The Very Cranky Bear Lunch

Honey loves her Very Cranky Bear books so I made her lunch about it.

Moose was made with cheese, sultanas and a cheerio; lion was nori and a corn cob; sheep CuteZCute egg mould; zebra from a banana and Bear a CuteZCute sandwich with FooDoodlers. She also had a bag of animal biscuits for snack, mandarin flower and yoghurt.

All in our Nude Food Movers.

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.

More Hearty Lunches

 More simple hearts for my loves <3

Miss M too yoghurt, strawberries, sandwich and cheerios with tomato sauce in the little container.

Honey took ham & cheese layered heart, sandwich, strawberries, yoghurt and cheerios which hadn't quite thawed out so didn't end up being cut. Oh well!


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.

Moscow Circus Lunches

The Great Moscow Circus came through town recently and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it.

To keep the magic going a little longer I made some lunches, as you do :-)

Miss's first lunch of the week was an Easy Lunchbox filled with passionfruit & yoghurt, strawberry & rockmelon 'circus tent' and a Nino the Clown inspired sandwich.

Honey had to wait a day for her lunch. Yoghurt pouch, corn dog muffins, sandwich with Little Charley Bear cheese art, mini capsicums filled with dip, watermelon & rockmelon circles and some milk.

Miss M also had a Yumbox later that week. Filled with passionfruit & yoghurt; watermelon & rockmelon; mini capsicum and carrot; corn relish dip; sandwich squares; corn dog muffins and tomato sauce in the rainbow container. I added a cute carrot face and balloon string pick to the muffins.

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.

Quickie Sea Lunches

 I've felt so rushed since returning to work and have found I'm less & less creative with the girls lunches. Having said that these quickie lunches were fast & fun as well as being relevant to their days with both of them talking about under the sea at their respective 'schools'.

Miss M took an EasyLunchbox with passionfruit yoghurt, strawberries, fishy Vegemite sandwich and under the sea biscuits. Watermelon balls for brain break along with some milk in her Juice in the Box.

This is the layout I've been using for Honey lately. Main in a mini Tupperware (oct-dogs today, still frozen when I took the picture), yoghurt pouch, sandwich and snack with large container of fruit.

 This lunch is from a little while ago and I just haven't gotten around to posting it. Again sea themed but with sausages and sauce for lunch alternative.

And I drew a face on the fish ;-)

This was Miss M's the same day. She got Nutella/cashew nut dip fro her apple.

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.

Happy Bento Book Tour

Have you heard the buzz? There's a new Bento book on the shelves! I've loved Anna Adden's work over at Becoming a Bentoholic for some time now, and when the opportunity arose to review her new book Happy Bento!: Lunches on the Go I jumped at the chance.

Anna clearly & concisely walks you through the basics of Bento - from what it is and 'tools of the trade' to techniques to help you achieve the types of lunches pictured in her book. Basic Bentos, Fun Bentos, Special Days, and Season Bentos are all accompanied by crisp and colourful photos with each lunch detailing supplies, ingredients and directions. Where needed photo tutorials are also included. I love that this book covers everything from simple basic bentos and techniques through to somethings that are more advanced and complicated. Something for everyone!

I decided to replicate her Super Mario Bros inspired lunch, not only because it is so cute, but because I've been wanting to make one in my mushroom lunchbox ever since I got it!

I replaced the hotdogs in the book with corndog muffins as we've just been to the circus and I can't get that side-show staple Dagwood Dogs out of my head! Following the directions in the book made creating the Piranha Plant a breeze, although I used regular spaghetti instead of angel hair pasta and didn't cut the small circles from the plant which wold have made it that extra bit cuter.

I bought cherry tomatoes instead of grape but I still think they look quite cute, don't you?

I love this lunch so much I'm taking it to work for myself!

(By the way, if you're quick there's a copy of Happy Bento!: Lunches on the Go up for grabs on Becoming a Bentoholic right now - and the giveaway is open world wide! Check out this post for details.)

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

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was offered nor provided. This post was written for Loving Lunches and Becoming a Bentoholic who provided an e-copy of the book to review. All opinions expressed are my own, based on my personal experience with the product. This post may contain affiliate links.

Bunny Lunch with Egg Mould Repurpose

This toddler lunch was all inspired by our humble bunny egg mould.

Leftover pasta with some mini sausage bunnies are separated from mixed vegetables and a 'Bunny Eggy' with a little baran.

Using the egg mould as a stamp, I added a little Bunny love to her sandwich.

I then used the egg mould itself to house some store bought dip and carrot sticks. Again separated with a little baran.

A mandarin and strawberry flower along with some yoghurt are some of my Honey Bunny's favourite sides. And they go well with the milk in her Juice in the Box.

Have you entered to WIN one of FOUR Juice in the Box starer bundles yet? See this previous post for details! Hurry! Ends this weekend!!

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.

Daycare Experimental Lunch

I'm still figuring out the best things to pack for Honey at daycare. She isn't a big eater like Miss M and that throws me a bit. Even this day when I sent a leamington (one of her favourites) she didn't eat it. She did however finish the Gogo Juice smoothie in her Juice in the Box  That's after having found it in the fridge the night before and polishing it off then too! Little monkey >.<

 Honey's never been big on sandwiches so I thought I'd try some of these little sausages. Smaller than a cheerio/mini frank they are the perfect size for all those mini-sausage cutters I bought years ago! This one is bunny and mouse :-)

 A simple ham & cheese flower and a one-slice sandwich with a cute FooDoodler stamp.

Mandarin and strawberry in the snack pod. The other snack pod had yoghurt in.

Oh - and the corn! Surprisingly the sandwich was eaten this day. I think she really didn't like the sausage :-(

Do you like the look of those Juice in the Box drink containers? Stay tuned for more details including a review and giveaway launching this weekend!

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.

Cheerio Hearts

Are you ready for St Valentine's Day? Here's a little flashback to get you inspired. . .

Cheerio hearts on a be of 2 minute noodles complete with tomato sauce.What toddler isn't going to love that?


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.

Teddy Bears Picnic Party - Part 1, Savoury

I can hardly believe our little Honey celebrated her first birthday 4 months ago! Where has the time gone? And I can hardly believe it's taken me so long to share all the glorious goodies from her party!

We decided that for Miss M's first birthday party we'd have a Teddy Bears' Picnic. I thought it was a cute enough party for a one year old, and was gender neutral enough that for any future additions to the family we could easily replicate it. I was busily Pinning ideas when I saw a Winnie the Pooh dressed up as a bumble bee. I had a light bulb moment and though that would be the perfect take on a Teddy Bear's Picnic for our little Honey (Bee).

We had a small gathering in a local park so everything had to be easily transported and/or assembled 'on site'.

I made up some simple yellow (corn relish and Philly cheese) dip and added a few olives to create a bee look in the centre of my Tupperware chip 'n' dip. Then each section was filled with alternating black/yellow goodies. Yellow Kiwi fruit, blueberries, Ritz/Jatz, olives, yellow capsicum, and store bought olive bread.

I was so chuffed with how these bumble bee  curried quail eggs turned out!

Served on a (washed, new) paint tray, the centre holds a container of curried mayonnaise, and each bee is decorated with nori detail and cucumber wings.

The eggs were coloured following this fantastic tutorial from Little Miss Bento.

There were a few leftover so they were sliced in half and laid upon their cucumber wing slices with a dollop of the curried mayo.

Then there was the bee hive inspired cob loaf!

The top layer was a simple hamburger bun, while the centre held all the yumminess that is a classic cob loaf. The bottom layer was a damper. All the bread store bought. To make the cheesey filling I basically followed the topping I use when making sour cream potatoes.

Blanch some spinach leaves, fry some bacon and a little onion. In a saucepan melt together equal parts of sour cream and grated cheese (like mozzarella) with a generous helping of butter. Add your spinach and bacon mixes and stir to combine. Fill your hollowed out cob loaf with the cheese mix and bake until golden.

Cut from the menu were these cute muffin pizzas. Store bought english muffins topped with pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni and cheerio slices.

Stay tuned this week for more Teddy Bear Picnic fun! After publishing, you will be able to click through to see:
Part 2, Sweet and
Part 3, Cake!

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.

Market Stall Lunches

 I was very excite to hold my first market stall in December 2014, selling some Bento goodies. If you are in the Emerald, QLD area and would like some more information, please drop me a line: LovingLunches at gmail dot com  :-)

This is the 'display' lunch I made. As it was on display for a few hours with the lid open and many flies appreciating the work it wasn't consumed, but it did look appetising!





The sandwich was actually just the crust with a CuteZCute cute out turned over. I added a few 'pig noses' for the tentacles with the centre circles being made from the crusts. The off cut circles became 'bubbles'. Eye picks and a pig-ear cut out, again from crust complete the look. I've been wanting to make a CuteZCute Octopus ever since I saw this adorable post. What do you think? Did I do the original justice?

Some more cute eye picks and some FooDoodlers turned a couple of cheerios into Octo-dogs which are always a winner for us.

And our fish egg mould egg had a swim in some lettuce 'kelp'. A couple of the circle bread off cuts from the sandwich  acted as bubbles and a little colour added with FooDoodlers.

Then this was my actual nibble-all-day-long lunch. A couple of store bought finger laminations, some Tic Tacs, and a whole heap of local grapes. All served in Easy Lunch Boxes.

I had such a wonderful time meeting so many lovely locals and sharing the Bento love with my community. I look forward to lots more Bento action in town, stay tuned!

If you would like to sign up for our Loving Lunches Locals email, you can do so via this link. I intend to keep the blog more focused on food rather than sales ;-)


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.

Fun Fish Flashback

I love this little lunch I made for Miss M last year. So simple and easy!

Lunch Punch fish decorated with FooDoodlers and a few stars made from the bread offcuts.

Cheerio octo-dogs decorated with FooDoodlers and tomato sauce.

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 personal experience with the product.

Cheerio Faces

I can't believe I made these lunches almost six month apart - as you can see, I tend to repeat myself :-) Happy *almost* Wordless Wednesday :-)

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 personal experience with the product.