Hana to Hoshi...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
This actually took me a bit longer than expected, mainly because I wasn't sure what to pack for the Little Goose's lunch since we have quite a few leftovers in the fridge. I finally settled on just teriyaki chicken meatballs and rice with steamed veggies. Hopefully she likes it. The containers were from the Disney store, they're not really bento boxes, but with a thick pink rubber band they might as well be.

On the right we have steamed carrot flowers and steamed broccoli with rice, chicken teriyaki meatballs, and half a Vietnamese pork eggroll (cha gio, hidden under the two carrot flowers on the left of the container).

On the left we have strawberry filled Disney biscuits, pear stars with seedless grape centers (it actually didn't take very long to cut these out, I bought shape cutters that were originally for cutting clay and they worked beautifully), and finally strawberry stars.

Again, hope she likes it!

Today's pic (well, taken Saturday actually), the Sweet Pea was a baby doctor.:

My Little Helper

The Little Goose was sick on Friday and stayed home so there was no lunch necessary. Poor girl, she's really into school right now and was very sad to have to stay home, but we felt she had to have some rest (and not spread her germs to the other kids). She's feeling much better today and was able to help me make/pack her lunch for tomorrow. The things we make keep relatively well in the fridge overnight as long as the bento is closed but I'm not sure about this one as it has asian pear in it and I'm not sure if it'll get slimy or not (will have to check in the morning).

In the top layer we have two rice hearts, a scrambled egg heart (I wanted to pack her some chicken but the Little Goose insisted on helping me scramble some eggs), some peas and carrots, and asparagus spears underneath with mini soy sauce bottle not shown.

In the bottom layer we have one sliced strawberry, asian pear slices and flowers, dried mango flowers, and chocolate mushroom cookies. I completely forgot to put some lemon juice on the asian pear so it began to brown even as I was taking the picture. This is the first "bento" that the Little Goose has helped out with (I hope I'm not offending any Japanese people who follow the true definitions of bento packing) and she wanted to have her picture taken with it.

In the still of the night...

I had to leave home extremely early this morning made this at 3am while studying for a mid term. I hope the Little Goose likes it, I tried to pack some of her favorite things like fruit and broccoli (yes, I'm very lucky, I know). I'm beginning to like this whole packing lunch thing. So far so good on keeping it relatively healthy. Aside from steamed broccoli, I put in orange slices, berries, homemade tortilla chips, a few panda cookies, some mini sausages, steamed carrots, and some mini cheese quesadillas. It took only about 20 minutes to put together from start to finish (including cooking time). Not bad, maybe I should pack a lunch too...nah...I think I like eating out with my coworkers for lunch. Adult company keeps me sane. If I packed myself a lunch I'd end up eating at my desk and working.

Again, I left home really early this morning and wasn't able to say goodbye to my little Sweet Pea. He was sleeping so peacefully that this was the only picture I could take of him this morning. He's always liked sleeping on his tummy and it used to freak me out when he was a baby and everyone and their mother said that I needed to put him "back to sleep" in case of SIDS or some other nefarious childhood phantom that might take his breath away in the middle of the night. Now that he's 18 months, it's not so nerve wracking to see him roll over to his tummy at night. In fact it's rather cute with his butt sticking in the air.

First came the babies, and then came lunch...

Hello all, welcome to my new "blog". This is an offshoot from my other blog at thelotuslife.net for all the pictures that I'll be taking (theoretically) of my kids (the Sweet Pea and the Little Goose) and the Little Goose's lunch.

For example, today's lunch:


















Chicken curry under rice with nori stars, cantaloupe butterflies and stars, cucumber stars, and rasberries and blackberries.

And today's baby picture...well, toddler picture:

2nd Bento

Here is the second bento I created for my daughter. I'd start with bento no. 1, but I didn't take a picture of it. This one contains mini pb&j sandwiches cut in the shape of a tulip, a sakura flower, and a regular ole 5 petaled flower, some star cucumbers, a skewer of fresh mozarella cheese pears with some nori stars, grape and berry skewers, some disney strawberry cream filled biscuit thingies, and some heart cut outs of this japanese melon dessert I bought in Japantown at Nippon-Ya.