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 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

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.

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!

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.

Out-to-lunch Box

My husband and I decided to go out to lunch today. Since Ethan can't eat restaurant food due to his food allergies (and cross-contamination/mistake risk), he got a lunch box to bring along. He actually loves eating out even though it's still the same ole food for him. I think he just enjoys the change of scenery and people watching. As you can see from the photo, the sun was out in full force today! It makes getting a good photo a lot harder, but I'm not complaining!

I always overpack Ethan's to-go lunches just to make sure he has enough foods he likes to be satisfied while we eat. His lunch today was Avocado on Tapioca Bread, Red and Yellow Sweet Peppers w/ Coconut Yogurt Dip, Applegate Farms Turkey (his safe lunchmeat brand), EnerG Pretzels and Pear w/ Grapes. He ended up eating all the peppers first, then the turkey and grapes w/ just a few bites of sandwich and pretzels. We had a few errands to run afterwards. By the time we got home, Ethan was hungry and ready to finish his fruit and sandwich. The uneaten pretzels got dumped into his snack cup in his backpack for the next time we're out, so nothing gets wasted.

Simple "Wee-chah" Bento

It was such a dreary day on Friday, but you'd never know it by this photo. We took advantage our our 2 minutes of sunshine just before lunch. Overall we had a very lazy day, so I just made an easy sunbutter on tapioca bread sandwich for Ethan, or "wee-chah" as he calls it in his toddler Spanglish. Funny enough, the child is a little weirded out when I cut his food into shapes. I had to convince him these were actually edible. To balance out the sandwich, I also packed leftover steamed carrots and green beans plus pear and blueberries.

Homemade Chicken Sausage

The little man was a very willing participant in Day 2 of our lunchbox project. He even helped me put the vegetables in the pot, eating several in the process. Last night, I had some defrosted some chicken breasts sitting in the fridge so I decided to make chicken sausage. It's pretty tasty if I do say so myself. The guys of the household concur.

For lunch, we had homemade chicken sausage (of course), the carrots and green beans Ethan helped me make, apple, grapes, and wild rice. Ethan's lunchbox also contains an Enjoy Life Sunbutter bar and pear for his after nap snack. I was very surprised today when Ethan ate all his fruits and veggies first, ate no rice and only one half of a sausage. He usually downs the meat first thing. Since I worked tonight, Ethan had his leftovers for dinner where he was apparently back in the mood for rice and sausage.

40 Days, 40 Boxes

Even though, I am not religious, I was raised in a Catholic family and always loved the challenge set forth during lent. I was recently reading one of my favorite blogs Clover Lane and saw her 40 Bags, 40 Days challenge in which she cleans out her entire house, aiming to get rid of 40 bags of stuff during lent. While I am trying that challenge myself, with only one child and a small house, I'm not sure I can wrangle up a full 40 bags of unnecessary stuff to purge. I was, however, inspired to try another 40 day challenge of my own ... 40 days of lunch boxes. Seeing as I'm working on improving my diet and I'm always looking for an excuse to use my bento boxes, I figured it was the perfect project for me this year.

Today is Day 1! I didn't cook last night, but had some homemade chicken soup in the freezer just waiting to be eaten. I cooked some fresh rice noodles and threw them into the soup (they seem to get mushy if I freeze them in the soup). To get our veggies, we both had okra plus I had a green salad w/ purple cabbage. Ethan is not a salad fan yet (and I'm not a raw pepper fan), so he had raw red and yellow bell pepper sticks plus coconut yogurt for dipping. We both had apple and blueberries, though his has a much higher berry to apple ratio to satisfy his current blueberry addiction. I thought this would be way too much food for a 2.5 year old, so I filled the last portion of Ethan's lunchbox w/ grapes and EnerG pretzels that were set aside for a snack later.

Turns out I under-estimated my son's appetite ...

In the past, I had always removed the inner containers from the box at mealtime to make it easier for him to reach the food. Today, he insisted they stay in the box! Ethan was DELIGHTED with his lunch. First went the soup, then the peppers. After discovering the fruit was also glorious dipped in the yogurt, it was quickly inhaled. He even dunked a few pieces of okra in the stuff. That part grossed me out, but if he's eating his veggies I'm not complaining! The child was so hungry, I refilled his soup twice. About 1/3 of the noodles lost their way off the spoon and ended up all over the chair, but that's still a lot of food. Someone much be about to hit a growth spurt!

I'm so grateful for our time together this morning. We had such a great Mommy-Son lunch today!

Also posted at Whats For Lunch Wednesday.

Taco Fever

Senorcito is getting so big! In less than 3 months he'll be two years old!

In addition to being busy with my little boy, I started a part time job in January. It's low stress and I work off hours (nights and weekends) so my husband is home with the little man when I'm gone. So far things are working out great. My biggest problem these days is that I hibernated through this year's extra cold and snowy winter and let my healthy meals slide. The random warm days we've been having lately are starting to reawaken my senses ... So I decided to pack colorful lunch boxes for both Senorcito and myself. I realized after I took these photos that my last post was also beef tacos. Oops :) We obviously know how to enjoy a good taco at our house.

Senorcito's Meals

Breakfast - Corn muffin style Rice Muffin, Nectarine, Banana

Lunch - Homemade Rice Tortillas, Roasted Squash and Pepper Sticks,

Avocado, Ground Beef

The Mommy Lunch

Three small Corn Tortillas

Extra Lean Ground Beef

Clementine

Avocado (most of which will end up eaten by Senorcito)

Roasted Yellow Squash, Zucchini, and Orange Bell Pepper

Also posted for What's For Lunch Wednesday

Baby Bento - Taco Angels

My husband and I wanted tacos, but Senorcito doesn't have a safe taco shell that we can buy pre-made. I decided to make something tortilla-esque for the little guy so he could have a meal like mom and dad. His tortillas are simply made of rice and water, cooked like pancakes in a pan. My mother-in-law makes authentic soft corn tortillas this way, so I may want to ask for some pointers when she's here for Christmas. They were very plain, but the boy loved his special "tacos" none the less.

This bento contains two meals:

• Breakfast - Blueberry Bottom Rice Muffins, Clementine, Cherries
• Lunch - "Angel" Rice Tortillas, Ground Beef w/ Avocado "Trees", Roasted Orange Bell Pepper, Cucumber, Romaine Lettuce

Baby Bento - Sweet Potato Men

We'll be eating at home again, as usual, but I recently came across some holiday themed mini cookie cutters and can't resist the urge to make cute little food shapes for Senorcito. They are just the perfect size for him right now. The boy loves just about every vegetable on this planet with the exception of broccoli. He just doesn't care for the texture. Every once in awhile I put some on his plate and he will try it ... It just doesn't stay in his mouth for long. Tomorrow, we are trying the dreaded veggie once again. Maybe one of these days, he'll eat it.

This bento contains two meals and one snack for my 18month old son ...

• Breakfast - Banana Rice Pancakes, Red & Green Apple sticks
• Lunch - Stacks of Sweet Potato Men (scraps under chicken), Broccoli, Roasted Chicken, Banana and Blueberries
• Snack - Clementine and Rice Chex Cereal

Also posted at What's For Lunch Wednesday.

ETA - Senorcito ate all of his broccoli! The trick was using a fork. He refused to touch it with his hands, but happily consumed the veggie pre-stabbed.

Baby Bento - Snowy Day

Yesterday, we got our first snow of the season followed by bitter winds and single digit temps. It was perfect soup weather. I haven't yet found a brand of bouillon or pre-made broth that I'm comfortable with for the very allergic Senorcito. I decided this was the ideal opportunity to discover how to make broth from scratch. Essentially, I just chopped an onion and some carrots and tossed it in a pot with water, garlic, salt, thyme, oregano, and parsley. Then I added rice noodles to cook and pre-cooked cubed chicken to re-heat. It turned out pretty well. Senorcito, along with my husband and I, happily ate it all.

Today's bento contains two meals plus an afternoon snack:

• Breakfast - "Snowflake" Tapioca EnerG Bread (w/ a drizzle of olive oil, not shown), Grapes, and a Clementine.
• Lunch - Chicken Noodle Soup w/ "Tree" Cucumbers, Okra
• Snack - Enjoy Life Snickerdoodle Cookie, Apple Sticks

Also posted at Hapa Bento's December B.O.M.B.

Baby Bento - Acorn Squash and Quinoa

It's hard to believe it's already December! My son is already 18 months old! He's so curious and alert, we're looking forward to a fun holiday with him this year. I'm hoping Santa will bring me a new computer as this one seems to be in pain.


My son continues to eat just about everything we put in front of him. The challenge is still just finding a variety of foods that are safe for his allergy set. Since we are limited on grain choices, I was happy to find another way to make quinoa toddler friendly. I smash baked acorn squash with cooked quinoa and Senorcito will just scoop it up with his hands. Yes, it's messy, but what would toddlerhood be without a mess? He loves this stuff.
Baby Bento

• Zucchini Hamburger


• Baked Acorn Squash w/ Quinoa


• Apple


• Asparagus, Orange Bell Pepper, Zucchini, Yellow Squash

Also Posted at What's For Lunch Wednesday

Fall Flavors - Roasted Chicken, Kale, and Sweet Potato

I have a cabinet full of different bento boxes, which has become Senorcito's favorite place to play in the kitchen. However, I always end up going back to my Laptop Lunchboxes. I love the fact that they can be used in the microwave and be thrown in the dishwasher at the end of the day. The box is still perfect for my son to use for breakfast and lunch. I made some rice pumpkin zucchini bread the other day. It didn't turn out how I'd hoped, but the boy loves it anyway.

Baby Bento

• Breakfast: Pumpkin Zucchini Bread, Banana, Green Grapes and Blueberries
• Lunch: Kale w/ Onions, Plum, Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potato

Big Bento

• Roasted Chicken
• Apple
• Sweet Potato
• Kale w/ Onions

Also posted on What's for Lunch Wednesday

Baby Bento - Sweet Potato Animals

Sweet potatoes are consumed in mass quantities in our household. My son adores them. They are easy to cook and easy for little hands to grab, plus they're packed with nutrients. It's hard to go wrong with these guys.


This Bento Contains:

• Sweet Potato Animals (more under veggies)
• Roasted Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Red Pepper
• Plum

Despite his dietary restrictions, it's easy to tell my Senorcito is still getting plenty to eat! He's too quickly grown from a sweet baby to a happy and curious (yet still sweet) toddler.