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

Saran wrap and your fridge

I am preparing for a massive shopping trip (check back later for that post) and I always clean my fridge before a trip, always. I hate my current fridge, and being in Military housing, I have no choice. It's one of those side by sides with the fake glass shelves? Well you know what? The consolidation on those bad boys always make my fridge look absolutely disgusting, and sticky finger prints seem to fuse to the shelves. I really do hate these fridges.
I had to do something before I pulled out all my hair. Then, it came to me. Press and seal saran wrap! I've never actually used it, but I know people that swear by it.

I forced asked the husband to pick some up on his way home and I am so stinking happy.

Just take out the shelves (one at a time) clean and stick the stuff on! I had some issues with it at first, but I simply wet the edge of the shelves and it stuck like magical glue. I know the package says to use a dry surface, but the cold wasn't helping things!

The light blew as soon as I opened  the door. Grrr

It looks kinda funky, but I tested it out and it was amazing! I spilled some sticky canned fruit and it didn't leak on my nice clean shelves. 

VICTORY IS MINE

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!

Actually making a lunch

Welcome, welcome. Hope you are having fun on the bento bandwagon.

So far we have gone over what you need to make a bento and tips on how to make it stress-free. Now, my young grasshoppers, you are ready to make the leap and pack your kids a lunch.

Let's go with a typical American lunch, PB&J. If you can't do PB for allergies, try cream cheese. It's delicious, promise

You need, your box (I will show you how to pack a typical square plastic container if you don't have one) sandwich stuff, fruit, cheese to top the sandwich (if you choose), veggies, and some snacks

I like to make my sandwich before I cut because I find it to be neater (and I can eat the crusts). You will need to wiggle and pound the cutter until you are 105% sure it has gone through the entire sandwich. Then life the cutter up and hopefully your creation will plop right out. If it doesn't, gently work the sandwich out of the cutter using the back of a spoon. If you poke and prod, you will likely ruin it with divots.

 Wiggle

 Pound

Plop

Now we gotta make that cute cheese topping, I used the cat deco cutter, that was about $5 and came with a cool pick to pop the pieces out. Same process as  the bread. Wiggle, pound, remove. 

After you cut you cheese gently peal it from the back of the cutter. If you didn't pound hard enough, or you didn't break all the way through the cheese, you will break it. 

Be gentle! 

Cut around your face to make it beautiful

The hard part is over, really. Making a cute sandwich really is the hardest part of bento making. 

We need to put this masterpiece in the main compartment of our box with some extras around it. Like so. I added a little heart to the cookies, just because I could. 

The muffin bar wasn't working out so I used veggie straws instead

Now we have to do that cucumber. You could just peel and slice it or cut it into shapes, whichever. I made little bears to go with the panda sandwich. When cutting juicy fruits/veggies do not remove the cutter and try to pop the shape out. It will turn into a gooey and sticky mess. Push the cutter all the way through to the bottom and then lift the whole fruit piece up and push completely through. 

 

That first cut turned into a disaster

PUSH!!!

Lastly, we have the peaches, I placed one slice on the bottom of a silicone cup and then made two on top look nice and organized. For some extra fun I like to sprinkle some nonparallels on top. They run like crazy so don't do this the night before or your kids will have some funky coloured fruit.

You did it! You made a bento! Woot. 

This should be more than enough food to fill up your child and an easy lunchbox (they have free shipping on amazon!!) 

Pretty! 

If you have a regular plastic container it should look something like this. But I can not say how well the peach juice will be contained in this one. The seal on the easy lunchbox is pretty rockin', these are kinda "meh" but will work in a non-drippy pinch. 

BAM!

How's it feel to be a pro? Pretty amazing right? With a lunch like this, you are sure to be the coolest mom ever

Tips of the bento trade

Just like all skills and crafts, there are tips that will make your bento life much easier and save you from tearing your hair out.

First - Pack that sucker (box) as high and tight as you can. You don't want teeny items rolling around in your box, you want it jam packed so things don't get all messed up. This is where the right box comes in handy.

Second - Get creative with your decorations. Big A really wanted a firetruck once and I was all "how the heck and I supposed to decorate this?!?". My best lunch at summer camp reputation was on the line and I had to do some fast thinking, it was 10 minutes to out the door time.
Solution? I used a hot sauce cap for the wheels and cut strips of cheese and cucumber peel for the decorations, and a food marker for the ladder.

Don't judge, I can't cut straight for beans

Third- Prep, prep, prep. All those fruit and veggies  you just bought on your shopping trip? Cut, wash, store/freeze. I like to do a combo of straight cubed shapes and balls/start/hearts that way the kids don't get bored. If there is a awesome sale on berries, buy tons and freeze for when the price jumps in the winter. 

By chopping and cutting right when you get home, you save tons of time when actually assembling your lunches. No need to ball a whole melon when you can grab a portion and be done with it. 

** I don't like using plastic baggies, but for the juicy fruits I like them better than plastic containers. Little boys like to open containers in my house. To reduce waste I label and wash then reuse the baggies for the same fruits. 

A weeks worth of cantaloupe all ready prepped 

Fourth - Use as many leftovers as possible, or as much as the same fruit in the same week. Sounds counterproductive to getting your kids to eat new foods, but that cut melon isn't going to last forever to pack it in every other lunch. If you waste it, you might as well throw money directly in the garbage. Have two types, and one is a kind your kid/husband/gerbil doesn't like? Make a fruit salad! Have extra hamburger rolls? Make a fun sandwich with it instead of using bread slices. 

I got lucky, the husband always takes leftover dinner for lunch, so I only have to worry about using fruits and veggies. 

*All those scraps from cheese shapes and cutting cucumbers? Make a salad for your own lunch or dinner. I reuse the cheese in the morning scrambled eggs or grilled cheese. Once it's melted no one will ever know it was a cat that you failed miserably at cutting. 

 Left over bread for eggs in a basket!

Left over rolls from a BBQ for sandwiches 

Fifth - Have fun! Cutting fruit into shapes is not exactly the most awesome thing in the world (totally is to me!), but imagine the look on your kids' faces when they open it up at school. Their little wide bug like eyes. I never let Big A look at his lunch (unless he sneaks in the kitchen) and his teachers always tell me how excited he gets! If you can't think of ideas, GOOGLE some. There are tons of parents who blog  their kids lunches. *See! I'm not weird*

 Try out different things, from pizzas to sandwich sushi and enjoy the bento cult adventure. 

Not my best work

That's better! Using leftovers and being adorable!