Friday, February 20, 2009

Bento Girls

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!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Long Time No Bento

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!