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Monday, June 11, 2012

The Very Busy Spider Lunch

Eliana wanted a Very Busy Spider lunch, so last week we made this lunch:
I tried to make it looks as close as I could to the book version :)
A closer view of the spider :)
This lunch looks complicated but it really wasn't that difficult--I promise!  We packed it in an EasyLunchbox :)

In the top left is thinly cut celery with a cute flower pick
In the top right she had a babybel cheese "sun" that Eliana drew a smiley face on :)

I ran across this tutorial on how to make candy spider webs and decided it would work perfect for this lunch! Check out the tutorial and see how Mom Endeavors explains how to make the spider web snacks :) 

I made my spiderweb out of pretzel sticks and melted vanilla candy melts and stuck it in the freezer for a few minutes to get hard.  It actually was super quick and easy and Eliana loved it. She had fun arranging the pretzels with me and of course eating it all :)

The spider is a strawberry body, grape head, confetti eyes (pupils drawn with edible food markers), strawberry mouth and organic fruit leather spider legs.

The fly is a raisin with sliced almonds. (Eliana is not allergic to almonds. She wanted them as the wings, but didn't actually end up eating them lol)

The spider and spiderweb sits ontop of a SunButter and honey sandwich.  

Ever since we found out Eliana is allergic to peanuts, cashews and pistachios I've been looking for peanut free (PF) and nut free (NF) products. It can be overwhelming when looking at every product and double checking there are no peanuts or specific nuts, or any cross contamination issues. It is almost easier to just forget the nuts! We will transition our pantry products to at one point having very little to no nuts.  While Eliana isn't allergic to all nuts there are so many cross contamination issues that it isn't always easy to find something completely PF. Goodness peanuts are in everything! But my girl Keeley sent Eliana and I some samples of peanut free samples (Thank you Keeley!!!!) I was sooo thankful to receive these samples! That made it super easy for us to try out some products and easily see what we like or don't like! Among these peanut free samples was some SunButter!  Eliana is still not keen on it, but I am thankful to try it, and well actually I like it. 

I also am looking for peanut butter substitutes for myself and David too. I'd rather not have peanut butter in the house and so the peanut butter substitutes are good for us all to try.  Right now Eliana doesn't seem to like anything that is similar to a nutbutter consistency, but that could change in the future so I am trying to teach her to keep an open mind while we taste all these new products! :)


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28 comments:

  1. Adorable!! I LOVE your big fruit spider! Thanks for sharing with me & sharing my spider web snack post with all your readers! :)

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    1. Thanks Sara!!! I'm glad I found your tutorial! We will surely be making those spider web snacks again! :)

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  2. The little fly is cracking me up! Love it!

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  3. This is so freakin' cute! :)
    I cannot let Little Miss see it or she'll want it. HAHA

    Did you try the WOWbutter or PEAbutter samples I sent yet?

    (I'm going to sound like an overbearing mother) What brand of candy melts did you use? Many have cross contam warnings, even some brands of food markers. just make sure your checkin' girl ~ would never want anything to happen to your sweet little girl!!

    XO!

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    1. ahhh Keeley. Always keeping me in check. So I went to look at the package and you are right. It says "may contain traces of PB". sigh. I've used this brand forever! And Eliana has always had it. So I know she hasn't had any reactions from it, but it is better to be proactive so now I know! Thanks for the heads up!

      WoWbutter and PEAbutter are next on the list to try! I have been trying about one new thing a day so tomorrow we'll be trying something new ((She wanted the trail mixes/cookies first so we tried them all and loved them all!))

      p.s. you could sooo make this for Little Miss!! ;)

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  4. Charmingly delicious! We're reading Charlotte's Web at our house, so guess what's for lunch?! Thanks for the inspiration! (Of course since I blog for SunButter, I appreciate the sandwich ingredients, too.)

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    1. Thank you Elizabeth! I'm so honored you have the time to comment on my blog!! I hope you had fun with your Charlotte's Web lunch! :)

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    1. Thank you Kathy! :) All credit goes to Mom Mom Endeavors, where I saw the idea for the web :)

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  6. That's so cool! Love the cute little spider. Those webs would be great for Hallowe'en, too!

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    1. Thank you! Yes-- this would be cute for anything spider/Halloween/spider man related!! The options are endless! :)

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  7. I have a child with a peanut allergy...VERY tough! We found out when he was 15 months and he is now almost 7. We LOVE Sunbutter in this house. It is fantastic! By the way...LOVE the web!

    Kira

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    1. Hi Kira! Thanks for the comment! Yes, it def is tough with a peanut allergy! The toughest part is realizing literally *everything* has peanuts in it! So watching out for cross contamination is something to always be aware of.. But one the plus side it has introduced us to many products I would have never tried before! :)

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  8. This is adorable! What a creative lunch! I love your spider!

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  9. I pinned it to make after we read the book. I think I'll just stick to the spider, though. I'm very inept in the kitchen.

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    1. Trust me Miss Courtney, this wasn't too difficult! I'm sure you could do it too! The directions on making the spider web are on the link to Mom Endeavors post-- check it out! It took me less than five minutes and I made a few of them! :)

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  10. Hi there! I love this spider lunch! I love it so much that I featured you in a guest post that I wrote today at Homemakers Challenge! Your lunches are fabulous! Thanks for your blog! I enjoy it! =) - Signed, A Fellow Easy Lunchbox fan!!! http://homemakerschallenge.com/2012/08/08/fun-with-easy-lunch-boxes/

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  11. I LOVE this lunch! Keeping the spiderweb in mind to try in the future!

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  12. What a clever bento! I love the effect of the web, and the fly is just too cute! ^_^

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