Bento Bloggers & Friends Top 13 of 2013

Happy New Year! What a year it has been. This is our second year of blogging our lunches and being a part of a wonderfully talented group of bento bloggers over at Bento Bloggers & Friends. To celebrate the new year we've all compiled our favorite lunches from 2013 and are having a linky party. Once you check out our picks, please click the button and continue the party over at Bento Bloggers & Friends where each thumbnail in the linky will lead to a different blogger's collection of their 13 favorite bentos. The talent in this group is amazing, so to narrow it down to just 13 selections each is a feat all its own. So let the countdown to 2014 begin!

Last year I let the page stats pick our top 12 of 2012, those receiving the most page views according to blogger and repins on pinterest. This year I went through and visually picked my favorites as I scrolled through my board on Pinterest. But picking them is like going through your kids photo albums, while you remember the love that went into the moment some just didn't photograph as well as others, mostly due to me having no idea how to use our camera and poor lighting sources, but I'm learning. So if there are other favorites you've seen this year feel free to show them some love in the comments section. I have added the original post links to the titles so you can click through and read the details of each lunch there. Here in no particular order are my top 13 favorites of 2013.

1. Incredible Hulk 

This was the first time I froze yogurt to send in a lunch and I really liked the grapes.

2. Captain America

This was my first really fancy babybel cheese art

3. Martin Luther King Jr. 

This was the best cheese art of any I've done

 

4. Winnie the Pooh 

New fun cored apple idea

 

5. Mr. Potato Head 

Best attempt to try and get my kid to eat spinach

6. There's a Wocket in My Pocket 

I loved turning a pocket pita into a pocket

7.  Plankton and Squidward

Enjoyed doing someone other than Spongebob and Patrick

 

8. Spock 

Really clean lines on cheese art

 

9. Sulley

First textured sandwich technique

10, Gru

1st time I ever decorated a twinkie or sent one for that matter

11. Berry

First molded cheese in ice tray and loved the layering of the sandwich

12. Plants Vs. Zombies 

Who doesn't love a zombies and I got better with photo editing on Picmonkey

13. Count Dracula

I think the artwork turned out well

So those were my favorites based on visual appeal. I hope next year the creative muse will up the game once more and the monkeys pick some fun themes to challenge me.

I wish all of you a happy healthy 2014! Now click the button and hop through all the Best of 2013 Bloggers & Friends. Thank you to all the readers who have supported us in this fun adventure.

I've also added a new page for 2014. At the top header you will find a blog hop page. A fun place to revisit all the wonderful hops we've participated in.

More Christmas themed Lunches

More lunches from before break. I know Christmas is now over but still wanted to share these from before the break while we're enjoying our down time.

Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 

One of my must-see every year Christmas movies.

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Griswald's House - Provolone cheese on salad 
• Clark Griswald - Italian salami with provolone details
• Trees - Honeydew melon
• Carrots and humus dip with Santa ring

Stockings are stuffed

 In this lunch: In an Easy Lunchbox

• Stocking and Santa  - Ham and cheese
• Peeps Reindeer dessert
• Honeydew melon trees
• Carrots

Christmas themed lunches

These are from the week before Christmas break when school parties were in full prep mode. We had 4 parties between 2 preschools for blue, my lil ones I teach, and the 1st grader....plus teachers, staff and friends. So blogging took a back seat. As I am now comfortably sitting instead of running aorund I'm catching up. Even though the holiday has passed, perhaps some of these will be fun inspirations for next year.

Captain Barnacles 

My little one loves watching the Octonauts so we elfed up one of his favorites

In this lunch: In an Easy Lunchbox

• Elf Barnacles - Cutezcute panda peanutbutter and jelly with green tortilla chip elf hat
• Snowmen wilton cupcake mints
• Yogurt covered raisins for snow
• Carrots with elf ring
• Strawberries with snowflake pick

Jingle Bells 

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Lights and Bells - Ham sandwiches, I really like the way the edges of the ham looked. My son thought the little ones looked like acorns, I thought they looked like lights.
• Red tortilla chips
• Yogurt covered raisins
• Peppermint snowmen candy
• Carrots with elf ring
• Strawberries with Snowman pick

A couple more Merry lunches

I don't always post my lunches because they aren't always as festive as the monkeys boxes. When I do play with my food my students think its the coolest thing ever, and who wouldn't want to amuse a room full of two-year-olds. The second is another of Green monkey's from before break. Perhaps my resolution in the new year will be to blog more and backlog less :).

Oh Christmas Tree 

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Holiday tortilla chips
• Humus with Tree pick
• Edamame and carrots
• Pommegranite with tree pick
• Chopped salad with salami tree

Let it Snow

 

 In this lunch: In an Easy Lunchbox

• Snowflake - Ham sandwich with mini snowflake cut out
• Holiday yogurt covered pretzels
• Cutie orange with Santa cut out
• Gingerbread family cookie and Gingerbread man peep
• Strawberries with snowman pick

Christmas Pizza Pockets

As part of the Immaculate Baking Program I get try try out their new products and see what creative things I can come up with. Recently I had some crescent rolls that needed to get used before expiring and decided to make pizza pockets...and then I decided to see what would happen if I put them in my cookie pan. 1 can made 6 mini pizzas. I layered a piece of crescent dough, a spoonful of pizza sauce, a sprinkle of cheese, and another piece of crescent roll dough. Press the edges to form a seal an cut off excess. They were delicious warm, though the picky kids were not a fan of them cold. So for those who don't mind cold pizza these are great for lunches, if you want it warm it makes a great after school snack or weekend lunch.

 Gingerbread Man

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Gingerbread man and Candy cane mini pizzas
• Gingerbread Cookie family from Pepperidge farms
• Carrots with Tree pick
• Strawberries with gingerbread men cut outs and tree pick

The last 2 never got photographed as they were eaten as an after school snack.  Both preferred warm to cold but my kids are picky, so feel free to do it your own way.

This one I featured as part of a blog hop with my Polar express lunches. If you missed it you can find it here.

Leftover Christmas lunches

As most people will agree things seem to pile up just before the holidays. Our lives are just too busy. So while yes we made our usual amount of lunches, some days I just didn't get around to sharing them on here. So while we have some down time I thought it would be a good time to catch up.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Santa - Ham and cheese with provolone details
• Reindeer - chocolate grahams from Target
• Carrots with Santa ring
• Apple - Ho ho ho

Deck the Halls 

 In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Ornaments - Turkey and cheese 
• Carrots with elf ring
• Grapes and strawberries with elf rings

Happy 30th Anniversary A Christmas Story

One of my favorite movies, a must-see every year, is A Christmas Story. This is the 30th anniversary of its debut back in 1983. If you're going to IMDB me yes it was released in November not December but its always December when we watch it so that's when I think to make a lunch for it.

Fra-Jee-Lay 

It's a major award! It's a Lamp! 

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunchbox

• Fragile; This End Up - Ham sandwich with American cheese leg lamp
• Winter Wheat thins
• Ovaltine - babybel cheese
• The Bumpus's dogs - black grapes
• Christmas Wreath - Gummy on top of strawberries

Last year we paid homage to this fun film too, and I would be remiss not to include them here.

 Flick licking the flag pole outside school for more details click here.

My salad, movie, and Ohh Fudge dessert from last year, for more details click here.

Jolly Holiday a Blog Hop

We had so much fun the first two days of hops Winter Wonderlunch and Season's Eatings, that we are back for day 3 of 4 Bento Bloggers & Friends Holiday blog hops,. The final act will take place this Thursday so be sure to follow the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog.

This week is a collection of Jolly Holiday themes, so click the button at the bottom of this post and keep clicking through all the wonderful lunches until you get back here. After all 'tis the season to be jolly to save a town called Christmas from the Doctors nightmares.

Time of The Doctor

The Doctor Who Christmas special is the end of a prophesy that has described the end of the Doctor's life. Surrounded by Weepings Angels, Cybermen, Silence and of course Daleks. I hope he's ready to run you silly boy, RUN!

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Holiday Dalek - Ham sandwich with red food coloring details, babybel cheese Santa hat
• Christmas Tree Peep with Chocolate Cyberman and Weeping Angel ornaments
• Present under the tree holding ranch dip
• Carrots with jingle bell ring
• The Silence cantaloup, and a sneaky strawberry

 Now hop on over to Bent On Better Lunches and see was she has trimmed up the bento tree.

Season's Eatings A Blog Hop

Nothing says Holidays quite like food, so of course the awesome Bento Bloggers and Friends needed to have a blog hop to celebrate. But let's face it Christmas is all about excess and indulgence...so we're having 4 hops! I thoroughly enjoyed the first hop Winter Wonderlunch and can't wait to see what the other 3 hops have in store. So after you've awakened your inner child please click the button at the bottom to see what Loving Lunches has decked the bento box with this holiday season, and now All Aboard!

The Polar Express 

All aboard! All aboard!
Tickets please, tickets
Well, you coming?

It's a magic carpet on a rail
Never takes a rest
Flying through the mountains and the snow
Ride for free and join the fun
(You can ride for free)
If you just say yes!
Cause that's the way things happen
On the Polar Express
You bet!

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Polar Express - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Snow - Yogurt covered raisins
• Reindeer - Carrots with deco ring
• Santa - Grapes and Strawberries with deco ring

Hot Chocolate

Hot! Hot!
Oh, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
So, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
Yo, we got it!
Hot chocolate!

Here, we've only got one rule:
Never ever let it cool!
Keep it cookin' in the pot,
You've got-
Hot choc-o-lat!

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Santa Mug - Ham and cheese sandwich 
• Hot chocolate - Brownie toffee
• Marshmallows - Yogurt covered raisins
• Carrots
• Strawberries

Believe 

Children, sleeping.
Snow is softly falling.
Dreams are calling,
Like bells in the distance.
We were dreamers,
Not so long ago.
But one by one, we
All had to grow up.

When it seems the magic slipped away...
We find it all again on Christmas Day.

Believe in what your heart is saying,
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
Give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need, if you just believe.

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Santa and Ornament - Pizza Pockets. Crescent rolls from Immaculate Baking with a spoonful of sauce, 1/4 cheese stick, and sprinkle of parmesan cheese inside. Baked in a holiday cookie pan, and decorated with food coloring and candy eyes.
• The North Pole - Pirouette cookie with food coloring stripe
• Wreath - Gummy by Wilton
• Trees - Honeydew melon
• Santa's suspenders and shirt - apple slices
• Featuring my kids gingerbread house they made this past weekend...not sent to school 

  Now off to more edible goodies from Loving Lunch and the other wonderful bloggers sharing the holiday spirit. Keep dreaming of sugar plums until you dance back here. Enjoy!

Funny Christmas Lunches

Last week our Minion Elf on the Shelf hopped  into a couple of our lunches, isn't he sweet. To follow his shenanigans click the tab in the header bar.

Ninja-bread Man 

Can Dave save the presents from the sneaky Gingerbread Ninja?

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Ninja - Ham and Cheese decorated with a little icing
• Dave the minion elf - Milano cookie with candy eyes and icing
• Present - ELB mini dipper with ranch dressing
• Carrots
• Gingerbread men - watermelon
• Strawberry hearts

Oh Christmas Tree

Dave the minion Elf is helping to trim the tree, bento style.

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Christmas Tree - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a little icing
• Present - ELB  mini dipper with a couple chocolate covered Mickey pretzels
• Dave the minion elf - Milano cookie with candy eyes and icing
• Carrots with Tree pick
• Star watermelon
• Heart strawberries

Dave is a whole lot of fun and the monkeys just adore him and his mischief. 

Classic Christmas Movies

Our holiday movie theme continues. The Christmas classics are in full swing on all the family channels, so I thought I'd start with our classic Christmas cookie cutters.

Frosty the Snowman

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Frosty - Ham and provolone
• Snowman marshmallows
• Frosty cheez-its
• Carrots
• Grinch - grapes, marshmallows and strawberries

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer 

In this lunch - In an Easy Lunch Box

• Rudolph - Peanut butter and jelly cut using the foot shape, 1 mickey chocolate covered pretzel cut in half for antlers, 1 red gummy nose, candy eyes
• Chocolate reindeer cookies
• Carrots - reindeer ring
• Grinch - Green grapes, marshmallow, and strawberry hat

The Grinch is not in either of these movies...but some days, some boys, can well, make a bum hum bug out of ya. So I found a creative time out for mommy :)

Frozen

Well its December and that can mean different things to different people, but around here that means counting the days down to Christmas Break...wait no I mean Christmas. Our Elf Dave has returned and is so far being nice, but it won't be long until he gets in trouble. Over the Thanksgiving break we went to see Disney's new movie Frozen. It was adorable, funny, and both monkeys really liked it. Today I sent big green monkey back to school with hiss favorite character from the movie.

Olaf 

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Olaf - Marshmallow snowman with pretzels and food coloring
• Olaf - Scrabble cheez-its
• Flurry - Ham and cheese sandwich
• Frozen Fjord - Vanilla pudding tinted blue
• Carrots for Sven the reindeer
• Apples

We love the holiday movies and this one didn't disappoint. Two thumbs up!

Thankful Lunch Leftover

We are off for Thanksgiving break so I'm not packing lunches this week....yes we still eat but its more grazing when we feel like it. This lonely lunch was left out last week so I thought I could post it today the last day of November before we move into the Christmas season.

Simple Pilgrim 

 

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Pilgrim - Ham and cheese sandwich, candy eyes, peanut nose
• Celery
• Strawberries

Tomorrow our elf arrives and the countdown to Christmas begins. This year I'm moving our elf shenanigans to his own page at the top of the blog. I hope you'll join us for our non-food related silliness.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving with food and family and friends, we sure did. 

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Edible Geekery Hop

Our beloved Doctor Who is celebrating his 50th anniversary today! So how could we not do an edible geekery blog hop to cel-e-brate, it's just not possible. So we all tied our bow ties, and put on our thinking fez's and thought inside the blue box for a lunchy tribute. Time and space is a bit wibbly wobbly but the one constant is, wherever you go you will find a friend of the Doctor. So Allons-y! Geronimo! Basically Run! When you've hopped through all 12 doors you'll wind up right back where you started. Now hop aboard sexy, she's bigger on the inside, so bring all your companions. As for me I'm keeping my eyes turned to the sky looking for the raggedy man in the blue box.

Happy 50th Anniversary Doctor Who!

There was just no way I could squeeze everything I love about Doctor Who into your average lunch, so I had to think outside the box. Since they took over BBC for a week of specials and daily marathons of episodes, I could too. The collage above is a look back at the lunches we've done the past 2 years. For today's special I made 2 tiers of appetizers reflecting on just a few of the iconic Doctor Who foods. Why not? He said so himself he never quite knows what each new regeneration will like or dislike until he tried him on for a little bit.

Top Tier - Desserts 

In this collection : In an Easy Lunch Box

• 9th/10th's Doctor Banana - Always bring one to a party
• 4th Doctor's Jelly Babies - Gummy bears rolled in powdered sugar as they aren't available here
• K-9, TARDIS, Strax, Weeping Angel, Cyberman, and Dalek chocolates
• 11th Doctor's purple coat, Dalek, and TARDIS Jello Jigglers
• Jammy Dodger
• Amy's smiley apple

 Bottom Tier - Finger Foods

In this tier : In an Easy Lunch Box

• 5th Doctor's celery
• 2nd Doctor's recorder - Cheese stick
• Time Lord has 2 hearts - Ham
• The Doctor's Wife - River Song on provolone, and Hello Sweetie in American cheese
• British Flag (obvious)
• 11th Doctor's Stetson
• Young Amelia Pond/11th's Fish fingers and custard
• Oswin/Clara's Maple Leaf cookie

Now let's let my other Whovian companions highlight more about what we love about following a crazy man in a little blue box.  Next stop...Jenn over at Bento For Kidlet...whirrrp...whirrrp...whirrp...

Night of the Doctor

It's the last night before the beloved Doctor returns for his 50th anniversary. Only fitting that the last one be his home, his time and space machine, The TARDIS.

The TARDIS

Spaceship, home, and swimming pool

In this lunch : In an Easy Lunch Box

• Spinach Salad
• TARDIS - Ham and provolone
• 11 Doctors have traveled so far and the 12th is on his way - provolone cheese
• Grapes - red, black, green
• Apples

We also want to congratulate our friends at YUBO on their appearance on Shark Tank on ABC. Tune in  tonight and wish them luck!

 In this lunch : In a YUBO lunch box

• Sharks and hearts - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Swedish fish
• Carrots
• Shark teeth - Apple

 More Fabulous Shark Tank Lunches from my fellow Bento Bloggers & Friends:
Lunchbox Dad

Mamabelly's LunchboxesWith Love

Bent On Better Lunches

Becoming a Bentoholic

I'm sure there are more out there but I want to get this posted before the show starts in 20 min. Good Luck YUBO.

Tune in tomorrow for more Doctor Who 50th Anniversary fun!