Kamis, 31 Mei 2012

Circus Elephant Bento

Yesterday I made this fun Elephant Bento for Eliana. I decided to go with a circus elephant :)
I did her lunch in an EasyLunchBox so that we could easily transport it and eat lunch with Bee-Baga (Great-Grandpa) :)

The elephant is an open faced ham and cheese sandwich, cheese placed on the top.  Details were drawn on with an edible food marker.  I added a candy eye, fruit leather and a hat food pick to add extra details on the elephant. The elephant is practicing an act on his pretzel rod balance beam. And what circus elephant would be complete without balancing a ball? The "ball" is a teeny tiny round silicone cup filled with yogurt covered raisins.

In the upper left I put flower cucumbers and a few blueberries, with an elephant pick.
In the lower left she has cut up strawberries with another elephant pick.

I don't know about you but one of the first thing I think about when I think about circus elephants is peanuts.  I did not include peanuts in her lunch, even though it would have gone nicely with the theme. And actually, if you've been following my blog you will notice that I've never done a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I may have used peanut butter to "glue" the acorn together in the hungry squirrel lunch, but Eliana didn't eat it.  Why you ask? (or maybe you don't, and if you don't then here is the gist of the next paragraph: there is a high probability that Eliana is allergic to peanuts!)

Ever since Eliana was little she never liked peanut butter.  When she was two she ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich and broke out in hives all over her body (She had had PB before and never reacted, just never liked it). Because Eliana has the most incredible memory, and I'm not just saying that, from that point on she refused to eat peanut butter because of that reaction. She is four now, and the past two years have gone by and Eliana will not eat anything with PB.  I always thought she was allergic to peanuts, but we kind of were on the fence about it.  Since she didn't like peanuts and almost never had them it didn't seem to be a problem... and we figured she would outgrow it, but still we tended to avoid peanuts. However last week when we were eating trail mix I asked her to finish what was left in her bowl... so she licked a peanut. Her lip swelled up immediately. That did it for me.. She had never had any swelling before, so this was serious. We brought her to do blood test yesterday and we will be setting up the skin test soon. We will know for sure soon what her allergies are, but I'm pretty sure it is the peanuts. We'd rather be safe and figure out if she has any other allergies, which is why we are going through all the testing. All this to say: We didn't include peanuts in this lunch, and probably you won't be seeing any peanut butter sandwiches anytime soon! :)

I am SO thankful all that happened was a swollen lip. I watched her like a hawk and kept asking her every two seconds how she was feeling, while having my phone ready. And that reaction was only from one lick!  It can be nerve-wracking to think your child has an allergy.  You might even wish she or he doesn't have one and might miss out on life because of it (I can be dramatic sometimes). Well thankfully today there are SO many amazing products out there, and a much better awareness about allergies in general.  Although right now Eliana refuses to eat any nut butter right now, probably because they "look like peanut butter", I know there are options out there should she ever want :)  I'm very thankful, and relieved, we are getting to the bottom of this allergy soon and will be prepared if she ever were to have a reaction. I'm also super thankful this is so much easier to deal with because Eliana doesn't like PB anyways! My little girl knew all along it seems :)

**update** 
We got the results back and Eliana is allergic to peanuts, cashews and pistachios. This came as a surprise to us as she had never even had a cashew or a pistachio so I wasn't even thinking there were other nut allergies! I am very thankful we got her tested and are now prepared in case of any emergency.  We are clearly staying away from nuts at this point. It won't be too big of an adjustment for Eliana in general because she never liked nuts ever (she really did seem to know her allergy all along!)  The adjustment will be double checking everything for cross contamination issues for nuts we weren't thinking about before.  Now that we think about it David and I were wondering if that is why she so often said her "tummy hurt" after eating.  We never gave it much thought since she would be fine a few minutes later. It could have been a cross contamination issue? We can't be sure, but we'll be paying closer attention to that.

So we are are a "new adventure" as my girl Sarah from Bentoriffc  suggested I put it! We are going to be trying out new foods and alternatives for Eliana and for ourselves (once we finish what we have in our household we will no longer buy PB or trail mixes that are unsafe, just to be safe side. Eliana does like almonds, on a rare occasion, and does like Nutella and has never had a reaction to either. So we will keep those, however it will be easier to remind others to avoid PB and all nuts to avoid confusion.) So I'll be sharing some of our adventures of trying new products with you all, with some guidance from other PF and NF bloggers (specifically from my new BFF: Keeley McGuire) ;)  

 
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Selasa, 29 Mei 2012

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Snack and Bento

Last week Eliana requested we make The Very Hungry Caterpillar into a creative meal. I've seen a lot of Hungry Caterpillar themed lunches and snacks going on lately, but this was entirely all Eliana's idea (probably since she re-found her book!) Here is the snack we made:
Eliana wanted green grapes, so we made the Very Hungry Caterpillar out of grapes :)
To make this Very Hungry Caterpillar snack first wash and cut your green grapes in half and arrange them on the plate.  Cut a grape tomato in half and put it as the head.  The eyes are confetti sprinkles with the pupil drawn on with a food safe marker.  The mouth is also drawn with a food safe marker.  I drew the feet and the antennae with a food safe marker onto the plate (drawing the final details on the plate makes this snack super easy and quick to do!)

We also made this cute Very Hungry Caterpillar bento for lunch:
Eliana was so excited she wanted a picture holding her bento :)
Lunch was just as simple. Eliana had a ham and cheese sandwich topped with the Very Hungry Caterpillar.   The body of the caterpillar was cut with a cookie cutter out of a spinach tortilla and I drew the lines with a food safe marker.  The head is a grape tomato, chocolate sprinkle antennae and yellow confetti eyes with food safe markers to make the details.  I have green grapes in the top left, and strawberries in the top right.  I used a straw to put a hole into the strawberries because on Thursday the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through four strawberries (and he was was still hungry of course) ;)

Want other Very Hungry Caterpillar ideas for lunch or a snack? Check some of these out:

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Selasa, 22 Mei 2012

Angry Birds Pig Bento

When I told you Eliana asks for an Angry Birds Lunch every day, I wasn't kidding. I hold her off and we go for one a week. She still asks. every. day. I can't blame her though. After this Angry Bird Lunch, and this one I keep putting myself into more trouble ;)

So without further ado, here is another Angry Birds lunch. This time an Angry Birds Pig bento:

I made this bento for Eliana the other day when we had lunch at the park. This was super simple and easy to put together before going out.

The Pig was a ham and cheese (the regular) on a spinach tortilla, cut in a circle.  Details on the Pig face were made by cheese, cut tortilla and food safe markers.  The fort is made of pretzel rods.

In the top left I have a pouch of Angry Birds fruit snacks sitting on top of cut up strawberries.
In the bottom left I cut up celery very thinly (the only way Eliana will eat it) and put some carrot flowers on top.

This lunch was packed in an EasyLunchbox.  I love me some EasyLunchBoxes. I actually WON some from a giveaway on Bobbi's Bentos! I never win anything so I'm super excited! I look forward to their arrival to add onto the ones I bought just a few months ago!  I bought them to make lunch preparation easier for us, primarily for David's lunches but we all use them and love them.  I used to send David to work with three to four containers, and now its all in one! I love consolidation :) It also makes packing a lunch easy so Eliana and I can have a change of scenery from time to time :)

I at first wasn't going to post this because my perfectionist self saw too many flaws. However I'm glad my bento blogger friends talked me out of that. I sometimes need a virtual smack on the head! :)


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Rabu, 16 Mei 2012

Graduation

This past weekend was full of celebrations and family time.  On Friday I graduated with my Masters Degree of Social Work (**happy dance!!**) YEAH!!! :) You can now refer to me as "Master Michelle" ;) We had a nice ceremony on campus and I was so glad to walk across that stage and get my diploma! All of that hard work paid off and I have the diploma in my hand to prove it! My whole family went out to eat afterwards and had our own celebration dinner at La Casa de Pedro, which was amazing.

However after all the celebrations on Friday I woke up feeling super groggy the next morning.  Even after coffee and breakfast I could not seem to wake up myself. I first thought maybe I was just exhausted from graduation and all.  But on Sunday I had a sore throat, it hurt to swallow and talk, and I was officially sick. Even though I didn't feel that great I did have a wonderful Mother's Day with my family :) My cold turned into a mini flu, and I was in bed all day basically for two days. But today is the first day that I feel better and I hope by tomorrow I will feel back to my normal self!

I wanted to post this last weekend, but being sick and all I am posting this today. For Graduation I made some Chocolate Graduation Caps for me myself and moi (don't judge me! it was all about me that day!) OK. I actually did share. Eventually. ;)
 I got inspiration for this treat from Bakerella's Candy Cup Graduation Caps 
These are so simple to make and would be a perfect treat for a graduation party!

To make these Chocolate Graduation Caps you will need:
*mini dark chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups
*One dark chocolate bar (Lindt Dark 70% cocoa Smooth Dark is what I went with)
*yellow candy melts
*one bar will make 10 graduation caps..I think so.. (I counted after we ate some...whoops)

**update to make these peanut free you could use Sun Cups or make your own cups with a Peanut free spread. I made these before we were aware of Eliana's allergy (she did not eat them because she didn't like peanut butter but we didn't know she was allergic).**

First I stuck the Reese's into the freezer for a few minutes so that the sides didn't come off when I took off the wrapper.  While they were in the freezer I broke my candy bar into squares and I melted my yellow candy melts.  I chose that candy bar because I knew that it was squared off already so breaking it off into squares wouldn't be as difficult.

I unpeeled my Reese's peanut butter cups and placed them upside down on a cookie sheet with parchment (or wax) paper. I used the yellow candy melts as "glue" and put a glob of yellow candy melts on the top of each peanut butter cup. Then placed the chocolate square on top of the peanut butter cup (logo facing down, unless you want to represent Lindt lol). Using the candy melts again I made a dot of yellow in the center and made thin strands for the tassel.  

*It may have been a little neater looking had I bought individually wrapped chocolate squares, or used mini M&M's and other things for the top of the graduation cap but since I had yellow candy melts I decided to use what I had. I also chose not to put them on a stick, because honestly that stick would just get thrown away and I'm not a fan of building up extra trash. But by all means if you want to put it on a stick then be my guest!
~*~*~*~

Since Graduation was at 2 in the afternoon, we were going to leave at about 12:30 to get there in time for me to line up and to make sure everyone got seats. I knew that we would all be hungry, especially Eliana.  So I made her a graduation bento:
I whipped this up lunch quickly before we left for graduation.  I cut up some apple and put them into a flower silicone cup (rubbed them with lemon juice to keep them from browning).  Eliana asked for flowers so I cut up some cucumber and carrots into flowers. I then gave her a mini salami and cheese sandwich with 2012 cut out in fruit leather. I could have stacked two sandwiches on top of each other but Eliana wouldn't have eaten that much. She also wasn't a big fan of the salami either.. And lastly I put a Chocolate Graduation Cap for her (see--I did share! But she didn't eat the whole thing because of the PB. She ate the top and David ate the bottom)  The cute little graduation food picks completed the lunch and made it easy to eat with no utensils :)

That was my first official bento on this blog! I've been making them for quite some time, but honestly haven't had the time to take pictures of them all or post them with the hectic last few months. I look forward to sharing some of the ones Eliana and I have made together soon! :)

I would like to wish everyone who graduated this month, and will graduate this year, whether from grade school, high school, college or grad school, Congratulations!! :)

~Master Michelle, MSW :-)

  

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Rabu, 09 Mei 2012

Red Angry Bird Lunch

Eliana asked for another Angry Birds lunch. Actually she keeps asking for them... on a daily basis... I most definitely created a monster when making this first Angry Birds Lunch last month.  Since that lunch was so time consuming due to all the tiny pieces (and my lack of pre-lunch planning) I decided to make this lunch simpler.  

Eliana's favorite is the red angry bird so I made this simple Red Angry Bird Lunch:
This lunch is loosely based on the Spring version of Angry Birds Seasons, with some cute little veggie flowers at the bottom :)

The slingshot is made of pretzel rods with cheese for the sling.
The red angry bird is a sundried tomato tortilla with ham and cheese sandwich cut into a circle.  
The cheese on top was colored red (tutorial can be found here). 
The belly and eyes are cheese.  
The beak is carrot. 
The eyebrows, eyes and tail feathers are colored with a black food safe marker. 
The flowers on the bottom are cucumbers and carrots cut with a small flower cutter

*Of course this lunch would not work if you or your child are sensitive and/or allergic to food dye, so I would suggest to either use natural food dyes or use another red food such as red bell pepper or red apple for the body.  You could use black olives, raisins, grapes or black beans for the black details.*


Eliana loved this lunch and gobbled it up. She is a huge fan of Angry Birds so if she approved of it I guess it came out all right ;)

What I used:
 

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Jumat, 04 Mei 2012

Eye of the Tiger

As I've mentioned before, grad school is coming to an end for me (one week til grduation!!)  The past month especially has been a mad rush to bring everything together; tying up loose ends, finishing my last assignments and presentations, along with a bunch of nerves and anxiety and late nights on top of daily responsibilities.  This past Monday I presented, along with my fabulous group members, our final integrative research project presentation. And after we were done presenting I completely crashed. I could barely keep my eyes open on the drive home, not to mention the other presentations. All the tension and stress leading up to the biggest moment of my MSW grad school education was followed by a complete crash...Yeah, that's how I celebrate ;)

I also finished my last grad school paper ever this past Tuesday night and I attended my last class on Wednesday. I'm feeling pretty good right now :)

In order to make it through these last assignments I've had to pump myself up. I usually do that with music, and for some reason this song was in my mind the entire last month!
"Eye of the Tiger" brings me back to memories of high school track meets and bus rides when we would play our music to pump ourselves up for the competition...good times :)

For my own sanity I pumped myself up to make something other than a paper too ;)  With M&Ms leftover from Eliana's 4th birthday party I made my version of Eye of the Tiger:
Tiger M&Ms!
To make these tiger M&Ms all you need is a lot of orange M&Ms and edible food markers.

First make two circle eyes with the black food safe marker. 
Then with a brown food marker make the nose, mouth and ears.  
The make the tiger stripes with the black food marker.

*In order for your design not to smudge let each part dry first before drawing the next part.

The closest you'll ever want to get with a tiger ;)


And so much better than regular M&Ms ;)

Eliana had fun drawing her own Tiger M&Ms too. She made a bunch of them, but I only happened to get a picture of this one before it went into her mouth ;)  I may be bias, but that is the best looking Tiger M&M I have ever seen.

I call this activity working on her fine motor skills
You can call it whatever you want, but it was fun and delicious.


Want ideas of what to make with other color M&Ms?
Red -- Ladybug M&Ms
Yellow -- Baby Chick M&Ms 

What I used to make these tiger M&Ms:


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