5 Little Pumpkins Bento

5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate, 

The first one said, "oh my, it's getting late"...

I made this fun little lunch for my grandson, who really likes the book, 5 Little Pumpkins. He likes it when I sing the words ( Raffi style) instead of just read them. When I come to the end, he almost always says "More pumpkins, Nanny?"

So of course I had to make him a bento with 5 pumpkins when he came to visit. My son and his family come for Sunday dinner nearly every Sunday, and last Sunday we had Zucchini Lasagna. I didn't think my little bento buddy would be too keen on that for dinner, so he got this bento instead  🙂

It was really easy to make. The most time consuming part was attaching the pumpkin faces with a wet toothpick, but even that was fun to do! Here's how I made it:

1. I used my new LunchBots Duo  bento box, which was the perfect size for my grandson's lunch. To get the sandwich to fit perfectly in the box, I used the box itself, turned upside down, as sort of a cookie cutter to cut the bread so it fit just right in its compartment. This sandwich is turkey and cream cheese, by the way.
2. I quickly added some of his favorite fruits - grapes and blueberries - in some small silicone cups, and speared a few of them with Halloween picks ( he likes to use the picks to spear his food when he eats).
3. I sliced some cheddar cheese and used some of my mini pumpkin cookie cutters to cut out the pumpkins. I used a couple of nori punches and a scrap of a nori sheet to punch out the face details, which I attached with the tip of a wet toothpick.
4. On one of the pumpkins, I used a thin carving knife to cut out some triangle eyes. I soon realized that was going to be waaay too time consuming, so I went with various mini bento cutters and straws for the other eyes and mouth shapes on the 2 large pumpkins. I laid a strip if nori behind the faces of the large pumpkins to make their faces stand out a little more.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• I learned that Bento Buddy does not like nori! He loved the pumpkins, though. He peeled the large strips of nori off the back of the large pumpkins and carefully placed it as far away from himself as he could reach, ha ha!  *Note to self: Keep the nori to a bare minimum in the future*
• Cute food does get eaten! He didn't like the nori, but he loved the pumpkins and he did eat all but one tiny one. Bento wins!
• Picks aren't just for decoration - they make fun forks that encourage kids to eat. I've seen this lots of times with baby tomatoes, lima beans, peas, etc.
• It speeds the lunch prep along to have some mini cookie cutters. They take up very little space in the kitchen, but add so much to a bento!