Lunches: Roald Dahl Day 2016 (9.13.16)

In case you haven't noticed, we are big Roald Dahl fans.  There isn't a big Roald Dahl blog hop this year, but I couldn't let the 100th Birthday of such a fantastic author go by unnoticed!

Both kids have essentially the same lunch.  I drew the BFG (That's Big, Friendly Giant to those uninitiated!) on a tortilla with food coloring.  I'm no Quentin Blake, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Tortilla sandwich: 30g, yogurt: 9g, babybell: 1g, snozzcumber: 1g, snozzberries: 8g, dark chocolate honey mints: 14g

 The  Boy also as a snack of strawberry applesauce (not pictured, 14g)

What is under the BFG.

I made a BFG tortilla sandwich, with Muhammara and ham, with a yogurt squisher, a babybell cheese, half a snozzcumber (that's a cucumber, I couldn't find the foul veggie at a regular supermarket here, so I used the next best thing), and I did find some beautiful snozzberries (ok, so they are golden raspberries stuffed with blueberries...) - bet they taste like snozzberries!

 I couldn't finish a Roald Dahl lunch without a little something sweet, so there are a couple dark chocolate honey mints in each lunch.

Believe in magic, friends.  Happy Birthday, Roald Dahl.

Lunches 9.14.15: Roald Dahl Day Blog Hop

It's time to celebrate Roald Dahl Day again!

We love Roald Dahl around here, and have done lunches and other food inspired by his books for a few years now.

And now, it's time for a Bento Blogger & Friends Blog Hop!

Tortilla sandwich: 30g, corn puffs: 2g, grapes: 3g, apple-banana sauce: 14g, strawberries and chocolate: 6g

The Boy has a lunch inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  He has an apple-banana sauce pouch, "dressed up" like a Wonka bar, with a little golden ticket poking out, along with strawberries (with chocolate of course!), grapes (because I didn't have blueberries), some corn puffs (under the tortilla), and a tortilla with chocolate almond spread, with a picture of Willy Wonka himself on it, drawn with food coloring.

The Girl has a lunch inspired by The Witches.  She has a "half nibbled" English muffin with cocoa almond spread and raisins around the edges, corn puffs, and a little carrot mouse on top of a bed of lettuce (that could be cress, for the soup, right?), along with "Formula 86" to turn children into mice, which is actually some banana apple sauce, and she also has some strawberries.

Enjoy the Blog Hop - Check out what Cristi over at BentOnBetterLunches has for you, and then hop around the other Bento Blogger and Friends to see the whole group!

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

Lunches for 9.12.14 - Roald Dahl Day Blog Hop

Tomorrow is Roald Dahl's birthday, and because it is a weekend with no school, the Bento Bloggers & Friends decided to celebrate early with a blog hop.

As a note, I have to post earlier than the others, due to the fact that The Boy's school nurse needs the carb counts for his lunch first thing in the morning. When you click on the button to go on to Bent On Better Lunches, there will be a place holder (and Link Party for Roald Dahl Lunches!) until the other blogs go live, at 10 AM (EST).


We love Roald Dahl in our house and have read most of his books together.  On our recent trip to NYC, we listened to Matilda on audiobook on the drive down.

It's one of my favorite Roald Dahl books.  I love how strong and brilliant Matilda is, and how she doesn't let the horrible people in her life get her down.  Her cleverness and resilience are to be admired.

For the kids' lunches, I recreated a couple moments from the book on tortillas.

"Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it.  Be outrageous." - Roald Dahl, Matilda

Matilda tortilla sandwich: 20g, lettuce and ranch: 2g, rainbow carrots: 2g, fruit leather books: 23g, watermelon: 5g

The Boy's lunch features Matilda enjoying a book, in the form of a tortilla sandwich with hummus, rosemary ham, and cheese.  The tortilla is on a bed of lettuce, with a little cup of ranch dressing, along with rainbow carrots and some books made out of fruit leather sandwiching over cheddar cheese, and some watermelon in the pink container.  His snack is an Un-Roald-Dahl-ish granola bar (not pictured, 23g)

The Girl has a scene with Matilda and Miss Honey, on the same tortilla sandwich, that I originally made too large to fit into the Easylunchbox.  Oops.

"All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen." Roald Dahl, Matilda

I cut it down to fit and put it over a bed of lettuce, along with a cup of ranch dressing, some rainbow carrots, and books made with fruit leather and cheddar.  Her snack is a granola bar (not pictured).

Now, why don't you head on over to Bent On Better Lunches and see what she has in store for you, and if it is past 10 AM EST, hop on through the Bento Bloggers & Friends and see what everyone else has come up with!

What's your favorite Roald Dahl book?

Lunches: 9.13.13 - Roald Dahl Day Blog Hop

Roald Dahl is one of our favorite authors.  In honor of his birthday, my Bento Blogger & Friends are hosting a Roald Dahl Day Blog Hop.

The lunches for the kids are based on Fantastic Mr. Fox.  The Girl had read it before, but I hand't gotten to it yet, so we sat down as a family and read it last week.  What a fun book!

For those who have not yet read it (and you should... it's short), it is based  on three horrible and mean farmers who are out to get a savvy fox who routinely snags food from their farms.  He, true to his name, outfoxes them, and he and his friends have a fantastic feast at the farmers' expense.

Drumstick: 5g, croissant: 9g, carrot: 2g, melon: 5g, granola "Wonka" bar: 18g, cider gelatin: 5g

For The Boy (who has a non-Dahl-ish cereal bar for snack, not pictured, 27g), I packed a honey bbq drumstick (for the chicken that Mr. Fox stole from the farmers), along with carrots (that Mr. Fox took for the rabbits to eat), watermelon (with an onlooking pig), homemade cider gelatin (made with our homemade cider and unflavored gelatin) - because Mr. Fox took jugs of cider from one of the farmers, a mini croissant with bacon and cheese and a picture of Mr. Fox on Cabot cheddar cheese, drawn with food makers.  

That Fantastic Mr. Fox with his bag of goodies

I also included a granola "Wonka" bar, because how can you have a Dahl lunch without a reference to Willy Wonka?  His lunch is packed in a Yumbox.

Quite a feast

That Fantastic Mr. Fox (in Cabot Cheddar)

The Girl has Mr. Fox on a mini croissant with bacon and Cabot Cheddar (her Mr. Fox is also drawn on the Cabot Cheddar with food marker), along with a honey bbq drumstick, cider gelatin, carrots, a peach (for James and the Giant Peach), and some watermelon, packed in an Easylunchbox.  Her snack is a granola bar and a yogurt.

Want to see more Roald Dahl inspired lunches?  Hop on over to Bento Monsters to see what Ming has in store for you, and continue on the loop until you end up back here.  Enjoy, and read some Dahl today!

Lunches for The Boy & The Girl: 9.13.12 - Roald Dahl's Birthday

I've decided to do both lunches in one post today, because they are exactly the same.  It's Roald Dahl's birthday!  He is one of our favorite authors, so I knew I had to do a special lunch. 

A couple of years ago, I made a Roald Dahl's Birthday menu for dinner.  I think I will likely make Boiled Slobbages again for dinner this year, because they are delicious.  (They are spaetzle with a fun name.  Win)  While The Girl and I have read many Dahl books, The Boy is new to the wonder... this past weekend, we spend two days reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.  About 2 hours reading aloud per day, and we finished it.  We are now working on James & the Giant Peach... so their lunches are mostly based on these two books.

So, I spent some extra time on lunches today.  And there are some extra treats in them.  Roald Dahl was always one for treats.

Yogurt & sprinkles: 20g

I kind of ran out of inspiration for snack, so they have some homemade Greek yogurt with a tiny bit of chocolate sprinkles, and a frozen yogurt ladybug with some raspberry jelly.  I'll put a good ice pack in with snack and hope that the shape is still good by snack time - I'll pop it in the container in the morning.  The last time I packed a frozen yogurt shape for lunch, The Boy told me that it was mush by the time lunch came around.  So here's hoping.  Even if it isn't pretty, it's still yummy, so there's that.  And snack is much earlier than lunch, so maybe the shorter time between freezer and tummy will make the difference.

Yes, I picked out the rainbow colors to use in my pudding and left the boring white ones behind for another time.

For lunch, I had some fun.  When I was at the Asian market last week, I picked up some large rainbow colored tapioca pearls.  They are the sort of tapioca used in Bubble Tea, which I have never tried, and I don't know if I really want to.  Big hunks in my drinks don't appeal to me.  But, in a delicious pudding?  I think that sounds pretty nice.  (This pudding took MUCH longer to cook than the recipe states... I was stirring it thickening for almost half an hour I think... hope the kids eat it!)  I also cooked some extra tapioca pearls to sprinkle on top of the pudding.  I hope they don't harden before the kids can eat them.

I made a Giant Peach sandwich on a sandwich thin (I got a peach cookie cutter!), spread with Biscoff and peach preserves.

Sandwich: 33g, apple slices with white yogurt coating and sprinkles: 8g, graham crackers: 6g, "Wonka" mini bar: 5g, applesauce: 15g, Rainbow Tapioca Pudding: 20g

Along with it, I have some apple slices coated with white chocolate yogurt coating (I found the yogurt melting chips near the produce in the store), and then sprinkled with gold sprinkles, a couple pieces of chocolate graham cracker, a fun size dark chocolate (with a paper Wonka wrapper around gold foil... do they have the Golden Ticket?), some peach medley applesauce with gold shimmer dust sprinkled on it, and the vanilla rainbow tapioca pudding.

I covered the entire Easylunchbox container with Glad Press-n-seal in hopes of keeping the liquidy compartments from leaking.  I hope find your own ways of celebrating Roald Dahl's birthday!  What's your favorite Roald Dahl book?

Want to see some more cool Roald Dahl inspired food?  Check out Zoe's Lunchbox and BentOnBetterLunches!