What's in our lunch today?/Mad Ducks!

Now, I can't and don't want to take credit for coming up with this cute idea for Grant's bento lunch today.  This was completely copied from a blog I read daily, Wendolonia....and I do believe her's is much "cleaner" than mine...but nonetheless, I think it turned out pretty darn cute and I can't wait until Grant opens his bento box today.  Grant loves the game Angry Birds, which I usually only let him play when I need him to be distracted/quite (ie waiting room of the doctors office/urgent care...or when I need to devote attention to Gwen --like when she was taking her ISR swimming lessons).  Last year, Grant referred to the game as, "Mad Ducks"...and since then, that's what we call it!!

 I'm sure you can all tell, but this is made out of Babybel cheese, with mozzarella for eyes (seaweed from my dinner sushi roll for eyes/eyebrows) and cheddar cheese for his mouth.  I stuck them all together by using a dab of honey. I will report if the "Mad Duck" survived until lunch today.

 Here he is inside Grant's bento box:  Also in his lunch today (cantaloupe, edamame, string cheese--ok, I have to admit, I was so enamored by his angry bird, that I sort of forgot it was cheese and I wasn't thinking when I added the string cheese to his lunch--oh well, never can have too much calcium, right? :) ...and a turkey roll-up sandwich.

These bento boxes are some of my favorite--In fact, I probably use them 3x a week. The brand is Aladdin and I bought it at Target for $5.00. I really like them because they seem to be the right size for kids and they come with an ice pack that fits in the lid as shown below: 

And my latest purchase from Pottery Barn Kids are these adorable ice packs.  I use these in addition to the icebox in the bento box to keep their milk cold (have I mentioned it's been in the high 90's out here during the day?)

And here it is all assembled in his Star Wars lunch box: (on the side is a squeezable strawberry applesauce)

Now, seeing as though I have to pack two lunches, I TRY and give them the same things just to make my evenings a little less crazy (yeah right)...but Gwen doesn't love meat, so she really won't eat the turkey roll up sandwiches.  She told me last night that she wanted a "pizza muffin", which, I happened to have stored in the freezer from the last time I made them.  These little guys are really good! I used a recipe from The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue cookbook.  For those of you that aren't familiar with her recipes, she uses different purees to "sneak" vegetables into foods that kids will like.  Does anyone want the recipe? Leave me a comment and I'll post it--I just couldn't find it online this morning. The pizza muffins use a sweat potato puree and I have to say, they froze well...I removed the muffin wrapper and let it thaw overnight at room temp and it was ready to go for Gwen's lunch: which was basically the same otherwise from Grant's (less the Angry Bird cheese b/c she wouldn't appreciate it as much as Grant--substituted with oranges and popped her edamame out of the pods.
I used the same Aladdin container with ice lid...

 But her lunch contained a butterfly ice pack

 In her butterfly lunch box

 And what's in MY lunch bento (originally purchased for the kids, but it's too big for them, so I use it), you may ask?   Edamame, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, grilled veggies, pesto wheat pasta with tomatoes. The best thing about bento-ing, is you can control portion sizes and therefore have a variety of small portions of food.

I'd like to add a disclaimer which will apply to all of my posts. I take the photos with my iPhone usually at 5 am, so you are never going to have professional looking photos on here....

Let's try this Blogging thing again---

Well, after a bit of a hiatus from blogging, I thought I'd give it another try...and I'll start by posting the recipe for Strawberry Trifle --my brother Sean's favorite dessert. It's SUPER easy and always is a hit. It is perfect if you are serving a crowd--and should be made a few hours in advance, so it lends itself well to making it in the morning for an afternoon BBQ.  



One note about the bowl---I bought this at Michaels for $6.00 (with the 50% coupon)...it looks like a big brandy sniffer!! Even though I'm sure you could assemble the trifle in another pan/bowl--I think it's more impressive and fun in this one! Sorry about the quality of the iPhone photo, I didn't know I'd be blogging this at the time..

Recipe courtesy of my mom, Bernadette! 


I am posting the original recipe, but I would DEFINITELY double the filling


FILLING
1 3.5oz vanillia pudding mix
1 8 oz sour cream
1 cup milk
2 tea grated orange peal (I zested mine)
1 container whipped topping


--add milk to pudding and beat until pudding forms, then add the sour cream and orange zest in and continue beating--
--fold in the whipped topping


STRAWBERRIES
4 cups chopped fresh strawberries
1 container strawberry glaze (my mom uses the strawberry pie filling but I cannot find it here in San Diego)


--mix together with wooden spoon


ANGEL FOOD CAKE (purchased from our local grocery store--when my mom can't find it, she uses pound cake, which would also be good!!)


--tear it up into 1 inch pieces (Grant and Gwen like "helping" with this task!)


LAYER:
CAKE, STRAWBERRIES, PUDDING-- REPEAT