Beachy Bento 1

I'm experimenting with a beachy theme for HapaBento's B.O.M.B. for June. The beach always makes me think of aquatic life. My son has loved turtle's since day one, so I'm determined to work a sea turtle into the bento. I have a good graphic idea sketched out, but need to go grocery shopping. I didn't have any cuttable food that was big enough and in the right color family. Since, I've never tried to create any sort of animal out of food, I was playing around a bit today. It's definitely going to be a challenge! Tomorrow, I will go to the store to get food for the planned bento.

Here's my first attempt at a food animal:

Sea Turtle Bento

• Purple Potatoes (w/ ground turkey hidden underneath)
• Zucchini turtle
• Carrot stars and Cherry Flowers

Star Fish Bento

• Quinoa Os for "sand"
• Blueberries for"water"
• Nectarine for "starfish"

Senorcito had the Star Fish bento right after I made it. I figured the blueberries and cereal would turn into a blue mess if left to their own devices.

My Inspiration

I love this kid more than words can ever express. The past year has been the best, scariest, most wonderful, frustrating, fantastic year ever! Senorcito fully has my heart. I imagine being a new parent is a challenge for everyone, but it's an even more stressful experience when the most basic of things, namely food, can be a poison for your child. I hate that he has to suffer through all these allergies, but I'm proud to have been able to provide him with so many diverse and healthy foods thus far and I'm happy he so readily eats majority of it. It's been a sacrifice to cut his allergens from my own diet, due to breastfeeding, and a time consuming feat to make our meals, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat for this little guy.

Back to Bentos 3

Last night was a raid the freezer for dinner night. As I was putting the lunchboxes together I was thinking about the fact that the black and white of the noodles and beans would be so much crisper and cleaner if I drained the juice and/or didn't mix them together, but then I realized the bean goo is what makes things taste good (plus it keeps the noodles from drying out). Forget aesthetics, I want bean goo! I also had no clean bento boxes, but had a handy stash of Laptop lunchboxes.

One success of the evening was that I made a fresh batch of pancakes after Senorcito was in bed. The boy and I love our pancakes!

Bento for Bambino:

• Breakfast - Rice-Banana Pancakes and 1/2 of the Apples, Cherries and Plum.
• Lunch - Rice Noodles, Black Beans, Peas
• Snack - Mini Rice-Quinoa-Pumpkin Muffin, Mini Rice-Quinoa-Blueberry Muffin and the second half of the fruit.
  

Breakfast for Me:

• Bananas and Blueberries (I warmed them right before eating. Yum!)
• 1/2 Plum
• Rice-Banana Pancakes plus earth balance and syrup
• Rice Milk (not pictured)
  

Lunch Stuff:

• Baby Romaine Salad w/ Sunflower Seeds and Asian Dressing
• Salmon Patty
• Rice Noodles and Black Beans
• Apple and Cherries
  
  

Back to Bentos 2

I've been seeing purple potatoes all over the bentoscape for awhile now, but hadn't been able to capture a single violet tuber for myself. This week, my cravings were answered by one of my coworkers who happens to have an organic farm. A whole basket of the blue taters arrived at my office and I snatched them up to try at home. We roasted the suckers and Senorcito dove right in. My little food junkie has also started refusing his previous veg favorites like broccoli and yellow squash in favor of new vegetables like sauteed leafy greens. Its so fantastic, but also kind of weirds me out.

I've found the hardest part of making bentos is fitting the food you have to eat into the box. There's always holes to fill and food to shove in that doesn't quite fit. It's a wonderfully frustrating challenge and it's so fufilling when it finally comes together :)


Breakfast:

• Rice-Quinoa-Blueberry Muffins
• Turkey Bacon spirals w/ Apple
• Cherries and Kiwi
  

Lunch:

• Roasted Purple Potatoes
• Baked Chicken w/ a Strawberry
• Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrots
  

Baby Boy's Food for School:

• Breakfast - Banana, Blueberries, Quinoa O's
• Lunch - Baked Chicken, Sauteed Greens and Purple Potatoes
• Snack - Peaches
  
  

Back to Bentos 1

I love looking at other people's bentos online. So many beautiful colors, textures, and shapes masterfully arranged. Unfortunately, I tend to get discouraged with my own creations, but like everything in life, I need to practice in order to improve. So here goes it ...


For breakfast today, I had:

• A homemade Rice-Quinoa-Pumpkin Muffin w/ earth balance spread.
• Turkey Bacon
• Strawberries & Blackberries
• I was supposed to have rice milk to drink, but I forgot! D'oh!

For Lunch:

• Brown Rice
• Carrots & Hummus
• Refried Black Beans
• Plum, Avocado & Okra

If you'd looked in on my lunch today, you would have seen me eating the refried beans w/ chopsticks. Somehow it seemed wrong. Fun, but wrong.

Senorcito's Food for School:

• Breakfast was 2 mini Rice-Quinoa-Blueberry Muffins and a Nectarine.
• Lunch was Brown Rice, Turkey, Avocado, Okra and Carrot Stars.
• Snack was a portion of Golden Apple and Blueberries plus his Quinoa O's.

Dinner made it's way to tomorrow's bentos (already packed!). I've found a new bento sharing blog called What's For Lunch Wednesday :)

Banana Rice Mini Pancakes

These taste like whole-grain pancakes, so unless you're some strange and elusive species of pancake hater, don't be scared of the title. The recipe is super simple and I have whipped up a batch when I was too time crunched to get a traditional dinner on the table before the time of inevitable baby meltdown.


When I learned of my son's allergies to wheat, peanuts, dairy, eggs, and soy I momentarily went into panic at the thought of trying to figure out what to feed both of us. Someone directed me to the book Food Allergy Survival Guide, by Vesanto Melina, Jo Stepaniak, and Dina Aronson. The book is geared towards veganism, but I've found it to be a great resource for wheat-free, dairy-free, egg free baking. Like the independently minded person I am, I always switch up recipes to suite my own needs. I've simplified things quite a bit based on what's in my kitchen right now and what have proven to be "safe" for my son thus far. You'll need:

• 1C uncooked Lundberg Rice (or other trace-safe rice)


• A cheapie electric coffee bean grinder. Just make sure it was never used previously to grind nuts or other allergens. If you're lucky enough to have a fancy flour grinder you can also use that.


• 1 1/2 teaspoon Clabber Girl baking powder (or other gluten-free, nut trace safe b.p.)


• 1 very ripe banana


• 3/4C water


• Bionaturae Olive Oil (or other nut-trace safe oil)

Place 1/2 the uncooked rice in the grinder. Set the settings to the finest grain possible. On my grinder this is "espresso". Run the grinder twice, or until rice is a flour-y texture. Then pour the flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl and repeat grinding instructions for the rest of the rice. In the bowl, combine the flour & baking powder, then mash in the banana. Pour in the water last. Work the ingredients together until you have a somewhat smooth consistency with some small lumps.

Drizzle a pan with the oil. Allow the oil to heat up for a few minutes, then use a large tablespoon to drop batter onto the pan. I use one tablespoon for the kid's pancakes and two tablespoons for mine. Cook a few minutes per side, until light brown. Serve warm with preferred topping. My son likes them plain, but I slather on Earth Balance and syrup. Note: Earth Balance contains soy.

My Jake Dog

Time flys! Life has changed so much. Not too long after my last post, we found out one of our dogs was terminally ill. We had a few last days together before he passed. It's still hard to believe we lost him so quickly and that he's gone forever. I love this guy! I'll never forget my Jake, the sweetest soul ever!