3 Bento #278 - Bacon Heart & Toast

Who doesn't need a little bacon now and then...and in the shape of a HEART?! This was completely accidental when I started arranging it, but it turned out really cute. Some Texas toast to go with the bacon, and cubes of cheese make up the entree, with fresh organic kiwi, organic cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.

Bento #278 - Applewood smoked bacon, Texas toast, cheese, organic cucumbers, tomatoes and kiwi.  Snack - Organic black plum.

Items used in this lunch:

3 Bento #270 - Croissant & Meatballs

This is a really quick and easy lunch.  I included half a buttery, flaky croissant and steamed a few Kirkland (Costco) brand Italian meatballs.

Ella LOVES these golden tomatoes!  They are very sweet.

We have a ton of apples on hand since we went apple picking in North Georgia last weekend!

Bento #270 - Italian meatballs, croissant, golden grape tomatoes, and apple slices.

4 Bento #251 - Turkey & Sweet Corn

I'm so tickled that I've been nominated for a Top 25 Foodie Moms award on CircleofMoms.com!  I'd be flattered if you'd vote for Bentobloggy here:

We had our last school field trip yesterday, to the Atlanta Zoo!  There were so many parent volunteers that my group consisted of only one of Ella's little girlfriends, so we had a really nice and relaxing morning exploring together.  We started out in the opposite direction of everyone else, so we got most of the exhibits all to ourselves.  The panda bears were really active, which was so cool to see. It was also supposed to thunderstorm but we escaped it all, and the high temperatures with some cloud cover.

Today's lunch was one of only about five that I've ever made in the morning.  I usually make them right before I go to bed, because I'm barely functional at 6:30am.  She has a whole wheat White Mountain bread turkey and cheddar sandwich in the first box.

In the second she has some grape tomatoes, fresh sweet corn sprinkled with a little kosher sea salt and a cheddar Babybel.

Packed up with snack - Cat cookies and an organic gala apple.

Bento #251 - Turkey and cheddar on whole wheat, sweet corn, grape tomatoes and cheddar Babybel.  Snack - Organic gala apple and cat cookies.

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 #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 #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.

8 Bento #175 - Shrimp Noodles & Mango

Here we have a medley of ceramic flower-shaped measuring cups I'm using as bowls.  They are just too sweet.  I made rice noodles and stir-fried them with shrimp and curry sauce, sprinkled with fresh cilantro.  Ella loves shrimp and noodles of any kind, so it's the perfect medium to introduce some Indian flavors.  She ate most of it [edit: this was a non-school day lunch.]

Bento #175 - Curry rice noodles & shrimp, fresh mango, dried cranberries, carrots and grape tomatoes.

18 Bento #151 - Moose Mac n' Cheese

I whipped up a batch of whole wheat mac n' cheese - so simple!  Takes 10 minutes, including the pasta cook time.  While the pasta is cooking, add 2 Tbs heavy cream, 4 oz cream cheese and a handful of shredded or cubed hard yellow cheese (I used cubed Colby Jack.)  Gently melt it together, and toss pasta in with it (about 1.5 cups.)  Salt and pepper to taste.

Today I picked up my first produce basket from Farmers Market Baskets.  I got so many great things for $20! I got a small organic basket which included 1 whole head each spinach & fancy lettuce, 3 stalks broccoli, 2 pears, 4 unripe bananas, 3 cameo apples, 3 oranges, 3 white potatoes, 2 tomatoes, 1 acorn squash and 1 onion, all organic or a 'clean 15'. It's really the perfect size for our family! Next time I will get extra apples, we eat tons of them in our house.

Last thing, I picked up a sweet masala dabba spice tin from World Market today, love it!  I can put any variety of spices and herbs in there I want, but I went the traditional Indian route and filled it with mustard seed, cumin seed, ground cardamom (don't have whole pods), curry, garam masala, coriander seeds and tumeric.  I get a hankering for one every time I watch Aarti Paarti on the Food Network.

Bento #151 - Whole wheat mac n' cheese, cherry tomatoes, organic steamed broccoli, clementine and a twin cherry gummy.

6 Bento #94 - Baby Heirloom Tomatoes & Basil

My goodness, it's been a crazy few days.  Today's the last day before school starts, and I was desperate to go shopping.  E and I had a very late breakfast on the run to Trader Joe's.  We picked up these really adorable, juicy multicolored baby Heirloom tomatoes.  In fact, E was the one who insisted on buying them, just because they looked so interesting.  So, I incorporated them into a late snack today, along with fresh basil leaves.

Bento #94 - Baby Heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, basil leaves, grapes and Caesar dip.

P.S. - I want to send a huge shout-out to Piyush of Best How To Blogger for his help and expertise in revamping the layout of this blog!  Thank you!!

0 Bento #22 - Avocados, Tomatoes & Mozzarella

This is Miss E's snack for today.

Bento #22 - Sliced avocado, grape tomatoes and mozzarella on skewers

0 Bento #21 - Nuggets & Tomatoes

Hello, we're back!  Back to flooding and craziness here in the ATL - very delayed flight, didn't get home until almost midnight, made apple-cinnamon oatmeal waffles and blueberry-orange cottage cheese for E's classroom snack at about 1am, and was too wiped to do anything about her lunch until early this morning before school.  Crazy ride to school with torrential rain, came home to a flooded basement, a mini raging river in our backyard complete with four waterfalls and white water rapids, and discovered that our retaining wall had completely collapsed and washed away.  AAAH!

Anyway, Bento #21 -  this quick bento is Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, grape tomatoes on skewers, spinach dipping sauce and ABC cookies.

0 Bento #20 - CFA Nuggets, Cheese & Tomatoes

Today I wasn't sure if she'd eat any of her lunch.  Every once in a while she'll tell me she doesn't like chicken nuggets, she's very iffy on grape tomatoes, and also on the sunflower seeds.  I figured if she was hungry enough, she'd at least eat one of these items!  Turns out she was pretty hungry, because she ate all her nuggets, all but one tomato, and she declared she liked the sunflower seeds afterall.

Bento #20 - CFA chicken nuggets on skewers, cheddar cheese cubes, grape tomatoes, cranberries & honey roasted sunflower seeds and spinach dipping sauce

Tomorrow we are off to NYC, so I won't be posting again until Monday (which happens to be our family's turn to bring the class snack!  I have something yummy in store.)  Have a great weekend, everyone!