Halloween Bentos thus far...

I have ideas!  I have lots of Halloween ideas.  I would like to thank the version of myself that exists in the past for buying some Halloween bento gear last year when prices went 50% off!

None of these are super fancy lunches but the kids think they are cute and are pleased to receive them.

Packed in a Laptop Lunchbox, lunch consists for a cheese sandwich with a bat cut-out, some grapes, a mini oatmeal muffin in a cute Halloween liner, a yogurt and the piece-de-resistance, a silicone spider cup of Jello with candy eyes.

Lunch is a "Mummy Dog" that the kids and I made by wrapping refrigerator rolls around a hot dog and baking. The eyes are drawn on with food-safe markers.  Also included are grapes, a banana decorated with stickers and a Halloween Joe-Joe's cookie from Trader Joe's.  Each child also got a Halloween joke card.

Lunch on this day was a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, grapes, a mini-muffin (hidden under the yogurt) a yogurt and in the sealed container, halloween shaped Jello jigglers.  I clearly failed on the photo taking before sealing.

Another Laptop Lunchbox Lunch(can you tell they are my new favorite thing?)  Jack-o-Lantern cheese sandwich, dried apricots, grapes with a pumpkin pick, pirate booty, yogurt and a Halloween Joe-Joe cookie.

This is how tech rolls..

Where I work, this is how tech rolls....

We also build shrines to the server gods. We are willing to sacrifice a lot to keep the email flowing.

Homemade Buttermilk Bread

I enjoy baking and decided I should venture into the realm of sandwich bread.  Ok, to be honest, I also had some buttermilk that I needed to use up!  This recipe is SO simple and the results were amazing.

I used the Cooks Illustrated Buttermilk Sandwich Bread recipe.  It involves dumping your ingredients in the standing mixer and letting the machine do the kneading for ten minutes.  Then you let it rise twice and bake.  Total time is about three hours, but it is mostly hands-off.

The bread smells fabulous while baking and once it cools, the bread has a nice texture and crumb.  Great for making sandwiches.  If you plan to sneak a slice before it cools completely,  cut carefully.  The bread is delicate while warm and will squash into a funny shape. Ask me how I know....

Bento SCORE!

The kids needed new lunch boxes.  The sandwich size boxes and two-tier boxes no longer hold enough food to fill them up.  These are growing kids!  I have been searching and searching for a good replacement.   Laptop Lunchboxes and LunchBots have been high on my "coveted" list.

Last week, I almost broke down!  I had a shopping cart ready to go with a Laptop Lunchbox system for each kid..to the tune of $60+ !!  For some reason, I couldn't pull the trigger.  The very next day, I went garage sale-ing and SCORE!

That's right, a BRAND NEW laptop lunchbox set plus two Buddie add-on sets and a napkin.  The mom said her kids did not like the sets!  I paid $2 for everything in this photo!!!  TWO DOLLARS!  I was beyond thrilled!   I also scored four brand new (tags still on!) wide-mouth lunch thermos for $3 from the same lady.  Talk about a bargain shopping high!

It gets better though!  I went to a church rummage sale yesterday and found ANOTHER blue Laptop Lunchbox system for $1.  This one was used and was missing a small inner container, but who cares?  I have plenty of spare inner containers and now I have two outer containers.  $60 plus worth of lunch boxes for $3.  So great!!

First Day of School

The First Day of School!

I wasn't really prepared to make fancy lunches.  There were forms to fill out, backpacks to pack, school supplies to purchase...lunch was at the end of the list.  I did manage something nice though.

M had a sandwich stamped  "first grade" and "I love you". She also had cut fruit and a yogurt (not pictured)

W had stamped McQueen and Finn McMissile sandwiches along with cut fruit and a Mater pick.  He too had a yogurt.

Scones!

A friend suggested the Cheese Board Collective cookbook to me.  The recipes are AWESOME!  I have made the scones numerous times now.  I cut the scones in half  before baking to make 24 small scones.  They are delicious and satisfying.

Chocolate Chip Scones and plain scones awaiting a maple icing drizzle.

Mars Birthday!

Mars Rover Curiosity was scheduled to land the day after my birthday.  I showed my kids the Seven Minutes of Terror video.  They were fascinated and intrigued.  Both kids wanted to know more about Mars, space and the planets.

W kept associating the landing of Curiosity with my birthday.  He would come up to me with great anticipation and say "Mom, are you ready for your MARS BIRTHDAY?!?"

Clearly, I had to make a Mars Rover Curiosity cake to celebrate my big day.

I used the same Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake that I used for W's birthday.   I tinted the leftover Magnolia Bakery frosting and used extra chocolate rocks too!  (talk about frugal!)   We happened to have a little rover toy that W got from the Children's Discovery Museum.  It worked perfectly on the cake.  M took care of the flag and awesome alien!

Overall, it was a great cake!  This time there were even leftovers for me to enjoy the next day!