat pancakes. I added a little honey into the batter so there was no need for sticky syrup. While I made those, I boiled some water for the eggs. I used my molds and made a car and fish. Each minion received half an egg which I decorated with food safe markers. To the right of the egg I have a piece of ham.

On the left side of the box I have some plain yogurt which I mixed with some strawberry jam. I did not realize I was out of normal yogurt until it was to late.  It tasted pretty good with the jam mixed in. I also cut up some strawberries and kiwi fruit for their morning fruit.

The box is my Sassy brand box which you can find at Meijer and Toys R Us. It has 3 removable dividers with tight fitting lids. I believe mine only cost me $5.99 and it comes in blue and pink.

Simple puppy (Dog)

 I like these little boxes when I want to make something a little more simple. They are small and a toddler or preschooler sized meal fits perfectly in these. This one was purchased from All Things For Sale.  There are some items hidden under the sandwich today. I was going to take them out for the picture, but I have 3 little voices demanding food.

On top I have a round peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I used some apple slices to make the puppy's ears, two Cheerios make up the eyes, and the tip of the strawberry makes the nose. I uses a piece of cheddar cheese for the mouth. To the right of the sandwich are some cucumber and carrot slices.

Under the puppy face are a few slices of cheese and a few more apple wedges.

O is for Ocean

I realized I needed to use up my Goldfish bread before it went bad.  So we have another fish lunch.  Today's sandwich is yet another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  That seems to be the sandwich of choice anymore. Or as the minions call it, a "peanut butter jelly time". It has a candy eye and I used a food safe marker to color in the mouth. On top of the fish is a cucumber and a carrot making the "O".  I also have a pretzel rod with a piece of angel hair pasta wrapped around it to make a fishing pole. Above that are some more of the grape tomato and cheese boats. At the very bottom are some green olives (and a piece of cheddar that fell in there).

The bottom deeper side of the bento has a bed of spring greens. I have a sausage Octopus, crab and jellyfish. At the bottom I have strawberries, cheese, almond slivers, carrots, and green olives making up the ocean floor.

O is for Octopod

I did not do the best job. Still, it is better than some things I have tried... Like the ravioli kites. The minions have been fascinated with the Octonauts. So I decided to attempt the Octopod. The main part of the Octopod is made of cheese. The arms, eyes, and other dark parts are nori. And the extra little pods (I know there are 4, but the 4th would not fit) are made from red pepper.Underneath that is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Can you tell the cookie is suppose to be an O? I put a piece of nori in the center to try to make it look more like one. The minions could tell. Then again, they know to expect a letter. We also have match stick carrots, strawberries, blueberries, celery, and colby jack cheese.



Apparently it looked just enough like the Octopod for the minions to recognize it. Tyke started to sing "creature report". Beware, it gets stuck in your head!

Today's lunch is in a container I picked up from Old Navy. Sadly, they no longer carry them.

U is for umbrella

 

Today I grabbed the letter U out of my can. It took me a few minutes to decide what to do. And in that time, I failed to get Clark dressed fast enough and he missed the bus. Although the bus also came 10 minutes early. That was ok though, it gave me extra time to think as I packed all the minions up and took Clark to school.

This week I decided to go with less processed cheese and bought only brick cheese. To bad I do not have a cheese slicer. Oh well. I managed pretty well with a knife.  The top of the umbrella and the letter U are made from cheddar cheese. The handle is made from a steamed piece of asparagus. For fruit I have pear sticks and strawberries.

The bottom tier has a is a goldfish sandwich with peanut butter and jelly. We have 3 goldfish crackers keeping the larger fish company. I also have a grape tomato that I cut in half and added a small triangle of cheese as a sail.

I was surprised when both boys ate the asparagus. They have been offered it more times than I can count and have never touched it. Well, I guess they did the one time I wrapped it in bacon.

Yep, it's a PJ day.

Buttermilk bread roll bear

I decided to make buttermilk bread.  I then had the idea to make a small bun for the minions. It turned out pretty well I think! The recipe for it was pretty simple and did not take to much of actual working time. That is always a perk when you have 3 little ones at home all day and one in half day preschool.

I have a buttermilk bread roll in the shape of a bear's head. I sliced it and added peanut butter and jelly. The eyes and nose are pieces of cheese I used food safe markers to color. Also I have a hard boiled egg I put in the bear, car, and fish mold. Sadly the egg was not quite large enough to have the ears come out on the bear. Also I added 3 mint chocolate marshmallows as a desert. 

Pork picking the yolk out of his egg

In the other section I have 2 strawberry mice. There are several variations of these, but I first saw them on Bent On Better Lunches' blog. They have almonds for ears, a string cheese tail and mine are sitting on an animal cracker. I used some chocolate cream cheese to help it stick.  Also there are carrots, celery, raisins, and the minion's favorite, shredded cheese.

Today's owl and giraffe bentos were purchased from All Things For Sale. The orange Madagascar one was purchased off Ebay.

Mail time!

 

Sorry! No bento today. I just did a very quick sandwich shape lunch on a rocket ship plate and called it good. The minions did not mind. They love some of their fun plates too. All the below were purchased off of Ebay.

 This is the only bento that came. This came as a group for the same price as the bento alone should have been. So I could not resist. I admit that I do not use the food separator sheets to much. I figure I will save those for a give away when I hit 100 minion bentos or something.  I am excited to have 2 small Hello Kitty food cups and the fish mold.

Ah yes, more food picks! These were in the blue envelope.

More ham and cheese cutters! I had been wanting this set. I noticed I have a bunch of bentos but I am lacking cutters.

Mama Bento #3 sushi and ramen noodles

2 things I love a little to much, Sushi and spring rolls. I am out of fresh greens and rice paper, so sushi it is!

I made sushi with avocado, canned salmon, and match stick carrots. Also I have some mozzarella cheese,  green olives, and tomatoes on cute little picks. Believe it or not, you do not need one of those sushi rollers. Mine was lost in the move to this house. Since then I have used waxed paper to roll it. I know some people use plastic wrap. Just extend your thumbs out as you roll to help push the center and make sure it rolls tight.
The bottom tier is made of ramen noodles, yellow pepper slightly cooked, and mushrooms. This pack is from one of my coveted mini stock pile. There are no Asian stores where I live. The closest Asian market is about an hour away. So when I do go (with little ones in tow) I try to pick up plenty of things to try out, as well as the sauces, fresh vegetables, and fresh noodles I can only find there.

One thing I noticed with most of the instant noodle packs I get at the Oriental market, there is always a fat or oil pack with it. Sometimes a separate soy sauce or vegetable packet too. This one happens to have soy sauce. I also noticed that they have a slightly different smell, even without the packets added, than the ones we have here like Top Ramen or any of the other brands. Not that it is bad, it's just different.

I do wonder, what is the difference between exporting quality and normal quality? Do I really wish to know?

Today's bento is the only other bento I have had for a long time. This one is about 2 1/2 years old. I also got this from Bento TV. The original sticker on top wore off. This one is not dishwasher safe. So I turned off the heated dry and sent it through the dishwasher anyway. One day I will regret doing it.

I wish I could find another one like this bento. It is simple and for some odd reason Pork Chop wants it half the time. I know better than to give the minions 2 very different bentos at lunch though. That is why you see so many that are either the same or nearly the same size and shape.

F is for Fish

F is for Fish... and maybe Fast cars. But that may be a bit of a stretch for little ones. No school for Clark today. And as you can see, the minions all had their hair cut. Ok, Colonel Sanders didn't, but the rest did.

Clark is not use to bento lunches every day.
So he is extra excited over his.

Today we have our Fast cars. These seem to be a pretty big hit around here. Normally I use grapes for the tires. Today we have cheese (string cheese) rounds that were colored with food safe markers. I used peanut butter to glue them on. I also chose to put windshields in this time. Those were cut from processed cheese. I used raisins for the dirt track. Also we have celery sticks and goldfish crackers.

Next to that we have a Goldfish peanut butter and strawberry cream cheese sandwich. On top of that is a cheese angel fish (which I was to lazy to color in) and the letter F. On top of that are 4 green olives. Also we have some Danables crunchers yogurt for desert. Yep, I said desert. I have the minions convinced that yogurt is just like pudding or ice cream.

The Lorax and Green Eggs.

 I did my best. I can't say it came out as well as most other peoples. Good thing the minions are not to picky. All they know is they like their interesting lunches in their cute boxes. What did the minions do while I was making their lunch?


Pork Chop and Tyke got a hold of my not so awesome camera. They took turns taking pictures of themselves.... And what was left of a box of handmade chocolates their daddy gave me for Single Awareness Day. Good thing the minions are so cute. One day they will know better than to touch mama's chocolate.

The Lorax is an avocado sandwich. I know that sounds a little odd, but it is quite good. Toast the bread, add avocado, salt, and pepper and serve. Yummy! Even the minions will eat it. I tell them it is green cheese and it works every time.On top of that I placed some of your run of the mill processed

 

sliced cheese to make the body of the Lorax. To make his mustache I flattened some left over bread, added some cream cheese and used some fine shredded cheese to make it look fuzzy. I did the same with his arms but used more processed cheese for that.  The eyes are candy eyes. Surrounding our yellow friend are some animal crackers.

The idea for the green eggs came from a post I saw at Bentobloggy. She made pesto eggs. Sadly, I have no pesto or even basil. So I opted to use food coloring to dye my lumpy curried eggs. In person it looks much greener. Although besides the color, they look more appealing in the picture.

With the green eggs we have some ham (not going to dye it), carrots, a strawberry, blueberries and some goldfish.

Today's bento was purchased off of Ebay.


To see more great Seuss lunches continue on and visit Myra at Mommy + Me Lunchbox

Green Eggs and Ham

Packed

The minions insisted they needed a "box breakfast" this morning. I knew I was not going to be happy with this box from when I realized I did not have enough matching smaller boxes. Clark is very insistent that all of the minions have the same size. He has ASD, so we just kinda go with the flow.

So today we are using our Gerber boxes.  I made some green crepes and used a cookie cutter for the egg shapes. The top egg is about 8 layers alternating between chocolate cream cheese and peanut butter as filling between crepes. I got the idea for the Dr Seuss hat from Bent On Better Lunches. She used apples and cheese. I had no apples so I used strawberries and a cheese stick.  There is a cookie, several ham slices, and a small stack of crepe sheets with yellow cheese as the egg yolk.

To the left are some cheese sticks, strawberries, and kiwi slices. Below that is a Dannon Crunchers.