this week in bento boxes

Pin It My poor little Kirsten was sick most of the week last week, so she didn't get to enjoy many of these lunches at school. She did eat them at home though, so they were still thoroughly enjoyed. We had to bring her to the doctor's to get her an antibiotic and I'm praying she's better for Halloween on Monday. That being said, it seems that my poor little Cam is now getting very sick. Isn't that always the case? He's not quite as sick as she's been, so I'm praying he doesn't get any worse. Anyway, here's this weeks bento boxes:



Here is one I made for her morning nutrition break. I had an idea to decorate her banana with cute stickers to make it more fun and I just love the way it turned out. She really loved it too, so it will definitely be something I'll do again. She also got a container of yogurt with rainbow sprinkles and a container of chocolate goldfish crackers - yum!



We've been having so much rainy weather lately, I figured this little rainy day bento would be appropriate. This one turned out super cute. She got half a ham and cheese sandwich. I used an umbrella cookie cutter and made an umbrella out of bologna, cheese, and fruit leather. I used blue flower sprinkles for the rain drops. She also got a container of baby carrots and a container of blueberry raindrops.



Here's a simple afternoon nutrition break bento. Half a rotisserie chicken sandwich. A container of sliced plum with pomegranate seeds and a cute little pick. Because she wasn't feeling good, I gave her a very special treat too - a homemade raspberry swirl cheesecake. They are sooooo good.



This was another simple morning nutrition break bento. Just a container of blackberries with a few sliced starfruit, a cereal bar, and a container of yellow jello. Super easy, but I thought the colors were really pretty.



And another really easy morning nutrition break bento. A strawberry smoothie - I make huge batches ahead of time and freeze them in these wonderful little freezer jam jars. I take them out in the morning and they are defrosted by her break. Plus, they help keep the lunch cool. I also packed her a cereal bar and a container of white peaches with a cute little pick.



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fun food friday: ghosties

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This isn't the fanciest of lunches, but Kirsten helped me make it so it's pretty special to us. She doesn't often help me make the fun food fridays, but when I was going to make this particular lunch she asked if she could help. Absolutely! She was very proud of the outcome. Here's how this lunch was made:

Ham sandwiches cut into ghost shapes with food marker faces. A silicone cup of yogurt with Halloween sprinkles. Red and yellow ghost apples around the plate.



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halloween faces

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This craft was so easy. While Kirsten and I were walking through the dollar store she spotted a bag of halloween craft foam shapes. She really wanted them badly so she could bring them home and decorate them. I happily obliged. We tried to get Cam to make one too, but he was too busy playing with his cars and didn't want anything to do with craft time! Here's how we made this:

What you'll need:

craft foam halloween face - if you can't find them you could make your own
glue
canvas
markers
googly eyes
glue

Directions:

1. Glue your Halloween faces onto your canvas.
2. Using your markers, draw faces on your Halloween shapes.
3. Glue on some googly eyes too.



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owl lantern

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Here's yet another craft to satisfy my owl obsession. Kirsten's bedroom is in the Pottery Barn Kids Brooke theme which is a lovely combination of owls and trees. It's really adorable. I had these leftover paper lanterns from her last birthday party and when I saw this idea in the Disney FamilyFun magazine, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. I didn't put a light in mine, it's just hanging from her ceiling with some fishing line. It looks really awesome. Here's how I made it:

What you'll need:

paper lantern
craft foam
2 buttons
scrapbook paper
glue
glitter glue pen
scissors
circle paper punch
white cardstock
fishing line

Directions:

1. using your circle paper punch and your white cardstock, punch out 2 eyes for your owl.
2. using your craft foam, cut out 2 feet, 1 nose and 2 ears for your owl.
3. using your scrapbook paper, cut out 2 wings for your owl.
4. glue all these cut pieces onto your owl. The feet will glue onto the bottom wire and the ears will glue onto the top wire. Add some buttons for the eyes too!
5. using your glitter glue pen, add a decoration on your owl's belly.
6. hang from the ceiling using some fishing line.



Idea from Disney FamilyFun



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this week in bento boxes

Pin It There's no real theme to this week's bento boxes. A couple Halloween themed ones, a Fall one, the adorable Very Hungry Caterpillar and another smoothie lunchbox. Just a mish mash of stuff, but cute nonetheless. Here's this week's lunches:



I just love how this one turned out. My kiddos just love this book and we've done several crafts and activities throughout the years, not to mention Cam's first birthday party in the hungry caterpillar theme. Kirsten got half a ham and cheese sandwich. The caterpillar is made from a cherry tomato and sliced cucumbers. Mozza and cucumber eyes and cucumber nose. A container of green jello and a container of cucumber leaves.



A fun morning nutrition break. An orange, banana, vanilla smoothie with some homemade chocolate zucchini bread. A sliced orange bird-like creature with icing eyes, and fruit leather beak and feet.



This was a great afternoon nutrition break bento. Colourful shaped pasta sauteed with butter, parmesan cheese and peas. A homemade pumpkin pie tart and some orange segments.



Here's another Halloween bento. Red and yellow apple ghosts with food marker faces and craisins. A cheddar babybel cheese with jack o'lantern face and crackers. Marshmallow ghosts made with food marker.



And another Halloween bento. Definitely not my best work but I was running out of Halloween ideas. A container of vanilla yogurt with Halloween sprinkles, a container of baby carrots and a cereal bar with a halloween cookie for a treat.



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fun food friday: the good witch

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I really love the way this turned out. I used the pumpernickel bread which I used for the spiders last week and this time neither of the kids ate it! Oh well, the loaf is finished now so I suppose I don't have to torture them with it anymore! This was really easy to make and super cute. Here's how I made it:

Witch - 2 spinach tortilla cut into face shape using scissors. I filled the tortillas with cheese and chicken and made a grilled quesadilla. I cut a piece of pumpernickel bread into a witch's hat. She was cheesestring hair, icing eyes, cucumber nose and food marker smile.

Pretzel stick and cheese broom and a mini silicone cup of ketchup for the quesadilla. My kids love dipping everything in ketchup!



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paper plate owls

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I know I've been posting more than usual lately. That's because I've done so many fun things with the kiddos and I have to post them while the season is still appropriate! Here's a craft to satisfy my owl obsession. I had some leftover mini brown paper plates from Cam's last birthday party and I figured they would be absolutely perfect to make owls with. This was a craft just Kirsten and I did together. We tried to get Cam to join us but he was having too much fun playing with his cars! Here's how we made these:

What you'll need:

brown paper plates - or paint white ones brown
scrapbook paper
white cardstock
scissors
glue
paper punch
orange craft foam
buttons and other embellishments

Directions:

1. find some cute scrapbook paper and cut out 2 wings and a body for your owl.
2. using your circle paper punch and white cardstock, punch out 2 eyes
3. using an extra brown paper plate, cut 2 ears from the edge of the plate.
4. using your orange craft foam, cut out 2 feet and 1 orange beak
5. glue everything on your owl and add any embellishments (like the cute felt flower) you wish







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mini pumpkin pies

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Yummy, yummy, yummy. I just love pumpkin pie. I had some leftover pie crust and pumpkin from making my pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and I wanted to use it up. I didn't want to make big pies again, so I had an idea to make mini pumpkin pies, or pumpkin tarts. These were delish. James liked them even better than my original pumpkin pies because there is more crust to pie ratio, lol. These were really easy to make and I'll definitely be making them again. Of course, I had to cute-ify them somehow to I used my mini halloween/fall cookie cutters and cut shapes out of my remaining dough and put the shapes on top of the pie. Super cute!



Here's the recipes I used:

You could use some frozen pie crusts (2) and let them defrost. Once defrosted, roll them out and cut your circles out from them. If you like homemade crust, I like this recipe:

Ingredients:

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 lb tenderflake lard
1 egg, stirred slightly
1 tablespoon vinegar
7/8 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Stir the flour and salt together.
2. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the shortening is in pea size pieces.
3. In a measuring cup, combine the egg and vinegar.
4. Add enough cold water to make one cup.
5. Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, adding just enough to make the dough cling together.
6. Stir the water in with a wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly, then gather the dough into a ball, and separate into 6 portions.
7. Cover and refrigerate for one hour, you can chill overnight, covered, providing you leave it at room temp for 15 mins before rolling.
8. Lightly flour surface and roll dough out into circles. Using a 4" circle cutter, cut circles out of your dough and place in a greased muffin tin.
9. Using the remaining dough, roll it out and cut cute shapes out of it. These shapes will be placed on top of your mini pies once the filling is in.

For the pie filling:

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 can (28 oz/796 mL) E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) evaporated milk

Directions:

1. Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Add E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt - stir until well combined. Blend in milk. Pour filling into your mini pie shells in your muffin tin. Place your cute cut outs on top. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and continue baking 15-20 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.



Recipe for pie crust from Tenderflake
Recipe for pie filling from E.D.Smith



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this week in bento's: halloween style

Pin It Yup, I'm still having fun with this. Kirsten loved all the halloween bento boxes she got in her lunch this week. I must admit that I probably have as much fun making them with her and she does eating them. I figure I have to make her school lunches anyway, I might as well have a little fun while I'm doing it! Here's some bento's we made this week:



I just love this one because I have a slight obsession with owls. I made 2 mini circle sandwiches with turkey and cheese and decorated them with mozza cheese and food marker eyes, carrot nose, cheese wings and carrot legs. A container of orange jello - remember I make 1 package of jello ahead of time and it fills 4 of these containers so I can put jello in her lunchbox anytime. I also sliced a red apple and made a yellow apple moon cut out for it.



Here's an adorable bento for her morning nutrition break. I decorated a yogurt drink with athletic tape and googly eyes to look like a mummy. She also got a peeled orange with a food marker face and a cereal bar.



And another adorable morning bento. She got a container of cheerios and I peeled the label of a small container of yogurt and drew a ghost face on it. She also got a banana with Boo on it - I used a toothpick to write the word.



Here's a bento for her afternoon nutrition break. Half a ham and cheese sandwich with little mozza ghosts. A container of applesauce with halloween sprinkles and a container of baby carrots.



Another great afternoon nutrition break bento. She got a ham and cheese sandwich on flatbread. I used a mini pumpkin cutter to make a jack o'lantern in the bread and used food marker to decorate the face. A container of baby carrots and a container with rice crackers and a cheddar babybel jack o'lantern with food markers.



Here's another morning nutrition break bento. She got a cereal bar, a container of vanilla yogurt with a fruit leather ghost face and a container of pretzel sticks with 2 cheesestring ghosts. To make the ghosts I just sliced a mozza cheesestring in half and used a food safe marker to draw on a face. Just slightly start peeling the cheesestring at th bottom. This helps give it a better ghost-like appearance and also helps Kirsten start peeling it too!



And lastly, another afternoon nutrition break bento. Half a chicken and cheese sandwich with fruit leather bats. A container of applesauce with halloween sprinkles and a container of sliced cucumbers using my awesome crinkle cutter.

Here's some of the stuff I used to make these lunches:



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fun food friday: the itsy bitsy spider

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Here's a fun food friday I made for the kiddos with a halloween-ish theme. They had never had pumpernickel bread before and I wasn't sure whether they would like it or not. Cam ate it and liked it and Kirsten didn't. I've still got a whole loaf to use up, so Kirsten might find herself having to try it again, lol. This was super easy and fun and this is how I made it:

Sandwich made on pumpernickel bread cut into circle shape. Icing eyes and pretzel stick legs. Mini cracker "sandwiches" with peanut butter. Pretzel stick legs and food safe marker faces. I used mozzarella cheesestrings for the spider's web. Then they have a mini silicone container filled with bugs - aka raisins. Super cute and easy.



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coffee filter and watercolour fall tree

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This craft is absolutely gorgeous! I originally got the idea to make this craft when I saw this gorgeous craft on Patch O' Dirt Farm last year. So pretty. I was inspired to make my own with the kiddos. Instead of just having the branches, I decided that we would glue everything down onto a large piece of canvas so I could display it in my living room this Fall. It looks amazing and the kiddos are so proud of it. Here's how we made this craft:

What you'll need:

watercolour paints
paint brushes
large canvas
tree branch
coffee filters
glue
scissors

1. let your kiddos paint some coffee filters with your favourite Fall colours - we used red, orange, yellow, green, brown. Allow your coffee filters to dry.

2. using your scissors, cut the painted coffee filters into small leaves.

3. glue a tree branch onto a piece of canvas and allow to dry. You may need to put a heavy book or something on top to keep the stick down while it dries.

4. glue your beautiful Fall leaves onto the branch and allow to dry.







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here's what I'm thankful for....

Pin It Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. I really have so much to be thankful for, but these guys are definitely at the top of my list. Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian readers out there!









And lastly, my family. This is a terrible photo, but it was the only one Cam would sit still for. I was using my tripod and this was the first photo I snapped. It was so badly underexposed the only way to salvage it was to turn it to black and white. I fixed my camera settings to take more, but Cam wanted nothing to do with more pictures. Little boys!!



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this week in bento's

Pin It Happy Sunday everyone! Canadian Thanksgiving is tomorrow so it's a long weekend for me. I LOVE long weekends and I love Thanksgiving. We're having our dinner tonight at my parent's house and I made my pumpkin pies yesterday. I can't wait. Here's some bento's I made for Kirsten this week. I'm still having a lot of fun with it!



This was a really cute one I made for Thanksgiving. 2 little circle sandwiches with turkey lunchmeat on them. Icing eyes, carrot nose and legs and a red apple gobbly thing. Sliced green, yellow, and red apples for the feathers. Baby carrots and applesauce with leaf sprinkles. I love it!



Here's another bento for her afternoon nutrition break. I made a wrap on a whole wheat tortilla filled with ham and cheese. It's held together with a cute little lion pick. A sliced orange with a cute fruit leather face and a container of jello with a fruit leather heart. Kirsten really loves jello so I've been making some ahead of time to put in her lunch. I package of jello will fill 4 of these trays and then I have them ready to go for her lunch.



Here's another one for her afternoon nutrition break. Half a ham and cheese sandwich. I put a cheese maple leaf on top and little leaf sprinkles. Sliced cucumbers using my crinkle cutter and a container of red jello.



Here's one for her morning nutrition break. A banana with a message. You can use a toothpick to write a message in your banana peel and it will darken so your child can read the message. Now Kirsten can't really read, but she knows I love you. She really loved it. A container of yogurt with sprinkles and a container of cheerios.



And another one for her morning nutrition break. A frozen blueberry pomegranate smoothie. I make huge batches ahead of time and freeze them in these wonderful freezer containers. They will defrost in her lunch bag. Sliced kiwis with a cute pick and some cheerios.



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