"B" happy!

In preschool, the letter of the week is "B" so we did a lunch of all "B" foods...

"Brooke" made with Bread, Berries, Baby chick made with a Boiled egg, Blue cheese dip with Baby carrots

I know that my posts seem to focus only on the little chic's lunches, but I promise that big chic still takes her lunch! She pretty much takes the same lunch as the little chic on Tues and Thursdays and takes leftovers the rest of the time. It works out well and gives me a break from an entire week of fancy lunches. Here's one of her leftover lunches:

Wild Mushroom Quinoa Risotto, Blue jello (leftover from "blue day"), Applesauce, Purple carrots, Cheese stick

See...I'm feeding the big chic lunch...I swear!!

Three Amigos

This lunch didn't start out being faces, but when I put the ham and cheese in the container, they were just begging for a face. I'm gonna tell the big chic that the ham and cheese people are she and her two besties (one's a boy and one's a girl). She'll love that!

Natural applesauce, Whole grain sandwich thin, Frozen green beans, Ham, turkey, and cheese amigos.

Apple Flower Sandwich

Wednesday's Lunch...

Apple and pb flower sandwich, Carrots with peppercorn ranch dip, Honey graham Cliff Z Bar, Fruit bites

I accidentally grabbed a bag of Jazz apples instead of Pink Lady apples the other day and I'm not sure that these will have the same "anti-brown" qualities as the Pink Ladies do (even after tossing in lemon juice). I'm gonna check it in the morning and see what it looks like before sending it off to school. I may have to cut another apple.

It would be kinda pointless to go through all the effort of making a cute lunch if it's not even recognizable after being tossed around by a Kindergartner. This sandwich was a great example of how I "shrink wrap" the lunches with the Press N Seal. I even turned it on it's side so everyone can see how solidly it holds it in place.

Not Quite Goat Cheese Salad

Tomorrow's lunch is a bit of leftovers...

Cranberry pecan salad with honey "goat cheese" dressing, Panko crusted chicken drumstick, Cherry yogurt pretzels, Powerball

I started off with all intentions of making a salad tonight with a honey goat cheese dressing. I even went today and bought more spring mix. But when I came home and started scooping ingredients in the Magic Bullet (which is a blender, btw), I found that my goat cheese smelled a bit off. I'm a little freaky about the whole spoiled food thing. If there's a date on it, by golly it's goin in the trash that day. So, although the goat cheese said it didn't expire until December, I chunked it. I had to come up with a solution quick since almost all the other dressing ingredients were in the Magic Bullet and I wasn't wasting 2 tablespoons of very expensive wild honey that I had already measured out. So, I decided to substitute sour cream since it is similarly tangy. I measured it out, turned the blender on, and crossed my fingers. Although it wasn't as thick and creamy as goat cheese would have made it, the sour cream was a great "in a pinch" substitute.

We came across a sale on organic free range chicken drumsticks last weekend. I usually don't buy drumsticks, but I couldn't tell you why. The chics really loved them. I rolled them in a bit of a mustard concoction and breaded them with panko bread crumbs. Then I baked them on a rack so the whole coating would get crispy. They turned out really well. The little chic even ate two of them.

And to continue yesterday's camera tirade...my cracker submission got rejected on Foodgawker (as usual) due to shadowing. I thought it was a great picture, but what do I know? But it DID get published on Tastespotting! My dad is letting me keep the camera till the weekend so there will be plenty more gratuitous photos I'm sure! Just look at the pecans...oooooh...close up...

Fast Flowers for Friday

Tomorrow is Friday? Wow! This week has gone by so fast! Probably cause we've been super busy this week and today is no exception. I went up to eat lunch with the chic so I brought her Laptop Lunchbox home with me. That way I'd be able to pack tomorrow's lunch a bit early. I only have a few minutes to throw tomorrow's lunch together and get this posted so here goes...

Cheez-Its, Anise and pistachio biscotti, Swiss rose, Apple and peanut butter cut-out sandwich, Raspberries, Carrot ribbons with mini pepper hearts, Wasa crackers, Turkey rose

More Halloween Fun

Well, after all my lunch whining, the field trip was cancelled today due to "flooding concerns". It's kinda funny, though cause although it's been raining A LOT lately, today there isn't a cloud in the sky. Would have been perfect weather for a field trip. They've rescheduled it for Thursday, so I guess I have to make the field trip lunch again. Ugh!

SOOOOO, another field trip lunch Thursday and Student Council Pizza day on Friday means that I had to go crazy with the Halloween theme for tomorrow's lunch. It may be my last Halloween lunch this year!

Jack-o-lantern mini peppers, Celery slices, Honeysweet yellow tomatoes with nori skull and Crossbones, Bat shaped cheese quesadillas, Pumpkin pie flavored yogurt, Apple eyeballs and blood orange slices.

-My friend Amanda got this skull and crossbones punch the other day for her son's lunches. While she was here, I had to go ahead and punch out some nori, for the chic's lunch this week. I thought they would work out pretty good on the tomatoes...I was wrong. I am praying that these stay on the tomato until her lunch tomorrow. Nori does NOT want to stick to the tomato. I don't know why either - it seems to stick on other things like that? Hmmmm??

-Stoneyfield Farms came out with a seasonal flavored yogurt for the fall - Pumpkin Pie! The chics really like it. Hopefully it will stay available through Thanksgiving!

-For the apple eyeballs, I used a small cookie scoop to make a ball from a peeled apple. Then I cut a baby carrot into slices and used a hole punch to make a hole in the center. I cut a chunk out of the apple at the top so the carrot slice could be recessed into the apple. Next, I cut a few dried cranberries in half and placed a half into the middle of each carrot slice.

-Lastly, blood oranges...I love making things with them cause they are so unexpected and really really do look like and orange that is bleeding. They used to be pretty hard to find but now they're available almost all year round. They taste pretty much like a regular orange but are so much more fun!

The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie (and a lunch, too!)

First the lunch, then the brownies...

Snail Sandwich Roll-ups, Babybel Cheese, Baby Carrots, Ultimate Chocolate Brownie, Apple chunks topped with Feed Coconut Cranberry Granola

Snail Roll Ups are just sandwich rolls (in this case goat cheese, red bell pepper, and spinach) stuck onto a pickle spear. I used green toothpicks for the antennae. The chic walked in while I was making them and said, "awwww, how cute" before she said, "Oh, I'm not supposed to see it" and ran out. They ARE cuter in person than in the picture.

Now for the brownies...

Brownies are my weakness. I cannot resist that slightly crunchy crust atop a chewy fudgy center. Mmmmm! I saw a brownie recipe a long while ago that caught my attention just by the mere outrageousness of it. I swore that the next time I was having a serious chocolate craving, I would make them. Time passed and I forgot about the recipe...until last week when I was cleaning up my Internet bookmarks and it came up. I'm supposed to be on a diet which just makes my sweet tooth go into overdrive. I decided that I just had to try them before I forgot about them again.

I have to admit that occasionally I make things that I'm just embarrassed about because they are so blatantly unhealthy. These brownies are one of those things! The hubs came home and asked what kind of brownies they were and I said, "Just eat one and then I'll tell you". Well, around our house you can never tell exactly what that means. I've made the brownies with spinach puree, applesauce, peppermint candies, whole wheat pastry flour, etc...so he was a little apprehensive. He finally made me admit what was in them before he would try one and I had to confess...TWO GIANT MOVIE SIZED SYMPHONY BARS. That's right, movie sized. Symphony bars are those chocolate bars with toffee pieces and nuts. Kinda like a poor man's version of a Toberlone (my other weakness).

So you mix up a box of brownie mix and put it in the pan. Lay the two GIANT sized candy bars on top and then mix up another box of brownie mix. Pour it over the top and bake. I seriously read the directions about ten times cause I was absolutely sure that there was no way THAT much chocolate was supposed to be used. But it was...and ya know what? It was fabulous! You're supposed to wait to cut them till they're cool, but I thought that the hot brownie with the melted chocolate center was just about the most heavenly thing ever. The hubs and I decided that they were so so wrong, yet so so right!

Supposedly you can make them with any GIANT sized candy bars, so I'm thinking Carmello's are next! AFTER my diet!

The Sack Lunch

Tomorrow is the chic's first Field Trip. This means I had to pack a lunch that did not require ice packs and that was completely disposable. I did it, but by no means did I like it. If anything, packing this lunch made me appreciate my Laptop Lunchbox even more. There are such limitations with plastic baggies, and I'm still worried that her sandwich will get smooshed in that bag. I went with the traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and tried to jazz things up as much as I could.

Jack-o-Lantern napkin, carrot sticks inside cucumber rings, pb&j pumpkin sandwich, granola bar, honeycrisp apple.

I kinda feel like I'm letting her down without the usual pomp and circumstance associated with her normal lunch. Hopefully, she will have so much fun on her field trip tomorrow that her lunch will be unimportant. I gotta admit that I'm looking forward to getting back to her Laptop Lunchbox tomorrow!

Almuerzo Rojo (Red Lunch)

When I was in school, we didn't even think about foreign language until high school. Now almost every Kindergarten curriculum has a foreign language incorporated in it somehow. At the chic's school, they start Spanish in Kindergarten. She has the class a few times a week and so far she really likes it. She likes to make-up words sometimes and pretend that she is teaching us Spanish (we haven't told her that mommy took four semesters of Spanish in college ;)) but sometimes the words actually are words she learned in class. Her favorite word so far has been "rojo" which means "red". It was one of the first Spanish words they learned and for some reason it really stuck with her. I thought it would be fun to incorporate her favorite Spanish word into her lunch, so here is her "almuerzo rojo" (red lunch):

Apple shaped peanut butter filled apple, Honey oat flax bread with homemade red raspberry jam, Babybel cheese, Red mini peppers, Red raspberries with provolone "rojo"

And an apple tip-o-the-day for ya...I used to always run a lemon over my cut apples to keep them from browning, but I read somewhere that Pink Lady and Honeycrisp apples hardly brown if exposed to the air. I had to test it out (cause I'm a freaky foodie like that) and I'm pleased to report that they are correct. My apple was just fine even after being left uncovered and untreated overnight. Lucky for us, these are our two favorite apples varieties!

Bread to Bake (and a Snack to Make)...

Tomorrow is Student Council Pizza Day and, as I've said before, I cannot compete with a pizza day. So, no lunch for tomorrow. I did decide to make her a snack since I'm sure there will be no fruits or vegetables on her pizza! This is the snack bento for her pizza Friday:

Edamame, Black olives, Apple bites and pistachios.

I gotta be honest, I didn't mind the lack of lunch-making today. My mind was on bread making instead of lunches. I was waiting on a man with a pan. I learned about Pullman pans last week. Pullman pans are the long lidded loaf pans that make perfectly square loaves of bread with a thinner, softer crust - perfect for sandwiches. In all my years of bread making, how could a Pullman pan have escaped my sight? So I went on a shopping frenzy looking for one and found that they are surprisingly hard to find (and really expensive!). I finally found one on King Arthur Flour's website AND it was on clearance for $19.99. It was meant to be! So, today I learned that the three greatest words are not "I love you" - they are "Out for Delivery" and I stalked the UPS man.

As soon as the thing was in my hand, I whipped up a batch of Whole Wheat Honey Oat Flax bread. This is the bread just before placing the lid on to bake.

And here it is fresh out of the oven:




I can't wait to bake more bread in it. I really like being able to make our own bread, but have never liked the shape of the loaves from a bread machine or a regular loaf pan. Plus I heard that I can make European Black Bread (my absolute favorite bread) in it because the lid keeps black breads from burning during their longer cooking times. I see LOTS of breads in my little foodie's future lunchboxes!

Bananas and Chicken Eggs

I buy bananas every time I go to the grocery store. Even on the little "oops, I forgot (fill in the blank)" trips. It seems like I'm ALWAYS buying bananas. I don't know why...maybe cause they're cheap, or cause they look so yummy next to the boxes of Nilla Wafers, OR cause my chics are begging for yet more bananas. Anyway, the point of this is that we NEVER seem to finish them all before they've gotten too ripe so we ALWAYS have overripe bananas in the house. I usually just throw them out but this weekend, the hubs asked me to make banana nut bread. I subbed whole wheat and flaxseeds for most of the flour and I think they turned out really well!

Multigrain Wasa Crispbread with Apples and Peanut Butter, Cheese and Celery Flowers, Strawberries, Baby Carrots with Blue Cheese Dip, Whole Wheat Banana Flax Muffin, Quail Chicken Eggs

- While perusing food art for my new header, I came across a picture of these little chicken eggs. And although I didn't love it for my header, I did love it for the chic's lunchbox. I couldn't resist trying them out on my smaller quail eggs. So, technically, they're quail chicken eggs. Now, that's a hybrid!

Here's the recipe for my version of banana nut muffins:

Whole Wheat Banana Flax Muffins

(An adapted banana nut muffin recipe from allrecipes.com)

Muffins:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 overripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped walnuts

Topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line mini muffin tin with muffin papers or spray with non-stick spray. Mix together both flours, flaxseed, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nuts. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugars, egg and melted butter. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until combined. banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon into muffin cups until 3/4 full. Mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle over muffins. Bake 10 - 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

New Stuff

I love new stuff. Who doesn't, right? So, the chic's lunch for tomorrow is all about me getting to use some of my new bento accessories.

Shelled Edamame in a NEW Silicone Muffin Cup, a Boiled Egg molded into a bear by my NEW Rice Mold, Hello Panda Cookies from my NEW family sized box, Homemade Honey Oat Flaxseed Bread made from a NEW recipe from my friend Aimee, and Waldorf Salad (okay, so nothing's new in that...but it's still good)

This morning, I finally found the silicone muffin cups I've been looking for! I really didn't need a dozen of them, but I guess there are actually people that use these for cupcakes and they actually need a dozen. Who knew? Technically I didn't have to use a muffin cup for the edamame, but I really wanted to!

I also used my rice mold to make a bear boiled egg. I think it turned out pretty good except for the small tear in it's cheek. You have to peel the things while they're hot, and although I've got pretty heat resistant hands from all the cooking I do, I'm not perfect. Hey, my chic has a dimple so we'll call it a dimpled bear!


The bread is my friend Aimee's recipe. I call her the Earth Mother cause if there is anything you need to know about holistic, organic, natural anything, she's the one to go to. She even inspired me to start making my own yogurt. So she gave me a recipe last week for Honey Oat Flaxseed bread and everyone in my house devoured it. The chic is getting the last of it in her lunch.

The waldorf salad is super easy. You don't even have to measure anything. Just eyeball it according to your tastes. It's apples, carrots, celery, dried cranberries, walnuts, oj, and a bit of mayo. It's really good, and I usually always have the stuff to make it.

The last item in her lunch is gonna win me some big BIG brownie points! Hello Panda cookies are these little cookies filled with chocolate frosting-ish filling. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hello Panda cookies and can usually only find them in individual bags at boba tea places. When we were at the Asian market last week, I found a family sized box for the same price that I pay for a small bag. I hid them, I mean put them, on the top shelf of the pantry hoping, I mean thinking, no one would see them. Well, my oldest busted me and has been begging for them. She loves em too. So when she opens her lunch tomorrow, she is gonna be thrilled! Maybe I can convince her to clean the playroom now?

Alice in Wonderland...

Ya know in Alice in Wonderland where Alice drinks the potion to be really big and then to be really small? Well, that's kinda what I thought about with the lunch today. Kind of a take on disproportionate sizes.

Mini "candy" apples, quail eggs, mini whole wheat blueberry muffin, long beans

During my bento shopping today, I found a couple things that I love. First quail eggs. They taste just like chicken eggs but soooo much cuter. And I found long beans. My daughter LOVES green beans - really really loves them. So much so that for her first Easter, we filled her Easter eggs with green beans cause it was the only thing that we KNEW she would hunt for! So I like the long beans for the novelty of the food she loves in ginormous size.

I also made mini "candy" apples. Melon baller, apple, peanut butter, and nuts. Shove a stick in it and there you have a mini dessert.

My bento shopping today was pretty successful. I found two cute bentos for snacks and maybe a lunch for the three year old. I also found a set of rice molds that I'm hoping to use for eggs and maybe quinoa? I'll have to work on that one! The hubs went with me and even though he complained at first that it was too far away, he ended up saying that it was really a fun day. We had a blast walking around checking out all sorts of things. We went to a little mom and pop type place that carried lots of neat bento items and then on to a huge Asian grocery store. I even found palm sugar which I've been looking for forever (it's in Pad Thai). Here's a picture of my treasures:



Two Bentos (they are the same size, I just opened the one on the right for those of you that wanted to see the inside), rice molds (a bear, a boy, and a girl), two bands to hold the bentos closed (I'm sure there's a name for em but I don't know what it is), and the flatware/chopsticks that fit in the top of the bentos.

Overall, I think that to get some serious bento ware, I'm gonna have to do some online shopping, but will definitely make plans to go to the stores again in the future.

Spaghetti Heads

Since I've started blogging, I've been looking around at some other blogs by moms with bento lunch boxes. It's interesting to see what ideas everyone can come up with. Shannon at http://flytomywindow.blogspot.com/ had the cutest post about Spaghetti Dogs. And though I'm not a fan of the hot dog (traumatic childhood experience), my kids are. I don't buy them very often, so it's really a treat when they get them. Fortunately, hot dogs have come a long way since my childhood and can actually be fairly nutritious.We buy natural hot dogs without nitrates and preservatives. Coleman Natural Beef Hot Dogs are our favorite.

I planned on making the spaghetti dogs as is, but it kinda took off from there. As I was starting to assemble them, I decided that the spaghetti would make super cute hair. So I used the ends of the hot dog and kind of experimented with the amount of spaghetti. (My 3 year old was more than happy to gobble the rejects). I added a cherry tomato slice for the mouth and capers for the eyes and affixed them with tiny pieces of uncooked pasta. The trick to doing the hair is to put a ton of pasta in the spaghetti. I tried a few with less spaghetti and they were fine (see the one on the left) but were better with more (the middle and right). So for her last lunch before the Labor Day weekend, she gets the beloved hot dog.



Tomato Basil Salad with Balsamic and Olive Oil, Whole Wheat Blueberry Almond Muffin, Homemade Applesauce, Spaghetti Heads


Precooked spaghetti heads...these were the "first generation". Add about three times that much spaghetti for best results.

Flip-wich

A few years ago, I bought a Cooking with Kids cookbook. I thought it would be chock full of ideas for cute food for my girls. Instead it was full of recipes using store bought cookie dough and canned foods. Needless to say, I never use it and honestly don't know why I keep it...hmmm...maybe time to clean out the cookbooks??...ANYWAY...in it's entire life in my household, I've made one recipe from it. An inside out sandwich - pretzel rods wrapped with lunch meat. I thought it was a great idea. I was wrong. They were gross and dry and my kids did not like them. I really liked the idea, though, of an inside out sandwich. So, we gave it a try with bread instead of the pretzel and added our own touches, and voila!...the Flip-wich was born.

Peanut butter and apple ladybug (something we made when we were learning about ladybugs in preschool), Strawberry spinach salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, Whole grain Goldfish crackers, Turkey Flip-wich.

Flip-wich

1 slice thick bread, cut into a strip (I used buttermilk sourdough)

1 slice lunch meat (I used turkey)

1 slice cheese (I used provolone)

mustard (you could use mayo or anything else that would make the pieces stick together)

Lettuce, tomato, whatever you like

Lay the turkey on cutting board and spread with a bit of mustard. Top with cheese slice and spread cheese with mustard. Place a piece of lettuce at one end of meat and cheese and top with bread slice. Roll up, slice and lay seam side down in tray.