All Things Pumpkin

'Tis that season for all things pumpkin-related. So how does one make a pumpkin lunch? The good news is that you don't need to use all of these components in one lunch. Make a sandwich, add some veggies, along with with a jack-o-lantern clementine. OR create a faux pumpkin out of a wrap (see below), add some fruits & veggies, and PRESTO: your own pumpkin-themed lunch. No one said this had to be difficult. You can make it as complex or simple as you want it to be. Follow along to gather ideas to create your own.

Here are the ingredients that I used:
* Clementine
* Sharpie marker
* Sun-dried tomato wrap or tortilla
* Mayonnaise
* Deli meat
* Celery tops
* Rice
* Red & yellow food coloring
* Yogurt
* Pumpkin bread
* Pumpkin seeds

(1) Clementine Jack-O-Lantern: this one is easy! With a Sharpie, lightly outline a jack-o-lantern face on the side of a clementine. Once you're satisfied with your sketch, color it in. IMPORTANT: let it dry before placing it in the lunchbox. HELPFUL TIP: my kids have a hard time beginning the peeling process, so I cut into the peel (on the back side of the jack-o-lantern) to assist them in getting started.

(2) Sun-dried Tomato Wrap Pumpkins: Lay a sun-dried tomato wrap flat. Spread with mayonnaise, and layer thinly with deli meat. Beginning at one end, roll up the wrap, and slice into 1"-2" slices. Add a toothpick to keep the slices from unrolling. Cut the tops off of a celery stalk. Add a celery top, preferably with leaf attached, to the other end of the toothpick, thereby completing the 'pumpkin' look.

(3) Pumpkin Rice Balls: Two ways to do this.
* Method #1: Cook rice according to directions. Mix together red and yellow food coloring to create orange; then stir orange color into rice. This is the way I did it, and it made some rice really orange, and some a light orange. Not exactly what I was going for.
* Method #2: Another option that might work better: add the food coloring to the water as the rice cooks. I haven't tried this method yet; however, I would assume that you'd want to add more food coloring than method #1, since the water will dilute it.
* Once the rice is cooked, let it cool until you can easily handle it. To keep the rice from sticking to your hands, lightly wet your hands before handling the rice. Form rice into small balls; this will be your pumpkin. Poke a small hole in the top of the rice ball, and insert a celery top as the stem. Presto: pumpkin rice ball.

(4) To round out the lunch, I added orange (red & yellow) food coloring to vanilla yogurt.

(5) A slice of homemade pumpkin-craisin bread added some fruit (craisins) & veggies (pumpkin puree). HINT: Trader Joe's also sells a pumpkin bread mix that is yummy! And if you bake it at home, then it's homemade, right?!

(6) Lastly, I added a few cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds for a touch of sweetness. I think we used a recipe from AllRecipes.com, perhaps one like this: Sweet Pumpkin Seeds.

Then I packaged the components into a lunchbox in a pleasing way. So ... what kind of pumpkin lunch will YOU come up with?

Thinking Outside the Bento Box

First, let me say "I'm sorry" if all of my words don't come out correctly in this post. As I sit here in my husband's hospital room, I'm running on 3.5 hours of sleep. Here I sit: Typing on the iPad, chair positioned towards the window. A view of the skyline - the tall, stately buildings just a few blocks away. Watching the daylight trying to brighten the wet, dark clouds that are scurrying by. You see, my husband is having an unexpected appendectomy this morning. Went to Urgent care last night, got sent to the ER at 9:30, someone stayed at home with our sleeping kids. Appendicitis diagnosed at 11:30, got a hospital room at 12:30, surgery time got scheduled at 1am. I went home, relieved the babysitter, slept for 3.5 hours, got the kids up, took the dog out, did Starbucks drive-thru for breakfast & COFFEE, handed kids off to another friend, got to the hospital to be with my Love. Surgery was scheduled for 8am, and yet we still wait.

Back to the lunch that I created for our kiddos yesterday. Thinking outside the bento box, here is a packaged lunch (which is all that a bento lunch really is): thermos full of taco soup, carrots (veggie), mandarin orange (fruit). Tada! A non-traditional packed lunch.

Numerous times at dinner, my kids will incredulously exclaim to me, "Oh, Mom! This is SOOO good! Can I have it tomorrow for lunch?!" If your kid is one of those people that eat leftovers, then this opens up numerous possibilities for lunch-making!

Invest in a GOOD thermos, one that will keep the food hot until your child's lunchtime. The night before, pack the veggies and fruits in the lunchbox, and place it in the refrigerator. I always leave the lunchbox unzipped, so that I remember to put an ice pack or thermos inside before sending the child to school. In the morning, preheat the thermos with hot water. Meanwhile, reheat the food to a hotter temperature than you would normally serve your child. Then dump the water out of the thermos, and fill with preheated food. Lastly, don't forget to pack a spoon!

The Letter A, my first Alphabento

I had this crazy idea that I should make a bento lunch in which everything began with the Letter A. Then I could work my way through the alphabet via appetizing lunches. In doing some research, I discovered that hardly anyone had done this, and IF such lunches had been crafted, it was for the normal A, B and C letters. To this dilemma, I said, "Challenge accepted!"

It was also my hope that my kids would try new foods and perhaps like them. (For instance, I made kale chips for the Letter K bento, and they eat kale chips as fast as I can bake them!)

If you recall my first post How I Began Bento-ing, I mentioned that I include foods from each food group. I googled and researched A LOT, coming up with the following list; the highlighted portions are the foods I used to create my Letter A Bento. It is by no means exhaustive. But I wanted to give YOU the resources to make your own Letter A Bento.

Breads and Grains:
Acini de pepe pasta
Agnolotti (ravioli-like)
All Bran cereal
Angel hair pasta
Animal crackers
Anonlini (round, stuffed pasta)

Dairy:
Alfredo sauce
Almond milk
American cheese
Asiago cheese

Desserts:
Ambrosia salad
Angel food cake

Fruits:
Apple
Applesauce
Apricot
Apple juice
Asian pear

Meats and Protein:
Almonds
Anchovies
Abalone (sea snail)
Albacore tuna
Andouille sausage

Vegetables:
Artichoke hearts
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocado
Adzuki beans
Alfalfa sprouts
Aubergine (eggplant)

Combos:
Ants on a log (celery stalk topped with pb and raisins)
Alphabet soup

Without further ado ... here's what I put into my Letter A Bento.
Angel hair pasta, topped with creamy Alfredo sauce and spicy Andouille sausage, creates the base of the dish. Basil leaves add a pop of needed color. Asparagus spears add another dimension to the dish. For dessert - an Angel food cupcake topped with Apricots and a sprig of mint.

I gave my kiddos cold noodles and sauce in their lunchbox, but you could easily preheat a small thermos and place them hot noodles and sauce in it. Either way ... delicious!

What lunch will YOU create?

Sometimes Simple is Better

Have you ever looked at other people's blogs and wondered HOW they do it? I've often wondered that myself. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't always have the time, money or skill to craft something that amazing. And you know what? That is okay.

While I enjoy making a detailed lunch, sometimes my crazy, wonderful life just doesn't allow the necessary time. Sometimes, our budget doesn't allow for any extra purchases. And other times, I simply don't have the necessary ability to make my idea a reality.

When any of those hindrances happen, I declare that "simple is better". Bring out the cookie cutters to create a funky pbj sandwich. Throw in some veggies & fruit. And presto ... lunch! It's as easy as that.

YOU too can make a healthy, nutritious, eye-appealing lunch.

Autumn Leaves Lunch

Time has just flown by! This year, my household is adjusting to both kids being in school, plus learning how to balance their daily homework loads. Truthfully, it has not been a very easy transition. I'm not sure how it happened but ... it's already officially autumn - my favorite season. Perhaps it's my favorite time of year, because it's my birthday month. Or because I absolutely adore the fall colors of burgundies, oranges, yellows, greens, teals and browns. Maybe it's because I grew up on the East Coast, where the leaves dressed the trees in an amazing array of colors and, once fallen, crunched deliciously under your feet, while the crisp air nipped your nose. Even though I no longer live on the East Coast, I fondly remember the hues of the fluttering leaves, so of course, I had to make a bento lunch to reminiscence.

Wanting to create a lunch that included a full palate of the autumn hues - muted browns, bold greens, pumpkin-y oranges, vibrant reds, maize-colored yellows, I used the following ingredients: broccoli florets, butternut squash, craisins, red fruit roll-up, sesame-covered honey almonds (from Trader Joe's - YUM!), grapes, apples, shredded cheese, and spinach & sun-dried tomato wraps.

It was a multi-step process. Here it goes:

(1) The most time-consuming step: I microwaved the whole butternut squash, according to the directions on a sticker attached to the squash. Using oven mitts, I carefully removed the squash from the microwave, placing it on a cutting board. Peeling off the skin with a paring knife, I cut it into 1.5" slices. Placing the maple leaf cookie cutter onto the squash slices, I gently and FIRMLY pressed down to produce the desired shape. (I bought a maple leaf cookie cutter at JoAnn's.)

(2) I discovered that my football cookie cutter looked similar to the elliptic leaves found on a magnolia or a dogwood tree. So I set out to make leaf quesadillas out of spinach & sun-dried tomato wraps.

While I cut out football, er leaf shapes, I heated my griddle. After coating the griddle with cooking spray, I added one layer of leaf cut-outs, sprinkled on the cheese, added the top leaves and sprayed everything again.

When the cheese melted, I flipped them to toast the other sides, and then let them cool.

(3) Using my letter cookie cutters, I made the word "FALL" out of red fruit roll-up.

(4) Cutting up green grapes and red apples, I created a tasty fall-colored fruit salad.

(5) To begin assembly, I put out ALL of my components: butternut squash maple leaf, leaf quesadillas, fruit roll-up letters, almonds, broccoli florets and fruit salad.

(6) For actual assembly, I placed the butternut squash maple leaf in the center of my deeper of my 2 bento boxes. (I had to slice off some of the tips in order to make it fit. Shh! The kids didn't notice.) Broccoli florets and craisins filled in the empty corners. I then topped that section of the bento box with fruit roll-up letters.

(7) For the second half of the assembly, I made two stacks of leaf quesadillas, rearranging almonds in the nooks and crannies. Before spooning the fruit salad into the bento, I separated the quesadillas from the fruit salad with a layer of plastic wrap. No soggy quesadillas here!

Before I show you the finished product, I have to confess something. The fruit roll-up letters ... they deliciously dissolved into the butternut squash. The result: when my family opened their bento boxes, they did not see this beautiful bento exactly as pictured below. Oh well. It was still pretty tasty.