Annie Finally Smiles

It has been a week of sickness in our house. Only fitting because of all the hospital visits, going to school, and mall of america visits... lots of germs! Once again, we are all for building strong immune systems! However, this week was, of course, the week of Bentos planned for school. So, today since the fevers broke and they are actually up and moving around, the girls decided to make their own bentos for lunch.

NISSA'S BENTO

Nissa decided her bento needed a lot and lot of dipping sauce so she mixed ranch dressing and ketchup together and, as efficient as she is, skipped the whole part of putting the sauce into a small container. She just stuck the whole little bowl of sauce into her bento and found it better to eat it before it was done! She also used up much of the bread "cutting" different shapes (as best she could, she didn't really care how they turned out, she just liked using the cutters) and dipping them into her own private recipe sauce mixture (oh shoot, I already gave the recipe away!!). She also filled up two containers of raisins (which she never ate) and cut some deer sausage shapes (which she also never ate!). Mostly, Nissa just had a lot of fun!

ANNIE'S BENTO

Ever the perfectionist (no idea where that comes from! ;), Annie made tomato roses with white and yellow cheese hearts (her absolutely favorite bento item) and cut lots and lots of carrot shapes. In the end, I think she included some raisins too as well as a container of apple pear sauce. 

It was good to see the girls up and moving again but I have to add, I absolutely love having the girls home with me. Sure, they can drive me nuts, they can pick at each other, they can get incredibly bored but still, I just love these times and am soaking them up as much as possible. They are certainly fleeting and I don't want them to fleet away unappreciated!

SPRING IS IN THE AIR BENTO

The entire month of January, Annie chose hot lunch!  I only mourned a little at not being able to make any bentos but at the same time, it was a nice break too.  Finally, I got to use the punch tools Santa put in my stocking for today's bento. 

Since we just went waaaaaayyyyy south for vacation (central Illinois is pretty darn south when you live in Minnesota) and experienced spring like weather, I made a springy bento today.  In the smaller part, carrot flowers, soy sheet frogs and lady bugs, olives and cheese curds are accompanied by a bamboo pick to eat them all.  In the bigger part I was not too creative today, just trying to cover the protein and fruit part.  In it, I put Annie's favorite, pork and veggie dumplings with soy sauce for dipping.  Also some cranberry pomegranate apple sauce with a Hello Kitty container of ranch dressing for the carrots.  Ah, it feels good to be bentoing again!

The final Christmas Bento for Annie's field trip to the art museum and
then I finally get to keep her at home for a while. It may sound sappy
(but really, is that new for me?) but I really miss her when she's
gone! So we have Venison Sausage Christmas Trees and Reindeer on a
bed of Feta snow. Rosemary Olive Oil Triscuits with grapes, carrot
candy canes, and some dipping sauce. Hope the field trip is fun, one
of these days I'll volunteer, but does that mean the hermit HAS to
become a part of the community?? :-)

I love when the Cranberries are out! This is really the "snackiest" bento I've made for Annies lunch today but I've noticed how much Annie leaves in her lunches, so I'm downsizing a bit. So in this one, I put homefrosted crunchy cranberries, Annie's (the brand not the kid) Cinnamon Graham Sticks, Grapes and Bunny fish cakes.  No veggies today but that's okay, there is plenty of fruit!

Norby used his onigiri kit to put a few of the rice balls together, looks very professional! And the z-bar...well, it is professional!  With those, I put some flower carrots and flower fishcakes with grapes and some carrot dipping sauce.

This was Annie's bento from the day after we got all our Christmas stuff out so I was holiday inspired.  There's a shooting star cheese with carrot rays over a bed of lettuce with raisins.  Next to that are some gingerbread apples with a Hello Kitty container of dipping sauce for the carrots.  In the smaller side are some pistachios with fishcake ice skates over some more lettuce with a balsamic reduction container for dressing (Annie's favorite!).

Norby took his long lost Bento to work the other day. He finished off
our venison stroganoff (I will never criticize his choice to buy the
whole deer again) and finally, I could pack something with nuts!