List of K Foods

To follow up on this week's early post: Colorful & Delicious Letter K Bento, here is a list of foods that start with Letter K. There are a lot of K foods, so it should be relatively easy for YOU to make your own Letter K lunch! Just pick one food from each group, pack in your lunchbox, and poof ... lunch! (I highlighted the ones that I used.)

Breads/Grains:
Kaiser roll
Kamut (durum wheat)
Kashi
Kettle corn
Kipfel (like a croissant)

Dairy:
Kasseri cheese (like feta)
Kerrygold Swiss cheese
Kraft cheese

Desserts:
Kisses (Hershey's chocolate)
Key lime pie
Kit Kat candy bar
Krispy Kreme doughnut
Kunefe (cheese pastry)

Fruits:
Kaffir lime
Kiwi
Kumquat

Meats/Protein:
Keftedes (Greek meatballs)
KFC Chicken
Kielbasa

Vegetables:
Kale chips
Kelp
Kernel corn
Kidney beans
Kohlrabi
Kosher pickles

Combos:

Kebabs (skewered meat & veggies)

Superbowl Bento Lunch

The Super Bowl is the time for epic plays, and equally awesome lunches. Here is my version of a Super Bowl lunch.

First, I made a bed of rice as the backdrop for the bento. Although I neglected to include it in the picture, I tucked a condiment container of soy sauce into the lunch, as flavoring for the rice. (If you put soy sauce on the rice too early, it soaks in, creating soggy, mushy rice. Adding soy sauce to the rice right before you eat it ... perfection.)

Broccoli resembles the grass of the football field, while sticks of cheddar cheese form a goal post.

The football is made from whole wheat quesadillas, cut into football shapes. I drew the 'laces' on the football quesadillas with a black food marker.

By now, I guess you know which team I am cheering for. I'm kinda obligated to do so, since I live in that state. :) In order to create the famous "12" sign with food, I utilized blueberries as the background. Next, I cut peeled jicama into 1/2"-thick slices, and cut out the #12 with cookie cutters. (In case you weren't aware, the Seahawks consider their (loudly exuberant) fans "the 12th man" of the team, hence why there are "12" flags flying all over Seattle.)

For dessert, I added a few Skittles to honor the Seahawks' leading rusher Marshawn Lynch. Legend has it that when Marshawn was playing football as a preteen, his mama used to give him Skittles before his games. Encouragement in the form of "power pellets" helped him to run faster and to play his best. Well, the Seahawks fans have run with that sweet memory, turning it into a shower of Skittles every time he scores a touchdown.

Go, Seahawks! But whoever wins, whether Seahawks or Broncos - kudos to both teams on a job well done.

Colorful & Delicious Letter K Bento

Letter K Lunch - this is one of my favorite bentos. Featuring such an assortment of bright colors, it is just begging you to eat it!

The base of this cheerful lunch is Kabobs. I cracked wooden skewers to fit into the bento box, making sure that there were no splintered ends. I sauteed cubes of beef and chunks of zucchini. Once they had cooled sufficiently, I threaded them onto the skewers, adding in bite-sized pieces of red and orange mini peppers.

Tucked into the small, green silicone cup, is the dairy component for the day: cubes of Kasseri cheese, which is similar to feta cheese.

In order to fit everything into this packed lunch, I had to cut the Kipfel in half. Kipfel is a bread similar to a croissant.

Kiwi fruit is the obvious choice for a fruit beginning with the Letter K. I made sure to include a food pick, so that my kiddos would (hopefully) use the pick and not their fingers to pick up the kiwi. Hopefully, less sticky mess!

I threw in Kumquats on a whim. These are weird yet delicious, little fruits. They are strange, because they look like mini oval oranges. And yet you don't peel them. With a kumquat, you pop the whole thing into your mouth. It's an interesting taste. Try it sometime!

A mini Kit Kat bar comprises the dessert portion of the meal.

Lastly, my favorite! And now it is my kids' favorite: Kale chips! If I wasn't pushing myself to create a bento lunch for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet, I NEVER would have tried these fragile, delicious creations. (One time, I made 7 cookie sheets of these kale chips, and my kids practically inhaled 5 sheets-worth of kale chips in 10 minutes. I could have been upset that I spent SO much time prepping & baking them, and then I realized ... my kids just happily ate PURE VEGGIES!)

Anyways, here is the recipe for Heavenly Kale Chips. My dad just tried them the other day, and decided that they weren't that bad. Try them for yourself, and let me know what YOU think!

List of J Foods

Perhaps your child's name begins with the letter J. Or perhaps, J is YOUR favorite letter. In case you'd like to make your own Letter J lunch, here are some foods that begin with J to get you started.

Breads/Grains:
Jewish rye bread
Johnny cake

Dairy:
Jarlsberg cheese

Desserts:
Jaffa cake
Jello
Jelly beans

Fruits:
Jackfruit
Jam
Jonathan apple

Meats/Protein:
Jerk chicken

Vegetables:
Jerusalem artichoke
Jicama

Combos:
Jambalaya

Letter J Bento

It has been a week or two since I've posted about alphabentos. To refresh your memory, my current purpose is to create a lunch full of foods beginning with one particular letter, slowly working my way through the entire alphabet. This week's letter is J.

Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix made it easy to create the main part of this week's bento. I simply cooked the rice mix according to the package directions, and then added in some cooked, smoked sausage. Tada ... my non-Southern-style of cooking. (If you're from the South, please pardon my attempt at jambalaya.)

Into the corner of the lunchbox, I tucked some slices of Jarlsberg cheese. This type cheese looks similar to Swiss, but it tends to have a buttery texture with a nutty flavor.

LydiBug thought of Jicama as the Letter J vegetable. You might be asking, "Umm, what is jicama?' It is a brown-skinned, root vegetable; once you peel it, the white flesh is crunchy and sweet. If you haven't done so yet, try it!

I made a Johnnycake, which is a type of fried, cornmeal flatbread. To be perfectly honest, it didn't taste all that great; twas rather bland.

Lastly, in a Letter J lunch, you simply MUST include Jelly Belly Jellybeans!

Coming soon .. the Olympics games!

Can I tell you .... I am SO excited for the upcoming Winter Olympics! Growing up, I have fond memories of watching ice skating with my family. Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan. (Yup, I'm dating myself here, but I don't care.)

One of the things that I like best about the Olympic games is that the sportsmanship is almost always excellent. Such a stark contrast against our country's overall poor sportsmanship. Major league ball players thinking WAY too much of themselves. To "everyone-deserves-a-trophy" sports. To the yelling, over-the-top parents on the sidelines of their kids' games. Personally, I have had enough of that.

However, with the Olympics games, a higher standard is expected, even demanded. Contrasted against our normal society, the Olympic standard is even more remarkable. I appreciate how Olympians give their best, while competing well against others, even against their own teammates. And yet, they are still a team, representing their own country.

When I see how much national pride our team has, it makes my heart swell with pride to be an American. I am looking forward to showing my kiddos what good sportsmanship and teamwork look like. I am super excited to be able to pass on my love for the Olympic games to my children, LoveBug and SuperBoy.

Since we just canceled cable, I guess I should buy some bunny ears so that we can actually WATCH the Olympic games, ya know? 21 days! Check out the website for a countdown clock and for updated news: Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.

Anywho, about lunches: I've got some ideas in the works. Olympic-themed bentos, anyone?!!! 21 days!!

Preparation makes for Easy Bentos

Some of my friends have told me that they don't have time to make healthy lunches or fun bentos. Please, oh please, may I show you HOW EASY it can be?! With a little prep on the weekend, you can set yourself up for a successful lunch-making week!

My kids have been bugging me to make hummus for their lunches. That is pleasantly surprising since, in the past, SuperBoy has expressed his dislike for hummus. Now HE is the one asking for it. You bet your bottom dollar that I'm gonna make hummus (practically a pure veggie dip!) for their lunches!

After making the hummus (or you can use store-bought), I got my supplies ready. The hummus, a bunch of condiment containers, a spoon and a larger container to hold all of the dips.

Over the years, I have collected several types of condiment containers. On the left is a cute, flip-top container, which is easy for little hands to open. You can buy these at my favorite bento website. The middle one is a screw-top, travel size container. This one is easy for older kids to open and close. Lastly, the one on the right is a tiny Tupperware; it has a great seal, but even I have a hard time opening it.

Once I had my hummus ready and my dip containers at hand, I used the spoon to scoop the hummus into each one, closing them tightly.

Tada! Finished product. Ready to be stored in the refrigerator.

Next, I cut up veggies for the week. This time, I've got carrot and celery sticks.

Then, I put out the lunchboxes and placed sandwiches in the main compartments.

I added a fruit (cut-up kiwi) and a pick.  The food pick serves several purposes:
(1) it's cute and fun to use,
(2) it makes picking up the fruit cubes easier, AND less messy, and
(3) it eliminates the need to pack a bulky fork.

Then I tucked in a cheese stick, added the veggie of choice and threw in an already-prepared condiment container full of delicious, nutritious hummus. See how easy that was!

Here's the synopsis:
(1) Preparation makes lunch-making MUCH easier.
(2) With veggies cut up and at the ready, it takes very little time to throw together a lunch.

Foods beginning with I

Like I stated in my previous post, Letter I Bento, the Letter I proved a difficult challenge. However, I am not one to be easily deterred by hardships, especially when it comes to making a fun lunch. If you would like to make your own Letter I lunch, here are a few foods beginning with I. Create away!

Breads/Grains:
Italian bread
Integrale (wholewheat) pasta

Dairy:
Ice cream

Desserts:
Ice cream sandwich
Italian fruit tart

Fruits:
Iyokan (Japanese citrus)
Ita palm fruit
Ilama (like a cherimoya)

Meats/Protein:
Italian sausage

Vegetables:
Iceburg lettuce
Italian salad dressing (condiment for veggies)

Combos:
Indian curry

I Bento

Did you know that there are not many healthy foods associated with the Letter I? Therefore, this was a tricky bento lunch to create. However, I'm sure the the Letter X will prove to be much more difficult!

Today's lunch is simply centered around Italian foods. The main portion of this bento is Integrale (wholewheat) penne pasta, topped with Italian sausage, sautéed peppers and onions.

An Iceberg wedge presents a sophisticated twist on regular, boring salad. Present but not pictured: Italian dressing.

A slice of Italian bread is perfect for soaking up the juices remaining from the pasta and sausage. Delicious!

Please note: I did not include ice cream, because I had no way to keep it frozen for my kids mid-day meal. If you are doing these lunches at home, by all means, include ice cream! I would have. :)

Emperor's New Groove

Hey y'all. Sorry that I haven't posted recently. My kiddos have been off of school for Christmas break for a week or so now. And when they are home, I love it, but it throws off my groove! We do fun things together , like geocaching or a kids' museum, but I somehow forget that dinner still needs to happen and laundry still needs to get done. Needless to say, I am looking forward to school resuming, and me getting my groove back.

Speaking of 'my groove', that is one of my favorite lines from "Emperor's New Groove". When Emperor Kuzco is dancing and boogying, he bumps into a peasant, and then exclaims, 'You threw off my groove!!!'

Well, my family loves that movie. So in honor of that famous line, I present one of my first ever bento lunches from "Emperor's New Groove'. (Please excuse the not-so-great picture quality. This was one of my first picture-taking sessions of bento lunches.)

In this picture are 3 lunches, 1 for each of my kiddos, and 1 for my husband. This is a perfect way to showcase how to prepare and pack a bento lunch in different shapes and sizes of bento boxes.

First, I made the star of the show, I mean, of the lunch - Emperor Kuzco as a llama. After printing out a cartoon llama silhouette, I used that to form the basic outline on the bread slices. Once I cut out the bread into the desired llama shapes, I smeared them with peanut butter, and placed them into the center of the lunch boxes.

Next up is Kronk's spinach puffs. I unwrapped store bought crescent roll dough, add baby spinach leaves, sprinkled it with cheese, rolled it up, and baked it according to the package directions. Presto ... Spinach puffs! I also tucked in some baby spinach all around the sandwich, for added nutrition.

My favorite part of this lunch:  A pillbug from Mudka's Meat Mug restaurant. My creation is reminiscent of the cartoon pill bug, although much more appetizing and delicious! I began by baking potatoes - both regular and sweet potatoes. Once the regular potatoes were baked and slightly cooled, I scraped out enough potato pulp to make a potato shell. Then I quickly dipped it into blue-tinted water; I say 'quickly', because if you leave the potato in water too long, it becomes mushy. Meanwhile, I mashed up the sweet potatoes. Lastly, I just dropped a few spoonfuls of the yummy orange stuff into the blue-tinged potato shell. Tada ... A yummy pill bug.

Lastly, the broccoli. At one point in the movie, the emperor's advisor, Yzma, is attempting to poison the emperor, in order to assume his throne. When the poison fails to kill Emperor Kuzco, turning him into a llama, Yzma panics. Demonstrating with stalks of broccoli, she tries to instruct her advisor, Kronk, to "hit him on the head". Therefore, mini broccoli stalks in this lunch; however, these are for eating, not hitting people on the head. :)

Although this lunch did take a bit of prep (just how do you cut a llama-shaped sandwich?) and a bit of work (baking the potatoes, etc), my family loved the creativity of seeing a favorite, silly movie in lunch-form. And THAT made it all worth it.