Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love Bug Bento


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This one came about purely by accident. I was searching for my baggie of heart-shaped cutters and couldn't find it. I can't even remember what my idea had been. But somehow I came across an empty mints tin, and thought to put a Valentine's sticker on it. I liked the owl best, but then saw the "Love Bug" and thought "Hmmm. I could make that..." So I did!

Wednesday February 13, 2013 - My new PlanetBox Rover was perfect for this lunch - I needed an area large enough to accommodate the sandwich, plus areas for the veggies, fruits, and the little mint box that started it all!
Cracker Nuts, sugar snap peas and carrots, Surf Sweets hearts,
raspberries with dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, ham-cheese-mustard sandwich thin
Love Bug: The tin was from some Trader Joe's Green Tea Mints that a certain someone seems to love, and keeps proooomising that she won't just swiper it off my desk and eat the whole package in one go. So far I've been snookered twice. So I had an empty that wasn't even a week old yet. *sigh*
The window had some stickum on it from the original label, which is what gave me the idea to put a sticker on in the first place! So I could cover it up! (MUCH easier than painstakingly scraping off all the residue!)

Instead of sweets, I filled it with Nagaraya Garlic Cracker Nuts that I get at an Asian grocery. They are soooooo good! When she saw that I had a new bag, she went wild begging and cajoling me to give her some. I had to fill the tin last so I didn't get distracted after opening the bag and eat them all instead of making her lunch! They're crazy delicious!
(Her AM preschool does not have a peanut or nut ban. And the one child in the class with a peanut allergy only reacts if he eats them, and is fine around others eating them. The teacher doesn't let them share, and sits them apart from each other at the little table, since she knows I pack peanut products, just to be safe. Not that Little Z would share anyway! Haha! She jealously guards anyone from even LOOKING at her lunch!


Grassy Bug: Love Bugs live on the ground, so that means grass! I used organic sugar snap peas to be the grass, and stuck a ladybug pick in for the cuteness factor. I added a few carrots cut with a mini heart cutter to add color and more hearts!

In the little treaties compartment, I put in two dye-free Surf Sweets Organic Fruity Hearts that I got from Natural Candy Store.



Berry Bug: Strawberries are the obvious choice for fruit in a ladybuggy lunch, but I didn't have any. In hindsight, half a red apple could be good too, with just a little knife and mini cutter work to remove bits of peel to etch in the design. Oh well.

Instead, I used up the last of our organic raspberries and sprinkled on some Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds, which she loves. And they look kind of ladybug-spottish. Since pomegranate arils are pretty much a membrane around a sac of juice and a seed, I wasn't expecting too much from these candies, but I'm a sucker for anything dark chocolate (or anything that might look cute in a lunch...) Plus she loves pomegranate "seeds" (what she and my Hubby call the arils.) They're actually quite good. Like chocolate-covered mini gummies, with seeds inside.

I spelled out "LOVE BUG" with my alphabet picks, except I couldn't find the Os. Luckily I had a heart pick that subbed in nicely!

Sandwich Bug: For the sandwich, I used a whole wheat sandwich thin, because I still had some in the fridge (bread lasts longer in there! And since I no longer cook with raw meat, I had a whole drawer laying empty. Now it's a bread and spillover-veggies drawer!) Plus it was already round and I didn't need to find my large circle cutter.

My Colby Jack cheese and uncured ham came in pre-sliced rounds, so no need for my cutter there either! I sliced the cheese down the middle, and angled them artistically. Then I realized I hadn't put on the mustard yet, so had to take it all apart again. *sigh*
For the "spots," I used a tiny heart cutter - and then saved the cut-outs and smooshed two together around each bit of uncooked spaghetti noodle to make antennae. And the others went in the compartment with the tin of cracker nuts.

Tools of the Trade
   alphabet picks   

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE this one! The heart details are so cute and the sandwich is amazing! Thank you so much for linking up to my post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is so adorable! Need to get those letter picks!!

    ReplyDelete

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