Best of 2014 - Creative Bento Lunches

As we near the end of the year I have been reflecting back on 2014, as well as preparing for a fantastic 2015 of course! 2014 really was an amazing year for me and for Eats Amazing, with a crazy burst of publicity in April, starting with this article in the Daily Mail, and ending up with my bento lunches being seen on TV, talked about on radio and showcased in newspapers and articles all over the world!

This year I also won a ginormous TV in a creative food competition (which I was delighted to donate to local charity Naomi House), made it to the finals of the Mad Blog Awards, took part in a blogger flash mob, made some lovely new blogging friends and continued to grow the Eats Amazing Shop with some fantastic new lines, being the first UK based shop to stock the gorgeous CuteZCute range, introducing my favourite Yumboxes and of course re-launching the new and improved shop last month. Finally I set up the Eats Amazing Lunch Packing Community over on Facebook - if you're not a part of it already do join us there!

In the midst of all this I have been making creative lunches daily for Small Child (around 175 this year!) and sharing most of them with you here on the blog, along with plenty of creative food ideas and family friendly recipes.  Small Child also made a few lunches of his own, and even Mr Amazing managed to make one this year! For today's post I've pulled together my very favourite lunches from 2014 - here's to many more in 2015!

14. Bee Themed Bento - this was really simple but I loved how it turned out - check out the blog post for this lunch to see the matching muffin tin meal that I made for Small Baby!

13. Flower Power Lunch - Who says boys can't enjoy flowers too? For full details of this lunch see the blog post here.

12. Gunpowder Plot Bento - I was really pleased with the new way I thought up to decorate a simple sandwich this year - simply top with a piece of tortilla wrap cut to the same size and shape as the sandwich below and doodle with edible marker pens! This rather wonky sketch of the Houses of Parliament was made for bonfire night, in celebration of the thwarting of the gunpowder plot.  You can see full details here.

11. Tortoise Lunch -Another simple but effective lunch, I loved how this tortoise themed lunch for World Turtle Day came out! You can find the blog post with full details here.

10. Zoo Lunch - I was asked to make a lunch to take with me to an interview on BBC Radio Solent - the presenter had to guess why I was there, no easy task! This was the lunch that I made for the occasion, see the blog post here for more details.

9. Ocean Themed Leftovers - For this lunch, I wanted to use up some giant couscous that we had left over, and I thought it looked a little like ocean pebbles or sand.  I thought that the resulting ocean themed lunch looked really pretty! You can see full details in the blog post here.

8. Mad Scientist Lunch - Small Child had a science day at school, to which he went dressed as a mad scientist, purple wig and all! For full details of this lunch and to see my little mad scientist visit the blog post here.

7. Gruffalo Lunch - This lunch was made for the day when Small Child had a trip to the theatre to see The Gruffalo and I was really pleased with how it came out! From the terrible teeth to the purple prickles, this one was all about the little details! You can read about it here.

6. Simple Spider Lunch - I had to include one of my Halloween lunches, I had so much fun with them this year! This spider lunch was very easy to make but I thought it looked great. You can find all the details here.

5. Snowman Bento - This is one of my most recent lunches, my favourite of this year's Christmas themed bento lunches. You can read all about it here.

4. Rocket Sandwich Lunch - another of my lunches to celebrate bonfire night this year, I was so pleased with how the rocket sandwiches turned out! Small Child said that this was his favourite lunch this year - he loved the rocket sandwiches but most of all the 'sparkly firework'! You can see full details including instructions for making the rocket sandwiches here.

3. Hairy Maclary Book Themed Lunch - This was one of a series of book themed lunches that I made to celebrate World Book Day this year. There wasn't a lot to this lunch but I was so pleased with how my Hairy Maclary sketch turned out on the quesadilla! You can find out more details on the blog post here.

2. Star Themed Bento - This bento lunch was based on one by my blogging friend Wendy from Wendolonia, in her fantastic book Everyday Bento which was released earlier this year. Although it was based on a lunch from the book, I put my own slant on it and was so pleased with how it turned out! For full details of this lunch, the lunch it was based on and my book review see the blog post here.

1. Harry Potter Themed Lunch - Finally, my favourite lunch from this year had to be my Harry Potter themed lunch! I had a lot of fun creating it and Small Child loved it! For full details of this lunch plus instructions for making several different Harry Potter themed foods see the blog post here.

I had a lot of fun looking over my pictures from this year and choosing my favourites - hopefully you've enjoyed them as much as I have. Most of all I hope that Small Child enjoyed eating them as much as I enjoyed making them.  I hope you had a great 2014 too, here's to a fantastic 2015 for all of us!

From Eats Amazing, I'd like to wish you all a very happy New Year filled with creativity and joy!

Grace

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