Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler

Willow's Lunch(es)

2011-05-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

Been quiet around here!

I see I still have my lovely loyal readers and have gained a few new friends since my last post :D *Waves*

I am touched by the concern I have received in email and wanted to just come on here and say that there's nothing to worry about. I haven't fallen off the earth, I've just been busy - creatively at least, with my new adventures in cake land!

I'm trying hard to better my decorating skills and having a great time doing it. It's just, kinda, taking all I've got right now.

I'll be back eventually ... when time allows!

I'll leave you with these two photos I had on my computer of Willow's lunches.

And a link to my cake blog!

Kelly's Cakes

Easter Cake

2011-04-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all, hope everyone had a great Easter!

My daughter still hasn't done her easter egg hunt and I'm hoping she forgets because, thanks to all the easter baskets she received, she has candy coming out of her ear holes! Mom might just have to help her out a bit I think ;) You do what ya gotta do!

We spent Easter with Stephen's family and had a nice, while interesting to say the least, day. But I won't bore you with all the details!

I am going through a real cake phase right now. Just making, not eating ... fortunately! And I've been coming across some really awesome blogs and web sites that have inspired me so much. This year, I decided to make an Easter bunny cake and, for the first time, worked with gum paste. It was so much fun!

It was a white chocolate pound cake made from a doctored mix with white chocolate frosting and filling with raspberry filling also. The little bunnies and flowers were made from the gum paste. My father - in - law ate some and said what he usually says, 'did YOU make this? You sure you didn't BUY it?' So funny.

The first cake I made I used my new ultimate cake leveler with which turned out to be not so ultimate but flimsy and wonky and ruined the cake. I was mad but then decided to use the cake to make cake pops before making another. See below!

Red ones.

White and blue ones

(hey! New idea for July 4th!)

A weird pale green and white ones.

And colorful ones made by Willow! She got to do these all by herself while I got busy dipping and decorating the others.

Scrumptious Trifle Loaf

2011-04-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well, incase you haven't noticed, I've not been making many many bentos lately. None pretty much. I've just been so busy. There's something about having a one year old toddling about on newly walking feet that doesn't allow you much time! That, and I've been busy with other activities whenever there is any time. I do plan on getting back on the ball soon though! I just can't bare all the plain sandwiches! No, just kiddin'.

Here's a recipe for a dessert I 'threw' together recently that went over really well with the family so I wanted to share it here with you guys! Please excuse the poor quality of pics though - the lighting wasn't so great.

It's real simple.

Buy or make a pound cake and slice into 1-inch thick slices (you only need about 6 slices in total so the pound cake doesn't have to be real big and you'll probably have some leftover)

Whip up some pudding (I loooove white choc flavor with this) with some heavy whipping cream until soft peaks.

Mix sliced fresh strawberries with fresh raspberries (or blueberries etc) and mix with some raspberry sauce. Make your own or do like me and buy a can of the pie filling.

Now to assemble.

Lay three slices of the pound cake on the bottom of a glass loaf dish and spread with half the fruit mixture.

Spoon over half of the pudding mixture.

Again layer three slices of pound cake plus fruit mixture.

Then add 1/2-1 cup of cool whip to the remaining pudding mixture and spread on top.

To make it pretty you could pipe something with chocolate on top or decorate with some fruit.

It is so absolutely delicious. I have never seen a dessert disappear so fast.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-04-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is Willow's first Muffin Tin Monday in a while. I made it a sort of Spring theme. Actually she made it herself, except for the bunny features on the egg. It took a total of five minutes, if that.

Top left to right: carrots, ranch dip, cucumber butterflies.

Bottom left to right: bunny egg, butterfly-shaped turkey sandwich, bunny marshmallows.

Of course she left the carrots, along with some of the cucumber.

Since my last posting, I have turned 31 27. I'm getting up there! I had such a lovely birthday. On Saturday my husband was home rather than working which was like a present in itself to me! As was watching my daughter get to spend a lot of fun time with him. Including making a cake for me! I thought this was really special because no one has ever made me a cake before. I took some pics while they were doing it (and did my best not to interfere!) ...

Here she is adding the ingredients. Check out this shot of the egg ... cool!

Next goes milk.

Martha Stewart in the making

After daddy threw a glob of frosting at her!

The cake was a golden butter cake by Pillsbury with our added sprinkles. It was actually quite possibly the best boxed cake mix I've had!

A pic of my proud little princess with the cake. Unfortunately this was the best shot I got of it. It had a sprinkle-filled butterfly shape on top and decorated with lots of little white pearl sprinkles and hearts around the outside. The inside was very pretty and colorful.

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Just a simple cheese teddy bear lunch today, on a round turkey sandwich. With some halved grapes, baby carrots and cucumber. She actually ate it all, including the carrots.

Ryder has, what I think is, his 25th cold of this year. I'm exaggerating of course but it sure feels like it. He is constantly a wet, sloppy mess. His nose running and his mouth drooling everywhere he goes. I hope once it gets warmer he will get over these colds and be less cranky. Then again, it could be due to a shot he had last week at the doctors.

Despite that though, we did have a good morning. He slept most of it but when he was awake, he was pretty cheerful. Here's a pic of him waking up after his nap and his big sis playing peekaboo with him in his crib. He loves it when she comes into his room (or our room!)

Smudgy mirrors make great backgrounds!

Willow has been so looking forward to go to the duck pond when the warmer weather comes so she was very excited today when I told her we were going to go. I was hoping there'd be ducks so she wouldn't be disappointed.

On the way there, we stopped at Macdonald's driveway which had a huge line of cars infront of us. So I told Willow to make some faces and took pics while we waited.

Here's her 'normal' face.

Here's her 'silly' face.

Here's her 'mad' face, which I said wasn't mad-looking enough.

So here's her 'even-madder' face lol.

Here's her 'sleepy' face.

And here's her laughing-at-Mommy's-silly-faces face :)

The things you do!

We were both very happy to see the geese in the pond as we drove up to it. There were so many in fact. All over the grassy area where she could be near them and feed them.

And they were quite friendly as you can see.

Well, except for this one! He was bossing all the others around.

She had a nice time running around

and getting grass stains on her pants lol.

I got Ryder out of his stroller for a bit and he waddled around with the geese.

And played with Willow.

But he really wasn't feeling up to it so we didn't stay as long as I would have liked.

When it was time to go there was lots of whining. 'I'm going to miss the geesies!' ... 'I'm hungry!' .... 'Mommy, I NEED a cuddle!' ... 'I want to go somewhere else!' Oh man. I couldn't get her into the car quick enough. And then she cried in her car seat all the way home. As did Ryder. But then they both took a two hour nap and I got a nice break. Phew.

Getting into the Spring spirit

2011-03-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

Willow and I had fun painting today. One of the things we did was finger painting pretty Spring trees. I took a few pics.

Look at those chubby little fingers :)

Here's Willow's pretty blossom tree.

If your children enjoy finger painting, you might want to check out Jill's blog. She makes the cutest pictures from just finger prints with her two children and always takes such pretty photos. I am so inspired by her! Also, take a look at the book I just purchased from Amazon. It's got lots of good ideas.

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Bento lunches on a Sunday :)

Today was bring a lunch to church day to eat there between services. I made two identical bunny lunches. One for Willow and one for her friend Ava. Although neither of them were really much interested in eating. They just wanted to run around a play.

They both contain a turkey sandwich with yellow and white American cheese features plus a little more turkey on the ears, some candy eyes and a little piece of carrot for the nose.

On the right side is a hard-boiled bunny egg which I sliced in half, carrots (a bunny's favorite snack!), some red grapes on a heart pick and little fruit gels.

Happy Birthday Hubby Cake!

2011-03-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

It was my husband's birthday last Tuesday and yesterday we celebrated it at my MIL's of course. I can honestly say I have never heard Stephen milk his birthday quite as much as he did this year lol. Everything ended in, ''cause it is my birthday' and this lasted all week of course. By the time we actually celebrated his birthday on Friday, it had gotten very old. Hence the reason I made him such a sloppy cake.

Juuuust kiddin'.

It really wasn't meant to be sloppy, I adore my hubby. I don't know if you can tell in the pic but the buttercream I made was a little too soft so the piping lacked definition and drooped a little. Even so, it was my best attempt at writing on a cake. I've gone from writing like a three year old to a five year old, go me! I also cheated a bit and used store-bought ready-made cakes which I filled with white chocolate pudding. The cake lady at the store (or Janet, as I should probably call her) is always so nice and helpful. She puts up with all my questions and goes out of her way to teach me tricks of the trade. She even gave me the cake layers free!

And for anyone else who enjoys a spot of cake decorating; I found this wonderfully informative site called My Cake School which I signed up to and have learned tons from. This is one talented lady!

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Don't you think owls are just everywhere on the internet these days? Maybe it's just me.

I thought I would make cute little owl turkey sandwiches for Willow. With cucumber and white/yellow American cheese features. To me they seem to be missing something to look more like owls. Maybe ears? They made her giggle though :) She also had ~~grapies~~ grapes, cantaloupe and pretzels. She left the grapes and one sandwich after picking off the cheese.

Willow's Lunch(es)

2011-03-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to play catch up a bit here since I haven't been posting on a regular basis. Sometimes it's just easier to do it this way.

For those wondering, I promise I do actually give my daughter a break from sandwiches once in a while but usually those are the lunches I don't take photos of. Such as rice and meatballs, or pancakes, or chicken nuggets, etc. I think sandwiches make prettier bentos than these things. I'm not creative enough to know how to make mac and cheese look cute! The above was a non-sandwich lunch - or non-bread sandwich anyway, of turkey/bologna and cheese roll-ups. With a little banana bread (which she proudly made all by herself) on the right and some chopped up diced peaches. She really enjoyed it and ate every bite :D

Not sure what day she had this lunch but I remember it just being a simple liverwurst (liver sausage if you're from where I'm from) sandwich and grapes because she'd had a lot to eat that morning. She didn't like the liverwurst despite the cute bunny decoration so she just ate the bread and grapes.

Back to turkey sandwiches, this time decorated like a flower with heart-shaped cheese cutouts and some cucumber/carrots and pretzels with ranch dip in the little bucket container. Not sure what was left of this one. Most likely the carrots!

Prize Day

2011-03-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Now that Willow is 4 and a big girl, I have decided it's time to step up the chores she does at home. Up until now she has always just helped when I ask her to and she's great about doing that. But I think it's good to have consistency and routine.

I created a chore chart which contains her everyday chores and stuck it on the refrigerator. I used pictures along with the words because she is not reading. The chores include:

Brush teeth
Unload silverware in dishwasher
Tidy shoes
Clean room
Help set/clear table

Once she completes each chore she puts a check mark in the corresponding box and at the end of the day, if she managed to do them all successfully, she gets to put up a sticker. If not, she temporarily loses a toy. At the end of the week, if she made it with all her stickers she gets to pick a prize.

And for prizes, I went through my kiddie's activities books and wrote down some fun non-monetary things to do with Mom, Dad, or just by herself on pieces of paper. Then we folded them up and put them in a jar. When it comes to getting a prize, she just pulls out one piece of paper and I read it to her.

So far this has been having a wonderful affect. Her enthusiasm for doing chores is like I've never seen. But then it is still new. Yesterday, she chose her first prize and got: "make a special jellybean picture with Mommy". So that's what we did today. I thought it was a really fun thing to do with your kids so I decided to snap a few pics and share them here. I also think I may continue with this and put a 'kid's crafts' tab up the top. Whaddya think?

So here's how you make the jellybean picture. You just need a piece of card (I had some round cake boards which were perfect) and some foil to wrap over it.

Whip up some royal icing (which serves as the glue for the candy) with your helper and have him/her spread it over the board. Willow loved this part.

Then just add colorful jellybeans to make a picture or design. You could use pastel jellybeans for Easter etc and make it a holiday craft. Some will, no doubt, get nibbled on as they are applied! And, of course, the whole thing (well, not the card and foil!) is edible, even once hardened.

You can make all kinds of things. We did a simple flower garden (thats a sun up in the corner!) and Willow made a delicious-looking candy pizza! "One for the picture, one for Willow ...."

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

I know I may have mentioned it once or twice before but I just love Spring. So I'll say it again: I LOVE SPRING! It's always been my favorite season but it is now especially after a looong, hard Winter. It was so nice to be able to sit in the back yard with my babies playing and actually feeling the hot sun on our faces. It just ... lifts the spirits and makes everything look pretty, everything even smells pretty!

I was so happy to see a little sun today I, like a true Brit, was tempted to eat lunch outside but I didn't want any weird looks from the neighbors :b I know the ticks would have had a field day too. Just from playing around the steps to the porch, they dived all over us. I'm going to have to spray my yard with something ... seriously.

Here is what my little princess had for lunch today.

PB&J sandwiches (she ate the other two squares while I was making this) with a little cheese bunny. Some veggie chips and some carrots. As hopeful as I was about the carrots when she asked me this morning to put them in her lunch with promises of eating them, unfortunately they are not making a come back.

She is going for another trial day tomorrow at a different school. Number 2 of the two good schools. So we'll see how that goes. I just hope I can get up in the morning. Since the clocks went back I have been all over the place. Ryder too, which has made me worse. He has been waking up (and insisting on getting up) at 6am these past few days. Right when I was planning on starting to get up an hour or so ahead of the kids to get more things done. Not sure I could do 5am!

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Ahh Mondays.

Even though I don't work - at least outside of being a homemaker ;) I still dislike them. At the weekend I do not keep to the same standards of housecleaning, I'm a bit more relaxed. I'll keep the dishes done (for the most part) and the house generally tidy but I rarely do the laundry or pay the floor much attention and I'm OK with toys being around. At the weekend, I like to enjoy spending time with my hubby and that is usually when we'll get to go out together or with the family. I also concentrate on long put-off projects (such as cleaning underneath Willow's bed or my kitchen junk draw). And then, on Sunday, we have church. So Monday, for me, is back to work on the chores and back to being hubby-less during the day :(

I think I did a pretty decent job this weekend though with keeping things spic and span so I had extra time to play with Willow today. We pretended she was a baby bunny and I was a daddy fox. She had me chasing her in and out of the tent we built with some blankets hanging over the coffee table. She also painted a little wooden box from the craft store to put her jewelry in and enjoyed having me watch her.

I'm going to make more of an effort to have the house tidy in the evenings before bed so that I can relax and spend more time enjoying my babies. Time is flying by quickly, I know it.

Here's the lunch I made for her today. A bologna monkey sandwich which I cut out with kitchen scissors. And some cucumbers and chopped canned peaches. She left the cucumbers and also decided she's done with bologna!

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-12T10:01:00.000-08:00

My little girl started a 'trial day' at her new school last Wednesday. Or what we are considering for a new school anyway. It's a choice between two very good ones. She absolutely loved it, as I knew she would, and she asked immediately if she could go back the next day. But unfortunately she has to wait until August.

Not much bento-making around here lately. Here's what she had the other day. Not sure which day exactly. Just one I happened to snap a pic of.

A bologna sandwich thin with some dried apples and melon/strawberries. She ate it all :)

Today I am concentrating on cleaning my kitchen. Which entails the counters, floors, cupboards, walls, drawers ... everything. Yes, I made another cake lol. It was a very simply frosted (vanilla) cake (with banana cream filling) so I have no excuse really except that I only had an hour to decorate. It was for my lovely, but sometimes trying to say the least, brother-in-law and I had to make a mad dash out of the door with the kids after it was done to take it to his (un)party.

"I'm in charge" is Mike's favorite thing to say. Or yell!, whatever.

Willow's Lunch

2011-03-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Little PB&J giraffes with some carrots on the top right and delicious Bakewell tart on the top left that Willow and I made the other day. I used a flower cutter to cut out a piece. Once again she left the carrots, saying 'yuk'. So, to save on waste, I think i'll give them a break for now. Maybe she'll forget she doesn't like them!

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-03-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

First MTM in a couple of weeks for Willow. She had pizza stars, a half-boiled egg, strawberries and melon, broccoli and carrots with Ranch dip and some sliced bananas. She ate it all, leaving a little broccoli and strawberry/melon.

If you want to see some other fun Muffin Tin Mondays or share one of your own, go over to Michelle's blog here.

I feel so honored today. A VERY talented friend of ours; Rachel Crafton mentioned my blog on her blog! When I say talented, I don't mean that lightly either. Check out the different categories on the left sidebar of her blog. Thanks Rachel, for thinking me worthy :)

In other news, my little boy (see his adorable face on my sidebar under Willow's pic) is sick with an ear infection. Not a rare thing I understand but something I've never encountered before as a Mom. Willow never fell asleep with a bottle (unlike Ryder) and so was never prone to it. I feel so bad for him because he got this horrible fever right after just shaking off one for a viral infection. And it began two days before the weekend this time so it wasn't until Monday (today) that he saw the doctor who said that was the cause. So he will begin some antibiotics and finally get better. Hate seeing my happy little boy miserable! Not to mention how exhausted I am!

Bento

2011-03-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

I actually sent my child outside to play on her slide today while Ryder and I sat on the steps to watch. Oh I miss the sun!! And it was hardly play-outside-for-a-long-time kind of weather but you gotta take what little sun you can get where we live!

A simple but colorful lunch today consisting of a ham and cheese sandwich with a little penguin on top (I was going to try to make him cuter with white wings etc but Ryder was hanging on my ankle and having none of it!). Also carrots, snow peas and grapes - which she hardly touched any of *sigh* gotta get this kid eating her fruit and veggies again!

I'm making a new recipe for dinner tonight; Caribbean Jerk chicken with rice. Let you know how it turns out!

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

Since it was a really wet and gloomy day outside and the kids and I were stuck indoors all day, I decided it would be the perfect time to try my hand at bread-making - something I've been wanting to do for a while but was never making the right meal that day or had enough time on another.

To me, making bread usually means, mashing a couple of bananas and mixing it with Bisquick before putting in the oven and baking. But today this meant tackling dinner rolls! With yeast! So intimidating! lol. I did feel rather like a pro though, as I punched and kneaded, rolled and shaped. Even if this was the ending result!

I wish I could blame it on the poor picture but they really weren't magazine-worthy appearance-wise. But they did taste better than they looked. At least according to my husband who said that he was very impressed with them and thanked me numerous times for making them. Bless his lil' cottons.

In other news, I missed Muffin Tin Monday again this week. Although this time it was on purpose. I just found it easier to throw a turkey sandwich together with some pineapple and carrots for Willow with all the other things I had to do today.

It was rather blah and uncolorful (if thats a word) but she ate almost all of it, my good girl. Even the carrots this time. Note: I tried teeny tiny carrots!

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

Blub blub blub ....

Pretty sure I've done a fish-shaped lunch for Willow before but, afer seeing Jill's adorable fishies today I felt inspired to make another. I was going to make turkey sandwiches but she insisted on PB&J complaining that she hasn't had that in a long time. I told her we were out of jelly but I could do just PB so she had that. Afterward however, I got complaints that she didn't have the turkey she wanted and that she always has PB. *Sigh* Are they ever satisfied? She did eat it all though and her mandarin oranges/goldfish crackers.

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

A simple peanut butter half bagel for Willow's lunch today with cheese flowers and red grapes.She ate all but the grapes.

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

Willow had a ham and cheese flower sandwich today which she helped make with the letters of her name on top. I got this idea from one of Susan Yuen's bento books where she did something similar (although much neater than the one above). We added some little icing sugar eyes (which I think can make anything look cute) and a nori mouth. She also had some grape jello and carrots. As before though, she left the carrots and doesn't seem to be liking them much anymore. Maybe I need to try a new dip besides ranch. Or maybe it's just because they're such huge baby carrots. I prefer the teeny tiny ones myself.

Hubby is sick right now so he took the day off. That doesn't stop him working though. Right now he is helping his lil' bro install some kitchen cabinets in his new home. I have been looking at interior decorating tips and tricks online a lot lately in anticipation of our next home which will hopefully be within the next year or two. I know it's a ways off still but I'm so excited to move into our 'forever home' as I call it, I just have to do something besides wait. So I'm getting some ideas rolling. I was up until 2am saving web sites etc.

Today, I'm trying to get some organizing done around this home. Ryder's going to help, he has plans for my Tupperware cupboard! I have four or five huge piles of laundry to fold and put away so I better get cracking!

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday people!

I completely forgot today was Monday and instead of making Willow her lunch in a muffin tin, she had it in a lunch box as usual. She had a ham and mayo sandwich which I cut out with a circle sandwich cutter and made a little girl out of sandwich meat and cheese to go on top. Above that are some pretzels, julienned carrots and grapes. She ate everything but the carrots. Not bad considering she's sick right now.

Things have been busy around here with church conferences, going out to dinner with family a couple times, shopping and making Ryder a cake for his birthday party. I've not been home much to clean up and then when you add a cake to the mix, can we say disaster zone? hehe. As it always is after I make one.

I decided to go with this cute Betty Crocker dino cake which I made with a butter pecan cake for the body and vanilla for the head and tail. Frosted with lime green butter cream and easily decorated with assorted chocolates of different sizes. It was a lot of fun.

And here's my little newly one year old tucking into it. Mmmm.

2 minutes later: As you can see, he liked it so much he didn't stop at the cake! lol

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

A busy day of cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping ahead of me. My husband has to work till late so I'll be all alone :( It does make me feel happy that the sun is shining outside though. Just .... lifts the spirits!

Willow had a little chickie lunch today. I saw some fun tutorials on the mothering corner blog for sandwich rolls and decided to give them a try. They were really easy. I spread some bread with peanut butter (after cutting off the crusts), rolled them up and used picks for the head and all sprinkles for the features. To the right she had a chickie egg (picks and nori), some red grapes and a small peppermint patty-type chocolate candy. She left some of the egg and the grapes.

2011-02-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

What a nice morning! I took Willow to gymnastics and then, after that, drove to my Pastor's wife's house with a couple other friend's from church and had a really nice time together. I was so nervous that Ryder was going to tear up their house ... or drool all over it but, aside from spilling the dog's bowl of water and dipping his hands in the toilet bowl, he was very well behaved. Especially considering he was missing a much-needed nap. Thank you God! I made Willow this lunch before we left this morning. Just a simple peanut butter sandwich with a fruit leather face and fruit roll-up bows (unlike my last face sandwich, this one does not look like a lion lol), some natural applesauce with sprinkles and a few butterfly crackers. She also had a banana. I guess she had a big appetite after her gymnastic workout 'cause she ate it all :)

This week is a busy one. Tonight I'm going, with the kiddos, to take some pictures for a friend. My baby boy turns one tomorrow but we are celebrating on Sunday with family and friends. Can't believe how fast a year goes by with kids. Where does the time go? Feels like just yesterday he was placed in my arms and snuggled up to me. He is such a wonderfully happy baby, I am truly truly blessed :) Friday and Saturday there's a couple's conference at church with a guest speaker that I'm looking forward to attending with my hubabubs - who took me out to a nice meal (kid-free!) yesterday btw!). I'll be making quite a lot of food for that on Thursday. Plus Ryder's cake at some point during the weekend. So i guess Wednesday will be grocery shopping and Spring cleaning day at our home. Hate it when it gets away from me!

If anyone has any nice cute, but simple cake ideas for a first birthday feel free to share!

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

Finally, we are seeing land and grass again amidst all the thick snow that is covering our yard. And even though it's still frigidly cold outside, the sun is actually shining through our windows.

Spring=getting out of the house more. Whoopie!

Willow had a round peanut butter and jelly sandwich today ('remember, peanut butter and jelly Mom. Got it?') with a little cheese giraffe on top. To the right of that is some chopped cantaloupe, grapes and veggie straw chips. She left the grapes and ate everything else.

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Willow had her second gymnastics class this morning and really enjoyed it. Her coach said she is good on the pole thingy you hang on and swing around (not sure the name?) and that she is 'so strong' :) I'm so glad she got to go this time. The past three classes have been cancelled due to all the snow we have been having. Hopefully we've seen the last of it, I can't wait for the Spring to come! And this Spring will be extra special because my Dad is coming to visit from England!

Willow had a change from the usual sandwich today and instead had pasta and peas. And since it was a rainy, gloomy kinda morning, I cut little umbrellas out of cheese to go on top. She also had carrots, grapes and some pretty chocolate-covered sesame seeds. She left the grapes and some of the carrots and ate the rest. I think she's all fruited out because I've been trying to make a point of not giving her crackers too much for snacks etc. So instead she's been having apples and peanut butter, or bananas and grapes. Today she was whining for cheddar bunnies but I didn't give in! I don't mind a few times a week but I don't want her to have crackers and salty snacks everyday.

In other news, my little boy has his first birthday in a week. So expect more cake pics soon! lol I also have a friend coming over on Monday to make cakes for two of her kids. None of this is good for my diet!

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

A little late in the day but here it is: Willow's Muffin Tin Monday lunch. No theme.

She chose the ingredients herself.

Top from left: grapes, carrots, cucumbers (ranch dip not shown)

Bottom from left: butterfly crackers, flower-shaped bologna sandwich with a little girl's face made out of cheese on top, and cheerios.

She left the cucumbers.

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

Heart sammie for Willow's lunch today. With peanut butter spread and a fruit leather heart on top. She also had butterfly crackers, a fruit gel, marshmallow and some chopped up string cheese in the little container. She ate every bit :)

Willow's Lunch

2011-02-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

Finally January is over. What a long and busy month! Willow had her princess party and loved it! Here are a few pics ....

We had the party in a hotel banquet room due to a last minute change of plans (due to the room we'd originally chosen being booked and us finding out while decorating it a few hours before!). My friend Kelly did the decorating and she made this throne for Princess Willow although she didn't sit in it much, she was too busy running around all over the place.

All the food and drinks had a cute name which my mother in law made labels for such as Stepmother's Fruit Tea.

Princess Punch

Her Majesty's Cream Cheese and Blueberry Crackers

Pink Princess Popcorn

and Cinderella's Pumpkin Bread. There were also, Knights in Armor (pigs in a blanket), Princess Sceptors (marshmallows on a lollypop stick dipped in chocolate with sprinkles and a pink M&M on the top. An idea I found on another blog somewhere), Princess pops (brownies on sticks), Golden Goose Eggs (devilled eggs), Ariel's Shell Delight (chicken salad-stuffed phyllo shells), King Triton's kielbasa, Medieval meatballs etc. Wish I'd gotten a picture of it all but I was concentrating on getting pics of the kids having fun.

So this is the cake I finally went with after changing my mind a zillion times. An easy sheet cake with a 6" round cake on top. Decorated with some crushed Graham crackers for sand, chocolate shells and starfish which I made using molds, little fondant characters, flowers and coral, The Little Mermaid figurines and an Ariel candle. Willow loved it. I actually did all the decorating during one of her naps but I'd made everything fondant a couple days ahead of time. For the cake board, I covered it in foil that I'd scrunched and crinkled and then covered that in blue cellophane to look like water.

The sheet cake was just a boxed funfetti mix. These are the colorful cake trimmings which I had to resist nibbling on.The round cake on top was a yellow cake.

We hired a Cinderella princess for the kids and she was wonderful. She really made the party.

She did face-painting, singing, story-telling, crowning of the birthday girl, party bags, pictures and lots of fun games and prizes. Would definitely recommend Once Upon a Time Parties if you're anywhere near RI.

A thrilled Willow with Cinderella.

The kids scrambling for the pinata loot.

Willow opening her presents. This went on forever.

My baby boy was exhausted. He slept the whole time on my other friend Kelli.

So I haven't had much time or desire to do bento lunches this month. At least not cute ones. But hopefully I'll get back on the ball this February.

I do have a couple of pictures. This was a quick lunch I made for Willow the other day. Peanut butter sandwiches I made using cutters with stamps, some bunny and chickie crackers, carrots and cucumber with ranch dip.

And this I made yesterday in the VERY cute Din Din Smart Stainless Bus Platter that was very kindly sent to me from MySweetMuffin.com. I had really wanted one for a while now so I was excited to receive it! Oh and so was Willow of course lol.

Egg salad, peas, goldfish crackers, vanilla yogurt with a few blueberries and some oranges slices.

Don't you just love this tin? How fun. It has five little compartments so not only does the food not touch each other (and we all know about that right?) but you can use it to teach about the food groups. It's non-toxic and BPA, Phthalate, PVC and Lead Free. So need to worry about that and best of all IMO; dishwasher safe!
It's nice and small and dinky but, as you can see, holds more than enough food. You can get these on the mysweetmuffin.com site along with so many other cute things they have. Check out the bento boxes!

I hope they make one for grown ups too!

Shower Cake

2011-01-16T20:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy busy weekend for me. Really shows in my house too! Despite our best efforts (mine and my husband's that is) it just does not seem to want to get clean. The main reason being I baked a cake for a friend's shower at church. Whenever I bake a cake my kitchen always looks like it exploded both during and after. But if I really want the cake to be perfect it looks even worse LOL. Add to that restarting the thing three times and you have an absolute disaster in both kitchen AND cake.

Sigh.

I just could not get it to look smooth, or even or at all how I wanted it. I lost count of how many batches of frosting I made! At first the cake was white, then it was green and then I changed it to pink argh. The sweet ladies at my church gave me lots of compliments on it but I just saw a big mess.

Here are a few pics, judge for yourself!

No, I didn't let my four year old write on it :( I really am that awful at the writing part and try to avoid it at all costs! The theme was ladybugs. I couldn't get a red color frosting from Wilton's food color so I ended up squeezing the red frosting out of the tube kind. Same with the black. Good thinking on my part!

I was, however, very pleased with my little lady bug :D Isn't she cute?

Here is the cake table at the shower along with some lady bug table confetti.

These are some cake pops I made for the favors. They were a big hit. I made a chocolate cake in a 9x13 pan, let it cool and then mixed it with a tub of frosting until the cake was all broken up and combined. Then I rolled them into little balls and refrigerated for a few hours before inserting a lollypop stick and coating in some red-colored white chocolate and letting set standing in a Styrofoam bar. If I had had a bit more time I would have liked to have decorated them with some black spots or something but I settled for a cute ladybug cup that I found at IParty.

Here are some of the decorations Bonnie, my pastor's wife, did. She made the paper ladybugs which looked great. The ladybug balloons were from Amazon.

Adorable ladybug picks in the food. Also from Amazon.

The games!

My lovely friend Tiffany doing one of the games. She had to try to multi-task while being timed and kept talking to the baby or pretending she was on the phone, I was cracking up!

At least it tasted OK. Each time I made a frosting I put a different extract in for flavor (by mistake of course) and one of the ladies said, mmm what frosting did you use? lol Seeecret.

Alynn, the shower Mommy opening her gifts. She's expecting a girl :) Girls are great for first time Mom's I think, cause you're so excited about dressing up and making the baby cute. Boys make wonderful second babies cause then you get all the cuddles! Plus you're nerves aren't so high the second time round which is a good thing with boys!

It was so much fun. I barely had time to get home and tidy before we left for a birthday party. These next two weeks I'm going to be trying to get Willow's upcoming birthday party plans finalized. Thank you all so much for the cake ideas! I think I'm going to attempt an under the sea type castle cake and place some Ariel figurines on top. This time I will ask Grandma to watch the kids at her house while I make it!

Willow's Lunch

2011-01-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

I made Willow a bit of a treat lunch today ... just because. It's also kinda small because she had a lot for snack.

She had a Nutella foot-shaped sandwich. Not sure why, that's just what she chose! I cut some raspberry fruit roll-up out with a small oval cutter and then sliced them in half for the 'polished' toes. On the left there are some star-shaped cucumbers (ranch dip not shown) and a candy necklace for fun. She had some cheese, also not shown. She was very happy with this lunch and ate it all.

Willow's Lunch

2011-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about how much is going on over the next few months with birthdays and showers. I love parties! First up, is a friend's baby shower this Saturday which I am making the cake for. I'm nervous because I still don't really have a plan in mind but I'm sure I'll put it together in time.

After that, in two weeks time, is Willow's birthday party. As I mentioned before, we were looking to do it in a hall. Well, we finally have a place which a friend of ours suggested and it's sort of like a large room with a mini kitchen in it. I think it'll be great for the party. We have princess Cinderella coming to entertain the kids and there's going to be lots of crafts and food and pinatas ..... Can't believe how big my little girl is getting. She's no longer a baby. She's a little madam! I love her so much :)

Today she had her first day at gymnastics and just loved it! Two of her friends also went. I took a few pics (see below) but they are awful quality, my apologies!

I'm not sure if we were even meant to be taking pictures!

After gymnastics she was still in play mode and I didn't want her and Ryder tearing through the house so I took them to the mall play area to burn off the remaining energy! Even Ryder loves it there.

Here is the lunch I made for her today. She had a peanut butter and jelly rhino sandwich cut with one of a set of three cookie cutters I found at Walmart. It had a rhino, elephant and alligator and they sort of clip together which is neat. Plus bunny crackers, some cheese cubes and some dried apple crisps. She ate it all.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-01-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

Happy (Muffin Tin) Monday!

I didn't follow the theme at all this week, which was 'liners and cups'. Instead Willow just had the random items below.

Top: Ranch dressing, chicken nuggets, carrots (for the ranch)

Bottom: 2 fig newton cookies, fruit gel, and some pasta and peas which she'd already ate a little of before I managed to get the pic.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Willow's Lunch

2011-01-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a slow start to the year for me as far as bento's go. I just seem to have gotten out of my rhythm a bit lately. I'm sure it'll be back. Just had my mind and energy on all sorts of others things. The main one being the princess party I'm going to have for my soon-to-be-four year old.

What started off as an idea to have just a small get together at home for her, turned into doing it at grandma's house (because it's bigger), and then when Grandma changed her mind, it was back to our house but by then we had added a bunch more kids so we've decided we need to do it in a hall. Feel kinda silly hiring a hall for a four year old's party but it is what it is. We really can't do it at our small little house.

So now because it's in a hall, I feel compelled to up the decorations and food etc. We're going to need a bigger cake than I was originally going to do. She wants Ariel the mermaid so I'm tossing between the idea of doing two cakes: 1 princess castle and a small Ariel cake or just one big castle. Maybe I can find a small Ariel doll to put on it somewhere. Fortunately I have a friend at church who is helping me out with ideas. She's awesome with cakes and she even offered to do it for me. But I really wanna give this a shot myself. I'll show the results after Jan 29th!

Anyhow, onto today's lunch. Very uninspired I'm afraid.

On the left is a jelly and cream cheese heart-shaped sandwich with some yogurt raisins. And on the right; some red grapes with a little green pick for color and a baby bel cheese cut with a small flower cutter. She ate it all.

Btw happy new year everyone!

Rice Krispy Trees

2011-01-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

I have another overdue Christmas post to share! During the holidays, Willow and I made these cute little Rice Krispie 'Trees'. I first saw them on the Cute Food For Kids blog and thought they would be fun to make. She gives a tutorial on her blog if you want to give them a try for next year. Not to mention, she has so many other amazingly fun foods for kids so, take a look!

First you cut a rice krispy treat into a triangle, Christmas tree, shape and insert a craft stick.

Stick the remaining rice krispy treat together to form the base of the tree.

Decorate with some pretty sprinkles.

Willow really enjoyed the decorating part.

Mine didn't really want to stand up but it didn't matter, they all went really fast!

New Year

2010-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

My last post of 2010! I have gained a lot of readers this year. I'm grateful for all the sweet comments you guys leave on my posts, they are so motivating. I have also discovered lots of wonderful bento blogs this year, some I can barely get through a day without checking! There are so many talented Mommys out there who inspire me! See the side bar on the bottom right for links. I wanted to share a few of my favorite bentos that I have made this year with you guys ...

Hope you all have a wonderful 2011!

Willow's Lunch(es)

2010-12-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some bento and other lunches I made for Willow during my sort-of time off from blogging ....

I couldn't say what she had when and how much she ate but I think I remember what was in them. This one contained kiwi, spaghetti sauce meatballs and some rice decorated with little ham kitties.

I packed this one in her new blue sucre bento box. I love it! It contained a chicken and cheese mayo sandwich decorated with a cucumber tree and little cheese star. Also, some grapes on snowman picks (which I find kinda skeletal looking eek) and Christmas-shaped pretzels.

A fun Curious George sammie. Inside the sandwich I think was turkey or chicken and George was made with bologna turkey/chicken and nori features. To make him, I simply printed a pic of Curious George, traced it onto parchment paper and then cut around the sandwich meat with a toothpick. Very easy. The nori is the tricky part I think. I gave up and just used stamped out features in the end. She also had some little cheddar duckies and a Clementine.

I don't remember what this sandwich was. Most likely turkey or chicken. I made a little glove out of bologna and American cheese. I used a decorator's tip for the dots. Took about 2 minutes to make. On the side, she had some festive pretzels again and a little pineapple fruit gel. Pretty sure she ate it all up.

This lunch Willow made herself, with a little help from Mommy, for one of the holiday-themed Muffin Tin Mondays. She hada peanut butter snowman sandwich decorated with sprinkles, fruit leather and a cucumber hat. Also in the little mini muffin cups are some holly-shaped cucumbers, Christmas dots and some Christmas pretzel snowflakes.

Another Christmas muffin tin. I was in a rush making this one. She had a snowflake sandwich, pretzel Christmas trees (just realizing how much pretzels she's been eating lately!), cheerio 'halos', yogurt raisin 'snow', broccoli 'trees' and some mandarin snowman mouths (haha I know it's a stretch).

A little blurry and hard to see but this was a ham teddy bear sandwich with strawberries and cheese triangle.

And finally, this last one was bologna and cheese roll-ups, with veggies: carrots and cucumber plus ranch and for fruit: grapes and apple slices. It was packed in the new Lunch Bots Trio box which they kindly sent to me for review. I haven't owned a lunch bots box before and was excited for this one to arrive. I've seen so many adorable bento lunches packed in them online. When this one came out recently, I was impressed to see more sections in the box than the others. Although I like the two also, for variation and think I will get both.

I love the shiny stainless steel , great if you don't want to use plastic for your lunches and it's sturdy also. The permanent dividers are awesome - no losing bits and pieces down the garbage disposal (or is that just me?) Love that it is dishwasher safe - that's a big plus in my book. And it packs a good size lunch. Sandwiches would have to be cookie-cutted out or made small but that's fine with me since it's what I always do. The only downside for me was that the bottom divider was a little crooked and since it's permanent I can't fix it. I don't know if you can tell in the picture. Not a big problem but if I had to pick one I would rather that be straight. Most likely just how this particular box was made though. The lid fits snugly, although it isn't water-tight and, unlike the other lunch bots boxes, it is stainless steel which is very cool looking.

The boxes are decently priced and can be found on the Lunch Bots website and on Amazon. Although the trio is currently only available on Amazon.

Ho ho ho, all over now

2010-12-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

The hustle and bustle of Christmas is finally over.

Well not fully, I still have all the cleaning up left to do! Bits of wrapping paper and Styrofoam still about the floor, boxes everywhere, dishes left over from the big family breakfast and I'm not even going to begin to describe Willow's room!

But one thing is good, I have my computer back! Technically it's a new one but my old hard drive has finally been installed onto it - thanks to my hubby, and I can start using it again. Including downloading photos from my camera which means ...da da da .... I am back to the blogging world! It's sad really, days feel like weeks without my computer lol.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We did. No thanks to someone - if he's reading, he knows who he is! I got the new table Stephen promised me for my present. Want to see?

Isn't it nice? The other one we had for six years was a nice table too but so not me (so my mother in law who gave it to me!) I am grateful she passed it to us when she got her new one and we had something to eat our dinner on for all these years but it was getting to the point where I was going to scream if I didn't get rid of it! I was aching for a nice new, dark wood table with a little more contemporary style just like this one. Needless to say I am very happy and satisfied now!

Stephen's parents and brothers came over for a big breakfast on Christmas morning and I was excited to get to decorate it so soon. My husband is the best breakfast-maker so it was all really nice. He made pancakes, sausage links/patties, maple bacon, hash and scrambled eggs ... what a guy!

The feast!

After breakfast Willow opened all her presents, although we did let her open her stocking beforehand. She got so many toys and books and games this year and was very happy.

Including a new big girl Bible.

I do say it every year, but this was the year she actually understood Christmas. She knew the meaning (and I'm not talking santa), she now understands the concept of giving and receiving and she knew to wake us up at 7.30 with, 'Mommy, Daddy ... it's Christmas!' lol yaaawn. I was happy to get up straight away though. I couldn't wait to see her face when she saw her presents.

This one was from Mommy and Daddy. I think the present she loved the most was her Ariel doll sent over from my Dad and his wife Heather in England. That one that got the biggest reaction for sure.

Ryder was not going to be excluded from the fun either. He had a great time playing with the toys and wrapping paper. And, of course, eating everything in sight. Including my couch!

A cute pic of him with a Christmas tree ornament ... mmm delicious!

Next up; both of their birthdays. Willow turns 4 in January and Ryder turns 1 in February. I am going to do a special princess party for Willow this year and invite all her friends. I think she's going to love it.

Sprinkle Fun

2010-12-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Wow it's been a while since my last post! Mostly it's due to my son eating (or at least having a good munch on) my USB card reader and therefore preventing me from having a way to download pics but some of it is also due to being busier than normal because of the holidays. My time online these days tends to be in search for presents. And I have most of them now, yay!

However, I have been taking photos here and there which I should be able to get up soon :)

I did want to make a quick post today to let you guys know of these fun sprinkles that I discovered when browsing goodies at Michael's. They are made by Wilton and I think they will be so great for use in bento-making!

Here's one of the sets I bought.

This is the people sprinkle set and, as you can see by the picture of the little faces, there are all sorts of fun ways to use them for eyes and noses, hair and even sunglasses etc. Here's the second set:

The animal sprinkle set. Great used for whiskers and other features. The little orange triangles would make cute duck noses.

I noticed on the Wilton web site that they also have these candy eyes (which I usually buy from Amazon) and these red cinnamon drop sprinkles (good for noses!).

I love Wilton products. If you go to their site and search for sprinkles you'll see these and all the other fun sprinkles etc that they have.

Willow's Lunch

2010-12-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

Wow this month is dragging! December always has done ever since I was a kid, funny that!

I made Willow some Christmas stocking turkey/cheese sandwiches for lunch today with some carrots, cucumber, grapes and chocolate sesame seeds. She ate all but her cucumbers and carrots.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-12-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Muffin Tin Monday this week is Christmas themed! The best of all theme's in my opinion :)

Top row: grapes on a Christmas pick, turkey and cheese Christmas tree sandwich, little gingerbread men cheese cut-outs.

Bottom row: Snowman cookie, snowman noses (aka carrots) with gingerbread man cucumber, Christmas M&Ms

She loved this muffin tin, most likely because there was more sugar than I normally include. I always have her eat her sandwiches first otherwise she will go straight for things like cookies and fill-up. She ate it all, even though I thought this was way too much food for her!

So happy, we actually had a little flurry of snow while I was making this. Hope there's more to come!

Willow's Lunch

2010-12-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

And here it is, my first Christmas bento of the season!

A cute little angel carrying a present. She is made from white and yellow American cheese, tortilla for her dress and the tiny present (which my husband says looks more like a bible) is made from cucumber. I also added some nori for her eyes and mouth. With this she had some blackberries and honeydew melon, (I think I cut it up too early, despite it sitting on my counter forever, because it wasn't very ripe!) and some carrots. I also included a cute little angel cupcake pick, that I bought recently.

She ate her sandwich/angel but hardly touched the fruit/veg :(

Willow's lunch today was in my new leaflet tight lunch box (I removed the little white compartments) which I was the very lucky winner of in Emily's giveaway. See here. What a great giveaway to win! I got so many goodies and she even sweetly included an adorable tinker bell bag for Willow!

She was thrilled, of course, and wore it on her shoulder the whole day. Thanks so much Emily! :)

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-11-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't been feeling great the last few days. None of us have, lots of coughing and sniveling. I think it's due to the change in weather. At least, that's what they always say. Fortunately today is Muffin Tin Monday and there's no theme so I had it easy with Willow's lunch. Just throw a few things in muffin cups, nice and simple. I let Willow decide what she was having today.

She chose an egg mayo sandwich cut out with a turtle cookie cutter, cheddar bunnies, cucumber and carrots, and blackberries and oranges for fruit. She didn't eat very much though!

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-26T06:20:00.000-08:00

Wow, has it really been a week? I promise it's not because I have given up making my daughter lunches lol. I have been busy with lots of Christmas shopping for the kids and Thanksgiving etc. Hope you all had a good one! We spent most of the day with my husband's family and then went to visit some friends in the evening. And despite not getting their naps, the kids did really great.

I did manage to get a pic of one of Willow's lunches from last week in my new lock and lock box which I ordered from Amazon. I see it used often on a lot of the bento blogs I read regularly and I've wanted one for a while. Finally I got one and I love it. Especially the four little removable boxes although I did find they were deeper than they appear, so it packed a little too much food for Willow to eat at this age.

Anyway, here it is. And if you don't look too hard, you won't even notice that I forgot to take the label off from around the sides!

She had a bologna sandwich with a little cheese elephant (sugar candy eye), some juicy blackberries, wheat thin crackers with cream cheese + 1 fig newton and some veggies (carrots, cucumbers). She ate very little of everything. I think she had a particularly small appetite that day too.

I have a few little projects I'm working on right now and trying to spend more time with the kiddies in the run up to Christmas so the slow posts will continue for a bit I think. But I am still reading! :)

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Maybe you can help settle an 'argument' between me and my little know-it-all....

I made this simple lunch for Willow today (ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich with fruit: halved red grapes and chopped cantaloupe) and she said, 'you made me a chicken, Mommy?' I said, 'no, it's a turkey'. She said, 'no! it's a chicken!' and I said ... well, you get the idea lol.

I'm not very familiar with turkeys so I could be wrong AND I'd be OK with that ... if she wasn't four!

What do you think it is? (Extra points if you say turkey).

Carrot Cake Flop

2010-11-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

The other day, we celebrated my Mother-in-law's birthday. She and the rest of the family came over for dinner and to open presents. Now because my brother-in-law's are brutally honest (and I do mean brutally), I have to make SURE I cook something that I know they like whenever they come over. And even then it has to be perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, with the right brands of everything (i.e. the way my Mother in law would make it!) Think Everybody Loves Raymond. That's my life!

So I made barbecue brisket for dinner. Which is just beef brisket put into the slow cooker with about a cup of water and a little barbecue sauce. When it's done, I take it out, drain the water and add it back smothered in barbecue sauce. Once heated, I shred it and it's soo moist and tasty. I also made rice and for sides; glazed carrots, corn and biscuits (which turned out to be freezer-burned, oops!).

All is going well. Even Marie (that's my MIL) was thrilled with her presents. This is truly a first and we were all shocked. Usually you're lucky if it's not thrown back at you in disgust ... no kiddin'!

Here's the proof that she was happy and I might just frame it!

Although we did make one mistake! Fortunately it was just because she already had it.

Speaking of mistakes though, I made a carrot cake for her birthday. After getting the recipe from a fantastic baker friend and having (somewhat) decent baking skills I thought I couldn't go wrong. I did everything according to what she had written down ... word for word .... very carefully! Like I said, these aren't forgiving people lol.

I didn't leave a lot of time for the decorating so I wasn't going for beautiful. Just decent. I slapped some chopped walnuts on around the edges but admit I could have done a tidier job!

Still, it's a good thing I didn't bother because this was the reaction!

So I don't know what went wrong. Things like this always seem to happen to me whenever I borrow recipes from other people. For example, I have tried to make Marie's roast like ten times! Each time it's dry and burned and hers is juicy and falling apart. Wish I could say it was my oven but I've tried it in two!

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. At least my Mother in Law had a nice time lol :)

Goodbyn for $3!!!

2010-11-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

I just found a great deal over on Shannon's blog for anyone who is interested in buying one of those cool Goodbyn lunch boxes that you get to decorate with stickers. Like Shannon, I don't normally post deals ... haven't ever infact, but this one is too good not to share!!

If you don't know what a Goodbyn is, here's a pic:

As you can see, they have lots of neat little compartments for filling up and a thermos too. I haven't been sure whether I wanted one for the longest time but with this deal you can get one for just under $3. Definitely worth that!

All you have to do is sign up for an account here: http://www.gilt.com/account/register?pkey=mtvmen2

For signing you will receive a $20 credit to your account. Check your account after 2-3 minutes for it to show up. Once it's there, click on the 'Children' tab and you will see the Goodbyn selection which are priced at $15. I'm pretty sure they are normally more than that so $15 is good as it is. Anyway, add one to your shopping cart (I got pink for Willow and Stephen is going to order one for Ryder!) and go to check out.

The shipping costs just under $8 and with your credit, all you will be paying is $3!!! Now run, get yours!

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

I didn't participate in Muffin Tin Monday this week cause I was a little uninspired by the theme. Instead I made an under the sea themed lunch for Willow of a mermaid (she's obsessed with them!), some octopuses and little fishies. She ate it all.
First time I tried making egg sheet too and thanks to Lia Chen's wonderful tutorial (she has many) it was a success. Although admittedly no where near as good as hers!

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Gobble gobble! First turkey bento!

Willow had a bologna sandwich with a turkey turkey on top! She also had a few grapes, carrots and a strawberry. This was fun to make! I think the sugar eyes make him look like he's a bit dizzy. And I must have been a bit dizzy when I added the little thing next to his beak because it looks awful (I dunno, what is it called, a Wattle??) But I was rushed and what can ya do when you have a crawling baby hanging on your ankles?!

The tail is made out of red, orange and yellow peppers and I simply used the long ear of a bunny cookie cutter to make the feathers.

Willow's lunch today was packed in my new super cute bento box from mysweetmuffin.com

I was thrilled when they offered me one for review because they have so many wonderful bento boxes on their web site to choose from. This one is called Pretty Alice and it's one of Shinzi Katoh's designs. I notice his bento boxes are becoming all the rage right now, and rightly so. He does such beautiful artistic designs that tend to be of famous stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, The Wizard of Oz etc . You can find all these bento boxes also on mysweetmuffin.com

As you can see; this box is actually a 2-tiered bento with a divider in the top box and a snug-fitting lid for the bottom. On the top of the lid the text reads: 'Pretty Alice Met Many Mad Characters in Wonderland'. It always makes me giggle to read any words written on bento boxes because they are usually translated from Japanese.

This really is such a cute box, both in design and in size. At first glance, I thought it would be too small but it is actually perfectly proportioned for my (almost) 4 year old. Dimensions are: 5.5"L x 4"W x 3.25"H. And it is also microwave-safe. I know Willow is going to love taking this to school!

After browsing their site too, I found so many other things to add to my wishlist. Such as the Din Din Smart Stainless Bus Platter. Isn't that neat??

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

Lunch today was (bologna and ham) bear and bunny grilled cheese sandwiches with cantaloupe and cheddar bunnies, which she had asked for. All finished again, wooh!

I'm looking forward to making some cute turkey sandwiches for Thanksgiving coming up :)

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-11-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

It's that time again :)

There was no theme this week for Muffin Tin Monday so I decided we would do our own. Since Willow seemed to be having a dinosaur kinda day today, playing with her new dinosaur toy ....

... and asking me to print dinosaur pictures to color, I decided to go with a dinosaur theme.

On the left we have some carrot flowers and apple leaves for the herbivorous dinos, along with some green dino dip (Ranch with a drop of green food coloring). Then some dinosaur nuggets, dinosaur eggs (edamame), and crackers with a cheese dinosaur footprint. She ate it all :D

Willow's Lunch

2010-11-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Flower lunch today. I just wanted to keep it simple after being up all night with my son. I whipped this up for Willow in five minutes so that's simple enough for me!

She had a turkey sandwich cut out with a round-shaped cutter and decorated with a bologna/cheese/nori/cucumber flower. Also some peaches (canned), carrots and cucumber and a little parsley for garnish :D She ate every last bite ... yay!

On another note: what do you all think of my new header? I love it. And I have the wonderfully talented Erin to thank. She did the designs in one day based on some sketches she drew. And it even looks like me ... if i were a few pounds lighter anyway! Thanks so much Erin :)

Oh and, don't forget to grab my new button over there on the right!!

Tutorial: Coloring cheese

2010-11-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

I love reading all the wonderful bento blogs online. Blogs such as Hawai'i's Bento Box, Bentolicious, and BentoLunch.net leave me in awe. I get so many great tips and tricks from them. I also have a growing collection of Bento books which I love to leaf through time and again for inspiration. I wish there were more out there in English (though my husband is glad there isn't!).

One helpful tip I learned recently was from Pikko on how to color cheese with food coloring. There are other ways to do it, such as using food-safe markers, but for some reason they don't work for me. I think I need to buy some new markers. It just tends to leave a blotchy, 'colored-in' look. So when I saw this method, I had to give it a try and ... it worked great!

When making Willow's lunch earlier today, I took some photos so you guys can see for yourselves.

You just need a cookie cutter, slice of cheese (I used White American), a toothpick and some food coloring (mine's neon yellow ...or is it green? I dunno, but it came out green so it's good)

Cut your cheese with whatever cookie cutter you're using. I chose a froggy.

It's a good idea to place it on some paper towels or something you don't mind getting dye on.

Add a few drops of food dye to the cheese

Then roll it in as evenly as you can with a toothpick.

I let it sit a few seconds and then wiped the excess off with the same toothpick, until it looks smooth, sorta. Then allowed it to dry fully. Drying will also smoothen it a little I found, so the lines aren't so visible.

Lastly, add your features or any other additions and place it in your lunch box! I think this will be a neat thing to do at Christmas time. Picture red stockings, green Christmas trees ... so many fun possibilities.

And that little thing above the frog is a fly :b

Tutorial: Eggs and Molds

2010-10-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, here is a quick tutorial for making the little molded eggs I sometimes include in Willow's lunches.

You will need an egg (I prefer large for the best fit) and one egg mold. You can find these egg molds on Amazon, ebay and many other sites or at your local Asian store if yer lucky. They usually come in packs of two. Shapes include: bunny, car, star, heart and even Hello Kitty :)

First step is boiling the egg. As you can see here, I have two eggs in the pan. This is because one usually breaks on me so I wisely have a cover! If neither break, I leave one in the refrigerator to eat later.

So make sure the egg is boiled and then (tricky part) peel while still hot. The easiest way I find to do this is to run the cold faucet and every now and then dip the egg under while I'm peeling to cool slightly. You want the egg to be as smooth as possible for best appearance so take care doing this.

Once it's peeled, place the hot egg into your chosen egg mold and snap the lid shut.

Soak your egg and mold in a bowl of water for about 15 minutes (or overnight, depending on when you need it). I like to then put the bowl of water in the refrigerator or throw some ice in for extra coldness. This helps set the egg into it's shape.

Open the lid and voila! Trim off any rough edges if necessary with some kitchen scissors. I never usually have to do this.

To make them even cuter you could color in the features with food-safe markers. Just be sure to do a better job than I did the last time I tried!

ooh wouldn't these make the best stocking stuffers?

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Using another Sassy Box for Willow's lunch today. A blue one, which I picked up from Target yesterday so I know they still have them. I mixed it with the pink containers from my other box just for color. She had some turkey, lettuce and mayo sammies cut into small circles and skewered on a pic. I thought this would be a fun way to eat a sandwich ... kids like mini things! And in the same container are some animal crackers to fill the space. On the left are juicy strawberries with blueberries and a bunny egg which was cute until I colored it in with food color pens lol.

She ate it all except for a few strawberry halves.

If you are wondering how to make one of these eggs, I am planning on putting a tutorial post up either tonight or tomorrow. You will need one of these molds. They are so fun and easy but the instructions are in Japanese!

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

A simple lunch today. She had a jelly and cream cheese sandwich with a fruit leather bunny on top to add cuteness :) And in the small containers, she had some cheddar bunnies, grapes and raisins. She ate all of it except a few raisins :)

For this lunch I used a Sassy Box which you can buy at Target. Amazon also has them. It’s a pretty neat little box which comes with three removable inner compartments and each one has a secure lid. The pic above doesn't show the large removable container because I took it out, cut her sandwich with it and then put the sandwich in without it.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-10-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yay, I found a way around my little uploading pictures problem. Put the pictures on flickr and upload them from there! Duh! So I guess I'll be doing it that way from now on :)

The theme for Muffin Tin Monday was Halloween and since we don't celebrate Halloween we did our own theme this week. And the theme is Teddy Bears!

She had a teddy bear ham sammie with cheese/sprinkles features

Teddy bear candies

Teddy Grahams

Teddy bear's favorite food: strawberries with blueberries ;)

A teddy baby bel

And some snow peas/carrots with ranch dip in a small teddy cup

See more muffin tins by clicking the button.

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

Willow's lunch today was a prawn (baby shrimp) cocktail sandwich with a flamingo on top (geddit?). The flamingo was cut from a slice of bologna with cheese and nori accents. I used the tiny leaf from Wilton's Leaf Cut-Outs set for the wing. She also had some cantaloupe/cucumber and yogurt with chopped banana topped with some pink and green sprinkles. She ate it all but hardly touched her fruit/cucumber.

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

On Thursdays mornings I go to church and be in the nursery with the kids while the Moms go to women’s prayer meeting. Usually it’s just one or two kids but I take mine with me too. It gives me time to just sit and play with them and, though I struggle sometimes to get out the door on time for it (like this morning!), I enjoy it.

Today I forgot to pack a snack for Willow so she had the snacks at church which were animal/Graham crackers and cheerios. I have to say, while these aren’t extremely unhealthy, I try to limit how much of these kinds of foods she has (she has a tendency to go cracker mad!) and prefer to use her snack times to get in some of her daily five. She had a lot of crackers too this morning plus a little of my lunch, so I gave her just a couple of turkey (with cheese on top) sandwiches cut out with a leaf shaped cutter and some apples - also leaf-shaped. Took approximately 3 minutes to make (I had the nori features already stamped out). She ate it all :)

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Lunch today was little friendly pumpkin sandwiches filled with peanut butter and with sugar eyes and fruit leather mouths. Plus carrots, grapes, pretzels and a little jello. She ate it all up! Wooh.

Willows ....fall activity

2010-10-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Tooosdays.

I both like and dislike them. I dislike them because my husband does a full day of work and then goes straight to school afterward. He isn't home until the very late evening. But I like them because it means I don't have to get the housework done by a certain time (of course I don't HAVE to anyway, I just like to have everything cleaned up before Stephen gets home). Not having to get it all done as early means I can take my time and spend a little extra playing with the kids.

I found this wonderful site today written by Allison McDonald after seeing a guest post she made and found a fun fall activity for Willow and I to do. She gives a nice tutorial here but basically you collect some pretty leaves, color over them onto paper with a crayon (like we all did as kids) and then cut them out and stick them onto a paper towel roll to make a tree. Even I could manage this I thought!

I took a few pics....

Princess Aurora and I outside finding our leaves :)

Rolling her crayons over the leaves. She enjoyed this a lot and I did it with her. I took Allison's advice and taped the leaves to the paper so they wouldn't move around.

After we cut them out (another part she really enjoyed), we randomly stuck the leaves onto our paper towel roll (or in this case, toilet paper roll - all I had but it worked just fine) to make a wonderfully colorful Fall tree.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-10-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

It's Monday and therefore Willow's lunch was in a muffin tin today. No theme this week just a mish mash of things.

In the top row: peas and sweetcorn, yellow American cheese pumpkins, buttered flower (fiori) pasta with parm.

In the bottom row: kiwi chunks, apple wedges and cheezits.

She ate a little over half of the contents.

Click the link above for Muffin Tin Monday Meals!

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

The other day I had some new 'toys' arrive from Japan and I was so excited to use them. I made this little girl and boy for Willow which were pictured in a small booklet with one of the food cutters I bought. Aren't they cute? She had orange chicken with jasmine rice, some carrots and cucumbers and (not shown in the pic) some sugared strawberries. She pretty much ate it all except for a few of the veggies.

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Willow had a bunny (ham) sandwich for lunch today - just because I was in the mood, with honey dew melon and some cheddar bunnies. She ate it all :D

I actually prepared this one the night before because I knew I wasn't going to be home all morning today. Usually I make her lunches the morning of. I would have posted it sooner too but, after over 100 tries (I was determined!), I've only just now been able to get it up online. I'm not sure if it's blogger or my computer but it sure is frustrating. Good job I married a computer guy, he's going to take a look at it for me later :D

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

Another simple lunch today, due to the first lunch I made turning out wrong.

A turkey sandwich with cucumber and cheese features and shredded carrot for hair. On the side; some halved red grapes and pretzels. She ate it all - which is typical. If I'd put effort into it, she probably would have just picked at it!

Is it just me or is anyone else having incredible trouble uploading pics to blogger? VERY frustrating.

But I'm not in a bad mood. Really.

This bento has been added to What's For Lunch Wednesday.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-10-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Muffin Tin Monday's theme for this week is Pumpkins. I got to use my new orange silicone pan from Wilton.

Top row: a pumpkin marshmallow, pumpkin baby bel cheese, and little smiley face potatoes with broccoli stems
Bottom row: chopped strawberries with a pumpkin pick (just picked these up today at ACMoore), a pumpkin-shaped peanut butter sandwich and some pumpkin-shaped cucumbers. She ate a little of everything but actually finished the cucumber. Yay!

Long time, no cake!

2010-10-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to try out this checkerboard cake. I love Wilton cakes! Like I said before, I took the cake decorating classes a while back and ever since then I’ve been on a real cake kick heh. I browsed through their site the other day and found this one which looked fun … and easy! Especially if you use a boxed cake mix :) So because I was having family over for dinner I decided it was the perfect time to try out my cake set. Otherwise Stephen and I would be eating, not to mention; piling on, cake for a week!

The cake set comes with three 9x2 inch nonstick pans and one batter-dividing ring.

Since I was only making a one layer cake, I used only one of the pans. You place the divider thingy in the pan and fill each of it's rings with different colors. If you were using the other pans to make a two or three layer cake, you simply take it out of the first (carefully), wash it and then place it in the other pans to fill up. Before baking, make sure the ring is out of all the pans.

My cake baked up nice, if a little lop-sided (a fault of mine, not the cake pan, I’m sure). Once I leveled it off, it was unnoticeable. When the kiddies were napping, I whipped up some buttercream (Wilton recipe of course!) and decorated the cake in little stars of yellow, orange and white, which did take a bit of time even using a bigger star tip than suggested having predicted that my hand might be aching.

I excitedly cut into the cake (before even asking if anyone wanted a piece) just so I could see the stripy colors. I thought it looked pretty cool. Not exactly straight and I’m guessing that is due to the dividing ring sliding on the non-stick pan a little, but the colors were pretty! Imagine how cool it would look with three layers! I have a feeling this pan is going to get a lot of use with me! The outside of the cake is decorated with little candy corns. How cute is that!

Winner Announcement!

2010-10-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Wilton giveaway. The contest is now closed.

And the winner is .... *insert drum roll*......

Just A Mom (#69)

Congratulations! I will be sending you an email shortly!

Willow's Lunch and Last Day of Wilton Giveaway!

2010-10-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just one day left to add your entry for the WILTON giveaway! Contest will close at midnight tonight. Don’t forget, for those who don’t have a blog, include your email address in your comment so I have a way to contact you if you win.

Just incase you missed the post, here's a list of all that the lucky winner will receive:

Just go to the Wilton web site and then back here to tell me which of their products you would like to buy next and thats it! You're entered.

Because I had a busy day ahead of me today, I made Willow a simple peanut butter squirrel sandwich lunch with some applesauce, carrots and pretzels. Too bad I didn't have any peanuts in the house! She ate all but a few carrots.

Mommy's lunch was even simpler!

Mmm scraps!

Willow's Lunch

2010-10-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

Willow had barbecue meatballs today … or a barbecue meatball (it was humongous) with white rice, corn, carrots and some red grapes, halved. I made her a scarecrow on her rice but she, rather unimpressed, just said, ‘mommy where are the birds?’ I told her I wanted to put little black crows but there wasn’t enough room.

Looking at it, I wish I had made his clothes out of something besides sandwich meat (he looks kinda naked to me) but I was having trouble finding something to show up on the white rice. Next time, color the rice! *nods*

To make the scarecrow, I used the people cut-outs that Wilton sent me and they are great. And not just for fondant or cookies! I am excited at the thought of all the bentos and cakes I can make with them. They have a really cute cake on their website that has little children all around it which I would just love to make for something in the future. I’m sure I can come up with some excuse!

You can buy these cut outs on the Wilton web site also or you can win them in my giveaway along with lots of other Wilton goodies here. Giveaway ends on Friday so get your name in quick! If you don’t have a blog account you can just leave your email with your answer.

I entered this bento (again, a bit late in the day) in What's For Lunch Wednesday

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-10-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I’m getting this post up late but better late than never! I was so excited to do this circus theme for Muffin Tin Monday. It isn't the healthiest lunch but she was very happy and ate it all up.

In the top row: cantaloupe with a cute circus pick, little cheese animals, animal crackers

In the bottom row: colorful chocolate-covered sesame seeds because the circus is colorful (go with me!), an elephant peanut butter sandwich (fruit leather eye) and circus peanuts

I chose to use the Wilton Easy Flex Silicone Cups for this muffin tin because they were perfect for the circus theme. They fit just right in the pan and, like a lot of Wilton products, they are very versatile. You can use them for muffins, cupcakes, tarts, soufflé and they are great for non-baking purposes such as in bento boxes or muffin tin Mondays! They add a fun splash of color and can be a great way to separate food items if you don't have a box with compartments. I often add them to Willow's lunches and I use them to keep small things in such as decorating tips or paper clips. They stack up neatly as great space-savers in my drawer.

You can buy these silicone cups on the Wilton web site as well as in retail stores near you but, if you're lucky, you can win them and the circus pix plus so much more in my giveaway going on right now.

Enter the giveaway here (contest closes on Friday)

Awesome Wilton Giveaway!

2010-09-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Over the last several years, cooking, baking, recipes and really anything to do with food have become a real passion for me. What started with me as a new wife learning to cook for my family has branched off into many fun and creative areas of food preparation. One of my first forays into the artistic side of food was cake decorating…and through cake decorating I was introduced to Wilton.

I took the Wilton cake decorating courses 1 and 2 not too long ago and just loved them. They were so much fun and really taught me a lot about making cakes. And so I’ve taken every cake-making opportunity that’s come my way since. Birthdays, holidays, picnics, church gatherings…anything to try something new and make a new cake creation. As I’ve gotten more experienced, I’ve picked up quite a few toys and tools along the way, most of which were Wilton brand.

Wilton make affordable, quality products, and it seems they’ve got something for everything you might need when baking. Or even making Bentos, as you’ve seen quite a bit of on my blog. So when I wanted to do another giveaway, I was thrilled when Wilton agreed to be my sponsor. They have sent me a fantastic package of goodies (list below) that you, my lovely readers, will now have the chance to win. Over the next week I’ll be featuring many of these goodies in my posts, so make sure you tune in. At the end of the week, I’ll announce the winner, and that person will receive an identical package direct from Wilton!

Here’s the list:

Mini Rounds Silicone Moulds (a perfect color for fall Muffin Tin Mondays!)

Silly-Critters! Silicone Baking Cups (how fun are these! Can't wait to use them)

Checkerboard Cake Set

Easy Flex Silicone Baking Cups (I have always wanted a red and blue set. I think these will be good for the upcoming circus-theme Muffin Tin Monday)

Big Top Cupcake Wraps and Pix (perfect for a circus theme)

Cupcake Fun Magazine

Fondant People Cut Outs (I plan on using these in my bentos!)

Jumbo Leaves Sprinkles

Leaf Shaped Fondant Cut Outs

How to enter: visit Wilton’s fabulous site (full of recipes and tips worth checking out!), then come back here and tell me which of their products is your favorite or that you want to get. That simple!

For extra entries:

If you follow my blog, leave a 2nd comment.
Blog about this giveaway, leave a 3^rd comment.
Tweet about the giveaway or share it on facebook, leave a 4^th comment.
Like Wilton on facebook, leave a 5^th comment.

Don’t forget to include your email address in your comment!

This contest will be open for one week and on 10/8/2010 the winner will be picked by random.org.

This giveaway is offered to US & Canadian residents only.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today Willow had a rhino-shaped honey sandwich. For some reason she thought the rhino shape would affect the honey flavor and got mad at me! She also had some apple wedges, baby bel cheese and little cucumber bunnies with ranch dip. She ate her sandwich (so I guess it tasted fine!) and a little of everything else.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Willow's new favorite book is The Three Little Pigs so it gave me the idea of making a piggy bento today.

She had turkey sandwiches, red grapes which she didn't want to to eat because she said they choke her ??? and some crackers cutified with a (rather skinny) cheese teddy bear.

I was very surprised and happy to see, when I noticed earlier, that not only do I have 400 followers of my wee blog but even more!! Thanks for joining guys and thank you for all the sweet comments! They make my day.

So this definitely calls for a giveaway! Watch out for the post either later tonight or tomorrow :D

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-09-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Muffin Tin Monday makes Mondays exciting!

OK, almost.

I do have to say again though how much I love the idea of eating lunch in a muffin tin. So fun for kiddies. And fun to make too! They need to make some really cute muffin pans to make them even funner! I know they have some already but there could be more! I'll have a word with 'they' and tell them my ideas. Until then, I'll just alternate!

There was no theme for MTM this week so here is Willow's mish mash of items.

Top row: Winnie the Pooh cheese (I used a cutter with stamp), apple flowers, chocolate-covered hazlenuts (so good I helped her eat them)
Bottom row: strawberries and blueberries (lol@me still trying with the blueberries), happy and sad face star peanut butter sandwiches (fruit roll-up for the features) and baby carrots. She didn't eat a whole lot. Just a little of everything except the carrots and, yup, the blueberries.

See more muffin tin meals (or join in too!) by clicking the link above!

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Willow's lunch for yesterday was posted on Trisha's blog: 3fourandunder. I did my first guest post so go check it out :)

Here is her lunch today. A ham sandwich with a cheese and cucumber monkey and a few pretzels. In the containers: grapes/blueberries and carrots. She left some of the carrots and, of course, the blueberries. I'm wondering what I have to call them now to get her to eat them.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

I thought I would try some onigiri for Willow's lunch today. She had a boy and girl rice ball with cheddar for hair, a bologna and cheese hair bow for the girl and nori features. Very fun to make! I made the rice the night before (sushi rice for the stickiness) and molded it by scooping some of the rice onto plastic wrap, pulling up the edges and twisting tight, to form a ball shape. Once molded, I unwrapped and put them in little muffin cups and allowed to cool before adding the other ingredients. I popped them in the refrigerator to add to Willow's bento today along with some barbecue meatballs, broccoli and a little grapes/blueberries. She ate a little of everything except the blueberries. I guess she doesn't like them anymore *sigh*.

For the little girl, I used a small dab of ketchup with a toothpick to give her some rosie cheeks and black sesame seeds for eyelashes :)

This bento was added to What's For Lunch Wednesday.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone!

I was not to be excluded from Muffin Tin Monday this week and made sure I got back from grocery shopping in time to prepare one for Willow! The theme is shapes. I didn't really go all out with it due to having grocery bags all over the kitchen floor and a fussy Ryder. But it turned out to be a good thing because she hardly touched it. She ate the crackers and nibbled at the sandwiches. Poor thing had an upset tummy. We've all been kinda sickly this past week or two.

Top: rectangle Wheat Thins, flower cucumbers, animal-shaped crackers

Bottom: oval grapes with raisins, triangle peanut butter sandwiches, strawberry stars.

You may have (though probably not!) noticed that I have not been keeping up with my weekly menu planning. There is a good reason for this. Stephen has been extra busy this month with work and other things making his schedule a bit unreliable to plan around. Usually, if he ends up not being home Willow and I will grab something quick. Things should get back to normal over the next couple of months though so I'll be getting back to that. I need to get more organized all round really. My goal for this week is to tackle all the junk drawers in the house, not a small project!

BTW I have a giveaway coming up that I'm very excited about. My second one yet! Stay tuned for that!

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to make these little biscuit koala bears ever since I saw them on Susan Yuen's site - author of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook. You can see her tutorial for them (and little bunnies too) here. They're real easy. I filled the biscuits with shredded chicken and cheese and Willow loved them, although she did ask if they were crabs lol. She also had some yellow kiwi and blueberries which she said she didn't like, a strawberry and a little cherry tomato on a pick with a cheese flower.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

I was disappointed to not get to take part in Muffin Tin Monday yesterday. The theme was movies and I had a cute Little Mermaid theme planned out for my Willow. I even bought a few cute things for it. But my day was just too busy, I couldn’t get to it. Instead she had a plain peanut butter sandwich and granola bar with fruit. It wasn’t even cut out with a cookie cutter, just folded over in half. Standards are slipping!

But I did promise her I would make her a sheepy sandwich today and she was very excited about it, so here it is. Baaa!

By the way, I managed to get her to eat some GREEN broccoli yesterday for dinner. I sat with her and told her they were cute little ‘trees’ and we talked about what kind of animals like to live in trees. Then I watched her happily gobble them all down. I don’t know why, maybe it was the mention of animals, but it worked!

See Shannon's linky for some fun bento inspiration this week.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Quick lunch today. She had some fried rice with little hot dog flowers, broccoli florets and tangerine segments. She left the broccoli. I've noticed she's slowly eliminating green from her diet completely so that's something I'm going to have to keep in mind when making her lunches.

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Roarrrrr!

Lion sammie today. Turkey, with cheese and bologna accents. I punched a little nori for the eyes and mouth. She also had some chopped plum with grapes and a few crackers. She ate everything but the plum!

Going to the fair tonight, provided it doesn't rain. I'm very excited!

Willow's Lunch

2010-09-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is not actually the first bento lunch I have made since returning from our trip, it's just the first that I've managed to get a picture of. The last time I tried, my camera died just as I went to take a photo of one that I thought was very cute and had actually spent a bit of time on. So that was annoying.

Willow's ham sandwich today was made using my new Lunch Punch sandwich cutter that I won on Melissa's giveaway. I got the Sand*wishes* set AND the VrrrM! set. both of which I've wanted for ages so I was very happy. I don't have to wait till Ryder is old enough to enjoy the latter set either because Willow has been already, she tends to like both boy and girl things, she don't care. These are the cutest sandwich cutters I have ever seen and I love 'em! Thank you Melissa!

For some great bento inspiration, check out Shannon's blog for What's for Lunch Wednesday..

Oh and btw, my hubby got me this new Leaflet Tight lunch box even knowing he is feeding my addiction <3

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-09-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here is Willow's Muffin Tin lunch for this Monday. There was no theme this week.

At the top she had some carrots with ranch dip and a Baby bel.

On the bottom, banana chunks, turkey dinosaur sandwiches (or what was meant to resemble a dinosaur!), and some 'dinosaur eggs' (edamame). She left the banana and cheese.

Vanishing Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

2010-09-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

I am back, after a fabulous week away on our cruise. It truly was a wonderful (and not-realized-how-much-needed) break which will hopefully hold me over till I can persuade Stephen to take me on another!

I spent a couple days after arriving home just trying to get the house back to normal after the mess we left it in – yes, it actually took days and it’s still not there yet. I've been enjoying my babies … wow I missed them SO much. Is it possible for them to grow even cuter in a week? Willow was fast asleep with Grandma when we got back home at night and I just had to wake her up and give her lots and lots of kisses. Of course the first thing she says is, 'can I have my presents now?' :)

One thing that I am having trouble getting back into is cooking. It was so nice having my meals made for me. The food was delicious too. But today I had a ladies night at church to go to and needed to bring a finger food. Normally I'd make something savory maybe but, for some reason, I just had the desire to bake some oatmeal raisin cookies after seeing the recipe on the back of the lid when making Willow's breakfast. So she and I made those together and they turned out very nice! Just the perfect amount of moistness. Stephen tried one and made a face like he was going to spit it out in the sink and then said they were the best oatmeal cookies he’s ever had. Anything to instill panic into his wife! The ladies at church also liked them so I think I will be hanging onto this one. Be fun to try making them with some other things besides raisins too… maybe chocolate raisins or m&ms ...mmmm.

Vanishing Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Ingredients1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar1/2 cup granulated sugar2 eggs1 teaspoon vanilla1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking soda (I added a pinch more 'cause I'm tired of my cookies coming out flat)1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)1 cup raisins
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

A Much Needed Vacation

2010-08-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

This Sunday the hubby and I are leaving to go on a cruise with some friends and family for one whole week. I am so excited, I have always wanted to go on a cruise. We’re actually going to be leaving on Saturday night to stay at a hotel on the way in order to save on parking and to have a more relaxed time the morning of because we would have already packed and won’t have to get up so early, being closer to the airport (sorry for the huge sentence!)

So what’s happening with the kids, you wonder? They are going to be staying with their Grandma. I know Willow will be fine because she loves it at Grandma’s with the doggies and probably won’t even notice we’re gone! But going without my Ryder was a tough decision for me. He’s still so little. I didn’t even consider going at first because of this but they all ~~almost~~ convinced me he will still know me when I get back and nothing bad is going to happen.

It is going to be nice to have a week with my husband to feel young again and just relax. Uninterrupted nights (AND conversations) won’t be bad either. Neither will lying in bed in the morning. Imagine that!

BUT, I am sad to say, this will mean no bentos for one week. Again, Willow will be fine, but Mommy is going to miss making them! Can you believe I even had a dream I had a huge package of bento boxes and tools arrive at my door and was rummaging through them all excitedly? AND it wasn't the first time I have had this dream.

Anyhow, I hope you all have a super duper week! Till next Sunday! Or until things are back to normal 'round here ....

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

A little girl hummus sandwich today with carrots, cucumber and pretzels. Willow must not have been very impressed because she hardly ate any of it!

See more bentos at What's for Lunch Wednesday The host also happens to have one of the best bento blogs out there IMO, so do check it out!

Willow's lunch

2010-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Flower theme today ... because flowers are pretty (or 'priddy' as my little American girl says).

Quite a big lunch too. She had two flower window sandwiches - one jelly and one lemon curd. Some flower apples and a blue flower egg. It was actually made using a star mold but I think it looks more like a flower when it's done. She ate one sandwich, one egg half and a little apple, if any.

First Muffin Tin Monday

2010-08-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to be joining Muffin Tin Monday today. What a great way for kiddies to enjoy their lunches. It offers variety and fun and it's a good way to use up all the leftover tidbits in the cupboards and refrigerator! Like I did with this muffin tin. In the top row there is: carrots with hummus dip, chopped kiwi fruit and Honey Graham Teddy Bears. In the bottom row: pita wedges, grapes and cantaloupe flowers. Willow loved it and wanted to help me make it. She ate it all except the kiwi which she's very funny about. Sometimes she eats it, sometimes she won't touch it.

I think this is something I will continue to do with my kids so they can look forward to Mondays :)

You can see more Muffin Tins over at muffin tin mom's blog.

2010-08-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Little fruit-topped ritz nibbles make a great kiddy snack.

Spread ritz crackers with cream cheese/cream cheese and jelly mixture/peanut butter/PB and Fluff mixture and then top with a slice of fruit. Alternatively, don't spread with anything, just drizzle the fruit with a little honey. Yummy for Mommy too!

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

On the left: some tortilla chips and salsa with turkey and cheese roll-ups, cucumber slices and red grapes. Bit of a blurry pic

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Star theme lunch today ... just because stars are pretty.

Four mini peanut butter sandwiches (I used my sandwich cutter/sealer) with little stars cut out from fruit roll-up. In the pink container are some cantaloupe and cucumber stars and I also included the scraps because I think they are pretty too but you can't really see them. Willow didn't seem very hungry today - didn't want her snack earlier and didn't eat much of her lunch, even the PB sandwich so it was probably a bad day to add cucumber to her lunch but I just felt like it needed some green. But it turns out it was a good idea because she ate it!

I'm really starting to have faith in the theory that if you continue to offer your kids foods they don't like, it might change their minds, even if it's after 20 times of putting it on their plate. She even said, 'yum' as opposed to 'blegh' as she ate them! I think sometimes at this age they don't really know what they like and just go by their eyes and how appealing the food is. Which is why I'm such a big fan of bento :D

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

Cubed sausage with rice, cucumbers, red grapes and little cheese teddies. She ate it all pretty much, even her cucumbers!

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Funny bunny ham and cheese sandwich, with craisins top left and carrots with thousand island dressing top right. She left a few carrots, the sandwich crusts and most of the craisins. Then she was after my lunch lol.

Go over to Shannon's linky to see some inspiring bentos this week!

MPM

2010-08-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be action-packed. It’s funny how your own home can make you feel claustrophobic when you spend one week in it without going anywhere, save my recent shopping trip on Saturday. Willow has been begging me to take her out too so I’m going to make sure she gets to burn off some energy. Today we’re going to see her friends Bekah, Ruthie and Rachel and hopefully get some grocery shopping in before nap time.

Here's the menu plan for this week.

Monday: Chicken and veggie fried rice

Tuesday: Honey-baked curried chicken

Wednesday: Grilled pita pizzas

Thursday: Beef burritos

Friday: Cheesy pasta

Saturday: Tuna and sweetcorn baked potato, with salad

Sunday: Something small after Uncle Mike's picnic in the afternoon

If you need some great menu inspiration, see here.

Bento Storage

2010-08-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not the most organized of people but I did think it was about time I started getting some control of my bento tools which were threatening to take over my kitchen. Cookie cutters here, egg molds there... I wanted them all to be in one place or, at least, to have a place. Yesterday, my gracious hubby let me go out for four whole wonderful hours while he watched BOTH kids so I could look for some things I've been needing to get. I went to a few stores, leisurely strolling around - as opposed to, 'ok looks fine, quick throw it in' because the baby is fussing and I have to go chase down Willow! Just so nice to be able to pay attention to what I'm buying ... even take the time to scruuutinize things before they go in the cart hah. Anyway, one store I went to was Target to look for shoes and Fall clothes for Willow and there I found these bins which I thought would be perfect for containing my unruly cookie cutters yet small and skinny enough to fit in my kitchen discreetly.

I also found a huge set of cookie cutters which made me do a little happy dance by myself. Soon as I got home I excitedly went through the set with Willow and then got to filling the drawers with my cookie cutters.

In the top drawer are all my metal cutters, plus sets (plastic/metal) and plastic basic shapes (heart, circle, square etc). This is the drawer of cutters I use most often.

In the second drawer; plastic cutters of all different shapes and sizes. Mostly animals.

And in the, mostly empty, bottom drawer are letters, numbers and symbols.

This afternoon, after church, I then began organizing my bento toys into one big drawer in the kitchen ... as you do. Everything is much more easily accessible now. Just gotta figure out how to keep the munchkins out!

Five Question Friday

2010-08-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

I've decided to join in with five question friday because I think it'll be fun. Click here and you can too.

1. Are you a neat sleeper or a messy sleeper?
I think I’m a neat sleeper. I often wake up and all I have to do is pull the blanket over where I slept and the bed is still made. Love that.

2. Fill in the blank. I wish I was more ___?

Thrifty. I know Stephen would agree with this one for sure!

3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about?

My husband’s dislike of changing diapers before we had kids. Just kidding! Lol Although he will pretend he doesn’t notice until I pick the baby up! Hmm. The housing market dive would have been a nice thing to be warned about … chocolate peanut butter cups ....so many things!

4. What was the best thing you ever found at a garage sale/flea market?

I’m one of those rare people who has never found anything at a garage sale, flea market etc besides some baby onesies or shoes. See number 3! Doesn’t help that I don’t often go to them I’m sure.

5. If you could have any meal brought to you right now, what would it be?

My Mum’s chicken curry or roast potatoes.

Willow's lunch

2010-08-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today's lunch: ham, bologna and American cheese round sandwich with a cute little piggy on top, strawberries, apple stars and some pretzels. Packed in her pink princess sandwich box. She ate a little of everything.

And for Bento fans: Emily at Bentobloggy is having an awesome giveaway. Check out all these goodies you can win! I have wanted that leaflet tight lunchbox for ages! Gimme gimme!

If you're new to bento-ing this is a great way to get started. Click here to enter.

Willow's Lunch

2010-08-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

Ryder seemed to be having a good day today and didn’t cry to be held as much as normal. He was content in his swing, or rolling around on his play mat. I could even walk past him without ducking and diving behind the furniture lol. As a result I got a lot done around the house. I was on such a roll, I didn’t want to stop long to make a bento lunch for Willow. Fortunately this one took just a few minutes to boil the ~~hot dogs~~ octopuses. I used leftover rice in the fridge and added some delicious red grapes and a few cucumbers, which I knew wouldn’t get eaten but they filled the gap and, well, ya never know.

Scrubbing can be fun!

2010-08-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

What’s a fun and inexpensive activity you can do with your toddler on a rainy day that will keep them occupied for a long time AND make them feel like they’re being very useful?

Cleaning Pennies!

There haven’t been too many rainy days lately but it’s still something Willow likes to do when we have to stay home for whatever reason. And yesterday that reason was so Mommy could try to get ahead on all that housework I mentioned. And, just incase you’re wondering, I didn’t yet but I’m getting there!

So, pennies ….

You could start by having your children go hunting through every nook and cranny to try to find as many as they can (you could even hide a few to help them out!) and collect them all in a bowl. Once they think they have found them all, pour some water into the bowl and let them clean the pennies with an old toothbrush. If you really want the pennies to shine, add a little vinegar to the water.

Once Willow had cleaned her pennies, she put them in her little piggy bank which she painted before hand just for this reason. Next we have to count all the shiny pennies and go shopping for a toy!