Angry Birds Happy King (or Queen) Pig

It's always good to have a guaranteed hit to fall back on when no other ideas come to mind. For John that's Angry Birds and for tomorrow he's getting a happy King Queen Pig (Rovio says it's a king but John insists she's a she so therefore a Queen).
The pig is bologna and cheese and is joined by Scrabble Jr Cheez-Its, green grapes and green LifeSaver Gummies.

The Return Of Om Nom

John spent some quality time this morning playing Cut The Rope on the iPad so of course he asked to have Om Nom for lunch tomorrow! It's not his first Om Nom, but it's significantly more awesome than the first one.
Om Nom is a ham & cheese sandwich. His name, candy, candy holder and cut line are monterey jack cheese. He also has Fig Newtons, Frito Scoops and salsa.

Toy Story Alien Dude -- with Step-By-Step Tutorial

A friend of mine asked me to do a sandwich art tutorial and Pin it for him to send to his sister but as wordless as possible so he could maybe understand it, too. (He's a college student and has to "read too much as it is! LOL!) I asked if he had anything in particular in mind and he asked for "that three eyed dude from Toy Story." Works for me and will definitely work for John because he loves all three Toy Story movies!

I think it's pretty self-explanatory except for maybe Step 7. That brown thing getting ready to cover the Alien Dude is a napkin I used to soak up some of the still-wet food gel. I typically don't need one with the natural colors, but I went for the gel this time because I knew I wouldn't be coloring it in completely so it would be minimal amounts of artificial coloring.
After the lunch got put together completely, this is what John will have in his lunch bag tomorrow:

"Alien Dude" ended up being ham and cheese. Under him in John's Toy Story container are yogurt raisins and star crackers. He also has a Yoplait Splitz and a Tummy Tickler Apple Juice bottle.

Into The Woods On The Steps of the Palace -- Part 5 of 5

You may have noticed that the previous three installments of Into The Woods Week were all parts of the potion the witch requires from The Baker and The Baker's Wife to reverse the curse she places on their family tree. Today we get the fourth and final part of the potion -- "the slipper as pure as gold" that ends up belonging to Cinderella!

The slipper is actually grilled chicken with cheese melted on top of it. It's sitting on a salad with tomato steps spread with fat free fried beans to make the slipper get stuck. In the top are two hard cooked eggs and salsa.
I couldn't find a clip from the original show of the song this came from, but I did find an excellent rendition from a 2006 production done at New York University:

K for Kangaroo

The letter of the week for John's class is "K" which gives me the perfect excuse to finally use our Kangaroo cutter! The "K" and kangaroo are turkey sandwiches on whole wheat. "angaroo" is cut from colby jack cheese. There are also grapes and Life Saver Gummies included and he'll probably get a yogurt cup or tube on the side, as well. (John said I have to point out that his first classroom for the preschool he and Danny loved so much was the Kangaroo Room so this is extra special awesome.)

Into The Woods Agony -- Part 4 of 5

For Day 4 of Into The Woods Week I wanted to cover Rapunzel and her "hair as yellow as corn" but her part wasn't very big one in the original Broadway version (it was expanded in later updates/revivals). She does, however, figure prominently in one of my favorite songs from the show and appears at the beginning of the clip:

The background of the image is a thick microwaved egg sheet sorta thing. Broccoli is the ground on which Rapunzel's tower and the two princes are standing. The tower, princes and words are cut from provolone cheese. Her hair is colby jack. The words are sitting on ham in order to stand out more and there's additional ham and broccoli in the top two containers.

April Showers

The weather here is absolutely disgusting. This morning not only did we have April rain showers, but there was also some snow and ice mixed in. Gross gross gross. The only good thing is that the April showers gave me my inspiration for John's lunch for tomorrow!

The boy and "A" are Biscoff & jam sandwiches on whole wheat. "pril" is cheddar cheese and the umbrella and clouds are monterey jack. On the side he has a couple of Spring Oreos and an apple.

More Plants vs Zombies -- Chomper!

A simple yet vicious little lunch for Monday with the Chomper plant in the form of a roast beef & provolone sandwich on whole wheat, a Mini Slim Jim, grapes, Life Saver Gummies, and "chomp" cut out of colby jack cheese. We went grocery shopping yesterday and I picked up a special pack of yogurt (a new flavor of Yoplait Splitz) for John but I didn't take a picture since John will probably see this post and I don't want to spoil the surprise :)

Into The Woods Giants In The Sky -- Part 3 of 5

Day Three of Into The Woods Week features Jack, the Giants' beanstalk, and Jack's wish of reclaiming his beloved Milky White (the "cow as white as milk").

In the top left is a golden egg (a hard cooked egg that soaked in water tinted with natural coloring).
In the top right is a sugar free jello cup.
Jack, Milky White, and the beanstalk (with castle) are turkey breast painted with natural colors sitting on a light creamed spinach and mushroom concoction.
"Giants In The Sky" is written onto Milky White and is also the title of Jack's big song:

Into The Woods Hello Little Girl -- Part 2 of 5

Day Two of Into The Woods Week has Little Red Riding Hood picking flowers after having it suggested to her by the Big Bad Wolf. (He would have also been in the EasyLunchbox, but he's already on his way to Grandma's house!)

The top compartments have a hard cooked egg and a mini salad, just to get the boring stuff out of the way first. All of the fun is in the large compartment!
I used natural food coloring to draw Red's outline onto some flax meal bread and cut her cape out with a paring knife before filling it with salsa. Under the bread is some leftover chicken and salsa from last night so I thought the added salsa would be perfect for her "cape as red as blood."
"Hello Little Girl" is cut out of provolone cheese and is also the title of the song my inspiration came from:

Into The Woods in EasyLunchboxes -- Part 1 of 5

I know ... I know ... I'm fickle when it comes to what my favorite musical is. I've already declared that to be Les Mis but somehow when I made that declaration I wasn't thinking about Into The Woods ... or a whole slew of others. So let's just scrap the whole "favorite" aspect and face the facts that I'm a musical junkie.

This work week I'll be doing all Into The Woods starting with the title image from the libretto.

The logo image is on reduced fat cheese on broccoli & cauliflower standing in for the woods. In the top left are two hard cooked eggs. The top right has rolled up ham and a cheese stick cut in half.

If you're not familiar with the show, here's a clip from the 1988 Tony Awards that doesn't really do it justice but is a good introduction. I strongly urge you to find the dvd, rent (or buy) it on Amazon Instant or look it up on Netflix so you can watch the whole show and fall in love with it ... or fall in love with it all over again. Rob Marshall is set to direct a film version but as of yet they still haven't cast it so it will be a while.

Plants vs Zombies Lunch

I can only assume that John got hooked on Plants vs Zombies because of YouTube since neither Tom nor I have had the game installed on anything until this morning after John was already off to school. We're all zombie fanatics so it really comes as no surprise that the game I've heard so much about would appeal to him.
The zombie is ham and cheese. The peashooter and sunflower are American cheese. There are grapes on top and jelly beans on the bottom -- green ones to stand in for the peas and a few red ones because what good is a zombie lunch without something bloody? The lunch is packed in a simple green sandwich box found in the dollar bin at CVS.

Love The Earth for an Earth Day Hop

Earth Day is coming up this Sunday. 

To celebrate, it's time for another Blog Hop for the Bento Bloggers & Friends!

John decided that he wanted this picture for his special Earth Day lunch.

So here he has it as a Biscoff and Jam sandwich!

Love The Earth is cut from colby jack cheese. Also included are smiley fruit snacks, Mini Slim Jims, and Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish.

Now, if you've ever wondered what happens to all of the scraps from John's lunches, head over to What's In Mom's Lunch Bag? and find out what happened this week with them!

Compost Lunch for an Earth Day Blog Hop!

I get asked quite often what I do with the scraps from John's lunches since his sandwiches and cheeses and whatnots are almost always cut into shapes rather than being left whole. In honor of Earth Day and the Bento Bloggers & Friends Hop I thought I would share with you how I "reduce, reuse & recycle" lunch scraps with what I call a "Compost Lunch!"

All of the scraps from John's Monday & Tuesday lunches I gathered into plastic bags. The bread is currently off-limits for me with Phase 1 of South Beach so it's going into the freezer for future use in meatloaf or as breadcrumbs.

The ham, turkey and cheese I dumped onto a plate and chopped it up a bit. Not all of the cheese is truly Phase 1 Friendly because it's not reduced fat, but there's such a small amount of it that I don't think it'll be too detrimental.

About half of it turned into toppings for a salad. I left two hams slivers unchopped because to me they looked a little like worms and we all know worms are good for compost ;)

The rest of it got mixed into the recipe I use for Flaxseed Bread/Muffins.

Ingredients: 3 Tbs flax seed meal, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 packet Splenda, 1 tsp Mrs Dash Table Blend, 1 large egg, 1 tsp canola oil

Directions: Put the dry ingredients into a bowl. Stir. Add the egg and oil and mix well.

At this point I put the flax mixture in a large coffee mug and stirred in the remaining bits of ham, turkey and cheese. Microwave on high for 1 minute 15 seconds. Take out, invert onto plate.

All together and ready to go with some added tomato slices in the dish with the "Compost Muffin":

Now go check out the next stop on our Earth Day Blog Hop and see what wonderfulness BentOnBetterLunches has come up with!

The new Icy Bird from Angry Birds Space

John was having fun picking out pictures to base the rest of the lunches for the week on.

This came from a picture of a t-shirt he saw of Froshh -- one of the new birds from Angry Birds Space who freezes the pigs when he hits them. 

Froshh is ham and cheese on whole wheat. The frozen pigs are monterey jack cheese. There are also Angry Bird Gummies and a clementine "planet."

Make sure you come back tomorrow. The Bento Bloggers & Friends will be hopping again with an Earth Day theme!!!

"Utopia" & The Return of Captain Jack

If you're a fan of Doctor Who then this probably won't need much of an explanation. 

If you're not, you should be so you'll be able to understand my Doctor Who lunches.

In my Easy Lunchbox, Captain Jack is riding the TARDIS on a nice big salad. Jack & the TARDIS are both painted on 98% Fat Free Turkey Breast. It's not easy painting on lunch meat and the colors on Jack ran a bit so the detail is moot, but I think you still get the basic idea. "Utopia" is 2% cheese sitting on a smidge of ham leftover from one of John's lunches. The salad is comprised of lettuce, hard cooked egg, tomato, low fat cheese and red onion. I couldn't find a container the right size for my dressing so I squeezed it into a snack size baggie and that's in the top left container. The top right has the same jello cup I've been carting to work every other night this week.

Lilo & Stitch

To say that John loves Lilo and Stitch is probably one of the biggest understatements going.

We watch the cartoon series wherever & whenever we can find it.

He has all of the movies.

He has action figures.

He has just about every "cousin" memorized by name, talent and original number.

His birthday party in June is going to have a Lilo and Stitch theme (and custom invitations)!

And tomorrow he will have a Lilo and Stitch lunch!

The dynamic duo are turkey sandwiches on whole wheat. 

They're standing on grapes.

"LILO" is Scrabble Jr Cheez-Its.

"& STITCH" is monterey jack cheese.

The little guy on top? Johnny invented his own "cousin" for Stitch: 

An experiment made out of green grapes who shoots fire out of his back (the grapes are held together with a toothpick and the flames are slivers of carrot!).

Homemade Lunchable in Lock & Lock

John wanted a fun surprise for lunch and from the look on his face and how much he fun he seemed to have with it, I think it worked! We typically don't buy Lunchables because I feel they're a huge waste of money and he can't take most of them to school anyway because of the whole nut issue and most of them seem to have a Butterfinger or some other nut-wary candy in them. I think John may have had three in his entire life so far. I still love the idea of the build-em-yourself sandwiches and thought he would have fun with them (and he did) so here we are!

Pepperoni, Pretzel Crackers, Monterey Jack Cheese, a few chocolate eggs, and grapes (plus a Capri Sun) in a  Lock & Lock box. After such a successful breakfast this morning and now the "awesome fun" lunch, I'm going to be hard-pressed to come up with something for dinner! He'll probably want peanut butter & jelly .... again ....

Game of Thrones - House Baratheon

Tonight is my last night of work until Saturday! HOORAY!!! It's also the last Game of Thrones appearance for a while with the House Baratheon crest:

The sandwich is Biscoff and jam on wheat with shortbread cookies and LifeSaver Gummies on the side. I'm also taking to work a dish of melons and fruity yogurts.

Game Of Thrones - House Lannister

Tonight I'll be taking to work a lunch with mashed potatoes and a small cheese sandwich. Also in the box are some eggs and cottage cheese.

Yep. It's another Game Of Thrones lunch -- this time House Lannister. Most of the House I could do without (yep -- Joffrey rears his stupid little incest-born head again), but I absolutely adore Tyrion Lannister!  Peter Dinklage plays him in the show and is beyond amazing and totally deserved his Emmy & Golden Globe. Love love love Tyrion, his sellsword sidekick Bronn and whore girlfriend Shae. Tyrion's birth family? Meh. His apparent family of choice? Awesome.

Game of Thrones - House Stark

 

One of my awesome friends clued me in to Fab.com when they were featuring a great deal on cute little bento stuff. One of the offerings (well, four, if you want to be technical) were awesome triangle boxes in pink and green by Natural Lunch Time. I got John the green and myself the pink and that's what I decided to use to pack tonight's Game of Thrones House Stark lunch!

Hard cooked eggs and colby jack cheese in the snack box.
House Stark ham & cheese sandwich in bottom tier, oranges segments in the next tier up, Walker Shortbread in the lid (which also snaps to so it's really like a third mini section when wanted!)

Game of Thrones - House Targaryen

I had a hard time getting into Game of Thrones when season 1 first aired on HBO. Each time I tried I ended up trying to multitask and you just can't. Game of Thrones needs (and deserves) as much attention as you can give it. When I saw that season 2 was about to start I decided to give season 1 another try via the HBOGO app on my iPad and I'm so glad that I did! I got hooked quickly and ended up watching the entire season in three days! I definitely have my least favorite characters (uhhh ... hello Jofferey ... you can die any time now) and when it comes to my favorites Daenerys Targaryen ranks right up towards the top of the list if not at the very top. Seriously ... the girl is an unexpected badass in the best of ways.

(Note: I haven't read the books and probably won't for a while so as to not spoil the show for myself assuming it follows at all closely. The show is that good.)

I drew the Targaryen crest on cheese and placed it atop some spinach & cheese ravioli in my Easy Lunchbox. In the top sections are a small salad (I'll get dressing at work) and vanilla yogurt covered raisins.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail & A BBF Bunny Hop

John decided one day late last week that we needed to watch an Easter movie. We had none. Netflix had a couple of VeggieTales offerings but then I remembered seeing as two-dvd set at the drugstore down the block of the original Peter Cottontail movie and it's recent sequel ... for less than $6! PERFECT!!! Of course he loved both movies and wanted multiple lunches based on them which ended up being perfect timing for today's Bento Bloggers & Friends Bunny Hop!

The original Peter and his pilot Antoine. Bologna sandwiches with Annie's Snickerdoodle Bunnies, a cheddar stick, jelly beans, carrot bits and a clementine.

Irontail was in both movies and the bad guy and in the sequel he joined forces with Jackie Frost (and her penguin guards). The sandwiches are Biscoff. Jackie and the bush the disguised penguins are hiding behind are American cheese. Also in the box some grapes and candy eggs.

Peter Cottontail Junior from the sequel with his friend Munch (the mouse) and Flutter (the bird). The sandwiches are ham & cheese loaf and Peter Jr is American cheese. In the compartment with Peter Jr there are also grapes, jelly bean "grass" and pepperoni bites for "dirt."

Now continue hopping down the bunny trail by clicking on the picture below to see what fun stuff is happening at Mommy + Me Lunch Box! Then keep clicking from there!

Easter Parade for a Bunny (Blog) Hop

When the Bento Bloggers & Friends started talking about doing a Spring/Easter-related hop I knew I wanted to participate with both lunch blogs, but didn't think I'd necessarily want a cutesy lunch for myself with bunnies and whatnot. Then I got thinking of all of the Easter-related movies out there and just about all of those are either highly religious in nature or kid-flicks ... but not Easter Parade!

EP was released in 1948 starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire with music by the magnificent Irving Berlin. It touted itself on being "the happiest musical ever made" and while that may no longer be true, it still makes for a pretty great "Easter" lunch!

Judy and Fred are cheese on top of fettuccini. 

Also in my lunchbag but unpictures are a clementine, grapes, a hard cooked egg and some bunny & egg fruit snacks I swiped from John.

Now hop on over to see what fun is going on over at 

Keeley McGuire Blog by clicking on the cute bunny butt below!

Les Miserables in Fit & Fresh Hot Lunch Dish

Thanks, Hugh Jackman.  You had to go and start tweeting about production stuff from the now-filming movie version of the absolute greatest musical ever (and the only one I've seen multiple times on Broadway). I know I've said that Chess is one of my all-time favorites, but Les Miserables is my absolute favoritest of favorites and it must be lunch.

Packed in my Fit & Fresh Hot Lunch dish, I've got some Uncle Ben's Roasted Chicken Ready Rice topped with ham scraps leftover from John's sandwiches and the logo drawn & painted onto a slice of swiss cheese. It was totally unintentional but I realized as I was plugging the values into my Weight Watchers app that chicken (rice) + ham + swiss cheese = chicken cordon bleu (which, while not actually French, it sounds like it is). I just thought that was funny. Oh, and I'm sure I'll have some fruit or a salad with me just in case I get the extra munchies.

We went to the circus!!!

Yesterday we surprised John with a trip to the circus! We only stayed up to the intermission since it was long and he was getting restless but there were some highlights for him. Before it all started (and during intermission) they had the main floor set up with all sorts of bouncy houses and face painting and pony rides and such. He LOVED the pony ride!

We also got a picture of him with the Ring Master before it all started!

 And his favorite act of all was the "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" stacking chair acrobat!

 All of which (well, minus the Ring Master), brings us to tomorrow's lunch!

The chair acrobat and ponies are cheese sandwiches. "Circus" is cut from colby jack. At the bottom is a combination of pepperoni bites and turkey logs. There will also be some fruit on the side -- probably a clementine. Maybe a yogurt.

And right before we left? A picture with Mickey & Minnie who came to see the show, too! (This will get him his juice in a Tummy Tickler bottle with the Mickey top!)