Weekly Bento

The girls got to wear costumes to school yesterday and they were thrilled, but it meant that I needed to be extra speedy this morning making lunches. And it was cold, so everyone also needed a hot breakfast (thank goodness for organic oatmeal packets from Costco! I used to make up indivual packets of ready to add water to oatmeal, why did I stop? Might have to do that again when we run out of this box of oatmeal, in something less wasteful than ziplock baggies. How's that for stream of consciousness blogging?)



Anyway, on to the speedy bentos. One thing I was sharing with a mom at co-op is how much less food I use per lunch because so much is divided up between the three girls. So for this lunch I will list out just how much I used:

one carrot, peeled and cut into sticks
2 stalks of celery, cut into fourths and spread with a total of about 2 tbs peanut butter
A few raisins, it looks like 30 to me :)
1 half in thick slick of mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
1 container of vanilla yogurt spooned into 3 cups, with a few bites leftover for me
1 mexican tomato, diced
About a cup and a half of leftover spaghetti, sprinkeld with 3 tbs of parmesan
2 slices of canadian bacon cut up
3 small containers full of maybe 1/4 cup of chex mix
21 candy corns (more about that later)
And in the top of each bento, 1 graham cracker each



Melody devoured every last tomato, most of the yogurt, but didn't really eat much of anything else. They'd had cake and ice cream for snack, and the kid doesn't each much anyway. And her friend shared a bag of chips with her. Oh, and she ate all the chex mix and graham cracker. The cheese was gross because, guess what? Candy corns melt and turn into goo that will spread everywhere. I kinda figured they would in the yogurt, but that is where they should have stayed, or in the top with the grahams! Whoops!

Liberty ate her yogurt and most of her spaghetti, all the chex mix for snack, and the grahams for lunch. She didn't really touch the veggies due to the aforementioned goo.

Ainsley didn't mind the goo and ate most everything.



I packed myself a frozen chicken and rice bowl and a coke zero. That's what happens when the statue of liberty and Alice in Wonderland can't find the appropriate attire on their own!

Again with the bunny boxes, the girls just love these ones. And this was a quick to put together meal, mostly leftovers. I am getting faster every time, it seems. And when I plan ahead, its even quicker!



So each girl had leftover basmati rice in the bottom tier of their bento with a little container of soy sauce, steamed broccoli from the night before, ketchup in the little container, and meatballs from the freezer, from our last batch of meatballs. I just reheated the rice and the meatballs and broccoli in the microwave, super easy!



The top tier of the bento has a little tight-fitting lid, but it wasn't quite tight enough to keep all the juice from the fruit from getting to the graham crackers. Next time, I think I will put a little square of press n' seal over the fruit to help with the soggy crackers! The top tier had a graham cracker broken into squares, dices pears and mandarin oranges, and craisins, raisins, and cheerios. Nobody complained about the soggy crackers, but I noticed when I was eating lunch with the oldest.

For snack, they had spice cake cupcakes in little containers from the dollar tree. I forgot to make frosting the night before, but the spice cake was almost muffin-like and didn't really require the frosting, but it wouldn't have hurt to have an nice fresh cream cheese frosting! They also had juice and water, but I forgot to freeze the juices the night before. You can see that I wasn't quite on top of everything on Wednesday night!



Kevin had leftovers already at work, so he didn't get a bento. I had leftover beef potroast with potatoes and carrots and celery, and a cornbread muffin. It didn't look very appetizing cold, so I didn't take a picture :) But it was delicious! Nothing like potroast on a cold day. We also had our first snow of the season on Wednesday, so Thursday morning it was still quite chilly and there was still snow in the shady spots!

The meatballs are the biggest hit of the lunch once again, and the girls would like to make them again tonight! Next time I should remember the food picks, and a fork for myself :)

This week we had our first real field trip with COVA, our virtual academy, to a pumpkin patch about an hour away. I needed to pack a peanut and tree nut free lunch that would also keep well in the heat. I also had a flat of muffins from Costco that I wanted to use up. I was also running late, so I needed to be quick quick quick! And it was the day before grocery day, so we were low on staples, only two pieces of lunch meat left!



But we were going to the Happy Apple farm, so I knew apples were a necessity. And I used my new corer and slicer from the dollar bin at Target to quickly chop and apple, then I diced it up and put it into a bowl of water with a little lemon juice. While those soaked, I microwaved some chocolate caramel dip. While that cooked I cut two slices about 1/4 inch thick of monterey jack cheese and cubed the slices. I also quartered and cut up a giant chocolate muffin. Then I rolled and sliced the deli meat. Assembled the whole lunch, added a package of Hello Panda Cookies, and we were ready to go. Probably a little heavy on the chocolate, and I should have used a banana muffin instead of chocolate!



For myself, I had all the diced apple that wouldn't fit in their bentos, the last of the cheese, and a few pieces of pepperoni. I had a whole blueberry muffin which I ended up splitting with my friend. I also shared the apples with her kids. Something about walking around a hot pumpkin patch made me really un-hungry, but I still finished off my food.



The girls also had boxed chocolate soy milk, a rare treat! Apparently I was craving chocolate, as I just realized they had 4 different types of chocolate in their lunches! They ate all of their lunches, though my oldest I had to remind to actually eat her meat. Not the most balanced meal I have ever made, but not bad for a quickly-thrown-together-at-the-last-minute-with-no-groceries-or-peanuts meal. They still had protein and fruit, right? And Chocolate is one of the main food groups, I am sure of it!

And tomorrow I should have time to post about today, rather than being a week behind! Its a shocker!

Yesterday I got to try out leftover rice from my brand new rice cooker! I made my first ever batch of fried rice, and it was yummy! Normally I cannot stand fried rice, and I will almost always get steamed rice at a restaurant because fried rice is always too salty and just gross. We had about 2 cups of leftover basmati rice, so I whisked an egg and tossed it into the wok with a tablespoon of olive oil, whisked it to cook it, then threw in the rice and a bit more oil into the wok. I added a tablespoon or so of soy sauce, a dash of ground ginger, a dash of salt and pepper, and a handfull of frozen mixed veggies, and just heated it all up. Yum. The girls each had a bit in their bentos, and all of them ate it and loved it! I had a cup full in my Mr. Bento, and it was hot and tasty at lunch time. I am committed to actually making extra rice at night and making fried rice from leftovers :)



Kevin and I also had leftover homemade sweet and sour chicken with the same mixed veggies, peppers, and pineapple. Oh my goodness, I never realized how easy it is to make sweet and sour sauce! Why did I ever pay for bottled sauce?! Everyone gobbled it up the night before, and so I only had enough for Kevin and myself. I love my Mr. Bento knock-off. Hot food without microwaving it later! I forgot to take a picture but I will next time. I got my knock-off from the Asian market for $20 and it works GREAT! Kevin always puts his lunch in the fridge at work, so its not as big of a deal for him to reheat it later, but there is only one tiny microwave at co-op, and its always busy, so if I don't have to reheat my lunch, I have lots more time to actually eat my lunch. Kev and I also had cheese cubes, a cherry chip cupcake, lil smokies and ritz crackers.



The girls had noodles with parmesan cheese, frozen mixed veggies, lil smokies, ritz crackers, a cherry chip cupcake (leftover from my failed attempt to make cupcakes for Melody's birthday), and cheese cubes. They also had a fruit cup for snack, and mango nectar to drink. They probably could have used a bit more protein, but we were out of tofu. Liberty doesn't like the lil smokies so she wouldn't eat them, but everyone else ate everything. Oh, and Liberty doesn't like mango nectar. I need to get more apple juice from the store, it freezes well and they all like it.



Overall, tasty food, filling, and no real complaints :) Sorry for the not so great photos this week, it was late and I was in a hurry!

And I have rarely had a moment to sit still, much less to edit pictures and update my blog! And I am about to run out the door for a birthday party for my youngest, but I have about 5 seconds to actually write up my blog while I have a print job running, hooray :)




So let's see . . . last week we had bentos in a one tier box from whatever was lying around the house. Some Jonathan apple slices soaked in a bit of lemon juice in water with peanut butter in the little fish containers, tortilla rolls with Neufchâtel cheese and ham slices, ritz crackers, and yogurt covered craisins (in my personal opinion, yuck! way too sweet!) were in the girls' bentos. Melody also had raisins in a little box that I keep refilling from the big bag of organic raisins. They had side containers with pretzels, organic animal crackers, and mini Reese's pieces. Oh, and they had the last of the mini containers of candies from the Asian market.



Everything was gobbled up, and nobody complained about anything this week. Their snacks were a bit too large, and they actually ate them with their lunches. They had large containers of apple juice this week along with their water, and no one finished, partially because the large bottles took too long to defrost, and partially because it was just too much to drink. They worked nicely as icepacks though, and then the girls had leftover juice to drink on the way home. So I am not sure if I will stick with the large bottles, or go back to the tiny ones.



Kevin and I had identical bentos: salami sandwiches, the same pretzel mix and threw in a few craisins into his lunch, and half an apple each that had been dipped in lemon juice. My husband decided the lemon juice was too strong for his taste, but I think it might have been the apple itself that was a bit too tart. We also had diet pepsi because we were out of coke zero, and it just is not the same!



I still have no idea what I am making for lunch this week, but we will have two bentos because we have a field trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday! Maybe I will try to have a cute fall theme for the trip to the pumpkin patch. The bentos have to be peanut and tree-nut product free, which normally isn't a problem, but probably will frustrate me just because I know it is a limitation! Sunbutter is okay though, so I will probably stick with that :)

Well, this was our first lunch of October, and I suppose I should have gone with a more autumn-y theme, but it was a very busy morning, and we barely made it out the door in time as it was! We were having a potluck for the parents at co-op, so I only needed to make four bentos and a blueberry french toast casserole to share for the potluck. The casserole was assembled the night before and left in the fridge overnight, so I just had to pop it into the oven in the morning.



My husband really wanted a sandwich, so he had roast beef and marbled cheddar on wheat, 2 eggs (because I used 12 out of eighteen in the french toast casserole, and hard boiled the rest of the six in the morning!), cheese cubes, and frozen peas. He really, really likes peas, and was quite pleasantly surprised to find them in his lunch last week. I really don't like canned peas a bit, but thought I would try these sweet frozen peas instead. Peas really aren't my favorite still, but these were at least edible!



The girls had mini bagels and Neufchâtel cream cheese, organic cherry granola, vanilla yogurt, frozen peas and lil' smokies, cubed marbled cheddar with a ring shaped food pick, and half a molded hard-boiled egg. Oh, and chocolate Hello Panda cookies for dessert, with mini boxed candies in the skinny top compartment of their bentos. Ainsley and Liberty also had a side container with pretzels for snack, Melody is sharing snack with the class every week.



The press and seal worked well to keep the yogurt in the silicone cups (you can see it in the top left green bento). Everything was gobbled up by the girls and the husband. A few crumbs of granola were left over, and Liberty didn't like her cheese cubes very much. But even the lil' smokies were eaten without ketchup (which I forgot to add!) by all three girls, even though they thought they wouldn't like them!

Yet another successful week of bento for our family. and I pretty sure the girls would be really disappointed if I ever went back to packing lunched the old way!