Pork Chop Halloween Bento

I went to post this and realized I forgot to take a picture or the minons' bentos! Oh no! Oh well. They are now in their bellies.

Today we have another left over lunch in my Easy Lunch Box. Today's meat is a breaded and baked pork chop. Under that I have a left over baked potato that I cut up, seasoned, and pan fried. The pumpkin is made from a sweet potato and I added 2 grape tomatoes just because I could.

To the right we have left over broccoli from 2 nights ago. Under that is an orange cheese cake (mint flavor) with mint chocolate crumbles on top.

The background image is one that one of the boys drew for me. They requested I used it.

2 more lunches till our 100th! There will be a giveaway posted in the 100th lunch post.

Matching Daddy and Minion Domo Lunches

Today I made matching lunches for everyone. I really think that making lunches the night before for everyone is the way to go. At least for now. We will see how it works if I get this job. 

The Elder is special so I put a mini green cheesecake in his lunch. Below that is some apple & cranberry crumble (that is what we call it) with an oat topping. The Domo were made out of beer bread, ham, cheese and nori eyes. I used mustard to hold everything into place. I also added some carrots.

 The minions had a very similar bento. I used my Sassy boxes for them. I used mustard to hold on the face of the Domo but not on the inside. Their sandwich is also ham on beer bread. I sliced their baby carrots thin and added in some mozzarella cheese.

To the left is more of the crumble. Yes, there is quite a bit. Do I feel bad? NO!!! I made this myself. It is quite healthy in my humble opinion.

The boys are still ill and to top it off, there was no school today. So Clark is home today and enjoying lunch with us. Also getting out of you pjs was optional.

Sadly the cheddar and herb beer bread was not a hit with the little ones. The boys ate the faces off the bread and the meat center.

Colonel Sanders also joined us for lunch. Normally she would eat a little later. She had no interest in lunch. She just sat there and talked to her brothers while they all ate. Finally I gave up on her eating and put her on the floor to play.

Oh look! Someone is eating!  I left the room for just a minute and one of the boys decided that Colonel Sanders looked hungry. I am pretty sure it was Pork who gave her the lunch on the floor. Apparently that is what she wanted! Colonel Sanders dug right in. I should have known she would want it out of a bento. I had just put her lunch on her high chair tray.

The crumble was actually pretty easy to make. I cut up apples into small pieces, put them in a simmering pan, added cranberries, some water, a touch of honey (maybe a teaspoon) and a touch of vanilla and cinnamon. I let it simmer for a bit until the fruit was soft and the mixture had become thick. I think it took about 15-20 minutes. To be honest, I am one of those bad cooks that just tends to put things on low and walk away. I come and check on it once I smell something yummy. I don't do it with everything, but with anything that needs to simmer for a bit.

Once it has thickened, I turn the heat off and let it cool for a bit. Then I place it into dishes. Using the same pan, I melt some real butter in it. Add a touch of honey and let it melt together. After the butter is melted I give it a good stir and then add some rolled oats. I do not suggest using the quick cook. I am told they come out mushy. I add enough oats so that the oats are all coated, but that is it. I do not want them to fully cook or for there to be standing liquid. I keep the heat on medium for a minute and give the oats, butter, and honey mixture a minute to toast a bit and then I take it off the heat. Immediately spoon it over the top of the fruit. As it cools it will harden. Any leftovers can be eaten or added to the top of yogurt. I did both.  The minions really like a little bit of crisp topping on their morning yogurt sometimes.

Countdown: 3

Only 3 more lunches until we reach our 100th lunch!!!!

Cupcake Lasagna

I decided to try something new today. I decided to pack lunch for everyone at the same time. Normally I pack The Elder's at night and the minions' during the day. I get Clark on the bus and have one hour to feed Tyke, Pork, and Colonel Sanders and then walk Tyke to school. Clark eats a family style lunch at school as part of the program he is in. So I get Clark on the bus, find something to amuse the minions (craft, drawing, toys, or tv) and then make lunch and feed them.

 Today I decided to be brave and give the minions more than one food pick. I pray they do not get to distracted at lunch.

We will start with the front today. I have a cupcake lasagna with a tomato flower. Above that we have 2 slices of rolled nitrate free turkey and squares of cheddar cheese.

To the left I have homemade cherry yogurt (Yes, in a cut dixie cup) and a pickle boat with a piece of turkey and 2 passengers.
 This is The Elder's lunch. He too has cupcake lasagna. It consists of wonton wrappers, ricotta cheese, ground beef, tomato puree, spinach, spices, and mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

To the left is a sugar free whole wheat banana muffin with a packet of frosting. Yes, I know frosting kinda defeats the sugar free purpose, but it's The Elder. He thinks he needs it. Therefore, he gets his sugar. Below that is frozen mixed veggies.

Want to see the minions?

Colonel Sanders is like her brother Clark. She feels sleep is for the weak. So she is sitting on the floor below me playing with Pork Chop's dinosaur.

Pork Chop fell asleep on the couch. Poor little man is still ill. He sounds like a frog and wakes up every so often to cry because he is coughing so much. I have done all I can for him, so I let him sleep on the couch to give him a little comfort. Once I go to bed I  take him with me.







I know, it is rare to see Clark. Clark is the healthiest of the bunch. I am not quite sure what happened to his pillow case.

Sorry, there is no picture of Tyke. The poor camera decided that it needed the battery charged.






Countdown: 4

Chicken noodle soup and The Elder's lunch

Mmm... Nothing like a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup, especially when everyone is ill.

Homemade? Yes! The noodles take a little time but the rest is easy. First you need some dark meat chicken on the bone. You can use boneless or breasts, but I do not feel they work as well. They do work though! Be cure to add a little salt. Cook chicken until it is falling off the bone. Separate the chicken and liquid. Set the chicken aside to cook and add your veggies to your broth. When the chicken has cooled, pick the meat off the bone and

 add it back to the stock. You can cook your noodles in the soup or in another pot and then add them to the soup. I chose to the the second. My homemade noodles tend to be covered in flour to keep them from sticking to each other while I cut them all up. So the water tends to get a little odd if I cook them in broth.

As you can see, I do not add broth to the the bowls for the minions. I have learned that it is just to much of a mess. I normally put it in a cup (cool it down) and let them drink it that way.

Why are the noodles green? Because I wanted them to be. I added a little bit of spinach puree to my pasta dough to turn it green. Not only did it not effect the flavor, but it added some yummy spinach goodness to the noodles without the minions knowing.

Colonel Sanders was not very happy and chose not to eat. All she did was glare at us. She even made my camera have a "memory card error". Yep, the little stinker jinxed my camera. Or maybe the camera is just old... Naw, I like the first story better.
 The Elder's lunch. Yum! I was not feeling to well (sick plus migraine) and my brain was shot. I had some ground beef thawed. We had a lot of the typical ground beef items last week, meatloaf, burgers, and spaghetti and meatballs. So I decided I would make wontons. I added spinach, onion, 5 spice powder, and some soy sauce to the ground beef for my filling. Then I friend them in a little bit of olive oil and butter. Yes, I said butter. Real butter.

Anyway, the wontons are sitting on a bed of brown rice. I also gave him carrots with dip and cheese for a side.

Countdown: 5

Stir Fry Beef with Piggies

Doesn't this look yummy! Yes, I know it is being taken over by lunches for the Elder. I have more time to pay attention to his. Although he is also kinda my minion. I mean, when he is home I feel like he is minion #5 dancing on the clouds. Ha ha ha! I think I just got myself grounded. Oh, I love him dearly, I really do.

On the left we have a stir fry sitting on a bed of brown rice. The stir fry consists of beef, onions, carrots, and broccoli. Sadly, most of the carrots and broccoli are missing. There was an incident with the container holding just the stir fry falling out of the fridge and almost causing me to slip and spill my chocolate milk. Where was the top? Well, that would be the correct way of storing something, even short term, wouldn't it? Therefore, I had to store it without a top to rebel. Against who? Well, I'm not sure. It sounded good though, right? The 2 piggy sauce bottles have soy sauce in them.

To the right we have some raw carrots and a little container.

The last little bit is apple and cranberry crumble. Mmm...  I ate the left over topping and I have to say it was pretty good.





Countdown: 6

A Very Quick Mechanic Lunch

Today was a super rush job. We managed to kill the motor in our dishwasher. So we picked out a new one and scheduled to have it put in later in the afternoon of the following day. Well, guess what? They came early! I received the warning call right as I was making the sandwiches. So in a rush, I quickly put together some apple cars, made Colonel Sanders her sandwich and got everyone upstairs and out of the way.

We have a Biscoff and jelly sandwiches in the shape of a car, wrench, and mechanic shop. I did not have a small car cutter, so I used the back side of my car egg mold. If I pressed the bread flat, it worked rather well.

The car cars are made from a small apple and have cheese for wheels. Apple slices run under the sandwiches. Each box has a full small apple. The minions were pleased. They love apples.

Countdown: 7

Mini meatloaf monster

Well, someone is still use to those nifty microwave meals. So sandwiches just won't do. I still had some left over ground beef from the squid, so I decided to make a meatloaf. You know, it is surprising what yummy and healthy things you can fit into a meatloaf. You can add rolled oats, puree of spinach and a little carrot and even your most picky eater will not notice if you do it right. That is what I did with my little meatloaf. Then I added a topping of BBQ sauce and brown sugar. The eyes are made from carrot and a small piece of ham.

By request I also have pan fried and seasoned potatoes. Those are always a huge hit with the Elder. For sides we have green beans and sweet potato.

Squid meatballs

I am having a little to much fun with The Elder's lunches. I wonder if he is wishing he had one of his frozen meals yet. These meals are normally made during 11pm and 1am while I am waiting for wither Colonel Sanders or Clark to finally go to sleep.

 On top of a bed of bow tie pasta, homemade tomato sauce, and Parmesan cheese I have 3 meatball squid. The ocean floor is made up of carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli. To the left I have steamed carrots and steamed broccoli with salad seasoning on top.

Countdown: 9

Pumpkin and wonton

I wanted wontons for lunch. Sadly, the minions do not enjoy wontons as much as I do. So I came up with this compromise. I have 2 homemade wontons, a biscoff sandwich pumpkin sitting on a bed of carrot sticks, with little mozzarella headstones, and a sword with 2 grapes.

Tyke wanted nothing to do with his wontons. Pork and Colonel Sanders gladly gobbled theirs up.

Countdown: 10

Our first Easy Lunch Box ~ meat dinosaur

* Special news at the bottom!

I LOVE my Easy Lunch Boxes and I haven't even used them yet! The boxes are thicker than the other brands. This will com in handy when The Elder takes them to work. It is harder for him to grab and hang onto things with his disability. So sometimes things get smashed. As you can see, there is plenty of room for food. Today's lunch is for The Elder. I finally have talked him into packing a lunch instead of taking a microwave meal. 

I am sure this is not what he had in mind. Poor, poor Elder. Hahaha. Ok, I don't feel bad at all. They all know I am crazy.

I attempted to make 2 dinosaurs out of ground meat. Sadly they didn't hold up to well. I used 2 dinosaur food pick heads to make them look better. I hope The Elder returns with them. Also we have a volcano made out of homemade mashed potatoes with some butter under the carrot lava. In addition to that, we have some steamed broccoli.

The last compartment did not come out as well as planned. Believe it or not, what looks like stewed tomatoes is really cooked apples with the skins left on (red), cinnamon, lemon juice, and a little raw sugar.




Special News!!!!
Only 11 more bento lunches until we have a give away to celebrate our 100th posted bento lunch! Yeah!!!!

Pumpkin Bento (Colonel Sanders too!)

I found my camera today! I am so sorry with inconsistent posts. I have killed several cameras this year. I take very good care of them, yet they seem to have lens errors and what not. I think I may just take to many pictures. Right now I am using a really old 3.2megapixel camera. For some odd reason I seem to misplace this old clunker. Well, you can't take pictures if you can't find you camera. I know some others use their camera phones, but you don't want me to do that. Colonel Sanders has been very loving to my poor phone. That and it is not a smart phone anyway.

Today's lunch sits on a bed of "star leaf" aka spinach. Have you ever seen Land Before Time or any of the million of sequels? The minions have! On top of that I have a Biscoff and jelly sandwich (more on the change below) with block cheese eyes. I attempted to shred ham to look like something little boys would think is gross yet amusing. I failed. Or maybe they just aren't old enough yet. Also I have sliced carrots, grapes, and cheddar cheese.

What's in my bento today?

I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of Colonel Sanders bento but I have pictures of her. For her I had Cheerios, sliced grapes, finely diced ham, and a small pumpkin biscoff and jelly sandwich. Yes, she ate it just fine.

Why did we switch to Biscoff? The Minion's school is nut free. Next year I will be providing lunch for 2 out of 4 minions at school. Clark's special needs class does a family style lunch. So it is important for him to eat what they do so he is not singled out. All of the other parents buy lunches for their children. Next year Clark will not have that class, so I will be providing his lunch instead of just paying for it. Tyke eats at home this year before he goes to school.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is the number one item asked for here in the house. I have one minion who is autistic and has sensory processing disorder. He likes what he likes and to get him to eat differently is a challenge. If he wants that type of sandwich for lunch, I am all for it. If you let him, he would also eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner also. Another one of the minions has severe acid reflux. The poor little dear 

had a pacifier until he was 3 per Dr. orders in order to help keep the acid down. He is now on 2 separate meds in hopes to help get it back under control. Some weeks are good, and others not. He too does not like to eat to much. Yet I can always get him to eat a PB&J.

So I decided to switch them over to Biscoff early to see if they would accept it as "peanut butter". So far so good! Since Biscoff is nut free, I can send it with them to school next year. Will I still give them peanut butter? Yes. I just wanted to add this to their diet to ensure I would not have problems adding it to Clark's diet later.

Soccer Game Bento Pt 2 ~ Colonel Sanders

 I picked up this little gem of a snack container on Ebay. It's perfect for The Colonel. She has pears that I cooked until very soft, some of that very dense yet soft whole wheat quick bread, mixed veggies minus corn, and some small pieces of string cheese. Yep, I feed her that too. They are quite small and pinched to make sure they are not hard. Colonel Sanders has no issues eating it all. Yummy!

 

Colonel Sanders picking through her bento

See Clark? He is grey and the only boy out there.

#4 is my Tyke!

Soccer Game Bento Lunch! Pt 1 ~ The boys

More artwork thanks to a minion.

 You see that little container? That is my newest addition! I have 8 little Mini Dippers from Easy Lunch Boxes. I love them! Even Pork Chop can open them up! I used them today to to put "bird food" in. Yes, that is what the minions have dubbed dried cranberries and sunflower seeds. I also hid 2 scooby gummies in them.


Yes, there is a whole sandwich in there. It is cut in half and stacked. I know it is a little on the small size, but it is VERY dense bread. I made a loaf of whole wheat quick bread. Wow, you could make bricks out of that stuff! Anyway, I also gave the minions red pears and a cheese stick

 The Elder had some not so healthy food. He insists that he needs to have chips with is lunch on the weekends. So I gave him chips, a piece of string cheese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a few pieces of pear.

Tyke is eating his "bird seed". Isn't he handsome in his soccer gear?

The Elder relaxing while watching the minions play soccer.

Clark and Pork with their lunches

Cat and ghost bento

 I have been using the Dr. Seuss boxes from Target a lot recently. Mainly because my bento storage is a mess and I am to busy (lazy) to reorganize it. Today we have grapes, cucumber, cheese, celery, and carrots.

On top of that I put a cat and a ghost peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some more cheese, and a small container of dip.

Hidden Dinosaur

 Like the background? Tyke made this piece of art for me at school. Yep, he only glued 3 little things to the paper. *sighs* I guess he is a minimalist.

Anyway, this is today's lunch. We have 2 dinosaur shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I found the sandwich cutter in the dollar section at Target. I think it's an ugly cutter, but I was to lazy to look for my other one. It also looks like we have some cheese,some carrots, and a leaf of lettuce (It was off those living lettuce plants you can buy for $1.29). Let's lift that leaf up.

Oh look! There is more! Is that a little dinosaur? Yes it is! It's a ring. How fun is that? Let me tell you, it's way to much fun when you are a 3 and 4 year old. Also there are some grapes, baby trees (broccoli), and some more carrots.

Soccer Practice Night

I have a class on some soccer practice nights. So I pack the minions into the car, give them dinner, drive up to the college, trade cars with the Elder (cause I have a minivan and he has a car. His car will not work with 4 minions in car seats) and then I go to class and he to soccer practice.

Tonight they had leftover rice a roni (I needed to use it to get that crud out of my house), left over pork balls in orange glaze, steamed whole baby carrots, and green beans. In the little container off to the side there I mixed crushed pineapple and cottage cheese. Below this is The Elders meal. Notice his has a little less variety. That's because he is not a fan of semi healthy food.

Puzzle sandwich

 

Peanut butter and jelly puzzle sandwich, cheddar cheese, raisins, part of a plumb, slice of kiwi, carrots, and some dip in a Hello Kitty cup.