What is a Bento Box Lunch, you ask?  It’s a good way to get picky eaters to try new foods, eat their lunch and know their mama loves them.

I must love those kids because making a bento lunch takes some serious work.  It’s not just slamming bread and cheese together and calling it a meal.  Bento is like a mini work of art that you get to eat. There is one prerequisite: it has to be cute!

Bento uses a variety of food in small portions so it’s great for kids, especially my picky eaters. I recently started packing lunches for my kids and I needed to buy reusable containers which reminded me of a bento boxes  So after some research on the web I found a great cookbook called Yum-Yum Bento Box by Crystal Wantanabe and Maki Ogawa.  Not only did it have some great recipes but some seriously cute bento creations.

And so with a few newly purchased tools, an egg mold, vegetable cutters, and sushi molds, I went to work.  I think the hardest part was deciding which design to choose. Well, then of course, I had to make the lunches. So I put on my creative hat and spent an hour making lunch.  Like I said this isn’t a speedy process. I’m just hoping my hard work means the kids will eat it and not toss it in the trash.  *crosses fingers*

Using the egg mold was easy.  Shelling the eggs so that I didn’t mangle them was another matter entirely.  Super-girl’s little bear didn’t turn out so hot, so I told her I’d dye it pink for her and did.  She’s happy and tells me she’ll eat it tomorrow. *win*

As a precaution to both kids not eating the rice I dyed it blue.  Then I put it in the cute sushi molds and put little cut outs of Spam on top.  Yes, I’m feeding my kids Spam. It’s super salty but they are only eating it as a ‘seasoning’ so it’s all good. *cough*

Lastly, I added some carrots cut in shapes for Super-girl and a few cherry tomatoes for Little-comedian. I was going to cut the tomatoes into flowers but thought that was a bit ambitious for my first time out.

And here are the results.  I feel I have room for improvement but I’m excited. I wish I could be there for that moment when they open the box and see their little gifts for lunch. Yep, their mama loves them.

Do you think you’d try a bento lunch?

 

I’m working my new project. A middle grade fantasy.  It’s too early in creative formulation to talk about it. In other words I still don’t know what I’m doing.  So while I’m brainstorming I like to cook.

A few months ago hubby and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant where I got to try out a whole new palate of flavors. My favorite?  Injera.  Injera is a spongy bread made out of Teff flour. I unfortunately have not been able to find Teff flour, yet.  I will find it. I’m all about authentic when it comes to cooking.

Because I was craving injera this week, I was able to hunt down a recipe using various wheat flours in a Moosewood cookbook that I own.  This version of injera is close enough to the restaurant’s that I’m happy.  Of course you can’t eat injera alone.  Ethiopian food is extremely spicy from what I’ve tried, so I knew I had to be careful of any recipe that I found.  Luckily, I came across a blogger at VegNews who likes it light on spice. And still, I cut the cayenne by half.

What resulted is pure yumminess!  A sweet and spicy chickpea stew over a yeasty soft fried bread.

If you like chickpeas and are a fan of bread I recommend you give it a try.  It’s Vegan too!  Eat on the wild side!

The photo would be more appetizing but I just couldn’t help myself. I ate half of it before I realized I should take a picture to share!

Summer and picnics are here once again. I thought I’d post my recipe for classic deviled eggs. They were a hit at the kids end of school picnic this week. Enjoy.

6 hard cooked eggs
1/4 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard like French’s
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
sea salt
paprika

Hard cook the eggs, I bring the pan of eggs to a boil and then cover, turn off the gas and set the timer for 15 minutes, then drain and add ice and water to quickly cool the eggs down.
Peel the eggs and rinse them off. Cut the eggs in half and empty the yolks into a small bowl. Mash the yolks up very fine with a fork.
Add the vinegar, mayo and mustard and blend well.
Using a butter knife fill each egg white with the yolk filling.
Sprinkle the eggs with a tiny bit of sea salt and the paprika.
Enjoy!!!

Next time I’ll remember to take a photo!!

If you write or love YA or MG or PB come hang out with some great writers from the area.

We’ll be meeting June 21 at 7:30pm at the Paparazzi in Burlington, MA to talk about writing, books and life in general.

It’s always a good time. Thanks to my crit partner Kris Asselin for creating and organizing this great event!