0 Bento #261 - Turkey & Cheese Sammy

Ella caught a glimpse of this lunch before I packed it away and she said "COOOL!  Except, I'm going to pretend that's a cat and not a dog."  What can I say?  The girl loves cats.

Quite a blurry picture of the sides - fresh fruit salad and broccoli.

Sandwich is cheddar and smoked turkey on whole wheat, and a side of ranch for the broccoli.

Easy Lunchbox all packed up!

Bento #261 - Turkey & cheddar on whole wheat, fruit salad and broccoli with ranch dressing.

Tomorrow is the LAST day to enter my bento starter pack giveaway!  I'm also throwing in extras not listed in the description, so if you haven't put your name in by now, what are you waiting for?!  Click here. (If you have problems entering, try logging out of Facebook and then back in again.)

0 Bento #250 - Spinach Ravioli & Cherry Tomatoes

Gooood Monday morning!  The countdown is on to the last day of school - ours is May 24th.  That's crazy soon.

We have naturally dyed spinach ravioli with herbed Parmesan today.

Bento #250(!) - Pasta Prima spinach ravioli, cherry tomatoes and fresh fruit salad.

When's your last day of school?

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. 

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 #197 - Inside-Out Tulip Sandwiches (and trip photos)

Today we have "inside-out" tulip sandwiches with cheese and ham, and a large helping of fresh fruit salad.  E likes to make her sandwiches herself and be creative with the order in which she eats them, so it's a good lunch for her.

Bento #197 - 12 grain whole wheat toast, cheddar and Colby cheese, deli ham, broccoli & cauliflower, and fresh mixed fruit salad.

Now, a food picture from our trip.  These stuffed green and black olives were the appetizer at Spaghi Pizzeria Ristorante, North London - we chose a couple of delicious handmade pizzas.  The Quattro Stagioni (ham, mushrooms, artichokes & olives) and the Pizza Romana (ham, mozzarella, tomato, pepperoni & mushrooms.)  Excellent!  

We were literally stranded at this restaurant, so I'm very happy that it was a great meal.  Long story short, our Peugeot rental car died (in a roundabout during rush hour!) on our way out of London on the third day, so we dined here while we waited for the tow truck to rescue us.  (Big thank-you to Lady MiniCabs for being so incredibly helpful and friendly!  In fact, if you click on their link you will see that the green arrow is pointing exactly where we broke down.)

Poor Peugeot.

2 Bento #178 - Veggie Yakisoba & Fruit

We've been on spring break like most of the rest of the U.S., so bento lunches have been far and few between.  Today we have a simple tray with veggie yakisoba noodles with lots of steamed veggies like water chestnuts, snow peas, slivered carrots, mushrooms, peppers and edamame. E loves this dish and asks for it a lot.  Sometimes I'll add grilled chicken for protein. A tropical fruit salad rounds it out for dessert.

Bento #178 - Yakisoba noodes and steamed veggies, and fruit salad medley.  

2 Bento #150 - Crab Chowder & Goldfish

Today's lunch is some delicious crab chowder.  Alas, I didn't make it myself, but it's very good rendition that Ella really likes by Legal Seafoods that I picked up at Costco.

Bento # 150 - Crab & corn chowder, Goldfish crackers and tropical fruit medly (pineapple, papaya, guava.)

2 Bento #147 - Naan Pizza

Today E and I made a naan bread pizza, with fresh tomato basil bruschetta as the base, shredded cheese, and  a couple slices of ham. I buy naan in the frozen section at Trader Joe's, and now they sell it in the bakery area of Costco (which is where this naan came from.)  It was baked at 400 for about 9 minutes.

Bento #147 - Naan pizza, fresh fruit salad, yogurt stars, sunflower seeds and celery.

1 Bento #146 - Leaf Sandwich & Fruit

We have a lot of ham & cheese lately!  Seems like I always have ham in my fridge this time of year.  Good thing it's one of E's most loved sandwiches.  As you can see, I'm using a couple of those adorable new picks.

Bento #146 - Grilled ham & cheese on homemade bread, organic baby carrots, fresh fruit salad and a Colby cheese cutout.

8 Bento #143 - Veggie Dumplings & Fruit Kebab

Sorry about the glare, it's hard to photograph the Planetbox sometimes, it's so shiny!  haha

Today we have some small veggie gyoza dumplings with a little ducky cheese cutout.  I just got some new kebab skewers, which are actually drink stirrers with the ball ends snipped off so that I can easily slide food onto them, and so that they fit better in my bentos.

Bento #143 - Veggie gyoza, ducky cheese, bunny crackers, fruit kebab & homemade chocolate chip cookie.

19 Bento #142 - Beary Good Bento

Pardon the corny title, it's late and my husband is whistling "The Chicken Dance" as he does the dishes, and it's a bad influence on me.

Yesterday I was online browsing luggage stores and came across this totally adorable lunch bag!  I have a real soft spot right now for owls (E's class is called The Owls and their class mascot is named Whooo.)  This one's by Skip Hop, and has a matching backpack.  Hold me back!  Utter cuteness.

As for today's bento, as the title suggests, I have some cute bear friends holding hands.   Right now World Market has their cookie cutters on sale, BOGO free, and they are the perfect size for a slice of cheese.  I made a loaf of sandwich bread today and that's what the bread in this bento is, Mr. Brown Bear was made using the heel piece.

You'd think that buying a fresh fruit salad is a waste of money on a small scale, however I've found recently that they've been a very cost-effective way of getting a variety of fruit that I'd not otherwise get, especially this time of year.  It's a huge bonus that it's already cut and prepared.  I bought a 2lb fresh fruit salad bowl this evening for $5.92, and I know I spend that much on just one type of fruit, let alone the five or six types that are included.  It just makes sense!

Bento #142 - Homemade bread, Monterey Jack cheese, celery sticks, homemade chocolate chip cookie and fresh fruit salad.

0 Bento #122 - Tomato Basil Soup

YUM.  My tomato basil soup is out of this world, and E thinks so too.  I made a batch the other evening, and she decided she loved it, and asked me to pack it for lunch today.  I have been on the hunt for a really good thermal cup, and found this one by Aladdin some months ago which I like, and is also neat because it has a built-in spoon drawer in the top.  However, as with most thermal containers, you really have to prepare it if you want things to stay warm.  Running lots of hot water in the cup and on the top, super-heating the soup, and then moving very quickly!  Also, it's quite wide for little hands, so I know she'll need help opening for lunch today.  The fruit salad she loves, and lately I've been buying a bowl at Publix every week.  It's really convenient for me because we get a wide range of yummy fresh fruit that's already nicely prepared.

BTW, Margo of Margo Madison Creative Stationery send me this neat idea for making your own food picks!  Check it out on her blog here!  It's such a neat idea when you want to have something unique on hand, and I'm sure this would be a great hit with the kids.

Bento #122 - Tomato basil soup, Lunch Punch dolphin grilled cheese, ducky cheese crackers, and fresh fruit salad.

0 Bento #119 - Pesto Tortelloni

These are fresh pesto filled tortelloni from TJ's, except I was really disappointed in them!  They smelled divine, but they tasted like...nothing.  It was like someone forgot the salt.  I made some fresh marinara sauce and that kicked up the flavor (and also added some veg.)

Bento #118 - Pesto tortelloni with homemade marinara, sugar snap peas and fruit salad.

3 Bento #118 - Grilled Meatball Sandwich

E really loves those small party meatballs at TJ's, and I mixed it up a bit for lunch by grilling them with some cheese in a sandwich.  She said it was delicious (and it was, I had a taste!)

Bento #118 - Grilled cheese & meatballs, fruit salad, salad cream and sugar snap peas.

2 Bento #112 - Spinach Tortellini

I whipped up some Barilla spinach tortellini the other night for dinner, and I packed some leftovers for E's lunch, with ranch dressing on top. She loves ranch dressing, but I have no idea if she'll dig it on top of the tortellini.  I figured it would taste like a cold pasta salad.  I found those ducky crackers at Publix, they are too cute, and the mini box of raisins fits perfectly into so many of our bento boxes.

Bento #112 - Baby carrots, fresh fruit salad, ducky cheese crackers, raisins, and spinach & cheese tortellini with ranch dressing.

On another note, I was remembering back to this time last year when I was dealing with FEMA because our basement was under water, our retaining wall had washed away, and the creek in our back yard forest had become a raging river due to the crazy flooding the Atlanta area had.  I'm so grateful that we didn't lose as much as many people did.

7 Bento #101 - Mac n' Cheese & Fruit Salad

This mac n' cheese is Trader Joe's brand organic white cheddar, and it's my favorite when I don't have the ingredients or inclination to make my own.  This is a bento box that I don't use much because it's an odd shape, but it's cute and has good space inside, so I must try and use it more often!

Bento #101 - Organic white shells and cheese on a bed of artisan lettuce, fruit salad, and flower cucumbers.

Sushi Popper giveaway winners will be posted in just a bit!