Late Summer Butterflies

So, I know it's not really butterfly season, but I girl can be hopeful that the warm weather will stick around just a bit longer, right? I'm not ready to let go of summer. So, while there is still a warm, sunny day, butterflies it is, dangit.

Kabobs with whole wheat bread, cheddar jack cheese, turkey, and salami with mustard to dip, cucumbers, and watermelon.

Snack today was butter pretzels, raw pecans, mozzarella cheese, and a Trader Joe's yogurt star cookie.

In this lunch...

The Witches - Roald Dahl Day Hop

Yesterday was Roald Dahl Day, which is celebrated every year on his birthday, September 13th. Not only did I grow up reading Dahl's books and watching films adapted from them, but now I get to share them with my daughter.. and with a little bit of interpretation, lunch! I'm not alone in this, of course, so along with some fellow bloggers, we decided to do a Dahl-icious Blog Hop!

This year, I decided to use one of my favorite books from Dahl, The Witches, as inspiration for the hop. In a previous year, we also used that inspiration to make our own version of vegetarian split pea soup... so yummy and back on the menu this week thanks to some unseasonable cool weather. The Witches, if you haven't read it (and you need to .. just as soon as you are done with the hop, that is), introduces it's main character, and readers, to real witches... dangerous, terrifying, vile creatures that have powerful magic, especially the Grand High Witch! In an effort to rid the world of children, a plan is devised to turn them into mice by luring them in with chocolate and sweets laced with a special potion, Formula 86: Delay action mouse maker. But, these witches weren't expecting one special boy and his very special grandmother!

Cheese sandwich (seems appropriate for a mouse, right?), Hershey's kiss, peas, and creamed maple applesauce. Awe.. look how cute that mouse is!

And, I certainly couldn't forget our own vial of Formula 86 AKA apple juice with this lunch.

Now, it's time to hop on over to the next blog, Bebento-Kids, and see what inspired them! Click through this link or the graphic below!

When you make it all the way through the hop and end up back here, be sure to check out previous year's inspiration, James and the Giant Peach, too!

In these lunches...

The First Day of First Grade

I can't quite grasp the fact that the day has finally arrived. When summer began, I felt like school was a lifetime away, but here we are... the first day of 1st Grade! The time flew... I should have known it would. I find myself both excited for what the year will bring, what changes and growth are to come, and equally sad because every step towards those things sometimes seems a step further away from my little girl. Some days are just harder than others to watch her walk away...

I decided that I would take requests on the first day's lunch, and it should have been no surprise that waffles was what immediately got asked for. Waffles, it is!

Waffles w/ maple syrup, Colby Jack cheese, shredded carrots and a mini marshmallow, along with Silk dark chocolate almond milk and water.

Snack box - tricolor seedless grapes and a nut mix of raw almonds, cashews, dry roasted peanuts, and butterscotch chips.

Lunch, snack, napkin, and drinks were packed in our brand new Pottery Barn retro lunchbag that we were lucky enough to score at a local PB Outlet (thanks Gram). We also picked up a pencil bag that I may or may not have snagged for my own gel pens.. oops. The lunchbox we used today was also from Pottery Barn, but some of the other little goodies can be scored from Amazon in the affiliate links below.

In this lunch...

Happy Bento! Lunches On the Go - Book Review

So, it's pretty clear that I've been on a blogging hiatus, but I can't think of a better way to get back into the groove and get some new inspiration than with this fantastic new book, Happy Bento! Lunches On the Go by Anna Adden of Becoming a Bentoholic.

This book is full of great lunches for the veteran lunch packer looking for some fresh, fun, new ideas. But, it is also a fantastic resource for those just getting started. While the lunches in this book do call for some specific tools, there is plenty of room for improvisation, and also an extensive section on all the types of tools that Anna has and recommends, including a shopping list/links at the back of the book (AKA a great excuse to shop for some bento goodies). Every lunch is broken down in the book with supplies, ingredients, and directions that are thorough and easy to follow. I love the physical size of this book too... it's almost like a pocket guide that I could toss in my purse to reference at the grocery store. In fact, my daughter has taken it on a couple car trips to peruse while we ran errands.
I figured I might as well let my daughter continue flipping through the book to select what lunches to try first. She chose the one from the cover photo, which was simple, fun, and yummy! Sounds good to me. Anna's instructions for each bento are very detailed, so you can easily recreate her lunchbox ideas with ease, but you can modify them based on food preferences or materials on hand, as well. That is what we did!

Our lunch included red grapes, turkey and cheese sandwich (we just used food marker to color the Swiss cheese center), whole grain crackers, bell pepper, and an Oreo Thin for a treat.

There are so many great ideas in Happy Bento, from holidays and special occasions to seasonal and everyday fun. Even some obscure 'fun' days are in this book. How could you not love a book that includes special lunches for Pi Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Shark Week?! As mentioned before, many of the lunches call for specific tools to create the lunches exactly, but you can use what you have on hand to make the ideas your own or use the book as a reference for your new Bento wish list!
For instance, in this lunch below, we modified again, but you can bet we have an hippo cookie cutter on the 'to get' list now! Plus, Anna's ideas reminded us about introducing some new foods. We love edamame, but it's not something either of the kids have had, so we mixed some in with something she already likes and it was a hit.

In our lunch, we used leftover spaghetti with Parmesan, a mix of green beans and edamame, mango and red grapes, and some shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Be sure to pick up your copy of Happy Bento today! Here is the link, as well as to a couple fun tools I used in these lunches...

Kindergarten St. Patrick's Day

Make a green snack for Kindergarten the teacher says, so after narrowing down the green choices with the kiddo, we have lunch and snack fit for the occasion. I really hadn't thought about all the food choices that are green, and there sure are a lot of them! It took some convincing that she didn't need a bite of EVERY green food she came up with. I think I'd need a bigger lunchbox, for sure.While the kiddo has fun in school, mama will be celebrating with some Guinness cupcakes! Bailey's buttercream, anyone? Me, me, me! http://www.zoeslunchbox.com/2012/03/recipe-review-guinness-chocolate.html - in case, you're thinking the same thing...

Butter croissant with herb cream cheese, grapes, green Goldfish crackers, turkey sausage, and a gold chocolate coin.

Spinach, Granny Smith apple, cucumber, kiwi, and green grapes.

In these lunches...