Scrumdiddlyumptious BFG Movie Lunches!

I was given 4 media passes to a pre-screening of Disney's "The BFG," so we had to celebrate with some "delumptious" lunches! My girls and I had fun brainstorming "glumptious" ideas for these lunches. But first, a whopsey look at the movie!

Image copyright Disney, 2016. Used with permission

It's been a few decades since I read the book, so other than generally remembering that I'd enjoyed it,  I really didn't remember the plot at all. So I was unprepared for just how much I was going to love the movie! My brother ended up coming with us because my husband had game night and my mom got sick, and it was so fun listening to a grown man enjoy this movie so much! As much or possibly even more than my kids did! So fun!

Image copyright Disney, 2016. Used with permission

The visuals were truly stunning, and the jokes and plot were appealing and logical to any child's mind. My favorite parts were when they were catching "phizzwizards" (good dreams) and "trogglehumpers" (bad dreams) and then mixing them together to create custom dreams. But of course both my kids liked the "frobscottle" (giant's special fizzy drink) and "whizzpoppers" (rocketing farts!) the best!

Sophie and the Phizzwizards

Strawbumbles, pickled snozzcumbers, Frobscottle, Phizzwizards and Trogglehumpers, and Sophie

 

For Sophie, I used a Bread Head sandwich stamp on a gluten-free tortilla and added glasses by gently using a small circle cutter. My preschooler doesn't like cheese, so she chose some Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter for her tortilla sandwich. This stamp was designed for bread, so the imprint was recessed a bit for some reason. So I had to push the cut tortilla inside and hand-press it into the stamp to make the impressions. It was annoying, but not terribly hard. And luckily both these sandwiches were able to recover from the tortilla being cut through in a few places by accident!

Image copyright Disney, 2016. Used with permission

My 4-year-old also helped me pack some natural dye-free jelly beans into a mini muffin cup because they reminded her of the phizzwizards [dreams] the BFG caught to mix into good dreams to blow back into the world. Plus jelly beans are delicious, and I don't pack treats into lunches often!

Frobscottle and Snozzcumbers

Phizzwizards and Trogglehumpers, Frobscottle, Sophie quesadilla, pickled snozzcumbers, strawbumbles

The snozzcumbers in the movie were pretty disgusting looking, and these mini pickles represented them perfectly. Plus bonus, both my kids love pickles, so they actually ate their veggies this day!

Apparently "strawbumbles" are only mentioned in the movie, but Sophie enjoys a big bowlful of them at the palace, so they had to make an appearance too!

I happened to find the perfect little 2oz glass bottles at a novelty shop just in time to send some homemade frobscottle for lunch! Mine was made with some Zevia Cream Soda and a dab of natural green food dye powder. Both girls noticed that the bubbles in mine went up, instead of down like the BFG's. I told them that I can't bend the laws of physics! I am assured that the resulting whizzpoppers were still plenty fun! [Note: the bottles leaked when set on their sides for too long, so I ended up packing them tucked snugly upright between the EasyLunchboxes and the sides of their lunch bags. The bags didn't come home sticky and green, so I assume it worked out okay!]


I'm really pleased with how well these turned out, and both girls ate practically every bite, which rarely happens lately! If you're a fan of more rummytot rumpledumpuses, check out these fun Roald Dahl lunches (including some BFG giant ear flatbread sandwiches!) from Bent On Better Lunches!

Tools of the Trade

      

Image copyright Disney, 2016. Used with permission

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Finding Dory Lunches and Movie Review

I was given two tickets to see a pre-screening of Disney-Pixar's "Finding Dory" in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own. Well, except for what my 4-year-old tells me to say... Since I was only offered one ticket in addition to my own, I couldn't take both girls. My youngest won the coin toss.

image copyright Disney-Pixar 2016, used with permission

The basic story (without too many spoilers, I hope!) starts one year after Nemo was rescued, with Dory living "next door" to Nemo and Marlin. Being someone with no short-term memory must be pretty frustrating and scary, but living and caring for someone with this condition has unique and frustrating challenges too. Which Marlin learns all too well. Along the way, Dory gets a flash of memory from her childhood, which prompts a quest to find her parents. After reminding Marlin and Nemo that they know all too well what it's like to love someone who is lost to them, the three of them embark on a grand oceanic adventure! And find some new "family" along the way!

image copyright Disney-Pixar 2016, used with permission

The title suggests that this movie is about Dory getting lost and (hopefully) found. And while this does happen (a few times!) this story is really about Dory finding herself. Finding her own strengths and trusting in her own abilities after a lifetime of being treated as "less than" - and realizing that she's not "broken" after all! This movie resonates a lot with me personally, since as a mother of a child with an "invisible" cognitive disability, I love stories that feature characters who are loved and accepted and even valued as "different, but not less." I can't wait for her to see it!

Since the oldest one didn't get to come, I wanted to make her a special lunch to celebrate getting to see the AMC Sensory Friendly showing coming soon (Regal also offers My Way Matinees now.) And I had to make a Dory lunch for the little one too, of course!

Dory and Nemo

GF goat cheese quesadillas, organic grapes and carrots

My 2nd-grader loves cheese, and has been asking for quesadillas. Normally I just use corn tortillas, since they're naturally gluten free and easy to find. But I happened to grab some gluten-free flour tortillas the other day, and it turns out they take cookie stamper imprints fantastically well! I foresee a lot more tortillas in our lunches next school year!

Since I was trying to make Little Sister's lunch at the same time, I opted to cook these quesadillas in the oven instead of a frying pan to free up some time. I accidentally overcooked them a tad. Which turned out to be a good thing, since my oldest prefers "crispy" cheese. She didn't even notice that these were quesadillas - she thought they were just fun cheese crisps! Ha!

I got the Nemo and Dory cookie cutters and stamps as part of my Disney Cakes and Sweets subscription. So many lunch-able Disney goodies! I didn't have any whale or octopus picks to represent other characters from the movie, so I grabbed some cartoony sea life cupcake picks just for fun.

Dory-tilla Sandwich

GF Dark Chocolate Dreams "fairy bread" tortilla sandwich, organic blueberries and spinach, rosemary vinaigrette

My preschooler (4) isn't a big fan of cheese, except on pizza, so instead of a quesadilla, she agreed to try a "chocolate peanut butter quesadilla." (Yes. I know "queso" means "cheese." To them "quesadilla" means "tortilla food." Ha!)

After cutting out three Dory shapes from the tortilla, pressing the stamp firmly into one of them, and carefully spreading the the Peanut Butter Co Dark Chocolate Dreams between the layers, I lightly buttered the stamped top. I then spent an agonizing amount of time carefully applying dye free natural-colored blue, yellow, and black sanding sugars. (The black one was found at Whole Foods.) I used a tiny spoon to help scoop, pour, spread, and corral the different sugars, and had to resort to my bento tweezers a few times to move errant grains of sugar. For the eyes I used tubes of natural-colored blue and black icings sent from a friend in Australia (loads of dye-free food options there!) and added some natural purple sugar over the blue for the irises.

A few sea life cupcake picks finish the theme (naturally I don't have the octopus or sea turtle from that set, since the store selling them as singles only had these two options! Pfaugh!)

This lunch was definitely more time-intensive than I can normally be bothered with. "Luckily" we slept in so late that I had to just take the girls to school and go back home to pack lunches. This gave me a few hours before I had to head back to school to deliver them, so I could take the time to do them fancy!

Tools of the Trade

      

image copyright Disney-Pixar 2016, used with permission

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FINDING DORY is now playing in theatres everywhere!

Winging it with KitchenIQ - Lemon-Rosemary Zoodles with Roasted Carrots

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for KitchenIQ. I received promotional items to thank me for my participation.

I was originally going to make this Cilantro Lime Chicken zoodles recipe from iFoodReal, but the grocery store was out of cilantro and I was too lazy to go across the street to the other store. So I grabbed some rosemary and figured I'd wing it... I was also going to make Garlic Roasted Carrots from Damn Delicious, except that when my guests voted for garlic instead of cumin for the zoodles, I didn't want to garlic up the carrots too. So I just used seasoned salt and called it good! Unless my friends were just trying to make me feel good, both dishes were a hit!

First off, let me start by telling you about my knives. We have old knives. From before my husband and I met 19 years ago. And they have been sharpened approximately once a never. I am just used to hacking and forcing my way through fruits and veggies, and maybe lopping off a bit of skin along the way. So I was excited to try KitchenIQ's Edge Grip Knife Sharpener (it's a bestseller on Amazon!) It didn't really come with instructions, and I clearly have not been honing my knife-sharpening skills [see what I did there?] so I had Hubby sharpen the knives for me! Besides, I'm better at taking pictures than he is. And also clearly better at weaseling out of doing prep-work! Hahaha!

My guests and I were really impressed with the Edge Grip Knife Sharpener. I tried cutting one carrot before sharpening, for comparison, and they saw how hard it was. After sharpening, my knife went through those carrots "like buttah!" It was surprisingly easy to use the Edge Grip's unique design to sharpen my straight-edge double-bevel knives.
There are actually two stages of sharpening in the one unit, and it pretty much worked the way I had guessed (but don't tell Hubby that I could have done it after all!) There's a Coarse sharpening slot with carbide blades for quickly sharpening dull or damaged knives with just a few pulls. The Fine slot has ceramic rods for finishing and polishing the edge, or to touch-up an already sharp knife. And thanks to the Edge Grip Bottom, the whole thing stayed stable on the counter top without sliding around. All that, and it's small enough to store in my cutlery drawer!

We used the Potato Tool to scrub and peel the carrots. And by "we," I mean my husband. This tool includes a scrub brush for cleaning potatoes and other veggies, a straight-edge peeler, and a paring knife tucked safely in the handle. Both the peeler and paring knife have non-stick stainless steel-coated blades, and the paring knife can be sharpened using the Edge Grip Knife Sharpener!
The ergonomic soft-grip, non-slip handle made it very easy to use, and it was handy being able to scrub each carrot then just rotate the tool to immediately begin peeling. Plus it's top-rack dishwasher safe! Bonus!

 

Since I was provided with extra Better Zesters to gift to my guests, I let Hubby have a break from doing all the labor and had my friends zest the lemon for us.

The Better Zester features a stainless steel V-etches zester blade, which makes it perfect for zesting all kinds of citrus fruits. Would probably work great for grating parmesan too, but I'm lazy and buy it pre-grated! The non-stick food-safe coating allows for smoother zesting and easier clean-up, plus it's dishwasher-safe! But our favorite features were the plastic cover to protect little hands from the blade while rooting around in the utensil drawer, and the Fresh Zest container, which collects and holds the grated zest and includes measurements to help you know when you have just the right amount!

Lemon-Rosemary Zoodles and Roasted Carrots

Lemon-Rosemary Zoodles with Beans

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 large zucchini, zoodled or sliced into thin strips/sticks

1 tsp rosemary, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp minced)

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed (red or black beans work just fine too!)

1 lemon, zested and halved

1/2-1 tsp salt, or to taste

Directions:

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large skillet on medium-high. Add beans and garlic. Saute until warm, about 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add zoodles, rosemary, lemon zest, and salt. Saute 1.5 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Remove zoodle mixture from pan and sear cut ends of halved lemon until browned, roughly 1-2 minutes. Halve or quarter each seared lemon half into wedges.

Divide evenly between 4-5 plates. Serve hot with seared lemon wedges.

Simple Roasted Carrots

Ingredients:

2 bunches small carrots

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

Seasoned salt or garlic salt, to taste (1/2 to 1 tsp)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

Trim greens off carrots, leaving 1/2 to 1" of stems. Wash and peel carrots, then slice in half lengthwise. Toss in oil and lay on baking sheet. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. Bake for 20 minutes.

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