Car Lunch

Beep Beep!

I made this super simple and easy car lunch for Eliana the other day.  It could also work as a snack for an older child with a bigger appetite, but for Eliana it was perfect for lunch (especially since she likes to eat the scraps of everything while we make it).

Stop. Caution. GO! The red, yellow and green lights are colored bell peppers cut with a circle cutter.

The cars are I.M. Healthy Creamy Soynut Butter and jam sandwiches cut with this sandwich stamper that I got from All Things For Sale (my favorite online bento supply shop)

The road is made out of cut provolone and cheddar cheese.

Eliana gobbled this all up and it was very quick to make! I end up loving sandwich stampers for that exact reason. They are so easy to use and make cute lunches in seconds! Now someone convince me I don't need anymore sandwich stampers to add to my lunch supply collection.... ;)

p.s. You could always add a shaped hard boiled egg with this Car Egg Mold but I will admit I am the worst hard boiled egg molder-- if that is possible. It is supposed to be the easiest thing.. the mold does the work for you! But I somehow mess that up. Every time.  One day I will try it again.. maybe. I honestly don't like hard boiled eggs.. and neither does Eliana... but molded hard boiled eggs are so cute! :)

Creative Food Supplies:

Airplane bento

I decided to post this cute airplane bento we took onto the plane since I am still not quite adjusted to the timezone and still feeling exhausted. I actually am finally feeling better today but I'm not quite sure why it is taking me so long to adjust?! Who knows.. maybe I need a vacation from my vacation to figure this out ;)

I made this airplane bento the night before we left to Costa Rica but my pictures came out really dark so I decided to take a picture of the bento at the airport. That is classic airport rug beneath the lunch :) I made this for Eliana just in case she got hungry on the way down because our flights did not give any free snacks or meals.  I wasn't about to pay for any snacks or meals on the plane, and they may not have been able to ensure that they were peanut-free and nut-free.  Plus this was Eliana's first plane ride ever, so I had to bring her a cute snack!! Bringing this airplane bento worked out perfectly :)

I made two cute little plane sandwiches with a sandwich stamper (because we were taking two planes to Costa Rica). Inside each plane sandwich is Eliana's favorite I M Healthy Creamy Soynut Butter With Honey with extra honey drizzled in the sandwich (my girl loves honey).

The marshmallow was decorated using edible markers to make the Costa Rica Flag. 

Below the two planes is a cereal bar with fruit leather on top of it.  I used my cutters to cut out the word avión, which means plane in Spanish.

In the upper right are some peas (frozen when I packed them, defrosted by the morning) and in the bottom right is watermelon and blueberries with an airplane pick. 

This was a simple, easy and quick lunch to make and Eliana loved it. I always love when that happens :) She also did an amazing job for her first time on a plane, and she flew like a champ! I think she flew better than David and me ;)


I link up.

Guest Post over at Bentoriffic

Visit Bentoriffic to see my guest post today!

Frog Bento

Today I am so excited to be doing a guest post over at Bentoriffic today! (My first guest post ever!) Sarah from Bentoriffic makes some awesome bentos and lunches. I'm a huge fan of hers! I love everything she makes so it is hard to pick favorites but I absolutely LOVE the bentos she made of Robin, Spiderman and Batman. I also love her Beach Summer Bento with the cutest grape tomato crab ever, and her giraffe bento..and this super cute Windmill Bento! The list goes on and on. If she taught bento lessons I'd take her classes :)

p.s. WOW it feels good to be back! We had a wonderful week in Costa Rica and it feels good to be home.  We are a little exhausted (it took over 14 hours to get home counting all the time driving to return the rental car, driving to the airport, time spent in the airports and the two planes) and because of that we haven't really recuperated or adjusted and are all feeling a little bit sick. I will share about our trip later this week if I can manage it :)

Winner of the EasyLunchboxes Giveaway!!

The winner of four EasyLunchboxesand a cooler bag in the color of their choice is.............

.............................. drum roll please..........................

.....................................

Congratulations dpandmnms! 

Please contact me at creativefoodblog (at) gmail (dot) com within 48 hours or else I will have to pick another winner!

Volcán Arenal

As you are reading this now, I am in Costa Rica!!!!! (no I can't multi-task like that! I set this to auto-post hehe) My husband was born in Costa Rica so we have a lot of family down here and have been looking forward to going again ever since our last trip five years ago. For this trip we are partaking in a small missions trip with a church and helping out at a camp for very low-income kids, getting together with family, celebrating the abuelos 61st anniversary, and also visiting our favorite place in Costa Rica: Volcán Arenal. It is a full packed week! Since we haven't been in five years a lot has changed and there are lots of new cousins to meet and I am looking forward to it all :)

Here is a picture I took from our last trip to Arenal in July 2007:

You can easily see why it is our favorite place.  The volcano is absolutely gorgeous.  It is also active so that is always fun! ;) I hope to get some good views and pictures of it during our trip because the top of the volcano sometimes is covered by clouds, which is to be expected with such a high altitude. But to see it without any clouds is breathtaking. I can't wait!

So this is Eliana's first trip to Costa Rica!! She could hardly contain herself the week before! Last time we went to Costa Rica I was pregnant with Eliana. So technically she has been ;) haha but of course she doesn't remember any of that. 

I made her a Volcán Arenal Bento right before we left:

I outlined the shape of the volcano on some wheat bread with a brown edible marker and then I cut the shape out with a pair of kitchen scissors.  I later put honey on her bread (not shown in the picture), but it made the volcano darker so it looked even more realistic actually.  At the base of the volcano is gallo pinto (traditional Costa Rican food of white rice and black beans). I put some pieces of broccoli as greenery by the volcano. I added "Arenal" cut from organic fruit leather above the volcano.

In the upper right container we have cauliflower clouds since by the volcano it can be very cloudy :)

In the bottom right Eliana has the colors of the Costa Rican flag in edible form: cut strawberries, blueberries and queso blanco :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Pura Vida!

**Don't forget to enter for a chance to win 4 EasyLunchBox containers and a cooler bag in the color of your choice! Giveaway ends when we return from Costa Rica: July 20 at 11:59 EST.**

One Year Blogiversary and an EasyLunchbox Giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed**

Today marks my one year blogiversary! I cannot believe I have been blogging for one year!

It has been a wonderful year!  I have enjoyed blogging about the lunches and snacks Eliana and I have made in the kitchen, and I'm really happy it has encouraged her to eat healthy and try new things. This past year I have also made some amazing blogging friends whom I am proud to call my dear friends even though we have never met in person (yet!!). Thank you to all my blogging friends who have supported me throughout this first year and thank you to all my readers for reading and commenting on my blog and supporting my bento addiction love to make healthy and fun creative food :)


So how to celebrate Creative Food's one year blogiversary?! With an EasyLunchboxes giveaway of course!!  EasyLunchboxes are the #1 best seller on Amazon in lunch boxes and you can easily see why! They have no BPA, Lead, Vinyl or PVC, so they are the perfect food safe way to make waste free lunches (no more plastic baggies! or the perfect way to consolidate to one container from three or four!) They are also dishwasher, freezer and microwave safe. You can also get free shipping (USA only) through EasyLunchboxes Amazon Store.


I honestly love EasyLunchboxes (If you want to look through some of lunches I've made with our ELBs check them out here). I had had my eye on them for a long time and fell in love with the idea before we even bought them! It is way easier than using a million containers in our lunchbox and it makes eating on the go easy.  We use them on a daily basis and they have helped us pack healthier lunches and bentos!  They make packing waste-free lunches very easy and I love how sturdy they are.  Mine have never warped in the dishwasher.  I can't stand when plastic containers and their lids warp and do not close properly and are misshaped!

So what exactly is the prize?!

One lucky person will win four containers and a cooler bag in the color of their choice! 

(a retail value of $21.90!)

Here is how to enter (one comment = one entry. Leave separate comments for each entry) 

You have up to 7 ways to enter:

1.Visit EasyLunchBoxes.com and leave a comment on this post telling me something you like about their products (Mandatory Entry)

2. Like EasyLunchBoxes on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did

3. Like Creative Food on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did

4. Follow EasyLunchBoxes on Twitter and leave a comment saying you did

5. Follow EasyLunchBoxes on Pinterest and leave a comment saying you did

6. Follow Creative Food (via Google Friend Connect) and leave a comment saying you did

7.  Share this giveaway on FB, Twitter or on your blog and leave a comment saying you did

**This giveaway closes July 20th at 11:59pm EST.  The winner will be randomly drawn through random.org and announced that same weekend. This giveaway is for US residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or recieved free product from EasyLunchBoxes within the past three months.**

Good luck!! :)

p.s. To all my readers I will not be at my computer for the next week. Why you ask? Stay tuned for a post next Wednesday since that deserves its own post! :)

Weekend Getaway

Two weeks ago David and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary! I can't believe we've been married 6 years! Feels longer ;) We left Mia with Grandma and Grandpa and enjoyed a wonderful family weekend away at Hampton Beach with Eliana. It was wonderful to celebrate our six years together with Eliana, who is a part of us and has brought a lot of joy and excitement into our lives :)  I know a lot of couples do only adults or time alone away together to celebrate a wedding anniversary, but we have never been like that.  We do everything together all the time. Which is probably why we drive each other crazy all the time ;)...But I wouldn't have it any other way!

We went to Hampton Beach in NH and relaxed for the weekend.  So I'm sharing a few pictures of our wonderful weekend! I know--I know two weeks late, but better than never! ;)

Family Picture by the beach :)

The gorgeous sunset we saw the first night. I wish I could live on a beach. So peaceful.

We hadn't known this when we planned to go to Hampton Beach, but there were fireworks and a sand sculpting competition planned that weekend! Added surprise to our weekend getaway! Eliana was so thrilled and I'm glad this year fireworks don't scare her anymore :)

I'm always so impressed with sand sculpting. Here are some pictures of the sand sculptures:

And who would have known -- EasyLunchboxes can sand sculpt? ;)

I wanted to make sure we had some healthy snacks while spending the morning at the beach so I filled an EasyLunchBox with some fruits and veggies. It worked out perfect since it fit so well into the hotel's mini fridge! :) So instead of snacking on chips or junk food, which are so easy to find at the beach, we snacked healthy.

Eliana with our snacks :)

I packed blueberries, strawberries, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes and baby carrots. I also brought two cute food picks to prevent the sand from getting in our food. (I don't like eating sand covered fruit). As you can see, sand on her hand, no sand in the food. 

Eliana eating some strawberries. Actually she ate them all before I got a chance to have any! :)

We love our EasyLunchBoxes so much we bring them on our weekend getaway :) 

How much do you love your EasyLunchBoxes?

p.s. Stay tuned later this week for a giveaway celebrating my one year blogiversary! :)

Winner of the Digital Scale!

The winner of the SlimKicker Digital Scale is.............. (drum roll please...) ..............

Eugene!!  

Congrats Eugene! Your challenge idea was picked by SlimKicker! Contact me at creativefoodblog@gmail.com so I can get you in touch with SlimKicker for your Ozeri Touch Professional Digital Kitchen Scale!

Fourth of July S'mores

Happy Fourth of July!!

This is totally a late and impromptu post, but I had to share what we made today! :) Plus I figure the celebrations continue through the weekend so it works! We made some Fourth of July Marshmallows and then made some s'mores :)

I found some inspiration from Meaghan at the decorated cookie for this treat! Ever since I stumbled onto her blog over a year ago (and was blown away by her awesomeness!) I was introduced to the idea of drawing on marshmallows. I had always wanted to try it but for some reason never got around to it until today. ((check out all of Meaghan's marshmallow creations here))

Everyone in the family joined in the fun for this! David made the flag on the bottom left and the stars up top.  Eliana made the top right one and I made the two bottom right marshmallows. It was so easy and fun, and of course tasty :)

Perfectly crispy-- just the way I like them!

All smooshed. Probably the only time I can say I smooshed an American Flag and ate it.

These would work perfect for Memorial Day too!

Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July!!

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Patriotic Bento

Happy Third Fourth of July!! (a day early hehe)

This lunch was very easy to make and Eliana loved it (and I love when that happens!)

The flag sandwich is an I M Healthy Creamy Soynut Butter With Honey sandwich. I cut the sandwich into a rectangle shape and ate the scraps. On top I placed sliced strawberries and string cheese for the stripes and blueberries in the corner.  The flag pole is the bread crust.

In the upper left are frozen peas (this lunch needed some green!) in some teeny tiny star silicone cups (they defrosted by the time Eliana ate her lunch, so she was slightly disappointed. She likes them actually frozen, which works out fine when we make lunch and eat it on the spot)

In the upper right Eliana had some vanilla yogurt topped with red, white and blue star sprinkles. 

All packed in an EasyLunchbox. If you are wondering if this lunch would travel well I will let you know that it traveled from MA to NJ and made it all intact! It made it safely in its EasyLunchboxes Insulated Cooler Bag. :) I probably will make a similar lunch for tomorrow so that we can take it wherever we are going.

My favorite part of the Fourth of July is watching the fireworks. I'm so thankful Eliana isn't scared of them anymore. We actually have already seen fireworks two times in the past week and a half and I'm excited to see some more!!

❈ Hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July! :) ❈

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