Stickers you can EAT! Food Fun.

 

At the Studio City Farmer's Market this weekend, I discovered My Fruity Faces.  My Fruity Faces are fun edible stickers for food.  They are natural, slightly sweet stickers that are OK to eat and dissolve in your mouth.

Adam Gerber, Partner and Kidxecutive showed us these edible stickers.  They are designed to make fruits and vegetables more fun for kids to eat.  When I suggested they would make great cupcake toppers, Adam stopped me and pointed out that their mission was to encourage healthy eating and to help fight childhood obesity.  He then gave my kids a couple of stickers on a cucumber slice.  They ate it up (so to speak!)

You can find My Fruity Faces at http://www.myfruityfaces.com/

Typical Kindergarten Lunch

It's almost the end of Kindergarten and I wanted to show the typical lunch I am making for the girls now.  The meals are bigger, boxes are bigger, and there are less food "pictures" as they get pretty jumbled in the backpacks. 

Their lunches also include a snack - on the side: 1 Frozen Gogurt & 1 canister of water.

 .

These lunches included:

Pepperoni and provolone with lettuce and Miracle Whip on wheat bread - 1/2 Sandwich

1/2 Banana

Broccoli Crowns

Green Pepper Slices

Grapes

Cheddar Goldfish Crackers

Chewy Granola Bar

Raisins

A Mosaic Review of Bento

1. bento, 2. bentoDay2, 3. FishtankBento, 4. RosesInTheGarden, 5. Flowerbox, 6. farmbox, 7. SpookyBatBento, 8. ClownsAreScary, 9. TheVeryHungryBento, 10. Thanksgiving Bento, 11. LoveBento, 12. TwinBento, 13. DinoBento, 14. BENTO 001, 15. BentoStars, 16. PacManBento, 17. bentoFlowers, 18. Bunnies, 19. SpringFlowers, 20. OwlFaceBentoPub, 21. SpongebobSingle, 22. SpongebobSquareLunch, 23. LoveBento, 24. BentoOtheIrish, 25. EagleBento, 26. LoveBugBento, 27. LoveBugBento, 28. TwoButterflies, 29. CatBento, 30. Butterfly Bento, 31. MonstoBox, 32. beegirlbento, 33. PrincessBoxes, 34. HeatWaveBento, 35. LastDayofDaycareRainbowStar, 36. Snail Bento

Barn Cake!

Little friend of food, Naomi turned 4 this week!

I loved the Barn Cake that her Mom and Grandma made.

The Sheep cupcakes went early (young kids are attracted to marshmallows.)

I preferred the ducks.  The coconut feathers and moist cake made a cleveland bar type of flavor was fabulous to taste.

The bakers said they got the recipe and idea from Betty Crocker online, which I did find here.

My only suggestion if you want to try it, is to leave out some of the red food coloring in the barn frosting. Apparently, some red food color has iodine in it which causes a bitter taste, but gives the most vibrant and prettiest results.  There is a no taste food color available, but it may not be very bright red, kosher, or vegetarian.  Check with the ingredients for your needs.

Great job guys, beautiful cake!

Little Lovin Bento

Just a little lovin' for my kindergarten kiddos, inspired by a trip to the local farmer's market.

This box includes:
A collection of small heirloom tomatoes,
fresh strawberries,
frozen green grapes
carrots carved into heart shapes
romaine lettuce
heart shaped PB&J

That's right, this box contains peanut butter!  New school, new rules.  The kids are happy about the change.
Everything in the boxes was eaten except for half of one of the pieces of romaine.

Snail Bento, or Escargo-to

My kid started Kindergarten and already she has come to me with one of those I-knew-the-other-kids-were-going-to-be-a-bad-influence-on-you-questions, "Mom, can you get this thing that is in the grocery store near the salami and it has cheese and crackers and it is in a box..."
"Are you talking about a Lunchable?!"  "Yes!," she says,"Get me that!"
Sigh...

I made snails instead.
May my children forgive me.

These bento include one Turkey and Cheese Sandwich as a snail body
a Vanilla Wafer for a head, detailed with sparkly green icing
Carrot antennae, also detailed with icing
Lettuce as a meadow background
Grapes as the mossy floor
Carrots topped with Raspberries make the mushrooms on which the snail likes to snack

Dough for Playing!

 

When you have kids, there are certain things you can't wait to try.  This project was one I have been waiting to do for 3 years.  We tried an uncooked recipe a while back and now... at last, we made cooked Play Dough from scratch.  Both recipes are listed below.

 

This is the pre-dyed dough.

Add some food coloring to make many variations of color. This is a great project for teaching color mixing.

By the end, many balls of dough were coming out a mossy green.

We experimented mixing decorating sugar into some of the balls of dough.  This looked pretty at first, but after a few hours, the sugar broke down the dough and made a slimy concoction.

The project was fun to make and generated hours of fun after the completed dough was made.  This recipe made a dough that is still perfectly pliable and sculpt-able a week later.

From Creative Kids
Cooked Playdough (flour and salt)
3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp cream of tarter
3 tbsp oil
3 cups water
Dissolve salt in the water.
Pour all ingredients into a large pot.
Stir constantly over medium heat until a ball forms by pulling away from the sides.
Knead the dough mixture until the texture matches playdough (1-2 minutes).
Store in plastic container. Should last for at least 3 months.

NOTE: This recipe is made from edible ingredients and not toxic in small amounts for children. However, a dog got sick after eating a batch of playdough. It is not intended as a food item. Please be sure to put it away after your children have finished playing.

The Uncooked Recipe:

From Master Cook
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Kids

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 c Flour
1 1/2 c Salt
3 tbsp Oil
1 c Water
1 tbsp Food coloring

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. May be seperated into 4 to make 4 different
colors.

Last Day Rainbow Star Lunch

It's the end of an era.  This is the final pre-school lunch for my wee ones, and yes of course I made two.
My twins are soon to go on to kindergarten where who knows what the lunch situation will be. I wanted them to have one last special bento box lunch made with love from Mommy before their next big adventure.
Here is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Seedless Grapes
1/2 Peach
1 Peeled Carrot
1/2 Banana
1 Celery Stalk
1 Turkey, Bacon, and Cheese Sandwich on Wheat, cut into quarters
2 Hand Cut Green Pepper Stars soaked in blue food coloring for extra blue hue

Cat peaking Out of the Bushes (Sounds better than "Cat Box")

Today's feline inspired bento "Cat peaking out of the Bushes" is composed of :
broccoli to create a background and to hold everything in place,
celery and dip,
Laughing Cow cheese wedges for the ears,
hummus in a nice round sealed pack,
crackers, both as the face of the cat and underneath the cheese and broccoli as a base,
tomato slices for the mouth,
shelled edemame for the nose and eyes,
and carrot slivers for the whiskers.
 It's just something joyful for my little kittens.

Heart Box

I could not let a Valentine's Day go by without making a special Heart Box for my babies.
This one features:
Turkey and cheese on wheat bread with heart cut outs and the crusts removed.
Heart shaped strawberries.
Flatbread and creamy wedge cheese slightly mushed into a heart shape.

You can see my other love inspired bento box lunches on this blog, at the following links.

A Little Extra Love
Love Bug Bento
Valentine Lunch, Bento of Love, Heart Shaped Box?

LOVE IT SHOW - SEASON 2 EP #2

Culinary Cuties on Sharon Catherine Blanks "Love It List"
This looks very cool.  Los Angeles based cooking classes for kids.
http://www.culinarycuties.com/