Bentos 83 - 89: Bento Catch Up!

I have been slacking horribly in blogging lately.  I've been in a bit of a cooking/lunch packing funk lately.  I'm tired of the of the available winter produce and ready for the fresh flavors of spring!  As a result bentos haven't been particularly interesting lately and I haven't had much enthusiasm to photograph and blog them.  Rather than try and do a bunch of individual posts to catch up, I thought I do one large post with the various bentos that have been clogging up my camera the past few weeks. I'll just do a quick list of what's in each bento, please comment if you want any further detail.   

Bento 83: Apple sandwich, raisins, steamed broccoli and some pieces of oven fried chicken with the breading peeled off.  I made the chicken with my favorite recipe from the Joy of Cooking, which uses a bit of cayenne in the marinade and breading.  Unfortunately the breading ended up a bit too spicy for toddler tastes.  After her traumatic dinner experience, she refused to touch these leftovers even with the breading removed.  I think she might be off chicken for a while.

Bento 84:  Spaghetti and meatballs, unsweetened banana chips, grapes and steamed green beans dressed in olive oil and lemon zest.

Bento 85:  Goat cheese on whole wheat pita, raisins and walnut pieces, apple slices

Bento 86:  Oven fried chicken with breading removed (second attempt, she didn't touch it this time either), grapes, two whole wheat biscuits and green beans dressed in olive oil and lemon.

Bento 87:  Apple sandwich, two zucchini and apricot muffins, unsweetened banana chips, dried cherries.

Bento 88:  Clementine, chickpeas, two ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins), two pizza palmiers.

Bento 89:  Leftover Moroccan chickpea and vegetable tagine with couscous, clementine, unsweetened banana chips, cube of feta cheese.

Supplies similar to those used in this lunch:

Bento for Baby 63: Waffle with Yogurt and Green Curry Tofu

Dan the pancake man made some waffles the previous weekend, so lucky Baby Girl got a leftover quarter for her morning snack on this day.  She also got a bit of plain Greek yogurt to accompany it.  She has a new-found love of dipping things, always accompanied by her gleefully saying "dip, dip, dip," so I imagine the yogurt will become dip for the waffle.  For her lunch I gave her a few cubes of tofu leftover from the Thai green curry I made for dinner the night before.  She was a huge fan of the tofu, but didn't really like the taste of the curry sauce, even though it was very mild.  I'm sure she'll come around.  I also gave her some frozen broccoli florets, a few carrot slices from the curry, some halved green grapes and a couple mini whole wheat biscuits from the freezer.

Supplies similar to those used in this bento:

Bento for Baby 43: Strawberry Tortilla Rolls and Quinoa Cake

I combined the food for Baby Girl's morning snack and lunch into a single box again on this day.  She is, of course, free to eat whichever items she prefers for each meal, but I intended the food on the right to be for morning snack and the rest for lunch.  Morning snack is made up of strawberry tortilla rolls, or cream cheese and strawberry slices on a whole wheat tortilla, and half a banana.   For lunch I packed her a quinoa cake and a couple mini whole wheat biscuits from the freezer, along with some sugar snap peas and a mix of sunflower seeds, almond slivers and cut up dried apricots in the red silicone cup.  This lunch was well received, and most things were eaten, but I tried a few of the nuts that came home and they had a bit of a banana flavor. . .I probably shouldn't include a banana for morning snack when I pack food for the whole day into one box.

Items used to pack this bento:

Bento for Baby 40: Whole Wheat Biscuits and Pizza Palmiers

I was in a rush on this morning, so I packed this bento in a few short minutes using pre-made goodies pulled from the freezer combined with some fresh fruits and veggies.  For morning snack Baby Girl had a couple mini whole wheat biscuits from the freezer with little cream cheese and low sugar raspberry conserves and half a pear. The biscuits are from a quick and easy recipe on the 100 Days of Real Food blog.  For lunch I packed three pizza palmiers from the freezer, two with spinach and ricotta filling, and one with broccoli, pesto and ricotta filling, a few cubes of organic cheddar cheese, some cut red grapes in the red silicone cup and a couple cucumber sticks.   Everything fit nicely into my favorite little green tiffin box.

Supplies similar to those used in this bento:

Bento for Baby 31: Whole Wheat Biscuits and Hoppin' John

Baby Girl had another new item for breakfast on this day - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on mini whole wheat biscuits.  She also had some blueberries in the green silicone cup.  I made and froze a large batch of biscuits from a recipe on the 100 Days of Real Food blog.  They freeze really well and are great for quick breakfasts and lunches.  You may notice I used the previously prohibited peanut butter in her little sandwiches.  The rules have changed this year, so I can now include nuts in Baby Girl's bentos!  Most of her bentos will probably still be nut free, but it's nice to not have the restriction any longer.  I have been getting the freshly ground peanut butter that is just organic roasted peanuts (no added sugars or palm oil) at our local Earth Fare.  It is so delicious, I have no idea why I've been buying jarred peanut butter all these years, especially since it is the same price.  For the jelly I also use the Earth Fare brand organic raspberry conserves.

For the lunch portion of her bento Baby Girl had some leftover Hoppin' John (Black-Eyed Peas and Rice) from our dinner the night before in the red silicone cup. Also included in her lunch were some fresh green beans, half a pear and some organic cheddar cheese cubes.  The hoppin' john is a really delicious recipe from Saveur Magazine that we make fairly often.  We use the fresh field peas we get with our CSA share in place of canned black-eyed peas and brown jasmine rice in place of white rice. Using brown rice adds 10 -15 more minutes to the cooking time in the oven.  Also, since we are usually using fresh field peas instead of canned, we put them in the pot at the same time as the rice and cook them at the same time.  Baby Girl and her parents really enjoy this recipe.

This day's food was packed into the small two level tiffin that I picked up on clearance at World Market.  I love this box, it's a great way to pack two toddler-sized meals into one compact container, the depth is just right so that the food in the silicone cups doesn't spill if the container gets tossed around and Baby Girl can open it easily by herself.  I will be sad if this ever breaks or gets lost.  But, there does look to be a similar container available on Amazon, although it is about 4x the cost of my little clearance box: