Cheerful Jack o'Lanterns

Thank goodness fall is here!  Cooler weather, falling leaves, acorns and pumpkins are some of my favorite things.  We were a bit late with the Halloween decorating this year, finally getting it done this past weekend.  And I've been behind in making Halloween themed bentos too.  I spent the last two weeks without my computer again (can you say 'torture'?) and so I've missed two whole weeks putting up photos of my favorite holiday lunches.   To make up for that, I'm posting this horrible Jack'o'lantern pancake bento even though the edges of the face cut-outs are so awful and ragged looking.

When you are using exacto knives to cut food it's necessary to replace the blades every so often as they tend to go dull very quickly, not being made for slicing through things like pancakes and egg sheet every day.  Mine obviously needed replacing but I keep forgetting to go and buy a new set of replacement blades.  Today's bento is a very strong reminder for me to go shopping!

In the bento:  Miniature pancakes with cake icing, cucumber slices, carrots, cheese slices, french fries, dragonfruit, raspberries and blueberries.

The pancakes were frozen and took only 5 minutes to cook.  I cut out the facial features with my way too dull exacto knife.  The strawberry flavored cake icing was spread in a thin layer between the pancakes to make them sweet and make the faces pop at the same time.  Some thin slices of green onion helped them look like proper Jack'o'lanterns with stems and a couple of candy-themed picks finished it off.  The raspberries were fresh but the blueberries were frozen and popped into the bento just a moment before I snapped the picture.

Time just keeps slipping away

I have way too much fun with miniature pancakes.  You can do so much with them!  I'm way behind in my posts so I think this bento was from two weeks ago.  It is a good example of a Speedy Gonzales bento - under ten minutes not including the preheating of the oven.  While I wish that I had a small toaster oven for mornings like this one, I have no idea where it would fit in my kitchen.  Oh well, it's a dream for the future.

In the bento: Miniature pancakes, Morningstar Farms soy sausage links, edamame on a pick, carrot flowers and strawberry halves.  Hidden behind/underneath the bunny pancakes are more pancakes and more edamame.

The Bunny faces were made with nori and sesame seeds for the eyes (secured to the pancakes with a tiny bit of icing), pink icing and half of an edamame for the noses.  Small bits of uncooked somen noodles help secure the ears to the rest of the pancake.  The carrot flowers were decorated with mustard seeds.

I can hardly believe it's only been a week since Anime Weekend Atlanta!  It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so grateful that we got to go.  A-chan's favorite part was getting to cosplay.  Most of my favorite parts were the panels, although the Trigun manga that I found at the Super Happy Fun Sell was  probably the highlight.  (Huge Trigun fan, yep!  I have a crush on Vash.)

A-chan and I at AWA.  She was so cute with her angel wings! I wasn't very cute but I was wearing my favorite Purple Butterfly covered michiyuki with a matching butterfly hair stick.  I'm addicted to hair jewelry.

Pancake Flower

Breakfast for lunch was a grand idea.  I heartily applaud whoever first thought it up.  American breakfasts don't usually contain vegetables, but I added just a few in my ever increasing wish for healthier meals.  Of course it's pretty much the same as all of the pancake bentos I've made over the years which always included the odd vegetable or two - the difference is only in my perception.  I used to think of it in terms of the Five color rule of bentos, making sure that I was adding broccoli for green and carrots for orange.  Now it's half and half decisions made by health conscious thinking as well as by color.

In the bento: Three miniature pancakes with a cheese flower on top, blackberries, roasted baby potatoes, soy bacon, broccoli and a carrot flower with sugar snap pea leaves.  More pieces of bacon are hidden underneath the rolled piece and the carrot.  A container of strawberry icing is on the side to help sweeten the pancakes.

The cheese flower consists of provolone and cheddar cheese petals, a center cut from a sugar snap pea and a sugar dot on top.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Sweet Koala

A-chan was reminding me this past week that it's been a while since I've made a koala bento.  I guessed that meant she'd like to have one sometime soon and happily obliged.  She gets off early from school today and I'm hoping that the sunshine sticks around so that we can go walking in the botanical gardens.  Since we'll be 2 hours earlier than normal we can do one of the long forest trails, yay!

In the bento:  Miniature pancakes, grapes, steamed broccoli, apple bunny, baby corn spears, a container of colby jack shredded cheese, and 3 Morningstar Farms Bacon slices cut to fit in the box.

The Koala's face was punched from nori and 'glued' onto the pancake with cake icing.  More of the strawberry flavored icing was painted on to make the cheeks.  The furry part of the ears was cut from provolone cheese.  The little flowers are all cut from carrot with sugar dots for centers.

Pink Panther

 A-chan is a huge fan of the Pink Panther cartoon.  I haven't determined whether it is because of all the pink, which is her favorite color, or because it's funny.  Today's bento going was to be Pink Panther themed no matter what.  The only question was what method to use.  I decided upon an artistic challenge to balance out all the math study I've been doing.  Instead of using egg sheets I wanted to try an icing painting which seemed like fun!

In the bento: Miniature eggo pancakes, peach slices, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli, huge black olive slices and a container of tiny carrot hearts.

Using store bought icing I mixed three variations of pink.  The lighter pink was made by mixing together some pink strawberry flavored icing and some regular white vanilla icing.  The middle pink is the strawberry icing while I mixed some red food coloring with more strawberry icing to deepen the shade for the darker pink.

Next I wrapped and taped three henna cones, two of which can be seen in the background, filled them with the icing and proceeded to 'paint' the pancake.  Small cuts of nori became eyebrows, eyelid and whiskers.  I am completely delighted with the way he turned out!  A-chan was thrilled.  I don't think I've surprised her that well in ages.

Thank you all so much for the kind thoughts and support!  I appreciate it very much.  You guys are the best!  And your sweet comments help me feel a little braver :)

A Lion of a Pancake

In the jungle even a pancake can roar.  If it were so inclined.  I'm thinking that this cute little guy wouldn't roar, though.  He might just run around saying 'nyan' all day.  Continuing with this week's interesting bento moments - I learned this morning that an upside down heart shape at the end of a tail does not make a shape that is recommended for a child's bento.  Luckily I realized that in time to replace it with a flower shape. I'm sure you guys could work that out for yourselves, but I'm in the sharing mood.

In the bento: Grapes with two cute lion picks, flowered carrot sticks, veggie sausage links, nectarine chunks, and miniature pancakes.

Mr. Lion was made using the two cutting tools at the top left. I cut his mane, muzzle and tail fluff out of provolone cheese.  And of course the other facial features were punched from nori.  Since the pancakes were going to be eaten with icing, I decided to 'glue' on the face without using mayo which I thought might spoil the taste.  Instead I painted each piece of cheese and nori with a tiny bit of strawberry jelly using the sharp end of a toothpick.

Butterfly on a Pancake

I love doing Henna.  And I love that it can translate into decorating food!  When A-chan asked me to combine miniature pancakes with butterflies I was thrilled and jumped on the opportunity to put one of my favorite henna designs in her lunch.

In the bento: The large tier holds a mini muffin cup of tiny grapes, two slices of fuji apple, miniature pancakes , one carrot flower and one cheese flower.  The small tier has three waffle fries, a carrot butterfly, a tomato on a plaid pick, three veggie sausage links, steamed broccoli and more cheese flowers.

To draw the butterfly I made a henna cone which is basically a tiny version of an icing bag.  I filled it with strawberry flavored icing and piped out the design.  In the background is a tiny monkey container that is filled with more icing to be spread on the rest of the pancakes.  It is honestly very small and doesn't have room for much icing, but it makes her happy and is much less messy than syrup or honey!

The sausage links were originally two links that I cut in half.  For some reason I always tend to group things like the sausage links in threes.  I'm not sure why.  But I am always happy to eat the leftover portion for my breakfast.

Pancakes, stars and a kitten

You might be wondering why there is a kitten in the title but not in the bento.  That would be because my daughter can do magic.  It's a special kind of magic where she creates kittens out of thin air.  Like the one that she wanted for her birthday.  The one that we didn't get for her but showed up on our front porch the day after her birthday party.  Yep.  The four legged, long haired, black and white prince of cuteness that currently bears the name 'Meow'.  I'm campaigning for Meow Meow McFargus.  Hubs thinks Meow Meowkins McFargus.

In the bento:  Two miniature pancakes with provolone stars, three crinkle cut french fries, soy sausage links, edamame on a pick, korean red grapes, orange wedges and a sweet panda that contains shredded cheese.

This bento took two dishes to cook: Pancakes and fries went in the oven together, edamame and sausage links went in the same pan to simmer.  The longest part of this was waiting for the oven to heat up!  The panda container was filled with shredded cheese last night and put in the fridge to await the morning bento.

On a side note - did you notice the Tare Panda chopsticks?  Kawaii!!  We arrived early for a movie this past Saturday and I found these while we wandered the mall to kill time.  Love them!!