Fall Lunch Review- Skull Sandwiches

My kids are creepy. I say it all the time and people think I am kidding. 

But I'm not! 

When L was old enough to walk and talk (about a year old) she would hide in our dark hall and wait to jump out at my husband and me. F loved to pretend to be a zombie at 18 months and was even happier when I would pretend that hordes of zombies were lumbering down our street toward the house. We would scream and point and run to hide. This is how my children have entertained themselves since they were old enough to do so. I guess it's in their DNA. 

Last October I made a different Halloween lunch each day. Toward the end of the month I decided to do a lunch for Dia de Los Muertos. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead 

I made the sandwiches out of the kids favorite, pb&honey and sealed the sandwiches with my Wonder Bread Sandwich Sealer N Decruster (it's awesome, I got it on a random isle at our local grocery store and the darn thing cost less than $5!) 

 So here was my Day of the Dead lunch for 2012. I used red and green food coloring mixed together to make the brown which I painted on the sandwich with a small water color brush freehand. The details were painted with orange and purple food coloring.

On the side I included a popcorn mix that my husband picked up at costco, I put some small skull candies into it to skull it up. I also included a tiny snickers bar and several apple slices that I partially skinned.

As I was posting this F said "Oh! Is that my lunch for tomorrow?" and requested another for tomorrow. Silly wabbit!

A Visitor for Bear Themed Lunch

One of our favorite books last year was A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker. 

It's a story about a bear who lives alone and is trying to make his breakfast. A mouse keeps showing up in his house asking for a cup of tea. It's a cute story about a creature living alone, stuck in a rut who learns to enjoy the company of someone else and to share his space and time with someone. 

Last school year I made a fairly simple bento lunch for my then 5 year old based on the book. 

As you can see it really isn't anything fancy. I used a bear cookie cutter for the main sandwich and a mouse for the second. Using construction paper, a toothpick and a marker I made the sign from the book.

Along with the sandwich I included cheddar bunnies (nearest I had to mice) a yogurt drink and sliced apple chips. It went over well. That is to say she ate her lunch. Not sure what else I can ask!

If you have young kids and don't know the book you should check it out at your local library or get yourself a copy on your favorite online retailer. It's a lot of fun to read.

As I myself search for Work Life Balance...

I started reading this article Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life Balance and Income Equality by Stephen Marche for The Atlantic  yesterday evening, and finally finished it this morning at 5:30am. It's a good read about the state of parenting, if you are not feeling the continued economic pinch then I congratulate you for being one of the few, here Marche points out several false and some oh so very true conflicts in parenting.  Enjoy! http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/the-masculine-mystique/309401/?single_page=tru&&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=520863 

Literary Lunches?

I love using the illustrations in my kids books to help give their lunches a theme. Ok,
maybe these lunches are not actually literary, but they give us a chance to talk about the books again.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!

Dr. Seuss's ABC- Letter V

Verna Vera Vin and her violet violin, with apples, yogurt drink and animal cookies. 

Verna's early stage. Black line. 

Here is one of the theme lunch boxes. I love this one because I can change out the picture as I wish. 

One of my favorite images of the good Dr and one of my favorite quotes "From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere."

Last week my daughters kindergarten class is learning about farms right now so for the last two days I have done farm animals. This is inspired by our Charley Harper ABC's book. I just love the illustrations!

H is for Hen pb sandwich with yogurt covered raisins and strawberry/banana bark. 

Sandwich with the inspiration and my favorite sandwich cutter. 

Charley Harper inspired hen chasing a tractor

White Girl Bento Lunches

This August the 5yo started Kindergarten and her twice monthly lunch from preschool became a daily challenge. I know this will sound crazy but prepped for months. Planning for her lunches was a way for me to feel prepared for this huge change to all our lives. I spent time picking up boxes here and there and other little items to embellish the lunches. As it happens, she is totally and completely dedicated to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so one of the things I try to do is provide her some variation in other ways. At the start of the school year I decided to try to do something different each day (when possible). One aspect of this that I really love is that the two of us sit together at the start of the month and decide what days she will take hot lunch and what the themes of the other days will be. They are usually seasonal but they also include events at school. As a disclaimer I use the word bento because the boxes are bento style. My children would not eat much of the food that would go into a traditional bento lunch, but I love the portion sizes and the opportunity the divided boxes provode for diversity of foods. Here are some of my attempts at a non-asian style bento.
#1

First day of school with school mascot made of sandwich balls painted with food coloring and embellished with candy eyes. Also in lunch raisins, plumb and animal cookies. Pre-made grass and hand-made pick.

#2

Mostly Monsterly lunch- The 5yo was given this book as a gift from her cousin and both kids love it. Monster face sandwich (cut freehand so questionable), cut up pear, Annie's bunny cookies, and trail-mix. Flower-shaped silicone cup, pre-made pick.
#3

Panda lunch- PB+Nutella "Sushi, panda cookies, string cheese cut into 1/3rds, and plumb (no skin). Red silicone cup and panda stick.