Bento: Tent Camping

Our kids LOVE to go camping!  In honor of the long weekend, today's lunch is tent-inspired.
The apple is for snack time.
In the Laptop Lunchbox, there is a sandwich with a fruit leather "tent" and fresh spinach "trees."
The top right Laptop Lunch container has raisins and a homemade eggless blueberry muffin nested inside.  (We take homemade mini muffins for snacks and breakfast.)
The top left Laptop Lunch container has "nutty popcorn."  My mom used to make it when we went camping when I was a kid, and I've continued the tradition with our kids.
The printable tent actually came from Etsy along with an editable camping-themed birthday printable set.  It wasn't free, but it sure is cute!
Happy camping!

Bento: Cupcake Sandwich

We have birthdays on the brain around here.  Last week, the twins had their birthday, but we haven't had the opportunity to properly celebrate, so we're going to do that this weekend.  As I prep for the weekend, I decided that our big boy's favorite sandwich really isn't so far from a cupcake. 

This peanut butter and honey sandwich on fluffy potato bread has a cupcake cutout with apple and raspberry fruit leather (adhered with peanut butter) and sprinkles (adhered with honey swirls). 

Grape tomatoes, banana chips, string cheese, and a peanut butter bar for snack time finish out this Laptop Lunchbox. 

The free printable with the "cherry on top" came from Nourish Interactive.

Bento: Back to School

Free printables from Skiptomylou.org and Amanda's Parties To Go made my job easy this morning!

 

This back-to-school lunch was  Laptop Lunchbox with an Aussie apple (Instructions here), a peanut butter and honey sandwich on potato bread with a fruit leather "apple" made with 2 different types of fruit leather (raspberry and...apple of course), grape tomatoes with fruit leather "stems & leaves" attached with 1/2 of a toothpick, dried cherries, and some cheese crackers.  This was a very quick and easy to assemble lunch!

Bento: Preschool Boy Girl Twins - Ladybug and Frog

Our almost 3 year old twins have started a Parents' Day Out program once a week, and it's time to get back in the swing of things in lunch-packing!
The larger purple and green containers that hold the lunches are from Laptop Lunches.
Inside are an assortment of silicone muffin/cupcake liners.  I picked up the ladybugs and frogs on clearance at my local grocery store, some on sale at World Market, and some on Amazon. I need to find some food picks to match the bug and frog theme to use in the cheese and tomato type foods.
This lunch is filled with banana chips, blueberry yogurt covered raisins, cheese crackers, Tillamook cheese cubes, Cheerios, and a grape tomato. 
Our little people like to try lots of different things, but won't eat a full serving of much of anything.  Their school is peanut and tree nut free, so I rest easy about my little guy, but I would be in huge trouble if our oldest attended school there.

Dawn’s Easy Focaccia Bread

I recently saw a recipe that said to take your favorite bread recipe and mix in "toppings" to create a more nutritious and "portable" snack for your kids on sports days.  Many Focaccia recipes say to start with a pizza dough recipe.  I did a little of both and tried two different versions of Focaccia today, and I'm in love.  It was SO easy, and it tastes amazing.  I'll be trying a cheddar and jalepeno version as soon as these two loaves disappear (which may be tonight at the current rate.)

Dawn’s Easy Focaccia

               

3/4 cup warm water

1 active dry yeast (envelope)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sugar       3/4 tsp salt

3 Tbsps olive oil + more for topping

1 t garlic oil

1 T garlic powder

***Sundried tomato & feta  (3 T sundried tomato paste + ½ C crumbled feta)  Kalamata olives would be good with this, too.

***Rosemary & Garlic (2-3 T fresh rosemary + 6-10 roasted garlic cloves)

Directions:

1          Pour 3/4 cup warm water into small bowl; stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes.

2          Brush large bowl lightly with olive oil. Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, garlic powder and salt in processor. Add yeast mixture, oils, and mix ins; process until dough forms a sticky ball.  Add additional flour 1 Tbsp at a time as needed to be able to handle it, but it should still be fairly sticky.

3          Let rise in a well oiled pan for 1 and ½ hours.

4          Preheat oven to 400.

5          Press your finger gently all over the top of the loaf to form divets.  Pour 1/3-1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the top.  (Traditional Focaccia has a great deal of oil.) Sprinkle cheese, herbs, or sea salt as desired.

6          Bake for 25 minutes

ENJOY!