0 Bento #276 - Noodles & Wontons

A lunchtime favorite! Chinese noodles with steamed veggies, and chicken cilantro wontons.

Carrots, grapes, and chocolate-covered sesame seeds.

Bento #276 - Chicken cilantro wontons, Chinese noodles with veggies, grapes, carrots, chocolate sesame seeds.

In this lunch:

24 Bento #274 - Talk Like A Pirate Day Samosa Brigantine & Blog Hop!

Ahoy mateys! I be welcomin' ye aboard me ship, Black Bread's Revenge! This be the hour for our second annual Talk Like a Pirate Day blog hop! I fashioned a delicious midday meal fer th' hop - a chicken samosa brigantine ship made 'o red bell pepper, cannons 'o organic grapes, a mast 'o bitty organic carrot, starfish 'n barnacles. Yum!

Me ship sails past a tropical island, led by our beauteous mermaid siren masthead. We have a scallywag stowaway monkey lurkin' 'bout th' sword-speared grapes.

Yogurt starfish  'n tenacious barnacles o' chocolate-covered sesame seeds.

YAAAARRR!! Grub up, me hearties! Samosa brigantine all trussed in an EasyLunchBox, wit' a sea lubbin' walrus Squooshi pouch, Choomee Sip'n-topped carrot n' berry smoothie for snack.

Bento #274 - Suhki's chicken samosas, red bell pepper, baby organic carrots, organic red grapes, yogurt stars, chocolate sesame seeds, and organic carrot/butternut squash/berry smoothie.

Yo ho! Next lunch ahoy! Be sure to check out the next bento on me ship Black Bread's Revenge by clicking the pirate flag below!

After ye've sailed 'round this hop, hang on to yer sea legs! Click 'ere to board t'next ship fer another hop on The Flying Lunchman!

If ye liked me lunch, please be followin' Bentobloggy on Facebook! If ye be interested in last year's shipwreck pirate lunch, click here.

Used in this lunch:

2 Bento #271 - Forgotten Lunch Non-Bento

Do you want to know what to do when your child forgets their lunch, lovingly prepared by you, when you can't get home and go get it?

This morning, I wanted to know too!  The moment before the carpool attendant opened my daughter's door, I heard a forlorn, "Mommy, where's my lunchbox?"  With quick promises to bring her lunch and not to worry, I headed to the closest grocery store that was open at 7am.  Walmart.  You see, it's not really practical for me to go all the way home, since it's an hour round trip with morning traffic and carpool lines.  Plus, I'm pregnant and exhausted.  So, Walmart.

The other day I posted a homemade version of a "Lunchable".  Today I was SO tempted to grab an actual Lunchable and call it a day.  But...I couldn't do it.  Could not.  I stood in the aisle for about 10 minutes looking over what pre-made lunches exist today.  Plastic bread, meat loaded with nitrates, preservatives, HFCS. tons of sodium and everything else artificial.  Even the so-called "healthy" brand option "Active Pack" had added corn syrup and lots of preservatives.

I seriously considered grabbing a pre-made salad bowl, but they all had cubed meat in it which is basically the same as Lunchable meat.  I don't trust it.  That meant it was up to me to piece-meal it.  Literally.

So, here's what I ended up with.

Produce aisle: Snack Fresh fruit/veggie pack.  Includes sliced apples, cubes of cheddar cheese, carrots and a pack of crackers. - $1.98

Deli aisle: Double pack of hard boiled eggs. - $.98

Dairy aisle: Activia strawberry yogurt smoothie drink. - $.88

Total cost: $3.84

Interestingly enough, this is just a little less than hot school lunch costs at E's school.  We attend a public charter school, but we don't get the same government subsidies as other public schools, so all food is ordered in advance and costs $4 per DAY.  And unfortunately, it's not all that great for the price.

This is also the first time in probably two years I've purchased paper lunch bags!  We ran out a few weeks ago when I packed the last disposable field trip lunch, so I did actually need a new package.

So there you have it.  This was a much better collection of foods for lunch than grabbing one of those pre-made lunches.  Though convenient, they will do your body no favors!  And now that I know exactly what to buy and where to get these lunch components, I'll be in and out in 5 minutes, instead of reading labels for 45 minutes!

[non] Bento #271 - Apples, cheese, carrots, crackers, hard boiled eggs and strawberry yogurt smoothie.

8 Bento #252 - Mom's Day Off Bento & Blog Hop

Today's bento lunch was packed by none other than Miss E and her daddy!  I didn't give them any guidance, they could just pack whatever they wanted. And here it is - a PB&J lunch and some yummy, unusual (for me, anyway) extras.

Bento #252 - Organic PB&J sandwich on wheat, Cheetos, organic carrots & dip and organic Gala apple.  Snack - Apple crusher and crackers.

And as I mentioned in the post title, it's a blog hop!  Click here to see what my bento-making mama friends are doing for Mom's Day Off, starting with Marie at Healthy Eating Starts at Home!

1 Bento #230 - 100th Day Bento

Today not only is it our 100th day of school, but it's also Friday - pizza day!  I decided to do English muffin mini pizzas with pepperoni, channeling the zeros.  The kids all enjoy regular visits from Zero The Hero who comes to school to help them learn how to count to 100! S/He also helps the kids learn the concept of zero being a place holder, and other place value concepts.

The pizzas are made with the aforementioned English Muffins, toasted first, then a large spoonful of fresh basil bruschetta, topped with mozz and the pepperoni slices, a special treat.

Our sides are carrots with dip and craisins with more 0s - Cheerios.

Again channeling the whole zero concept is the round container of applesauce.

Bento #230 - English muffin bruschetta & pepperoni pizzas, baby carrots with ranch dip, craisins and Cheerios.  Snack - Applesauce.

0 Bento #228 - Teriyaki Chicken & Blueberries

I'm going to be having a good time experimenting with these adorable little Babybels!  This one below is a little girl with a pony tail.  A little rough because I only had a pairing knife.  I need to get an X-Acto.  The eyes are sprinkles affixed with a tiny dot of cream cheese.

Bento #228 - Aidell's teriyaki chicken, caramelized onions and jasmine rice with sliced green onions, fresh blueberries, organic baby carrots, grape tomatoes, ranch dip and a Babybel cheese.  Snack - Organic pear.

0 Bento #225 - Pizza & Fruit Salad

Oh my word, I'm so far behind in posting bentos!  Today E helped me.  We have TJ's famous Pizza Margherita with the crusts cut off (one because it doesn't fit in the box with them on and two, E doesn't really care for it.)  It's imported from Italy, uses great cheese, a tasty dough and it's fast cooking.  It's one of the best frozen pizzas ever and we always have a few in our freezer.

She arranged her own veggies as well, and decided on both celery and carrots.  Fresh fruit salad is also on the menu.

Snack is a bowl full of Goldfish crackers and a special Rice Krispie Treat, which E also helped me make.  The three of us literally polished off the entire batch in an 18 hour period.  Yikes!

I'm an equal-opportunity bento box user.

Bento #225 - Margherita pizza, fresh fruit salad, celery, organic carrots and ranch dip.  Snack - Rice Krispie Treat and Goldfish. 

0 Bento #219 - Vegetarian Cheese & Crackers

Enter the Bon Ami Giveaway!

Me and my gimpy thumbs are back in bento business!  My poor kid had to buy her lunches all last week (thankfully they really aren't bad, and she will usually grab a salad anyway.)  I decided that I didn't want to pay a $50 copay for 5 seconds so that a nurse could remove my stitches, so I did it myself yesterday MacGuyver-style with a pair of new sterilized cuticle nail clippers.  One-handed, even!  Looks pretty good, but I'm still black and blue over my entire thumb.  

My last few lunches have been vegetarian, not wholly by design.  This bento also happens to be vegetarian.  She's got an assortment of fresh veggies and dip, along with some cheese cubes and saltines.

Dessert is sliced apples (NOT done with an apple slicer...in fact I bought these in one of those pre-cut packages...can you blame me?) and grapes.

We have a special snack of a bunch of yogurt star cookies and an apple sauce.

Bento #219 - Celery sticks, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, broccoli, ranch dip, cheese, saltine crackers, sliced apples, and grapes.  Snack - Yogurt Stars and applesauce.

3 Bento #217 - Heart Ravioli & Grapes

These cheese heart raviolis were the very last of the ones I picked up a while ago in my deep freezer.  They are so adorable!  I put some herbed parmesan cheese in one of the cups, and in the other there is dip for the carrots.

Love these heart picks.

All packed up!  The muffin fits perfectly in that small Snapware container.

Bento #217 - Pasta Prima red & white heart cheese ravioli with herb cheese topping, organic baby carrots, red grapes and dip.  Snack - Homemade banana muffin and a banana apple Crusher.

0 Bento #213 - Fried Rice and Edamame

Last few days have been a little hectic (small cocktail/jewelry party last night) so what could be a simpler meal than fried rice?  It's one of my go-to quick meals.  I almost always make extra rice and keep it in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container.  This rice is made with egg, ham and edamame.

I included a special treat cookie.  I made a batch of these amazing oatmeal cookies at 9pm that night.

Bento #213 - Fried rice, organic carrots, Boursin cheese, grapes and a cookie.  Snack - Banana.

0 Bento #206 - Mac n' Apple Sausage

We have a Planetbox lunch today with Aidell's chicken & apple sausage and Trader Joe's organic white mac n' cheese.  Yummy!  The bell peppers didn't photograph too well, but they are cut in the shape of flowers.

Snack was an apple & banana crusher, (also from TJ's) which was completely new to us.  Also some organic baby carrots and dip.

Bento #206 - Chicken & apple sausage, organic white mac n' cheese, yellow bell peppers, dried blueberries and organic craisins.  Snack:  Organic baby carrots, dip and an apple banana Crusher.

0 Bento #203 - Hello Kitty Onigiri & Thai Chicken Peanut Salad

My version of Thai peanut chicken salad was soooo good!  I made enough for lunches for all three of us.  I picked up some Amylu Caramelized Onion Chicken Burgers for the first time, and they are delicious!  They are all-natural, gluten-free and excellent.  I cubed a couple of patties and sauteed them in a bit of canola oil, along with some ginger-garlic paste, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil and a small handful of halved roasted peanuts.  In about 7 minutes I had a savory-sweet salad topping that everyone loved.  I had initially planned to do lettuce wraps, but I realized that all my lettuce was small-leaf variety.  This would be awesome on Boston/Bibb/Butter lettuce.

I also made a Hello Kitty onigiri of plain, cooked rice.  She is decorated with a few decorative sprinkles to liven up her appearance.  I also froze a container of vanilla yogurt, in lieu of the ice cream they allow the kids to have on Fridays.

Bento #203 - Thai chicken peanut salad over fresh artisan lettuce, rice onigiri, and frozen vanilla yogurt.  Snack - organic baby carrots, dip, multi-vitamins, and fresh raspberries.