Apples, this months fun accessory

So let's have some fun with apples. Why? Well, they are cheep and most kids eat them like they are going out of style. Mostly they are cheep, and cheep and nutritious is a win in my book!

Imagine it's almost time to go and you have this gaping hole in your bento box and are frantically searching your cabinets for something to use. Along comes this cute checkered apple. Saved my life a few times.

See how the apple fits perfectly? It's like divine bento intervention!
Let's make this sucker.

*side note, I am left handed and extremely uncoordinated. Like, I'm usually not allowed sharp things so please forgive my crazy slanted cuts. 

You need

Cutting board
Apple - I only had teeny tiny ones
Pairing knife

 Cut that apple from the core.
 I feed the core to my dog, but you can do whatever with it. OR you can save it for a apple bunny. Yeah, I went there. Stay tuned for that awesomeness

Then you want to score the apple in a checkerboard patters. Don't get all chop crazy and cut it, SCORE, like 1/8 of an inch deep. This is another trust me moment. You can make them as close or far apart as you want.
*the farther apart the less work. SCORE!

You can see that right? I hope so, it was insanely difficult to take a picture of. 

Try to make the cuts evenly spaced. I am straight line challenged, doubt my kids care so I roll with it. 

Now the tedious part, it gets easier every time, peel alternate pieces of peel off with the knife. BE CAREFUL. trust me. There is a reason I have a supply of thousands of band-aids right next it me. 

Don't worry about being perfect, you can clean it up later. Let's just get this done and over with. Oh wait, that'a my mantra. 

So it's all checkerboarded. Clean up the cuts and I like to cut the bottom/tops off to make it look neater 

By this time the dog has gone nuts with tail wagging and begging

Plop them in some cold water with a few drops of lemon juice to prevent browning. RINSE after and DONE! 

That wasn't too painful was it? 

Wanna do a bunny? Yeah, I'm not so hot at them bc I lack basic skills, but the kids like these even more. Here we go!

Take the left over sides and cut them from the core, or use the other half of the already cut apple.
If you use a half of an apple cut it in half vertically, like below

Then you can slice a bit off the bottom to make it stable and less risky to your fingers.
To make the ears, SCORE a V half way up the apple.

 I couldn't get a great picture of the V, but hopefully you get the idea.

 Then you are going to start at the wide part of the V and peel with your knife until the V ends. Does that make sense? I hope so. Try to slice as thin as possible or the ears won't flop up like they should. You can always clean up the ears later. I totally do.

You should be left with something that looks like the picture below. The V is gone and the points are free from the apple. Got it? Good.

 

Toss that baby in some ICE WATER with lemon for 5 minutes or so until the ears start to fold up.
If they don't fold up, you have too much apple flesh on the skin so carefully trust me peel some off until they pop up.

BAM apple rabbit! I had a lovely side picture by my kids deleted it. Sorry. They apparently love technology and that trash button is mighty tempting.

There you have it, two awesome things to do with apples that will liven any lunch box!