The Letter H Lunch ingredients

Pick a food from each category. Put them together, and you have a homemade, Letter H lunch. It's that easy!

Breads/Grains:
Hawaiian rolls
Hard roll
Hominy
Hot cross bun

Dairy:
Halloumi cheese (like a salty mozzarella. Great if grilled!)
Havarti cheese (creamy cheese with small holes. Usually found in the deli case.)
Hollandaise sauce

Desserts:
Hazlenut torte
Heath candy bar
Honey buns
Huckleberry tart

Fruits:
Honeydew
Huckleberries (similar, yet smaller than blueberries)

Meats/Protein:
Hake fish (mild, flaky fish)
Halibut (mildly sweet, white fish)
Ham
Hamburger
Hard salami
Hard-boiled eggs
Hot dogs
Hummus (Here is my favorite recipe: Homemade Hummus, and here's how to make hummus smooth like the store bought brands.)

Vegetables:
Habanero pepper
Haricots (French for 'green beans')
Hash browns
Hearts of palm (edible inner part of a cabbage palm tree; tastes similar to artichoke hearts)
Herbs
Home fries
Hubbard squash

Combos:
Hawaiian pizza

Letter H Bento Lunch

Wow, this lunch was a bit hard to come up with! But I did it, and I have to say - it looks pretty AND tasty.

For the protein, I took a piece of Hake fish, encrusted it with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, and broiled it. In order to preserve its shape and integrity, I place the fish fillet in a flexible silicone dish.

Since we had never tried them before, I tested my luck by adding Hearts of Palm. Although pretty salty, they were not awful, but they were definitely not a first-time favorite. Haricot verts, the French word for green beans, add beautiful color to this Letter H lunch.

Honeydew melon and Huckleberries combine to create a gorgeous fruit salad. Actually I couldn't find any huckleberries in season, so I used blueberries. Don't tell my kids; they still don't know.

A Hard roll and Havarti cheese round up this delicious, fresh-looking lunch.

Cookie Cutters ... Secret Weapon for Bento Lunches

Wanna know my favorite tool? My secret weapon for creating fun lunches?
Cookie cutters. Yup, it's that simple. I purchased my Wilton Set of 101 Cookie Cutters at JoAnn's for about $14.99; however, I am sure that Michaels and Amazon sell them too.

I present: the full alphabet, plus numbers 1-8. At first, I thought it a bit strange 9 and 0 were not included. I'm guessing that you turn the 6 upside down to make it a 9, and you can use the letter O as the zero.

There is also an assortment of Easter cookie cutters. A cowboy boot & hat, along with a hand & a foot, are throw in for good measure. My son's favorite part? The plane, trucks, car and train. He can't wait for me to make a fun lunch out of transportation vehicles!

The Halloween and autumn collection includes a moon, 2 pumpkins, a cat and a house. For the sports enthusiast, there is a football and helmet, a baseball cap and a trophy. Two teddy bears are also included in this conglomeration of cookie cutters. SuperBoy's second favorite collection of cookie cutters: the dinosaurs. Be watching for a Dino Bento someday!

You cannot have a collection of cookie cutters without some hearts and circles! They come in several different sizes, and some of them even have crinkled edges.

Lastly, the Christmas cookie cutters. Please ignore the flour on the gingerbread people, candy canes and Christmas trees. I 'borrowed' these from my kids' cookie making so that I could take this picture.

By using the cookie cutter to create different shapes, lunch can go from 'Gee, it's lunchtime again" to "I can't wait to eat my lunch today!"

Mostly importantly, remember this:

Candy Cane Lunch

Wow, Christmastime has snuck up on me once again. How is that even possible? I mean, it happens the same time EVERY YEAR! But here it is again. Although I am prepared with the purchasing of gifts & mailing of packages, I forgot about making a Christmas-themed bento lunch. A few days ago, while I was trying not to panic about coming up with an idea, I glanced over at my kids who were cutting out sugar cookie dough with cookie cutters, and an idea struck me. A simple, red and green themed bento.

The main centerpiece of this festive lunch is the two candy cane-shaped, peanut butter-filled sandwiches. I used a Wilton FoodWriter Edible Color Marker to create the red stripes on the candy canes.

In the middle of the candy canes, I placed a silicone heart cup of shelled edamame. The heart signifies the Love that came at Christmastime, and the green of the edamame adds to the cheer of this seasonal lunch.

To further complement the colors of Christmas, I placed baby spinach around the sandwiches and edamame. The little blue container holds a creamy caesar dressing, in which to dip the spinach leaves.

Rounding out the lunch, I added raisins and apricots, not because it is Christmasy at all. It's because that is what I had in the pantry. :)

I wasn't sure if the small candy cane-shaped sandwiches would fill up my kids' tummies, so I threw in some sesame-and-wheat crackers.

Lastly, what's a Candy Cane Lunch without a cookie to go with it? Hence, the candy cane cookie lovingly decorated by my daughter, LoveBug.

List of G foods

To create a Letter G lunch, you need foods begin with G. There are some pretty obvious foods, like grapes (which I forgot!), garlic bread and green beans. However, those foods by themselves do not constitute a complete lunch. To solve this dilemma, below I have provided a list of G foods. I highlighted the foods that I used in my own G bento lunch. Get creative!

Breads & Grains:
Garlic bread
Gnocchi
Goldfish
Graham crackers
Goya crackers

Dairy:
Gouda cheese
Greek yogurt

Desserts:
Gingerbread
Ginger snaps

Fruits:
Grapefruit
Grapes
Guava

Meats & Protein:
General Tsao's chicken
Genoa salami
Grass-fed meat
Ground beef

Vegetables:
Garbanzo beans
Garlic
Gherkin pickles
Green beans
Green onions
Guacamole

Combos:
Gazpacho (cold veggie soup)
Genova pesto on top of pasta
Granola
Gyros

A Grape-less Letter G Bento

Ever have an 'Aha!' moment? As I was beginning to write this post, I realized that I could have include 'grapes' as a fruit, but I forgot! Oh well.

Here is my grape-less G bento.

The top portion of the bento is filled with Gnocchi pasta, smothered in Genova pesto. A big thanks to Trader Joe's for this delicious sauce.

Using toothpicks, I made mini skewers of Genoa salami. Simply fold up the salami accordion-style, and then thread it onto the toothpicks. 

Surrounding the skewers of deli meat are cubes of Gouda cheese, which is one of the best cheeses in my opinion. My favorite Gouda is found at Trader Joe's.

(I promise that I don't purchase everything there, just a few delicious items!)

Next to the salami and cheese is a silicone cup of Garlicky Green beans. I made sure to include a spoon!

Besides missing grapes as a fruit, I think it is a pretty balanced lunch.

What will you make?

Ps. Don't forget to include the grapes! :)

Foods that Start with F

As a follow-up to the previous post: A Lunch Brought to You by the Letter F, here is a list of foods that begin with the Letter F. If you create your own Letter F lunch, I'd love to hear about it!

Breads/Grains:

Falafel

Farfalle (bow-tie pasta)

Fettucine

Flour tortillas

French bread

Dairy:

Feta cheese

Fondue (cheese)

Desserts:

Fig newtons

Flan

Fondue (chocolate)

Fortune cookie

Fudge

Fruits:

Fig

Fruit salad

Meats/Proteins:

Filet mignon

Fish fillet

Fish sticks

Vegetables:

Fava beans

Fennel

Florentine ("served with spinach")

French fries

Friss (curly endive lettuce)

Combos:
Fagioli (Italian for "pasta and beans"
Fajitas
Finger sandwiches
French toast
Fried rice

Brought to you by the Letter F

Today's blog post is brought to you by the Letter F. (For all of you "Arrested Development" fans, I call this post ... "Bent-o F", set to the tune of "Mist-er F".)

I originally wanted to combine Fava beans and Feta cheese in a delicious-sounding vegetable side dish. Alas, Fava beans are nowhere to be found, since they are not in season. Instead, I sprinkled Feta cheese on top of spinach salad. The word 'Florentine' is Italian for "served with spinach". Therefore, I technically served Feta Florentine, "Feta served with spinach". I love using creative license!

Fruit cocktail adds a pop of color, while rounding out the meal.

The main course of the lunch is Farfalle, drizzled with olive oil, topped with Feta cheese, and sprinkled with scallions, salt and pepper.

The ending flourish is a dessert of Fig Newtons. Please notice that I placed the Fig Newtons into a silicone cup, in order to keep the dessert separate from the robust flavors of the olive oil and feta cheese on the noodles.

All-in-all: a light, delicious, packable lunch.