Witching You a Happy Halloween

We don't really 'do' Halloween much here in Australia although the trend is shifting. It depends largely on what the school is doing and this year Miss M is on a day off for Halloween so they aren't doing anything for it at all.

That doesn't mean she doesn't get a Halloween lunch though - and not just so I can join in with the Bento Bloggers & Friends for another brilliant blog hop. You can join in the fun too! Simply click on the button at the bottom of this post to see the next spooky creation. Keep hopping until you return here.

In our Easy Lunch Boxes Miss M has a jam sandwich topped with a bread crust witch. She was made using a cookie cutter and coloured with some FooDoodlers. A witch's hat adorns a cheese stick.

I picked up these cute little cauldrons from my local major grocer and filled with some grapes and blueberries - a.k.a. eye of newt ;-)

A simple pick in her yoghurt container. . .

. . . and some stars for the night sky. (Carrot and some dip in the box)

Witching you all a Happy Halloween!

Now click the button below to see what Summer Mum Kristi is creating. Keep clicking through until you return here.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Red Velvet Vampire Cupcakes

I know the idea of Vampire Cupcakes is nothing new. I really couldn't tell you if I saw the idea first, or if the Vampired mushroom I made for this Team Edward lunch was my first exposure to the concept, but here's my latest take on it. 

I cheated and used a packet mix for these Red Velvet cupcakes. And when I found the box contained a mix for cream cheese icing who was I to argue?

Using a skewer and a dropper I added some holes to the icing and filled with some of my Kambrook Soup Simple strawberry sauce (which you can read about in this previous post)

I kind of like how the icing made little 'horns'. Do you have anything delicious planned for Halloween?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

September on Instagram

September was a very busy month for us, mostly because it included school holidays. I swear a month later and I'm still getting over it! Better late than never to share though, right?

A video posted by Loving Lunches (@lovinglunches) on Sep 9, 2014 at 8:12pm PDT

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Vegetable Cutter Comparison

I have a little problem with Flashback Friday this week. . . I can't remember the result of my experiment! I know this was last year in the lead up to Christmas and I only thought of these photos after finding some of these cuttings in the back of the freezer the other day (perfect for pizza toppings by the way). I do remember I used a red capsicum, and have since learned thanks to Wendolonia that it is much easier to use a cutter once you have *peeled the capsicum*! Of course, why didn't I think of that!

These little sausage deco cutters worked but I'm sure it's these that ended up giving me my first bento injury - death by paper cut!

Vegetable cutters - designed to do the work.

A selection from my Create-A-Shape pack. My go to, favourite pack.

The Luv-It by FunBites.

And some pretty deco cutters.

You can see some of the edges are a little ragged across the board, but if I'd known about that peeling trick things might have turned out differently. Live and learn!


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Ladybug Lunchbox

Just a quickie today :-) I bought this gorgeous little lunchbox last  year and have used it a few times, mostly for day outings for Miss M (she is my little M-Bug). 

It's easy to take a food pouch with yoghurt, toss a fruit salad in the base. . . 

. . . and trim a sandwich to fit in the top. Spreading some strawberry jam on top and adding a few sultanas and a cheese stick (down the back and for the eyes) turns it into a real lady bug.

I like to use a little baking paper under the sandwich to help lift it out. Simple!

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Thunder and the House of Magic Lunches

We took Miss M to see Thunder and the House of Magic last weekend. It was a sweet film and starring a cat, well she was thrilled!

 A little like her Mumma, Miss M seems to like the bad guys and reminded me to include Jack (the Rabbit) and Maddie (the Mouse) in her lunch. They hid in the corner of her Easy LunchBoxes along with some strawberries, blueberries and ham.

Thunder (cheese and FooDoodlers) took pride of place atop her jam sandwich. She also had unadorned yoghurt and juice in a bottle under her sandwich.

 The next day she asked for a Jack lunch. Again I tried to send her drink bottle inside her lunchbox. This made the sandwich squish a little against the lid. I like to send any cheese art with the baking paper I use to press the image on in her lunch anyway. This also helps to make sure the cheese doesn't stick to the lid.

 It does however make it difficult to add pretty things like the magic top hat pick to the sandwich.

 Jack sitting pretty with his magic hat.

And Maggie perched on some chess with pepperoni. Plain yoghurt again.

Miss M had to have a go at making some cheese art too.

 Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Tiger & Teddy Bear Dog Cupcakes

Wow, how did I miss posting these cuties? Welcome to Flashback Friday.

I think these tigers were inspired by Betty Crocker. Orange icing decorated with M&Ms, mini chocolate cops and writing icing.

There's a few Owl Cupcakes on the side there. You can read about them in this previous post. The other ones, well I think they were supposed to be Teddy Bears, but am pretty sure they are inspiredly these monkey cupcakes. I think they look more like dogs. Angry dogs. . .

At least they don't look quite so sad as my Panda. Oh dear. You can see why I only made one.

What do you think? Monkey, bear or dog?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Kiss Me Quick

Miss M's class focused on fairy tales for Book Week last term. This is one of her lunches from then. A super quick & simple Lunch Punch frog Prince (or Princess) with edible glitter crown and strawberry lips puckered ready to smooch. A couple of blueberries make the perfect eyes.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Repurposed Formula Dispenser Snacks

 I love picking up hints & tips from all sorts of sources. This one came from the Mothers Group I met when Honey was born. At one of our get togethers I noticed one mum using a formula dispenser as a snack container - why didn't I think of that?!? I love that the ones I found are roughly the same size as a drink bottle so they fit rather well into the pockets on the side of the girls' backpacks. Handy when looking at travelling :-)

This trial run outing Honey had some powdered milk (for just in case), a sandwich, strawberries and Milk Arrowroots.

Miss M has a slightly different container with deeper sections. She also has strawberries and Milk Arrowroots. Her third section has some limited edition Australian shaped Shapes.


Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Woody & Slinky Dog Lunch

No Flashbacks this Friday, I will get around to rounding up last month's Instagram for you next week :-)

Instead I have the final instalment of our Toy Story series from my uninspired last week of term. I mistakenly asked Miss M what she would like for her sandwich meaning what would she like on it. She replied that she wanted Slinky Dog from Toy Story. I only had Woody left in our pre-packaged yoghurts and luckily had a cowboy hat pick I could use on my terrible cheese art. Do you remember the scene from Toy Story 2 when Slink Dog finds Woody's hat? Miss M got that scene, not the one where Slinky Dog's rear sits down exhausted like she asked. It's so hard to get good help these days, isn't it?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Buzz Lightyear Lunch

This lunch from the last week of last term is a simple throw together jam sandwich topped with cheese art. Pre packaged yoghurt and pepperoni and cheese. Can you see Buzz's wings in there too? Cut using this cute airplane vegetable cutter. Details with FooDoodlers.

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Toy Story Dolly Lunch

Are you ready for school to go back this week? We only have a one day week with the public holiday so I'm not sure how creative it will be. Probably about as impressive as the lunches from the end of last term.

This jam sandwich topped with FooDoodler cheese art served with strawberries and pre-packaged yoghurt all in our Easy LunchBoxes. Juice in a Nude FoodMovers bottle was attached to the lunchbox with a silicon band. (NB these yoghurts don't sit that well in these boxes. You can see the close ups I took in this previous post)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.

Sushi

Wow, this is a flashback! My heart does skip a beat when I find photos of lunches made in our old kitchen. *sigh*.

These were made for a take a plate party with some friends and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out some cute cutters I'd gotten from Bento USA.

I cheated & used our Sush-ezi for the teriyaki chicken, avocado & carrot sushi.

Oh how I miss that giant bench!

I do love the little mould that comes with the cutter set. Just perfect!

And I made the kids ones with no fillings.

As you can see the cheese cracked quite badly.

And there was a lot of off-cuts.

Back to rolling the grown up sushi.

One day I will get the perfect centred sushi :-)

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product.