Quick And Easy Bentos

Quick and Easy Mommy & Me bento lunches!

I made these lunches the first week of July and I am just now getting to them! I've been a bit slow this month but I thought I would share these with you today :)

I want to start off by saying that I don't always take pictures every day of our lunches. First because I'm lazy because we are sometimes too hungry and I just make them on the spot and we munch immediately (and that means even cute food that doesn't get blogged sometimes!) And Second they aren't always the most gorgeous detailed super special lunches. But I decided I wanted to share these because they aren't anything super special. I wanted to show you that not every day I make the most detailed fun and creative lunches. Sometimes I need to make lunches really quick because I'm running late. Late like I'm-late-for-my-doctor's-appointment-and-I-should-have-packed-these-last-night late.

I made these two lunches in less than ten minutes total. Including washing and cutting of the fruit. Like I mentioned, I was running out the door because I was running late for an appointment and I realized that I should probably bring lunch in case we got hungry. Especially because my appointment was close to our lunchtime and I had no clue how long we'd be there. Our lunches were basically the same :)

Eliana's lunch:

Eliana's Lunch was in her LunchBots Quad; pretzels, a Babybel cheese, green grapes and strawberries with an elephant bento pick. I used silicone cups to add some color and plus it also means washing the box afterwards is just a simple rinse!

Mommy's lunch:

My Lunch was in an EasyLunchbox. In the top I have green grapes (I get the beat up ones that turn slightly brownish that Eliana won't eat lol) and cut strawberries with a bunny bento pick.  In my silicone cups I had a jalapeño cheese stick cut up and pretzels next to my Soynut butter with honey and cinnamon sandwich. And no. My cheese stick is not moldy. Its just jalapeño pieces. I realized afterwards that probably looks horrible in the photo... but they are really tasty :)

And that's it! SUPER easy. Sometimes you just have to move really quick -- not that I ever know anything about that because we are always on time and this almost never happens (cough cough) but anyways everything worked out and we both enjoyed our lunches! :)

Creative Food Supplies:

Linking up here:

FunBites Giveaway!

A FunBites Giveaway!!

FunBitesare food cutters that cut your food into perfectly bite sized pieces. With the Cube it you can cut food into 12 small square pieces. With the Luv it you can cut your food into 8 geometric shapes and two mini hearts. With the Triangles you can cut food into 8 small triangles and 2 larger triangles.

You can use the cutters on fruit, veggies, sandwiches, pancakes, pizza etc. The options are endless and the cutters are sturdy and long lasting! I'm doing a giveaway today so that one lucky winner can try all three FunBites cutters! With back to school right around the corner these would be a fun tool to use to make school lunches!

Here are some of the fun food creations I've made with FunBites: 

Using FunBites Cube it:

Here I used the Cube it (my personal favorite FunBites cutter) to make a Fun Lion out of cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon and bread. For more details see HERE.

Using the FunBites Luv it:

Using the FunBites Luv it I made Eliana a simple lunch surrounded by some heart strawberries and cucumbers. For more details see HERE.

Using FunBites Triangles:

Here I used the FunBites Trianglesand made a giraffe.. although Eliana said it clearly was a dinosaur.. You be the judge! Either way there is a lot of potential to make some fun shapes with this cutter too! :) For more details see HERE.

So if you want to try out the latest FunBites cutter -- and make some giraffe looking dinosaurs -- look no further! ;)

Enter Below for a chance to win!  One reader will win one FunBites Cube it, one FunBites Luv it and one FunBites Triangle cutter! (**Winner will choose which color FunBites Luv it cutter he or she wants**)

Creative Food Supplies:

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway comprises of 3 (three) total FunBites cutters (one of each) for one winner. Winner can choose which color FunBites Luv it he or she desires: red or pink. This giveaway begins on 7/25/2013 and ends 8/1/3013 at 12 am. Winner will be contacted through email and will have 48 hours to respond.  If winner fails to respond within 48 hours I will draw another winner. This giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

**Disclosure: FunBites sent me their new FunBites Triangles for the purpose of a review. They also send me some extra FunBites cutters to do with what I please, so I have decided to have a giveaway!  As always all opinions expressed in this post are my own**

Summer Picnic Party

A Summer Picnic Lunch!

With Summer in all its glory (and by all its glory I mean heat wave madness) the heat has driven me slightly mad.. definitely crabby and I certainly cannot wait for a temperature relief! I have been almost unable to do anything this whole week. So while I am crabby I will share this easy and fun picnic table sandwich with you!

First off a big thank you to Hani from Haniela's and Beth from Hungry Happenings for organizing this summer picnic blog party and for inviting me to participate. I always have so much fun with blog parties because I love seeing what everyone comes up with!

Whenever I think of Summer and picnics I literally think of a picnic table.. So I did my best to recreate a fun food creation that resembled a picnic table!

I started off with a piece of bread, and tried to make it into a picnic table. I placed a smaller piece of bread on top of a larger piece. You can fill with your favorite fillings. It should sort of resemble a picnic table and its bench! and while its not perfect I'm pretty sure its only the perfectionist in me that is complaining.

To make the picnic blanket I used cheese and food coloring! You could use a fruit roll up if you had one, but I didn't. I chose not to use my organic fruit leather because it was a deeper read, and I wanted a brighter red. So I colored my cheese with a drop of edible food dye, also using my edible food markers to touch up. After it dried I sliced up the piece of cheese into strips and laid them on top of a single piece of cheese in a pattern similar to a picnic blanket :)

On top of the table I added cheezits (yummy food) and candy Dots(upside to look like drinks). For the final touches I added two cute cupcake picks! What summer picnic is complete without a hot dog? And of course we need the classic picnic basket. I used those two picks to add some extra details :)

All together it came out pretty cute! And it wasn't very difficult to make at all! :)

Please visit all these amazing bloggers to see more fun summer picnic ideas!

The Marshmallow Studio - Buzzy Bee Pop Tutorial

Sam's Kitchen - Elderflower Cordial

Lila Loa - Sandwich Picnic Cookies

Pink Little Cake -Shortbread Cookie Tart with Caramel Bits

Hungry Happenings - Ketchup and Mustard Push up Pops

The Partiologist - Ant on a Log

Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons - Picnic Blanket Treats

The Baked Equation - Lemon Cookie Cake

The Decorated Cookie - Cookies on the String

Not Your Momma's Cookie - Ant Attack Cupcakes

Creative Fun Food - Picnic Table Sandwich

Pint Sized Baker - Picnic Cupcakes to Go

Roxana's Home Baking - Apricot Orange Kugelhopf

Created by Diane - Luau Pasta Salad

Munchkin Munchies - Checkerboard Tablecloth Picnic Cookies

Sugar Swings - Deviled Egg Mini Cakes

Trilogy Edibles - Chocolate Mousse

Sugarkissed.net - Watermelon Cupcakes

Haniela's - Roasted Chicken Green Bean Salad Sandwiches

AND also enter below to try to win this awesome giveaway!! 

There are 6 PRIZES for 6 WINNERS!!

Thank you to all the amazing Giveaway Sponsors!! Be sure to check out their websites below:

The Marshmallow Studio

Restaurant Ware

The Cookie Cutter Company

 Wilton

 Mary Had a Little Party

 King Arthur Flour

To enter giveaway please use the Rafflecopter below. Giveaway will run from July 20th, 2013 till July 27th, 2013. 6 Winners will be picked using the Rafflecopter widget. Prizes will be picked in the order of sponsors you see above, starting with The Marshmallow Studio and ending with King Arthur Flour. Winners will receive one email from hanielas@yahoo.com. Winners will  have 48 hours to respond. New winner(s) will be picked if we don't hear from you. Thank you and good luck.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FunBites Giraffe.. or Dinosaur :)

FunBites Giraffe... or Dinosaur... :)

FunBites was gracious enough to send us their new product: FunBites Triangles to try out! Playing around with it I made Eliana this FunBites Giraffe!...or at least that is what I intended it to be! ;)

The FunBites Triangles cuts your food into 10 small triangles. Two of the triangles are slightly larger than the rest and you can rearrange them into lots of fun shapes for fun food.

Using our new FunBites Triangles I cut up Eliana's soynutbuttersandwich into lots of small triangles. I formed them into a Giraffe. I added a yellow bell pepper sun, celery stick "tree", matchstick carrot "flower" and sliced cucumber for the ground. It was super simple to make and Eliana loved it! ...well besides the fact that she didn't see it as a giraffe...she clearly thought it was a dinosaur but that's okay :)

Overall the FunBites Triangles work great, as do all the FunBites cutters. They cut fruit, veggies, sandwiches, etc into small pieces. Personally I still prefer the Cube it. For me I like simple, and the triangle shapes didn't seem to come very simple for me! And clearly my giraffe looked like a dinosaur ;) However there is the potential to make lots of fun shapes with the cutter!

Creative Food Supplies:

Linking up here :)

**Disclosure: FunBites sent me their new FunBites Triangles for the purpose of this review.  As always all opinions expressed in this post are my own**

2 year Blogiversary!

Today is Creative Food's 2 year blogiversary!

To celebrate why not have a cupcake?

This is one of my favorite lunches and I figured it was perfect to reshare today!
This lunch was made with the Lunch Punch Sweet Set and some added cheese and fruit leather decorations on top! (For more details on the cupcake lunch click on the picture)

When I started this blog two years ago it was mostly because of the suggestions I got from family and friends. I loved making creative fun food for Eliana and they ultimately nudged me to start a blog. So thank you to all my family and friends who encouraged me start Creative Food! Not only has it been a lot of fun, Eliana does eat better than before! She is still a picky eater, but she has tried new foods and is so much more involved in eating healthier and eating with more variety.

One thing that took me surprise after starting my blog was the fact that I made some amazing blog friends! I never thought that after starting a blog I would make friends, more specifically, blog friends! Even though we don't all live close to each other we are amazing friends that have come to rely on each other in time of need. During our ups and downs, when we need to vent, or even when we just need a second opinion on a picture or a post. It has been wonderful and I'm so thankful for the friendships I have made. I will not single out anybody, but they know who they are :) ♥  

This blog has also opened up doors for me as well! It led me to work with Laura from MOMables, where I contribute posts and do some more fun stuff behind the scenes. She is an incredible person, whom I've also grown close to, and I love having her as a mentor and my boss! Check out my latest post on MOMables: Campfire Strawberries-- You can't go wrong with strawberries, homemade fluff and chocolate.. yummmm! Those were delicious... I might need to make some more this weekend :)

But most of all Thank YOU to all my followers and readers! I appreciate every single one of you and I wouldn't be here today without all of your support either! I can't wait to show you some more fun and creative lunches next week! p.s. keep a look out next week for a giveaway to celebrate 2 years! :)

♥ Michelle