M.J., the Bird, and Ilsa Lund

UPDATE:  I noticed that this particular post was getting way more traffic than my others, and I think it had to do with the title: Temple of Jerusalem.  I'm changing the title so that well-intentioned Googlers won't be directed to the very not-serious topic of bentos.

The anniversary of the burning of the Temple of Jerusalem was one of the "this day in history" choices for today, Wednesday, August 29, 2012.  Try to explain that to a four-year-old.  I decided not to work that into Tiny's bento.  I didn't go with my birthday choices either: Michael Jackson, Charlie Parker, and Ingrid Bergman.  Shoot, though now that I think of it, I could have totally made piano keys out of mozzarella and, er, something black that is not nori.  Mother of the year also did not work in a math or spelling lesson either.  I did, however, provide her a balanced and nutritious lunch.

I love the "food" setting on our camera, but I still have to learn some photography lessons, such as lining up the containers, removing stray parsley, removing the date stamp, and cleaning up small imperfections.

I learned from the prior day's mistake, and prepared her bento in a smaller plastic container.  I used a couple of the Laptop Lunch containers, as they fit rather nicely into their foster home.  Clockwise from top, I included lentils for "dirt," topped with steamed broccoli and cute little mozzarella and cherry tomato mushrooms.  I popped in the trusty ol' Danonino so that she could drizzle honey (in yellow bear container) over it and dip her strawberry, blueberries, and grapes into it (there goes my clockwise order).  I made Pasta Putanesca (Ted did not appreciate my dinner comment, "those putas sure know what they're doing!") for dinner last night, but pulled out some of the spiral pasta before adding it to the sauce; I arranged those in a tiny little teacup and topped them with a sprig of parsley. For dinner I also warmed up some Gardein tenders for protein, and I set aside one of them to include in Tiny's lunch.  If you can't tell, I was going for a woodland theme.  While making the Pasta Putanesca, I had asked Tiny if she would eat a boiled egg if I included it in her lunch, and she said she would only if I remove the fuzzy middle ("yolk" to the layperson).  (The night before, I had tried out my egg mold and given her a boiled bunny egg for snack.  The egg was super cute, and she liked the white part, but wouldn't touch the fuzzy middle.)  So, getting back to last night's bento, I reconsidered the egg after imagining 15 tiny heads turning to her loudly yelling "eeeeeeeewwwwwwww" upon discovering the fuzziness in her lunch.  Instead, I cut a sliver out of the Gardein tender for ears and punched out a face from the despised nori to make a bunny.  Note to self: wetting nori will not help it stick to a Gardein tender.  The photo above shows my efforts, but the nori quickly fell off, so I replaced the eyes with two whole flax seeds "glued" on with mayo (which she also hates). 

After adding some little cheddar flowers cut with my fondant flower cutters, it all came together: my woodland/tea/Italian bento theme.  <cough-cough>

My Bento Launch

I attempted my first bento two nights ago (August 27, 2012) using a bento box that I bought at Goodwill for $1 (at half off!).  I think I got a pretty good deal, as it is a Laptop Lunch box, which retail at around $40 (though that includes a bag, utensils, two lids, and one extra lidded container).  We had an old bento container that I bought for $2.50 at Target, but we didn't have much success with it when we used to use it for Tiny's lunches.  The Laptop Lunch box is more versatile, and I was able to work with it pretty well.  Ted and I had talked about integrating a theme into each bento that reflects a history, spelling, or math lesson.  I packed Tiny an assemble-your-own pizza using sandwich rounds (flat bread), and I added the word "pizza" in cheese for a spelling lesson.  In a separate lidded container, I included additional shredded cheese.  I bought these cuties from Amazon, and I used the bear to store some pasta sauce.  I then packed Tiny some clementines, two split grapes, four blueberries, and a sliced strawberry.  I successfully poured some honey into one of the little sauce containers so that she could mix it into the Danonino that I packed.  I sliced up part of a carrot, and then tried to pour some ranch into another little sauce container.  I only filled about half of it because I didn't have a small enough funnel (upending and squeezing the sauce/dressing in puts wear on the little plastic bottles).  I tried to stamp out some flowers from the carrots, and I was successful, but I didn't have a place to really place them where they'd stand out while staying in place.  It came together fairly nicely, but not as nicely as I'd like.

I learned a few things though:

1. The Laptop Lunch box is way too big for a toddler's lunch.  I plan on using a square Glad plastic container for tomorrow's lunch.
2. Pasta sauce will not make cheese stick to the pizza crust.
3. Flat bread dries out if toasted in the oven even for a few seconds, and the cheese doesn't look very appetizing afterward.
4. I need to invest in a smaller funnel.
5. Baby carrots are cuter and taste better than large carrots.  May need to buy some if I'm not cutting out cute flowers.
6. Tiny doesn't like nori, so the nori punch may have been a waste. Not that I could have placed it anywhere in this bento anyway.
7. It is difficult to try to combine a history lesson into bento.  My choices for that day included the anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, and Tolstoy or Goethe's birthdays.  Hence, the word "pizza."

The next night's bento went a little better.