Here We Go!!!

I have been addicted to making Bento lunches since August and in this short period of time, I have done a lot of "pinning", read a lot of bento blogs and have been sharing my photos on Instagram and on Facebook.  But now it is time to delve a little deeper and blog about it.  Share what is working for me, what isn't working and which products I use the most and which things I "had to have" but never use.  A place for ideas to be welcomed and shared.  I am by NO means an expert.  I am a mom.. plain and simple.  My mission with making school lunches for my children is two fold.  I want fresh, healthy ingredients and I want my children to feel huge amounts of love pour over them when they open them up.  I am into open and honest communication.  If you have suggestions on what may make my bentos better, I would love to hear it :)  That being said, there is no room for hate or bullying on my site.  Let's all just play nice and we'll get along fine!  ha ha ha.  Ok.  Here is my plan.  I think I will start by sharing some photos of boxes I have put together and then I will start taking photos as I create new things, so it is easier to duplicate :)

First day of school bento!  I didn't have the silicone cups at this time and the kids told me that it didn't look cute like this when they ate them.  Ha ha.  As you can see, I used cutters for the fruit and cheese.  Made hot dog sea creatures and a molded hard boiled egg.

 This was actually a lot easier to make than it appears.  The pizza "muffins" were just a small piece of pizza dough that I purchased from Publix already made with some toppings and baked.  Nori wrapping a few goldfish really elevated the lunch.

As you can see with this lunch, My daughter's lunch, on the left, is much cuter ;)  I cooked the hot dogs and ravioli at the same time, took maybe 7 mins.  I made the rice balls the day ahead.

Fun with cutters :)

 Some of my toys.  This photo shows a bunch of the cutters I have purchased.

Molds, containers and food picks!  Oh my!  I love making onigiri (rice balls).  The molds on the top left are for hard boiled eggs.

Nori punches make the onigiri much more fun!  I have several now.  This was the first one I bought.  It is great because one punch gives a bunch of choices.  This punch also "catches" the nori, so I punch a full sheet at once and then use it as I need it.

I look forward to getting to know you and learn what brought you here.  I hope that you are a bento-nut too.. we'll have some fun.  LOL