Puzzling Lunch

As far back as I can remember, I loved puzzles. I love them still today... word puzzles, logic puzzles, spatial puzzles, and especially, jigsaw puzzles. I don't pretend to know all the benefits of puzzles, but I know they challenge my mind, which can't be bad, right? For me, jigsaws do even more though. I find some zen in doing them, and they help me to relax and unwind. They are fun and rewarding, too!

For me, it was natural and simple to introduce puzzles to our daughter very early on. From the beginning, we have used Melissa & Doug puzzles as part of our routine. We started with the knob or chunky puzzles, then peg, sound, and educational puzzles, and now are on to traditional jigsaws from wooden to 'room' sized floor puzzles. In fact, puzzles have given us a new nighttime routine as of late. As I mentioned, puzzles help my body to wind down and relax, and of course, they engage and tire my mind. So, we have started to incorporate puzzles into our bedtime activities for our daughter. Using puzzles to create quiet and calm before bed has been wonderful experience for all of us.

Since I had puzzles on the brain, we also had fun making a puzzle lunch today too. Feed the body. Feed the mind!

 

Kale, peanut butter sandwich, vanilla yogurt, raspberries, cucumber, Swiss and colby-jack cheese.

If you don't have a puzzle shaped cutter, you can really use any type of cutter you have on hand to make a fun, simple puzzle inspired lunch or snack. Make your sandwich or desired food as usual and cut with your choice of cutter. Then, hand cut that shape into pieces that can be assembled before eating! In this example, a snowman, you could add mini chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, or other food items to further decorate your creation after it is pieced together. Have fun!

You are Beary Special

This is the first bento in which I got to utilize some of the new, fun things I purchased, which would be a bear mold, sauce container set, and animal pick set (links below). Beary cute!

Homemade tuna pasta salad, mini bear grilled cheese sandwiches, yellow bell pepper with ranch (in the sauce container), and trail mix with mini marshmallows, raisins, pecans, and teddy graham crackers.

In this lunch...

Amish Bread and A Bear Bento

Today, I was baking up some Amish Friendship Bread, and though the recipe has been around the block more times than I care to imagine, I have never tried many of the variations. This year, I decided to play around a bit, with success, so as the next 10 day batch rolls around, I'll be baking off LOTS of new variations just in time for some holiday gifts. Oh, and some of my bento blogging buddies did a Ho Ho Holiday Hop today, so be sure and jump in on it and check out all the wonderful holiday ideas they had to offer!

Celery, cherry tomatoes, Amish friendship bread, mini marshmallows, Swiss and colby jack cheese scraps, Trader Joe's veggie straws, barbeque sauce, and Schwans chicken tenders.

While the kiddo likes the traditional cinnamony Amish bread, I am in love with the Cherry Pistachio one! Yum!

To make the Cherry Pistachio version of this bread, follow all the traditional instructions, but substitute pistachio instant pudding for the vanilla, and add in 1 cup chopped maraschino cherries and 2 Tbsp of their liquid. 
If you don't have the full recipe, here it is for your viewing pleasure!
Mix together 1 cup starter, 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup milk, 2 Tbsp cherry liquid, 3 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla. In a seperate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 large or 2 small boxes instant pistachio pudding mix. Add the dry to the wet and stir to combine. Stir in 1 cup chopped maraschino cherries. Bake in 2 greased and sugared loaf pans at 325 degrees for 60-65 minutes. Yum!!

The Cookie Cutter Challenge

Today, I found myself staring at a pile of Christmas cookie cutters, thinking what ones I should use for lunches, what ones I'd need for cookies this year, and which ones I would hide back in the basement pantry. That's when I realized that I should let each cutter have its day to shine. Why not? So, I issued myself a Christmas cookie cutter challenge! I have 10 cutters, and I WILL use them all! To keep me motivated, I thought why not challenge others and have them join in and share their creations too? So, that's what I'm doing. I want to see how YOU use your Christmas and winter cookie cutters too. Do you have favorites you use all the time? Have some rusting away that haven't been used for years? I'd love for you to share anything you do with those cutters.. lunches, snacks, cookies, crafts, etc. If you used a Christmas cookie cutter, share your link below! The only thing I ask is that you link back to me with either a text link to Zoe's Lunchbox or use the button you see below.

Today, my cutter of choice was a snowman! Even though there isn't a lick of snow on the ground (surprising for Michigan), he was calling my name to be picked first!

Grilled cheese with Swiss on top, black olives, blueberries, red bell pepper, sugar snap peas, and Chobani Champions Vanilla Chocolate Chunk yogurt with extra shaved bittersweet chocolate 'snow' on top.

Now, it's your turn! Link up your post using any Christmas or winter themed cookie cutter! Be sure to check out other contributor's links, leave comments, and share the love! Thanks for participating and be sure to watch for the rest of the Christmas Cookie Cutter Challenges! The challenge and linky will be open until Christmas day, so link up anytime between now and then! Thanks for stopping by and participating!

<center> <a href="http://www.zoeslunchbox.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="150" width="150" alt="Zoe's lunchbox" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z88/coverats/blog/cutters.jpg"/></a></center>

Pizza 'Make-A-Meal'

Okay, so who doesn't love Melissa & Doug stuff? Seriously.. They really have the neatest stuff! Today we had the opportunity to sit down and play with a new product called Make-a-Meal Sticker Pad. You get to pick a place setting (there are 15 in the pad), then create a meal from over 225 stickers from every food group, including beverages and desserts. It was such a fun thing to play with. We played restaurant with ours and I ordered special meals that the kiddo had to create and deliver! What fun. On her own, she made an elaborate pizza meal on her sticker pad, so pizza lunch it was.. slightly deconstructed for fun, but pizza nonetheless.

Deconstructed pizza with bagel thins and pizza sauce on the right side, and in the left side is raspberries, turkey pepperoni, black olives, red bell pepper, and Bocconcini (mozzarella balls) sprinkled with Italian seasoning.

Daddy got sent to work with pizza sticks, packed in our Easy Lunchboxes, to have his own pizza fun too. Skewers of Bocconcini, turkey pepperoni, green pepper, and black olives, toasted bagel thins, pizza sauce, and extra 'toppings'.

And, in case you are interested in those Melissa & Doug sticker pads, they have lots of other fun ones too. I'm after the Sweets & Treats and Habitats ones next! So neat!

This lunch is linked up to Bent On Better Lunch's Lunch On A Stick Day post!

Monday!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We got some more shopping done, some things around the house straightened out, and we got the kiddo's Christmas pictures taken, which is a major event, in and of itself. But, it is done.. see below..

Cucumber, Trader Joe's veggie straws, turkey/cheddar sausage, raspberries, marshmallows, and lemon yogurt.

Did I mention we had Christmas pictures taken? Well, yeah.. as usual, it went well thanks to our regular photographer at JCP Portrait Studies. But, I'm finding each year brings new challenges. This year? The eye roll. But, this is my daughter. If any picture captured her, it's this one. It isn't the prim and proper, sweet as pie, angelic face that we are actually sending in our cards.. it's this one. The "really, mom?" eye roll. And that's why we love her!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas..

This post has a few of the first Christmas/winter themed bentos I've done. Such fun to use my cookie cutters in a new and exciting way!

Red and green bell pepper, Colby-Jack cheese, provolone snowman w/ mini chocolate chip accents, homemade English muffin croutons, and vanilla pudding with mini m&m's, or as my daughter calls them, M-O-Ms.

Vegetable bean soup w/ Parmesan 'snow', mozzarella, cucumber, red, green, and yellow bell pepper, potato chips, and a mini candy cane, the candy of choice for our little one.

Snowflake toasts w/ mayonnaise, provolone, and pepper, salami, roasted cashews, cucumbers, red bell pepper, salami, grapes, marshmallow twist, and more provolone 'snow' for good measure!

In these lunches...