0 Bento #277 - "I Made It" New Series and Linky

This is the first in a little series I'd like to call "I Made It" - lunches made by Ella herself! After all, she's a mature second-grader now. :-) I really love that she is interested in healthy eating, and making her own food.  Encouraging good food choices starts early.  And hey...gives me a little break once in a while! We might even make this a weekly thing.  Ella also is taking her own pictures, which she loves!

Her entree is garlic-buttered egg noodles tossed with fresh cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Her favorite melons.

And the carrot-berry smoothies we made together.

Bento #277 - Egg noodles, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and a smoothie.

Want to see more from Ella? I'd love to see your kid-created bento lunches!

An InLinkz Link-up

In this lunch:

0 Bento #253 & #254 - Sandwich Plates

Today we have a two-fer, because neither is really creatively worthy of their own post, haha!  Above is a bento plate with a turkey breakfast patty sandwich and one of the 4 tomatoes that my plant produced on my back porch. Yum!

Bento #253 - Turkey patty sandwich, homegrown organic tomato, organic celery sticks and ranch dip.

Next is another bento on a Greentainer stainless plate. The black beans are from a Mexican place near us, and they are super tasty, and E loves them.  I also tackled a huge watermelon that this slice came from.  I don't think I've cut up a larger watermelon in my life!  Good thing at least two of us in the house like melon.

Bento #254 - Turkey & cheese sandwich on White Mountain bread, fresh watermelon and black beans.

0 Bento #231 - Bruschetta Chicken Bowties

Dinner for lunch!  Fresh tomato basil bruschetta with a splash of vodka makes the sauce, seared organic chicken thighs and tossed with whole wheat farfalle pasta and Parm.  REALLY good, and easy.  I'm using my two-tier Greentainer, which holds a ton!

Side salad of artisan lettuce and dressing.

...with a LOT of focaccia croutons (I emptied the bag, and it was more than I had expected!) Craisins round it out.  It's craisins again because I keep forgetting to get different dried fruit for those times when I'm out of fresh...like NOW.  That's going on my shopping list as I type.

No snack because they are doing a special one at lunch today.

2 Bento #215 - Spinach Ravioli & Fruit Salad

These days I almost always make stuffed pasta like ravioli using my so-called "dumpling method."  It's just a really quick and easy way to make it, especially from frozen.  Seven minutes flat.  No waiting for a bunch of water to boil and then baby sitting it to make sure it doesn't burst open.  It's just a lidded skillet, a little oil and 2/3 cup water.  Cover and cook on high for seven minutes, and voila!  Done, lickety-split.

We have a small container with herb parmesan topping.

Lots of fruit salad with some water fowl friends.

And snack is saltines with honey roasted peanut butter.

The stainless container is a Greentainer which is two-tiered, which is nice because it keeps everything pretty compact.

Bento #215 - Pasta Prima spinach ravioli and herb parm, and fresh fruit salad.  Snack - Saltine crackers and honey roasted peanut butter.

0 Bento #202 - Vegetarian Yellow Day

Ladies & gentlemen, I think we have a theme.  Today is Yellow Day in Ella's class, and so I planned a nice lunch with all yellow(ish) foods. At least she's getting her daily doses of vitamins A, C & D. Yesterday happened to be Blue Day, but I really couldn't think of all that many natural blue foods (and I don't like to use artificial dyes.)  I let her go through the school lunch line that day for the first time, after discussing her choices.  Instead of popcorn shrimp, she decided to get a vegetarian Caesar salad, peas & carrots, mac n' cheese, cornbread and her ubiquitous water, which is her favourite drink in the entire world.  That sounds good to me!

This lunch is packed in a Greentainer.  It's a two-tier, so what you see above is all combined into one container.  I have a little yellow "Y" in the spicy yellow lentil hummus, with a sweet apricot salsa topping from Eat Well Enjoy Life that we just discovered at Costco.  Delicious!!  They also have edamame hummus which is also great.

Her snack below (which isn't yellow, unfortunately) is packed in a separate Greentainer.

Bento #202 - Fresh corn-off-the-cob with sea salt and cracked pepper, sliced yellow bell pepper, yellow lentil hummus, Pasta Prima five cheese ravioli with herb Parmesan and extra-virgin olive oil.  Snack:  Mozzarella cheese and fresh strawberries.

One last note - if you haven't "Liked" Bentobloggy on Facebook, you are missing out!  I just started doing some Facebook-only giveaways for my fans (simple, simple!)  Click here to check it out.  Oh, and please vote for Bentobloggy on Parents.com!

0 Bento #189 - Rainbow Farfalle & Romanesco in Garlic Butter

Today we have some simple (but beautiful) all-natural rainbow farfalle which is tossed in some cauliflower, romanesco and garlic butter.  

I'm also using a new stainless steel container from Greentainer!  In fact, I will be doing a Greentainer giveaway in the next week or so.  They have some awesome and versatile lunch containers made of stainless steel that are really easy to use and care for.  I'm loving them so far!  The one I used above is a two-tier variety.

Bento #189 - Fresh frozen blackberries, organic cucumber slices, rainbow farfalle pasta, cauliflower & romanesco.