Bento (188) - Turkey Pepperoni Pinwheels with Sweet Potato and Grapes

Today's lunch was turkey/pepperoni pinwheels (held together with plastic skewers), honey-glazed sweet potatoes with pumpkin seeds, and green grapes.  Goose didn't care for the sweet potatoes, but announced I had finally figured out a way to make him eat turkey, so I'll call that a thumbs up on the pinwheel bites...which are also super-easy to make!  You just lay down a piece of thick cut turkey and two pieces of pepperoni, roll tightly, then use a chef's nice to slice the roll into these cute little circles.  The skewers serve to pin the meat in place and as handy little handles.  As a bonus, I got to eat the leftovers.  Yum!

Bento (187) - Chicken Apple Skewers

Today's lunch was chicken apple skewers with a side container of watermelon/grape salad and a salted cucumber/pickled garlic and pickled jalapeno vegetable arrangement.  Sadly, I over salted the cucumbers in an attempt to quick pickle them--and so Goose wisely left them mostly untouched.  :P :P :P  For the skewers, I used leftover chicken bits from an earlier dinner (dijon mustard and lime marinated chicken) and an apple pear...but this recipe would work just as well with simple chicken cubes seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and a standard red apple.  I would love to take credit for the pickled garlic (pickled veggie experiments coming soon...woot!), but I confess these were store-bought from the Garlic Festival which (oddly enough) sells their delicious wares at various Renaissance festivals (www.garlicfestival.com).  Om nom nom nom.

Bento (186) - Chicken Zucchini Poppers with Guacamole and Totally Unrelated Smiley Face Pancakes

Today's lunch was chicken zucchini poppers (which are essentially meatballs) with a mandarin orange/blueberry salad and a side of homemade guacamole.  The corn tortilla chips are store bought (a brand called Simply Sprouted sriracha corn tortilla chips).

And just to prove it runs in the family.... Goose was adding banana slices and split cashews to his pancakes this morning and made these cute little guys without any prompting from me at all.  >.<  It's good to know I'm corrupting the next generation.

Bento (185) - Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potato

Day two of the awkward bento box.  Leftovers!  The left is essentially an enchilada recipe: bison (yes I use bison instead of hamburger), onions, garlic, and home-made enchilada sauce over a chopped up sweet potato.  Top right is a mandarin orange and blueberry salad, and lower right is celery with almond butter and raisins (also known as "ants on a log").  Flowers are thin-sliced carrots that I hit with a vegetable cutter.  Goose was skeptical--but eventually announced I finally had found a way to make him eat celery.  :)

Bento (184) - Absolutely Adorable Egg-Salad Sandwiches

Wow.  Who knew my bento page still existed?  :P

Soooo...before I get to posting the yummies, I have to add a little bit of a disclaimer.  I recently enrolled Goose in a tutoring program that recommends temporarily putting your kiddo on an elimination diet (likely to test for allergies).  Why the disclaimer?  I have to cut gluten, dairy, and refined sugar out of Goose's diet (in addition to limiting soy and eggs), which means most of my usual recipes are no longer suitable for this particular nutrition plan.  So, I'm experimenting...and some of these bentos may be lacking in veggies or fruits or carbs.  Hey, I'm working on it!

Day 1:  Absolutely Adorable Egg-Salad Sandwiches (don't judge!  It was right after Easter and we had to do SOMETHING with all those eggs and the rest of the bread).

I ordered some sandwich stampers from J-Box.  Highly, highly recommend.  Very easy to use and made absolutely adorable miniature sandwiches.  Sides are mandarin oranges and an umeboshi plum and carrots, snap peas, and broccoli with a dab of almond butter (like peanut butter, only with almonds).

The program provided a bento box (score!)--which I later decided was very awkward to work with and clean (not so awesome).