Bento #133

Peanut butter on wheat monster sandwich with cheese & semi-sweet chocolate bit eyes, pink fairy sprinkle lips, Pocky hair and a strawberry fruit leather & cupcake hat. On the side are peanut filled cracker balls.

Today was the last day of gymnastics camp and Maisie has been attending with our neighbors K & A so for their final day I made bento for all three of them.

How did they all do with their bento?
K: She ate all but one bite of the sandwich and the cheese eyes.
Maisie: Was the worst eater of the three leaving half her sandwich, a few of the peanut crackers and the cake part of the cupcake...she takes after me just eating the frosting!
A: He did well leaving only about 1/3 of his sandwich and a couple of peanut crackers.

When I picked everyone up from camp they all said that they enjoyed their bentos and then immediately wanted to know if I had ring pops for their treat on the drive home! I'm glad that they all liked their bentos and yes, I did have ring pops for the ride home.

Bento #132

Ham & cheese roll-ups, cantaloupe, blue jelly shark, two-bite brownie & mango jelly.

When I arrived at gymnastics camp to pick up Maisie she told me that she was hungry and when I checked her bento I found the blue jelly shark, two-bite brownie & mango jelly were all uneaten. Instead of finishing her bento she ate two small lollipops and ran out of time. She was quite hungry though and before leaving the gym she finished everything remaining in her bento and told me that it was delicious.

Bento #131

Mini quiche, peanut crackers, gummy shark, grape jelly & cantaloupe.

Maisie didn't care for the peanut crackers but finished everything else in her bento.

Bento #130

BBQ meatballs, cantaloupe from our garden & a cupcake.

Another successful bento as little Miss Maisie ate everything!

Bento #129

Ham & cheese roll-ups, green jelly, watermelon, cantaloupe & passport melon*.

Only a few scraps of watermelon returned home in Maisie's bento box so yeah on eating today!! Maisie is having an absolute blast at gymnastics camp and today I took a video of her on the rings doing skin-the-cat, check it out here.

Tim our gardener came by yesterday and let me know that the mystery delicious green melon that we've been enjoying from our garden is a passport melon. The cantaloupe also came from our garden and is just wonderfully sweet and tender, so different than the ones we purchase at the store. Next year I want a huge garden of melons, they're just so wonderful. In addition to melon we've been harvesting yellow squash, pattapan squash, long beans, Japanese and white eggplant & jalapeno peppers. Hopefully we'll soon have watermelon, zucchini, spaghetti squash and tomatoes (we started late).

Bento #128

Leftover dumplings & lo mein from dinner last night, more of the unknown type of home-grown melon and a brownie bite.

Another successful bento as Maisie ate every drop! I can't wait for our next melon to ripen so that we can enjoy more, more, more!

Bento #127

BBQ meatballs, carrot coins, melon* & a brownie bite.

Maisie finished off everything in her bento but that was no surprise as it was all her favorite foods.

We had a FABU time in SLC (see SLC posts here, here & here) but it's always nice to come home. We're now getting back into the usual swing of things and as Maisie's back at gymnastics camp bentos will resume.

* I wish that I knew what kind of melon this is because it's amazingly wonderful. On the outside it looks like a cantaloupe but the fruit is green like a honeydew and it does have a honey flavor to it. Our Gardener Tim planted various melons in our garden and this was the first one to ripen. Next time Tim is here I'll have to find out the type of melon it is as I definitely want to plant it (which really means have Tim plant it) again next year.

Bento #126

Peanut butter on wheat monster sandwich, Pocky hair, cheese & semi-sweet chocolate eyes, fairy sprinkle lipstick and grapes.

When I picked Maisie up from gymnastics camp today and checked her bento almost all the grapes and all but one bite of the sandwich remained. After a little investigation I found out that at snack time Maisie ate her snack and then one of the other little girls treated Maisie to not one, but two big bags of candy. Needless to say, come lunch time Maisie had no appetite left. Once home Maisie ate her grapes and most of her sandwich but oh the attitude she had after a day filled with too much sugar.

Tomorrow morning, obscenely early, Maisie and I are off to visit friends in Salt Lake City so more bentos next week when Maisie returns to camp.

Bento #125

Ham & cheese on wheat roll-ups, strawberry jelly, grapes, cantaloupe, marshmallow ice cream cone.

Maisie said that she ran out of time to finish her lunch today so one of the roll-ups and a couple of grapes remained but she quickly finished off everything once home.

Bento #124

BBQ meatballs, banana jelly, cantaloupe and grapes.

Maisie finished all but three of the grapes and told me that she loved her bento. I also found out that all the other children at her gymnastics camp are very intrigued by and love checking out her bento each day. Guess it's much more fun and interesting than a plain old sandwich or a Lunchable...and a lot more nutritious too!

I was asked about the meatballs and how I make them. I use frozen, pre-cooked Italian meatballs that I toss in some BBQ sauce to coat and then bake @ 350F for 15 minutes.

Bento #123

Angel hair pasta with butter, garlic & Parmesan cheese, ham flower and carrot coins and a marshmallow ice cream cone.

Maisie loves her pasta. A few carrot coins returned home but overall a very successful bento.