Lunches Over the Past Week

This was inspired by the left over rice from our chicken stir fry last week. I love doing the onigiri, I don't have the spice packs like I should but she seems to be ok with just using the soy sauce on it, so you have a bear in the top left corner (eyes and mouth made with black food coloring pen) some apple slices and a rabbit onigiri in the top right and then some animal crackers and fruit snacks. Onigiri, or molded rice, is a great thing to do with left over rice especially if you have fun molds like these! See my other post for more details on this fun idea.

This bento was created by dad! I was grading papers all night and was just plain exhausted so daddy volunteered to do lunches, imagine my surprise when this is what he created. Even punched the sandwich with the bento box! Made a face for it and everything! PB&J with sugar eyes a half a grape and a fruit leather mouth. In the other tier grapes, the remaining fruit leather, and fruit snacks.

 

*The other lunches not posted were simple lunches in her lock and lock box that just had some deli meat, cheese, crackers of some sort and some fruit. I really love the lock and lock system for easy little lunches, and you can almost create your own little healthier versions of a lunchable. For my little two year old on the go this is the perfect lunch for her at daycare to nibble on while she plays.

First attempts at bento

Here is mine and my husbands' first bento inspired lunch, I had an apple and I just had to try the checkered apple. When I first saw a demonstration of this online I literally said out loud, "I don't have time for that, I will never do that, I will never be that extreme." And then what do I do? I make the apple. I just had to try it.

This was a snack for Miss Molly last night before dinner (I think the snack was a little too big though because she didn't eat much of her dinner).

This was her first bento lunch for daycare. I had to tell her daycare provider about the silicone cupcake holders, I don't want them just thrown away! I have a hard time just yet packing picks, but maybe I can work on it at home this summer and feel better about it next year. She also had a PB & J sandwich cut into the shape of hearts, her daycare provider said that she ate at it all day long. I thought I had packed way too much but she came home with very little left. She runs around and plays all day which apparently works up an appetite.

Tonight’s Dinner / Tomorrow’s Lunch

So tonight we had southwestern meatloaf, baked potato, and the BEST salad I have had in a long time. I should probably mention that I don't do all of this stuff on my own. In the last eight months I have found the joy that is Relish a wonderful meal planning site. They provide you with options to pick from every week, and then it will create a PDF file with a categorized shopping list and all the recipes you will need for the week. Sometimes I come up with my own stuff for the night, and sometimes I borrow a recipe here or there from them as a side dish, in tonight's case however it was all Relish.

The salad was a spinach, apple, and golden raisin salad; which in and of itself isn't that unique or different but it was the dressing that made it out of this world. Now the original recipe was WAY too much dressing but it was so good we will surely use it all up in the next week. On a side note something that I am curious about recently is the idea of getting away from as much processed food as possible, I am currently reading Real Food by Nina Planck, as well as I notice it keep coming up in lots of different media (Relish, various Food Network shows). I like the idea that there are things that we have all started buying under a misguided idea of "convenience" when in reality it is really just more expensive and sometimes contain ingredients you can't even pronounce. Why do we really have to buy salad dressing? Or pancake mix, or any of the other things that are "preassembled?" Well now I am just getting off on a tangent but you get my point. I have a Nigella Lawson show on my DVR from months ago because she talks about her own personal recipe for a homemade pancake mix that she always keeps in her pantry. I am thinking, yes, totally why not do that it is way cheaper! Anyway I digress. The key to this dressing I think was it called for a tiny amount of celery salt, yes celery salt in a salad dressing. GENIOUS! Even Molly was happily munching away on her spinach!

Tangy Apple Dressing

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ olive oil

¼ teaspoon celery salt

Pour all ingredients into a little jar (I use leftover baby food containers) and shake vigorously. Use enough to lightly coat salad.

Now I have been looking at these lunches lately that are so fantastic and colorful and look so tasty, they are the bento style lunches for kids. It is Thursday, on Friday Molly takes a little lunch box to daycare. So I thought I would try my hand at a bento inspired lunch for her. Obviously I don't have all the neat little gadgets that are a "prerequisite" the little bento boxes, the seperaters, the mini-cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes and what not, the fun animal tooth picks etc. However I do believe my first attempt was quite good, and we shall see how Molly liked it tomorrow. She has a sandwich, cut with a sandwich cutter that Nana got us. Some blueberries packed with the sandwich. Cheese cut into a flower shape, with some crackers. Carrot coins (cut with ridges on my mandolin) and some Asian dipping sauce (she likes to dip) so I am hoping she will eat these raw carrots due to the dip. She does well with cooked carrots, raw ones not so much yet, and a juice box. Should be good, not that I have a hard time getting her to really eat anything but if I were a kid I would think it was cool. A little mini-adventure to see what mom packed me today. I don't know, maybe I am just a nerd like that!