Bento for Baby 38: Banana Bread with Cream Cheese and Grilled Vegetable Quesadilla

Well, today's bento is a bit blah looking. . .I know I don't typically make cutesy bentos, but this bento is a bit drab.  But I guess none of that matters if it pleases Baby Girl's palate, right?  And I think I did succeed on that front, at least partially.  She didn't eat everything, but she did eat some new things and I consider that a success.




So, here are the details on the food for this day:  For breakfast she had some whole wheat banana bread with no added sugar made into a little sandwich with some organic full fat cream cheese.  She also had half a pear cut into wedges.  Lunch was made up of some cut red grapes in the green silicone cup, some organic mixed vegetables in the white silicone cup, and a quesadilla of grilled vegetables and provolone cheese. The quesadilla is a variation on our dinner from the night before - grilled vegetable sandwich. We eat this every few weeks during the summer using the bounty of squash and eggplant we get from our CSA share.  It is one of our favorite summer meals.  Unfortunately, it turns out a bit big for a baby to eat. . .This picture was take a year ago, but the scale of the sandwich is still too large for a toddler mouth and hands.  I used to be able to just give her a few pieces of grilled vegetables, but unfortunately she will no longer happily eat the vegetables alone.  So this time I finely diced a mix of the grilled zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and roasted red pepper and made a quesadilla on a 100% whole grain tortilla from Trader Joe's with the same sharp aged provolone I used in our sandwich.  She happily ate half of it for dinner and the two pieces I put into her bento the next day.

Supplies similar to those used in this bento:

Bento for Baby 36: Pancakes and Avocado White Bean Tortilla Rolls

Baby Girl again enjoyed some of her Papa's Awesome Pancakes from the freezer, along with some organic blueberries and strawberries, for her morning snack on this day.  For lunch I made her some whole wheat tortilla rolls with grated cheddar and great northern white beans.  To have with her tortilla rolls I packed some frozen peas and edamame in the blue silicone cup and half an organic pear. Everything was packed together in the U Konserve 33-Ounce Rectangle Stainless Steel Container.  This container is currently available for a great price on Zulily, along with a few other Kids Konserve/U Konserve Containers. The Kids Konserve Nesting Trio that I use very often is also available for $10 off its normal list price.

These tortilla rolls were much more successful than my previous attempt a few months ago, this time Baby Girl ate every single bit. I think the last time I tried to make similar rolls they were a bit too dry and the avocado oxidized to an unappetizing brown.  To solve both these problems I mashed up the avocodo with a bit of greek yogurt, along with a tiny bit of fresh lime juice and salt and pepper.  I spread this mixture all over a 100% whole wheat torilla from Trader Joe's, spreading it a bit more thickly on the bottom half.  I then put a couple tablespoons of white beans along the center and finely grated some cheddar cheese all over the bottom half.  I rolled the tortilla tightly from the bottom and let it sit, wrapped in foil, in the fridge over night.  When I trimmed the ends off the roll the next morning the roll had set up nicely and held together well and the avocado/yogurt mix was still a pleasing bright green.

Bento for Baby 35: Blueberry Muffin and Lentil Salad

In her bento on this lovely day Baby Girl had a mixed grain and blueberry muffin from the freezer for breakfast/morning snack.  She also had one sun butter oatmeal ball and some organic strawberries. For lunch she had some roasted vegetable and lentil salad that I made for dinner the night before. With the salad I packed some sugar snap peas, half an organic pear and two small pieces of homemade whole wheat bread.  My husband, Dan, has been making all the bread we eat at home for the past few years using the recipes from the excellent cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking.  Papa's bread is one of Baby Girl's favorite things.  I'm pretty fond of it myself.

I made the lentil salad by tossing some french lentils with some roasted beets, butternut squash and figs.  I dressed the salad with nice balsamic vinegar and olive oil and topped it with some organic feta and toasted walnuts.  For dinner we ate it on a bed of lightly dressed arugula.  For a quick dinner that I made up on the fly, it turned out pretty tasty, and rather beautiful, as well.  Baby Girl enjoyed the lentils, cheese and walnuts, but was skeptical of the roasted vegetables and fruit.  It has been difficult getting her eat many vegetables that are mixed with other foods recently, but I keep trying!  

Bento for Baby 32: Yogurt, Sunbutter Oatmeal Balls and Palmiers

We went out to dinner the night before packing this bento, so I packed this quickly with things I could grab from the freezer and fridge.  I am still figuring out how much food Baby Girl needs for morning snack and lunch, so I packed food for both meals together in one box.  The small container with the red lid contains some plain greek yogurt and blueberries.  I meant to take the picture without the lid, but I was a bit frazzled this morning.  I also packed two sunbutter oatmeal balls, half a pear, some organic mixed veg and two spinach palmiers from the freezer.  This container is the U Konserve 33-Ounce Rectangle Stainless Steel Container, which nicely fits the smallest of the Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids within it.

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:

Bento for Baby 29: Mixed Grain Blueberry Muffin and Tuna White Bean Salad

Here is Baby Girl's first bento for the new school term!  She has been going all summer, of course, but after a two week break she has now moved up to the toddler program at her Montessori school.  She will be going five days a week, so there will be more bentos to post!  She now gets a snack provided by the school in the morning, so that might change how much food I pack.  She usually isn't very hungry first thing in the morning before school, so I will still pack a little something extra for morning snack since the school snack is just fruit.

OK, now for the bento.  For breakfast I packed a Mixed Grain and Blueberry Muffin and half a banana cut into pieces.  Lunch was composed of some tuna and white bean salad, a couple wedges of 100% whole wheat pita bread, some edamame and some blueberries.  I made the tuna and white bean with a can of olive oil packed yellowfin tuna, some great northern beans, fresh Italian parsley, zest of half a lemon, a bit of fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.  This was packed in the small green tiffin box from World Market.  She ate every bit of this bento except for a couple blueberries and three edamame, so I seem to have packed the right amount of food.

Bento for Baby 28: Pancake, Greek Yogurt and Panzanella

Here's the final catch-up bento, just in time for the new school term to start tomorrow!  In the breakfast portion of this bento, Baby Girl had one of Dan's Awesome Pancakes with a couple tablespoons of plain whole milk greek yogurt and some blueberries in the green silicone cup.  For lunch, I packed some leftover panzanella salad, or tomato and bread salad, from our dinner the previous night.  I left out the bread from the salad, but included everything else - beautiful heirloom tomatoes, garbanzo beans, cucumber and fresh mozzarella cheese.  I packed one of her favorite whole wheat Ak-Mak crackers in place of the bread.  She also had some halved and pitted bing cherries in the white silicone cup.  This was packed into the small green tiffin I got at World Market.

So, tomorrow Baby Girl is moving up to the toddler room at her Montessori school and will start going five days a week.  I'm nervous about the changes at home and the changes to this blog.  I'll try to keep posting bentos individually because I think it's better for the readers - I can catalog each bento individually and keep recipes and new foods in separate posts.  But I may need to move to posting a whole week of bentos in one post.  Considering it has taken me two whole weeks to catch up on a few bentos, that may be the direction I go.

Bento for Baby 26: Multigrain Blueberry Muffin and Palmier

Baby Girl had something new for breakfast on this day, a Mixed Grain and Blueberry Muffin that I made the other day with a recipe from the Well column of the New York Times.  She also had some organic blueberries and strawberries with her muffin.  For lunch she had one pizza palmier, some halved grape tomatoes and chickpeas in the green silicone cup, a few organic cheddar cubes and some halved bing cherries in the red silicone cup.  I used the small and medium Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids to pack the food for this day.

Bento for Baby 25: Sun Butter and Honey Ak-Mak and Eggplant Chickpea Burger

Baby Girl had a treat for breakfast on this morning, a sunbutter and honey sandwich made with her favorite 100% whole wheat Ak-Mak crackers.  As I've mentioned previously, I bought a sunbutter without any sweetener or other additives and it needs a bit of honey to make it a bit less bitter.  She also had some blueberries in the red silicone cup with her breakfast.  For lunch I packed an Eggplant Chickpea Burger that I made for dinner a few nights previously.  I made a few extra small ones and put them in the freezer for future lunches.  These burgers are another great recipe from The Flying Biscuit Cafe Cookbook: Breakfast and Beyond.  They are a really tasty and satisfying veggie burger. And it's a great way to use the plethora of eggplant we get with our CSA share!  In addition to the burger, Baby Girl also had one pizza palmier, a few green beans and some cubes of watermelon.  This was packed in the small and medium Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids.

Bento for Baby 24: Pancake and Red Pepper Hummus Rolls

Baby Girl is home for the next couple weeks, so hopefully I'll find the time to catch up on the last few weeks of bentos before new school year starts!  For breakfast on this day Baby Girl had one of Dan's Awesome Pancakes, half a banana cut into chunks and one sunbutter oatmeal ball.  The lunch portion of the bento contained hummus tortilla rolls, organic blueberries in the green silicone cup and some cucumber slices and a few garbanzo beans in the blue silicone cup.  This was all packed into the small green tiffin from World Market.

I made the tortilla rolls by completely covering a 100% whole wheat tortilla with a thick coat of homemade roasted red pepper hummus, which I sprinkled with some grated organic carrot.  I then rolled up the tortilla as tightly as possible without squishing the filling out of the roll, trimmed the ends and cut it into four equal pieces.  I find the tortillas roll without cracking if I zap the tortilla in the microwave for 10 seconds before I put in any fillings.  Unfortunately, Baby Girl wasn't a big fan of the hummus rolls on this day.  She's been a bit skeptical of spreads lately.  I have to do a better job of giving them to her more frequently.

Bento for Baby 23: Sunbutter Honey Pita and Zucchini and Rice Crostata

And now for something a little bit different.  This bento breaks the rut we seem to have been in the past few days.  For breakfast Baby Girl had half of a 100% whole wheat mini pita spread with sunbutter and a bit of honey.  I bought an organic sunbutter with no added sugar or palm oil (I try to avoid palm oil - save the orangutans!), but it is a bit bitter, so it needs a little honey.  Also for breakfast I included a small silicone cup with organic blueberries and pitted and halved bing cherries.  For lunch I packed a square of zucchini and rice crostata from the freezer, a few cubes of organic cheddar cheese, some halved cherry tomatoes from our CSA and a few watermelon cubes.  Again, I packed this day's food into my favorite little tiffin from World Market.

Bento for Baby 21: Pancakes and Pizza

Ack!  Still way behind on posting bentos!  This is the last one from two weeks ago.  It is a little bit all over the place, but we'll just say that I did that on purpose to provide Baby Girl with a wide variety of flavors and textures.  For breakfast Baby Girl had one of Dan's Awesome Pancakes, a sunbutter oatmeal ball and some organic blueberries and strawberries.  Lunch is where things get a little crazy.  Clockwise from the top right we have a couple small pieces of leftover homemade margherita pizza, some watermelon cubes in the orange silicone cup, a few cubes of organic cheddar cheese and in the yellow silicone cup some organic mixed veg with some chickpeas mixed in.  This was all packed in the small green World Market tiffin.  Surprisingly, she ate every bit of this except for the pizza!

Bento for Baby 20: Strawberry Tortilla Rolls and Spaghetti Carbonara

I packed breakfast and lunch foods together for this bento, with some leftover pasta in a separate glass container so it could be reheated.  For breakfast Baby Girl had some strawberry cream cheese tortilla rolls on a whole wheat tortilla.  In this container there are also some blueberries that could be eaten for breakfast and lunch and some sliced cucumbers and sugar snap peas to be eaten with the pasta for lunch.  This was all packed in the largest container from the Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids. The pasta is some leftover spaghetti carbonara I made for dinner the night before.  I made it using whole wheat spaghetti and some delicious fresh farm eggs we get from our CSA.  I also threw in some yellow squash from our CSA and frozen peas to pack a few more vegetables into our meal.  This was packed in a four ounce glass canning jar.

Bento for Baby 19: Pancake and Palmiers

Cruising right along with the bento catch up, we have Baby Girl's first bento from last week.  For breakfast she had one of Dan's Awesome Pancakes from the freezer, a couple sun butter oatmeal balls and some cut up strawberries in the green silicone cup.  For lunch she had two pizza palmiers, some frozen peas with a few garbanzo beans in the red cup and finally some blueberries and strawberries in the blue silicone cup.  This was all packed into the small green World Market tiffin.

Bento for Baby 18: The Inadvertent Patriotic Bento

The bento catch up continues.  My laptop was occupied the past couple weeks streaming Wimbledon and World Cup, so I didn't get much blogging done.  This bento is from July 3rd.  I started packing lunch for this bento first and realized I used red and white silicone cups, and then realizing the date I decided to go with it and used a blue cup to pack the yogurt, which I was planning to mix with blueberries and strawberries anyway.  So there you have it, an initially inadvertent, red, white and blue bento to celebrate the 4th of July.  Now for the details.  For breakfast, in addition to the homemade plain yogurt with organic blueberries and strawberries, I packed a couple sun butter oatmeal balls, a spoon for the yogurt and a couple cut up strawberries.  Lunch included leftover pasta from the night before made with some beautiful tomatoes from our CSA, basil and ricotta, some frozen peas and edamame in the white silicone cup and some cut red grapes.  This was all packed into the small green World Market tiffin.

Bento for Baby 17: Pancakes and Crab Cake - The New Chicken and Waffles?

I'm way behind posting bentos!  This is the first bento from the week before last.  My husband made us some more of his awesome pancakes the previous weekend, so Baby Girl had a pancake for breakfast with a sun butter oatmeal ball and some watermelon cubes and blueberries.  For lunch I packed a bit of crabcake from the night before.  Baby Girl LOVED having crab cake for dinner the previous night, but she didn't touch it for lunch.  She didn't go hungry though, because she also had some organic mixed vegetables, some organic grapes and one pizza palmier.  These were packed in the small and large Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids.

Bento for Baby 16: Sun Butter and Honey Pita and Spanish Tortilla

In her final bento of the week Baby Girl had sunbutter and honey spread in half a whole wheat pita and some blueberries in a silicone cup.  For lunch she had a small wedge of leftover Spanish tortilla from dinner the night before.  There are a million recipes for Spanish tortillas out there, I like the simple directions of Mark Bittman's recipe in How to Cook Everything. In addition to the classic potato, we put one large zucchini from the CSA into the tortilla to pack a few more veggies into our meal.  With the tortilla Baby Girl enjoyed some cubes of organic cheddar cheese, a couple sugar snap peas, some sliced cucumber and a few pitted and halved bing cherries.  Everything was packed in the small World Market tiffin.  I picked up this box on a whim for $5 thinking it'd get a couple uses out of it, but it has turned into my favorite box.  It's the perfect size for a toddler's day of food and it's dimensions are perfect for packing things tightly so they don't get mixed up in transit.

Bento for Baby 15: Yogurt, Waffle and Panzanella

This magnificent waffle here represents the last of our breakfast baked goods stash (name that reference), Baker Dan has his work cut out for him this weekend!  For breakfast on Wednesday, along with the precious last homemade yogurt waffle quarter from the freezer, Baby Girl had some homemade plain yogurt with blueberries and a few cantaloupe cubes.  I usually don't send yogurt to daycare, but I thought I'd give it a try.  It appears it was a success, she didn't come home with her head and clothes completely crusted in yogurt and there were no gentle encouragements to leave the yogurt at home from her teachers.

For lunch Baby Girl had a whole wheat Ak-Mak cracker, some halved and pitted bing cherries and some leftover panzanella, or tomato and bread salad, from dinner the night before.  We got some beautiful tomatoes for the salad in our CSA share on Tuesday.  I packed the tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, fresh mozzarella and basil from the salad, leaving out the bread so it didn't get too soggy.  Baby Girl thoroughly enjoyed it for dinner and for lunch.  Everything was packed into the small World Market tiffin.

Bento for Baby 14: Cream Cheese and Strawberry Tortilla Rolls and Quinoa Cake

Baby Girl is on the mend, so she is eating well again!  For breakfast today I packed her some cream cheese and strawberry tortilla rolls with some organic blueberries in the green silicone cup.  I made the rolls by spreading a thin layer of organic full fat cream cheese all over a 100% whole wheat tortilla, lining up three rows of thinly sliced organic strawberries along the bottom half of the tortilla, rolling tightly from the bottom, trimming the ends and then slicing the roll into four equal pieces. The tortilla will be a bit easier to roll, and the cream cheese easier to spread, if you zap the tortilla in the microwave for ~10 seconds before making these.

For lunch she had a quinoa cake from the freezer and some organic sugar snap peas (with the ends cut off and strings removed) and some organic bing cherries pitted and cut in half.  This was all packed in the small green World Market tiffin.

Bento for Baby Recipe: Dan's Awesome Pancakes

Here is the long promised recipe for "Dan's Awesome Pancakes."  That's the name my husband gave them when I asked him to type up the recipe. He's very modest, as you can tell. But, honestly, they are actually pretty awesome, just don't tell him that. Dan makes many different kinds of pancakes and waffles, they're all great, but these are some of the best he's made. They came about as a bit of an accident, he was going to make yogurt waffles, but we were low on yogurt so he used some ricotta we had. Then I threw him through a loop by asking for pancakes rather than waffles after he had mixed everything, so he had to make some changes to the leavening agents to accommodate my request. The result is a really light and fluffy pancake that tastes fantastic and also sticks with you and keeps you full all morning. And, like most of the things we make around here, they are low in sugar and have whole wheat flour. Dan uses King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour in a lot of baked goods, it adds the goodness of whole grains without the heaviness of typical whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon canola oil

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Directions:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl with whisk to aerate them. In a larger bowl lightly beat the eggs and then add the rest of the wet ingredients and thoroughly mix. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir mixture until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Dollop small amounts of batter on the prepared griddle to make pancakes of desired size. Drop a few frozen blueberries on each pancake. Let cook until edges of pancake firm up and small bubbles form on the top, then flip. Let cook until each side is golden brown. Serve immediately or let cool and place in freezer bag to enjoy in the future.

We enjoy these fresh fruit and real maple syrup, Baby Girl enjoys them plain or with some yogurt.