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 79: Palmiers and Banana Bread

For her bento on this day Baby Girl had a few more favorites.  Although she had eaten her whole lunch the previous day, I wasn't yet convinced that her lunch strike was over.  Thankfully, she again ate most of her lunch, except some of the black beans shown here in the green silicone cup.  Along with the black beans, she had three spinach pizza palmiers from the freezer, some unsweetened banana chips, a clementine, one sunbutter oatmeal ball and a small piece of whole wheat sugar-free banana bread (which was actually leftover from her breakfast on this morning.)

Items used to pack this bento:

Bento for Baby 75: Apple Sandwich and Pizza Palmier

You may notice that the next few bentos have much less food than I usually pack.  Baby Girl went on a bit of an eating strike at school in November and December.  Most of her bentos came back barely touched, even when I sent her favorite foods.  To encourage her to eat her lunch, I stopped packing items to supplement her morning snack.  I also packed more foods I knew she liked, but still tried to provide variety and a few new flavors.  It was a frustrating time. I was worried about her getting enough to eat and annoyed at the waste of food.  Since my mind was on other things, I often forgot to take pictures of her bentos, so the next few posts aren't a complete record of the few weeks before the holidays.  Thankfully, Baby Girl started eating with gusto again the last week before the holiday break!  However, I think her appetite is smaller these days as her growth rate slows in toddlerhood, so I'm going to continue with just packing food for lunch and not supplement her school-provided morning snack.

So, for her bento on this day sometime in early December, I gave her an apple and peanut butter sandwich (on an organic Fuji apple, which she let me know was much too tart for her liking. . .), two pizza plamiers from the freezer, some unsweetened banana chips and a couple carrot sticks.  This was packed in the top section of her small green tiffin box.  I think on this day all she ate was one bite of the apple sandwich, some of the banana chips a half a palmier. . .sigh.

Supplies similar to those used in this lunch:

Bento for Baby 60: Pancakes and Palmiers

Since we went out the night before, I grabbed a few things from the freezer to quickly pack this bento in the morning.  I put all her food for the day in the U Konserve rectangular container.  For her morning snack I gave Baby Girl a couple of Dan's Awesome Pancakes and some frozen mango chunks.  For lunch she had three pizza palmiers, two filled with spinach and ricotta and one with pesto, ricotta and broccoli.  I also gave her some sliced carrots and English cucumber and a little trail mix I made with walnuts, raisins and sunflower seeds.

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 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 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 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 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 Recipe: Pizza Palmiers

These are Baby Girl's all time favorites.  I've been making them since the early days of Baby Led Weaning.  She devoured them then and still squeals with excitement when I give her one now.  We make a lot of homemade pizza at our house so the idea for these popped into my head when I was trying to think of how I could make a teething biscuit that used whole wheat pizza dough, was easily portable and introduced some veggies into her diet.  They're a riff on the French cookie made with puff pastry.  I make these with homemade whole wheat pizza dough and any kind of easily spread vegetable and cheese mixture.  They work best when the filling isn't too moist and is light on the cheese.  The version shown here is a mix of spinach and ricotta, but you could make them with any number of combinations, pesto and broccoli, classic tomato sauce and cheese (but you need to go light on moist fillings), roasted red peppers and goat cheese, ham and gruyere. . .  the possibilities are endless. These freeze incredibly well, I just stick them in a ziplock after they cool. Baby Girl will gladly eat them frozen or thawed.  They're great for packing in lunches or taking with you for a snack on the go.  I think they are just about the perfect baby food.  These could also make really nice appetizers at a party.  You don't have to tell anyone that you make them for your baby, too.  

Ingredients

1/2 pound homemade whole wheat pizza dough

6 - 8 ounces frozen chopped spinach (not leaf!)

1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Directions

Thaw the spinach in the microwave.  When spinach is thawed, remove as much liquid as possible.  I do this by pressing the spinach against one side of the bowl then gently pouring out the liquid.  Mix the spinach with the ricotta and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Roll out the pizza dough as thinly as possible on a piece of floured parchment paper. Try to keep the dough in the shape of a rectangle. The dough I used to make the batch in these pictures rolled out really nicely, there is no need to get the dough this thin to make the recipe, although it does make for really pretty palmiers.

Spread the filling in a thin layer over the dough.

Roll up the dough on the long edges on each side.  Roll equally from each side until the rolls meet in the middle.  Wet the dough with a damp finger along the center edge of each roll.  Lightly press the rolls together.

Wrap the roll lightly in the parchment paper and stick it in the freezer for half an hour or so that it will be easier to cut.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the roll is a little firm, but not frozen, take it out of the freezer. With a sharp bread knife, trim the ragged ends of the palmier log to the point where all layers of dough is present and the filling is evenly distributed.  Slice the roll thinly with a sharp bread knife into ~1/3 inch thick slices.

Place the slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I use the same piece I used to roll out the dough).

Put in the preheated oven until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Flip the palmiers and cook until other side is lightly browned.

Let them cool on the sheet pan and then put them in a container to freeze.

Bento for Baby 3: Pizza Palmiers and Sunbutter Oatmeal Balls

On this day baby girl had two sun butter-oatmeal balls, pear chunks and sliced strawberries for morning snack.  I have loved nut butter-oatmeal balls since I was a little girl.  They were one of my favorite snacks, so I was really excited when baby girl got old enough to eat honey and chew oatmeal so that I could make them for her.  Her school is nut free, so I make them with sun butter, but they are still delicious!

For lunch I packed two "pizza palmiers," a creation of mine that that baby girl LOVES, organic chedder cheese cubes, pear chucks and a few sugar snap peas from our CSA share (Ambrose Family Farm).   I'll post the full recipe for pizza palmiers separately, but basically they are whole wheat pizza dough rolled out thinly, spread with spinach and other veggies, cheese (pretty much whatever you want to throw in there), rolled up, sliced and baked.  I think these are the perfect baby food - they're healthy, they freeze really well, and she loves them.  I can get her to eat any kind of vegetable if they are wrapped in pizza dough.  I give them to her straight out of the freezer when she's teething and the cold chewy dough soothes her gums. Or they are still tasty when I pack them for lunch they slowly thaw until lunchtime.  I've been feeding her these since she started out with baby led weaning.  They were easy for her to gum without any teeth, but she still loves them now that she has teeth.  I predict she'll still be eating them for many, many years.

These meals were packed in the small and medium Kids Konserve Nesting Trio Stainless Steel Containers with Leak-Proof Lids.