Fingers On Lips!

Nothing London specific tonight. I'm going back to the episode that started it all for the week: "Fear Her."

Heartland Pasta Gluten-Free Fusilli with diced tomatoes and sauce with provolone; tropical fruit; banana cream pudding snack pack

A Frog On A Log

Frog egg salad sandwich on Rudi's Multigrain sitting on Simms beef stick logs

Monterey jack words surrounded by all-natural fruit snacks

Side containers of broccoli and dip

Double-Decker Bristol VR ... also before the crash!

Not exactly a "landmark" but definitely a famed piece of London, today highlights the double-decker bus -- specifically the Bristol VR. More specifically the one that crashed onto the Planet of the Dead where The Doctor and Lady Christina de Souza ended up meeting the fly-like Tritovores.

Big Ben .... before the crash ;)

The London landmark of the day: Big Ben!

Whovians will understand the "before the crash" bit ... and recognize the Slitheen from Raxacoricofallapatorius peeking out of the bottom right corner (under the dried pineapple bits). Perhaps she's scoping the place out making her big plans for the episode "Aliens of London."

Most everyone else should at least recognize the famous clock tower!

Dinosaurs Love Fruit

Of course, not all dinosaurs love fruit but this one sure seems to!

The dinosaur is genoa salami and cheese on Rudi's Multigrain. He's standing on pretzel sticks while nibbling on all natural fruit snacks hanging off of a Simms beef stick. The sun above him is dried pineapple and there are also raisins .... just because :)

Olympic Blog Hop: A Plea from Whovians

Dear Olympic 2012 Committee:

On behalf of all Whovians I would like to point out that you are screwing with the Space-Time Continuum.

We all saw The Doctor light the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony in the episode "Fear Her." In case you somehow have been living in a hole and haven't seen it, here's a recap:

Now, we don't ask for much. Just don't screw up the dang Continuum! The Opening Ceremony is tonight so that gives you plenty of time to fix things. Well, not plenty of time ... but still ... time.

What you've given us:

Matt Smith carrying the torch

What we MAY be willing to compromise with:

Doctor Whooves -- who looks and acts suspiciously like Ten

But what we really need:

The way it should be. Preserve the Space-Time Continuum!

Sincerely, Me

*-*-*-*-*-*

At least putting the three together makes a decent lunch:

Mac & cheese topped with chicken mixed with pineapple preserves topped with provolone.

Now, I know that the Olympic Committee is all set on their plans and that now we just have to hope that the Continuum doesn't get too wibbly-wobbly as a result of that will or won't happen at the Opening Ceremonies. While we wait to find out (or if you're here after-the-fact because we've all actually survived), take a few minutes to click on the picture below to hop on over to see what delicious flavor got posted on BentOnBetterLunches and then keep hopping from there!

You know that's right!

Olympic Blog Hop: Laff-A-Lympics

With the Olympics Opening Ceremony being tonight we decided it was the perfect time for another BBF Blog Hop! I had originally planned on doing a book-themed lunch for John ... but then I found some old school Laff-A-Lympics episodes online and it was all over.

John wanted a "snacky lunch" laid out like the scoreboard at the end of each round, so here it is:

(sorry for the lousy lighting ... I was having issues)

Yogi, Muttley and Scooby are the three team captains and all made out of cheese stacked on top of ham stacked on top of cheese. "Laff-A-Lympics" is also cheese (he really wanted cheese!). Below the captains are two mini beef sticks, grapes and fruit snacks.

Now click on the picture below to hop on over to see what amazingness got put up on Keitha's Chaos and then keep hopping from there!

(all hop posts should go live Friday morning)

Oh Toooodles!

Tomorrow John asked for a "snacky lunch" with Toodles from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:

Pepperoni, grapes, Fritos scoops, Toodles and "Toodles" out of cheese, and probably yet another yogurt tube since he seems to be a tad in love with them lately!

The Dancing Ood -- The Proclaimers a la Doctor Who

What happens when the greatest cast and crew in recent television history decides to make a video for one of the greatest songs to ever come out of Scotland? Pure bliss!

I always giggle at the dancing Ood so I decided he'd be the one for the lunch!

The Ood is on Maplegrove's Pastato Mac & Cheese (my favorite). "Ood" is on the last of our giant meatballs. All of it is on a bed of sweet corn. In the side container is tropical fruit salad I had stashed in the freezer that, hopefully, will thaw by the time I get it to work!

Stormageddon!

Peasants don't get explanations.

 

 

Just a dog

This wasn't going to be John's lunch for tomorrow. I was so exhausted and irritated and fed-up with everything this morning that I was going to toss some mac & cheese in a thermos container and some sides and call it a day. This was actually going to be part of my lunch but then he got all "Awwww! Aura (our dog)! Thanks, Mom!!!" when he saw the sandwich/cookie cutter out that I couldn't help but give it to him.

Ann Charles' Deadwood Mysteries

Back in March one of the authors I chat with from time to time on Twitter clued me in to an author I somehow hadn't heard of yet -- Ann Charles. She was pretty certain that I would love her books knowing that I love mysteries with a cozy and humorous slant and I love pretty much all things paranormal. I immediately went to Amazon and added her first two books to the ever-growing collection on my Kindle app.
Between waiting for John's bus in the afternoons, walking to and from work with phone in hand, and putting off sleep a little too long here and there, I finally started and finished the first one this week (and the first quarter of the second book in the series).
Before I was even half-way through Nearly Departed in Deadwood I knew I needed to get the main character, Violet, into a lunch.

Clockwise From Top Left:
* cinnamon sugar popcorn tossed with dried pineapple
* marinara sauce topped with cheese "Deadwood" (to be tossed with the zucchini & squash)
* zucchini & yellow squash slices topped with cheese daisies
* italian herb & mushroom risotto topped with cheese boot

I refuse to tell you the significance of  any of it (well, aside from the popcorn & pineapple ... those are just because I want a snack). You'll just have to get the books if you want to know!

Firefly's River Tam

River Tam = the most amazing Joss Whedon creation to date.

A simple salad with River on deli chicken breast and her name cut from cheese. In the top left is some extra chicken breast rolled and held together with a pick and some extra cheese chunks. The right has my dressing.

BTVS: I mock you with my monkey pants!

Happy Bastille Day! Wanting another Buffy lunch, I could have taken from the graphic novels and done a Claudine lunch .... but I took the more fun route and went with the adorable Oz instead.

OZ: Oh, look! Monkey! And he has a little hat. And little pants.
WILLOW: Yeah, I-I see!
OZ: The monkey's the only cookie animal that gets to wear clothes, you know that? You have the sweetest smile I've ever seen. So, I'm wondering, do the other cookie animals feel sorta ripped? Like, is the hippo going, 'Hey, man, where are *my* pants? I have my hippo dignity!' And you know the monkey's just, (with a French accent) 'I mock you with my monkey pants!' And there's a big coup in the zoo.
WILLOW: The monkey is French?
OZ: All monkeys are French. You didn't know that?
WILLOW: No. (giggles)
(http://vrya.net/bdb/clip.php?clip=2497)

Clockwise From Top Left: banana pudding, K-Kritters, banana chips & dried pineapple, veggie cream cheese mashed potatoes with provolone flag and monkey (and banana pick)

Skydiving Judi Dench! Embracing My (Psych) Geekness

Today is "Embrace Your Geekness Day" and even though I don't have to work tonight I was reminded that I should still eat at some point .... so I'm embracing my Psych Geekness! I made a Psych-inspired lunch back in March and ever since I keep thinking up new ideas based of the quirkiness and the geekiness that is my favorite show on USA.
Today's lunch is based on one of my favorite Psych-Out bits: the back-and-forth of Gus and Pierre (who is my favorite guest character):
There will probably be at least one more lunch based on this same clip at some point, but this is my favorite.
This is the one I wish was short enough to turn into a Twitter handle.
This is Skydiving Judi Dench:

You can't imagine skydiving in anything other than an evening gown, either, can you?

And I know that there are probably a lot of folks out there who would disagree that Psych is a "geek show" .... but those same people probably don't catch half of the references and jokes made in any given episode. Besides, they have their own ComicCon panel. If that doesn't scream "geek show" I don't know what would!

Want to see some more geeky love? Go check out the amazing Red Dwarf lunch at BentOnBetterLunches and the Ender's Game lunch at BentoForKidlet!

Embrace Your Geekness Day!

After I had John's lunch for tomorrow all made and posted I found out that tomorrow is Embrace Your Geekness Day! Granted, this is something I personally embrace every day but John is still just a little geeklet-in-training ... but it still deserves a lunch! So he gobbled up the cinnamon raisin bread lunch for dinner and I set out to make a EYGD lunch. It helps that we have a new rule for his use of my iPad and that is "educational games only" except for about 15 minutes a day when we snuggle on the couch and play something like Plants vs Zombies together. One of his favorite apps right now is Earth School HD so tomorrow for lunch he'll now have a lunch based on the little alien dude from the game:

Alien dude dancing after John completes a level!

Bologna & Cheese on Udi's Whole Grain, gf pretzel sticks, Sixlets, grapes, colby stars

Want to see some more geeky love? Go check out the amazing Red Dwarf lunch at BentOnBetterLunches and the Ender's Game lunch at BentoForKidlet!

MST3K

One of the greatest guilty pleasures of all time has got to be Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). If you've never seen it, find it. In fact, I'll make it easy on you and fill you in on a not-so-little secret: YouTube has a crap-ton of the full episodes ... including the classic The Horrors of Spider Island. I have every intention of watching it at work tonight, in fact, with my MST3K lunch!

The bottom section has "island flax bread" -- my normal recipe with some honey ham and pineapple mixed in. It's topped with colby cheese stars, MST3K and our fabulous movie watching trio. There's also a spider pick because, well, it is Spider Island, after all. The top two sections hold some of my favorite movie treats -- frozen grapes in the left and popcorn and (mini) chocolate bars in the right. The popcorn is SmartFood's new Cinnamon Brown Sugar Popcorn and it is absolutely delish! (John keeps asking for more more more!)

Here Fishy Fishy!

A quick and easy lunch - an egg salad fish with Swedish Fish Aqua Life Gummies, grapes, and turkey sticks!

Beetlejuice: Jump In The Line

The inspiration

(I love the combination of chili, mashed potatoes and cheese ... in case you hadn't noticed!)

Firefly's Kaylee

I absolutely adore the character of Kaylee on Firefly (and, of course, the film Serenity)! She's the girly-girl tomboy mechanic who can fix just about anything but still loves things that are fluffy and shiny. QMx captured her wonderfully in their Little Damn Heroes figure:

That figure is what I used for the basis of tonight's Kaylee lunch:

Clockwise from top left: gluten free brownie, sweet corn, leftover chicken wings with ranch, gluten free mac & cheese with provolone Kaylee and colby "shiny" and heart

BTVS: The First Slayer

Look. Lunch. The first slayer lunch. It's The First Slayer. Bite me.*

* Totally an inside joke. If you actually want information on the lunch, leave a comment!

Christopher Moore "Island of the Sequined Love Nun"

I started reading Christopher Moore at the recommendation of a bookstore clerk back when there were only four titles to his name in the store. I will be forever thankful to him as he soon became one of my favorite authors. This week's Story Time Friday is based on one of the books I picked up that day (and still one of my favorites): Island of the Sequined Love Nun.

In the bottom compartment is the pink plane crashed into the island. The sky is dyed mashed potato. The island is chili. The plane and palm tree are provolone. There's also a bat pick peeking out of the tree. That's Roberto and we can all just pretend he's wearing sunglasses since, as it says on the corn above, "he no like light." (It's actually supposed to be "the light" but I didn't have room for "the.") Since Roberto's a fruit bat I thought it was only right to include some fruit so the top right has some grapes for munching.

That's all you get from me. I refuse to tell you anything more. No why or how the plane crashed or why it's bright pink or why there's a freakin' fruit bat or anything ..... except for this: get the book!

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992)

For kicks last night at work I decided to watch the '92 movie version after talking with a co-worker about it and now it's lunch!

Buffy's letter jacket, cheerleading skirt, stake (which kinda blends in color wise but it really is there), and the letters are all monterey jack on top of some sort of generic chicken flavored noodly stuff  (still trying to use up the gluten!).
Don't remember the movie? It's a shame. Granted, Joss wasn't happy with how it turned out because they changed too much of it on him, but it's still a fun flick with one of the best death scenes ever!

Smelly Cat

I had a special request from a friend who wanted to see a lunch from Friends ... specifically Smelly Cat!!! 
Luckily I was able to find an awesome shirt to copy from:

http://www.80stees.com/products/Smelly-Cat-Shirt.asp

Stitch Celebrates The 4th!

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the 4th of July so we've got a festive lunch! Well, festive for Stitch and John .... not so much for poor Myrtle! (Based on this pin.)

Myrtle is bologna & cheese on Udi's White. Stitch is monterey jack.
Under him are grapes. Also included are Frito's Scoops and fruit snacks

Off to Summer School with Sonic The Hedgehog!

Tomorrow John starts Summer School! The district provides breakfast and lunch for free during the summer but we've decided to see if going gluten free helps him out (again) so we're back to regular lunches.

Thanks to Netflix John has become a big Sonic The Hedgehog fan. I don't if he realizes that the game came before the cartoon but no matter -- he now watches the cartoon and plays the game on his iPod Touch. Of course it came as no shock that he wanted Sonic for his back-to-school lunch:

Sonic is ham and cheese on Rudi's Multigrain Gluten Free bread (which is, so far, his favorite). He's holding a "chili dog pick" because, according to John, it's his favorite. On the side are all-natural fruit snacks from Aldi's and at the top are a clementine and Orgran's Itsy Bitsy Bears.

Shhhhhh ....

You're going to forget you ever even saw this so I'm not going to bother saying much about it:

Potato salad, rolled ham slices, cheese & carrot slivers.