Muffin Tin Meals - Under the Sea

My husband was outside sorting through junk stuff in the garage, so I made a quickie muffin tin meal for The Princess to eat outside with him.

Rainbow Goldfish, PBHoney sandwich, milk,
pear fries, carrot 'anemones,' more pear fries

When planning the lunch, she asked for a peanut-butter-honey sandwich. So then I let her pick the other elements as well. I asked her what fruit she wanted, and (after asking me what 'fruits' were,) she picked apple. She chose carrots as her vegetable (which is good, since they're pretty much all I had...) And when I explained that 'dairy' was food made from milk, she said she just wanted milk. "Reg-a-lur milk!" Wooooot! It's been a fight to get her to drink milk this past year, and only recently have we been able to get her to drink it willingly, by putting Ovaltine in it. In a sippy cup only! So her requesting plain milk is a real coup! To jazz up the milk, I chose her Little Mermaid straw (Disney Store clearance,) so decided to go with a sea theme.

For her sammie, I used a fish cutter and PB-glued a blue sugar eye on it. I loooooove sugar eyes! (You can easily make your own dye-free version with royal icing or white chocolate and natural food colors. But I'm lazy. And I still have a ton of pink, blue, yellow and white ones from a bake shop that was having a going-out-of-business sale!)

She'd asked for apple, but I had half a pear in the fridge, so I cut some up into fries and lied to her. She said she didn't like this apple, and she wanted a "reg-a-lur apple!" So I ate the pear and traded her some apple slices. *sigh*
I tried something new with the carrot flowers, since my friend Keeley from Keeley McGuire Blog hasn't been asked refuses to share her carrot cutting technique so I had to try and figure it out myself. Still not sure how she does it... Unless she cuts EACH coin by hand! Gah!
I added in the Goldfish Crackers to fill a space and to fit the theme, but when I presented Her Majesty with the lunch they were met with "I didn't SAY Goldfish Crackers! Why did you give me Goldfish Crackers?" So I told her not to worry. "DON'T eat them. I will eat them for you." She ate them first. >.<

I totally forgot to take pictures of her eating. She was so cute! She had her folding bunny chair, and I set up a big box as a table. She ate everything but the carrots. (And the pears, of course.)
  

Eating the Alphabet: E and F

I just discovered this fun monthly link-up called Eating the Alphabet over at Meal Planning Magic.What a great way to try new foods and recipes together! This month's letters are E and F.

E -

Eggplant! We went to a talk on nutrition hosted by the Pacific Science Center, where they had brought several fruits and veggies from around the world to let the kids try. The horseradish and eggplant were not cut up, for obvious reasons. So at the end when Z went up and said she wanted to try the eggplant, they let her take it home. So I attempted to make Eggplant Chips made Eggplant fries.

Elk! My dad likes to hunt. And then we all get to eat it. Yay. Since Hubby and I don't cook much (until recently...) we usually pass on the meat, which means more for my siblings! One sister made elk burgers at our family Easter party. And the other brought some elk chili for me to take home! I ate my elk burger. Pretty tasty. (Hubby ate some fancy chicken sausage he had brought. And Z had a hot dog.)
I've been eating the elk chili on dark sweet rolls we brought to the Easter party that didn't end up getting used. Deee-lish! It has a variety of beans in it, ground elk meat, onion, and green and red chunks I assume are peppers of some kind.

F -

French Toast! I haven't made French toast in years. Maybe even a decade or more! I'm not really a fan of it; I prefer pancakes. But the whole point of Eating the Alphabet is to try new foods, and this would be new for Little Z! But... I don't remember the recipe! Rather than scouring the internet, I asked my bento buddies for recommendations. Myra from Mommy + Me Lunchbox suggested this overnight Cream Cheese French Toast Casserole. Shannon from What's for Lunch at Our House shared her Caramel French Toast (also an overnight casserole.) Both look sooooooooper delicious, but I was looking for a more traditional recipe. In swoops Karen from What's In John's Lunch Bag? And although she French-toasted a PBJ sandwich, she has the egg mixture recipe that looks familiar.

So I made "regular" French Toast, but I used a cupcake sandwich cutter to make her bread a fun shape, then fried it up! Her recipe made enough dredging mixture for 3-4 slices of bread. I gave her powdered sugar for sprinkling and syrup for dipping.

She ate every last bite! I just put a little powdered sugar on mine, but I still prefer pancakes. I don't like the mushiness. Maybe I'll try one of the casserole-style recipes and see if they are less mushy...


Fondue! April 11th is National Cheese Fondue Day, so for a few days around that time, The Melting Pot restaurant offers free cheddar cheese fondue in limited numbers at all participating locations! Since Hubby was out of town for the night I had made our reservations, I invited my mom to join us. After our free cheddar fondue appetizer, we decided to stay and split a "Surf and Turf" broth fondue entree as well as a dark chocolate dessert fondue. Yummmm.

Little Z loooooooved the cheese fondue. It came with assorted veggies (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli,) tart green apple chunks, and assorted bread chunks (something white, something brown, and something with herbs baked in.) She did her darnedest to hog all the bread and apple chunks, but was thwarted when they brought us seconds on the bread. Even she couldn't eat them all fast enough.

The broth entree came with chunks of chicken, filet mignon, and shrimp, as well as potato wedges, broccoli, and mushrooms. Since the foods cook in the broth, we each had skewers with different colored handles, to keep track of whose food was whose.The broth was spicier than my mom and I would have liked, so I didn't push Z to eat too much from the entree. She had a chicken chunk and a shrimp. Which was actually an entire protein serving for someone her size. She had eaten some raw carrots from the cheese course, so I didn't push her on the broccoli or potatoes. She doesn't like mushrooms, but she tried one. I don't like them either, but I ate most of them, since at these prices, I didn't want anything to go to waste. And my mom was saving room for dessert!

With the dark chocolate dessert fondue, we got chunks of bananas and strawberries, mini brownies, rice crispy treat bites, graham-cracker-crumbed- and chocolate-cookie-crumbed-marshmallows, and a mini-slice of cheesecake (which we split.) They gave us seconds on the strawberries and bananas. We licked that bowl clean!

Eggplant... Chips? Fries? Recipe

The Pacific Science Center ran a Nutrition Workshop aimed at kids for one of my moms groups. It was aimed at slightly older kids, but I figured we could go and see how well she'd do. They had lots of information that they shared, most of which I knew, but some surprises. And I always enjoy being reminded of all my crappy eating habits the healthy tips and information.
One of the activities they offered was identifying the origins of some fruits and veggies from around the world. And then tasting them! Since one of the fruits was an eggplant (yes, it's a fruit!) and they didn't want to serve it raw, they just had one there to show. At the end, when they were offering up the leftover samples for additional taste-testing, Z asked to try the eggplant. So they let her take the whole thing home!

Since I wasn't in the mood for mushy fries (ask me about the zucchini fries I made recently. Bleah!) I looked into making eggplant chips. And even found a recipe! But some of the reviews said they were still mushy. So I decided to try my own thing.

Eggplant Chip-Fries

Ingredients: 

1 eggplant, sliced thinly

1/4 tsp each salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika

2 tsp powdered parmesan cheese

1 tsp Italian seasoning

olive oil cooking spray (or 2-3 Tbsp olive oil)

salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Step 1: In a small bowl, combine salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cheese powder, and Italian seasoning. Set aside.

Step 2: On parchment-paper-lined baking tray(s,) lay eggplant slices out evenly. It's okay if they touch or overlap a bit, but try to have less than 1/4-inch of overlap.

Step 3: Spray with olive oil cooking spray (or brush on olive oil.) Sprinkle seasoning mixture onto eggplant slices.

Step 4: Bake for 12-15 minutes at 400 F until edges start to brown and crisp.

Well. Mixed reviews. On the one hand, they were not crispy. So maybe the "crunchy" statement by the original recipe writer was based on the bread crumbs on the outsides being crunchy. Since mine were sliced thinner than those half-fries! And I thought that using the baking spray instead of drizzling or brushing on oil would help make them drier as well. *sigh*
The seasoning was tasty, although Z and I needed more salt. But we're salt fiends! She ended up eating almost half the eggplant (I had enough for 2 baking-trays' worth, and she ate most of the first batch.)

So all in all I was disappointed in the chips themselves. While they weren't so mushy they disintegrated, they were not at all crisp.  Maybe if I was able to partially dehydrate the chips first, before seasoning and cooking? Or use a deep-fryer?
But the fact that Z not only tried them but ate a bunch, I call this a win.

Update: A friend shared some links about salting them first to make them crispier. Here's a recipe (you should be able to alter the seasonings to fit your taste.) And then there's a debate on salting or not salting to suck out some moisture and bitterness (I did notice some of them had a bitter aftertaste. Turns out it's an oil made by the seeds! I just figured it was what veggies do, since my parsnip chips had the same taste, and some raw carrots do sometimes too.)

Spongebob Pain-in-the-Squarepants

I must have been delirious. Or, after several days and night on my own while Hubby was out of town, cocky with pride at getting them both to sleep early enough I could actually get up and do something. It's the only explanation for why I foolishly decided to whip up a character lunch. Now, I'm no Karen from What's in John's Lunch Bag, but I figured I could whip up a Spongebob on my own with very little prep or planning. Suuuure. Why not?

Gah.

Spongebob Pain-in-the-Squarepants

Braising mix "seaweed" with carrot "sea anemones," pineapple, PB-Nutella Spongebob,
American cheese "Patrick" starfish, Spongebob froot snax and chocolates

First off, I hate Spongebob. Not only is the cartoon worthless, the character annoys me. But my daughter, before she ever even saw the show (an event I regret deeply,) wanted Spongebob things. She chose Spongebob over Dora when choosing Band-Aids. And back when we were first potty training, she even chose a packet of Nickelodeon underpanties because some had Spongebob on them! *Sigh.* Fine.

Under the Sea: I got a bag of "braising mix" lettuce in my CSA box, so decided to let her try some out. She likes "lettuce chips" and these have different colors and textures which might be fun. Plus they looked a lot like underwater plants! I added in some carrot flowers so she'd have some veggies to eat if she didn't end up liking the lettuces. And they kind of look like something you might find on the ocean floor...

Whooooo Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea?: This was a no-brainer. When brainstorming what kinds of Spongebob-ish things I could incorporate, I remembered that his house is a pineapple! Score! I had just bought a can of pineapple rings, really for no purpose. She hasn't really been willing to eat pineapple, when it's in fruit salads and such. I don't even know if she's ever even tried it. But this might be the impetus she needs to give it a go!

Patrick: Patrick is Spongebob's starfish friend. So this was an easy way to incorporate that. I just used a mini star cutter as many times as would fit on a slice of American cheese (this was the last part I did, and I was too lazy tired to slice some CoJack or Mozzarella) and then tucked the scraps underneath in both mini polka-dot cupcake liners. I had originally toyed with the idea of cutting out one big cheese star and then using food markers to make a Patrick like Jenn at Bento for Kidlet shows in her drawing on cheese character-making tutorial, but then I remembered how well the Spongebob had gone, which cured me of any lingering urge to go ahead and try.

Spongebob Treatpants: I had a packet of froot snax from a Spongebob-themed goody bag from some birthday party (probably one of my nephews'... we don't get invited to many parties...) that I had been saving for just such a lunch-occasion. And I had just bought the Spongebob chocolates on after-Easter clearance at Party Time (where I found the polka-dot mini cupcake liners on clearance as well!) I put them in a Spongebob treat box from Target's Easter clearance (I also found Disney Princess crown-shaped and Lightening McQueen car-shaped ones! Happy happy joy joy!)

SandwichBob: I cut both slices of bread free-hand before adding on peanut butter and Nutella. It all went downhill from there. 

I figured I could paint with cocoa powder and water again, like I did with SkippyJon way back whenever. I used a plastic-bristled brush I keep with my supplies for using on food. It worked okay. But then I was at a loss for the white. Sugar? Not white enough. Ahh. Powdered sugar... but how to get it to stick? Water dissolves it (discovered the hard way) so that won't work. I tried using a butter knife to scoop it up and kind of pile it on where I wanted it (using the knife as a guide.) Not awesome results. So I tried using my finger to rub some around where I wanted it. Best results so far, but still totally lame looking. Oh well. I dabbed on some peanut butter in roughly a tie-shape, to get the red sugar sprinkles to stick. And in the eye area for blue sprinkles. And then all over the place since I didn't have a circle cutter small enough to use as a guide.

I decided to give up and go ahead and get out my frosting tubes (I keep them on-hand from various kits and such that I get, or if I find some on clearance.) I didn't have blue, but I settled for a teal get for the eyes. While I was digging through to look for black (I could have sworn I had black from a Halloween kit...) I found a tube of white. So I squirted it around sloppily for his shirt. teeth and eyes. I settled for purple in place of black and glopped it around sloppily too. Good enough. Done! As you can see, the teal and purple colors started bleeding into the bread fairly quickly. Ah well. She'll be thrilled to get frosting on her sandwich, and luckily she isn't a perfectionist when it comes to MY work.

Mama's Lunch:

Spinach salad w/carrots, strawberries and almonds. Raspberry vinaigrette in
mini container. Apples w/PB, Special K Whole Wheat crackers, string
cheese nibblets, mini cupcake

I used up the last of the organic spinach (it was on it's last legs. I had to weed out slimy bits. Ew.) And I actually got a whole little carrot to myself. Not scraps! 

Since Hubby has been out of town these past few days, I've gone to McDonalds roughly 126 times. Just kidding. Sort of. I have gone an inordinate amount of times since he left on Sunday though. I even went by on my way home after dropping Z off at preschool to get myself lunch. On my way home. Where I have food I could have eaten instead. Ah well. No one died. Anyway, I had apples left over from a Happy Meal (mine. I wanted to get her a Squinkies toy so I ordered myself a Happy Meal. Don't judge.) Paired them here with some peanut butter. Crunchy, of course!

I have more crackers hiding under the cupcake and the flexible silicone cup holding the cheese. The cupcake was on after-Easter clearance at Target. Still good for another week! Wa-hoo!

Both lunches in our EasyLunchboxes.

  

Crock-Pot at the End of the Rainbow!

My CSA box had cilantro in it again! And I had some carrots and celery going all wilty. So I decided to make my Crock-Pot Cilantro Chicken again, with a few changes.

2 cups uncooked brown rice
5 cups water
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chunked
Assorted vegetables, chopped (I used 5-6 carrots, 2 zucchini, and 1/2 bunch celery)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 to 1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp minced garlic (roughly 9 cloves, minced)
2 Tbsp chicken soup mix
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Orange carrots; Yellow carrots; Green cilantro, zucchini, and celery; Purple carrots
Just missing Red and Blue for the full rainbow!

Step 1: In small pot, dissolve salt and chicken soup mix in 5 cups of water. (You can also add pepper here, but since I don't like it, I wouldn't know how much to add.) Bring to a boil, then add rice. Turn to Low heat, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Having learned from my brown rice fiasco, I decided to pre-cook the rice a little this time! This step was not needed with white rice.

Step 2: Put chicken chunks on bottom of slow-cooker pot, followed by rice (try to save water to add after.) Sprinkle chopped cilantro and minced garlic over rice, then add chopped onion and assorted vegetables. If you were able to hold back some of the rice water, pour it evenly over the vegetables.

Step 3: Cook on High for 3 hours, or Low for 6. (Can cook in all-metal pot with lid in oven at 300 F for High or 200 for Low as well.)

Last time I made it, Nana had liked it but commented that zucchini would go well in it. And then when we visited her the following weekend, she gave me a few that she wouldn't go through fast enough. And they were starting to feel sticky on the outside, so it was now or never if I wanted to try them! Plus I had half an onion that was still there from who-knows-when, and some wilty organic rainbow carrots and the last bit of celery from a CSA box a few weeks ago. Since I was adding more veggies than last time, I decided to add a third chicken breast, and extra water. I would have added more garlic, but I forgot. I also would have added more rice, but I thought I had only used 1 cup uncooked the first time, so thought I was being daring adding 2 this time! Ah well.
I accidentally pre-cooked the rice more than halfway, so it came out extra mushy. Still tasty, though, and the slow-cooking made it just as mushy and sticky and easy-to-eat as white rice.

I am really enjoying using fresh fruits and veggies to add color to our meals too!

Quickie Hello Kitty

Tuesday, 4/10/12 - We haven't had any bento lunches lately, since last week was Spring Break at her drop-off preschool, and this week is Spring Break at her co-op preschool (they each follow a different district's schedule.) So I had more time between activities to just eat at home. And while I might have just made some anyway for fun, since Daddy was home all last week, I let him feed her!
I actually made this one as a snack, since we were going to a Nutrition Workshop for kids run by the Pacific Science Center after school. It doesn't have a lot of details, since I literally threw it together in one of our EasyLunchboxes just a few minutes before picking her up from school.

Hello Kitty Nutella sandwiches, mini cupcake, string cheese nibblets,
sugar snap peas and carrot flowers, strawberries

She had asked me to make a kitty-themed lunch the day before, but her Spring Break camp ran past lunchtime, so she ate a big snack there, then had a carrot at home, and then we went out to dinner with my mom for The Melting Pot's free cheese fondue to celebrate National Cheese Fondue Day (they ran it 4/9 - 4/12, with limited reservations. Check for it again next year!)
So to honor her previous kitty request, I decided to try my new Hello Kitty sandwich stampers (you can't really see the details, since I was in a hurry. Normally I place sprinkles or use food pens to accentuate the indents made by the stamper press.) I usually try to cut the bread out first, then spread the fillings on, which keeps my cutters clean. But I was in a hurry, so I just slapped on some Nutella and cut them out and pressed the imprint. Will need to toss the cutters into the little basket for washing baby bottle parts now.
The mini cupcake was from Target - I went in for some after-Easter clearance shopping. Got a dozen mini Easter cupcakes - still good for another week! Woot! (Also got a cookie cutter thing, some cute animal-shaped "eggs" that can be used as sauce or sprinkles containers, Disney and Spongebob treats boxes, and cupcake liners and picks - all at 30-50% off!)
I put the cheese nibblets in a Hello Kitty baking cup (turned inside-out so she could see the design) and used my V-blade to cut a few quick notches down the side of a carrot to make flowers. Sliced up some strawberries, and done!

She ate the cupcake and some strawberries on the way to the library (where the Nutrition Workshop was.) Since Daddy's out of town, I didn't bother with a "real" dinner, so just trotted her lunch back out after we got home. She ate everything but four little carrot flowers. And half of the eggplant that I was experimenting with. (More on that another post!)

Wordless Wednesday - 4/4/12

Strike a Pose!

These are from the past few weeks. But I wanted to show off my little girl's sense of flair and style. Most days she has me grab whatever, or she just grabs whatever. But some days she wants to dress special.

 Dressed up for the Fancy Nancy ballet

WonderWish KittyGirl 

photo by JJ teachers

 Dressed up for McTeacher Night (where the teachers at her preschool "work" at McDonalds as a fundraiser.) Dorothy wig, backwards Sleeping Beauty costume (she put it on all by herself!) and rubber boots.

photo by JJ teachers

Z-Lou-Who for Seuss Dress-up Day at preschool. Fancy dress, striped tights (she special-requested them. I had to dig them out of her 2T clothes that we had packed away already,) mismatched BabyLegs as arm-warmers, and rainbow ponytails "just like Tually had at the Peter Rabbit play." And her favorite purple shoes, of course!

And just so she doesn't grow up and feel left out, Baby E sporting a onesie and snowman BabyLegs. Because we apparently only have 2 pairs of footie-pajamas in her size, both dirty this day, and the 3 pairs of pants I was able to dig up have super-wide ankles, so they aren't great at keeping her warm.