40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Box 11

I had some leeks and potatoes that needed to be used up, so I made one of my favorite new creations: potato leek soup. Besides the soup being extra tasty, I keep the extra leek broth to use for cooking things like brown rice or quinoa later. Yum! The kid doesn't like anything pureed so happily I get all the soup for myself. 

Half Organic Gala Apple, Clementine

Chunk O White Cheddar

Sauteed Kale and Onion

Homemade Potato Leek Soup

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Box 10 and Bento 101 Assignment 3

Just as Ethan was starting to feel better, I came down with his cold. I did a lot of sleeping over the weekend and zero cooking, lunch boxes, or food shopping. Tomorrow, I'm off to the grocery store, but for now we're using up all the odds and ends in the kitchen. I hate wasting food, and the money it cost to buy that food, so I'm always happy to have a bare fridge the end of the week.

I started this bento with leftovers from dinner, quinoa and kale. Believe it or not, my kid still loves kale! Ethan will be delighted with the two stray links of homemade chicken sausage I discovered in the freezer this evening. One lone apple was left in the fridge, so I split it between our lunches.

Homemade Chicken Sausage

Organic Gala Apple

Red and White Quinoa

Sauteed Kale w/ Onions

Link to Assignment : Just Bento - Bento 101 Assignment 3

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Box 9

Organic Grass Fed Ground Beef

Organic Gala Apple

Raw Carrot Sticks

After sleeping in until 10:15, my sick little man asked me for hamburger and apple for lunch. Along with beans and avocado on tortillas, "hamburger" and apple are hands down his favorite foods. I had some carrots leftover from when I was prepping my own lunch so I threw those in, too. Ethan was excited with this lunch, but was only able to eat a few bites. I'm guessing his illness has something to do with his decreased appetite and all those rejected bentos earlier in the week. Thankfully, his terrible cough is gone today. I'm hoping he's on the mend!

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Box 8

Scrambled Eggs

Vegetable Gyoza

Raw Carrots and Dip

A couple  Apple Slices

Poor Ethan has been sick with a really bad cough the past couple days. Yesterday, I was racing the winter storm to get him to the doctor before the roads got too bad, so needless to say, making bentos hasn't been a top priority lately. Today, though, I decided to treat myself to a nice lunch box. I ended up so full, I couldn't eat this whole lunch! I'm saving a little for snack later.

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Box 7

Black Beans

Tortilla Chips

Homemade Guacamole

Organic Gala Apple

Ethan was pleading for black beans yesterday, so today I delivered! This is sort of a big lunch box for a 3 year old, but my kid can down tortillas, guacamole and beans like nothing I've ever seen. Typically, I make allergy safe tortillas from scratch, but on lazy days I just use tortilla chips. As seen by the pajamas, today was a very lazy day! Obviously, this lunch was a hit with the little person.

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Boxes 5 & 6

Catching up on my posting ... These are the kid's lunches Sunday and Monday. Recently, E went through an eat everything in site phase. I'm guessing it was a growth spurt. Now he's moved on to the opposing, and frustrating, refuse everything in sight phase. He chose to eat only the strawberries in the first box. Not sure why he'd rather go hungry than eat what are typically his favorite foods, but that's three year old logic I will never understand. Monday's box went over much better, although I'd forgotten to tell him to save the chocolate for last (d'oh!). He adores Brussels sprouts so that was a hit and he ate some of everything in the bento. Yeah!

Turkey, Avocado and Tapioca Bread Teddy-wiches.

Yellow Peppers

Strawberries

Baked Chicken

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Corn on the Cob

Strawberries

Enjoy Life Chocolate Square

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Day 4

Bento failure! I admit the kitchen is suffering with a bit of end of the week sparseness and the meal was a bit random, but I didn't expect such rejection! The kid ate all the bacon and one carrot. He was very unhappy that I messed with one of his favorites, green beans and noodles, by replacing the veggies w/ asparagus. Apparently, it was so insulting even the noodles lost their appeal! Not sure why he didn't want the pear. Oh well!

Rice Noodles and Asparagus w/ Olive Oil and Garlic Salt

Raw Carrots

Turkey Bacon

Green Pear