My name is Sarah, but you can call me Bento Mama! I’m bringing you today’s preschool (and elementary school) lunch all the way from Coquitlam, British Columbia CANADA! Coquitlam is a suburb of the well known Vancouver, and is home to my beautiful family of 6… Well, we’re actually a family of 4, however we have two 13 year old international students living with us on a short homestay program from Guangzhou, China
My son is 4, and my daughter will be 3 in September, and they both attend preschool on the elementary school grounds just at the end of our street. When my kids started at this preschool I gave myself a goal of creating fun and nutritious lunches for them to take to school each day. You can read about some of my adventures in bento making over at More Than Your Average Mom. My kids are in preschool Monday – Friday from about 7:30am – 4:30pm and they eat breakfast, morning snack, and lunch there, all provided by me, and an afternoon snack provided by the preschool. This is a stark contrast to my homestay students who eat FIVE meals a day at, and provided by their school in China which they attend from 9:00am – 9:00pm Monday – Friday.
I try to follow the Canada Food Guide when making my kids lunches, incorporating each of the 5 food groups with a little flair to make it fun for the kids!
Today’s lunch is an Under Sea Adventure! My kids love these Octo-dogs, and homemade cheesy pasta shells are always a hit too. Everyone got a left over homemade biscuit from last nights dinner, as well as some goldfish pretzel crackers to go with the underwater theme. Yogurt, apple slices and a mini cheese will make up the kids snack, and the illusive 6th food group (junk food) is covered with the jelly roll! A well balanced and fun lunch on the menu today!
Here’s today’s lunch rating (according to my kids!)
Food-o-meter: 10/10 (the kids LOVED the jelly rolls and the octo-dogs)
Mouthfuls: LOTS!!
Courses: Breakfast, Snack, and Lunch
Health Rating: 9/10, the jelly roll and lack of veggie brings this one down
Price: Cheap (probably around $2)
Pieces of hair: 0!
Dining time: 28 minutes!! That’s a long time for lunch, but numerous musical interludes of the “slippery fish” song delayed us finishing in a normal amount of time!
A big huge True North thanks to VEG and Daddy VEG for letting me guest post today! I’m absolutely honoured to be able to share my lunches with you, and hope that you’ll take a moment to share a lunch with Mary’s Meals by donating over here. It costs a mere £10.70 or $16.92 Canadian to feed a child for an entire year! I hope you've enjoyed my lunch, as much as I've enjoyed making and sharing it with you!
Bento Mama
aka: More Than Your Average Mom
Great-looking, fun food, Bento Mama! I loved the mention of the "illusive 6th food group", made me giggle :)
ReplyDeleteLove the meal. Great fun as all meals should be for kids. The only thing I question is the adjective 'illusive'. More apt might be 'ubiquitous' or even 'omnipresent'. Sometimes that food group sneaks into being the main meal. We have to be vigilant to keep it in its proper place and perspective. I've eaten hundreds of "dogs' since I got off baby food 60 years ago, but, never had octo-dogs. Now is the time! Will share these with my 2-year-old grandson. Thanks, Bento Mamma! Wonderful.
DeleteBill in Nova Scotia
I love octo-dogs! No matter how old I am and how junk food that is, spaghetti monsters and octo-dogs are my favourite! I could eat it all the time:-)
ReplyDeleteWelcome Coquitlam in Canada and another brilliant post by our lunch time blogger.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a kid, I would be well into eating that - after a little play with the octopus and the other tresures.
Great idea to keep the youngsters interested in food.
This bento lunch theme is so cute!
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the love! My kids adore octodogs and I'm forever jealous! As a vegetarian myself they just don't work the same with veggie dogs. There was definite play happening with the octodogs and goldfish pretzels, however while I believe you need to have respect at the dining table, it's also important to have fun and enjoy your food and the experience that comes with eating it!
ReplyDeleteThe octodogs are a great idea. What do you draw their faces with?
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! Now I have to try my hand at octo-dogs. Did you just use food coloring for the eyes and mouth?
ReplyDelete~Lindsay
I question the monetary reporting of this meal as "cheap." The little cheese balls are about a dollar a piece so can't see how all the rest of it only tallies up to $2. I love those little cheese balls but never buy them because they are too expensive ... And I'm in Canada, too. Like the idea of the lunch though....
ReplyDeleteIs there anything you did special while cooking the hotdogs: did you slice then boil or grill then slice? Thanks
ReplyDeleteTo answer the questions posed above:
ReplyDelete-Joy and Lindsay, I use icing food writers to draw the little faces on. You can get them at most craft type store (and some grocery stores) like Michaels. They're usually found in the cake decorating section.
-Denise, I bought the babybel cheese on sale, they were 15 cheeses (pack of 12 with 3 "free")for $6.00 plus I had a $2.00 off coupon!! :) so that works out to be about 26 cents each. The hotdogs were from a package of 12 (and I only used 2 for this meal as each octo-dog uses a half a hotdog) which was around $3.00. The pasta shells were from a big bag that I got on sale for $1.28 at Superstore (I LOVE Superstore!) The cheese that I used in the pasta sauce was what I like to call bento scraps, whenever I make my bento lunches I save the "scraps" and keep them in the fridge/freezer according to what they are ie: meats, cheeses, bread, etc. and then I use them for other things! I therefor didn't include those in the cost of this lunch because they were technically saved from the garbage disposal! :) I also didn't count the milk, butter and spices that went into the sauce, but there really wasn't much there. I got a package of 6 jelly rolls for $1.00. The bag of gold fish pretzels was also on sale for $1 and there's a LOT of gold fish in there so I didn't really include it in my calculation, and same goes for the biscuit. The ingredients in the biscuit were so few that I really didn't break it down much. The yogurt was left over from 2 McDonalds happy meals that we didn't pay for so they were free, and lastly is the apple. I got a 5lb bag of apples for about $4 so very minimal accounting there as well.
I try to be a very smart shopper, buying in bulk, and on sale when possible. I also try to be a smart chef repurposing leftovers into other meals where possible to try to minimize waste!
Hope that long winded answer helps answer your question!
Tinkey - when making Octo-dogs, you cut a hotdog in half, and then from the cut end, cut about halfway-3/4 of the way down the hotdog, and then either slip a cutting board in between the two halves and tri cut each side to make the tentacles (I know, only 6 legs = not a "real" octopus!) or you can very carefully eyeball and slice down the cut half of the dog until you have all your tentacles. I cook them in boiling water because it's easier, but you can do them on the BBQ too!
Sarah, I was telling a friend of mine who has kids about your octo-dogs and she said "Oh, you mean spider-dogs." What she does is basically the same prep work but cooks them on a stick over a campfire. It shrivels the 'tenticles' and transforms them into what her children say look like spider legs. I guess I lived a deprived childhood.
DeleteBill in Nova Scotia
Ah yes... I discovered spider dogs a while back too however have never made them myself because I am far too creeped out by spiders to even consider feeding them to my children! A friend made them on the BBQ a little while ago and they turned out well! You can also make crab dogs too, but I've yet to attempt them! If I do I'll be sure to post on my blog about them! http://morethanyouraveragemom.blogspot.com
Delete"true north thanks" - is bento mama's family a jet's household?
ReplyDeletelunch looked yummy btw
Tim - It's funny because I was just trying to be Canadian without dropping an 'eh, so I thought "true north" as in the National Anthem was a good comprimise. Hubby was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a Jets fan so that must have been subliminal! :)
Deleteit was subtle, but i got it :-p
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ednwJMW9I
Though the look is great for a children's meal, I'd challenge the health rating. Considering the amount of cheese (noodle sauce and Babybel) and sweetstuff (biscuit, apple and joghurt) the meal has quite some fat and sugar in it. So, in my not so humble opinion, I wouldn't rate it higher than a 7
ReplyDeleteThis meal is so cute! Nice way to keep it creative and fun! BTW check out my blog!
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm very surprised about the prices. Here in Germany these little Babybel cheeses costs for 10 pieces about 1,99 €, that's about 2,55 USD. I think food is very expensive in English speaking countries like GB, USA or even Canada...
ReplyDelete