When I say the word "family," what comes to mind? Maybe it's when you got your first glimpse of your wife as she walked down the aisle. Maybe it's the moment your child burst onto the scene and your life changed forever. Maybe it's when you and your siblings secretly spied on your parents while they hurriedly wrapped your presents on Christmas Eve. Or maybe it's one those rare times where you met a new friend for the first time and you instantly started finishing each other's sentences. Which is it for you?

I had an experience recently that reminded me about how that family feel can come in numerous shapes, sizes, forms, and functions. Basically, if you're looking to keep your definition of the term "family" locked in a small box, then you're likely to miss out on some of extremely meaningful relationships. I don't normally write about anything outside of food and family, and while this might seem like it's about travel and cars, I would say this post most assuredly falls smack dab into the family side of things, just not in the traditional sense.

Week 15: Cars: Lightning McQueen and Mater

Week 15: Lightning McQueen and Mater.  I'm not going to lie, this was a tough lunch to make.  The animators at Pixar make McQueen look so so simple and easy, but he is not.  Don't they know that people will be trying to make lunches out of their drawings?  They should really keep us in mind next time they want to make a movie.  Anyway, here is what I did.

I made McQueen out of an egg sheet.  It is a really easy thing to do and I go the idea from another blogger.  Here is the link for the recipe: Egg Sheet.  I made it, then cut it out into his shape.  It is really easy to cut (the actual shape was a little difficult), hopefully my daughter will like it!

If you have any bright ideas for how to do it better, please let me know.  This one took too long, but at least I had fun doing it!  Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter and tell your friends!

Ingredients

2 frozen slices of whole wheat bread

   Yellow, blue, and red food coloring 

1 piece of fresh spinach

2 slices of white cheese

1 slice of cheddar cheese

4 slices black olives

2-3 leaves of iceberg lettuce

1 handful of dried raspberries

4 dried apricots

1 egg sheet, dyed red

Directions

1. Cut Mater out of the slices of bread.  Cut his square eyes and teeth out of white cheese.  use two small rectangle scraps of bread for his rear view mirrors.
2. Trim Lightning McQueen out of the egg sheet using the template as a guide.  Use picture to cut out shapes for the windows, headlights, and mouth.  Cut two lightning bolts, one large and one small, out of cheddar cheese.
3. Place lettuce leaves in the container as the background.  
4. Mix equal parts yellow, blue, and red food coloring in a small bowl to make the color black.  Dip the end of a toothpick in the black coloring and use it to draw the details on McQueen’s car body, eyes, hood decoration, mouth, and lightning bolt.  Use blue food coloring for his eyes.
5. Repeat to decorate Mater’s details on the truck body and eyes.  Write KA-CHOW on the large lightning bolt.
6. Place Mater in the upper right corner and arrange parts as shown in picture.  Put McQueen in the lower part of container and arrange his parts.  In the upper left corner, place dried apricots.  Put large lightning bolt on top.
7. Finish by sprinkling dried raspberries along the bottom of the container.

#lbdbento