My Easter Lunch Project 2013

Good morning everyone I hope you are having a wonderful Friday! Guess who found their camera and charged it? I did and its great to have it back, the color is 10 times better and its not as foggy either. This is a simple point and shoot so its not as Fabulous as my dads camera but its been great for 5 years and outlasted the one I bought 2 years ago. To day I will be out all morning so that means another packed Lunch for me YAY! Origionaly I had planned on making this project on Easter Sunday but with the way things are going I may be super busy and unable to do so, but don't worry if I get a chance to make another packed lunch for that day I will be sure to post and make it Really CUTE!... Well within my means that is, after all I have just started the whole packed lunch thing so it will take time to make it perfect. So out of Celebration for the Glorious Holiday here is my Lunch. To start things off let me introduced you to my decked out new Orange Bento Box. This box contains a fork and spoon under the lid for things like yogurt or pasta which I love, especially because I am keen on eating yogurt every day. Any way here you can see I added an Easter Sticker Set that I bought at the arts and crafts store which adds a ton of character to an otherwise boring but convenient box. The foam makes the stickers easier to remove then the regular stickers so I recommend this variety if you plan on   bedazzling any boxes.

This is the Bottom tier to my Lunch inside you will find a medium well NY strip steak that I cooked in the oven because I have no grill or grill pan :( Bummer. Then in the middle I have a spinach and mixed green salad with grape tomatoes and orange bell pepper. On the Left you will find an Italian risotto, most people don't like to make risotto ahead of time because it becomes super thick but there is something about the cold consistency that I love, if you don't like it that way then just substitute it with a pilaf or mashed potatoes to go with the steak.

Since this is a project and one of my cutest lunches so far I wanted to go into more detail about it starting with the salad. Here you see a cute little chick with the pink hat, this is by far my favorite one of the three chicks but it ended up down there because it was the only one short enough to fit but that gave it an extra special backdrop. Now as I said before our greens are spinach and mixed spring greens combo that I got in the grocery store. I then topped it off with 2 ducks and a tulip shaped orange bell pepper that is held up by 6 grape tomatoes. For the eyes I just used a small amount of seaweed.

To the right of the salad you will find the Italian Risotto and the cucumber flower. To make the risotto you will have to sweat the onions until translucent, you can use butter if you want but I prefer the olive oil. Once the onions are translucent then you add the arborio rice and toast it until it starts to make a poping sound that is when you deglaze with wine or chicken stock. Let the liquid reduce down then continue adding stock little at a time, and stir. Add more stock when the pan starts to become dry until the rice is cooked, this allows the starch to develop and create a creamy consistency. Add herbs (preferably fresh but all I had was dry), heavy cream or milk, Parmesan  and butter. As decoration I used a flower cutter to make the cucumber flower then I took the smallest of the three I had and cut little pieces out of the cucumber which I replaced with the orange bell pepper. For the Pink egg pick I used one of the egg stickers and placed a tooth pick on it and some food service wrap for the backing.

The last component of this tier is the steak that I cooked in the oven for 15 minuets at 350 degrees. This steak was marinaded in a small amount of mojo sauce before being placed in a baking pan with onions and the marinade  I then baked it for 15 minuets and let it sit while I finished off the risotto. If a darker color is desired you can either sear it on a hot pan or on the grill before cooking it in the oven. As decoration I added some mini cucumber flowers and topped it off with 2 egg shaped picks made the same way as the pink one above.

For Desert I have apple and Mango Kabobs as well as "Blue" White Chocolate roses. I decided to prop them up so that they would look a little more dimensional but with the extra space they still slid down a lot. I probably should have added an extra Kabob to fill in the gap but I ran out of fruit. :( to make these I used a whole apple and a whole Philipino Mango which were very small, all the scraps I had left over I got to eat for breakfast YUM.

My apple bunnies and Blue Roses were easy to make, all I did to the apple was cut a V shaped line then carefully peeled away the excess skin with a knife. Then I peeled back it ears partially so that they can stay up slightly. With the roses all I did was buy some candy melts and melted it in the microwave for 1 min with 20 second intervals and filled up a chocolate mold. You could also melt white chocolate and tint it with food coloring if desired.

With the Kabobs I couldn't make up my mind on how to do it t first I tried to drizzle it with the remainder of chocolate but the first attempt was too clumpy and the second attempt was too thin so I just skipped it with the kabobs and ate my failure for breakfast. The apples were simply cut rustically with a knife, I did that because uniform cubes would have been plain boring. As for the little ducks I just used a cookie cutter on the mango half then I used the hedge hog method to remove the pieces. Very easy!! My kabob sticks are actually drink stirrers, I have a green butterfly  pink pineapple, blue flamingo, and yellow orb; because the mango and apples are not too delicate I was easily able to push the stirrers through even though it has a round edge instead of a pick. To make sure the ducks don't fall apart make sure you make them a little bit thick or they will break in half. I placed them on the top because they are very moist and like to slip down the plastic while the apples hold them up very well.

Here are 5 reasons I love Easter and my lunch:
1. Easter is the first day of Spring for me, its the day I celebrate the beauty of the season as well as my Catholic heritage.
2. Easter is full of bright and beautiful pastel colors like my little blue roses. Seeing as I am a bright color loving person it fits my personality very well.
3. Easter celebrates a lot of cute little critters ie: Ducks, Bunny's, Chicks, and Lamb.
4. The food during this time taste clean and not to heavy which is great for the early afternoon brunch's.
5. The fifth reason which is the most important is that Easter gives you another excuse to be with family and friends... but mainly family for me, I can celebrate friendship any other weekend.

Well that is my lunch I hope you enjoyed my project and HAPPY EASTER!!