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:

5 Bento #269 - Piggy "Lunchable"

First of all, have you noticed my FABULOUS new blog design?!  Shalon Estrada over at Pretty Lovely Design just completed it for me, and I'm super excited to show it to you all.

So today's lunch is in a Planetbox, and I've done it in the style of a Lunchable, but way lower in sodium and all that stuff, and no throwaway waste!

Here we have some Columbus roasted turkey with a piggie sauce container full of dip for the veggies.

The crackers are melba toasts, a couple of mini crispy oatmeal raisin cookies from Trader Joe's.

A couple slices of cheddar cheese cut into a piggie face using a Cutezcute cutter and a bunch of fresh broccoli, and organic green and red seedless grapes.

Bento #269 - Roasted turkey, cheddar cheese, broccoli florets, dip, melba toast, grapes and oatmeal raisin cookies.

  

32 Bento #264 - Talk Like a Pirate Day Shipwreck & Bento Booty Blog Hop Giveaway!

Yaarr there mateys!  Today be talk like a pirate day!  All ye scallywags be in fer a real treat!  There be TREASURE at the end of this blog hop, so grab yer quill and parchment and use yer letterin' skills to record in yer captain's log the clues on the treasure map that lead to the booty! Persevere me hearties, the treasure rivals ol' Blue Beard's!

(Translation: Grab a pen to write down the puzzle pieces in each blog in the hop!  It'll reveal where the treasure is located. Every blog in the hop has a piece of the map to the bento booty treasure - a giveaway! As you go through the hop, collect the pieces and put them in the right order to find out where to enter! You'll probably need something to write with, because there are 39 blogs to visit, so 39 pieces to collect! (OR print out our handy dandy worksheet!  Click here.) 37 pieces will spell the URL, and 2 bonus pieces with words on them will get you 2 entries to win!  Stick with it, the prizes are AMAZING and sponsored by AllThingsForSale!!)

So, today's bento lunch is a pirate shipwreck in a Planetbox!  Fresh green grapes are on palm tree stirrer skewers.

Next are our inside-out starfish pirates, yaaar!  They are having an altercation amid the palm trees.  With pretend plastic swords, of course!

The buzzword of the day in cucumber.

A treasure map hard boiled egg!  With the obligatory dagger thrust through the X on the map.

Details on my most awesome pirate ship centerpiece.  With a sneaky monkey and a Siren mermaid in the waves!

A tropical banana snack in a festive pirate sack.

Isn't it fun with the pirate parrot napkin and mermaid Sigg water bottle??

Bento #264 - Cheddar on whole wheat, organic cucumber, hard boiled egg, green grapes and yogurt star.  Snack - Banana.

Okay mateys! This here's my piece o' the map!  Hurry and collect them all, the treasure hunt ends on Sunday, 9/23 at the stroke of midnight!  

If you liked this lunch, please follow my blog here, and Like Bentobloggy on Facebook!

To find your next map piece, click here to visit Myra at Mommy and Me Lunchbox!  Happy huntin' mateys!

Print out the treasure hunt worksheet here.

0 Bento #256 - First Day of First Grade Bento

New year!  Miss Ella started first grade today.  How fast the summer flew!  Just look how adorable she is in her school uniform.  I got the cute bunting printable from Party On! Designs as a little first day surprise, and she loved it.

For back to school lunch we have an inside-out princess tiara turkey sandwich on wheat.

I cut out some red and yellow sweet bell peppers into flower shapes for her veg.

Served it up with some ranch dip in the panda container, along with a sweet Clementine.  The oranges I've been getting the last few weeks have been amazing!  Also a little snack of Goldfish crackers and some gummy vitamins for dessert.

Packed in her PlanteBox!  This year they aren't doing snack (at least that's what I understand right now!)

Bento #256 - Turkey & cheese sandwich on wheat, sweet bell peppers, Goldfish crackers, ranch dip, Clementine and gummy vitamins.

Don't forget to enter my Bentobloggiversary bento giveaway!  Click here to enter!

4 Bento #227 - The Owl & The Ladybug

 

BACK TO SCHOOL!  Today we have a super CUTE pot bellied owl PB&J sandwich with a jolly apple tum, cheese and blueberry eyes and apple beak and feet.

For the body I freehand cut the bread because I don't have a large oval cutter.  For the belly I cut one side of a Jonagold apple, and then used it as a template to cute out the middle piece of bread, and then set the cut side down on the peanut butter.  The wings are pieces of crust.

The ladybug is a Baby Bel, tab pulled off and cheese removed.  I cut out the dots with a small circle deco cutter, and then put the cheese back in.  The eyes are two of the cut out dots squished together.

We also have some really sweet and delicious fresh blueberries.  These are the best I've had in a long time!  We had some for dessert last night with sliced kiwi.  Ella actually made the salad herself, she's very proud of it and wanted some in her lunch.

Bento #227 - Organic peanut butter and strawberry jam with an apple slice, cheese & blueberries, croutons, and tossed salad.  Snack - Carrot apple Crusher and peanuts.

0 Bento #226 - Gyoza & Tomatoes

This one's been hanging out in my bento folder for a few weeks now.  We've been on vacation from school and work, and enjoying our time off and relaxing!  Hope everyone else has been enjoying their time too.  My husband and I spend our 10th wedding anniversary at the Brasstown Valley Resort & Spa in the North Georgia mountains for a few days.  We went horseback riding, had spa treatments, a wine tasting at a local vineyard and more.  We even had our very own fireplace in our suite.  Heaven!

For this Planetbox bento, we have E's favourite chicken gyoza here, cut in half.

E has been bugging me about fresh tomatoes for the last few weeks.  She loves Romas!

Accompanying the tomatoes and gyoza are little cute bottles of ponzu sauce and ranch dressing.

All loaded up in her Planetbox!

Bento #226 - Chicken gyoza, ponzu sauce, celery sticks, ranch dip, roma tomatoes and multi vitamins.  Snack - Focaccia croutons and dried cranberries.

6 Bento #216 - Frog Prince Sandwich & Edamame

I just love these Lunch Punches!    This one is a frog prince, though I wish the features showed up better in the pictures.  Super cute.   As you can see below, I did an inside-out layered sandwich with 36 16 grain bread (doesn't it seem like they are now putting out bread with crazy amounts of grains?  This one was dropping flax seeds and nuts all over my counter.)

Edamame and some berry Yogurt Stars.

Ninja Aussie apple.

And all packed up in her PlanetBox.

Bento #216 - Whole grain bread and Colby cheese sandwich, berry Yogurt Star cookies, edamame, dried cherries and vitamins.  Snack - Aussie apple.

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.

1 Bento #183 - Earth Day Lunch

First, this lunch is in a Planet Box, and the pasta is Barilla PLUS with Omega 3s and a lot of other goodness.  I made a huge batch for the volunteers at school, and packed some for Ella as well.  It's tossed with roasted organic veggies in a balsamic butter sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Bento #183 - Vegetarian organic pasta salad, dried blueberries and cherries, pretzel sticks, roast turkey slices and vitamins.

Officially, Earth Day is today, but E's school had their Earth Day celebration on Wednesday, marked with a school-wide parade, awards, booths, activities and presentations.  It's such great fun, and so informative!  This year we had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute.  He spoke about the pollution, specifically plastic, that is inundating the Pacific with huge floating garbage patches.  He and his colleagues built a raft out of thousands of empty water bottles and an airplane cockpit and floated on it for 3 months from California to Hawaii, braving the elements and studying water and sea life along the way. It was so interesting!  Certainly makes one think twice about using disposable plastics.  One tip he gave which I hadn't even thought about was to skip the plastic straws when you go out to eat.

Dr. Eriksen speaking in front of the Earth Balloon in the community center.

Showing some of the empty cigarette lighters he picked up on remote Pacific islands that wildlife is ingesting.

A sea turtle which grew around a plastic milk jug ring.

 Later I sat with E's class as they ate.  Her friend L also brought a PlanetBox lunch!