The Secret Life of Pets Snack Bento for Movie Night

Ever wonder what your pets get up to when you’re not at home? This question is answered in the most hilarious way in The Secret Life of Pets, which is available now on Blu-ray and DVD. If you love easy DOG Crafts like us.. read one!

From the humans behind Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets is a comedy about the lives our pets lead after we leave for work or school each day.  The new release features nearly an hour of bonus content, including three hilarious mini-movies: the all-new Norman Television, Weenie and Mower Minions – these fab bonuses were a real hit with the kids!

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We sat down as a family to enjoy The Secret Life of Pets for our most recent family movie night, after preparing a fun themed snack bento with the kids, including our own homemade chocolate crispy cakes inspired by the character Duke from the film.

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Making a special snack together beforehand is a great way to connect with the kids and build some excitement before watching the film as a family The kids loved helping to decide what to put in it and the Duke cakes were definitely their favourite bit! Pretzels and dried fruit made tasty pretend dog food, we added some healthy options including carrots for Snowball the bunny, and of course no movie night is complete without popcorn!

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Snack Bento

Ingredients:

  • 1 Duke chocolate crispy cake (see recipe below)
  • plain popcorn
  • 1 slice of wholemeal bread
  • 1 slice of cheddar cheese
  • butter or margarine
  • pretzels
  • raisins & sultanas
  • raspberries
  • baby carrots

The Bento Box – Method:

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Place a Duke chocolate crispy cake in the lunch box and add some plain popcorn.

For Max – using a cookie cutter, cut dog shapes from the bread. Using the same cutter, cut dog shapes from the slice of cheese. Butter the bread shapes and top with the cheese, then pop on top of the popcorn.

In a separate compartment, place the pretzels and the dried fruit to make pretend dog food.

Finish the bento off with raspberries and baby carrots, decorated with cat and bunny bento picks if you have them.

Duke Chocolate Crispy Cakes

Ingredients:

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  • 150g cooking milk chocolate
  • 3 shredded wheat cereal biscuits
  • edible candy eyeballs
  • giant chocolate buttons
  • Galaxy Minstrels

How to make Duke Cupcakes:

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Break up the milk chocolate and place it in a microwave safe bowl.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring between each one to ensure it melts evenly. Be careful not to overheat or burn the chocolate, heat only until just melted and smooth.

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Crush the shredded wheat into the bowl of chocolate and stir until completely covered.

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Scoop the chocolate mixture into 4-6 silicone cupcake cases. An ice-cream or cupcake scoop will help keep them nicely rounded but an ordinary spoon will also work if you don’t have one.

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Working quickly, decorate each cake with two edible candy eyeballs, two giant chocolate buttons for ears and a Galaxy Minstrel for a nose.

Once all the cakes are decorated, pop them on a plate and place in the fridge for 15 minutes or so until set.

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Aren’t they simply cute!? And the shredded wheat makes it extra healthy!

Remember – the new DVD and Blu-ray are out this week! Watch the trailer below and then grab your copy of The Secret Life of Pets today.

This post is in partnership with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.