April Fools' Day

Everyone knows I bake... 

and decorate cakes.

So here's a no sugar, gluten-free cupcake! 

For reals!

But look closer...

Its actually a meatloaf muffin with mashed potato swirl.

Use your favorite meatloaf recipe. 

I used half 95% lean ground beef and half ground turkey

so there is minimal fat/grease in the muffin tin. 

I tinted mashed potatoes with a little bit of food coloring,

you can also use beet juice for natural coloring.

Swirl and top with cheese as "sprinkles" 

St. Patrick's Day lunches

C's lunch on Thursday: Lucky Charms, 

Wheat Thins, mozzarella cheese, jello and apple.

Check out that checkered pattern! 

Jenn from Bento for Kidlet has a great, super easy tutorial.

Today's St. Patrick's Day lunch:

Chicken fried rice, strawberries, banana chips and mint M&Ms. 

I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning so her official St. Patrick's Day lunch is uninspiring.

Pi Day!

It's this mama's turn to have a fun lunch! 

Its Pi Day! 

3.14

I love math...

and I'm geeking it out Greek-style! 

Pi Pita... Greek gyro meat, with tzatziki (cucumber yogurt sauce

feta cheese, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes, blueberries, 

and banana chips with a few 60% cacao bittersweet Ghiardelli chips for my sweet tooth

Check out a couple pi here lunches from some of my bento friends:
Mamabelly's Lunches with Love
Bento for Kidlet
Diana Rambles
BentOnBetterLunches

St. Patrick's Day Bento and another Blog Hop

Later this week, it'll be my husband's second birthday... Okay, not really... but his name is Patrick. :) And I think he's like .0025% Irish or something. And he's a saint. Okay, not really... but at least he has to deal with me so that makes him a saint in my eyes (and to anyone else that know me! ha!).  Anyway...
Here was C's lunch on Monday:Mini shamrock sandwich bites, shamrock green pepper, carrots with ranch and cheese stick
rainbow fruit mini kabobs, key lime yogurt, and some Lucky Charms marshmallowsin an EasyLunchbox 
Now I have a big collection of cookie cutters. In fact, I have 4 shoe boxes full of cookie cutters. It could be 5 or 6 even, as I have cutters that I keep in their original boxes. But I don't have any St. Patrick's Day related cookie cutters. So I used a mini heart cookie cutter and arranged them in a circle. Voila! a shamrock!  
We're doing the St. Pat's Day blog hop a few days early, so you can sort through different ideas and maybe do one for Friday or Saturday lunch! Saturday night will be corned beef and cabbage at our house of course! :)

Without further ado, you guys gotta check out Keitha's St. Patrick's Day lunch. (and the next blog, and the next one, then the next one, and so forth)  
I can't wait for Saturday. I love corned beef and cabbage!  Do you?

week of bentos - Mar 5-9

Monday:

C's lunch: Chawanmushi, deli rolls

green peppers (w/ranch) and strawberry applesauce

in a cute yellow bento box.

My lunch: Udon noodles w/deli rolls in a small cute pink bento box

(not pictured: apple)

We had dinner at my mom's house after church and she prepared chawanmushi, spring rolls, lumpia, and udon noodles. So we had leftovers the next day. Chawanmushi is a Japanese steamed egg custard soup in a teacup, my mom added shrimp and mushroom, two of C's favorite foods.  I originally thought that I was going to have the egg soup for my lunch, but C loved it and wanted it for lunch, so I ended up with the Udon noodles instead. 

Tuesday:

C's off day

My lunch: teriyaki salmon with rice, raw brocolli slaw, and carrots 

using Lock&Lock divided container

Wednesday:

C's lunch: hummus, cauliflower, flower cookies

fried SPAM, and garlic fried rice

in a 2-tier bento box

This was another case of C swiping my lunch. She orinally was going to have a sandwich, but as soon as she saw me take out the leftovers for my lunch, she begged for it instead. So instead I had this:

My lunch: raisin bagel with cream cheese, strawberry jam

cauliflower, carrots and hummus

using Easylunchbox

Thursday:

no school for C

My lunch: burger salad and cottage cheese in an EasyLunchbox

I topped the salad with warmed leftover chopped burger. I made a quick dressing using a tablespoon of mayo, ketchup and mustard. and it tasted like a burger without the bun! Next time, I'll add a spoonful of relish in the burger dressing mixture!

week of bentos: Feb 27 - Mar 2

Monday:

C's lunch: tuna salad on Goldfish bread

Cheetos, pickles, and fruit cocktail

packed in EasyLunchBox

My lunch: tuna salad on Sandwich Thins

salad, pickles and fruit cocktail 

packed in red bento box

Tuesday:


C's off day

My lunch: leftover Chicken Spaghetti

cauliflower, yogurt and a little bit of chocolate

packed in disposable/reusable divided container

Wednesday:

C's lunch: chocolate sunbutter on Goldfish bread

goldfish crackers, banana and yogurt

packed in a pink bento box.

My lunch: ham and cheese omelet

banana, hummus, w/goldfish bread (toasted at work)

packed in a red/yellow bento box.

C's lunch: ham and cheese sandwich squares

yogurt and veggie chips

packed in a Lock&Lock divided square container.

My lunch: ham and cheese sandwich squares

yogurt (sans sprinkles) veggie chips and banana

My daughter stole my banana from my lunch box and put it in 

her lunch box while in the car right at the preschool drop-off.

Friday:

C's lunch: Dr. Seuss Bento

My lunch: leftover Udon noodles from a favorite Korean/Japanese restaurant

w/hardboiled egg and yogurt

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, a group of fellow bento bloggers decided to do another Blog Hop! At the end of this post is a link to the next blog, then at the end of that post is another link to hop on to another blog, and so on and so forth.

I was going to have this fun rhyming poem for this post, but I am not creative with composition, so I'll cut to the chase and here's the lunch:

Cat in the Hat

Green Eggs and Ham

 "Gogurt" in a red silicone ice pop maker with white strips of paper inspired by Cat's Hat. Hardboiled eggs dyed in green w/au natural ham (I went with Green Eggs AND ham instead of Green Eggs and Green Ham).  Wheat thins and candy eggs made with white candy wafers and mini green M&Ms. 

Visit Sarah at Bentoriffic for another Seussical lunch!