The Kid, aka Cheese Lover, aka Cheese-a-tarian, in his recent school project: ‘What would you do with $100?’ he said, “I’d buy cheese.” Good lord. I could think of a lot better things to spend $100 on – but whatever. And this is why he loves this dish. It’s cheese-y with a cheese-y Goldfish cracker topping. Perfect for your big-spending cheese lover.

Goldfish Mac n’ Cheese recipe, here.

I’m telling you the kids LOVE this stuff. It’s sort of ridiculous how much of this they eat. It’s light, tasty and goes great with everything. I like it on it’s own, but the Baby loves it with chicken apple sausage.

My favorite part? There is no red sauce to clean up like with regular spaghetti. You should look under the Baby’s dinner chair. It’s like a massacre under there…

Lemon Spaghetti recipe, here.

Bento making is a dangerous game. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fun – but I won’t do it. No way. No how. Ok. Maybe just a little.

Luckily the Kid likes hard boiled eggs so the $1 I invested in these egg shapers paid off. (Thank you Japanese Dollar Store.) Why would you shape an egg into another shape instead of an….egg? WHY NOT.

Start by boiling your eggs. Put the eggs into an empty pot. Fill (CAREFULLY) with enough water to cover the eggs. Be careful or they might crack, yo.

Add salt if you like.

Put the lid on the pot and bring the pot to a boil. Once the water starts to boil, turn OFF the heat.

Leave the pot (with the lid still on) on the stove for 12 minutes.

Take them out and rinse them under cool water for JUST A MINUTE – but working quickly, shell them. This hurts. Seriously. Burning hot eggs and trying to take the shell off quickly leads to swearing. Your kids should probably leave the room.

Now take the still warm eggs and put them in the shapers, locking the shapers shut.

Place them in a bowl of ice water to cool them down.

The shaping takes a while, I usually put them in the fridge overnight. Once you open the shapers you will have yourself a mightly fine looking egg.

When I was a kid I’d go fishing with my Grandpa- he always used marshmallows and those seemed to be the most effective bait. The strawberry marshmallows reminded me that, then I added pretzel sticks for ‘rods’ to catch the cinnamon graham goldfish cookies. A stretch, I know – but it makes snack time more fun!

ingredients:
1 cup cinnamon graham goldfish
2 ounces of mini strawberry marshmallows
3 ounces of pretzel sticks

yogurt

Mix the ingredients together.

Obviously you can use other flavors, I just liked the colors that this made.

It tastes even better with a yogurt pond as dipping sauce!

Food that looks like something else is fun, but maybe not when it’s snails. I love these faux-cargots cause they crack me up – but the concept of a roll-up or wrap is nothing new. They are perfect for packing in a school lunch and the Kid loves anything in a tortilla!

Faux-cargot recipe, here.

Mochiko chicken is DEELISH. Then again I love mochi, so I like to use mochiko in everything. Soup, cupcakes, waffles, you name it. Mochiko chicken is typical Hawaii meal – I like to add a little garlic to mine and also cut it up into tinier than bite sized pieces. It really marinates full of flavor that way. Like most fried chicken it tastes GREAT cold, so leftovers make a fantastic lunch. Yoda thinks so, anyway.

Mochiko Chicken Recipe, here.

*Part of a series of posts documenting the Kid’s lunch.

Since the Kid has been complaining about the quality of his lunch (read here) I’ve been trying my best to change it up. I’ve been documenting what’s worked with the help of Yoda. Actually I just think it’s funny to take pictures of him lording over meatballs.

Brown Sugar Meatballs recipe, here.

*Part of a series of posts documenting the Kid’s lunch.