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

Just Bento - Bento 101 Assignment 2b

I'm on Assignment 2b of Just Bento's Bento 101, which entails figuring out what bento works for your own bento-ing needs. You can find her post on the assignment here. The short answer for me is that it depends on what I feel like that day. Long answer requires going though all the pros and cons of my own collection. This is an updated post of my bento supply since 2009. Original 2009 post can be found here. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed bento-wise, but there have been a lot of life changes since then including the birth of my now 3 year old son and the fact that most of our bentos are now the stay-at-home variety.

^ My first bento! This cute little rabbit bento was my official reality check on the actual size of bento boxes. It's as tall as it is wide and I find it hard to fit my own lunch into this thing as the width is only about 1.5 inches. However, it's a great size for my 3 year old son. Capacity 250/250ml.

^ I have 4 of these two-tiers Lube Sheep bentos. They each collapse into one-tier for storage which is awesome for those of us with limited storage space, plus you can use just the top tier for packing a small meal or snack.  I'm always impressed with how much food it fits. This is my go-to box when I use a "real" bento box. Capacity 330/250ml.

^ My second bento ever. I purchased this little cutie about the time I got my first rabbit bento. Once again, I was shocked at the small size. The box is great for snacks or lunch for my son. Capacity 350ml.

^ The Snack Bento Trio. I do love my Clickety Click bentos. Unfortunately, baby Ethan enjoyed playing with my bento supplies and ended up breaking the clips on the bunny cap. These are a great size for snacks or little man breakfasts. Capacity 320ml each.

^ Three-tier Metal Tiffin. I bought this tiffin awhile back, but admit to rarely using it. The containers are too big for my typical meal use and not microwaveable, but it's great for those bulky/high-volume foods like salad, fruit or a sandwich on a bun. The little tin got a lot of use for a snacky cracker container when I was pregnant with my son.

^ The Laptop Lunch Boxes. My kitchen was graced with the presence of a laptop lunchbox long before I dreamed of owning a bento box. These boxes are so easy to use and make eating a meal with several food groups nearly inevitable. I guess you could fill the entire box with nothing but spaghetti , but why?! I love that you can place a single inner container in the microwave without disturbing the cold food, plus it's dishwasher friendly, which is very important to me! Since this photo was taken, I've added a Bento Lunch Box 2.0 to the collection. Even though they are not technically bento boxes, I love these lunch boxes more than any of the others I own. My son has a lot of dietary restrictions due to his allergies, so we use these regularly to pack to-go meals if we're going to be away from home at meal times. The only drawback is that you should keep them upright to avoid spilling and shifting. Some of the containers have tops to contain liquids, but I find the tops always break, shrink or warp over time. Otherwise, it's been a perfect box for us! It holds about 3 cups of food which is roughly 700ml.

^ Last year, we added LunchBots to our collection of boxes. My husband has claimed the Uno for himself and uses it almost daily to pack his sandwich. Ethan uses the Pico for his school snack. It's no where close to full for his snack, but is a great size for a preschool lunch or large adult snack. The Duo doesn't get used much since it's not microwaveable, but seems like a good size for an adult lunch and the boxes are dishwasher safe except for the tops. Capacity is 420ml for the Pico, 600ml for the Uno and Duo.

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Day 3

This bitty bento was for my little man's breakfast. I admit, it's missing the protein element, but he's a hard guy to get much food into in the morning, so I'll take what I can get. He's loves to help me bake his special "safe" treats like these rice muffins. When he started helping in the kitchen, I was lucky if everything got in the bowl, but he quickly caught on and now he's able to dump everything in the bowl without making a mess. His reward: the spatula. Luckily, we don't have to worry about raw eggs.

Homemade Rice Muffin (wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free)

Grapes, Raspberries, Blueberries

Ethan, delighted, after helping me "clean" a spatula.

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Day 2 & Assignment 2a

Today's lunch was an experiment for Just Bento Assignment 2a. The goal was essentially to arrange your typical meal's worth of food into a bento box as compactly as possible. I was really surprised I got everything to fit. The veggies had to be stacked on their sides to squeeze in the fruit. I'm not sure this box would have closed, but it was very interesting to see the comparison from plate to bento.

Bean and Cheese in Soft Taco

Roasted Zucchini, Peppers and Onions

Clementine

Link to Just Bento : Bento 101 - Assignment 2a

Just Bento - Bento 101 Assignment 1

Just Bento is having a fun course on making bentos. The first assignment is to make a list of packable foods, divided into food types. I actually have a huge list of foods that I'd typed out awhile ago, but I decided to simplify it for the sake of fitting it on one page. I admit everything is not technically "bento-friendly", but I pack mostly stay-at-home boxes so I cheated a little. 

You can find the blank chart and assignment info here: Just Bento Assignment 1

Oops! Unfortunately, my chart doesn't quite fit, but the next size smaller is unreadable. Oh well.

40 Days, 40 Boxes - 2013 Day 1

Last year, I started my 40 Days, 40 Boxes project for Lent, only to be side-tracked by some real life issues, when my beloved dog Addie was diagnosed with malignant oral melanoma. Somehow she has beat all odds and that little miracle dog is still with us. She's slowed down a bit, but still loves long walks, followed by long naps. I'm very grateful and consider the past year to have been a gift for us. 

This year, I'm really focusing on eating more "real" foods and less of the junky created-in-a-lab type foods. It can sometimes be hard to navigate the grey area, but I'm not striving for perfection here, just progress in the right direction. I've already cut out most fast food, from several days a week to once a month; have cut way back on the Diet Coke; and have cut out my daily portions of candy and chips. It's hard to believe my once healthy habits got so off track! However, I'm now moving forward. On to the lunch box ...

Homemade Cheese Pizza

Sauteed Asparagus

Red Cherries

Clementine

Not Your Average Bento

This week, I was so excited to get to pack this very special bento. Although it may not look out of the ordinary, it's been months... well years, in the making. Ethan had his very first in-office food challenge (aka IOFC) on Friday. His allergist had suspected that he was no longer allergic to soy, so a few months ago we made the first available appointment to find out. 

Prior to our IOFC, I explained to Ethan what was going to happen and showed him the foods we would be bringing. He was eager to try the edamame and tofu, but I had to keep telling him he had to wait for his appointment. 

At the challenge, he was allowed one soybean to start. The nurse came in and checked all his vitals about 15 minutes afterward. All was well, so he got to eat a couple more beans, then got rechecked. This went on for two hours, increasing the amount of food and continually watching for signs of allergic reaction. I'm so happy to announce that he passed with flying colors! 

The box contains soy aplenty w/ shelled edamame, tofu, soy yogurt and bread with earth balance soy butter. Not pictured is the soy ice cream I brought just in case someone decided he didn't want to try the new looking foods. Through the process of his food challenge, Ethan tried everything except the yogurt. He told me the tofu was his favorite and that he'd like to have more another day. I am SO excited to have soy back. The world of vegenaise, miso, wheat-free soy sauce, soy butter and tofu are now open to our whole family! It's been two days and I'm still on a high!

December 2 - Breakfast and Lunch

Ethan and I are both digging our lunch boxes, so I packed us both breakfast and lunch for Sunday's meals ...

Ethan's breakfast, and I use the term loosely since he will spread the meal out the entire morning, is a Sunbutter Sandwich in Christmasy shapes, some Raisins, 1/4 of a Green Apple, plus a Neocate Splash drink. Unfortunately, my little guy has been experiencing very slow growth this past year, and both his pediatrician and allergist have some concern, so we've been trying out a supplemental drink for people w/ food allergies and other medical issues. Thankfully, Ethan loves the drink. My fingers are crossed that we'll see some improvement by his next check-up in January.

My breakfast is Two Eggs, 3/4 of an Apple, one slice of Whole Wheat Bread w/ a pat of Butter (leftover from a trip to St. Louis Bread Co) and a slice of Aged White Cheddar Cheese. I've just recently discovered this cheese and am in love with it. Yum!

The boy's lunch is an Applegate Farms Hot Dog, Raw Carrot Sticks, Black Grapes and Corn. I can't tell you what a lifesaver Applegate Farms is for us. Ethan adores their hot dogs and lunch meats, which are free from all those allergy inducing fillers, and I love having a break from cooking everything from scratch.

Since I didn't cook Saturday night, it's a lazy-raid-the-freezer lunch for me. It includes Trader Joe's Vegetable Gyoza, Raw Carrots w/ Ranch, Black Grapes and Edamame.

Off to Grammy and Grampy's House

Ethan loves going to his grandparents house, and lucky for both of us, they live just across town. We'll often go over mid-morning and stay for lunch. With Ethan's allergies, I almost always pack him a lunch when we'll be out at mealtime. This time I decided to pack myself a lunch, too.

Ethan's going through a picky eater phase, at least I hope it's just a phase! It's all about Sunbutter Sandwiches these days. In addition to the sandwich, I packed Raw Yellow Pepper and Zucchini, Apple-Grape Juice and his daily dose of Gummy Vitamins (calcium and multi-vit). He was delighted to have a lunchbox, but only nibbled at most of the food.

My lunch was dinner leftovers of Steamed Broccoli, Purple and Red Potatoes, Homemade Chicken Nuggets and a Clementine. I had never made purple potatoes this way (diced then cooked in a small amount of salted water), but they were so good!

Day 1 - A Day of Meals (almost)

For my first day on a mission, I pre-packed my breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack to make it easier to avoid all those excuses and temptations of being too hungry, not having time, etc. Nothing is easier than  walking into my kitchen to find a meal ready to eat. It really helped me to have everything just waiting for me. I even stuck to my pre-planned schedule of breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and dessert and drank lots of water. No snacking in between! On top of all that, I went for a run, "danced" with my son and did some yoga during naptime. No regrets, but boy am I sore today!

Breakfast

1 slice Whole Wheat Toast w/ 1 pat Butter

2 1/2 pieces of Turkey Bacon

Strawberries and Blackberries

2 C Water

(Note to Self: Blackberries are now out of season here and nothing like those tasty summer berries. Yuck.)

Lunch

Green Salad w/ Homemade Dressing (not pictured)

Chicken and Wild Rice "Soup" w/ Carrots

3 Pretzel Rods

1/3 Organic Gala Apple

1/2 Diet Coke 

Snack

Red and Black Grapes

1 slice Colby Jack Cheese

(I also had two unplanned additions: 3 pretzel rods and 1/2 a Diet Coke)

Dinner was black beans; roasted zucchini, peppers and asparagus; guacamole and chips; and a Diet Coke. My after dinner treat was 2 Mint Milano cookies and some Light Soymilk. Along with the extra pretzels mentioned earlier, the chips and Diet Coke w/ dinner weren't planned. Overall though, it was a great day. I had a nice variety of food, never felt too full or too hungry and ended up with a calorie intake of 1478. Nice :)

Losing the Crazy Crummies and Saving my Sanity

I recently decided what I really wanted for Christmas this year. What I truly want is to not feel crummy anymore. I want to be healthy and strong and maybe even energetic once in awhile. It's been a rough year dealing with Addie's cancer, my husband's job loss and the long and so far unsuccessful process of trying to have another baby. It's all too easy as a wife and mom to put everyone else first until there's either no time or energy to do something good for me. For both my health and sanity, that has to change right now. I'm dedicating everyday, from now to Christmas, to working towards feeling, and if I'm extra lucky, looking better. After all our bad luck earlier this year, things are turning around. Addie is still hanging on, my husband is again employed, Ethan is happily enrolled in preschool, and it's past due for me to focus on helping myself. I'm following my own "diet" plan based on long term changes; ditching my terrible-for-me habits, like eating fast food every week and skipping fruits and veggies at most meals; all while not being so restrictive that it takes away from the pleasures of life. My own plan is a squashed hybrid that I call "French Portions". Awhile back, I read and was inspired by the book "French Women Don't Get Fat". I love the book and it's sequel, but needed a little more structure, so I put together a portion plan. It goes roughly something like this:


Fruit - 3 servings daily
Veggies - 4 servings
Calcium - 2 servings
Protein - 2 servings
Grain - 3 servings
Fat - 3 (1/2) servings

Plus plenty of water to drink.

Somedays I may have a little more or less of certain foods, but the general idea is to have a balanced diet and that it's ok to have a little more or less from one meal to the next as long as things balance out in the long run. It also has enough flexibility where I won't feel I've "failed" if my numbers aren't just right or I eat a certain food, plus I won't fall into panicked calculating mode if I get a last minute invite to eat with someone. I'm going to ditch my current bad habits of too much junk, not enough nutritious colorful foods and constant grazing. I'm planning my next day's foods ahead of time, and at the end of the day, I am putting my everything into fitday to get a calorie estimate. No big deal, but sort of a reference so I can tell I'm not eating way too much or too little. I would ultimately like to lose 20lbs, but my first goal is simply to eat "real food" more often than not, in the form of actual meals and snacks. Another one of my changes is following a meal schedule:

8am - Breakfast
11:30 - Lunch
3pm - Snack
6pm - Dinner
After dinner cookie.

While I don't have to eat at the precise scheduled time everyday, the idea is to get on a normal eating schedule where my body has time to register hunger and fullness, while of course, being properly nurtured. I feel like I'm sort of starting from scratch, so I'm allowing myself not to be perfect ... Just moving in the right direction.

Life Sidetracked

I've gotten sidetracked a bit from my intended bento assignment, with some unexpected bad news. One of my beloved dogs(the black one in this photo) went to the vet for a routine check-up and they found a tumor in her mouth. It turns out she has a very aggressive form of cancer and got a poor prognosis from the vet. We're still trying to figure out how far the cancer has spread through her body and if it's possible to remove/treat. She has always been such a sweet and loving, but tough as nails type of girl, I could never imagine her getting sick and am still a bit in shock. Almost exactly 2 years ago (March 2, 2010), I lost my other beloved dog, a sweet and gentle golden retriever, when a just few days prior he'd suddenly gotten very sick and we found out he had cancer and his internal organs were failing. I'm currently waiting for some test results and hoping for the best. I'm not yet ready to let another of my dogs go.

A Bento from the Past

I didn't get a chance to make a fresh lunch box today, but I made this bento earlier in the year and hadn't had a chance to post it. As you can see by the little hand in the corner, someone was anxious to eat. This bento contains Apple, Chickpeas, Sweet Potato Snowflakes, Hamburger and Okra. I remember the little man eating this lunch, but refusing the sweet potato shapes! Probably unlike the average kid, Ethan prefers his potatoes with the skin on. These skinless potatoes, despite being cute, were deemed unacceptable for toddler consumption.

Ground Beef and Sweet Potatoes

Today's lunch was a huge hit! Ethan loves "hamburger" so he was thrilled w/ the ground beef. Sweet Potato is also a favorite along w/ Apple and Blueberries, plus he was excited to see a good amount of Coconut Yogurt in his lunch box. I've long since learned, that my child refuses yogurt of any variety other than plain and white, but he did a little bit of fruit dipping of his own. Snack is Grapes and Rice Chex which I have sprinkled with cinnamon (store bought Cinnamon Chex have a peanut warning so it's off limits).

Also posted to What's For Lunch Wednesday.