Bento #5

Sorry it's been a while. I could not find the camera OR the cord!!

My husband has gotten his own bento box, which is nice. It has been hard packing his lunch and dinner for college, this makes things much easier! 

You can see that Bugga has gotten a sort of unimaginative bento because I am still getting the hang of Brian's bentos. After I made Brian's orange curry chicken I simply threw some eggs in and scrambled them. I quickly pressed some onigiri and topped it with fig butter for Bugga after scooping rice into Brian's box. Bugga's bento was sort of an afterthought!

Here I packed Brian a PB&J sandwich with half an apple for lunch. There is Pacific Blend Trail Mix for a snack. For dinner there is rice and orange curry chicken. For dessert I made sweet potatoes with honey, cinnamon, cloves, and brown sugar. I'm so jealous I may get a box for me so I can eat too!

Here's are a few recipes I made up for Brian's bento this week. They all need 1/4 cup chicken to start with. I have drumettes, so I bake the drumettes for an hour and then pull off the meat. Any kind of meat would probably do: even beef or pork. Cook the chicken and then add it to a pan with the additional ingredients. Saute over medium heat until the liquids have turned into a syrup and then put directly into the bento. Everything here is gluten free.

ORANGE CURRY

2 tablespoons juice from a can of mandarin oranges

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 pinch salt

1 teaspoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos)

3-4 mandarin orange pieces

HONEY ORANGE
2 tablespoons juice from a can of mandarin oranges
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
3-4 mandarin orange pieces

SIMPLE CURRY
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon water (to help mix up the ingredients, this will burn off)

SWEET TERIYAKI
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1 teaspoon water (to help mix up the ingredients, this will burn off)
1 pinch salt

Bento #4

I first had this when eating over at my in-laws. They always have really special sauces/marinades/spices that we get to try when we go over for dinner. I thought it was yummy--but Bugga thought it was AMAZING. He cleaned his chicken leg to the bone and demanded more! So, when I found it on the shelf at the local health food store, I got some.

The instructions I got from the chef was to put chicken into a plastic bag and massage the spices into the meat over the course of a few days. I didn't do that this time, but that's what I would do if I had the time.

Instead I just rubbed it all over some defrosted chicken and cooked it right away. You could also add salt

Now my kiddo is no good at eating party wings--too little meat and too many bones--so I took the meat off the bone for this bento. I added rice, a bottle of coconut aminos, a freshly scrambled egg, and a little line of furikake to finish up.

For my husband I packed a boiled egg, curry, extra curry spice, and rice. He likes things simple!

My husband will be gone for two meals so I also made him a sandwich, washed a fresh apple, and packed 1/4 cup of Oregon Trail Mix. What a lucky guy, huh?

Phew! My work is done! Until tomorrow, readers!

Veggies and Sprouts and Fruits: Oh My!

If you have a child who absolutely WILL NOT eat fruits/veggies, then this product is for you!

I would suggest starting very slowly with this, since some of the ingredients may upset your child is they are phenol/salicylate sensitive, but honestly there aren't very many juices in it that are super high in phenols/salicylates. This product can turn your childs BMs funny colors, but for the most part it is well tolerated and helps with nutrition quite a bit!

Start with 1/4 teaspoon in a drink three times a day and work your way up to whatever your child can tolerate. I wouldn't go past 2 tablespoons a day for a child under five. It is completely tasteless in such small quantities (that's why you split it up between three drinks instead of having it all in one), but you may want to serve it in a sippy cup that is not see-through. Shake vigorously or it may clog up the spout--but I have never personally had this issue.

Here's another FANTASTIC product you can try:

note: the chocolate version contains a small amount of non-GMO soy

the berry flavor contains NO soy

e-mail the manufacturers to demand a soy-free chocolate version!

This comes in wild berry and chocolate. This product SHOULD give your child trouble if they are sensitive to phenols/salicylates, however my own child is sensitive to apples yet this product gave him no troubles. It may be because the processing of the fruits/veggies lowers the phenol/salicylate count. 

My favorite thing to do with this product is to put 1 level scoop into 1 cup of coconut milk yogurt to make chocolate pudding! One serving a day of this awesome product is all you need.

Between the two of them your child will be able to get most of their vegetables--and sneaking in your own homemade veggie/fruit purees can also pick up the slack these products leave behind. 

I'm sure everyone has noticed how few fresh veggies/fruits are in the bentos I prepare: this is because mys on simply does not tolerate them. But rest assured, my child still obtains ALL of his daily veggie/fruit servings from other sources! 

Bento #3

This bento is another throw-it-together in five minutes one. I actually didn't have any tamagoyaki in the freezer, so I did make that tonight--however, it is easy to make and only took 5 extra minutes. It was a one-egg tamagoyaki, so it is not very large. That is perfect for bento: small and cute!

Here we have SnapeaCrisps, chicken nuggets, soy-free tamagoyaki, vanilla coconut yogurt with organic casein-free chocolate sprinkles, two homemade peanut butter cookies, coconut chocolate milk, veggie fillers, and inside the yellow cup is an organic gummy penguin with a squishy center (weird, I know).

This is a more sugar-laden bento, since there is sugar in the yogurt, cookies, penguin, and tamagoyaki. You could substitute the vanilla yogurt with plain and use stevia instead. Stevia could also be used to make tamagoyaki. You could omit the penguin and add another nugget instead, and the cookies were just for fun!

And now for a recipe: peanut butter cookies!

1 cup nut/seed butter
1 cup sugar (whatever kind your child tolerates)
1 egg (or egg substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (GF)

Egg and sugar together, add butter and beat again, then add vanilla and mix.

Make whatever size cookies you want, then bake at 350 for 5-15 minutes (less for tiny cookies, more for big ones).

They will be flimsy, so let them cool in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Put it together...

Add the PECS food card...

Voila!

Another cute bento for my cute boy!

Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 8 yellow or red potatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pound bacon, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

1. Fry bacon in your soup pot
2. Add garlic/onion/salt/pepper and saute
3. Add potatoes and other ingredients, then cover in water
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, over low heat, for an hour
5. Take a potato masher and mash up the potatoes until the soup looks creamy.
6. Can and freeze.

Tomato Soup

Tastes nothing like Campbell's, which is great because after tasting this you'll never want another can of that stuff again!

Ingredients:

• 8-10 roma tomatoes, or whatever amount of tomatoes you can get for cheap, chopped
• 1/2 sweet onion, roughly chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 handful fresh basil, chopped OR 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 or 2 boxes broth (or make your own bone broth)
• salt + pepper, 1 teaspoon each
• olive oil

Directions:

1. In your stockpot, get 2 tablespoons olive oil hot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, salt, and pepper Saute until onion begins to become translucent.
2. Add tomato and basil, saute for another 5 minutes.
3. Cover with broth. Bring to a boil, cover, then simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
4. Put a colander over a big bowl and pour soup into it, then puree the solid parts.
5. Add puree and leftover broth together and stir until combined.
6. Can and freeze.

Butternut Squash Soup

So cheap and easy and yummy!

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunky cubes
• 1 onion (sweet onion works best), roughly cut into strips
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled
• enough broth to cover the veggies (chicken is best, but any flavor is fine)
• salt + pepper, about 1 teaspoon each
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon powdered ginger (or 3 slices fresh ginger)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions:

1. In your stock pot, get about 2 tablespoons olive oil hot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add ginger if using fresh. Saute until the onion separates and begins to be translucent.
2. Add squash cubes, powdered spices, and sugar then stir. Cook for about 5 minutes while constantly stirring, to get the process started.
3. Add your broth. Put in enough broth to cover the food.
4. Bring to a boil, cover, then lower the heat to medium-low and let it cook for about an hour.
5. Grab a colander and big bowl: put the colander over the bowl and pour the soup into it.
6. Put the solid parts into the blender, adding some broth from the bowl if needed, and puree.
7. Mix broth and puree together in the pot and stir until well combined.
8. Can and freeze.

I serve this with a dollop of butter and some extra brown sugar on top--but it's totally optional.