Laptop Lunch - Halloween Bento 1

Our little man LOVES the Laptop Lunch box.  I was in a big hurry this morning, and I wasn't feeling super creative.  I struggled.  I know he loves apples that are "fun."  I didn't have time for checkerboard apples, and the Laptop Lunch box is so much bigger than his other bentos, that I don't have room in his insulated lunch box to add an Aussie apple.  I cut the apple in quarters, removed the core, and used cookie cutters and a knife to make pumpkins and bats. 

The container next to it has vanilla yogurt swirled with about 3/4 teaspoon of raspberry jam and 1/2 teaspoon apple butter.  I put the yogurt in the freezer while I finished getting everything else together so it would stay cold longer.  There's a piece of bat fruit leather on top.

The 3rd compartment holds a honey wheat, peanut butter, apple butter, raisin sandwich, and 3 "bat" pecan chocolate chip cookie cut outs. 

The green container has ranch dressing in the dip container and cherub tomatoes.

Bentobloggy is giving away a Bento Pack!

If you don't already follow bentobloggy.com, you should consider it.  Right now, she's doing a giveaway for a bento pack; it would rock if one of my readers (or I) won!  You will frequently find her latest posts in the blogroll on the right side of this page as well.  Good luck!

Laptop Lunch - Lunchbox arrived!

Like many of you, I was hesitant to spend $30 (even with the 10% discount coupon code "earleyfam" that also donates a portion of the proceeds to area elementary schools) on a lunchbox for my 5 year old.  I wanted to make sure that he would like the bento lunches, and that it was something that I liked, too.  Here we are almost 2 months in to this venture.  Our little man loves it so much that on one morning when I made a sandwich, used a Lunch Punch, tossed it in his normal sandwich container, and threw a few other items (banana, etc) into his lunchbox, he came home and asked if he could help me make his lunch for the next day.  I asked what he wanted, and he said, "First, you start with a bento box...."  I knew at that point, that we had a "winner." 

So, here is his first lunch in his Laptop Lunch.  Peanut butter and honey sandwich on honey wheat bread, sliced in 1/3's, colby jack "leaves", and a provolone ghost fill the first compartment.  The second container has a lid, and it holds pretzel sticks and kettle corn. The 3rd container also has a lid, and it's full of grapes, mandarin oranges, and dried blueberries.  (He said he needs this every day.)  The 4th compartment holds the mini dip container of Ranch dressing, another colby jack "leaf", baby carrots, and skewered cherub tomatoes.

 

Easy Bento

I won't claim that this is my most creative Bento. I was in a big hurry this morning, and this was easy and what I had on hand.  The top contains a tortilla wrap with peanut butter, apple butter, and banana slices, yogurt covered cranberries with a fruit leather "negative" that I had leftover from a recent bento (I keep the extras and "negatives" in a Ziploc for mornings like today), raspberry yogurt covered pretzels, white cheddar Cheezits.  The bottom has skewered red grapes with another leftover fruit leather negative, and some cheese sticks.

Bento - Sleeping with the Fishes

In honor of Halloween, I made a "sleeping with the fishes" bento lunch for our son.  I considered putting a note on it that said something cute about not sleeping with the fishes, but since he's just learning to read, I decided that the adult that helped him to read the note may not find the same humor in it that our son would have.

 Peeled grapes as eyeballs, boiled all natural kosher hotdogs, boiled onion, and ketchup as "fingers." Slice the hotdogs, cut the knuckle slits, and remove the nailbeds prior to boiling.

 Golden raisins with a headstone fruit leather, fruit snacks with a bat fruit leather, mandarin oranges and maraschino cherry as a "flower" for the deceased. (I saved the "negatives" of the fruit leather in a ziploc for use on tomorrow's lunch.)

FoodieBlogroll.com

Learning As I Sew is now included on FoodieBlogroll.com!  You may notice the Foodieblogroll box on the lower right corner of the blog.  Stay tuned for special features and contests.

Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan - Week 1 Day 5

Steak with Roasted Vegetables....My recommendation would be to make steaks how you like them.  We prefer to grill ours, and we favor filets.  The vegetables were very good, although I did add fresh bell peppers from our garden, and I used garlic olive oil instead of regular olive oil.  I think the bell peppers added great texture and flavor contrast.  The carrots and onions were so sweet, and the bell peppers and the sauce added a nice little "kick."  We loved the vegetables.  When we make steaks, my focus is usually the steaks and a starch: rissotto, potatoes, fresh bread, etc.  This was a fantastic addition to a normal steak dinner.  It was easy, yummy, and good for us!  I'm including 2 pictures of tonight's dinner. One is with the bell peppers that I added, and one is without.  Not only did they add flavor and texture, but they add nice color, too.  My sauce wasn't as thick as the one shown on the RealSimple website, and I was out of white wine *gasp* (I know, it's atrocious.)  I used sherry instead of the white wine in the sauce.  In the end, I'll add the vegetables and sauce to my "keep" recipes. 

Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan - Week 1 Day 4

Pork Cutlets with Spicy Noodles were simple and very good.  The noodles were a little too spicy for our little ones, but if you pull some out of the pot for them prior to adding the pepper, it would be perfect for the whole family.  My husband is a huge fan of baby bok choy, so I fully expected that he would want to add some to this dish when we make it again, but I was wrong!  He loved it as it is.  I will say that we've found that we don't like shiitake mushrooms that have to be reconstituted, but we do like the ones in a jar.  They aren't as bitter and are less pungent.  I kept the pepper intact and put it in my husband's dish as opposed to slicing it.  He tends to like things spicier than I do.

Laptop Lunches Coupon Code!

So, I'm just excited, and I can't insert the coupon code (earleyfam) for the click-through link yet, BUT if you want the amazing BPA free Laptop Lunch box or accessories for 10% off, enter "earleyfam" as the coupon code during checkout, and part of the proceeds will be donated to Austin area schools! That's a discount for you AND a donation to a school!

Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan - Week 1 Day 3

I'm a bad blogger.  A very bad blogger.
I made the Turkey Burgers with Creamy Romaine Slaw that I was "supposed" to from Real Simple's Four-Week Dinner Plan, and it was YUMMY!  Easy, yummy, and overall, pretty good for you.  I forgot to take a picture before each and every one of us cleaned our plates.  If you go to their website, you'll see this image:

But I thought you should know that I suck.
Anyway, we used King's Hawaiian "The Original Hawaiian Sweet" Sandwich Rolls.  They were perfect with these burgers.  I did serve them with pickles on the side, but I didn't serve chips or fries; they simply weren't necessary.  Being the "spicy" girl that I am, I added a little Walkerswood Jonkanoo sauce and some extra pepper (and went easy on the salt), and they were very good burgers.  My husband loved them, and my 5-year-old ate an ENTIRE burger.  They were really good.  So good that I've added them to my "What's For Dinner?" app on my smartphone.  Now, if I'm in the grocery store, and we see ground turkey meat on sale (or a burger just sounds good), I can pull up the recipe on my phone and "add" the items to my grocery list!  LOVE it!  If you have a recipe that I should try (and potentially add to my "What's for dinner?" recipe box, send it to me.  I'd love to try it.