(And some May. I'm really waaaay behind on posting!)
On our last trip to Daiso, she had picked a pair of nesting heart bento boxes, which are the perfect snack-size! I chose the larger one and managed to fit two silicone muffin liners with the moister items, and filled the rest with the pretzel chips .
The melon flowers were left over from the teacher appreciation fruit bouquets. The container is a re-usable sandwich box that one of our Tovolo sandwich cutters came in.
When I saw the Take N Toss baby feeding bowls, they looked so much like a little bento I couldn't NOT get them! I can't really recommend them though. They're waaaaay deeper than they need to be for baby food, and it's kind of hard to get stuff out of the corners. And I couldn't get the lid to stay on. Although it's possible it was airtight over the foods and just not over the outer edges. But it kept popping off up by the spoon bowl. The deeper compartments might be good for snacks when she's eating finger foods though. Or for noodles and steamed veggie chunks, or something else bulkier.
Even though we were eating at home, I decided to go ahead and put her dinner in an EasyLunchbox, since it was the best way to get her some dipping sauce without having it spill everywhere.
The veggie birds nests were something I bought to try from Trader Joe's frozen section. They were tempura-battered mounds of carrot, onion, and kale strips that we re-heated in the oven. I'm not an onion rings fan, and I figured these were mostly onion, so would taste like onion rings, and I wouldn't like them. They were actually okay. I would eat them again. And Z ate hers eventually. These might be a fun thing to try and make myself. With a healthier batter though probably. And with additional vegetables, like potatoes or sweet potatoes.
The popcorn is also from Trader Joe's - organic popped corn with olive oil and a little salt. Verrry tasty! We're trying out a variety of popcorn options for dye-free alternatives to traditional microwave popcorn and the popcorn at movie theaters (if you go to one of AMC's Sensory Friendly Films, they lift the "no food" rule, since many autistic kids have dietary restrictions. And because there are no-trailers, the theater lights are on at trailer-level, the sound is not so loud, and "Silence Is Golden" does not apply, they're GREAT showings for restless toddlers and preschoolers as well!)
She had already eaten a bowl full of cherries as well. [Yes, BBFers. Those cherries!]
Not that you can tell, but the sandwiches were made using a Marie (from Aristocats) sandwich cutter/press that I got with a bundle of other licensed character sandwich presses off eBay.
I only had a few baby carrots left, so I put them all in and added some Snappea Crisps for additional veggie-action. (I don't normally get baby carrots anymore, since they're soaked in bleach to kill bacteria, plus the peels are just that much more nutrients being consumed.* But I was trying out a new organic produce delivery service that I had a Living Social deal for, and one of my boxes came with a bag of organic "baby" carrots.) The star silicone cup with Ranch in it was from Cost Plus World Market (6/$2.99.)
There's a ton of raspberries in there mostly because they don't last long in the fridge, and those were the last of the ones from the large-ish container we got for her preschool snack day. The cheese scraps were also left over from our snack day.
*Carrot peels are not more nutritious than the rest of the carrot. The orange color is from the beta carotene, so if the insides are orange too, they are just as nutritious. But peeling the carrots is just throwing away perfectly good nutrients. And if you're worried about pesticides, they soak into the ground, so the whole carrot could be contaminated. Buy organic [for any thin-skinned fruit or vegetable] if you want to avoid pesticides.
The cheese scraps (and the train cheese cut-outs below) were also leftovers from preschool snack the day before.
Since she wolfed down her entire lunch [well, she left one baby carrot] before and during Baby E's Little Gym class (she has to sit and wait in the lobby,) I swung by the house on the way to swim class after our stop at Trader Joe's and replenished her EasyLunchbox with some healthy afternoon noshes for after swim class.
Saturday, 5/26/12 - T-Ball snack bento!
We hadn't had much success with snacks at our t-ball games thus far (they're either sugary garbage or full of dyes. Usually both!) After the debacle the previous week where I had to confiscate everything and go home with her "staaaaaaaarving," (other weeks there had at least been one sugary pre-packaged junk item that had no fake colors in it!) I wanted to be prepared! |
| String cheese nibblets, strawberries, "everything" pretzel chips |
Thursday, 5/17/12 - A breakfast/snack for the drive to her preschool's zoo field trip.
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| 1/2 PB-Honey sandwich, honeydew and watermelon |
Wednesday, 5/23/12 - Baby's first "bento!"
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| Prune and peas purees. (Blech!) |
Monday, 6/4/12 - Snack Lunch
Not a full day, but we'd need something for in the car to and from Baby's swim class in the late afternoon, and then we had a craft playdate after. |
| Ham, Snappea Crisp/pretzel stick/Annie's Cheddar Bunny mix, goat cheese, Ranch; raspberries, broccoli |
Since this was meant to be more of a snack tray than a lunch, I didn't bother with a sandwich. I did roll up some ham with some animal picks for a little protein though.
The weird white stuff in the square muffin cup is some goat cheese we found at Trader Joe's. She's been asking me for goat's milk for a while now. So naturally I thought she actually meant goat's milk. So I was all excited that I had found some at Trader Joe's. Then she proceeded to throw a major fit that it wasn't right. I thought she was upset that there wasn't a picture of a goat on it, since the brand of cow's milk we buy has a cow on it. But then she said something about how it wasn't squishy. Squishy? Did she want goat's milk yogurt? And then she mumbled something about crumbly. AHA! Cheese! I had been wondering where she got the idea to want goat's milk. At one time, Hubby was really into Greek salads, so he brought home some little tomatoes, kalamata olives, and crumbly goat's cheese to pack his own for work. She went ape for the olives and cheese.
For some crunch, I made a "snack mix" of Snappea Crisps, Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, and pretzel sticks. I put them in one of my new Glitterville muffin cups (more expensive than the Wilton brand, but SUCH gorgeous colors!) and put some Ranch for her broccoli in another, to fill up the space.
Dinner in a box! (later the same day...)
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| Veggie Birds Nests, Tempura dipping sauce, popcorn |
The veggie birds nests were something I bought to try from Trader Joe's frozen section. They were tempura-battered mounds of carrot, onion, and kale strips that we re-heated in the oven. I'm not an onion rings fan, and I figured these were mostly onion, so would taste like onion rings, and I wouldn't like them. They were actually okay. I would eat them again. And Z ate hers eventually. These might be a fun thing to try and make myself. With a healthier batter though probably. And with additional vegetables, like potatoes or sweet potatoes.
The popcorn is also from Trader Joe's - organic popped corn with olive oil and a little salt. Verrry tasty! We're trying out a variety of popcorn options for dye-free alternatives to traditional microwave popcorn and the popcorn at movie theaters (if you go to one of AMC's Sensory Friendly Films, they lift the "no food" rule, since many autistic kids have dietary restrictions. And because there are no-trailers, the theater lights are on at trailer-level, the sound is not so loud, and "Silence Is Golden" does not apply, they're GREAT showings for restless toddlers and preschoolers as well!)
She had already eaten a bowl full of cherries as well. [Yes, BBFers. Those cherries!]
Wednesday, 6/6/12 - Shopping for Lunch
Not a packed schedule by any stretch, but with our co-op preschool (Z's M/W classes) done for the year, we had Baby E's new Little Gym class before lunch, and then Z's swim class at 3:30. We could have gone home in between... but Little Gym is not only right across the street from the Daiso store (well, the mall with a Daiso inside, anyway,) but on the other side of that mall is a Trader Joe's! And since this is all 20-minutes away from our house, we don't go out there much, other than for gym class. And we've had to go racing off to preschool after Z's classes in the past. So I planned for the long-haul! |
| PB-Nutella sandwiches, Snappea Crisps, cheese scraps, carrots, Ranch, raspberries |
I only had a few baby carrots left, so I put them all in and added some Snappea Crisps for additional veggie-action. (I don't normally get baby carrots anymore, since they're soaked in bleach to kill bacteria, plus the peels are just that much more nutrients being consumed.* But I was trying out a new organic produce delivery service that I had a Living Social deal for, and one of my boxes came with a bag of organic "baby" carrots.) The star silicone cup with Ranch in it was from Cost Plus World Market (6/$2.99.)
There's a ton of raspberries in there mostly because they don't last long in the fridge, and those were the last of the ones from the large-ish container we got for her preschool snack day. The cheese scraps were also left over from our snack day.
*Carrot peels are not more nutritious than the rest of the carrot. The orange color is from the beta carotene, so if the insides are orange too, they are just as nutritious. But peeling the carrots is just throwing away perfectly good nutrients. And if you're worried about pesticides, they soak into the ground, so the whole carrot could be contaminated. Buy organic [for any thin-skinned fruit or vegetable] if you want to avoid pesticides.
Mama's Lunch
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| Spinach salad w/almonds, blueberries, and raspberry vinaigrette; heirloom tomatoes, Stroopwaffel cookies, cheese scraps |
Elevensies (a joke from the Lord of the Rings)
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| Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, broccoli, leftover cheese trains, carrot, Ranch, apples |
I think she left some broccoli and that poor, lone carrot.
She gobbled her second lunch down as well. Someone's going to be fitting into 4T clothes pretty soon, at this rate!
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