Hungry Caterpillar....

One of Miss A's favorite bedtime stories is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Creatively juiced from her toothpick Italian flags out of olives, cheese and tomatoes yesterday she was reading along and said the caterpillar looked like green olives and tomato head. Sooooo as the story goes...today our theme was the that adorable very hungry caterpillar who turned into a butterfly!! We have a butterfly turkey sandwich. I used a cookie cutter for bread, meat and cheese. Then I added a secondary cheese on top and painted butterfly designs with food coloring. Green beans because it looks like grass and we need to finish them! ha! Chips as requested by Miss A and her green olive and tomato caterpillar that was put on a bendy straw instead of toothpicks to give it a curve! Then she cut cut out some cheese for her eyes and mouth! Tomorrow is a pizza party at school so no lunch tomorrow...so sad, but we will be back next week!! Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Buon Appetito!

Miss A is studying Italy this week on their passport to learning so we did a tribute to Italy lunch today. So we have some risotto with cheese in the shape of Italy and surrounding islands. We also have some fabulous pick snacks of green olives, mozzarella cheese, and tomatoes in the color design of the Italian flag with these very fitting foods from Italy. We also added a pepperoni border along the side and the mandarin oranges were just for Alexa's taste palette. Ciao Bello!!!

I also added a picture of Miss A displaying one of the fabulous flag pick snacks she made all by herself! Una buona giornata! (Have a good day!)

It's Caveman Crawl time!!!

If you have not experienced a Caveman Production race as of yet, then you are missing out on tons of fun and you definitely need to sign up! The Caveman Crawl is on June 18th and is a family adventure race and event. The Caveman Xtreme is an adult "rock your world" adventure race in the fall. Sign up is starting now for the Caveman Crawl which is just an hour outside the metroplex and sooo worth the short drive for a great time!! Miss A has her dance recital this same day and I will have a newborn but our family will definitely make an appearance!!! We wouldn't miss it for anything!!

So today's bento is in honor of this amazing race! We have an appropriate chicken leg with a foil handle (Alexa is a lady who does not get her hands dirty! ha) along with soome tomato dinosaur eggs. Mr. Caveman himself sits atop a piece of bread and is made from cheese, marshmallow and fruit roll up! We also have a side of fresh strawberries and a rice krispy treat with a brontsaurus on top of it out of fondant and a marshmallow eye.

Hope to see you June 18th!

http://www.cavemancrawl.com/Home.html

Are you ready kids????

It is definitely a Monday today!! The only thing that made me happy was this little sponge guy who I honestly find funny. You either hate him or love...Spongebob Squarepants! Are you ready kids??? Aye aye captain!!

Miss A had some leftover mac and cheese yesterday so it was the perfect landscape for this spongy funny guy. I used cheese for the whites of his eyes and teeth. With blue food coloring I painted a smaller circle of cheese for the iris of his eye and the pupil is seaweed. His nose is cheese and his mouth and eyelashes are fruit roll up. I also used fruit roll up for his square pants and cheese for his tie and shirt corners. I forgot about his eyelashes the first time and it is amazing how something as simple as eyelashes makes a HUGE difference. I added spongebob picture before his fabulous lashes and after. We have green beans for seaweed and ham rolled up with fish and starfish picks. I wish Alexa liked pineapple....but no go on that one. So here ya go...Whooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea! SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he! SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!! hahaaha. Have a good one!

Let down your hair....

As promised and of course not forgotten by Miss A we did Rapunzel for her Bento Box today. Spaghetti for her hair was an easy one...I was out of certain cheeses and supplies at the end of the week so I pulled out some purple fondant I had for her dress. Her arms are cheese which is an interesting combination. Alexa never eats any princess faces anyway so did not have to worry about that. haha. We have a side of green beans for grass and a flower out of mandarin oranges with a blueberry center. She was very stern about a castle tower so we used a rice krispy treat and some more purple fondant. There ya go...one of Alexa's favorite princesses....Rapunzel! Happy Friday everyone!!!

Pasta Angel....

Good morning, had to convince Miss A to change her idea due to the leftovers we had at dinner last night. They are studying Germany at preschool and they learned about one of the famous fairy tales....Rapunzel! So we will save Rapunzel for tomorrow perhaps. So with our leftover bowtie pasta we did a little angel. It sits atop the pasta on a slice of provolone cheese and has a ham dress and legs. We used tomatoes for the head and shoes and provolone for the halo. We have a side of tomatoes and blueberries along with some ham stars in the pasta and cheese stars on top of the tomatoes. Not the most exciting bento lunch of all time, but definitely quite sweet. I have an early start this morning so we made the lunch last night. First meeting is 6:30am so off to work I go!! Yowza!

Little Red...

Sooo Monday Miss A read Three Little Pigs at school which was our inspiration yesterday. Well yesterday they read Hansel and Gretel and made these graham cracker candy houses. Of course she wanted a candy and cookie only Bento....ummmm wrongo!!!! Last night Wonder Pets came to our rescue! This NickJr show featured a rescue mission for Little Red Riding Hood!!! You know how the rest of the story goes...so we feature two mini sandwiches. One is a wolf out of cheese, black olive nose, candy eyeballs and strawberry leaf whiskers. Little Red has a hoodie and rosy cheeks out of roast beef, cheese hair, and black olive eyes and mouth. We have two fig newtons as filler to keep the sandwiches from sliding. We paired with some string green beans and sliced strawberries! Let's hope the book they read today is an easy one and not like the old lady that lived in a shoe or rub a dub dub...hee hee

Happy hump day everyone!!

3 Little Piggies

Miss A is reading the Three Little Pigs so this was ALL her idea. I am not a fan of coloring, but Alexa assured me from her school experience with Green Eggs and Ham that the food coloring does not taste funny. Soooo we dyed 3 pink boiled eggs and used cheese for their face. To represent their houses we represented with little house blue picks and used cheese for straw, pretzels for sticks, and tomatoes for red bricks! The first piggie on the left is me, then Henry in the middle and of course Miss A has the big cheese smile and the house of bricks!! haha. She is not a fan of the wolf so she wanted to leave him out...she cracks me up!

Bee Happy!!

Well Spring Break offered a crazy week for the Z Family with many adventures as usual! Miss A had her first trip to Disneyland before Baby Max shows up in about 9 weeks or so. We had a great time with Henry's family in California. We visited Hollywood, Disneyland, and many other great places. Especially food places!! Alexa could not get enough of the Disney Princesses and all the characters! We also sold our house in technically 2 days and if all goes well with the buyers on our house and we close all nice and smooth we can continue to buy our dream house we found this weekend! Woo hoo!! Must say all this excitement caused my prego body to take a toll but am doing much better today just in time for a full week of Bento Boxes, a very full work week, and lots of other activities planned for the week!

So today we have Bee Happy....a little mac and cheese bee with cheese wings, black olive eyes and mouth, along with ham stripes! No stinger per Alexa's request. Ha! We have a strawberry flower with blueberries and a side of sliced chicken breast deli slices in a unique little presentation.

Have a great week everyone!! Bee Happy!!!

Get your motor running....

Well this cake was justa joy and fun to make because it was one of my besties husbands' cake! So we made it together. He loves red velvet cake and motorcycles! So pretty easy to know just what to make!! So here we have a red velvet cake with a homemade cream cheese frosting. I found a mold for a motorcycle and used fondant. My bestie Sam hand painted the mold and it rocks! To paint you just use food coloring mixed with alcohol like vodka and paint away!! We did a blue fondant border along the bottom and fondant for his name and Happy Birthday. His name and happy birthday were cut using my cricut cake which I am still so in love with!! Pretty simple! Would have been done quicker but we had a few house showings in between and had to abort yesterday so I finished it off this morning!!! Had more fun kickin it with my prego bestie Samantha!! I love ya girl!!!

Cake balls!!!

There has been this new crave called Cake Balls!!! I have seen them in local bakeries and they look good but I like a big ol piece a cake with just a little icing. They will have these decorated little balls covered with icing and some sprinkles. It wasn't until I went to Michael's Crafts and saw this new section of items for cake balls, candy balls, brownie pops. OMG!! They make all sorts of these crazy little animals and cute little characters out of cake balls!! Now that I like!! There was a sign up sheet for Miss A's St patrick's party and thought this was my chance to use these poor kids as guinea pigs to my cake ball experiment!! So I bought a book, some sticks, and Miss A was with me and just had to have the eyeballs. As we drive home Miss A tells me there are no St Patricks day cake balls in the book. WHAT?? So I go to my source of all sources for direction and guidance...EL GOOGLE!!! Ummmm still not much. Lots for Easter already but they are still pretty new. I finally found some leprechaun hats and was satisfied. I was satisfied...Miss A wanted a leprechaun. So out of a brownie pop mold I made upside down leprechaun hats and dipped them in green candy melts. I used black and yellow icing for brim and buckle. They were very soft and the candy melts did not quite get thin enough in the Wilton Candy melter. Now the leprechaun experiment. I did the traditional cake ball method of baking cake in a 13x9 pan, you then crumble and add a 1/2 cup of icing to help the crumbs stick. You form balls with your hands, chill, add stick and then dip. Again the candy melt never got thin enough so may need to google to see if I can thin it out somehow. I used white candy melts, made green little hats out of fondant and again black & yellow icing for brim and buckle. I used a grass tip with orange icing for leprechaun hair. Alexa placed the hats on top of their heads, did the nose and mouth and helped place all the eyeballs! I never ate one because I was scared...haha. But the guinea pigs...umm I mean the kids and teachers said they were good and there was only one left out of 24!! haha

Cinderelly....

Well today is the last day of the Disney Princess homage before our trip to Disneyland! There are many princess to choose from but we decided to dedicate this one to my hubby, Miss A's daddy...Hungry Hank. We are getting our house ready to sell and this morning they are taking pictures so last night was "GO TIME". I of course cannot just do one thing at a time so I took on 3 projects: Bento Box for Alexa, Cake Balls for the first time for Alexa's St Patrick's Preschool Party, and also de-clutter and clean house for pictures this morning! Yeah...I am crazy! One night a week Hungry Hank plays soccer with friends and last night was his night. BUT with all he had to move and help clean (since I am preggo, my list is dwindling on what I can and cannot do) I assumed he was not going to go. I saw his soccer bag by the door and the moral of the story is...he got ALL HIS CHORES DONE! So Cinderelly was able to go to the ball...I mean soccer game!! haaha. Alexa and I had a good laugh calling him Cinderella and that is when we knew the Bento had to be Cinderella!!! Corkscrew pasta with alfredo atop a Provolone portrait of Cinderella. Also for first time I painted cheese blue with edible food coloring!! I could not think of one blue food I could use for Cinderella's dress or headband so I improvised! We also have some ham and cheese rolls, black olives and corn! Happy Friday everyone!!

Ariel....Miss A's fav!

The Little Mermaid is one of Miss A's favorite movies and princesses. So she took a heavy interest to assure I did not mess this one up. To make sure it stays together, but not melt the face so much it looks scary. Soooo miss smarty pants said I should make hair out of her strawberry tie dye fruit roll up, her top out of grapes (I passed on the grapes because honestly she would have looked like a porn star...not toddler appropriate!!! ha!). So for her top I used lettuce instead. I started to cut out her lips and eyes and Alexa stopped me and asked why don't I use a picture??? WHAT?? A picture?? Shameful!! Then I started thinking of how many Bento Boxes in Japan use rice paper or fish paste with characters already printed out on them. Alexa would never eat rice paper or fish paste, so how would that be cheating? Okay...maybe a little but I don't want to scare Alexa and she will only peel the hair off and eat that anyway!! Sooo YES...the eyes, nose and mouth are a small print out of her face! Oh well...maybe tomorrow I can convince her to give me a second chance!! We then have some lovely peas, blueberries, snap peas with fish cheese accents!! Ariel is sitting on provolone cheese that sits atop a heart shaped sandwich of ham and cheese. You cannot see the heart shape sandwich very well because that girl Ariel has some big hair!! So hopefully everyone is not disappointed that everything is not edible...for shame...I know. Oh well...there is always tomorrow!!!

Sleeping Beauty.....

Back to the Disney Princess theme in honor of our trip to Disneyland for Miss A! This is of course the oh so fabulous Aurora, aka "Sleeping Beauty". I learned from my first princess, Jasmine to fuse the pieces together. Alexa was very disappointed that she could not make out Jasmine on Monday. SOOOO I used all cheese, cheese background (instead of tortilla) and fused it just a tad in microwave by melting her whole face together!! haha. Anyway...there you have her. Cheese princess, fruit roll up eyes and nose and a twizzler mouth. I have ham as the top of her dress. It is hard to see her crown but I had no other colors of cheese! She is laying on a bed of rice...haha...get it? Laying? Sleeping beauty?? Anyway, I have some tomatoes, grapes and a few sliced pepperoni to the side! My child hates pepperoni pizza but if you put it cold in her bento box she will eat it! The power of the Bento Box!! I am telling you it works!!!!

Mardi Gras!!!

Well Miss A's daddy, Hungry Hank, is from Louisiana so we could not miss the opportunity to do a Bento Box for Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday! So we have a Mardi Gras mask sandwich with ham and bread, an extra piece of ham in a ribbon fold on the bottom, edamame and pretzels. We also have some strawberries, blueberries, and flower cheese accents!! Yummy!!

Disney Princess Jasmine!!

We surprised Miss A with her vacation pre baby trip to Disneyland. Hungry Hank my hubby has a sister that lives in LA so we are flying there to see her and then headed to Disneyland. Thought this was the perfect spot for a 7 month prego like myself and a wee little Disney Princess enthusiast Miss A. So this weeks Bento Boxes leading up to her trip will be a nod to the princesses or Disney! Of course we will have a salute to Mardi Gras!! So we have the first princess Princess Jasmine. We just watched Aladdin last night. There are some amazing Bento Jasmine's out there but again the challenge has been making the Bento's out of what we would call "American normal" ingredients! haha. So We have a quesadilla cut in triangles on the bottom and a tortilla Jasmine with fruit roll up, cheese, twizzler lips, and corn earrings! We then have some corn, grapes and turkey roll ups at the top! Happy Monday....hang in there everyone!!!

Chocolate Topsy Turvy...

This weekend I had the pleasure of making a fabulous cake for a very fashionable little girl. I have never done a fondant covered cake and especially a chocolate fondant cake. Of course this was technically the second cake, the first cake had an accident. I had to deliver the cake Friday evening so I made all the pieces slowly during the week. Then Thursday late night I finished the cake....but...as my drawing shows the cake fell! People kept asking what happened so thought I would show my funny drawing!!! haha. Soooo around 2am I started the second cake and worked until wee hours of the morning, got in a cat nap, went to work, and then came home and finished it up! BUT I must say it turned out pretty good! The purse is fondant and rice krispy treat, the sunglasses and perfume bottle were done with my cricut cake along with the flowers. The first cake had hand cut flowers, but did not survive so the second set of flowers on this cake and the precious little girls name was done on the cricut cake cutter. I must say it was quite easy and fast!! Next week I have a motorcycle cake so I am looking forward to that!!! Not to mention Miss A's Bento Box lunches this week. We leave for Disneyland in a week so this weeks theme is of course Disney Princesses!!!

Monkeying around....

Well...this little monkey was a nod to my bumbling and clumsy self and was done quite rapidly this morning. I have a two tier cake I am working on for this amazing little girl and last night as I finished up the cake I dropped it...I was not monkeying around but I sure felt a fool...so at 2am I started again. I got a quick cat nap and when I got up this morning I had a plan! And oddly enough still energetic and excited! Sooo this morning I quickly made a monkey sandwich with turkey tongue and ear accents. I have black olive eyes and a kalamata olive nose. A banana of course, some cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges and a few slices of cheese. Alexa was pleasantly pleased. Now off to work so I can quickly come home and finish this cake for an evening delivery that requires an hour drive to get there. PLEASE big money no whammies and all goes well on the trip over!!!

Hopefully I will be proud enough to post the pic of this little troublesome cake. BUT I will prevail! It just makes me stronger and proves I can pull through in a pinch...let's hope! haha

Just keep chanting for me...big money no whammies!! Remember that show? I love that saying. Were they red? Those little whammies?

Fish Food!

One of Alexa's friends at school brought a boiled egg to school yesterday, so Miss A was set on a boiled egg or two for lunch. We googled some ideas and decided on a fish, but she wanted two "kissy fish" as she calls them! So here we have an underwater scene of two boiled egg fish with olive eyes and mouth. They have carrot gills and fins and the seaweed is shredded carrots and green beans. We added a few strawberries as a top border and Alexa wanted a few olives thrown in for good measure.

Mickey and Minnie

So this is my sad sad attempt at a Mickey and Minnie. I have an early start this morning and have to get on the road so I may have to round robin back to this again and try again someday. BUT...here they are Mickey and Minnie as requested by my Miss A!!! Mickey and Minnie are cheese and seaweed (which she will not eat, just decoration) and the hat and bow are little picks I found online. Then we have some leftover sweet and sour chicken from last night and some pretty red ripe tomatoes. I am also throwing in a fruit roll up for her dessert! See ya tomorrow!!!

Planes, Suns and Automobiles?

Good moooooorning! We seem to be on a transportation theme this week....rocket ships and space ships yesterday and today we have Plane and Race Car. I found a cookie cutter set for $2 at TJ Maxx or Marshal's, can't remember! I am a huge fashionista bargain shopper! I got them because...well there is a boy in my tummy that will probably not appreciate all the flower, shoe, and dress cookies as much as Alexa! Well Alexa thought they were for her lunch and I did not want to disappoint! Except...she did not want the train....she just wanted the car and plane. Sooo we have a ham and cheese race car sandwich with black olive wheels. Pretzels for the road and a cheese & fruit roll up checkered flag. The plane is rice krispy treat with a blueberry sky and the peas...well I had to throw in a veggie but Miss A convinced me to put a smiling cheese sun on top of it!! So...Planes, Suns, and Automobiles....(I must say that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is one of my fav Steve Martin and John Candy movies! CLASSIC!) And yes, I made homemade rice krispy treats last night because I am using it for a cake this weekend!!! :) Have a great one!