What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 93

Welcome to "What's for Lunch" Wednesday!!!

Thanks so much for joining in last week if you did and looking forward to seeing all the fun lunches this week!

Want to join in?

Just choose a bento (please, just one bento or post or link) you've made from the last week you want to share, copy the URL of that post from your blog (you may need to click on the title to get it), and enter it into the linky below.

Click on the "Add Your Link" button to add yours and follow the steps, it's simple, I promise!

A Quick Dino Bento with new Gluten Free, Allergy Free Treat

As I've mentioned in other posts regarding gluten-free bentos, I am NOT the expert in this area, especially since no one in my house has issues with gluten or with food allergies in general. Hence, the need to have some friends share ideas regarding school lunches, bento, and GF alternatives.

But sometimes, I do find things that catch my eye and remember that I've had blog questions about GF or allergy free foods. We were given packages of Bee Nut Free products in a Christmas basket this year and had to share. Bee Nut Free is a local Colorado company that produces a line of gluten free treats that are also nut and dairy free. As well, most of their treats are free from the top 8 allergens, except for ones with chocolate that do contain soy. (ETA: The people from Bee Nut Free just contacted me--the chocolate is now soy-free as well, so all products are free of the top 8 allergens!)

Now, if you want true reviews of something like this, it's from F&B, considering they both can eat regular foods as well. Today, in their bentos, they had the Bee Nut Free granola bars and the Sunny Honey Cookie Bites. They both loved the granola bars and Ben also liked the cookies. Shaun sampled Faith's cookies too and pronounced them good (high praise from the guy who bought and froze half a dozen boxes of Thin Mints). So definitely, we'd recommend these, and in finding the website for you, I discovered they are located right by where we go skiing!

Back to the bento, Ben had a turkey and muenster sandwich on multigrain rounds, topped with a cheddar dinosaur. On top of that are his aforementioned cookies and granola bar. To the right, he has strawberry yogurt, kiwi and some frozen blackberries (because I ran out of non-frozen fruits). It's packed in our Easy Lunchboxes (also available on Amazon).

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today you are You, that is truer than true.

There is no one alive who is Youer than You

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday and we had to have a celebratory bento. Narrowing down a choice was hard, but F&B saw the Green Eggs and Ham ideas and immediately decided that was what they had to have. I'm also partial to Ten Apples Up on Top, as this was the first book Ben read independently without having seen it before (it was at my mom's house a couple of summers ago). I was going to make apple chips to go along with that, but halfway through the first batch, the microwave blew and well, we had to switch to another idea.

Ben has green eggs, of course, and ham, in the shape of a ham salad pocket, with SEUSS cutouts on top. To the upper right, we have some candied green eggs (another story in and of itself, I forgot to buy M&Ms) on top of the still yummy, but not great looking, apple chips. To the lower right, there are strawberries, which have no Seussical significance, just the need to be eaten today. It's packed in our Easy Lunchboxes (also available on Amazon).

After the fun we had with the Valentine's Blog Hop, some bento friends and I decided on a Seuss themed one today as well. Check out Astrid at Lunches Fit for a Kid and her awesome Yertle the Turtle bread!

The Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcake Bento! Now with garlic toast

Of course, we couldn't make spaghetti & meatball cupcakes without also making a bento featuring them!

I helped out at the kids' school this morning, so I told them I'd bring their lunches with me, which gave me a chance to cook up a quick slice of garlic bread. It's nothing exciting, just buttered bread, sprinkled with garlic powder and fried till a bit crispy, then melted cheese, but they both love it!

Ben had two spaghetti & meatball cupcakes, a slice of garlic bread, strawberry yogurt, a kiwi and strawberry slices. Faith had the same, but no kiwi. She doesn't like kiwi. It's packed in our Easy Lunchboxes (also available on Amazon).

I just noticed the main course side kind of looks like a smiley face! I may have to plan that better next time and shape the garlic bread.

Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcakes

I posted these tonight on my Facebook, and since the recipe was requested several times, I decided to not wait till tomorrow. In fairness, I had no compelling reason to post it tomorrow, except I wanted to show off the bento with the cupcakes first, before sharing the recipe. So promise you'll come back tomorrow and ooh and ahh at the bento too?

Either way, simple simple recipe. We've sampled them hot and cold and they are good both ways. I may start experimenting with homemade meatballs and other types of pasta (I bought standard white spaghetti for this, we usually do whole grain; and we had bought really cute mini frozen meatballs). But for now, we used easy to find, easy to prep items!

Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcakes:

3-4oz dry spaghetti noodles (about 1/3 a regular package)

1 egg

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Spaghetti sauce

Frozen meatballs

Preheat the oven to 350.

Prep a muffin pan and spray well with non-stick cooking spray or brush with oil.

Boil water, break the spaghetti noodles in half, cook per package directions.

Drain, rinse with cool water so you aren't working with hot noodles.

Mix noodles with one well-beaten egg and 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese.

Place a scoop of noodles in each muffin cup, in kind of a nest-like formation.

Place a frozen meatball in the middle of each cup (again, think like an egg in a nest).

Spread a teaspoon or two of spaghetti sauce around the meatball; do not spread to the edges, it will stick.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 or until the pasta sets.

Let cool before removing from the pan.

**I used the edge of a butter knife to loosen the cupcakes before removing them, and cooled them on a dinner plate instead of a rack, to make sure they didn't fall apart.

***We also have vegetarian "meat"balls in the freezer from a blog review. I see vegetarian potential in these too. As well, a friend just pointed out that they could be gluten free by switching the pasta and making your own meatballs (or using GF ones).

Linking up a few places:

What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 92

Welcome to "What's for Lunch" Wednesday!!!

Thanks so much for joining in last week if you did and looking forward to seeing all the fun lunches this week!

Want to join in?

Just choose a bento (please, just one bento or post or link) you've made from the last week you want to share, copy the URL of that post from your blog (you may need to click on the title to get it), and enter it into the linky below.

Click on the "Add Your Link" button to add yours and follow the steps, it's simple, I promise!

Ben's Music Bento

I got Ben up this morning, helped him get dressed, and made him breakfast. As he was sitting at the kitchen table, he told me that he had music as his special today and that the music teacher gives a bonus ticket to kids who wear a music themed shirt on music day. Well, since he was already dressed, and I didn't have a clean music themed shirt for him to wear, I told him he could have a music themed lunch and to see if that worked.

Ben has a turkey and muenster sandwich on multigrain rounds, topped with a cheddar music note. To go with that, he has carrots, blueberries & strawberries, and strawberry yogurt. It's packed in our Easy Lunchboxes (also available on Amazon), we just use a tiny square of Press&Seal to help keep the yogurt sealed better.