Yo Ho ehh....

 Tyke (3 year old) is starting to figure out that lunch means "food toys". Or that is how he refers to his lunches. I guess I do not mind. He is actually eating more of his food now, which is great. His acid reflux makes him not always want to eat.

So, when I asked what they would like for lunch I had 2 "peanut butter jelly time" requests and one Aquanauts. Yeah...  There is no way I am going to even attempt one of their cartoon people.  Can you guess what the lunch today is? Ignore the letter and number of the day. I add those as a teaching aid. Yes, sneaky, but it works to teach them to recognize their letters and numbers. 

Anyway, in today's lunch we have a peanut butter "pirate" and a cheese and bologna boat. The food marker shirt came out so poor that I did not even attempt a face.

The other tier has cottage cheese and pineapple, blueberries mixed with apple fish, strawberries, and an Energy Ball.

I have discovered there are quite a few variations of Energy Balls. The recipe I semi followed I found on Momables . This is my take on it based what I had in my pantry and not wishing for something to sweet. I ended up making a double batch because when I tasted it with the honey, I thought it was way to sweet. I did not add coconut or the chocolate chips. I just wanted something basic and not to sweet for my first attempt. The nuts I used were almonds and I also added raisins. I have to say that this is super simple to make and the minions loved it! I even had to test it several times for quality control. And then a few more times to ensure that it sitting there for 2 minutes did not change the flavor. I am sure I came up with several other reasons to eat some more.

Look what I found today!

Today I made a trip into Walmart. I thought I wold keep and eye out for anything that may make a good lunch container. Look what I found in the baby feeding aisle!

Please note, the main box is not water proof. But there is a compartment inside that has a lid that seals. So  you could pack homemade applesauce, yogurt, sauces, and so on. It was $6.99 and the only 2 colors my store had were red and blue.

One fish, two fish

Goldfish crackers, pear cut into fish, red pepper. PB&J fish sandwich with a pear fin, pear and bologna eye, and red pepper mouth with small bologna fish.

Today was a fish day. The boys really enjoyed the pear being cut up into small fish. They actually ate them right after the bologna fish! I know there is no dairy in this lunch. Have no fear, I always give the boys milk to drink, so that base is covered.

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!