Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Muffin Tin Meals - Blurple

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:08:00 +0000

In honor of my poor baby's bruised and bleeding eyebrow (and the fact that I happen to have purple cabbage and blue potatoes on hand) I decided to do a blue and purple themed meal! And finally complete my MTM rainbow! (See my red, pink, orange, yellow, and green ones too!) It only took a whole year! Sheesh!

Blue and Purple... Blurple!

Blackberries, PB-and-grape-jelly pinwheels, Greek honey yogurt w/grape
Kool-Aid powder, blue potato fries, purple cabbage chips, blueberries

Black-and-Blue-Berries: One could argue that blackberries aren't blue or purple, but these ones were very purple-y. And the juice stains are purple. So they count. I put in blueberries just to fit the theme, even though she hasn't been wanting them lately. I don't think she really ate any berries, other than the one of each I dipped into her yogurt for her to try. The blueberries were all gone later, but I think my husband ate them.

Pinwheels: They wouldn't lay right, so you can't really see the swirl or the jelly. But cutting off the crusts, smooshing the bread flat, and sticking the picks in before cutting them into smaller rolls made it soooo much easier!

Yogurt: Since Kool-Aid powder packets are so super cheap and sugar-free, they're perfect for flavoring/coloring the lightly-sweetened Greek honey yogurt. And she no longer demands that I pour extra honey on her yogurt (like I used to when we got plain yogurt.) They don't take up a lot of room either, and I can just use a little bit then fold down the top of the packet to save for another time. So I have a nice variety of colors/flavors on-hand at all times!
She ate it all and asked for seconds.

Blue Fries: I just got some blue potatoes in my organic produce delivery. Perfect! Hubby fried them up for me in his new deep fryer.

Purple Chips: I just made (baked) kale chips the other day (post coming soon!) and they were a big hit with the Princess. So I thought I'd try the same technique with some of the purple cabbage, since she's refused to eat any thus far. My first attempt tasted burned, so I had to accept that since cabbage is so thick, I'd have to settle for chewy over crispy. But she loves the Lowry's seasoning salt I use, so she gobbled them all down!

Lunch to match her right eye!

Other healthy blue and purple food ideas: food-coloring-painted cheese, dyed rice, dyed noodles, colored pancakes, eggplant, purple cauliflower, purple peppers, purple carrots, purple asparagus, purple yams, plums, purple kale, red or black (purple!) grapes, blue corn, purple beets

Not-so-healthy ideas: blue MandMs or other candies, purple Froot Loops, frosting (cupcakes, cookies, etc.)

In my Wilton star muffin pan. Jewel bento picks from allthingsforsale. BPA-free mini spoon from Dollar Tree.

Hoppy Valentine's Day, Sweet {Heart}

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:23:00 +0000

Be sure to jump along with the Valentine-themed Blog Hop - Details at the bottom of this post!

Sweet {Heart}

Z's lunch: PBHoney heart pocket, ham and cheese hearts, red Jelly Bellies w/chewy
Red Hot hearts, rasp-black-strawberry hearts, spinach-cabbage-carrot hearts

Heart in My Pocket: I used a large heart-cutter to make two hearts out of bread, then used my fingers to smoosh-down the middle area on the bottom slice. Added the peanut butter and honey in the center part, leaving a bare area around the whole edge. Added top slice and used the handle of my knife to smoosh the edges together, sealing it into a pocket sandwich! Ta-daaa!

Large pink sugar eyes and chewy heart-shaped Red Hot for the face.

We {Heart} Ham and Cheese: I used the heart part of my FunBites Luv It! cutter to make little ham and cheese hearts. Yes, I could have just used a mini heart cookie cutter rather than make my hubby wash the whole thing, but the cheese is much easier to get out of the FunBites because of the pushy-outy-thingy. And it's fun to rock the cutter back and forth to make sure you got all the edges cut!

Besides... my metal cookie cutters are hand-wash only, which I have to do. This way my husband has to wash it! :)

I {Heart} You Berry Much: Tossed in the last few blackberries, some raspberries, and used the FunBites to cut hearts from strawberry slices. Heart-i-licious!

We {Heart} Salad: This part was a little anal. I used kitchen shears to hand-cut each spinach leaf into a heart. Yup. After the first few, I started stacking the leaves in piles of three and cut three at a time. It wasn't too hard. I gently folded them in half and cut half a heart out, then unfolded them into hearts. It was like being in Kindergarten again! (With a stack of them, they might be thick and sturdy enough to use a cookie cutter... No promises though!)

I used the FunBites cutter on the purple cabbage to make those hearts, and a really mini heart cutter for the carrots.

Mommy {Hearts} Scraps!

My lunch: Scrap salad w/blueberries, raspberry vinaigrette,
scrap ham and cheese, mini cupcake, Special K crackers

Scrap Salad: My salad has some spinach leaves plus all the spinach scraps from cutting hers into hearts. Also the scraps from the purple cabbage, carrots, and strawberries. Also tossed on some blueberries to use them up.
Since I now have friends who have kids with food allergies, I would like to point out that my lunch is peanut- and tree nut-free! (Although the Special K Multi-Grain Crackers are probably made in a factory that does stuff with nuts. Cupcake too. But should be fine if I were sitting next to someone allergic. Since I'm not allergic myself, and they aren't necessarily "contaminated.")

Gear: Sweet {Heart} box, chewy Red Hots cinnamon candies, and my BPA-free fork from Dollar Tree, small silicone heart cups from Daiso, my salad dressing in a Tupperware Smidget. Mini cupcake from Albertsons.
We {Heart} our EasyLunchboxes!

Hoppy Valentine's Day!

Some fellow bento ~~competitors~~ friends are doing a Valentine's Day themed Blog Hop today! (should start Monday morning-ish.) So be sure to check out Cristi's post on BentOnBetterLunches and hop from hers to the next, and so on and so on! Until you get back to me! Whee!
Everyone loves to get comments, so be sure and say hi to everyone and let them know how ~~much better my lunch was~~ awesome their lunches are!

My Heart In My Hams

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:03:00 +0000

*The title is a play on words of a title to a post I did last year for V-Day called My Heart In My Hands.

Thursday 2/9/12 - Made these bentos the night before to eat between Little Gym and preschool. And any leftovers as an after-school snack.

Z's lunch: Ham skewers, Special K Crackers, mini cupcake, green beans w/
carrot hearts, black-and-raspberries, Colby Jack cheese shreds

Since the cheese shreds had been such a big hit the day before, I had promised she could have them again this day.
I made extra carrot hearts from the You're All Heart lunch, and stored them in the fridge with a little water to keep them moist. Still good! So I lay them atop the green beans, just to be cute... and use them up!
For the ham skewers, I just sliced the ham into fourths lengthwise and rippled it onto the skewers, stacking 2 to 3 strips per skewer.

"Baby's" Lunch:

My lunch: spinach salad w/ blueberries, carrot flower shred
scraps, and carrot flowers, raspberry vinaigrette in Smidget;
string cheese nibblets, Special K crackers, mini cupcake

Since I'm in the process of reorganizing (and culling some of) my bento supplies, my tote of sauce containers doesn't really have a home. So like the lazy slob that I am, I left it out on a chair in the kitchen. So Z found it the day before and wanted to play with the chickie sprinkles container she found in there. But we were literally on our way out the door, and the last time I let her play with it, it took three months to find both the top and bottom pieces again. So I told her we could incorporate it into lunch the next day, PleasePutItBackNowLet'sGOOOO!
Naturally, she remembered the next day, after we were all strapped into the car and ready to leave. "Hey. Where's that chickie you promised in my beautiful lunch?" I had even found it tucked into my bag and had pulled it out and put it away. Argh. So I trekked back inside, scooped a few rainbow jimmies sprinkles into it to make up for "forgetting," and schlepped back out. Finally! Off we go!

She was thrilled with her sprinkles chickie, and enjoyed putting the sprinkles on to her berries. And there was much ~~losing of~~ playing with the chickie. She ate most of the cupcake, and all of the ham, cheese and crackers on the way to school. She ate the veggies and a few berries after school.

Cupcake wrapper and pick, and BPA-free plastic fork from Dollar Tree. Plastic heart picks from random Asian grocery. Mini cupcakes from Albertson's. My salad dressing is in a Tupperware Smidget. Both lunches in our EasyLunchboxes.

The "other guy"

Oh, and no. I didn't beat her. She and Daddy were playing chase on Tuesday night in the loop through the kitchen, dining room and living room, and she slipped and fell in the kitchen and hit a corner of an open drawer with her face. A trip to the ER and three stitches later, she came home in relatively good spirits. Since keeping the area dry for 24 hours meant having to skip swim class on Wednesday. Sadly, she still had to go to school!

Just-Like-PF-Chang's Lettuce Wraps. With Cabbage.

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Due to a special request for cabbage at a recent grocery trip, I had a sudden bounty of tried-and-now-unwanted cabbage that needed to be used up! I immediately thought of PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps (only I thought they used cabbage.) So I found a copycat recipe online from Stephanie Stiavetti at The Culinary Life!

PF Chang's-style ~~Lettuce~~ Cabbage Wraps

Prep time: 35 minutes, Cook time: 25 minutes

Part 1a: Dipping/Pouring Sauce:

4 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup hot water

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (my bottle just said rice vinegar)

2 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp dark sesame oil

In large bowl (I used a measuring cup,) dissolve sugar in 1/2 cup hot water. Blend in soy sauce, rice vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, and dark sesame oil. Mix well and set aside in fridge until the rest of the dish is ready. (I used a whisk to blend in the ketchup. It was just floating around all clumpy when I tried mixing with a spoon.)

Part 1b:
1 tsp hot water
1 tbsp fancy dijon mustard (supposedly using the "good stuff" makes a difference)
2 cloves or 2 tsp garlic, minced

In small bowl, combine hot water, mustard and garlic. Set aside.
After chicken mixture is all done, add mustard mixture to previously refrigerated dipping sauce, 1/2-teaspoon at a time, to taste.

Part 2: Stir-Fry Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, brown sugar and rice vinegar. Mix well and set aside.

Part 3: Stir Fry Chicken:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into half-inch cubes or small chunks
1 tbsp olive oil (added later than 2 tbsp above)
Stir-Fry Sauce (see Part 2 above)
8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained and minced
1/2 cup mushrooms, minced to same size as water chestnuts
1/2 yellow onion, minced
3 cloves or 3 tsp minced garlic
6 or more large leaves iceburg lettuce (or cabbage)

Step 1: Over High heat, combine olive and sesame oils in a large frying pan or wok. Heat about 1 minute, until oil shimmers.
Step 2: Add chicken chunks and stir fry until cooked through (roughly 5 minutes.)

Step 3: Remove chicken from pan and allow to cool. Reserve the oil in the pan, keeping it hot on Low heat.
Step 4: After chicken is cooled, turn pan up to Medium-High heat and add another tbsp olive oil. Allow to heat roughly 1 minute.
Step 5: Add garlic, onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, cooked chicken and stir-fry sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are tender (roughly 4 minutes.)

Step 6: Remove from pan and place on serving dish. Wrap the stir-fry in lettuce leaves and add pouring/dipping sauce, as desired.

First off, I didn't bother making the mustard part of the sauce, as I don't care for mustard, and I figured Hubby could whip it together and add it in if he so desired. I was all kinds of done at that point. I also made stuff out of order. I got all the various ingredients out, but cooked the chicken first. Then, while it cooled, I mixed the sauces. I also never bothered to refrigerate the dipping sauce. I just left it out.
On a side note, this recipe made waaaaaaaay more dipping/pouring sauce than needed. So unless you love your food swimming and dripping, or want to try dipping fragile bundles of easily-falls-apart foodicles, you could easily halve or even quarter the recipe.

Warning: The moisture on the chicken caused the High-heat oil to sizzle and pop and shoot out little ~~fiery balls of death~~ specklets of hot oil and water, and the little bits of whatever left in the pan after removing the chicken did the same thing until the oil cooled down more. I ended up taking the pan off the burner until the burner had idled down some. Then had the same issue while the oil was heating back up to Medium. Not a fun time while wearing a baby shield. Although while I got lots of little burnies, she never once woke up or cried out, so I must have done a decent job protecting her. Made an oily mess all around the stove though. But that's what husbands are for, right?

The Verdict:

ZOMG. SO GOOD! I can't verify if it's exactly like PF Chang's, but it was a-freakin'-mazing. I think my husband said it was as good as theirs. But I was too burnt out to make a comparison, after juggling all these bowls. And I had to clamber onto chairs to reach the sugar. And hack out a rough approximation of ~~waaay more than~~ 2 tbsp of brown sugar from a solid chunk. While also making ~~Lemon~~-Garlic Rainbow Chard. With a baby, who refused to stop crying unless I was holding or wearing her, strapped to my chest for several hours. While oil popped and spat and flew at us. And my husband came home an hour late.

I definitely prefer the moisture and crunch of iceburg lettuce, versus the rubbery-ness of the cabbage, but taste-wise it was still awesomeness. I preferred my cabbage torn into smaller leaves, with a small spoonful of chicken mixture and dribble of sauce on top, versus a big drippy wrap. Little chicken-cabbage bites.

Oh, and as leftovers? *swoon* Tasted okay cold, but still delici-scrumptious re-heated for 30-seconds, forked into my gob without any lettuce or cabbage. Omnomnom.

Leftovers in lower right compartment!
EasyLunchboxes are microwave safe!

Overall rating: A++ Would make again. With a responsible adult present to help me reach stuff, juggle babies, avoid oil explosions, etc. But mostly someone else to protect me from the childrens. Totally worth going through the 'plate spinning' routine though. (Like a plate spinner at the circus - you have a lot of things going on at once and are trying hard not to "drop" anything.)

Luv U Bento

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Wednesday, 2/8/12 - We had planned to go to a Valentines craft playdate this morning, but due to an unplanned trip to the ER the night before (after I had already packed up the lunches!) we skipped it. Lunch was still enjoyed on the way to preschool though. And the way home. We skipped swim class too, since we were instructed to keep the stitches dry for 24 hours. Yup. Stitches. Yay.

Luv U bento

Heart candies in heart container, ham skewer, Biscoff sandwich, green beans,
Colby Jack cheese shreds, blackberries and raspberries

I hadn't gotten to her sandwich while packing lunches when Baby E woke up and needed to be fed. While feeding her, "the incident" happened, and I was trapped with a baby hanging off my boob while Daddy took Z to the Emergency Room. So even though we didn't technically need packed lunches the next day, I finished her lunch off the next morning and she got to eat it in the car. As a treat,I opted for a Biscoff spread sandwich, since it tastes like cookies. I squeezed in a slice of ham on a skewer to give her more protein to make up for the lack of PB.

She had chosen a package of cheese shreds as we passed through the cheese aisle during our grocery store trip a few days before. While these shreds are thinner than I'd normally shred for her, it was literally no effort, since I didn't have to make them. And no grater to wash after! So I filled 'er up!

I had planned on adding a cute Valentines disposable pick for the berries, but totally forgot. Good thing I ended up tossing in that ham on a pick!

She ate the cheese shreds, ham, and a few candy hearts before school, and had two more refills of cheese plus the green beans, the rest of the candies, and the berries after school. I ended up eating the sandwich.

My lunch: Spinach salad w/almonds and bluberries, tomatoes,
raspberry vinaigrette, mini cupcake, leftover PF Chang-style chicken

Heart candies, container, pick (in ham,) and cupcake wrapper; and BPA-free plastic fork all from Dollar Tree. My salad dressing is in a Tupperware Smidget. Packed in our EasyLunchboxes!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow... Chard - Lemon-Garlic Chard Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Tuesday, 2/7/12 - I signed up for an organic CSA-type delivery service from Full Circle Farms again, now that they have a smaller box option. (I tried them before with a Groupon, and we were throwing half the food out before we could eat it, since it was just too much, even with reducing deliveries to every other week!)
This week I got:
0.75 lb purple potatoes
2 parsnips
0.5 lb green beans
1 bunch rainbow chard
2 cameo apples
2 Bosc pears
2 kiwi
and I added a pound of strawberries, since we were out and they were the same price as the grocery store, only these are organic!
Since we also just bought a bunch of kale and two heads of cabbage (green and red) per Little Z's request, plus another pound of spinach from the grocery store yesterday, we've got greens coming out our... ears. So I needed to use these up, STAT!

I plan to use a little of the cabbage to make PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps this same night, and a purple-themed lunch for Z later. Other than that I got a simple-looking stir-fry recipe from Myra from Mommy + Me Lunchbox to hopefully use up the rest. The kale is slated for kale chips.

In a desperate internet search, I found this Lemon-Garlic Chard recipe that fulfilled all my requirements: I have all the ingredients on hand today, got good reviews, quick prep and cook time, and I understood all the words!

Lemon-Garlic Rainbow Chard

Prep time: 10 minutes, Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
3 bunch rainbow chard (minus anything gnawed on or dropped on floor by preschooler assistant.)
6 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic, sliced (I used 6 tsp minced from a jar)
1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt/pepper to taste (I didn't add any)

Directions:
Step 1: Separate the stems of the chard from the leaves.
This is a great activity for the kids to help with. While it's harder to chop the leaves when they're torn up randomly by little hands, it's something fun and easy they can do to help, and might get them excited about eating the dish later.

Step 2: Cut the leaves into thin strips. Set aside.
Alternately, if the children are still interested, you could have them tear the leaves into small strips and chunks.

Step 3: Thinly slice the stems.

I'm not sure if they meant to slice them lengthwise or widthwise, so I sliced widthwise, a la celery.

Step 4: Heat olive oil in large pan or pot over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and chard stems. Cook for 3 minutes, until the stems begin to soften.

Since I'm not a fan of any food with the word 'pepper' in it (and I couldn't find an open jar of red pepper flakes,) I skipped them.

Step 5: Stir in the chard leaves and cook 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

Step 6: Stir, re-cover, and continue cooking until chard is tender. (I cooked mine another 3 minutes.)

Step 7: Toss with lemon juice to serve

I made a rookie mistake and forgot to cut my measurements into thirds, since I was only using the one bunch of chard. Gah. So it was very oily. I ended up using a strainer to drain.
I didn't bother with the lemon juice at this point, since I was so disgusted with the whole process, and tired of cooking. I had also made a complex 'spinning plates' recipe for dinner (see PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps link at top!) Plus for whatever reason Baby E refused to be set down, so I had to hold her or wear her all evening while cooking. And my husband got home an hour late.

It actually tasted okay. A little soggy, but the flavor was good. Salty and garlicky. Surprisingly, not too garlicky, considering I was accidentally using triple the amount for one bunch of chard. So if you like garlic, and you're using the pre-minced stuff from a jar, you might go ahead and double or triple it. Fresh and sliced might be stronger, so you might leave it as directed then.
I can see how the lemon juice would have complemented it nicely. though. Not that I'll try this again. One of the nice things about FCF's service is that I can edit my box in advance and trade out stuff I don't want for stuff I do! So unless I forget, I'll just make sure I don't get no more stinkin' chard!

On the plus side, however, Z really enjoyed helping me shred the leaves, and she even ate some. Including the stem, which she used to just throw away, when we got it in our pick-up CSA last September. She was very angry when I chopped the leaves all up, and even angrier when I tossed it all in the pot. She made me fish some shreds out for her to eat raw.

More Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:44:00 +0000

Monday, 2/6/12 - Someone clever (ie: me!) organized my bento supplies with all the hearts and valentines cutters, cupcake liners, and picks all in one tub. So until further notice (or Valentines Day. Whatever...) I'm just keeping my tub out and doing all hearts-themes!
This lunch was for before school (even though we didn't have any morning plans. She ate a late breakfast, so started on lunch in the car on the way to school,) and for an afternoon snack between school and swim. Plus she could finish off any leftovers on the way home from swim class.

Her lunch: small Biscoff spread sandwich, large PBHoney, string cheese nibblets,
gummy hearts, spinach with carrot heart, strawberries

I made the small heart out of Biscoff spread (aka: cookie sandwich,) since it had been such a big hit with the Spring-kles lunch previously.
The carrot heart was an idea ~~I stole from~~ inspired by Cristi at BentOnBetterLunches. I couldn't for the life of me find my toothpicks, so I made-do with a plain dot pick.
I tried making hearts out of the strawberries (another idea ~~stolen~~ found on Cristi's blog,) but the shapes of the last three berries we had were all wrong.

Baby E's Lunch (via Mommy)

My lunch: PBHoney, blueberries; spinach w/tomatoes,
carrot scraps and Ranch

I added a pick to my lunch just for fun. And I'm not a huge fan of touching any food that might leave residue on my hands (yeah, weird. I know.) So I thought it would be a neat touch-free way to eat my berries in the Parent Ed class while she was at co-op preschool.

Since I wasn't sure if this would be enough food, I also packed a Plum Organics Pear-Spinach-Peas 'squeezy fruit' pouch. She tried it but didn't end up liking it. Luckily, they don't expire before Baby E will be on solids, so I can fob the rest of them off on her later!

She ate all the cheese and strawberries (and asked for more berries from my lunch... which I didn't have! She'd gotten the very last three berries we had! And she hasn't wanted any blueberries lately, which is why I'm gobbling them down as fast as I can before they go bad!) Surprisingly, she ate the carrot heart, but skipped the spinach. She tried the gummy heart but didn't like it, so I ate the other one. Meh. It was okay, but not worth eating a bunch of.

I can't remember how she did on her sandwiches. Oh yeah. She didn't eat them, but asked for sandwiches either at home that night or the next morning, so I took the box out of the fridge with the spinach and sammies still in it and gave it to her in front of her shows while I fed the baby in the other room. She gobbled it all down.

Gummy hearts, cupcake papers and pick, and plastic (BPA-free!) fork all from Dollar Tree. All in our EasyLunchboxes!

You're All Heart!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:14:00 +0000

Tuesday 1/31/12 - Not sure what we were doing that morning before preschool that prompted me to pack lunches. But I did, so here they are!

You're All Heart!

PBhoney hearts, Colby Jack cheese hearts, heart candies,
spinach w/carrot hearts, blackberries w/strawberry hearts

I used the two wibbly (fluted? Julienned?) heart cutters from a Wilton Nesting Hearts cutter set for the sandwiches. The cheese and carrots were cut using a mini heart cutter from a set from Daiso. The paper muffin cups and candies are from Dollar Tree

My lunch: PBHoney, cheese scraps, dressing in container,
apples w/PB, spinach w/carrot scraps, almonds, strawberries

She was upset that the small sandwich wasn't a 'cookie sandwich' like the small one had been with her Spring-kles lunch the day before. So she didn't really eat much of either. She polished off the fruit, and all but one piece of cheese. She ate the candies, and I can't remember whether she ate any veggies or not. I think she ate the carrots at least.

Hooray for Spring...kles!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:09:00 +0000

Monday 1/30/12 - We had no plans that morning, but I knew we wouldn't have time to make and eat lunch at home before preschool, so I made lunch in our EasyLunchboxes to eat on the way (for her) and at preschool (for me.) Plus this way we'd have a built-in snack for after school on the way to swim class!

Hooray for Spring-kles!

Z's Lunch: spinach w/carrot flowers, PBHoney sandwich w/Biscoff spread
center flower sandwich, cottage cheese w/sprinkles, strawberries

For the sandwich I used a cutter from the Lunch Punch Sand*Wishes set. In hindsight, I could have just slapped some of the Biscoff spread in the rough center of the bread and used peanut butter and honey on the rest, but instead I cut the bread first, then added the spreads. For the mini flower sandwich in the middle, I spread more Biscoff on top and added small flower quins sprinkles, to make it stand out more. (Sprinkles came in a 6-variety assortment that I found at Ross or Marshalls a while back.)

While digging around for sprinkles to go on the sandwich, I found some jumbo daisy quins as well, so decided to put those on the cottage cheese. I also added some pastel jimmies from the same set that the small flower quins came from.

To jazz up the strawberries, I decided to try and make one into a ladybug, using mini chocolate chips. While looking for a pick to maybe use as a head, I decided on a hat pick, and used a blueberry for the head.

Baby E's lunch (eventually...)

My lunch: spinach salad w/almonds, carrots, blueberries;
string cheese nibblets, herb crackers, dressing in Smidget

While packing the lunches, Little Z wandered out and saw the Special K Savory Herb crackers in my lunch and wanted some too. So she took them out of my box and laid them out atop her sandwich. I took them out to take photos, then put them back in. And replenished the ones in my lunch!

She ate the entire sandwich and all the crackers and her spinach. She left a neat little pile of carrot flowers in a corner of the large compartment. She ate most of the cottage cheese (and sprinkles!) and ate the chocolate chips off the ladybug, but didn't want to eat the ladybug herself, since it was too cute. She did play with it a lot, and they had some cute conversations. Without the pick, she wouldn't eat any of the strawberry slices. She prefers them whole, which doesn't fit well in our lunch boxes! Had I known she would refuse to use the pick ("No! I can't take her head off, Momma!") I would have left them whole and traded places with the spinach!

Happy Squirrel... I Mean GROUNDHOG Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:53:00 +0000

I chitchat with a bunch of other bento bloggers on Facebook, and some smart alec asked if we were doing Groundhog Day bentos for the next day. I hadn't even known that Groundhog Day was coming up. Darnit.
Challenge accepted!

Happy Groundhog Day!

PBHoney "groundhog," cheddar "shadow" on Biscoff sandwich mound,
ham pinwheel "logs," spinach and carrot flower "groundhog food,"
cored half-apple "groundhog mound."

Groundhog-wich: I found some cute ideas for making a groundhog out of food when I searched on Google Images, but they looked like sooo much work! So I just used a squirrel-shaped cookie cutter (from Daiso) and cut off most of the tail. I used PB and honey for the groundhog, but Biscoff spread on the scraps, per her request. Biscoff spread is really yummy, but hard to describe. It's peanut and tree-nut free, so safe for the schools or classrooms that don't allow anything with either. But it doesn't have a lot of nutritive value. And tastes like biscuit cookies! So it's a big hit with my kiddo!

Ham Logs: I hadn't originally planned to include these, but there was so much empty space in there, and I was worried that the groundhogs wouldn't be enough food, since we had a full day without a lot of time to stop and get more food. We had gym class in the morning, then school, then we were going to pick up Daddy from work and then an hour drive up to Nana's house for the evening (so hubby and I could go see a movie.)
I opted to not include cheese, since it doesn't roll well unless it's cut really thinly, and I wasn't in the mood to mess with it. I used leaf and flower picks to hold them closed.

My lunch: spinach salad w/almonds, raisins, carrots, and
dressing in container; Special K herb crackers, half-apple w/PB

After she told me that she didn't like ham and tortilla rolls, she polished off 3 of them, and ate virtually nothing else. She refused to eat the groundhogs because they were too cute. And they were the wrong shape for woodpeckers. (I had told her that groundhogs were like woodchucks and then we did that woodchuck tongue-twister for a while.) Ah well.

Top Five - January 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:37:00 +0000

Top 5 Posts:

1. EasyLunchboxes - Not JUST for Packing Lunches! [and giveaway. Now over.] So popular, it's my #4 most viewed post of all time (ie: for as long as I've had my blog!)

Where I blather on about other uses for EasyLunchboxes.

2. We All Scream for Ice Cream Bento

Where I slap together a quickie lunch and it looks kind of decent thanks to my new Lunch Punch and EasyLunchboxes!

3. Checking out the "Competition" - Lunches Fit for a Kid

Where my ~~mortal enemy~~ friend Astrid cooks up some amazing stuff and packs it into her kids' lunches

photo credit

4. Checking out the "Competition" - BentOnBetterLunches

Where another "friend," Cristi makes lunches that make me want to ~~cry~~ up my game!

photo credit

5. Tangram Puzzle Face Bento

Where I encourage Z to play with her food!

Top 5 Referring URLs:

1. Family Fresh Cooking: Project Lunch Box

#1 was really my own URL, but I don't know how that can be. So I skipped it.

2. EasyLunchBoxes - Blogger Fan Sites

Check out my awesome custom banner! It looks awesome, so you know I didn't put it together...

3. EasyLunchboxes - It's Not Just Lunch - No Mess, neat eating in the car

A post showcasing links to my post (see #1 in Top Posts above!)

4. Bento Blog Network

Did I mention I WINNED the orange Bento of the Week?

5. BentOnBetterLunches

Because Cristi rocks!

Thanks for the ~~free advertising, suckers~~ shout-outs, Mamas!

Top 5 Referring Sites:

1. EasyLunchboxes.com

2. Facebook

3. Family Fresh Cooking

4. Bento Blog Network

5. Networked Blogs

(the guys that auto-link my posts onto my Facebook and Twitter pages. Eventually...)

No crazy odd Search Keywords this month. *sigh*

What a Crock...Pot - Chicken Stewp Recipe!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:45:00 +0000

It must be wacky post-pregnancy or nursing hormones or something, because I randomly decided to try making dinner one day. I even wandered off to the computer room to find my Fix-It and Forget It cookbook (because, naturally, it would be at my desk and not in the kitchen... that's crazy talk!) Naturally it was too late that day to start a slow-cooker recipe, so I planned it for the following day. I began looking for chicken recipes, since I figured there was a realistic chance that Unka Seesee had left us some frozen chicken in the freezer (not that I could be bothered to check...) I also figured we had potatoes. And carrots.
I couldn't really find a recipe that I liked with potatoes and chicken, so I faked it. I used a similar recipe in the book as a guide, to gauge how long and at what setting my food should cook based on the quantity of chicken and potatoes.
Since neither my husband nor I could determine what the difference between stew and soup was, we weren't sure what to call this. So we started calling it 'Chicken Stewp.' I spell it 'stewp' versus 'stoup' mostly because 'stoup' could be read to sound like 'stowp' (like stout or shout.)

Due to my extreme laziness, and the fact that if I go to all the trouble to slave over a meal and it gets eaten up in one sitting I feel like my effort was wasted (since that means I'd have to do all that work again that much sooner to feed us next time,) I decided to make a big batch. Since my crock-pot is the size of a thimble, I opted to use a large all-metal pot with lid in the stove.
According to the slow-cooker book, an oven at 200 F approximately equates to a slow-cooker's Low setting. 300 F (approx) for High. I also didn't have time to wait 8-9 hours, so I used the book's 1 hour on High = 2 hours on Low (approx) conversion.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Stewp

Ingredients:
7 medium potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, coined or cubed
3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, ~~mangled~~ cut up
1 small onion, diced
3 tsp minced garlic (roughly 3 cloves)
1 can cut green beans in water (or similar amount of fresh ones)
6 cubes chicken bouillon or 6 tsp chicken soup mix powder
2 tsp salt (optional. Depends if you use salty bouillon versus chicken soup mix)
3-3/4 cup water or chicken broth (or 4 cups if you use fresh green beans or don't add the water from the can)
pepper to taste

Directions:
Step 1: Layer potatoes, carrots, and green beans (plus the water in the can) in slow cooker.
Step 2: Sprinkle with onion, garlic, chicken broth powder (or bouillon,) salt and pepper. (I accidentally used some Lowry's Seasoned Salt, not knowing it makes stuff taste like BBQ. Oops. It came out okay though.)

Step 3: Layer chicken on top. Pour water evenly over everything.

Step 4: Cover. Cook on Low (200 F if in oven) 8-10 hours or High (300 F) 3.5-5 hours (If using frozen chicken, I'd go for the Low at around 9 hours, just to be safe.)

Pot o' Yum!

The chicken, potatoes and carrots were so soft they were falling apart. I really enjoyed this "stewp" with lots of (Whole Grain) Saltine Crackers broken up into it to give it some crunch.

January Bento Catch-Up - 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:45:00 +0000

Wednesday 12/28/11 - This one really belongs in the December post, but I outsmarted myself. I had that post all ready and set to auto-publish at the end of the month before baby was born, figuring ~~there was zero chance~~ I could always update it later if I happened to make a fancy lunch. But look! My husband packed her a lunch! A bento! He argues that it's not a bento, since he didn't make it cutesy. I argue that it is, since it's in a box. Plus it amuses me that he's irritated to have used some of my 'lunch crap.' HA! Worth. Every. Penny!

1/2 PBHoney sandwich, Cheddar Bunnies w/pistachios, apples

Have no clue where we were going or why a lunch was packed... probably headed off to one of Baby E's doctor appointments. We had a bunch. Newborn checks. Follow-up weight checks. Tongue-tie specialist appointments. Etc.

Tuesday, 1/3/12 - Another Daddy-packed bento! I think we were headed to another of E's appointments before preschool, so packed a lunch to eat on the go.

Apples, Cheddar Bunnies w/pistachios, snap peas, 1/2 PBHoney

Wednesday, 1/11/12 - *sigh* Daddy was back at work already. So I had to make this one. We didn't have morning plans, but since I was actually making her a 'balanced' meal, it was easier to put it into an EasyLunchBox rather than get a bowl out for the cottage cheese and toss the rest onto a plate. Plus if she still wanted to nibble at it on the way to preschool, it would already be portable and ready to go!

Her lunch: 1/2 PBHoney, carrot sticks, clementine slices,
cottage cheese

I made a lunch for myself as well, but forgot to photograph it. I had a whole PBHoney sandwich, half an apple (sliced,) and broccoli (no Ranch. Boo.) I packed my lunch to eat at preschool, since we had Parent Ed that day, and I didn't want to miss it. Nor did I want to wait to eat until after school, or after swim class, if we were running late after school (which we were! Baby needed to eat first.)

Containers are all EasyLunchboxes. Spoon from IKEA.

Hip2BSquare - Lunchables-Style

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:33:00 +0000

For this day's lunch we had Movie Club with my MOMS Club, and I'd actually gotten to SEE the movie we were going to discuss! (Before baby, obviously.) Plus I had dishes to return from a yummy dinner brought over after Baby E had been born. Even though the hostess normally puts out a great spread (popcorn, fruit, random snacks, juice, etc) that Z and I tend to fill up on, I threw together lunches the night before (into our EasyLunchBoxes.) Because baby was actually sleeping and I found I had time to kill!

Hip2BSquare

Skittles w/pistachios, cheddar, ham, Special K Herb crackers,
black-and-blueberries, spinach w/carrot flowers

We've been loving these Special K crackers, and the few slices of ham we had left were about to turn, so I decided to make a mini-version of a Lunchables: meat, cheese, and cracker-stackers. I used my FunBites Cube It! cutter on the ham and cheese, which made it super quick and easy. I've found that for ham that wasn't custom-cut at double thickness at the deli counter, if I stack two slices together, it's much easier to shape and get out of the cutters. So that's what I did here too. The ham scraps are tucked underneath the ham squares.
She had a mini packet of Skittles left over from Halloween or maybe Christmas or a birthday party bag or something, and I needed something to fill that fourth square muffin cup, so I used it and added some pistachios, which she's been loving lately.

Just for fun I added disposable heart picks to both our lunches. (From Dollar Tree Valentines paper muffin cup and pick sets from last year.) Normally I don't bother cutesy-ing up mine, since I'm not enthralled at the idea of hand-washing more crap just to make my lunches look adorable. But disposable, now. That's a horse of a different color! [Note: They are compostable, which we get to put in with our yard waste, so I'm not a total eco-nightmare here!]

Despite telling me that she hated blueberries, by the end of the day she pretty much had eaten everything. She ate some at our Movie Club/playtime (and also some popcorn from the hostess,) and ate again on the way home from school. Since she'd eaten all the perishables (cheese and ham) by then, I put the rest out at home for her to graze on until dinner. She did have seconds on the Skittles after we got home. But she ate all the carrots and spinach.

Baby E's Lunch (via middle~~man~~Mom):

My Lunch: Spinach salad w/raisins, almonds and Chicken McBites;
raspberry vinaigrette dressing in yellow container,
string cheese nibblets and cheddar scraps, Apple Straws chips

I had stopped at McD's the day before to help feed the gnawing emptiness that is my tummy now that I'm nursing. Z hadn't been in the mood for a Happy Meal, so I ordered her some of the new McBites to snack on if she wanted. She didn't want. So I saved them to put in my lunch another day. I thought they might be tasty cold in my salad. They were not. They're okay hot, but I lost interest after the first few. Cold they are chewy and too breading-heavy. I would only recommend them if you were sharing them with others, since they weren't delicious enough to leave me craving more, and they have so much breading they're more of a treat than a meal. So eat a few, pass the rest along. Or skip them. Kinda spendy at $3.

Yeah, I know. Other than a few raisins, no fruit in my lunch. I just wasn't in the mood to slice and slosh an apple. Besides, Apple Straws have fruit in them, yeah? And they were a big hit with a brazen little minx at movie club. When us MOMS went closer to the TV to watch a trailer for an upcoming movie, one of the toddlers climbed into my chair and helped herself to the lunch I had left unprotected at the table! Too cute!

Yellow fork from a travel utensil set from Dollar Tree (BPA free! Plus came with travel case!) Yellow sauce container is a Tupperware Smidget, which are hard to find. They are only available from a special fundraiser selection, or at individual sales reps' booths at fairs, or eBay or Amazon. The lids are hard to get on, but they are very water-tight! Perfect for my vinaigrette!

Make Mine Music

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:13:00 +0000

A mom from one of my mom clubs was hosting a music class playdate, and then we had preschool after. So we'd need lunches to eat in between. I chose to go with a music theme! In our EasyLunchboxes, of course!

Make Mine Music

Crackers w/pistachios, assorted cheeses, PBHoney notes,
apples, yellow and orange carrot chunks

She's been loving the Special K crackers, and I chose the Savory Herb flavor to jazz things up. (Get it? Jazz?) I tossed in some pistachios as a treat too. She's been a fiend for them lately. In a Wilton square silicone muffin cup.

She didn't eat all her cheese shapes from the Tangram puzzle lunch the day before, so I shoveled the leftovers in behind a silicone music note baran divider. And added some music note picks (you can find the baran and the picks at allthingsforsale.com. Use code BITINGMYHAND for 5% off!) Sadly, I wasn't paying attention when snapping the pics, so you can't really see them.

I'm still not ready to try my hand at a checkerboard apple, but I played with my C-shaped blade and made stripes! I'm all out of apple juice, so I sloshed them in lemon juice instead. Apple is SO much better!

I got the carrot chunks in a frozen veggie bag from Trader Joes. I made lunch the night before, and put them in frozen. They were thawed in the fridge in the morning. It was her first time with 'soft carrots' and yellow carrots. But I was hoping she'd like the novelty.

She ate all the crackers, but surprisingly, not the nuts. It's unclear whether she ate any of the cheese. She definitely played with them a little. She did not like the carrots, so she traded me for all the spinach I had with the least amount of Ranch on them. She ate one of the sandwich notes. I ended up eating all her apples. She's got a little cold, which usually causes her to eat less. So not a shocker.

Baby E's Lunch (via Mama's milk):

My lunch: Nutella wraps, apple slices,
spinach leaves w/ Ranch, almonds and dried strawberries

Green fork from a set of kiddie travel utensils from Dollar Tree. And I would like to point out that Nutella on a pasty white flour tortilla tastes quite a lot like a chocolate donut. Omnomnom.

Tangram Puzzle Face Bento

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:55:00 +0000

I can't, for the life of me, figure out why I felt I had to pack a lunch this day. As far as I can tell we didn't have anything going on that morning. We had preschool after lunch, then swim, and then an art class playdate. And I ate my lunch at school (at the co-op preschool she likes me to sit in the "Mommy Room" while she has class.) Maybe it was easier to eat on the way, and then have food left over for an after school snack? Anyway...

Tangram Puzzle Face

Peach and apple puree pouch, PBHoney sandwich, spinach w/Ranch,
assorted American, string cheese and ColbyJack cheese shapes

P-p-p-puzzle Face: Due to a recent snowstorm and power outage, we were running low on bread. So I used a little trick to disguise the heels. I put the spreads on the brown sides, leaving the regular-looking-sides facing out! I used a sandwich cutter to cut off the edges, since they tend to curl out and give the game away.

A tip in case you try this - don't use two heels at once. It was soooooo hard to cut through! And I happened to have the more-exposed top-heel on the top, so it split a lot when the cutter pushed through (you can kind of see it in the photo below.) You want to use the moister, most flexible slice on top to help prevent breakage. Ah well. Luckily these shapes were okay with being flipped broken-side-down!

Heel-sides in!

I chose a puzzle cutter by Munchkin (found in the baby section at Wal-Mart. Not finding them anywhere online. They also make penguin and elephant cutters.)

Tangram Cheese: I used an assortment of cheeses, just for fun. I used my FunBites Luv It! cutter on the American cheese to make hearts and triangles, and I used the Cube It! on the Colby Jack to make squares. And I made circle-y nibblets from a stick of string cheese. The idea was for her to use the shapes to make pictures, either on the lid of her EasyLunchbox, or in the main compartment after eating her sandwich.

She's never had American cheese before, or at least not the kind that looks and feels like plastic. She happened to come into the kitchen looking to graze while I was making her lunch, so I fed her the scraps. She kept coming back for more. She ended up eating two whole slices, plus the scraps from the two slices I cut into shapes, plus stole the rest of the package, but I thwarted her attempts to open more cheese, since it was time to get dressed to go.

She's Strong to the Finich, 'Cuz She Eats Her Spinach!: A friend brought a Fresh Express spinach salad (Strawberry something - REALLY nummy!) with a meal over a week ago, after I had the baby, and there was still some spinach leaves left. And they were still good! So instead of chopping up a carrot, I decided to toss some in and see if she liked them.

Fruit Squeeze: Again, due to the snow, we were low on fruit items as well. And after spending all day cutting cheese and sandwiches, I was running short on time and wasn't in the mood to cut an apple (and slosh it in juice to prevent browning. Especially since all I had was lemon juice, since Hubby threw out the apple juice last time he cleaned the fridge! I mean, just because it had expired months before... sheesh.) But these organic peach and apple puree pouches were on sale on Amazon, and even cheaper with Subscribe and Save (which I cancel right after, so I don't forget and get another batch later!) so I decided to give them a try. And they had just arrived, during a lull in the snow! Yay! Fruit!

My lunch: PBHoney, leftover McD apples,
spinach salad w/dried strawberries, almonds and Ranch

The cheese and sandwich were a big hit. At first she was upset that I gave her the EasyLunchbox with the lid still on. I usually take it off and hold onto it in the front seat, so it doesn't fall out of reach or get dirty, since we usually keep dipping back into her lunch throughout the day. But once I explained that the lid was to make cheese pictures on, she calmed down. And she was able to get it open herself no problem!

She ate all of the spinach. All. Of. It. In the past, she has left the stems behind. But this time she claimed that the stems were "dee-nishous!" She didn't want the Ranch at all. She ate almost half of the sandwich.

I made the mistake of telling her that the squeezy fruit pouch was applesauce. I forgot that she 'hates' applesauce. I should have told her it was squeezy candy. Sigh. She did try it for me, but claimed it was too sour. So she traded me for my apples. I felt silly sucking down a pouch of baby food in the parking lot at preschool, but what are you gonna do? She never ended up eating my apples either.

Making faces

Because I had made a cheese face on the sandwich, that's pretty much all she made with the cheese shapes too. Oh well. I would like to note that the plastic-y American cheese sticks REALLY WELL to the plastic. It stayed on nicely, even when shaken upside-down. So if you're thinking of doing something similar, or using cheese to make a picture that sticks to the lid while it's on the box, American is the way to go! Unfortunately, it tears easily, so can only be peeled off and reapplied if done with care.

Two Hunnert - and Counting

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:43:00 +0000

WAHOO! I have hit 200 followers!

To celebrate, I have made a purty pichur! (Mostly because when searching Google Images for '200,' pickings were pretty slim!)

Yay Me! (Drawn crappily using MS Paint)

I'll have to figure out something else awesome to do for you all to celebrate you guys. I mean, it's pretty special to have 200 people liking me enough to click a button. Well. I kind of arm-twisted my mom and sister, to get my numbers up, way back when. But still...

For the Win! - EasyLunchboxes

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Congrats to...

Comment #72, patwaldau! Contact me at LudicrousMama@gmail.com within the next week with your name, shipping address, and preferred EasyLunchbox bag color!

Checking Out the "Competition" - Lunches Fit for a Kid

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Astrid at Lunches Fit for a Kid makes bento snacks and meals for her two kids, The Boy and The Girl. She is also super fun and funny... kinda like me, only less lazy. And she cooks!

Another bento-er whose ideas are easy to do for the average mom (or dad!) she doesn't feel the need to make them all kawaii (bento code for "frickin' adorable")... so she probably has more time to do other stuff... like, say, cook! And, like me, she loves using her EasyLunchBoxes too!

Fall lunch

Although some of her bentos are a little ~~more insane~~ fancier. Check out the spiderweb pancakes and candy corn crackers in this lunch! Luckily, she also tells us how she made them!

Halloween bento

And check out this amazeballs Rainbow Bread (she has a fancy foreign name for it, but I don't speak foreign.) The pictures in the recipe post aren't as bright as this lunch. Yowza!

Rainbow Pain de Mie in a lunch

But she makes up for her "mere-mortal"-level bentos by making and posting a bunch of recipes. From actual ingredients! I really like her Seuss-themed 'Edible Ooblek' and Roald Dahl-themed dinner (Little Z saw this over my shoulder and demanded 'blobby noodle soup!')

Making "Slobbages"

Check out Astrid and her fantastic recipes [and her apparently offensively crusty stovetop... (wink wink, Astrid!) Not that *I'm* complaining. Compared to mine, hers is clean enough to eat off of!] at Lunches Fit for a Kid and you can also find her on Facebook!

EasyLunchBoxes - These Bento Lunch Boxes Aren't JUST for Packing School Lunches!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:02:00 +0000

Unless you've been reading my blog with your eyes closed, by now you're probably all aware of my extreme love for EasyLunchboxes. And they're great for packing a lunch or dinner, or whatever, instead of stopping somewhere for fast food or a sit-down restaurant.
But did you know, they're also good for fast food and sit-down restaurants? Oh, even yesser!

I know I've mentioned at least a few times *cough cough* how EasyLunchboxes are my favorite lunchbox for mess-free (or at least low-mess!) eating in the car. They fit well on a toddler/preschooler lap, are large enough they stay put on said lap, are small enough they fit between the armrests on the carseat, and don't have a lot of little fiddly parts to get dropped/lost in the car. But I haven't really advertised the fact that I try to keep empty ones in my car at all times. "What?" you gasp. "Empty ones? Why?" Well, I'll tell you. For eating out! That's right!
For a while I was making a 90-minute road trip to and from my sister's house to visit overnight every week. So to make my life easier, we'd get fast food on the drive there and back. But it was hard for the Podling to juggle nuggets, apples, fries (I'd share some of mine,) plus Ranch and ketchup for dipping, all on her own back there. In fact, it was impossible to let her use dips. But I had packed some EasyLunchBoxes in the car to use at my sister's house, to show her how awesome they were for her kids' lunches after preschool. So I started putting Z's Happy Meal in one.

Nuggets, the Ranch cup, and fries in the big compartment; apples in the medium, and some ketchup in the smallest. It made the whole process so much easier! Easier for her to eat. Easier for me to refill (she and I can hand the ELB back and forth while I'm driving, in case she needs more of my fries, or more ketchup, or whatever.) And less mess! No more top-half-of-nugget-box tipping over to dump ketchup or Ranch in her lap. No more spilling of fry bag into dark corners of car seat. no more Happy Meal box tipping off of lap to dump entire meal on less-than-pristine car floor.

In fact, it worked so well, I was getting jealous that SHE got ketchup for her fries, but I had to eat mine plain. So I started using an ELB for my fast food too! Ketchup in one of the smaller compartments, dump the fries out into the large one. It rests perfectly on top of my parking brake (mine's a lever between the front seats) and is at a convenient reach for me. For those of you with longer legs, you could probably put it on your lap. But my legs are so shrimpy my belly almost touches the steering wheel.

But wait, there's more! Have you ever gone to a sit-down restaurant, shelled out $50 or more for food, then had the leftovers leak all over the bag (or your lap!) on the way home? Guess what? EasyLunchboxes are GREAT for taking home leftovers in! Not only can you keep the food separated, but if you're super clever, you can divvy them up into little meal portions and have them already packed into your EasyLunchboxes to reheat for lunch the next day! Know what else? ELBs can be microwaved too! How perfect is that! No more warped take-out container! No more melted styrofoam clamshell! And the ELBs stack nicely in the fridge until you're ready for your leftovers, unlike the various-sized and -shaped containers from the restaurants that may be building up in your fridge. Not to mention all that garbage you'll be throwing out later!

And while we don't have any food allergy issues (thank goodness!) I read a comment on EasyLunchboxes' Facebook page that had a great suggestion for avoiding allergy issues at holiday get-togethers and parties. One mom packs her own allergy-safe meal in her EasyLunchBoxes for her and her son to take to the event. That way it's easy to tell which food is theirs, so it doesn't accidentally get all eaten up by everyone else, as could be the case with a shared dish. And they're sure to get enough to eat, since she packed a whole meal. And if there are other dishes at the party that are safe, great. But if not, no problem! What a fantastic solution to a potentially serious problem!

Another fun (and unconventional) use for them is as gift boxes! Instead of a paper plate filled with baked goods for a teacher, why not put them in a reusable lunchbox? What teacher/coach/bus driver/neighbor wouldn't want an easy way to take a healthy lunch to work?

photo credit

In fact, the gift-giving possibilities are endless! Craft kits, a box for travel-sized bath and body gifts (lotions, hand sanitizers, etc,) play-doh kits (especially home-made! Put two different colors of dough in the smaller compartments, and some cookie cutters and tools in the larger!) Home-made S'mores kits (graham crackers in the large compartment, marshmallow cream in the medium, and chocolates in the small!) I'm sure you can think up more cleverer ideas too! Maybe even some back-to-school supplies? How perfect would THAT be? Either way, next Christmas our preschool teachers will be getting ELBs with scented lotion and hand sanitizers, with a loving note: "You need to eat better. And you stink. :)"

You can even use them for non-food purposes for travel. Pack some small games, toys, activities, etc into the boxes, and store them in the lunch bag! One box for each kid, or different themed activities in each box!

Or, like me, you can just use them as intended: for packing waste-free bento box lunches. Check out my meals featuring EasyLunchboxes!
If you're wanting to give them a try, you can buy them on Amazon (and get free shipping [US only] with Amazon Mom, Amazon Prime, or a $25 minimum order,) or direct from EasyLunchBoxes.com.

I will warn you - because the lids are easy for kids to open and close on their own, they aren't water tight. So they're definitely not for liquids or runny food. There are some tips for preventing stuff from leaking, but you want to be sure they're in a bag that allows them to lay flat (horizontal.) The EasyLunchboxes cooler bag is perfect for this. In fact, you can fit up to three of the containers in one of their cooler bags if you're packing for a long day.
If you think these are a product you'll love, order at least 2 sets. Trust me. Four boxes seem like a lot, until you're using more than one a day. Plus you'll want extras to keep in the car!

~OR~ Enter to win a set! Wahoo! When I contacted Kelly to ask if I could ~~shamelessly steal~~ showcase some of her photos, she offered to let me give a set of these babies away to my fantastic readers! (Pssst! That's you guys! Squeee!)

Prize: One container set and one lunch bag (you choose the color!) Retail value: $21.90. Contest ends midnight PST, 1/22/12 (Baby E's one-month-iversary!)

Mandatory entry: Visit EasyLunchBoxes.com, then come back here and leave a comment stating something you like about these products!
Bonus entries:
Like EasyLunchboxes on Facebook and leave a comment here.
Follow EasyLunchboxes on Twitter and leave a comment here.
Subscribe to EasyLunchboxes.TV (on YouTube) and leave a comment here.
If you already like/follow/subscribe, that works too. Just be sure to leave a comment here for each, letting me know!

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.
I will be choosing a random winner using Random.org sometime after midnight, January 22, 2012. Check back on this post for the winner to be announced!

Please make sure I can contact you by either contacting me after I've announced the winner, or not being "Anonymous"! If I don't hear from you within a week after I announce the winner or try contacting you, I reserve the right to pick a new winner!

This giveaway is offered to US residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or received free product from EasyLunchboxes within the past 3 months.

Update: Winner, comment #72 - Patwaldau. Please contact me at LudicrousMama@gmail.com with your name, shipping address and desired bag color!
Another Update: First winner never contacted me, so I re-drew! Congrats to Vicki with comment #52!

We All Scream for Ice Cream Bento

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:19:00 +0000

I didn't really have a theme in mind, and not much time to put lunch together, but I decided I wanted to use something from my new Lunch Punch Sweets set for the sandwich. I chose the ice cream cones one mostly because it makes two little sandwiches, to make it easier to eat them at different times, since lately she's been asking to eat her lunch right after breakfast, as well as before school.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Her lunch: PBHoney 'cones,' sugar snap peas,
cottage cheese, oranges w/strawberries

The strawberries each had a bite taken out of them [long story. Basically, Z was left unattended with the carton of berries,] so I sliced around the stems and bites. While I was looking for an appropriate pick to go with the theme to make the strawberry and orange slices easier to eat, I found my ice cream cone spork/cupcake pick. Woot! Not useful for the fruit, but worked great for the cottage cheese! I didn't really have anything good to eat the fruit with, so I let her use her fingers.

My lunch: snap peas w/broccoli and Ranch, orange slices,
PBHoney sandwich

She ended up eating the remaining almost-1/3rd of her sandwich and 2/3rds of a banana for breakfast, so saved her lunch for after gym class. But she ate all but one snap pea... oh excuse me. Sugar snap peas. Whenever I call them pea pods or snap peas, she corrects me.

She also ate both sandwich-cones. And maybe half of the cottage cheese. She ate a little bit of fruit, but not much.

Both lunches are in our EasyLunchBoxes. Ranch dip is in a blue Tupperware Smidget. Ice cream cone spork/pick came from a cupcake pick grab bag from a retailer that no longer exists.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Best Face

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:07:00 +0000

I haven't submitted pictures to the I Heart Faces link-ups lately, mostly because I've been too ~~lazy~~ busy and preoccupied with baby stuff. But I couldn't pass up this week's theme: Best Face of 2011.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Little Z. She was in the shopping cart in the parking lot at Costco, waiting while Daddy unloaded all our goodies into the car. She's wearing her "monkey backpack" (it's really a kiddie leash, although we didn't bother with the leash part.) And her 'pink hair' hat (she views the yarn braids as 'hair,' and so she views these types of hats as wigs!)

I love how the wind is flicking her hair around, and that impish grin just gets me every time!

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

All I Want For Christmas Is You... (And Some Stuff From Amazon )

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:47:00 +0000

For Christmas this year, I was pretty much a non-contender. Not only was I preoccupied with my impending childbirth, but being pregnant apparently sapped any ability to make decisions right out of me. So I asked for gift cards or baby stuff for Christmas. Now I know that people advise against asking for stuff for your kids instead of for yourself, but in my case, I really LOVE getting stuff for my kid(s,) and so far have never felt left out or passed over when gifts for 'me' are really for one of them.
So along with a plethora of [chocolates? What chocolates? Urp.] cute baby toys and clothes (plus a new Boppy cover and a Moby Wrap - thanks Mom!) I got me $50 in Amazon gift cards! Boo yaw! Thank you for giving me the gift of shopping. In my pajamas!
And there's a sale on some Home and Kitchen items (and books) for Buy 3, Get the 4th Free. So I did a search in the Home and Kitchen section, narrowed down to Prime Eligible (for the free shipping at $25, or free 2-day shipping with Prime,) and again narrowed it to '4-for-3' promo as well. And then sifted through a bajillion pages of stuff! I got bored pretty quickly sifting through all those pots and pans, so I did separate searches for just 'cookie cutters,' 'cupcake,' 'Wilton,' and 'Fred' [a brand that makes super cute stuff, as you can see below!] with those parameters.
Here is what I got for me for Christmas!

Baby Cookie Cutter set ($6.91) For obvious reasons. I almost made a baby-themed lunch for Z to have at my mom's house the day we went to the hospital, but I realized I had absolutely nothing baby-themed in my gear. No cutters, no picks, no cupcake liners. Nada. So instead I let my sister feed her! Ha!

Fred Gingerdead Man Cookie Cutter/Stamp ($7) I've seen cute little gingerbread men with frosting skeletons, but that's more piping skill than I possess. This will let me just 'color in the lines,' so to speak. Too fun!

Bat Bytes Sandwich Cutter ($6.69) (It's the only one they make that I don't have yet. All the others I found at Winco in single packs. So now I have a spare, if there's ever a bento or MTM swap... hint hint.)

Tea Party Cookie Cutter Set ($6.16, 4th item FREE)...

...to go with these super cute Fred silicone Teacup Cupcake molds. Squeee! ($13.19) Can not WAIT to do a Tea Party themed lunch now!

Farm Sandwich Molds ($9.93) For making ice cream sandwiches, but also works great with regular sandwiches - especially if you're making multi-layer stackers! Also works as an egg mold! I assume I could do rice in them too...

Fred Snack and Stack Utensils ($14.56) I totally want to get one of the Lego bento boxes from the Container Store! These will go PERFECTLY with it!

Wilton Flower Cups ($9.77 - 4th item FREE)

And even though they weren't part of the Buy 3, Get 4th Free promo, I had to get these...

Fred Nomskulls cupcake liners (How could I NOT own these?!) ($10.57)

and the Wilton Silly Critter Cups ($13.49.) Because they've been out of stock for a while, and I haven't found them anywhere else! I hear they fit perfectly flush to the lid inside an EasyLunchBox as well!

What, these add up to more than my $50 gift card, you say? Shhhh... Don't tell my husband! :)

*A note to the less experienced: If you get 8 eligible items, Amazon will make the two cheapest ones free, not the 4th and 8th cheapest ones. So I broke these into two separate orders, with the four most expensive items together, and the four cheaper items together. And I added on the non-sale items to get to the $25 minimum for free shipping.

Do You See What I C?

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:32:00 +0000

**Warning. Frank talk about c-sections, innards, and other woman-stuff details pertaining to pregnancy and delivery. And I use the word 'vagina.' Might be TMI for some people.**

My first pregnancy and birth were what my husband and I jokingly referred to as a "Mary Poppins pregnancy." No morning sickness, no stretch marks, no grody varicose veins. All my previous ailments went away - seasonal allergies, lactose intolerance, citrus allergy, migraines, clinical depression, carpal tunnel, acid reflux, etc. You name it, it either went away, or was severely reduced in effect (I got the acid reflux back the 3rd trimester, but it wasn't ever as bad as it had been before I started taking medication when I wasn't pregnant.) And apparently I was rockin' a mighty fine preggo body, judging by the dagger-stares and muttered cuss-words from my sisters when they saw me prancing around in my undies one time. And while I started dilating early, at about 7.5 months, everything went well and she went to term with no complications or bedrest and was only born 3 days early. And as an added bonus, I got a bunch of extra ultrasounds and non-stress-tests where I got to see and hear her, just to make sure she was still doing okay the whole time (which she was.) Scoooore!
One of my Grandmas had super-easy, quick, pain-free labor, and it appears I inherited something similar.
That combined with my wide 'birthing hips' and my cervix pointing the right way made delivery fairly easy. The only tough part was the back labor, but overall it was only 11 hours from when I started timing contractions (while finishing a dungeon in Warcraft!) until she was born.

So other than my inability to actually GET pregnant, my body is apparently designed to BE pregnant!

Which totally paid off with this one. We had so many freaky little complications going on in my uterus, I'm amazed nothing 'bad' happened. Truly. First up was the 12-week ultrasound (part of a new test called a Combi-screen, with a very painful ~~finger maiming~~ blood draw combined with a high-detail ultrasound at a specialty high-risk clinic. This guy does all my ultrasounds. He's a doctor, so I get the information right away, as he's seeing it, rather than the technician doing it then having the doctor come and consult me about it later. And this guy is GOOD. He can check for Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Cleft Palate, even Club Foot!) He found a twin remnant, which was kind of sad and freaky, since I hadn't known that the other embryo had attached at all. He also thought he saw a velamentous cord insertion and maybe a little bit of placenta previa. He said we'd check again at the 20-week ultrasound. Now, I'm still not sure what exactly a velamentous cord insertion is, and I was advised by my sister not to look into it too much. My husband looked it up a little. Something about where the cord attaches to the placenta, which makes it more likely to have an issue, thus leading to lower birth weight, and a slightly increased chance of miscarriage. And during labor, if the cord happens to be between baby and the cervix, then a vaginal delivery is unsafe, as the baby could suffocate herself by pressing against the cord. Placenta previa I knew some about. It's where the placenta covers some or all of the cervical opening, which is a risk when you start dilating, as it could burst a blood vessel, causing baby and possibly Mom to bleed out. Bad news.

At the 20-week ultrasound, he confirmed both the velamentous cord as well as the placenta previa, which was now a 'full' previa (which I think means covers most or all of the cervix.) Plus, as an added bonus, my placenta was a freaky shape, resulting in a bi-lobal placenta. Basically, instead of one big grody lump, I had 2 smaller grody lumps, connected by a thin bridge of placenta. One of these lobes was on my cervix. Yay. The major complication with this condition is low birth weight. Luckily, she was holding firm at just a little under 50th percentile in size. Now, we still had another 20 weeks to go, and with the uterus growing, it was still possible for the placenta to move off of the cervix, thus negating the need for a planned c-section. One could always hope! Plus this meant I got an extra ultrasound at 30 weeks! Another chance to see my beautiful baby girl!

Well, it was all confirmed at 30-weeks, so I switched from my midwives to an OB I had seen in the past for a surgery to remove polyps from my uterus a few years ago. (Yeah. Fun.) Plus she delivered my youngest sister's first child, and my mom and other sister had seen her as a patient in the past as well. I joked that she's seen 2 generations of vaginas in my family! One of the great things about my new OB is that she's very much an advocate for women's health and her patients. She listens to her patients, and she would rather do some extra unnecessary tests rather than not do enough tests. Plus she really knows her stuff! She was asking about things I hadn't ever even thought of (plus some I had wondered why the midwives weren't doing too.) And because of all the fun placental and cord anomalies, she talked about possibly doing an MRI to look for placenta accreta (where blood vessels in the placenta are attached to the uteran wall and require surgery and cauterization to remove!) which no one else had thus far even thought about mentioning. Joy.
The down side is that because she's so awesome and truly cares about her patients (if one of her OB patients goes into labor while she's working, even if she's not on call, she does their delivery!) her schedule is packed, and she is usually running behind, which results in a loooooong wait under that little paper sheet!

At the tail-end of 36 weeks, we did an amniocentesis to see if Little E's lungs were mature enough to do an early delivery. Nowadays, any planned delivery earlier than 39 weeks pretty much requires an amnio. My OB had wanted to do my c-section earlier in the 37th week (12/19,) but the OR was totally booked that day, so I was put on a waitlist. The earliest opening that fit into her schedule wasn't until 37w5d, on 12/22. The amnio is usually done the day before the planned c-section, except I was waitlisted for a Monday delivery, and they don't do amnios on the weekend. So I went in the Friday before (12/16.) And as it turns out, despite the amniotic fluid looking cloudy and mature, she was considered 'transitional.' Which meant her numbers were higher than a definite 'not mature,' but not yet at a number that meant definitely mature. The amnio doc called me after hours (!!!) to discuss the results, and said that a delivery on our scheduled date of the 22nd should be fine. And then my OB called me after hours and said the same thing. So since I wasn't having any complications or reason for an emergency c-section earlier, I got off the waitlist for the 19th and we stuck with my scheduled time on the 22nd.

But despite these potential problems (and my previous history of early dilation,) my cervix stayed closed, there was no bleeding, and she continued to grow and thrive in there, as healthy as can be. My OB told me that with all the hot mess going on up in there, she was quite frankly amazed we got to wait until our scheduled c-section at 37 weeks 5 days.

Once I found out I pretty much had to get a c-section, everyone who'd had one tried talking them up. But no amount of someone else loving them was going to change my mind about not wanting one. I was WILLING to get one, for the safety of my baby, but I certainly would have preferred the messier, more painful, longer recovery, and less needle-y vaginal version! In fact, I almost managed to go needle-free with my first one! I caved after about 10 hours of back labor and not dilating (I had started at 4.5-5cm going in, from the extra month and a half of dilating on my own) and asked for an epidural, just so I could rest a little. During the 20-minutes on a lactose ringer IV to rehydrate me first, I banged out to 9.5cm and powered through without the epidural. Yay!

Anyhoo, no amount of 'Oh my recovery was SO easy!" or "It was so nice being pain-free" could convince me that I wanted a c-section. I have a needle phobia. Now, most people say that they are scared of needles. But for me, it's an irrational fear. Inside, I'm screaming. My fight-or-flight instinct kicks in. I have a physiological reaction which causes increased heart rate, cold sweats, dizziness, nausea, etc (called a vaso-vagal reaction, apparently.) With all the rigamarole involved in getting IVF (loads of blood work, shots, etc,) I've pretty much managed to man-up for routine stuff. But I really hate needles that stay in my body, like with an IV. And needles that go in freaky weird places, like my mouth at the dentist, or in my frickin' SPINE! And I especially hate having to be cool and cooperative. I prefer my surgeries to be the kind I get to sleep through. Then I only have to think about needles in my flesh for a short time before it's all over and someone's feeding me ice chips and juice.

The anesthesiologist told me that if I started freaking out too much he'd knock me out. Normally, I'd be a big fan of that. But it takes longer for the grogginess to wear off, and I wanted to be there for Little E as soon as humanly possible. So while I was totally freaking out inside (seriously. I almost lost it a few times,) I focused on breathing. And trying to eavesdrop on my OB and her assistant MD. Who were doing their level best to talk too quietly to be heard. Meanwhile the anesthesiologist and one of the nurses couldn't stop jabbering on about their kids or something, which was totally annoying. My husband and doula did their best to keep me distracted and breathing (my doula reminded me right at the start to breathe, thus earning her paycheck all on its own. I totally would have freaked out without her there reading my body language and knowing when to help calm me down and when to distract me.) I originally had lofty plans to hold baby skin-to-skin in the OR, while they were closing me up, but really it was all I could do to not start screaming and flailing around in a panic. I didn't have the energy to focus on anyone but me. So it was nice to have Hubby in there to hold her and make sure no one swapped her out or anything. And it was nice having my doula there to make sure my husband didn't bumble around ineptly, and to check on the happenings on the other side of the drape. And to make sure I didn't go stark raving bonkers and get put under.

Cons of Having a C-Section:

Pretty much everything.
No food, antacids, or WATER for 8 hours before. So basically I had to lay there sitting up; hungry, parched, and acid-refluxy, all night. Well, okay. Until 5am, when I had to get up and get ready to go to the hospital. Between that and trying to share my childhood twin bed with my daughter at my mom's house (so we wouldn't have to get her up and out the door early to take her there that morning,) I got, like, 5 minutes of sleep total.
The Shakes. I had the shakes pretty bad for a while after. My doula had disposable hot packs she was using to help warm me up, but it took forever for the shivers and shakes to go away after I was back in my room.
Catheter. Oh yes. Did I mention that these involve catheters? Apparently they do. And actually it wasn't so bad... until they took it away and made me get up and go potty on my own after spending a day blissfully staying hydrated. Heartless monsters.
She took my uterus out to make sure she got everything. Which apparently can cause extra cramping and gas. And, boy howdy, did it!
Needles.
Needles in my spine.
An IV that apparently required three attempts to put in. And then she ended up having to put it on the side of my wrist, where it was very uncomfortable whenever I bent my wrist. Like when trying to hold my child, for example. And then I had to keep it in for an extra day, just in case. Two weeks later I still have a scab on my wrist from where the needle got ground around in my flesh for 3 days. *shudder*
Slasher-flick on my abdomen.
Having to be awake and not totally freaking out throughout. Gaaaaah.
Plus for the first two weeks, it felt like everything was put back in the wrong spots. Freaky.
Did I mention that she took my uterus out of my body?!

Pros of Having a (Scheduled) C-Section:

Being able to make childcare plans for the older kiddo.
Extra day at the hospital.
Being able to sit without the aid of an inflatable donut for the first few weeks.
It stopped looking like there was a crime scene in my pants by Day 5.
She was already all up in that when they discovered that I had placenta accreta after all, and she had to do some emergency cauterization and other fun stuff to get the placenta out and stop the bleeding.

Would I do it again by choice? Hells no. But, as luck would have it, due to the placenta accreta, I now have scar tissue or something on my uterus. Apparently on the cervical area. So if I get pregnant again, and the placenta happens to attach at that scar tissue (which is likely, apparently,) then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'd lose my uterus. And since it would be on my cervix again, I'd need another c-section. And even if somehow magically the placenta grew somewhere else, if I started dilating or tried for a vaginal birth, there's a chance that the blood vessels near my cervix could rupture anyway or something. So I'd be safer going for a c-section again and not risking it. Gah.

But I would trade my monthly visitor and the probability of not getting to have more kids in a heartbeat in exchange for another little one! And if I have to be disemboweled one more time for the safe delivery of my little miracle, then it's a price I will, once again, pay gladly.

The $15k price tag to get pregnant again, however, might be a deterrent!

Top Five Overall - 2011 Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Ludicrous Mama) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:53:00 +0000

I figured a fun way to finish out the year would be to do an overall Top 5 for the year. I did fudge it a bit, and didn't count the really boring stuff. :) I wanted to do a Top Ten, but since I can't view my stats for just the year (I can only view Day, Week, Month or All Time) I weeded out stuff posted in 2010.

1. Cheap and Easy St. Patrick's Day Crafts

Paper plate and crepe streamer "rainbows," and cut-up straws and pony bead shamrock necklaces.

2. Ballet Bento

Lunch for after ballet and snack for ballet camp. I was astounded at how much garbage was accumulated by all the pre-packaged snack paraphernalia that Every. Other. Child. Brought!

3. Beauty and the Ballerina

Lunch for after ballet class and snack for ballet camp

4. Booboo Butterfly (actually #4 was a giveaway I did. But that's boring.)

5/6. Sleeping Beauty Bento

I'm skipping the Referring URLs and Referring Sites, since I can't tell what traffic is from this year versus last year. So instead, I'll list the other Top Ten Posts that weren't published in 2010 (and weren't a boring old giveaway!)

8. Spring Lunches for Everyone

One of the many sets of lunches packed for Z and her cousins when I was going to my sister's to babysit each week.

9. Project Lunch - ELB Style!

This one was one of my favorites to do, since the kids made their own healthy choices and packed and bento'd up their own lunches!

10. Eye Spy Bento

Happy New Years, y'all!