Hey lunchboxdad.com readers, I have a big announcement in the works so check in over the next couple days to hear about it!  It should be lots of fun!

Week 11: A Tangled Lunch!

Week 11: A Tangled Lunch!  Tangled is one of my daughter's favorite movies so I thought I would give this lunch a shot.  It didn't turn out exactly as I was hoping, but I tried some new things with it.

The great thing about this lunch is you can use whatever you want under the bread to tailor it to what your child likes.  It can be PB&J, turkey and cheese, or whatever you want!

I hope to get more creative with some Christmas lunches over the next couple weeks.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break.

Let me know any creative ideas for how you would do this lunch.

Ingredients

2 frozen slices of bread (sourdough or other white bread)

   Green, yellow, blue, and red food coloring or food coloring markers

1 serving angel hair pasta (cook according to directions on box)

3 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese

1 slice of cheese

1 slice of lunch meat

Directions

1. Cut Rapunzel’s head from the first frozen slice of bread using a sharp non-serrated knife.  Cut out the shape of the neck and shoulders from the second piece of bread.
2. Take 2 Tbsp. of cream cheese and, using your fingers, shape it into two circles.  Press onto the head for the eyes.
3. Mix equal parts yellow, blue, and red food coloring in a small bowl to make the color black.  Dip the end of a toothpick in the black coloring and use it to dye the edges around the white cream cheese and also to draw the inside circle of the eyes.  Use a clean toothpick and dip it in green food coloring to fill in the green part of the eyes.
4. Using either the above method, or food coloring markers, draw the rest of the facial features and the dress details as shown in the picture.
5. Place head and shoulder pieces in the container with your child’s favorite cheese and lunch meat hidden underneath (Try and sneak in a few vegetables as well).  Fill in the spots around the body with pasta to make it look like hair. 
6. Mix three drops of green food coloring into 1 Tbsp. cream cheese.  Shape cream cheese into a lizard by forming head, tail, and two legs.  Gently, place the lizard onto Rapunzel’s shoulder as shown in picture.

#lbdbento

No lunch this week

Hey lunchboxdad readers, my daughter gets a full week off for Thanksgiving so there is no lunch this week, sorry.  I will try and post a review of those markers I was talking about by next Monday.  Have a great Thanksgiving either way!

Week 10: Happy Turkey Day!

Week 10: Happy Turkey Day!  Today's lunch was pretty fun.  It was Veteran's Day yesterday so my daughter had it off of school but she really wanted a fun lunch so I made it today.  This is the last lunch before Thanksgiving so I wanted to do a holiday themed one.  I think it turned out pretty good but I could have done way more stuff if she could actually eat that much!

The turkey is actually a sandwich.  It is whole wheat bread with cheese for the eyes, beak, and feet.  I used apple skin for the waddle by the beak.  I then made cheddar and havarti cheese feathers right behind the face.  What you cant see is that there is a piece of lunch meat (Turkey of course!) in the middle and another piece of bread for the other side.  I used cookie cutters for all of this part, it made the whole process really simple and fast to do.  The tail feathers are made out dried mango and apples.  For the apples I sliced them and then I carved out the feather design.  It turned out well and only took a minute to do, it was super easy.  Lastly I rubbed lemon juice on the apples to keep them from browning.

One tool that I found online last week was markers that you can use on food where the ink is edible.  I used it on the black of the eyes this week.  I will give a separate post this week all about them because they are so useful and work really well.  They also save a lot of time.

For the ground it is just goldfish crackers (why mess with what works?) and lettuce for the background.

Let me know your comments and any ideas you have for fun Thanksgiving lunches or meals.  Also be sure to follow me on Twitter and Pinterest!

This lunch is part of a Thanksgiving blog food link up.  Check it out to great tons of fun ideas for Thanksgiving food!

#lbdbento

Veterans Day off, see you tomorrow!

Hey lunchboxdad.com readers, my daughter has Veteran's Day off today so there is no lunch today.  However, I promised her a lunch tomorrow so I will post pics then.  Have a great holiday!

Week 9: My Little Pony: Applejack

Week 9 lunch: My Little Pony Applejack.  For this week I wanted to get back to making characters and my daughter has been asking for this one for weeks.  It is form My Little Pony Friendship is magic which I guess is their newer line of cartoons and toys.  This one is Applejack, one of her favorites.

Anyway, I have come to appreciate food dye and toothpicks which are now an indispensable tool for these lunches.   You can do really cool things with them.  It is what I drew the lines and made the eye with.  The eye is cream cheese and then I just used a little food dye.

Let me know what you think in your comments and maybe let me know what you would have done differently to give me some ideas for the future!  Also remember to subscribe to the blog or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest!

Ingredients

   Green, yellow, blue, and red food coloring 

2 slices of cheddar cheese

2 large pieces of dried mango

1 Tbsp. fat-free cream cheese

1 small piece of whole wheat bread

1 serving of goldfish crackers

1 serving of dried cranberries

1/2 cup of spinach

Directions

1. Using the template as a guide, cut out the shape of the pony’s head from one piece of cheese.  Cut out the shape of the body from the second piece of cheese.  Finally, use the template to cut the cowboy hat out of whole wheat bread.
2. Take dried mango and cut the shape to be like the mane and tail.  It doesn’t have to be exact, just similar to the picture!
3. Take 1 Tbsp. of cream cheese and, using your fingers, shape it into a circle.  Press onto the face for the eye.
4. Mix equal parts yellow, blue, and red food coloring in a small bowl to make the color black.  Dip the end of a toothpick in the black coloring and use it to dye the edges around the white cream cheese and also to draw the inside circle of the eyes.  Use a clean toothpick and dip it in green food coloring to fill in the green part of the eye.
5. Using the above method, draw the rest of the facial and body features as shown in the picture.  Use red for the three apples by the tail and for the hair tie on the mane.
6. Place bed of spinach in the container.  Sprinkle the ground with goldfish and dried cranberries.  Place the body piece, followed by the head.  Lay the mane on top to cover the seam and gently lift the body to place the tail a little underneath.  Place the hat slightly behind the head.  Finish by setting the apple in the corner of the container!

#lbdbento