Friday, February 22, 2008

Peanut Butter Dumplings


Almost All-American Bento: PB on wheat dumpling sandwiches, mini apple wedges with lemon, grapes, animal crackers, baby carrots. Not pictured is soy milk in a reusable drink container.

I wish the dumpling idea was mine, but let's face it - I am not that creative. I have completely plaigiarized and copied this idea from Lunch Bucket Bento, where she credits a Flickr user for the idea of dumpling sandwiches. I nearly jumped out of my seat because I have one of those little dumpling makers! Peanut butter sandwiches in the shape of dumplings? Brilliant!

I have had this little dumpling/ravioli/mini turnover gadget for as long as I have known my husband (which if you know me is LOOOOONNG time). I have wanted to toss this thing out for as long as I have known him. I don't make raviolis (I don't even like them) and I certainly don't make dumplings because they would never be better than the frozen ones. I tried to make mini apple turnovers, but the filling kept squeezing out and I lost my patience. Yet, my husband has insisted that we keep it the damn gadget. Why not? We have so much other useless clutter in our house, one little ravioli gadget isn't going to make a difference.

Well you can imagine the smug grin on his face when I told him I finally used it and made these adorable peanut butter dumpling sandwiches. He muttered something about spending as much time finding a full-time, high-paying job, but I tuned him out before he could finish....

They were a hit at both the preschool snack table and the "I'm too cool for that" set at the second grade lunch table. My weird kids won't eat jelly, jam, preserves, or any of their fruity, spreadable cousins or counterparts, so pb on wheat bread it was. Boring, but cute. I used a round cookie cutter and then my fancy Pampered Chef Baker's Roller to flatten the bread a little before pressing, which was a preventative measure to avert unnecessary peanut butter hemorrhaging. It worked and all four dumplings remained intact.

The older one insisted that they have the same lunch, so they both got two dumplings, some grapes, some mini apple wedges, baby carrots, and some animal crackers in their little containers. To drink they both got soy milk in reusable drink containers.

Review: 4 thumbs up on the sandwiches, 1 thumb on the rest of the lunch. The small one pointed out that she doesn't like apples until I pointed out that I sprinkled some lemon juice on them, at which point she ran back to her lunchbox and ate them for her snack. Waste: zero!

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