My bentos haven't had much flourish lately and in large part that's because of THE sickness in the house that won't leave us alone. I get a little stressed trying to put together well organized and decorated lunches when the wee one cries for me, poor baby. So there is some decoration and some planning to these but mostly, they are what I hurriedly put together amidst the cries of Oskar in Norby's arms saying, "mama, please stop what you're doing and come put me to sleep!" Nissa sat, or rather stood, next to me and made a snack bento all on her own which she gobbled up before I finished, funny girl.

So in these matching bentos, the left side has quail eggs, orange slices and a bear faced apple - little bear number one. The right side has two containers of puréed dill cauliflower with carrot flowers, sesame udon noodles with shrimp and a couple of cheesy bear faces, havarti cheese that is - little bears two and three!

After I took the picture, I peeled Nissa's eggs for her per her request. She says they don't have enough time to eat let alone peel eggs. This is true, they have very short lunches indeed. Kind of wish they had enough time to eat their whole lunches and milk. Even if they rush, the girls rarely have time to finish. Conferences are on Wednesday, I could mention something then but for now, I hope they enjoy the three little bears.

These bentos are all about the mini versions of just about everything you see. The top tier has the mini apple pies Norby made with the girls yesterday (Annie is remembering how much she used to like to cook) and super mini oranges. The middle tier has two mini sized servings of mashed cauliflower and soba noodle salad each, one with a tiny quail egg and the other with a carrot leaf. They are each accompanied by a mini sweet pepper stuffed with a chipotle dill ricotta chicken salad. The bottom tier isn't really too mini but the veggie dumplings are rather small as are the carrot leaves. I gave Annie a second mini pepper in her bottom tier, no real reason, I just did. That's it for the minis bentos!

She did it, Nissa got well enough to finally return to school yesterday! She really had me worried there for a little bit. On our way into the building Nissa said, "It feels like the first day of school all over again." Then she saw one of her friends and the two of them grinned the largest grins at each other and just giggled and giggled. It was so nice to see Nissa so happy again. Anyway...

It's bentos for both girls again. I think a lot of the items in here are recognizable but just for the heck of it, I'll explain it all. They both have basically the same items; mini fresh mozzarella balls, dill tomogoyaki (japanese omelet), carrots, sugar snap peas, kiwi and mini orange slices. Annie has the addition of kalamata olives. I also put a princess pick into Nissa's but for some reason I didn't take a picture... my brain is kind of mush after all this sickness. Oh, another little Nissa tidbit, this morning she grabbed her lunch box and looked hard at it and then at me and said hopefully, "did you make me a halloween bento?" She's back!

My niece Ani made all of the creatures you see in Annie's bento (yep, Nissa is still too sick to go to school and, of course, now Oskar has the hacking cough, poor baby) for our Halloween Party last night. She made it a beautifully spooky party and I got to spend the whole day with her. Of course, my house was full of sick people (Norby caught the flu part too) which made it much harder for me to get the halloween happy juices flowing but Ani sure made it happen. With all her super yummy and cool treats, there were even enough left over for an instant and yet one of the best creature bento's Annie has ever had. There is a cinnamon apple jack-o-lantern tart, owl cupcake, meringue ghosts and probably the funniest of all, the mutant frog (candy covered strawberry... hmmm, I never asked what kind of candy... maybe white chocolate died green? I'll have to check). Along with those are a few cheddar bunnies, some orange/yellow tomatoes and the last of the "bat poop" banana bread bites. Annie loved it and gobbled the last of the halloween bento's all up. I think Nissa will be back at school tomorrow, she's getting tired of being at home and misses her friends. If her coughing is under control, then off she'll go (hey, that rhymed, hehe).