mommy + me lunch box

"Egg Drop" Ramen, with mixed vegetables, mandarin oranges and frozen "gogurt" Butterfly turkey/cheese sandwich (with gummy butterfly) grapes, fish crackers and cauliflower w/ranch dip "Pig in a blanket" (hotdog wrapped in croissant) mandarin oranges, veggie chips, and frozen "gogurt"

Meatballs with salad, grapes and coconut crackers No, its not fun or creative, but Miss C did come home, gave me a hug and said, "Thank you, Mommy, for putting CHEESE on my salad!!!!" ((warm fuzzies)) Love that kid . :)

French Toast Sticks w/maple syrup for dipping grapes, mozzarella sticks and raisins. Nothing magical or fancy about this lunch or breakfast. Breakfast for lunch. But Miss C loved it! I would love to report that her bento came back empty, but she decided she does not like raisins anymore. At least for the moment. Toddlers! 

SBJ Sushi with piches, green pea crips, and strawberry wafers I finally mastered the art of rolling sushi! Sandwich sushi, that is. Thanks to an amazing blog post by Melissa of Another Lunch , a tutorial on how to roll them.  I had tried making these before but the bread fell apart and it didn't seem long enough to creat that spiral effect.  Its all about squishing and flattening 2 pieces of bread together before adding the filling and rolling! 

Miss C's lunch: Ramen noodles with vegetables and hardboiled eggs with applesauce. its actually just 1egg  (I cut 2 eggs in  half and took the  egg yolks out and ate the other halves for my breakfast) My lunch consisted of leftover butter chicken (makhani), rice and stir fried green beans. Miss C came home that day and we noticed that she ate her applesauce but did not eat a single bite of her ramen noodles. Its one of her favorite lunches. We knew something was wrong... sure enough, she ended up with a fever and sore throat that night and missed school the next day. 

Miss C's lunch: SBJ (sunbutter & jelly) w/a handful of candy corn grapes, hummus (chickpea bean dip) and pita chips, and "go-gurt" My lunch:  leftover fried chicken, grapes, hummus and pita chips.

My husband gave me 2 weeks until I get bored with the lunch thing... I'm not bored with the lunches... I just get so distracted and totally slack on blogging about the lunches. My camera is full of pictures, but they don't upload by themselves. I tried the whole once-a-week posting, and I think that just encouraged my slackerness. slackivity. slacker-tendencies. I like to make up words. Anyway, I think I will go back to separate daily posts instead of the weekly summary thing. I will try to post 2-3 lunches a day until I get caught up next week. Here's an easy Pinterest idea... draw jack-o-lantern faces on clementines! What an easy Halloween lunch idea! source: The Princess and The Frog Blog I promise next week will be a little bit more interesting around here!

another non-bento nor food related post... I can cook. I can bake. I can throw parties. I can put up siding. I can design houses and buildings. But I can not sew. I wish I can, but I can't. Or I think I can't. I don't have a sewing machine and the last time I touched one was in 8th grade 16 years ago. I remember making a duffel bag. And I got an A. So maybe I can sew, but just need lessons? Sure. Another thing to add to my life. Then again, I think I'm fine with the fact that I just don't sew. Unless I get a sewing machine for Christmas... hint. hint. Oh, wait... my husband does not read blogs. Oh, well.  I found a couple examples of this no-sew infinity scarf/T-shirt necklace that caught my eye. The "no-sew" part intrigued me.     via Pinterest via thediydish.com The The DIY Dish website above had a video of instructions for these scarves. Basically you take a large T-shirt. Cut into strips, and stretch them. The edges roll in, and,...

My daughter is 4 and she is one of the least picky toddlers I know. She'll eat crab, sushi, mushrooms, and olives. Most of the time rather have fruit than fries. Often, she will not finish a whole cookie and wants to wrap it up to  save later. Once in a while, we'll have a picky streak or just refuse to eat, which is normal for toddlers. In general, Dear Husband and I usually pick our battles, and food is not something we want to fight over. I don't really know if forcing children to eat is the best way to handle picky eaters. I still have this childhood stigma with white milk... When I was 5 (or younger?), I was forced to drink mine until it all came back out. And from that moment on, I cannot stand white milk. While I haaaaate white milk, I do understand the importance of milk, especially with children, so I don't make a big deal and not draw any attention to the fact that mommy drinks water while daddy and Miss C have a glass of milk during dinner. Once, I plugged my...

Monday Sloppy Joe (with eye stickers) with Snap Pea Crisps, watermelon and strawberry wafers. Wednesday: Hotdog Octupus(es? octupi?) over spirals mac/cheese grape kabobs and alphabet Cheez-Its Miss C said "Ew!" at the octupus(es?) at first, then she found out they were made of hotdogs, then she thought it was the best thing ever!  Thursday "Fish" sandwich (with turkey and cheese) over "seaweed" (julienne cucumber) "fish food" (raisins w/fruit snacks), watermelon "star fish",  cheese bubbles (mozz cheese), and Rainbow Goldfish crackers  Miss C absolutely loved this lunch. She asked for it the next My lunch was leftover chicken fried rice.  Fried rice is a great way to use up day-old rice, leftover grilled chicken, and throw in mixed veggies for a quick 1-dish meal! Friday:  "dog bone" sandwiches, Scooby bone graham crackers, Scooby fruit snacks, grapes Miss C asked to have the...

This is totally unrelated to bentos and lunches, but I really like the idea. So if you don't mind, I'll be going off on a Pinterest tangent once a week.  A friend of a friend started up what's called "Pinday". Its a weekly post of different inspirations found on Pinterest .  I wrote about Pinterest where I found the idea of  lunch organization  to streamline my mornings packing lunch. I have a ton of pins... 815, to be exact. While most are dreams and random things, some boards like my "gotta cook" board has 82 pins, the "gotta make" board has 70 pins, and my "gotta bento" board has 40 pins. This "Pinday" idea is a great way to encourage myself to try out the different recipes and crafts that I have saved on Pinterest. I can't wait to share all the ideas and recipes and how they turn out. My first Pinterest-inspired project was my hallway. We have lived in our house for almost 4 years and we barely have pictures and ...

I still have not decided whether or not going to a weekly summary of the bentos or the daily thing... So maybe I'll try 2-3 weeks of weekly lunches and incorporating a recipe day, "Pinday" a weekly Pinterest-inspired meme that was inspired from another blogging friend, and a random day where I can post whatever is on my mind that week. Sound okay to you? Okay. Thanks. :) Here we go... Wednesday Lunch:  Spam and Rice If you've never had Spam, don't knock it till you try it!  The whole rice and Spam thing is so Filipino. I remember having Spam and rice is a rare treat when we lived in the Philippines. Spam is also huge in Hawaii-- I've found Spam musubi  online which is sort of like Spam sushi. Serious yum. We had rice and Spam the night before. The recipe is pretty simple: Fried Spam 1 can Spam 1 egg, scrambled. Cut Spam into 1/4" slices. Coat each slice. Spray a frying pan or use a nonstick pan to fry until edges are brown and heated through...