Meow

The last few weeks have been really stressful and I think it shows the most in our mornings.  Out-of-state meetings, multi-day out-of-town funerals, crazy work schedules and extra homework on top of dark skies until 8am have made things feel even more nuts than usual.  I still try to be creative with the lunches because it's a nice chance to show Monstro that I care even when things are unpleasant.

Initially this lunch was going to be a jack-o-lantern sandwich much like Sherimiya's but I got distracted by some pumpkin spice cream cheese at the store.  YUM!  To adapt, I made a sandwich on baguette (Monstro's favorite bread.  I think he just likes saying the name) with the cream cheese, mini chocolate chips, raisins and super thin apple slices.  He loved it!  He wanted another one for snack, for dinner and for breakfast the next day!  I gave the sandwich a little cat face using string cheese whiskers, red grape mouth and apple eyes and nose.  On the side he had some grapes and the side car had the rest of the string cheese and some tomato wedges from Gramma's garden.

Since the next lunch was pretty boring I'll just post it here.  Monstro wanted left over chili so that part was easy.  He also wanted ANOTHER one of those sandwiches (what have I done?!).  I gave him a nice full thermos of hot chili and wrapped it in a piece of Insul-Brite to help keep it warm.  Then I gave him his precious sandwich and a side of cocoa roasted almonds.  Apples, raisins, "pumpkin concentrate" and the tomato in chili counts as a real meal right?!

I have a feeling we'll be seeing these sandwiches until the cream cheese runs out.  And, if you've never tried the cocoa roast almonds you should!  They're a healthier form of crack!

Attack of the Mummy

I saw a really cute mummy pizza over at Happy Little Bento and wanted to pack one for Monstro.  I LOVE the way it turned out and he was really happy to find pizza in his lunch!

I used english muffins, sauce that I had frozen previously, green pepper from Gramma's garden and string cheese.  I lightly toasted the muffins then gave them a little coat of sauce.  I peeled the string cheese and broke it into the lengths I needed to fit the muffin (smaller ends got eaten or used to "wrap" the top of the head) and gave him green pepper eyeballs.  After arranging the strips of cheese I put them back in the toaster oven until the cheese started to brown and look all old n dirty (yumm, old dirty cheese lunch!).  He hasn't been eating much so I gave him just a bit of carrots and green pepper strips on the side.

I generally like to use the same types of foods in my own lunch that I do in his.  It makes it easier to plan and cuts down on time in the morning.  So, I have string cheese pizza too but without the mummy faces.  I used leftover bits of carrot and green pepper to top my salad and made a divider out of the foil I baked the pizzas on to help keep the salad and pizza separate.  I took a Honeycrisp apple too for a little snack.

  I've got psuedo-plans for a full body zombie bento but haven't worked out the details.  Hopefully it's as awesome in the box as it is in my mind!

Gah! Put that chainsaw down!!!

When I saw the severed finger lunch on Adventures In Bentomaking I knew I'd need to make those fingers soon.  I feel like this is a pretty easy way to "up the ante" on Halloween lunches.  And, for a hot dog it was pretty darn yummy!

This is the Monstro version of the work/road-trip meals I posted on Facebook Wednesday.  He's got "yakisoba" made from wheat spaghetti, broccoli and shredded carrot coated in Mark Bittman's sauce recipe.  I added quite a bit of sriracha instead of the Tabasco he calls for because we like it spicy.  I topped it with "zombie spines" (that's what we call green onions) and 2 severed fingers.  The fingers didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped- I cut too deep in the knuckles and since I don't have a tear-drop cutter my nails are little boxy.  But, they looked pretty good, I think, and the teriyaki-esque sauce they're cooked in adds a lot of flavor.  I didn't feel like they really needed to simmer for 20 minutes either.  Mine took on a good color and were flavorful after only 12-15min.  I also gave a sidecar of fruit cocktail with a little pear jack-o-lantern on top.  I guess the noodles were the talk of the lunch table and he was really excited about the spiciness!

Pikko (from AiBento) let me know that you can make up a large batch of fingers and just keep them refrigerated in the cooking liquid for later.  I can confirm it as well because that's exactly what I did.  This meal also keeps really well as a whole.  I packed my 3 trip boxes just after this one at around 8:30am and put them in the fridge until it was time to leave at 2:45.  We didn't even open them up to eat until around 6pm and they were still delicious!

I think I might have to make some toes next!  Maybe with pepper skin on the toenails for a nice pedi!

Zombies ate my lunch...

I've been wanting to ramp up the Halloween-ness of Monstro's lunches for the last week or so.  They were starting to get a lil boring so I decided to break out the felafel from the freezer and use them as a base for something a little more fun. 
Like this guy:

Isn't he just the cutest thing?!  Like I said, he's a frozen felafel patty that I re-heated from my stash.  There are 2 more stacked under him too.  I used red bell pepper for the brains and the dripping blood.  The eyeballs and teeth are white cheddar cheese held on with mayo.  The pupils and mouth are nori held on with sriracha.  His hair sprout is a piece of green onion slit thinly and soaked in ice water to curl the ends then tucked into a small cut in the top of the patty.  I wish the detail had turned out better in the picture because the brain is really cool looking!  It was textured almost like the stiff side of velcro and was flecked green and red.  Rad!

For the rest of his lunch he has what we've decided are carrot fingernails, yellow peppers and a side car of fruit cocktail with some extra fresh pear tossed in.  Apparently the cheese was terribly offensive to him (even though he LOVES this cheese) and he refused to eat anything that it had touched.  :-(

Since Monstro was on Fall Break this week and we'll be out of town for a funeral, tomorrow's post will be the last until Tuesday.  Have a great weekend enjoying tasty, fun food!

Pizza AND Cookie?!

Oh Monstro is a lucky kid today! 
Last week he asked for us to pick up a pizza cookbook at the library for him.  The Dad found one and Monstro promised he'd make us pizza.  We ended up with "french bread" pizzas (it was really a giant Italian loaf) and they were delicious!  We used sauce I put up in the freezer, shredded cheese, a sprinkling of oregano and some pineapple bits.  Since the Dad doesn't like tomato we put some tiny orange tomatoes on our half.  We had quite a bit of pizza left so into the lunch it went!

He's got 2 squares of pizza, with some avocado strips tucked in at the bottom, a spider filled with yellow pepper hearts and carrot flowers plus a red pepper ring on top.  I tightened the gaps with broccoli and gave him a no-bake cookie for a special treat.  I was hoping he'd eat it last but I was clearly mistaken...  Everything was gone except the broccoli so *surprise* cookies trump broccoli!

I'm trying to convince the Dad to "guest post" while I'm gone this week.  I've got a meeting in Chicago and he'll be on lunch duty!  I can't wait to see what he comes up with! 

What are your suggestions for Dad-packed lunches?

Multi-tasking with a uni-tasker

I'm firmly with Alton Brown in the anti-uni-tasker camp.  Okay, that's not really true - I'm easily seduced by kitchen gadgets.  But I try!!  I try to avoid buying things that only perform 1 function.  Back in the days of Ichiban's online store I got a cute little gyoza crimper.  I used it once for gyoza and it's been in a drawer ever since.  I found out I prefer actually folding the gyoza instead of just making it look like I folded it!

Then I saw someone with "faux-za".  I was meandering through flickr for inspiration and saw sandwiches sealed with a gyoza crimper.  Such simple genius!

For Monstro's Friday lunch I wanted something a little cuter than what lunches have been for a bit.  I made smiling dumpling sammies!  They're just turkey inside a piece of bread smashed with the crimper.  Then I used a punch to make the faces from nori and stuck them on with tiny dabs of honey.  I cut some carrot bears and layered them over 1/2 of a lemon cucumber from our garden (probably the last with the chill that's been coming on) and snugged everything up with broccoli and yellow and red peppers.  He was being extra cute in the morning so I gave him a little treat too.  We have small cups of coconut and peach gel from Saraga (my favorite Asian market here).  You just peel off the lid and squeeze it into your mouth so they're really good for lunch desserts.

This box is a find I am really happy with.  They had them at Marsh during Back To School a few years ago for $1.50/ea.  It has a clear lid with a smiley face that clicks on with the latches.  "Clicky lid" boxes are my fave!

Make-ahead bento

I had to be at work SUPER early Thursday morning.  Well, early for me.  I imagine it's a pretty normal work time for most people but that's the blessing/curse of working retail!  Since I didn't want to give up even one minute of possible sleep in the morning I made our lunches the night before. 

Mine was full of delicious left overs and some fresh produce.  Monstro's relied on some stashed items and yummy fresh veggies.

I found some really cool bell peppers at the farmers market Wednesday morning.  They hadn't fully turned red yet but were well on the way so they had all sorts of red, green and purple striations.  AWESOME!  That's one of my favorite parts of bento - having a way to really showcase the beautiful NATURAL colors of food.

Monstro's pre-packed lunch has spider lasagna that I made and froze a while ago.  He's topped with a little mushroom and held in place by broccoli.  There are slices of yellow peppers along the bottom and the fun striped peppers laid out over some more broccoli.  On the side he's got a pumpkin pie ghost - also put up a while ago. 

I was worried that this would be too small for him but he said it was plenty.  He also made sure to let me know that the left over broccoli was only left because one of his classmates touched it.  Silly kids.