Making Lunch Fun, One Box at a Time

ben·tol·o·gy (ben t äləjē) Noun : The study of making nutritious and fun lunches for my daughters.

I get a lot of inspiration from other blogs. So, in hopes someone might get some inspiration from me, I've decided to post some pictures here.

This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.Proverbs 3:7-9

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone - last Halloween lunch of the season!


  • Ghost-shaped sandwich with a piece of white American cheese on top.  I used a straw to cut out the ghost's mouth and eyes.
  • Carrot sticks and ranch
  • Apple slices with small ghost cut-outs
  • Mini candy bar
Here are some of the products I used when making this lunch:

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Vampires!

I love it when something new comes to me.   I was making sandwiches today and it hit me...could I make that look like Dracula? 

Here's what I came up with:

  • Sandwich on a whole wheat bun.  I carved a bit of the top of the bun off to leave a part for his face.   Eyebrows and mouth are made from the carved away bread, icing eyes and fruit leather fangs.
  • Kiwi Vampire with cheddar eyes and fruit leather fangs.
  • Cheese stick
  • Broccoli and ranch
  • Mini snickers bar

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Spiders


To make the white chocolate web, I printed this web template and followed the instructions:


Here are some of the items I used when making this lunch:


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Halloween Witch!

  • Witch Hat-shaped sandwich with a cheddar decoration
  • Cucumber slices with ranch
  • Raspberries with a cute witch pick (Thanks Sarah at Bentoriffic!)
  • Babybel cheese with a witch hat cut-out
  • Pretzel "Witch fingers"
  • Hershey Kisses

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Couple of More Halloween Lunches

Sorry I have been MIA for a few days...Here are a couple lunches to catch you up.

  • Salami and herb cream cheese roll-ups with Halloween picks
  • Red and green grapes with a pumpkin pick
  • Carrots and sugar snap peas with ranch, and a ghost pick
  • Cheese stick
  • Mini candy bar 
  • 2 skull shaped sandwiches
  • Raspberries with a skull pick (thanks Alex from LunchwithEyeness)
  • Sugar snap peas and ranch
  • Hershey kisses 
Close up of sandwich to show detail

Here are some of the products I used when making these lunches:


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Halloween Hop

Are you ready for Halloween?  My bento buddies and I have put together a Halloween Hop to give you lots of Halloween lunch ideas. From scary to adorable, you'll find it all if you hop through Halloween by following the links provided in each post.

My oldest has a Frankenstein themed lunch:


  • 2 Frankenstein-shaped sandwiches (stacked), decorated with cheddar (shirt), cucumber peel and a Frankenstein face cupcake ring
  • Carrots with ranch
  • Frankenstein kiwi (inspired by this one at Another Lunch)
  • Babybel cheese with a ghost cut-out, decorated with a food safe marker
  • Mini candy bar
My youngest wanted a pumpkin themed lunch:

  • Pumpkin shaped sandwich.  Normally, I would have decorated it with cheese but my youngest is not a super fan of cheese on top of her sandwich.  So, I just pressed the face print into the bread and then added a little outline with food safe color to make it pop.
  • Broccoli with ranch, and a pumpkin pick
  • Clementine with a jack-o-lantern face cut out
  • Bat, pumpkin and moon shaped marshmallows

Ready to hop?  Check out Dina's Halloween post over at What The Girls Are Having!


Here are some of the products (or similar products) that I used when created these lunches.



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Trick or Treat? We like Treats!

  • 2 cauldron-shaped sandwiches (stacked), filled with candy picks and decorated with cheddar letters
  • Peas (in a mini dipper cup).  Note: The cup has a lid that I added after I took the picture so that the peas stay put)
  • Raspberries and blackberries with a witch's hat
  • Mini bag of M&Ms
In addition to the products linked above, here are some of the other products I used when creating this lunch:

Monday, October 15, 2012

Creepy Crawlies!

Good thing my daughter doesn't have arachnophobia!

  • Sandwich made with the Pampered Chef sandwich cutter and decorated with a spider and it's web
  • Grape kabobs on spider picks
  • Sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes with ranch
  • Babybel cheese with a spider cut-out, decorated with sugar eyes
  • Hershey kisses
In addition to the product links above, here is a link to another product that I used to make this lunch

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mummy for Her Tummy

Completely inspired by Cristi's Mummy on a Stick over at BentOnBetterLunches came this slightly modified mummy:

  • Tortilla with herb cream cheese and salami, decorated with icing eyes and cucumber peel
  • Grapes with adorable mummy ring (which I won from AllthingsforSale.com's Halloween giveaway -- woot woot!)
  • Cucumber slices
  • Cheese stick
  • Hershey Kisses
The following are the products (or similiar products) that I used to create this lunch:

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

My CuteZCute Came!

You know the expression "It's the little things that make you happy"?  Today my "little thing" was my CuteZCute coming in the mail!  I have been SO excited to try this thing out.  Many of my bento buddies have been making lots of adorable lunches with this new product and I was dying to get one of my own!  Thank you JeeJee from AllThingsforSale.com for making my day!

  • 2 panda-shaped sandwiches (stacked) made with the CuteZCute and decorated with strawberry fruit leather, dyed provolone and a bow pick.
  • Carrots with ranch
  • Blackberries and raspberries with a panda pick
  • Cheese stick
  • York peppermint
Check out this Pinterest Board for l ots of other adorable lunches made with the CuteZCute!

These are the products (or similiar products) I used to create this lunch:


Monday, October 8, 2012

Mummy Loves You!

It's time to start Halloween Bentos -- YEA!!!!

  • 2 circle-shaped sandwiches (stacked) decorated to look like a mummy using provolone cheese, icing eyes and cucumber peel
  • Cucumber and tomato slices
  • Strawberries and fresh pineapple
  • Mini candy bar
The links below are for the products (or similiar products) that I used when making this lunch:

The Kissing Hand

For those that have followed my blog for awhile, you've seen this lunch (or something very similar) before.   Every time I go out of town without my kids (which isn't very often) I make them a lunch inspired by the book The Kissing Hand to remind them that I'll be thinking of them while I'm gone.  Last weekend, my husband and I went away to celebrate our 14th Anniversary (yea for us!) so I made the girls this lunch on the day we left:

  • Hand-shaped sandwich with a strawberry fruit leather heart
  • Peas
  • Strawberry hearts with blackberries
  • Hershey's KISSES

Thursday, October 4, 2012

World Animal Day Hop

Today is "World Animal Day" so my bento blogging buddies have put together a treat for you!   We've each chosen a different animal to theme a lunch around...As you click through the hop, it will be like a walk around the zoo!!

I chose fish because the aquarium is one of our favorite exhibits at our zoo.  It's a "must see", every time we go.

  • 2 fishy sandwiches with cheese and icing eyes decorations.  I used the crust of bread for the fins.
  • Blackberry and raspberries on fishy picks
  • Sugar snap peas with ranch (they are supposed to represent the reeds)
  • "Cookies and Creme" goldfish crackers
Click here to see the next animal on exhibit at A Boy and His Lunch.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

She Plays the Violin

My oldest recently started taking violin lessons through the school.  So far, she LOVES it.  So, I made her a bento lunch on "lesson day".

  • Violin-shaped sandwich decorated using brown food coloring, angel hair noodles and bread crust.  The pretzel rod is supposed to be the bow.  I know it's WAY to big for the violin but what's a girl to do?
  • Babybel with music note cut-out
  • Carrots with ranch (ranch is hidden under a layer of carrots) with "MUSIC" picks
  • Blackberries with music note picks
  • Hershey kisses (under the carrots)

Monday, October 1, 2012

It's Fall Y'All!

Follow this link for the beautiful lunch my bento buddy, Glory, put together which inspired me to create the lunch below: 

  • Sandwich decorated with food safe markers and Colby cheddar "fall" letters
  • Apple leaves
  • Broccoli and carrots with ranch
  • Cheddar pumpkins