Topper and Fam

31 October 2012

Food and the New Family Game: The Miracle of the Bento

Those who know me well, know that I have a love/hate relationship with food.

Mostly I find it annoying.

Annoying to prepare,

annoying to clean up after,

annoying to have to stop what your doing to eat (or prepare),

annoying to pay for,

annoying to take the time involved in all aspects.

Now, I readily admit that it is necessary to sustain life,

it can certainly taste good (chocolate),

occasionally I really crave it,

and I surely eat more than my fair share.

That being said, my four young girls may well become mothers someday.

Mothers, spend a fair amount of their time tending to the food needs of their families.

Mothers that might could use a better attitude toward food.

Luckily my girls love to play and cook in the kitchen, so maybe they haven't been too adversely affected by my lack of enthusiasm.

To the point. School lunches for the past 10 years have been thus:

Juice box.

Sandwich.

Fresh fruit or veggie. (apple or carrots)

Granola bar or other pre-packaged starch.

That's it. Not kidding.

So, one day on the radio (NPR), I hear an author talking about her book, My Japanese Table. This re-piqued my interest in bento style lunches. They first came to my notice a couple years ago, and I even blogged about them. -sort of. (Apr 2010 Question of the Day)

Why not try it?

I figured that if they were more fun (creative outlet) to make, maybe they would be more fun (actual nutrition) to eat. I was really frustrated seeing wasted sandwiches and apple slices in the trashbin, but also knowing how mundane and annoying those lunches must be.

It started simple. No new supplies (expense), just use what we have. Cheep plastic containers.

Of course I don't follow all the "rules," of bento.

Preparation + Good Leftovers+ Presentation

(There are more)

Just the basic ideas.

Variety +A Touch of Cuteness

Here is the first attempt. Two layers, small but varied portions.

Brownies cut thin and wrapped in cellophane.

A couple bites each of cucumber and yellow pepper.

Bottom Layer

I created two levels in the container by laying a section of cellophane wide across the first layer and folding it over the second layer after I was done building it.

Pretzel crackers, cheese and ham cut cute or in chunks. I think there's some pepperoni in there too.

Not wanting to make them the ridicule of their lunchrooms, I proceded cautiously.

Middle Layer

To prevent culture shock, I added a third layer prepackaged granola bar.

Dear Hubby wrote a note to put inside introducing the bento lunch idea and inviting feedback.

Top Layer

THE MIRACLE:

Feedback 100% positive.

"I don't even like peppers, but I ate them and they weren't really that bad!"

"I ACTUALLY ate ALL my lunch"

"Are you going to do that everyday"

"It was kinda fun"

Here are some others we've made. The girls younger girls used to buy hot lunch once a week or so as a treat. Now, if I don't make a bento for them, they throw one together themselves. It's fun to see them scramble for bits to include. So far I've averaged about four bento lunches for them a week.

This one looks like, brownie, cheese, apple, broccoli, celery

Bottom Layer

Canadian bacon, crackers, pbj rolles, cheese, pretzel chips

Top Layer

Strawberries, lettuce, granola ball cookies, grapes

Bottom Layer

Open sandwiches cut as pumpkins, rice cake chips

Top Layer

Here we have a rainbow of peppers and sugar peas with a little packet of leftover pork bbq.

I used press -n-seal to make the little packets. The girls said they worked just fine, but I did go out and buy little containers after this for dressings and such. -still on the lookout for the perfect little container-

Bottom Layer

Mini bagel with cinnamon almonds inside, oatmeal scotchies cookie, and chocolate covered blueberries. (Thanks GrandMary)

I liked how this was monochromatic until you found the rainbow underneath.

Here are some other pictures and ideas.

Some are cuter than others, but even a lame bento day is better than the decade of lameness that preceded it.

strawberries, cucumber, grapes

tangarine, cantalope, carrot w/ leftover pizza

apple, red pepper

veggie chips, sliced baguette

On youtube you can find tutorials on making bunnies, octopi, squids and other silly bento addditions.

This is called a bento bunny. Later I make some with eyes.

celary, marshmallow chex treat, beef jerky

carrots sliced long, apple, ham/cheese roll

veggie chips, chocolate almonds, cookies

ghost pbj, brownie

The picture of the carrot/cucumber tulip is missing. It is REALLY cute. (Found the idea online)

And I bought taller, sturdier containers to accomodate the mini containers better. -and I found some CUTE little animal foodpicky things at amazon for cheap. Don't have pics of them.

This was a fun one. (If your not bored yet)

chef salad in bits, dressing in container, and rice ball with cinammon and sugar

Here is a bento bunny with eyes. I used a toothpick to make an indentation and pressed in some poppy seeds.

bento bunny, chips?

leftover pizza cut to fit

pizza, tortilla chips

little donut and circular sliced apple

carrot disks, mixed berries

sausage disk/red pepper/cellery kabobs, bbq sauce

brownie, buttered bread, cheese

HALLOWEEN!
(Happy Birthday Grandma!)

Yippy-Skippy helped me with these. She made sure they were fun!

(Sorry this is upside down.)

leftover homemade pizza cut into moons and cats

Did you know you could write notes on bananas?

Also, strawberries with faces, and pumpkin cucumbers

Rice cake chips on top,

Then she got really creative! Ghost juice boxes. Love that kid.

The girls tell me I get them coolness points at school. Who knew a mother could do such things?

Go to Bentolunch.net for more ideas. I'm having trouble with the links right now.

15 October 2012

Stuff and Stuff

One weekend while the cousins were visiting, the kids got the idea to tie string around a park shelter and play tag. It was really fun! They want to do it again, but next time with more string.

Here's a picture from one of GrandMary's visits.

One of the girls' favorite babysitters, my friend from New Mexico, currently lives in a town nearby.

We love it when we get to see her.

Another season of cross country has come and gone.

Great job, Big Red.

We have been initiated into the exciting world of High School marching bands, and...

homecoming dances. (Check out the shoes, four inches of instant height!)

Que bonita!

29 August 2012

Meet Harriette

Harriette began her life on White Sands Missle Range. Yet she was destined for life in the suburbs.

In 1950 the Oryx population on the African Plains was dangerously low. So low that they relocated enough breeding pairs to mantain a population in southwest New Mexico. Now there are enough herds that they need to be "maintained." Dad has no problems helping out with that maintenance.

"The oryx, or gemsbok, is a large (450 pounds) African antelope that now lives in southern New Mexico. Oryx were introduced onto the White Sands Missile Range by the state of New Mexico to establish a huntable big game population. Oryx have successfully adapted to the area and have spread throughout the Tularosa Basin, including White Sands National Monument. The National Park Service considers the oryx to be a threat to the park's native plants and animals and has fenced the monument boundary to exclude the oryx."

So...I'm not exactly an interior decorator, and I have certainly never been acused of having "taste." But I do know that taxidermy is not exactly my "thing." However, since it seems I HAVE to have something of this sort in my living space, at least it's a bit novel and unique. (And she tasted good too.)

One cool day in August...

There was a significant heat wave in our area this summer. We enjoyed/endured multiple weeks of 90 - 100+ degree weather! Some of us enjoyed it; some of us endured it. When a random cool front blew through earlier in August, some of us panicked, and some of us embraced it. I'll let you figure out which catagory these two fell into. It was about 55 degrees this morning, I guess the change was too abrupt for them.

24 May 2012

The Family Business

On an unrecorded date, in a then undisclosed location, my husband found my brother and the two were able to snap this photo. I'm so glad they did.

I'm even more grateful that they both came home safe and sound.

GI Brother and Dear Hubby - Camp Liberty, Iraq

A few years and one Business Degree later,

Dear Hubby commissioned GI Brother as he graduated from ROTC!

...To uphold the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign or domestic...

During the commissioning ceremony, I was interested to see the many fathers or other relitives administering the oath. Seems like military service can be quite the family affair. In my own family history I have my grandfather, my father, four uncles, and two aunts with military service. Another Aunt married a serviceman. My Dear Hubby's family has multiple great, great generations of decorated soldiers dating back to the Civil War.

I didn't grow up a military kid, my dad was not a career soldier. I didn't give military service any real thought. My husband's immediate family is not military. Does our families' history of service represent the per capita norm of military to civilian in the population, or is it "in our blood" or somehow subliminally in our upbringing? Is it our exposure to pictures of men and women in uniform that makes it seem like a normal occupation to choose from? Was it the money, benefits, travel? How came we to this at once noble yet insufferable profession? I better stop musing...

Back to the event at hand...