Flower Power!

Here is the bento-style lunch for my miss picky to take to school tomorrow morning. I assembled it while cooking supper for the family.

Starting at the lower left corner and going clockwise, this lunch consisted of:

• Dark & light "sunflower" sandwiches (on left side; adapted from The Vegan Lunchbox).
• No-bake "honeybees" (adapted from The Vegan Lunchbox).
• A miniature Babybel mild cheese.
• Sugar snap peas w/poppy seed dressing for dip.
• Grape & mini-marshmallow kebabs.

I've included more "new" items this time than usual, so we'll see how this works out. Wish me luck!

VERDICT: Two thumbs up! She did not like the marshmallows or any grapes they had touched, and said the pineapple did not "go" with the cream cheese very well (though to my palate it was yummy). She said, "it was SOOO fancy!"

DETAILS: The dark "sunflower" is just cream cheese alternating with Nutella spread (a chocolate hazelnut spread, available where they sell peanut butter at most grocery stores). doesn't look very attractive, but it uses Nutella which BunnieB loves...this was an attempt to "trick" her into trying some new foods that she would normally reject (whole-wheat English muffins & sunflower seeds). I toasted the muffin on this "flower," so will be interested to see which she likes better - the toasted or untoasted English muffin. You could easily use any nut butter your kid likes instead of the Nutella, which is pricey. It was marked way down at Harris Teeter this week so I picked up several jars as a treat.

The light "sunflower sandwich" is simply cream cheese on a Thomas' 100% whole wheat English muffin; topped with pieces of a dried pineapple ring for "petals" and raisins & candied sunflower seeds for the "center" of the flower. This concoction is a non-vegan adaptation from a recipe in the book The Vegan Lunchbox.

To the right of the "sunflowers" are "honeybees" made from honey, cocoa, almond butter, and coconut, again from The Vegan Lunchbox (except I used honey instead of the vegan alternative of Agave juice). The last time I made these they were a huge hit with my favorite little picky eater, who hates almond butter, hates coconut, and hates honey. Hah, presentation is everything! The bees' "wings" are blanched, sliced almonds (not salted), which I always have on hand since I love them and put them on everything. These can be found in the bulk section of all the local grocery stores, so if you don't eat them like we do, just buy a small handful. They keep for months in any airtight container.

In the middle of the "honeybees" is a Babyel cheese. This is my first try with this cheese. BunnieB generally does not like cheese, though it once was her favorite food.

On the upper right are plain sugar snap peas. It's a handful of peas from a big bag of frozen ones, nuked 1 minute in a glass bowl and allowed to dry off before putting in the lunch container. The little plastic bear (a "mayonnaise cup" or "dip cup" in bento parlance) holds some poppy seed dressing. Both items are "new" to miss picky, but they tasted good to me so I thought I'd give it a try with her.

Finally, on the lower right are "kebabs" made by sliding grapes and mini-marshmallows onto a decorative toothpick.

The slot on the far right holds a "spork" (combination fork/spoon/knife, available at Footsloggers & Walmart in the camping sections) and extra toothpick "umbrellas." The umbrellas were requested by BunnieB because her friends apparently keep wanting to taste what's in her lunchbox.

My "method" is to mix well-loved, familiar food items with new food items, so that miss picky doesn't immediately reject it with an loud "eeew, what's that!"