Video lunch!

A few days ago I entered the "What's in your lunchbox contest" put on by My Military Savings. Hopefully I will win that gift card ;)
I thought I would give video blogging a try and this was the perfect chance to try it out! I hope you guys forgive my shaky hands, I have tremors sometimes and they kinda get annoying!

Vacations stress me out

I have been bugging the husband to take the kids and I to Sea World, and he finally did.

So I was stoked and planning meals, finding hotels and getting everything settled when he informs me that we would be leaving in 3 days time. OMG I panicked and had no idea how I was going to clean/pack/cook all in 3 days. I managed to get everything done and even had the stamina to snap a few pictures of our travel bentos.

I bet a few of you are thinking what could I possibly have to plan aside from getting our butts so Sea World, well.
Any time we travel I beg for a hotel that offers a hot breakfast as well have a kitchenette in the room. Why? Because the little extra money you spend on that room will save you from having to eat out every night. It is especially a lifesaver if you kids are not used to fast food. Trust me.

I packed our "on the road" food in our easy lunch boxes because I feel they travel the best, and there are 4 of them and 4 of us so it works.

Big A's lunch

A lunch for the teething baby

A ton of meat for the low carbing husband

We finally made it to the hotel and I refused to cook so I gave in to my wild side and we had some Asian take out. I got back to the hotel, hastily made Sea World bentos and passed out because I knew while the park would be fun for the kids, it would be stressful for me.

Little side note about the hotel, it was amazing! We had 2 actual bedrooms with adjoining baths, a full kitchen, dining room, and a decent living room. I love spreading out on a vacation, and hate being super quite after 7pm when the kids pass out.

Nice breakfast for the kids before the big day

Creepy hallway

I researched and called Sea World to find out their outside food and drink policy because I really didn't want to pay $7 for a hot dog for my kids. After being directed to a gillion people I still don't know what a "reasonable amount" of bottled water is, it's 102 in Texas I vote 10 bottles per person. They were a little more lenient with foods, just small snacks and no loaves of bread. I packed 2 lunches like this for Sea World and some snack bars to hold us over in lines and mad dashes to shows.

PB , cereal, pizza, and star grilled cheeses. 

All and all it was great trip, but I am not anxious to spend 10 hours anywhere out side with 2 toddlers ever again.

This was after 7 hours, I'm surprised no one is screaming

Guess where I want to go next.... in about 5 years

A sleepy bento snack

I am so tired, I really should have napped while Big A was at camp and Lil A was sleeping.
But, I had to get stuff done, so I didn't and I totally regret it.

There was about 3.2 minutes until Big A got home from camp and I *had* to feed him something that resembled a snack. I threw a bunch of finger foods in a box with some picks and have officially called it a day.

He got some
Grapes
Watermelon balls
Zucchini slices - which I really hoped he would at least try

BAM, snack is served

Of course he didn't want to even try the zucchini and wanted more watermelon, that didn't happen. All the has to do is eat one little slice. But NOPE!

And now if you will excuse me, I have to go lay in the doorway to the kids room so I know they are safe and can maybe catch a 5 minute nap.

Last Friday in July. Almost fall right?

It's July in Texas, and it's hot. Like fry an egg on the sidewalk hot. The last thing I wanted to do was hang out in the kitchen and put together a bento for tomorrow.
Soo I did this lickity split and hightailed my self out there as fast as I could.

This is what I ended up with while sweating and cursing the placement of the air vents.
I threw some boat stuff together and really hope it looks awesome enough for Big A to eat.

He has
Jelly and cream cheese cut in half to fit
vanilla filled cookie
3/4 cereal bar with fruit leather cut outs
1/4 meatloaf muffin
Vienna sausages
and
Grapes
in the first box


Watermelon
&
Oranges in the other box

Hopefully he eats it all. He should, but it's really too hot for me to think about that right now.

Excuse me, I must go take a bath in ice water

Gettin ready to cool down in the pool!

A blah Tuesday

I've totally been slacking with snack and lunch pictures, but it was oh so nice to hang with the kids without technology

Without further ado, here is Tuesdays lunch. He had a pretty hefty snack and he wouldn't let me add anything else to his lunch. Guess he wasn't that hungry.
It was a PB&J bagel sandwich, half a giant marshmallow with fruit leather, a cantaloupe slice and *homemade* grapefruit apple sauce with sprinkles.

I love making applesauce. I have jars upon jars in my pantry from my 40 lb of apples I got for only $15!!!

The husband man is working a crazy shift and is requiring both lunch and dinner bentos each day, so to save meat money, the kids get to pig out on finger foods.
For dinner they had fish sticks, mixed veggies, another melon slice, and a froggie made out of cheese.
The veggies proved to be a nightmare. This kid just started refusing them all of a sudden. It's driving me bonkers.

Octopus Hot Dogs!

Since it's Monday madness, I basically make all the cute stuff I want and hope it works in a lunch . And this week I wanted to do something cute with hot dogs. 

Enter the octopus hot dog. Super easy to make, you just need to time it right because they take a hot minute to cook. I like to cut them and let them cook while I am making the bento fillers and then doing the dishes. Makes me feel like less time is wasted 

I used my new Goodbyn box from Target and decided to go nuts. A really wanted a hot dog and I really wanted to make a soot sprite sandwich. We both won. He also got some applesauce and left over birthday cake in the 2 cup container. In the main is the hot dogs with ketchup to dip, grilled cheese sandwich, heart cucumbers, and mandarin oranges.

See that grilled cheese? Totally used all the cheese scraps that have been accumulating in my fridge. 

See? Leftover as it's finest. Lil A got the scraps from cutting the sandwich for his lunch. Double score

Now, on to hotdogs. 

You will need

- Hot dog(s)

- Sharp knife

- Pot of boiling water

First, you are going to cut the hot dog in thirds. You could also do halves. Whichever

Then, take your ends and cut them about 2/3 of the way up into fourths. Confused? Me too. Here's a picture. 

This is what we are going for

Then, you are going to cut each section again. You can either cut from the bottom or the top. I like going from the top better. When I cut from underneath one of mine had 9 cuts. No clue how that happened 

Over 

Under 

Now that the cutting is done, we have to cook the hot dogs so the legs curl and look cute. 

You can do this in 3 ways. 

You can pan fry them - with or without water

Boil them in a deep pot

Deep fry them in hot oil - This works best for me, but I don't have a deep fryer anymore ;(

 Pan with water - takes FOREVER 

Boiling in a deep pan. Takes about 5 - 7 minutes 

So when your hot dogs are done, they should look something like this, or even a little better. 

I took the middle of the hot dog and cut it into slices to lift the pretty ones up in his lunch. 

I was in a rush to get them done so I only boiled them for about 3 minutes. We had a date with the horsedog and our backyard this afternoon. 

Go conquer the octopus hot dog and see how amazed your kids are. 

 Lil A hanging out in the backyard

Big A hanging out with the horsedog that we were watching this weekend! 

New boxes!!

So we all know I'm a little obsessed with bentos right? Well, I heard that Target was selling bento boxes and had had had to go check it out.
I am super glad I did, they had 4 different types of boxes and I wanted them all, but the kids needed new shoes so I could only get one box and a snack container. Sad panda.

Let's talk new bentos, I had to figure out which one would fit in the lunch bag we already had and which one would be best for food portions.
I decided on this one! It's a Goodbyn on the go and I LOVE IT. It was $8.99 - I think.

A was playing with it in the store, that's why the box in empty. But it has two main containers and a little dip cup. The main container should be enough for a lunch if you plan it right, but I wanted to play with all of it! I tested  the 2 cup container with applesauce, and turning it upside down and after flinging it around, not one single leak. That's a score in my book. 

This is the little snack bin I got for about $2. I'll use it for grocery trips and play date snacks for the summer. But in fall when Lil A goes to nursery school, this will be the prefect size for his baby lunches. 

 I can't wait to show you guys what I have done with the Goodbyn box! 

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!

A non-sandwich sandwich bento

After 4.5 days of school your kids are probably already sick of eating sandwiches and you are probably sick of making them. Why not revamp your idea of what a sandwich is and make sandwich sushi for their lunch!

How cute is that?! 

It's pretty easy to make and you don't need anything special to make them. 

You need - 

- Bread 

- Sandwich fillings

- A knife to take off crusts 

- A rolling pin to flatten the bread 

* I have totally had to use a can of veggies before bc my rolling pin was MIA 

Assemble the minions  supplies!!!

Totally forgot the cheese, don't judge me

Now the fun part, cutting off the crust and smashing the bread. It's a fantastic stress reliever ;) 

See how the one is all smashed? That's what we are going for

Once you are all smashed and crustless (Save them) assemble the sandwich! 

If you find you have too many toppings when you roll them just rip the excess off and call it a snack! 

Roll that sucker up good, but no too tight or your sushi will look all flat, and cut each slice of bread into 4 pieces 

If you find they are falling apart like mine are, use a condiment as a glue, like mustard, mayo, or PB.

When you are pack these loveys in a bento just make sure they are tight together and separation shouldn't be an issue. 

Making just a sit at home lunch is totally possible too, just arrange them on a plate to they don't loose their middles. 

See? Not perfect, but they were inhaled in about 38 seconds

That my friends, is sandwich sushi in a nutshell. 

Oh, pro tip? Watch out for cheese thieves