When my blogging friend Beau from Lunchbox Dad mentioned that World Turtle Day was coming up this week (it's today), I just had to make a lunch for the occasion! I was going to make a turtle lunch but once I started making it I realised that it looked more like a tortoise. That's OK though, because World Turtle Day was created help people celebrate and protect both turtles and tortoises!
Growing up, we always had pet tortoises in our garden, the last of which, Terry, died of old age two years ago. He was very, very old when we got him, and he lived out the last of his days charging round my parent's garden and driving my poor Mum mad by eating her nasturtiums! He was super speedy too - I never understood the idea the tortoises are supposed to be slow and plodding, Terry used to whizz around at a speed you wouldn't believe! Small Child was very fond of Terry the Tortoise, here he is as a toddler with his tortoise friend.
Today is also Fun Food Friday! Thank you if you linked up last week, there were lots of brilliant posts linked up. Once again I’m slightly behind this week, but I do my best to comment on and tweet every post that’s linked up, and I pin them all to my special Fun Food Friday Pinterest board too. If you’ve been making any fun food recently, whether it be lovely lunches, creative cakes, or a recipe you’ve blogged, please do join in the link up below and share the inspiration around!
In his tortoise lunch Small Child had a wholemeal pitta pocket, toasted, split and filled with a little mayo, lettuce, and roast beef slices, then arranged to look like a tortoise (see more details below). On the side he had carrot sticks, cucumber slices (with little bites taken from them using a mini hand shaped cutter), a kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced, and a couple of strawberries. I finished the lunch off by decorating it with clover picks, leaf picks and alphabet picks spelling out the word 'TORTOISE', and also added a reusable food pouch filled with organic strawberry yoghurt to his lunch bag.
The pitta tortoise was easy to make - I just cut the pitta up into two 'pockets' with a strip in the middle (see photo below), rounded the strip off with a mini bento cutter to make the head, then drew a quick criss-cross pattern with edible marker pen for the shell.
I filled the pitta, then assembled it into a tortoise shape, popping the head strip between the two pieces of 'shell', adding pieces of carrot for the legs, and drawing a little face on with edible marker pens. I thought he was very cute, I don't think I could have eaten him!
Small Child had no such reservations however, he ate the lot, apart from a couple of pieces of cucumber that he ate on the way home from school. He said he really enjoyed this lunch, especially the tortoise!
Now it’s your turn, what fun food have you been making recently? Please link up your foodie posts below and share the inspiration around. You can also link up Instagram, Facebook or Twitter pictures if you don’t have a blog of your own.
A few quick reminders before you link up; please visit some of the other blogs that have linked up and leave them a comment – we all love comments! If you are linking up from your blog, please grab the button below too, and put it either in your blog post or somewhere on your blog. Both old and new posts are very welcome, and do feel free to link up several posts if you’d like.
Thank you in advance for linking up, I hope you find some fun inspiration!
dosirakbento says
very cute! (lunch and small child :-))
Grace says
Thank you!
Jackie Loving Lunches says
Cute tortoise! Thanks for hosting 🙂
Grace says
Thank you, and thanks for linking up!
Kathy says
I loved reading about Terry and your lunch is adorable! Thanks for hosting.
Grace says
Thank you! Thank you for linking up too 🙂
Rina @ Bento School Lunches says
Super cute tortoise lunch and the picture of small child with Terry is adorable!:)
Grace says
Thank you! 🙂
Donna says
I really need some edible pens in my life! x
Grace says
They are one of my favourite tools - whoever invented them was a genius!
thebeesleybuzz says
I love that tortoise pitta! There is something really special about turtles and tortoises. I remember when i was little my mum 'found' one in our garden and decided to keep it. A few days later the neighbours knocked at the door asking if we'd seen a tortoise so we had to give it back. x
Grace says
Thank you! Our tortoise often used to wander off, it wasn't ours was it?! Ha ha! When we moved to the house where my parents still live now, he was an absolute menace! It took ages and a lot of money and effort to completely tortoise-proof the garden, he kept finding ways around whatever barriers we put up!