2 Bento #275 - Bunny Bacon Bites

Simple, yummy lunch - a grilled bacon and cheddar sandwich, cut into cubes.

I bought these carrot and bunny accessories back in the Spring at Dollar Tree.  They are good for a few uses, and so cute!

I have them filled with carrots (natch) and Pirate's Booty! That stuff is seriously addictive.

Grapes and celery sticks round out the lunch.

Packed up:

Bento #275 - Bacon & cheddar on whole wheat, grapes, celery, carrots and Pirate's Booty

In this lunch:

0 Bento #180 - Grilled Ham & Cheese "Apples"

Today's a PlanetBox lunch with grilled ham & cheese cut into apples.  I think you can tell when I need to get to the store when we have dried fruit, but it's still healthy and very convenient, and they come unsweetened.  I always have a few bags on hand for lunches and as additions into quick breads.

Bento #180 - Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, carrot chips, roasted peanuts, dried blueberries, cherries and banana chips and vitamins (multi/iron, calcium and Omega-3.)

0 Bento #162 - Grilled Turkey & Carrots

Enter the AllThingsForSale bento giveaway here!

I had some leftover hot dog buns laying around, and figured I'd make E a sandwich with some shredded cheddar and sliced turkey breast.  I toasted it in the panini grill, and sliced it into sections.  I used one of my veggie cutters to make the carrot flowers.  Those little bears are just hangin' on for dear life!

Bento #162 - Grilled turkey & cheese, red grapes, salad cream, and organic carrots.

3 Bento #159 - Grilled Chicken & Cherries

Aww, a Lunch Punch butterfly!  It's got cheese and thinly sliced chicken on Publix brand White Mountain bread (yum!)  I also made a cute flower with cutouts from the little kit I got from AllThingsForSale.  Super easy, and adorable.  It goes along with the center I am doing for the kids this morning - tangram puzzles.

Bento #159 - Grilled chicken & cheese, carrots and fresh cherries.

6 Bento #144 - Moon & Stars

Aww!  I just love these cute moon sandwiches.  I made them from a new cutter I got from World Market last week.  I happened to have moon and star sprinkles, so I used a few to decorate, and they went really well with the star cups I have (also from World Market.)  My inspiration came from the snow we've been having.  It's been super cold (well below freezing) and snowing lightly almost non-stop, but it's so dry that it just drifts away so we barely have any accumulation.  The flakes are so tiny when they're falling that in a beam of sunlight they sparkle and shimmer like stars!  I don't think I've seen that happen before, usually they are too wet or it's too overcast.

Bento #144 - Grilled ham & cheese on homemade bread, organic baby carrots, homemade zucchini bread, craisins and sunflower seeds.

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.

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.

1 Bento #113 - Gluten-Free Grilled Cheese Squares

Woo hoo!  Another PlanetBox lunch!  I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  I also have the Big and Little Dippers, but I haven't tried those yet.  I bought a loaf of Udi's brand gluten-free bread, and E loves it.  She calls it "Lydia Bread" after one of her besties who eats a gluten/dairy-free diet.  I used it here for the grilled cheese, and cut the crusts off.  I "hid" the yogurt star amongst the nuts, as a little joke.  As for the camouflaged star, E said she found it quite easily. ;)

Bento #113 - Macadamia nuts, yogurt star, grilled cheese on "Lydia bread", baby carrots, ranch dip in the monkey container, and fresh watermelon chunks.

Anyway, yesterday was a fun day for E because both her mommy and daddy did centers in the morning.  I helped the kids make stretchy, slimy goo out of BioColor. (Yay me!  If you knew me, you'd think this was pretty funny.  Almost as funny as me doing a bug-themed center.) Daddy brought a tub of wooden pattern blocks and practiced patterns and making shapes.  Way fun.

5 Bento #102 - Butterfly Grilled Cheese & Yogurt

Here's a cute garden lunch!  We made a Lunch Punch butterfly grilled cheese with sugar snap pea antennae, and a special dessert was some peach yogurt with rainbow butterfly sprinkles.

Bento #102 - Butterfly grilled cheese, sugar snap pea antennae, peach yogurt with butterfly sprinkles, broccoli & carrot "snails" and vidalia onion dressing.

31 How To Make The Perfect Grilled Cheese

I know what you're thinking.  "Is she really going to tell us how to make grilled cheese?  Really?"  Yes, really!  I only recently discovered the secret to perfectly toasty, melty grilled cheese sandwiches.  You may already know the secret, but I'm telling you, I was at a grave disadvantage for years.  I'd never had a real grilled cheese sandwich until I was a teenager.  My father's version of what he called "cheese on toast" was a piece of wheat bread, toasted [and usually burned] and then a hunk of cheddar thrown on top dry and then microwaved.  I loathed this, so I couldn't imagine why anyone would actually choose to eat grilled cheese.  My father is English and will literally eat anything that could possibly be classified as food, and thus could not understand what my problem was.  For example, my parents were married 20 years before she found out he didn't actually like her tuna curry (which I love, BTW.)  So, this post is for all you similarly disadvantaged people.

Fast forward to today.  After a lot of experimentation, I have a good formula.  I'm saying this with all seriousness, because I have made plenty of grilled cheese sandwiches that have been burned on the outside and not melted at all on the inside.  It's really almost as sad as the "cheese on toast" of my childhood.

First, I like to shred my cheese.  I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary, but it does make for a more uniform melt, in my opinion.  Here I have pre-shredded Mexican blend cheese, but you can use any cheese you want (I really like pepper jack!)

Next, choose your bread.  White, wheat, sourdough, croissant.  It's all good in my book.  I have the very last bit of a white loaf, and thus the heel - don't hate!  Top the slices with as much cheese as you like.

Top the cheese with the other slice of bread, and put it in (drum roll please...) The Microwave!  Just for 20-30 seconds.  Trust me, this is how you make fool-proof grilled cheese, every time.  It's not only really tasty, but it's fast.

Okay, is it strange that I only just noticed the Turntable button on my micro by looking at this picture?  Weird.

  30 seconds later...Voila!  Melty cheese! It's not totally melted, but it's well on its way.

While you were waiting, you heated up your skillet, right?  I'm using my brand new vintage Descoware enameled cast iron skillet.  Usually I make it in a heavy non-stick, but as you can tell, this worked perfectly.  Melt a pat of butter over medium heat.

You're ready to go when the butter gets foamy and starts turning the slightest bit golden.

Quickly swipe one side of the sandwich bread in the butter and then turn it over on the other side to start toasting in the rest of the butter (otherwise just make sure to butter the other piece.)  You'll probably only need to toast it for 2-3 minutes tops (and no need to smash it down.)  Flip it and toast the other side, same amount of time.

Doesn't that look good?  The cheese is perfectly melty on the inside, and toasted golden brown on the outside with a great crunchy, crispy bite.

It's much easier to cookie-cut a very crispy grilled cheese sandwich than a mushy one.  The one above turned into this adorable maple leaf.

If you want to fancy it up, you can add some ham, chicken or turkey and a swipe of Dijon mustard before heating...yum!

24 Bento #91 - Maple Leaf Grilled Cheese

I was feeling a little rusty, and E was starting to feel a little bento-neglected, so I surprised her with a bento tray for lunch today.  I need to gear up for school!  She was very excited when I placed it in front of her.

Bento #91 - Maple leaf grilled cheese, macadamia nuts, grapes, crinkle carrot chips and ranch dip.

1 Bento #89 - Grilled Cheese & Veg

Miss E asked for carrots AND cucumbers today.  I ran out of my favorite Publix White Mountain Bread (the only white bread I buy, it is so delicious) and pulled out a multigrain wheat bread round that is very thin.  I'd never grilled with it before (it really doesn't lend itself to grilling since they are already browned on both sides) but it's all we had on hand.  It looks a fright, but E really liked it with the melted Colby cheese and chopped bacon.

Bento #89 - Grilled Colby and bacon, blackberries, cucumbers, carrots and ranch.

0 Bento #71 - Grilled Chicken & Artisan Lettuce

So, E is on a grilled cheese kick.  This is another grilled cheese (on Italian bread) with chicken.  The lettuce is really fancy artisan lettuce I picked up at Costco.  It's the first time I've seen it, so I snapped it up, and it's super pretty.  The container came with five different varieties of lettuces, and they were gorgeous.  I made it to look like a flower with leaves, and the blackberries are the "flower" at the top.  The other neat thing in this bento is the sauce container.  I picked it up at REI, and it's really for stuff like shampoo and lotion, but it's perfect for sauces!

Bento #71 - Grilled chicken & cheese, artisan lettuce, dipping sauce and blackberries.

0 Bento #70 - Inside-out Grilled Cheese

I made small French bread loaves for a party (which I made the pesto for) and had some leftover, so I decided to slice them up and make mini grilled cheese with them, and do sliced chicken rollups on top for "inside-out" grilled cheese.

Bento #70 - "Inside-out"mini grilled cheese rounds, chicken rollups, blackberries and carrots.

0 Bento #51 - Grilled Cheese & Spaghetti Squash

This bento was an amalgamation of leftovers.  The grilled cheese was her lunch at a restaurant this afternoon, and the spaghetti squash was from tonight's dinner.  She didn't try any at dinner, and I'm sure she thinks she got away scot-free on that account, but no, she'll have a little surprise in her lunchbox tomorrow!  It's actually very, extremely delicious.

Bento #51 - Grilled cheese, sauteed spaghetti squash, carrot coins and grapes.

Sauteed Spaghetti Squash w/ Roasted Red Peppers

1 spaghetti squash, halved and seeds scooped out

1 jar roasted red peppers, drained (or do them yourself like me!)

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbs Italian herbs

olive oil

butter

Roast the spaghetti squash on a baking sheet slathered with olive oil, cut-side down on 400 for 35 minutes.  Let cool and shred with fork.

In a hot pan add a couple tbs butter and olive oil, sautee the garlic, then add the peppers and let them cook off some of the excess liquid.  Add in squash, and toss around gently.  Add herbs, and salt and pepper to taste.

0 Bento #50 !! Grilled Cheese Heart

This was Miss E's last Bento before Winter break.  I made it happy, see?  Rainbow sprinkles!

Bento #50 - Grilled cheese on wheat heart, cherry tomatoes, celery & spinach dip, and craisins.

0 Bento #35 - Grilled Cheese & Trees

I was racking my brain trying to think how I could make a plain grilled cheese and broccoli more interesting.  Got it!  Bears and monkeys, playing in the "trees"!

Bento #35 - Grilled cheese, broccoli, spinach dip and craisins.