What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 66

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 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!

Hook'Em Horns - Longhorn Bento for Ben!

It's almost football season, so Mr. Ben needed a Longhorn style bento to get in the mood! Thankfully, I do have a Longhorn cookie cutter, but had to take a few liberties with the horns since the full version didn't fit into any of my boxes.

Ben has a ham and garlic/herb cream cheese sandwich on multigrain rounds, topped with a Longhorn! He has a few pretzels, some all-natural organic fruit leather, grapes, and a pumpkin spice cupcake that I made because I was totally craving something pumpkin! The cupcakes are from this recipe, just in cupcake format.

It's packed in a Easy Lunchbox for the space for the cutout (ELB are also available on Amazon for ease of shopping).

The Kids Cook Monday - Chili Cornbread Muffins

Today's The Kids Cook Monday post features a fun round of "what to do with the leftovers"! We had chili a few nights ago and I had some leftovers, but not quite enough for more than one person to eat. Now since chili does go good with cornbread, the idea of a chili-cornbread muffin popped into my head.

F&B like making muffins. They're easy to make with kids and in many cases, Faith can make them completely on her own.

These muffins were no exception. Since we already had leftover chili, we just used that as our base. I had about two cups that I warmed a little bit in the microwave and drained the excess liquid.

We then mixed up a bowl of cornbread mix. I discovered a box of Jif hiding in the back of my pantry, so I took a shortcut, but if you want homemade cornbread, I recommend this recipe. Mix up the cornbread, then add the rest of the chili to the mixture. We also threw in the last little bit of shredded cheese I had, but that's optional.

Scoop into muffin pans, lined with cupcake liners. The kids use an ice cream scoop for this, perfect amount of batter every time! Bake per the directions, or until the muffins are set.

We served our muffins with a dollop of sour cream "icing" on top and some shredded cheese "sprinkles"!

Chili Cornbread Muffin Bento

Remember how I said that I had a really cool bento and the camera ate the picture? Well, I kind of had to recreate it yesterday because I wanted to share it. ;o) It's not like the kids didn't have to eat anyhow, they get rather demanding if I don't feed them!

The recreated bento features a chili-cornbread muffin, topped with a cute little panda pick. The panda pick was chose to match the panda crackers right below the muffin, of course. Next to those are some freeze dried apple slices, then sliced grapes on the upper right and carrots with a bit of ranch dip on the lower right, all packed in my Paperchase Alien Bento (I really want another box like this one, it is the perfect size for F&B).

Featured Friday

Welcome to Featured Friday! And welcome to all the new readers (my traffic has gone crazy this week, thanks to a few articles).

I had an awesome post for yesterday, but my camera ate the picture. So keep an eye out this week for chili-cornbread muffins, F&B loved them and they used out the leftovers, score!

Since we've been home all week, I've found so many posts I love, and trying to narrow it down to just a few has been hard, but I'll give it my best try.

The spam sushi from My Lunch is Cuter
make an awesome intro sushi for kids:
fish shapes, without the fish!


I discovered these printable lunch box jokes on Pinterest,
head over to Kristen Duke Photography to print your own!


This Minnie Mouse bento from Mothering Corner is amazing!!!


Pumpkin Rolls from The Girl Who Ate Everything
I must make this, I do love all things pumpkin!

As well, we got the chance to review the new Veggie Tales movie "The Princess and the Pop Star" and get to give away a copy too. Since it's not really food-related, I have it on my personal blog, in case you'd like to leave a comment and enter!

As always, all pictures belong to their blog owners, click on them or their attached links to see the full posts on the original sites. (If you would prefer your link not featured, please let me know and I will remove it.)

What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 65

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 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!

Pita Tacos Bento for Faith

The mini-pita breads have long been a favorite for F&B. Mini food, of course, is much more fun than regular sized food, and they do provide some other good sandwich options, especially with messier fillings. They also make a darn good taco shell for leftover taco meat in lunches.

Faith has a couple of mini pita tacos (leftover turkey taco meat and some kind of marble cheese since I ran out of shredded taco cheese). To go along with that meal, she has carrots, a few cucumber flowers, strawberries, and some peach yogurt, all packed in a 4-square Lock & Lock box.

The Kids Cook Monday - Macaroni & Cheese Muffins

In keeping with the back to school themes I'm seeing everywhere, our The Kids Cook Monday post shares a fun new recipe that would go great in a lunchbox--macaroni & cheese muffins!

My mom actually sent me the recipe, but it looked perfect for my kids with a few tweaks (since we happen to be big fans of the extra cheesy kinds of macaroni and cheese). One thing I will do differently next time though is using paper muffin cups. I had a couple stick to the pan, but that's my own fault for buying the cheap no-name bake spray.

Macaroni & Cheese Muffins

Round butter-flavored crackers (I used Ritz, but I bet veggie crackers would be yummy)
1 (8-ounce) package elbow macaroni
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 cup cooking creme (I used Philly Roasted Garlic) or 1/2 cup milk
3 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (keep 1/4 cup out to sprinkle on top)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. (Seriously, use muffin papers, you'll thank me later when you don't have to soak your muffin pans.)

-Place a cracker in the bottom of each muffin cup and set aside.

-Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and return to pot.

-Stir in remaining ingredients till well-blended. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and sprinkle with extra cheese.

-Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes, remove from tin with knife if you don't use the muffin papers.

Hormel Eating on the Road

August's Hormel questions involved eating and snacking healthfully when you're on vacation and on the road. Now that's definitely the kind of questions I can answer!

We really like bringing bento lunches on the road, especially for longer trips. It's a given, due to time/distance and lack of refrigeration, that we'll end up eating out at some point, so if we can keep the first few meals to bentos we've brought along, it's not quite as bad when we finally do need to stop.

The kids and I just finished Ben's birthday road trip (DFW to MO to IL to MO to DFW over 11 days), so we took travel bentos on the way, along with stopping at a grocery store while there to get the important fruit, yogurt and sandwich fixings.

Over the years, I've shared some of our road trip ideas; the links take you back to the original posts from those meals.

Ben's birthday road trip bento:

One of Ben's travel bentos from our Christmas trip:

A summer road trip bento for Faith, on our way home from Canada on year:

We pack a cooler with waters and juices, along with plenty of ice to keep their food chilled. If we plan it right, we can take a breakfast and a lunch for the first day of traveling with us, along with snacks for the whole trip (snacks being non-perishable).

I'm kind of excited to try the Cranberry & Orange Chicken Wraps for another road trip. Or maybe at home because I don't have another road trip planned anytime soon.

What are your go-to road trip staples?

Disclosure: I have received product and information from Hormel Foods in exchange for being a Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger. All opinions expressed within the post are my own.

Featured Friday

We were on the road last week and, try as I might, I wasn't able to get a Featured Friday up. Mostly because I browse the internet on my phone when I'm not home and my phone is not ideal for blog posting.

This week, however, I'm home and bookmarked some of the things I love.

An amazing looking Bruschetta Bento from Sonoma Bento


Blueberry zucchini bread from Steph @ A Pocketful of Buttons


Custard Bun Tigers from Xelia @ Clumsyfingers


Fun sandwich ideas, originally from Parents magazine
(I found it on Pinterest)

As always, all pictures belong to their blog owners, click on them or their attached links to see the full posts on the original sites. (If you would prefer your link not featured, please let me know and I will remove it.)

What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 64

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 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!

***We are home from Ben's birthday road trip and plan to start bentos again soon! Until then, check me out on Babble, thanks to the lovely Angie from Eclectic Recipes!***

Not Quite Bento, but a Breakfast Idea

We took a detour on Ben's birthday road trip and instead of back to Dallas, we headed to Illinois to visit a good friend of mine. In talking about back to school breakfasts, she mentioned looking for ones she could freeze (her kids way outnumber mine) and I remembered our homemade Egg McMuffins.

I know, bad picture, it's the only one I have right now.

These were originally posted on my personal blog in February 2010, but I had to bring it over here since they are pretty cool. I am highly intrigued by the round eggs on real Egg McMuffins and Shaun (who worked at McDonald's in high school) told me that those involve a mold on the griddle. Well, since I don't have a mold or a griddle, I decided that muffin tins were the next best things.

Finished egg circles, the dark spots are the ham.

Basically, we sprayed baking spray in the tins and folded a slice of ham at the bottom (bacon or sausage is good too, but we didn't have those during this experiment and I'm having to use old pictures).

I mixed egg, milk and a little bit of egg white and poured it over the ham, then baked it for about 25 minutes at 350 in the toaster oven. You can do a whole tray of these and freeze them too, then just warm them and top with a slice of cheese for school day breakfast while you toast the English muffins.

These were just two for a breakfast,
and I've since bought a new toaster oven since this one was atrocious.

So, in case you're looking for another premade meal, these are pretty awesome and really simple. :)

What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 63

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 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!

***We extended Ben's birthday road trip for a few more days, we'll be home soon with new bentos!***

The Kids Cook Monday - Potato Soup

We are on Ben's birthday road trip right now, so for The Kids Cook Monday, we are using one of our Canada cooking experience from our trip in July. F&B love to cook with Nana and they made potato soup while I was on a little trip of my own.

I had my mom send me the recipe, so presenting, Faith's & Nana's Potato Soup:

Decide what size kettle you are going to use then fill it maybe 1/2 full with water adding chicken bouillon to it.

Dice as many potatoes as you want (they don't have to be too small either). Bring to a boil then simmer till the potatoes are tender. (note: you CAN add some thinly sliced carrots if you want as well). At this point you can add a tsp of dried
chives to the soup.

In a small separate kettle, melt maybe two tblsp margarine and add a tblsp or two of flour to it until it blends. To that add your cream or milk and whisk till it thickens then add it to your already simmering soup.

Let it simmer and add more milk or cream if necessary then add the cheese, as much as you'd like, more cheese makes the soup thicker. Season to taste.

In a frypan, fry bacon till crisp. Right before serving, crumble bacon on your soup and add some freshly chopped chives(or dried if you prefer).

Birthday Road Trip Bento

Ben's 6th birthday is on Monday, so we took a little weekend road trip to celebrate. Since my goal was driving straight there, other than bathroom breaks, we packed a lunch to bring along in the car. I figured, we'll end up eating out most meals for a few days, may as well at least eat a breakfast and lunch of my choosing!

Ben has a cream cheese and jelly sandwich, with a little road trip scene on top made of cheese (car, sun, cloud). The car and sun are cut from cookie cutters, but I tried my hand at the cloud on my own, it's not too bad! To go with that, he has veggie chips, peach yogurt, and strawberries & cantaloupe for fruit choices.

Road trip meals have to be mostly non-messy, as I break my "no food in my car" rule for them, so minimal crumby choices. I have a relatively new car and no one is allowed to eat in it, but since it's 8 hours, I had to be a wee bit flexible. I'll be vacuuming it out on Tuesday for sure.

We're packed, of course, in our Easy Lunchboxes. For a road trip, I like the one piece function, lots of storage and the fact that they fit nicely in the kids' laps. And they stack nicely in the cooler that fits perfectly in my front seat, so that's an added bonus.

I just discovered Easy Lunchboxesare available on Amazon too, if you prefer to shop there (I *love* Amazon for most shopping needs).

The giveaway for the Hormel prize pack ends soon, follow the link to enter!

Featured Friday

Time for another featured Friday and since we are closing in on Ben's birthday (he'll be 6 on Monday!), I had to include a few things he'd love more than anything.

If you didn't know it, Ben is a wee bit obsessed with Phineas & Ferb.
And I absolutely love Perry, and the Perry sandwiches from Susan
at Hawaii's Bento Box. Make sure you check out her other P&F creations!


A yummy herbed cream cheese recipe from AlisaBurke,
this sounds so delicious!


So cute! Humpty Dumpty eggs from Estelle at Bentos du Jardin.
(Side note: I love reading all the bento stuff in French! I have so
few opportunities to speak it, living in Texas and all.)


I found this on Pinterest and tracked it back to NerdNirvana--
this would be awesome for Ben's birthday party, combining his
love of watermelon and sharks!

As always, all pictures belong to their blog owners, click on them or their attached links to see the full posts on the original sites. (If you would prefer your link not featured, please let me know and I will remove it.)

On Disney Again! Nightmare Before Christmas Bento

Another one of my bentos is live on Disney! This time, it's Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas!

Jack's actually a lot simpler than you'd think, as is his little ghost dog. I love when things come together easily.

Check out the details on Disney's Family.Com!

What's for Lunch Wednesday, Week 62

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 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!

***Sorry for the delay, fell asleep early last night and forgot to hit publish!***

While you're here, go enter the giveaway for the Hormel prize pack and check out our BBQ kebabs!