Wednesday - Using Up Those Leftovers!

No time to buy a new light for the hood above the stove (the stovetop is the only place in the kitchen that I have enough light to take a picture of the bentos), so once again I haven't got any pics for today. Plus I cut my finger, due to reduced visibility. Argh!

Yesterday's lunch was pretty much a flop. Let's hope today's goes a little better:

Potato purses. Leftover mashed potatoes, formed into purses by placing a spoonful of mashed potatoes in a small square of plastic wrap, pulling all the corners/edges together, & twisting the plastic wrap until the potatoes compress into a sort of ball. Then leave it in the fridge overnight, & unwrap just before packing. When possible I use food wrap from something we ate at suppertime to cut down on waste.

Round steak on skewers. I salted some leftover round steak strips that I'd cooked & frozen a couple of year or two ago (yes, those vacuum freezer bags make a huge difference!) and then browned them for a minute or two in a few drops of canola oil. After they'd cooled on a paper towel, I threaded some of them in "S" shapes onto little decorative toothpicks; the rest I just cut up into tiny cubes.

Doctored-up, Doctored-Down Ponzu Sauce for dipping steak. Over the weekend, I'd made a dipping sauce for some potstickers by doctoring up some store-bought ponzu sauce (it's basically japanese soy sauce with a citrus-fruit zing) with jarred fresh ginger root & garlic, plus a dash of white pepper. The family had enjoyed it but it was "too lemony" for BunnieB. So I "doctored down" a bit of the leftover ponzu by mixing it with an equal amount of Worcestershire sauce, to make what I hope is a more child-friendly dipping sauce for the steak.

Sugar Snap Peas Glazed w/Doctored-Up Ponzu Sauce & Balsamic Vinegar. While cutting up the steak, etc, I threw some frozen organic sugar snap peas into the hot saute pan, dumped on a few tablespoons of the ginger-garlic ponzu sauce, added a big splash of balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of sugar. Then I let that bubble away into a glaze for the sugar snap peas while I put everything else together. It doesn't look as attractive as I would hope, because the sauce stained the peapods brown, but it's really delicious, and I actually managed not to overcook the peas! Squeezed out a few of the bright green peas onto the glazed peapods in hopes that they would subconsciously convey to miss picky that the vegetables are not "burned" or "rotten."

Julienned Carrots & Jicama. Cut a handful of washed baby carrots into matchstick-sized julienne pieces. Then did the same with a small amount of jicama. Put the orange carrots on end around the outer edge of a silicone muffin cup, and put the creamy-white jicama on end in the center. Very pretty. Thought about including some ranch dip but that's usually a waste. Over the weekend I did some "pre-marketing" by mentioning how lots of people love jicama and eat it like carrots. We'll see....

Applesauce cup. I had planned on include a nice big apple with today's lunch, but discovered that we were out of them (that's rare!). Had to resort to the pre-packaged cup.

Pudding cup. Decided to "go with the flow" and included a pre-packaged pudding cup as dessert. It will overnight in the freezer so it can serve as "ice" for the lunchbox.

Juice box. Once I fell off the re-usable containers wagon, I guess I fell all the way off! Actually, BunnieB forgot her reusable jar at school so I didn't have one. Harris Teeter has finally started carrying "Apple & Eve" organic juices in the little boxes, and they were on sale last week. I don't want to make a habit of it, but it is handy to have a few around for times like this. The juice box, too, will overnight in the freezer so it can serve as "ice" for the lunchbox.

Mommy Gets a "D" on Tuesday

The light is burned out above the stove, and that's the only place in the kitchen that I have enough light to take a picture of the bentos, so I haven't got any pics for yesterday & today.

Tuesday's lunch was pretty much a flop (though not entirely). It contained:

• :) Nutella sandwichettes cut into butterfly, sun, & moon shapes using metal cookie cutters. She loves the Nutella; miss picky will even eat them if I use brown whole-wheat bread on one half of the sandwiches!.
  
• :( Strawberry jam & vegan cream cheese (Tofutti "Better Than Cream Cheese"), also cut into butterfly, sun, & moon shapes. Normally she loves cream cheese & neufchatel cheese. She didn't know that I had used something different this time. So, I'm not sure if what she disliked was in fact the jelly/cream cheese combo as she stated, or if it was actually the Tofutti.
  
• :) No-bake Honeybees (recipe from The Vegan Lunchbox) on a bed of colorful candy-coated sunflower seeds.
• :| A lovely-looking plum with a butterfly cut out of its skin. She said the plum was too sour, but she "ate it anyway because she was starving" due to not liking anything else but the Nutella sandwichettes. Plums are normally one of her favorite fruits.
  
• :( Organic green seedless grapes topped w/carrots & the plum butterfly cut-out. This looked really pretty, with the dark purple-red skin of the plum against the bright orange grapes, with the green grapes underneath. But alas, this too was a flop. I think the "grape taste" she disliked on the carrots was actually some plum juice from the butterfly cut-out, even though I did think to put a small piece of waxed paper between the butterfly and the carrots. Or else I just made the FATAL and WELL-KNOWN MISTAKE of letting different foods contact each other! Also she normally likes green grapes, but these had a dark spot where they'd been plucked off the stem a couple of days ago, so of course miss picky complained that they were "rotten" and didn't eat them . Guess that's "D" in Mommyhood today, for failure to pay attention to details!
• :( Ice water w/a squirt of lemon juice in her reusable aluminum water jug. "Don't ever do that again, Mommy. It was sooooo sour, it made tears in my eyes!" In truth I probably did put in too much lemon juice; I've added a squirt many times at home & she likes it.

Friday Free-for-All

Forgot to snap a picture today. I feel like doo-doo. This Zyrtec allergy medicine makes me feel like a zombie! I wish my health plan would let me get Allegra like I've used successfully for years!

Whining aside, this is what I packed for BunnieB's lunch today. Basically it was a collection of stuff I needed to use up:

• Leftover mashed potatoes, formed into shapes (by pressing into Jello mold and leaving in fridge overnight) [verdict - as with yesterday's potato purses, she loved it].
• Leftover round steak that I'd frozen a while back, cut into small pieces & briefly heated in oil [verdict - loved it].
• Ketchup [verdict - omg, I think she actually used the ketchup! Alert, First use of condiment in lunchbox!].
• The last of the cheese tortellini, uncooked [verdict - loved it, but a whole bentobox cup is more than she has time to eat].
• Organic green seedless grapes & blueberries, on skewers [verdict - liked the grapes, seemed to avoid the blueberries].
• A couple of leftover roasted chickpeas [verdict - hmmm, I'll have to check. She SAID she wouldn't touch these, but I didn't see them in her lunchbox!].
• A mixture of chocolate-covered peanuts, peanut M&M's, and malted milk balls [verdict - a no-brainer].

Taking Chances

I got brave and took not one but two chances today! One was a hit, the other an utter reject (well, rejected by Miss Picky... I actually loved it!). Here was today's menu (clockwise from bottom left):

• Mashed potato "purses" with decorative plastic bento picks.
• An orange kitty-shaped condiment cup of ketchup & mayonnaise, mixed, to serve as a possible dip for the potato purses. Frozen the night before in hopes that the mayo "stink" would be lessened.
  
• A tiny blue condiment cup of Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing.
• A salad of fine-julienned carrots, jicama, and apples.
• Nitrate-free natural ham & calcium-enriched American cheese rollettes.
• Two oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies.

VERDICT:

• Mashed Potato Purses. I was nervous about serving her cold mashed potatoes -- she loves mashed potatoes but tends not to like food she loves to be served in unfamiliar ways. But she loved them! Several were filled with about 1/2 teaspoon of a vegan "cheese fondue" I'd made for dinner the previous night (from The Vegan Lunchbox), which she hadn't liked a whole lot but had eaten ok. She said she liked the plain potato purses and the "stuffed" ones equally well. Now, I made some for myself too, but I just couldn't quite get used to the sensation of eating cold mashed potatoes.
  
• Ketchup/Mayo Mixture. Still a no go on a condiment. Have you ever heard of a kid that doesn't like to dip their food in stuff??? She does at home!
  
• Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. This is her beloved "Eskimo Dressing" (long story) and to my schnaz it smells even sweeter warm than cold, so I thought for sure she'd like it as a dipper. But nope. "Mom, listen to me carefully: do not ever pack me stuff in those cups again. Ever." I'm gonna ignore her though. It's my job.
  
• Carrot/Jicama/Apple Salad. Two thumbs down from Miss Picky, but I loved this! I really didn't know if I would even like it. See Prep Details below for how it's made.
  
• Ham & Cheese Rollettes. Not a favorite, but she ate 'em.
  
• Oatmeal-Chocolate-Chip Cookies. I've yet to make a cookie for her she doesn't like. (I make chocolate oatmeal no-bakes for me, precisely because she doesn't like them! Hee hee hee).
  

PREPARATION DETAILS:

• Mashed Potato Purses. This idea was from another favorite bento blog, I think it was Vegan Lunchbox. Put a handful of leftover mashed potatoes in a square of plastic wrap (I actually used the wrappers for the american cheese, to reduce waste), and twist the plastic wrap to form a ball of potatoes. Borrowing the Japanese idea of putting a flavorful filling inside rice balls, I put a flavorful filling inside a few of the potato balls. For this first attempt, I used some leftover vegan "cheese fondue," which had a nice cheesy, salty flavor and soft orange color that I thought would go well with the potatoes. But you could use anything that your kid might like -- a bit of peanut butter, jelly, yogurt, cheese, cream cheese, an olive, pimento, raisins...
  
• Ketchup/Mayo Mixture. Half ketchup & half lowfat mayo make what is essentially Thousand Island Dressing. I froze this overnight in hopes of the mayo having a less objectionable odor to Miss Picky. But it was still rejected.
  
• Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. Our family favorite is Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing. I use it on everything. My only complaint is that it now comes only in plastic bottles instead of glass. BPA and phthalates in plastic leach more readily into oils (a major component of salad dressing), and plastics don't recycle as fully to their origins as glass does.
  
• Carrot/Jicama/Apple Salad. This was so easy and incredibly delicious! I used my new Kuhn Rikon Quickslice Julienne Mandoline ($15 online) to make thin julienne slices of carrots, jicama, and two little leftover apple wedges that I knew would go brown before they got eaten. Then I poured on a little Paul Newman (Newman's Own) Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and stirred it all up until everything was moist, but not drippy. You don't need a julienne slicer to make this -- you could easily use a grater instead, or slice them thin, or slice them into small matchstick pieces.
  
• Ham & Cheese Rollettes. One slice of ham, one slice of cheese. Roll, cut into thirds, and secure with toothpick or decorative bento pick. I don't bother with mayo or mustard.
  
• Oatmeal-Chocolate-Chip Cookies. This batch was from a boxed mix, but I use fat-free egg substitute instead of whole eggs, and canola oil instead of butter. I also add a tablespoon or so of real vanilla; to me it makes a huge difference in flavor!
  

A Lunch Only Mommy Loved

For such a simple-looking lunch, this actually took me a lot of time to prepare. The menu is as follows (from bottom left, clockwise):

• A California Pluot (plum-apricot cross), very tasty looking.
• Two mini-muffins -- one banana & one "meal muffin."
• A package of "natural" gummi bears with a few peanut M&Ms for color.
• A Thermos of hot mashed potatoes, with a slug of grated cheddar cheese on top.
• An orange kitty-shaped condiment cup of mayonnaise for the mini "sandwiches."
• Mini ham-&-cheese "sandwiches" with grape tomato "bread," held together with toothpicks.
• A blue pig-shaped condiment cup of mustard for the mini "sandwiches."

VERDICT:

• California Pluot. Reportedly it "fell on the floor" so "I couldn't try it." This sounds a lot like what happens when BunnieB "accidentally" drops things on the floor because she doesn't want to eat them. But hey, I wasn't there, I suppose I should give her the benefit of the doubt.... not. This was especially frustrating because the fruit was soooo perfect and it looked sooo delicious... I'd have rather her brought it home untouched so I could have enjoyed tasting it!
  
• Banana muffin. She'd had these recently so I knew she liked them.
  
• "Meal Muffin." As before, she didn't like it and threw it away. I love these though. They are filling and just sweet enough to taste good, without tasting like a "dessert" muffin.
  
• "Natural, Organic" gummi bears. Two thumbs down! She said they were awful. These looked okay but were several years old, so their age may have actually been the problem. Not that I'd be buying these again anyway -- I don't really see the point of buying expensive gummi bears -- it's still junk. She just haranged me into getting these once when we were shopping at Bare Essentials, and it was the only thing they had that appealed to her younger sensibilities.
  
• Peanut M&Ms. Sometimes she likes peanut M&Ms, sometimes she doesn't. Today was a thumbs up.
• Mashed potatoes w/grated cheddar cheese. A major, major hit! "And the cheese all sunk to the bottom and it was all gushy and it was sooo yummy, Mommy!"
  
• Mayonnaise in kitty cup. Once again, the mayo "stunk."
  
• Mini ham-&-cheese "sandwiches" with grape tomato "bread." When she saw these in the lunchbox in the a.m., she exclaimed "you know I hate baby tomatoes!" I explained that they were just for decoration, to make the ham & cheese sandwiches look pretty, and that the seeds had even been removed so that they wouldn't get the ham & cheese "wet" (one of her pet peeves). Alas, to no avail. She said the sandwiches were yucky and she didn't eat them.
• Mustard in pig cup. "What kind of mustard was that, Mommy? It was dis-GUS-ting."

PREPARATION DETAILS:

• California Pluot. Washed, dried, & put in a silicone muffin cup for looks.
  
• Banana & "Meal" muffins. Banana muffin recipe is from some place online, but I substituted 1/2 whole wheat for the white flour. "Meal" muffin is from a non-vegan version of the recipe in The Vegan Lunchbox.
  
• Mashed potatoes w/grated cheddar cheese. Leftover boiled organic, yukon gold potatoes. Added some butter, salt, and milk, and used a flat, slotted spoon to mash them right in the pot. Nuked them with a handful of shredded cheddar cheese the morning I packed the lunch, while the thermos heated up with just-boiled water.
  
• Mini ham-&-cheese "sandwiches" with grape tomato "bread." I borrowed this idea from one of the bento blogs I frequent (I think it was LunchInABox.com, but I'm not sure!). Instead of cutting stacked slices of swiss cheese into little squares, I cut a stack of alternating slices of ham and american cheese into circles that were about the same circumference as the grape tomatoes. Initially I used a seltzer bottle cap but that was tearing up the edges of the ham, so I ended up using the bottle cap as a pattern and cut around it with the tip of a sharp paring knife.

Lovely Leftovers

The leftovers in today's lunch aren't particularly "lovely" to look at; they were just lovely to pack because I had to do the grocery shopping last night so wasn't ready to pack lunch until almost midnight. I had told BunnieB that I would not be packing her lunch tonight, but she begged so sincerely & sweetly that I somehow found the energy to pack it after putting away the groceries.

The menu for today (clockwise from bottom left) is:

• A donut peach & plain blueberries with cute plastic picks.
  
• Pasta salad (left over from supper 2 nights ago)
• Pre-packaged cookie (I didn't buy these; they were a gift)
• 1/4 of a bean & cheese burrito (left over from bento lunch last Friday)
• PB&J mini-sandwiches cut in the shapes of little hearts
• Water (frozen in a new Klean Kanteen 0.3L jar with sippy cup top)

VERDICT:

Donut peach - Yum!

Plain blueberries - She ate them but I think is getting tired of them.

Pasta Salad - Avoided the vegetables in it but otherwise a hit.

Burrito - Still a hit!

Pre-packaged cookie - No brainer.

Water - Two thumbs down -- it didn't stay cold in the Klean Kanteen, and the "sweat" got everything in her backpack wet.

PREPARATION DETAILS:

Donut peach. According to other bento websites, these are popular for bento lunches since they are so small. They are definitely cute! I showed Miss Picky the small bruised area and warned her that it would be mushy so to just cut it out (if she happened to eat that first, the entire peach would have been rejected; if I cut it out in the morning, the exposed flesh would be brown by lunchtime and she'd reject the entire peach!).

Plain blueberries. Carefully selected only firm blueberries. "Mushy" ones are always rejected out of hand.

Pasta salad. Made this for supper 2 nights ago & she liked it (though picked out all semblances of vegetables first). Just boiled Barilla Plus pasta (a fiber- and protein-enriched pasta), rinsed it in cold water, threw in some leftover cut-up tomatoes & garlic, and tossed it all with well-shaken Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.

Burrito. Left over from BunnieB's bento on Friday. I reheated it for about 20 seconds in the microwave, then allowed it to cool on the counter before packing.

PB&J mini-sandwiches. Another idea from The Vegan Lunchbox. I made PB&J sandwiches using are usual peanut butter (Smucker's Natural), whatever jelly I had on hand (All Fruit strawberry), and BunnieB's usual bread (Nature's Own WhiteWheat - she won't eat whole wheat but at least this bread has extra calcium, protein, and fiber). The I cut them into little heart shapes using a metal cookie cutter (50 cents at The Kitchen Collection in Blowing Rock). Had a couple left over so I put them in the freezer for some other time.

Miss Picky won't eat sandwiches that have gotten "wet" which seems to happen easily with WhiteWheat. So I left the packed lunchbox partially open in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately this resulted in the top layer of mini-sandwiches becoming very dry, so I had to throw those away.

Water. Today I am testing out a new purchase: a pink Klean Kanteen stainless steel drinking bottle from Footsloggers (Green Mother Goods also carries Klean Kanteen, but only in plain steel color). I wanted uncoated stainless steel on the inside, since BunnieB drinks a lot of water and I wanted to avoid the potential health hazards of plastic and aluminum bottles.

It's the smallest size Klean Kanteen makes, and it comes with a valved sippy-cup lid. Hopefully other kids won't make fun of her for having a "baby" bottle (it looks odd enough that they might not realize that's what it is).

Filled it with water and froze it overnight; it was already "sweating" heavily when I took it out. We'll have to see if the "sippy cup" top leaks as the ice melts.

Forgot to take a photo of today's lunch before I sealed up the box! The menu for today is:

• Small ham & cheese pizza (made a face w/ham strips & 2 olives for eyes)
• Apple-raisin salad
• Unshelled peanuts
• Newman-O's cookies
• Raspberry juice box
  

VERDICT:

Pizza - two thumbs up. She ate every bite. Good thing I hid the onions & red peppers under the sauce, eh? She didn't notice that it was a face, and said there were no olive "eyes" on it. Could be the olives fell off during the bumps of transport; I put them on after it cooked so the cheese probably didn't stick to them.

Apple-Raisin salad - as predicted, she wouldn't touch it. She says she scraped it out just so it wouldn't "smell." I, however, found to my surprise that it was delicious!

Unshelled peanuts - "don't ever pack those again, Mommy." "Why not, didn't you like them?" "Yes, I like them but they made a HUGE mess, and took too long to eat!" (the class only gets 30 mins for lunch).

Newman-O's - as always, she devoured them.

Raspberry juice - liked it.

PREPARATION DETAILS:

Small ham & cheese pizza (made a face w/ham strips & 2 olives for eyes). Topped a pre-made "personal pizza" size pizza crust with some spaghetti sauce, grated italian cheeses, and deli ham sliced into strips. Use the ham to make "googly-eyes" and a mouth; used a couple of black olive slices to make the irises of the eyes.

Cooked it the night before (425 deg about 10 mins) and let it cool fully on waxed paper before putting it in fridge.

Apple-raisin salad. An experiment that I suspect will fail, but at least I'll have tried to use up the green apples that BunnieB talked me into buying many weeks ago (and then, of course, she wouldn't touch!).

I peeled the green apple and sliced it very thin, then cut the slices in half. Soaked them in water with citrus saver (could use lemon juice) while I made the pizza. Drained the apples, then mixed them in gently a bowl with a handful of raisins, about 1/2 to 1 tsp sugar, and enough mayo to coat everything evenly.

I put a tiny "blue ice" pack right on top of the apple salad in hopes that keep it really cold would help her give it a try. Have discovered that she is really turned off by strong smells, such as sour cream (which she normally loves) that has come to room temp in her lunchbox.

Unshelled peanuts. Packed whole, unshelled peanuts in the same cup with the Newman-O's.

Newman-O's cookies. These are Paul Newman's slightly healthier version of Oreos. Since BunnieB does not like foods to have touched eachother, I wrapped these in a bit of plastic wrap first to ensure the peanuts they were packed with didn't somehow affect the flavor.

Juice. Stuck it in freezer the night before; that way it doubles as a cooling pack. I don't like to pack juice regularly but she didn't bring home her Laken kitty bottle so I couldn't pack fizzy water. She hates milk (the need for calcium is why I use Nature's Own "WhiteWheat" bread for her sandwiches!), and she drinks plain water all day so it's nice to give something different at lunch.

A High Protein Friday

After working a 12-hour day, I didn't have much physical or creative energy for to pack lunch last night. I'm actually quite happy with the end result, though. It's good to know that a relatively healthy & appealing lunch can be thrown together quickly.

There's more highly processed food in this lunch than normal, but at least there's a good amount of calcium, protein, fiber, and some "colored stuff."

With the possible exception of the soup (can't find an ingredient list online and I've already thrown away the container), this lunch is also free of hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors & sweeteners, nitrates, etc. Hmmm...it just occurred to me that maybe the seaweed has some kind of preservatives. I'll have to check!

BunnieB forgot to wash her bento lunchbox last night, so I used the divided glass Corningware containers that I use for myself. As you can see they actually work great; they're just heavy. Wet stuff like yogurt will get over the divider in the middle, so you have to take care what you pack together in the container.

Here is the "menu" for today (clockwise from bottom left):

• Ham & cheese rollettes
• Tofu "bear" faces
• Applesauce
• Chicken & stars soup
• Edamame
• Soy sauce for edamame (in tiny "bear" bottle)
• Mayo for ham & cheese (in orange "kitty" condiment case)

VERDICT:

So-so. Bunnie B said there was not enough food. She liked everything but the tofu bears; unfortunately they disintegrated into a white mush with a few random dots of black (the sesame seeds & seaweed). I don't know if this happened because they weren't packed tightly enough, or if that's just what happens to tofu when it's allowed to come to room temp & gets bumped around. Normally she likes tofu, as long as it's not mixed with anything else.

PREPARATION DETAILS:

Ham & cheese rollettes. Two slices of deli-thin ham w/a slice of cheese inside. Pat the ham dry w/paper towel, lay down one slice of ham, then slice of cheese, then 2nd slice of ham. Roll up, slice into mini-rolls, & thread them onto toothpicks or skewer.

Harris Teeter now carries a nitrate-free, real ham product in the deli case. It's labeled as "natural" and is in a brown box. Usually it's down low where the deli meats are, somewhat out of sight.

Tofu "bear" faces. Slice a block of tofu into about 1/2 to 1-inch thick slices. Then use a rice form, cookie cutter, or sharp paring knife to cut the slices into fun shapes.

The eyes are black sesame seeds (found them at Bare Essentials) and the mouth is a flake of seaweed, though I could have used sesame seeds, a bit of red pepper or pimento, etc. If you want to try seaweed, you can get it in the Asian section of most of the local grocery & health food stores. The kind I'm using is called "nori". It seems to keep forever.

Applesauce. A pre-packaged cup of Harris Teeter's house brand of organic applesauce. We have always used the kind that is just apples, no sugar or artificial sweeteners added. I read labels: it drives me nuts that most of the products labeled "no sugar added " or sugar free" actually contain artificial sweeteners and/or sugar alcohols like xylitol!

By the way, it's obviously less expensive and better for the environment to fill a re-usable container with applesauce. But I must admit that when I'm tired or rushed as I was last night, it's great to have the ready-to-serve cups handy. I'm using them a lot less often though. :)

Chicken & stars soup. It's processed-food-to-the-max and wantonly waste-making with this container of Campbell's Soup-At-Hand chicken & stars soup. But it's about the only soup BunnieB will eat, period. I think it's because the texture is so uniform (Soup At Hand soups are meant to be sipped rather than spooned; they are packed in a heatable container with a small sipping hole in the cap).

Yes, I know it's totally "un-green" to serve this but besides just succumbing to the lure of convenience, I have a long-term ulterior motive; if Miss Picky gets used to having soup, I may soon be able to take soup leftovers and blend them slightly to remove the texture, and sneak it into her lunch!

Edamame. This is just a handful from a bag of frozen edamame (green soybeans). Pretty much every local grocery store carries them, usually in the frozen and/or organic sections. I nuked for 2 minutes, salted, and let cool to room temp before putting in the fridge (that seems to cut down on condensation, which makes things soggy). BunnieB loves it and calls it "sea anemone."

First Blogged Bento (no pic)

Today's lunch was a 98% hit! Two thumbs up, and BunnieB ate every bite except for the condiments.

• Burrito, cut into 3 small pieces. (Fat-free vegetarian refried beans & grated cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla, nuked for about 30 seconds, then allowed to cool before packing).
• Grape "kebobs" (green grapes strung onto toothpicks and bamboo skewers).
• Cherries with some decorative toothpicks added for fun.
• A tiny container of low-fat sour cream for the burrito (this apparently took on too strong a smell after being in the lunch box all day, so miss picky didn't eat it -- even though she loves sour cream normally!).
• A teensy tiny amount of mild salsa in a cute bento "mayonnaise cup." I'd hoped that the cute presentation would entice her to try a taste of salsa but no luck.
• Chocolate-covered peanuts.
• A box of 100% cherry juice (frozen overnight so it helped keep the lunch cool).

I'll try to include photos in the future, as is done by several of the outstanding bento lunchbox blogs that have inspired me. Plus, it'll make it faster for me to throw together a lunch if I can see a picture....

Flower Power!

Here is the bento-style lunch for my miss picky to take to school tomorrow morning. I assembled it while cooking supper for the family.

Starting at the lower left corner and going clockwise, this lunch consisted of:

• Dark & light "sunflower" sandwiches (on left side; adapted from The Vegan Lunchbox).
• No-bake "honeybees" (adapted from The Vegan Lunchbox).
• A miniature Babybel mild cheese.
• Sugar snap peas w/poppy seed dressing for dip.
• Grape & mini-marshmallow kebabs.

I've included more "new" items this time than usual, so we'll see how this works out. Wish me luck!

VERDICT: Two thumbs up! She did not like the marshmallows or any grapes they had touched, and said the pineapple did not "go" with the cream cheese very well (though to my palate it was yummy). She said, "it was SOOO fancy!"

DETAILS: The dark "sunflower" is just cream cheese alternating with Nutella spread (a chocolate hazelnut spread, available where they sell peanut butter at most grocery stores). doesn't look very attractive, but it uses Nutella which BunnieB loves...this was an attempt to "trick" her into trying some new foods that she would normally reject (whole-wheat English muffins & sunflower seeds). I toasted the muffin on this "flower," so will be interested to see which she likes better - the toasted or untoasted English muffin. You could easily use any nut butter your kid likes instead of the Nutella, which is pricey. It was marked way down at Harris Teeter this week so I picked up several jars as a treat.

The light "sunflower sandwich" is simply cream cheese on a Thomas' 100% whole wheat English muffin; topped with pieces of a dried pineapple ring for "petals" and raisins & candied sunflower seeds for the "center" of the flower. This concoction is a non-vegan adaptation from a recipe in the book The Vegan Lunchbox.

To the right of the "sunflowers" are "honeybees" made from honey, cocoa, almond butter, and coconut, again from The Vegan Lunchbox (except I used honey instead of the vegan alternative of Agave juice). The last time I made these they were a huge hit with my favorite little picky eater, who hates almond butter, hates coconut, and hates honey. Hah, presentation is everything! The bees' "wings" are blanched, sliced almonds (not salted), which I always have on hand since I love them and put them on everything. These can be found in the bulk section of all the local grocery stores, so if you don't eat them like we do, just buy a small handful. They keep for months in any airtight container.

In the middle of the "honeybees" is a Babyel cheese. This is my first try with this cheese. BunnieB generally does not like cheese, though it once was her favorite food.

On the upper right are plain sugar snap peas. It's a handful of peas from a big bag of frozen ones, nuked 1 minute in a glass bowl and allowed to dry off before putting in the lunch container. The little plastic bear (a "mayonnaise cup" or "dip cup" in bento parlance) holds some poppy seed dressing. Both items are "new" to miss picky, but they tasted good to me so I thought I'd give it a try with her.

Finally, on the lower right are "kebabs" made by sliding grapes and mini-marshmallows onto a decorative toothpick.

The slot on the far right holds a "spork" (combination fork/spoon/knife, available at Footsloggers & Walmart in the camping sections) and extra toothpick "umbrellas." The umbrellas were requested by BunnieB because her friends apparently keep wanting to taste what's in her lunchbox.

My "method" is to mix well-loved, familiar food items with new food items, so that miss picky doesn't immediately reject it with an loud "eeew, what's that!"

My First Post

Probably no one will ever read this blog except me. And that's okay, because the reason I'm writing it is to keep track of what bento lunches work for my child, in a way that I can access lunch ideas quickly while creating a minimum of clutter (I am an accomplished hoarder and loser of papers!). But just in case some poor reader does get lost in cyberspace and stumble upon this blog, this "first post" gives some background info that might help him/her make sense of what is here.

Before I go on, though, I want to say thank you to the many bento-makers who have created bento blogs, such as Jennifer McCann, "Biggie," and notexactlybento.com; and to the all the "bento community" who so freely share their ideas. Pretty much everything I've prepared, as well as the whole idea of this blog, was taken or adapted from these folks... so I hope that that they all subscribe to the notion that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (which I was always told was a Japanese tradition; if that's true, then it's even more fitting).

What is bento? It's a japanese style of packing beautiful, compact, delicious lunches in a very appealing way. It can be as simple as PB&J with fruit & veggies arranged attractively, or incredibly creative & elaborate (see Cooking Cute for some really impressive examples!)

Why bento? If you've ever spent more than a week packing your child's lunch (or your own), you don't need to ask!

Seriously though, here's how it started for me. At Espresso News/Mosaic Books in Boone, I was skimming through a book, The Vegan Lunchbox, that they had for sale while slurping some of their fabulous home-made soup. I accidentally splattered some of the tomato-based soup onto the book (anyone who knows me knows how embarrassingly frequent an occurence that is!!). Of course I couldn't return The Vegan Lunchbox to the bookshelf knowing I'd damaged it, so I purchased it. Later that night I read most of it.

Now, I'm not vegan (though I was for several years, a long time ago), but The Vegan Lunchbox opened my eyes to the possibilities for preparing nutritious lunches that were so appealing that my child might actually eat them. So that very night, I gave bento lunching a try.

Two weeks later, my child still is getting excited about bringing lunch to school, and more importantly is eating the lunch I packed (of course I'm sure the occasional trade of foods occurs, but at least most of what she's getting is balanced and nutritious!). In fact she has started asking me to pack additional "umbrella" toothpicks because her friends keep wanting to try her food!

I have started packing myself an identical lunch on most days too (ok, so the good chocolate goes in my lunchbox and she gets the Hershey's. But what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?!). Why shouldn't I have fun eating lunch, after all?

I hope I've got the energy to stick with it, because there are a lot of benefits. Here are a few:

• Save money. You rely much less on pre-packaged food, which is good for the pocketbook! Plus you re-use leftovers (in a way that they don't feel like leftovers) rather than having them become science experiments in the fridge while you try to avoid feeling guilty about wasting food.
  
• Reduce waste. You re-use the containers, so it's better for the environment.
• Fun. I know it's hard to believe, but if you're at all creative, it's actually fun to make the meals. And if you're not, there are tons of websites and cookbooks out there that will give you specific how-to's and complete menus to pack.
  
• Nutrition. This was the biggie for me. If you pack the bento box with mostly healthful foods, it's a great way to get in a healthy, filling lunch that is fun to eat. You see, in my neck of the woods, our schools -- as wonderful as they are -- leave much to be desired when it comes to the breakfast and lunch menu. Every meal consists mostly of bland, starchy foods; breaded, animal-based foods (to their credit they now bake more than fry these); and boiled-to-death flavorless vegetables. Lukewarm cole slaw is a staple. Foods laden with ingredients like nitrates and high-fructose corn syrup are served on a daily or near-daily basis. Even the ready-made PB&J sandwiches available every day as an "alternative" to the main meal are something I wouldn't want to feed to my dog (don't believe me? Here's the nutrition info for one). Yes, there is a simple salad bar available each day...and there are exactly 2 kids under age 12 whom I would guess to be likely to use it regularly! I've tried packing lunches for my child, but within 3 days I'm out of ideas and she's sick of alternating ham&cheese with PB&J.
  

How to bento? If you own a shallow-ish food storage container (like Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Corningware, etc), food, basic food prep tools, toothpicks, and muffin pan liners then you've got all the supplies it takes to make a basic bento. It's fun to have the other stuff (cute bento boxes, decorative picks & condiment cups, cookie cutters, etc) but you don't need them.

Is bento a verb, noun, adjective, or what? Heck if I know. I don't speak Japanese...I'm just using it any way it sounds good to me. If you want to comment and let me know, go for it!