Feb 22 dinner for Emma

My friend Ashley helped me put together this one. She cooked the chicken and veggies and I arranged it all. This is my favorite one so far because of how colorful it is. But she didn't eat the nectarines.

Strawberries, nectarine cut up, flower and heart shaped rice (with my new rice mold), cooked chicken in between the rice, edamame, broccoli, carrot balls and soy sauce in the little Hello Kitty container

New Easter Cookie Cutters

I got these at CCA in Lewisville for 50 cents. I actually bought 2 sets to have one as a backup....how cute are they?! I love love love the bunny.

pasta again

Well Emma got pasta again for lunch. But this time it is mini cheese ravioli. I mixed in a little shredded italian cheese, then she has strawberries, veggie mix (corn, green beans, peas and carrots) in a heart shaped cookie cutter to hold the shape and 1/2 of a mini bagel (cut in half) with a little butter on it.

question

Someone asked me today if my kid's really eat all of the food I put in their bento's. Yes they do. The bento boxes themselves are small and I only put in what I know my kid's will eat. Emma loves veggies and healthy snacks so that's great. Sometime's they ask for seconds.

I think that most people who make bento's send their kids to school or preschool. I homeschool so my kid's bento's never leave the kitchen (unless it's a field trip or picnic). They still like the presentation and it's always a surprise.

They aren't allowed to know what's in their lunch or peek while I make it. They wait patiently for me to take a picture of it and then it's closed up and given to them to be opened like a Christmas present. They are always so excited.....kid's are great.

Emma's Lunch Feb 21

Here is Emma's lunch today. She loves pasta and veggies together and I'm so proud of ehr for making healthy food choices.
She has cantalope, strawberries, and a mini corn muffin (with honey on top of the batter, it made it so crunchy and sweet). Then pasta salad. Today's pasta salad was made from whole wheat rotini pasta with ranch and italian dressing, chunks of chicken, shredded italian cheese, and a veggie mix of corn, carrots, peas and green beans.

Feb 20 lunch

Here is Emma's bento lunch from yesterday. She wanted it in her new Hello Kitty bento box.
She got leftover spaghetti with parmesan cheese, broccoli, strawberries, yo-go's and there is ranch dressing in the little HK container.
Here is Sara's lunch in the Minnie Mouse bento box. She has cheddar cheese, heart bologna, pineapple and a teddy bear shaped mustard sandwich....that goes on top.

Emma's breakfast

Nothing too inspiring here but the kid's want any excuse to use their new bento stuff. It's just strawberries and rolled up pancakes.

dinner in new bento

Here is Emma's dinner last night. Grapes, cheese chunks, strawberries and then pasta salad. The pasta is made up of whole wheat penne pasta, a little bit of low-fat ranch, Olive Garden Italian dressing, shredded cheese, baby corn, broccoli, snap peas and carrots.

Sara just had pineapple, cheese and grapes.

New bento stuff for the kids

My mom and I went shopping yesterday and I bought the kid's a bunch of new bento stuff. We went to Shop Minoya in Plano, World Asian Market in Plano and the Disney Store at the Stonebriar Mall in Frisco.

I got a good deal at the Disney Store. The little containers came in 3 packs for $5.50 each or 3 for $12. Even though the 101 Dalmations is a little kid-ish for Anthony, I figure it's better than Hello Kitty.

At Shop Minoya I did get him a green bento box. It is so hard to fin boy bento boxes! One of Aaron's employees is gonig to Japan soon for a visit and they said that if I gave them a list (preferrably with pics) they would get me whatever I wanted. So cool. I have my eye on a Nightmare Before Christmas bento for him.

From the Asian World Market. It's a puppy but it looks like a bunny. It's adorable.
It has a removable white container and a band to keep it closed.
These are so little, I love it. There are some that are even smaller in the pic of everything on the table. Another find at Asian World Market. Built in area for fork and spoon. This bento and the other are around $5-6. Not expensive, but when you are buying some much stuff at one time it adds up.
Sara with her new pets checking out the bento's.

Little rice bowls. I can get the kid's little chopsticks, but until I can get them to even eat rice, I will wait.
These came in packs with 4-5 forks each and same for the spoons.

This is a rice mold. Since the kids don't eat rice, I need to figure out what else I can mold. You can't see it, but they actually have little holes on the ends so nothing like jello or anything. Oh...I just had an idea...tell you later.

Happy Valentine's Day 2008

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is the breakfast I made for my kids. I would love to say that I made the pancakes from scratch, but they are frozen. I heated them in the microwave and then used a cookie cutter to make them into hearts.

And for dinner. Heart shaped grilled cheese (with my new double heart cookie cutter from Walmart), heart shaped cheese, pineapple and heart shaped bologna.

Ladybug Mini Cupcakes

I decided that I wanted to make some mini cupcakes. I had wanted to make a batch of ladybug cupcakes and caterpillar cupcakes. But since I ended up with 3 dozen mini ladybug's, I figured that was enough.

I used just a regular lemon cake mix (shame on me) and I made the frosting myself. It's buttercream that I flavored with lemon extract.

Here is my little taste tester Emma. She was my helper all the way through. Especially adding the food coloring.

I got the frosting recipe from here http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2006/12/cherry-vanilla-cupcakes/ Instead of vanilla I added lemon extract.

Overall I am happy with how they turned out. I think they are cute and my kid's got a kick out of them, so that makes my heart smile.