Bundle of Bentos

Our external hard drive where we store our photos, music and videos filled up completely so I was unable to upload bento pictures from the past week and a half.  M did some transferring, so now we're back in business and I have a bunch of lunches to share.

Hello Kitty and friends onigiri with ham, carrots and apples.

Corn-doggies with attitude, carrot flowers, banana, baby corn and jelly.

Edamame, baby corn, rice, flower hamburger and bananas.

Macaroni Grill leftovers (by request!):  Broccoli, grilled chicken, pasta and a jelly.

Typical Monday hodge-podge disaster lunch - Anpanman sweet potato rounds, Hello Kitty mini dogs, jelly, baby corn, edamame, kiwi, oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and baby carrots.

Wise sammies - Carrots, ham and cheese owls and veggie crackers (underneath).  She had a sidecar box full of apples with this one.

The boy owl

The girl owl

Packed up nice and cozy in a window-box.  :)

Fun-fun-fun!  This catches me up for the moment.  Thank goodness my computer is functional again!

The Magic of Pinterest

Seriously, I am so hopelessly addicted to Pinterest it's beyond ridiculous.  I find myself searching high and low for awesome things to pin.  And, surprisingly, I actually accomplish things a lot more regularly!  Before, I'd find cool ideas and just leave the tabs open until doing the project became obsolete.  On occasion, I'd bookmark them, but my bookmark folders are basically a jungle.  (See photo at right...  Just a SMALL glimpse into the deep, dark caverns of my bookmarked pages...  Really really really chaotic, seriously.

But with Pinterest everything is organized neatly and nicely in VISUAL folders.  I can find what I am looking for by photo and customized caption.  I can't even promote this awesome website enough.

I have made the kids milk in a cup with the rim decorated in nutella and sprinkles, mini frozen banana pops, and mini banana splits (all shown here), used a delicious raspberry idea to make bento flowers (as seen here), whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough brownies, made creamy artichoke and chicken pasta for dinner one night, made caramel dip for apple slices that was seriously to die for...  Last night for dinner we had chicken and cheese lasagna roll-ups and 30-minute crusty baguettes.  Today I made some chocolate ice cubes to use in vanilla milk - use google translate to get the recipe from French to English.

I don't know what it is about Pinterest but I am so productive and really enjoying myself these days.  If you're not on there, you really should think about linking up.  I've got 352 pins (and counting) so I think I'll be busy for a while.

Bento Friday :)

Yeah!  I always feel so accomplished when I manage to crank out a bento for my kids.  Especially when I do it without us having any other plans to go anywhere or do anything.  Today was one of those days.  I should really make an effort to make them a bento lunch at least every Friday - we'll see how that goes.

The table is set! :)

A's lunch

Corn, grape tomato, cheese "candy", hot dog flowers, strawberries, fruit jelly, and teddy onigiri

C's lunch

She had the same.  :)

On the side, for dessert, each girl had a matching container with Chex "Muddy Buddies" in it - a favorite snack around here.  If you haven't had these you are definitely missing out.  :)  They each had a cup of chocolate soy milk, too.  Yum!

photo credit: http://thegalwaygirl.com/

Muddy Buddies:

9 cups Chex cereal (rice, corn, wheat, or a combination - all work fine)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use Simply Jif creamy)
1/4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl with a lid.
2. Put chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine into a 1-quart microwavable bowl.  Microwave this on high for one minute, then stir.  Microwave on high for another 30 seconds, or until mixture can be stirred smooth.  Add in the vanilla and stir to combine.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and fold together to coat the cereal.
4. Measure powdered sugar on top of the coated cereal, then put the lid on your bowl (seal it carefully otherwise you'll have a powdered sugar explosion), and let your kids shake it like crazy till the powdered sugar has completely coated the cereal.
5. Enjoy with caution - this stuff's dangerous.

The Hungry Little Bento... and other stories.

I have been trying to get back into my bento groove, honest I have!  It has not been working out though.  With my kids both home all day and no car while my husband is at work, there isn't enough structure to my days most of the time.  So we usually end up doing something super simple for lunch.  Plus, of course, I've been caught up thinking about the upcoming move and I spend a lot of my spare time these days researching our next adventure.  (Well, when I'm not reading, that is.)

A couldn't stop asking me about WHEN we were heading to Germany, so I made her a paper chain.  This was it a couple of weeks ago - it's even shorter now.  The anticipation is certainly building!  I've been house-hunting, outing-planning, and travel-arranging from afar.  I still don't have specific dates yet but with conditions in our apartment building becoming ever-worse, I have to hold on to something.  So I've been occupying myself with the fact that there IS, in fact, an end in sight.

I did go bento shopping last week for the first time in a long time (the ¥/$ rate these days is REALLY not in our favor, unfortunately!  I've been trying to limit my out-in-town excursions as a result) so I was inspired.  I made the girls teddy bear bentos for lunch the next day, and that went over really well.  Poor photo quality, when I made these my camera's memory card was full so I had to take iPod photos.

A's lunch

C's lunch

These were really simple - a quick little salad with olives and heart shaped carrot slices, slider patties with hot dog, pepperoni and nori details to make them "beary" cute, a couple of fresh strawberries, a fruit jelly, and some pink star puffs.  My kids were really excited to have a bento for lunch so I think it could have been liver and onions and they'd have eaten it.

Then we had a sushi party.  Be jealous.  This was fantastic and I think we're planning to do these sushi nights at least twice a month from now on.

But what I am most excited to post is a bento I made with my friend the other night for her son's lunch.  We were experimenting with hot dog "sculptures" and I had the bright idea to do a hot dog caterpillar.  And then it came to me - her son's most favorite book in the world is Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  He talks about this book like crazy and it was the first book he read aloud to his class.  Whenever he comes over, he volunteers to read it to my girls.  It's adorable.  So why not make a Very Hungry bento lunch?  Hello inspiration!!

So my friend and I put together his lunch box and had a freaking blast doing it.  It was the most fun bento-ing I think I've ever had.  And the finished product was nothing short of awesome!

The very hungry hot dog caterpillar with spaghetti antennae and legs was sooo hungry on his bed of rice that he ate through two slices of pepperoni, one slice of "swiss cheese", and one (soy sauce filled) apple.

This side of the box is a little bit of a jumble, but he had a salad, two pickles, two strawberries (both snacked on by the caterpillar), a leaf with a caterpillar egg, and a butterfly.

This lunch was a total hit with him.  He was quite excited about it.

Of course we had to make my friend's daughter a super girly fun lunch too, so we did that - it's not nearly as awesome as the caterpillar lunch but it's still pretty cute.

She got a Hello Kitty onigiri with hot dogs, a salad and some grapes.  All decked out with hearts and cuteness.  :) You can't ever go wrong with Hello Kitty rice balls.  And when you have a Hello Kitty onigiri mold, it couldn't be easier!  Seriously, this is like a favorite tool.

So there is an update on the food happenings here.  Nobody has starved just yet.  ;)  OH!  And as a side note, did anybody happen to watch the Season finale of House?  I was a little miffed with it.  And VERY miffed to learn that Lisa Edelstein will not be returning for season 8.  I can understand the series ending after next year, but I can't imagine a whole season without Dr. Cuddy.  Hmpf!

Oh well.  I still think that Hugh Laurie is like the coolest guy ever, so I'll just try my hardest to savor the fact that there is going to be a season 8 at all.  And in the meanwhile I can just busy myself with Army Wives, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and the fact that hopefully soon Dexter season 5 should be coming available on iTunes.  See?  I do have things to keep me occupied.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #34

What are some  of your ideas for staying connected with family…you know, those people we moved thousands of miles away from? submitted by Live it. Love it (or not). Write About It.

Oh, the usual things.  Being cautious of the time zone differences, frequent phone calls with Magic Jack, Facebook, Skype, and sending home "care packages".

What’s the most romantic gift you have GIVEN? submitted byPainting My Canvas

We did things a little bit backwards.  On our first anniversary as boyfriend and girlfriend, I gave M a ring and asked him to marry me.  Uhh...  He was taking TOO LONG!  Anyways I'd say that's probably the most "romantic" gift I've ever given - but I am a good gift-giver!  My gifts are generally more thoughtful than romantic.

Would you encourage your child, if they came to you and wanted to join the military?  submitted by Perfectly Imperfect

To a certain extent, sure.  I'd definitely want my kids to weigh their options before signing on the dotted line, but in general I think it's a great opportunity.  It's not something I'd have ever done myself - I think it takes a special and disciplined type to be able to do it right and I'd not be interested in "half-assing" it, but I know for a lot of people it's a good move - not always necessarily a forever decision but four years isn't the worst thing.  Why not?

What is your least favorite bill to pay and why? submitted by A Little of This, A Little of That

Our car payment!  The lender really ripped us off and took advantage of us, plus since the car is stateside in government storage, it's like we're paying for nothing.  Not to mention it also feels like we've been paying on it FOREVER.  I will be so glad when it's paid off!

What is the proudest moment you’ve had as a military spouse?  submitted by Our Okinawa Life

Tough one.  Aside from the obvious graduations and homecomings, I'd have to say it was probably while we were stationed in Port Hueneme, California.  My husband (with my help) was the coordinator for the annual Toys for Tots campaign.  We worked our butts off that holiday season with him supervising every event, our warehouse, every donation drop-off location, and every distribution; and me running the office and keeping up with every scrap of paperwork.  We were able to get toys to several thousand needy children across three counties that Christmas, and then planned and hosted the most successful appreciation banquet the unit had ever had.  It was an all-around wonderful experience.

What's in your WHAT!? Wednesday #1

Chelsey at I'll be seeing you... came up with a cute and fun idea for a new blog meme where each Wednesday she'll pose the question: What's in your ______!?

I wanna play!

It's already Thursday here but I think I get a free pass since I am in such a far-off time zone...  LOL!  Making up my own rules already!  But since I haven't been posting many bentos lately I have not had anything fun to do on Wednesdays.  So I'm grasping at straws here!  Cut me a break!

This week Chelsey asks...  What's in your...  Shower!?

Forgive my poor photo quality - I am wayyyy too lazy to connect my camera at the moment so iPod photos it is!  Our shower is super small and I hate it - I just keep reminding myself we are outta here in six months!  Hopefully the next house has a really awesome shower.  :)

In the caddy:

Aveeno Stress-Relief body wash

M's Neutrogena body scrub

Aveeno Positively Radiant face wash

Earth (Japanese hair salon) strawberry-peach shampoo

and in the back Victoria's Secret Glossing shampoo and conditioner

Bar soap goes below.  Hanging is a pumice stone, and beside it all is the Schick Quattro TrimStyle

On the floor:

Aveeno NOURISH+REVITALIZE shampoo and conditioner

Bath and Body Works Moonlit Path Shower cream

M's head&shoulders shampoo

I admit I am a bit of a shampoo junkie.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #33

1. During military separations (whether short or long) how do you keep yourself positive and motivated? submitted by Married/Single Parent

The obvious answer is to stay busy.  I generally don't have a terrible time doing so with two kids to chase around and a foreign country to explore, but before all that I kept busy by writing, reading, working, and getting together with friends and family.

2. What is your favorite concert you have ever been to? submitted byYoung but Not (Completely) Dumb

Maroon 5!  I saw them twice live with John Mayer.  At a very close second is Simon & Garfunkel.  I took my mom to see them on their reunion tour when it passed through our home town and I really look back on that with a lot of happiness - it was before my mom started showing symptoms of dementia and she told me it was the best birthday gift she'd ever received.  Plus "Feelin' Groovy" is totally my song - don't laugh!

3. What do you miss most about your “hometown”?  submitted by A Florida Girl and Her Soldier

Hands down, no contest:  My grandma.  We talk on the phone almost every day but I would so love to be there with her.  She is my hero and my very best friend.

4. If you could run in any race, which charity would you choose to support? submitted by Wookie & Co.

AFTD - The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.

5. You find out Willy Wonka is your father, what 3 course meal do you INSIST he create in that stick of gum?  submitted by A{muse}ing Mommy on a Pink Park Bench

NICE!!  I like this question a lot!!  I think I'd definitely request Marie Callender's potato cheese soup, my grandma's beef and green bean stew with rice pilaf and ooey gooey chocolate brownies!  Mmmmm...  A la mode!

Baby Bentos

It has been chaotic around here lately and something tells me I shouldn't count on it easing up any time soon.  After a lot of consideration and a personal battle, we pulled A out of Yochien a couple of weeks before the end of her school year.  We were going to take her out at the end of the Japanese school year anyway, but A was having some issues with a classmate and I couldn't justify keeping her enrolled for two extra weeks and making her be miserable for the sake of proving a point she is probably too young to understand.  My other option was to resolve the issue, but for just two weeks I couldn't see the purpose in having my friend translate my concerns and make a commotion with A's lovely teachers.  Plus, pulling her two weeks early saved me a full month's worth of tuition.  I have still been trying to make bento for the kids once a week, but I've had my hands full with them.  I'm trying to keep A busy and work with her on preschool concepts so that she is up to speed when we move and she begins kindergarten.  I really need to develop some sort of a curriculum to follow so that we at least have a schedule.  She's doing quite well adding with manipulatives, writing all of her letters and numbers, patterns, colors, shapes, and working in beginning phonics.  Most all of she is beyond thrilled to be preparing to move to Germany and start kindergarten.  She talks about both of those daily!

I made the kids bento last week but didn't get to snap a photo in time before they both devoured their lunches.  I do, however, have a couple of pictures of lunches I made for C last month while A was still in school.  Pardon the poor quality - these were taken with my iPod.

This bento C ate when my friend babysat her one afternoon.  It has a couple mini wedges of cheese pizza, some grape tomatoes, edamame picks, a chocolate chip cookie, some banana pieces and a few red grapes.

This bento was C's mini-version of the lunch A took to school that day - rotini pasta with garlic, basil, olive oil and parmesan cheese, deli sliced ham, edamame and half of a mikan.

The girls are very much enjoying being able to play together and for the most part I'm pretty happy with our decision to keep them home - they are keeping me on my toes, but I like the idea of A getting to have one last extended summer at home before she starts "real" school.  If I get some really awesome ideas for preschool curriculum activities, maybe I'll include those here too.  I'm about halfway through book number six of the reading challenge, so with any luck another book review will be coming soon too.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #32

1. Do you or your {spouse} ever wish your {spouse} was in a different branch of the military? submitted by The Turner Family

Definitely not!  We gripe a lot but deep down, we enjoy the Marine Corps.  My husband joined the Corps to fulfill a lifelong dream (and follow a family tradition) and he is beyond devoted to it.  And I have just been spoiled by the Marine Corps' grooming standards.  I like his weekly haircuts and he looks quite nice in his uniforms.

2. What duty station(s) are on your “No Way, Hell No, Not Going, Have Fun Unaccompanied” list and why? submitted by Every Branch

I have three on that list:  Jacksonville, North Carolina (Camp LeJeune); 29 Palms, California; and Yuma, Arizona. Noooo thank you!  Other than those, I am pretty open to whatever new adventures they send us on.

3. If you could be one age forever, what age would you choose and why? submitted by Three Krakens

I don't think I'd want to stay one age forever, but if I had to I'd probably choose an age I haven't hit yet.  Maybe thirty.  Seems like a nice "medium" spot to stay in if we're talking "forever".

4. If you were a breakfast cereal, which one would you be? submitted bythe C.W.

I'd be Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds.  Why..?  Because...  Uh...  They're delicious.  And because they're called "Honey Bunches".  Obviously.  ;)

5. What is your morning beverage of choice and why?  submitted by NH Girl Displaced

I'm a coffee drinker.  My FAVORITE morning beverage is Morinaga CAFÉ.  It's the most delicious ever.  I'm going to miss it when we leave Japan!  But I'll take any sort of coffee with milk and sugar, or a flavored latte from Starbucks.  When coffee is not an option, I like Dole's Orange-Peach-Mango juice.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #31

Trying something new...  the MilSpouse Friday Fill-in!  So...  Away we go!

1. Aside from no deployments, what is one thing you would want to make the MilSpouse life “perfect”? submitted by Oh How Delightful
The thing I'd change would definitely be the uncertainty!  I'd love to have a year's notice on every move and first pick at every duty station.  I'm a planner (I think I mentioned that) and I like to have a good idea of what is going to happen with us in the next 12 months at all times.

2. Just how many peppers did Peter Piper pick? submitted by Married into Army
None!  You can't pick a pepper that's already pickled.


3. If you could have any career in the world with nothing holding you back, what would you do? submitted by It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
I used to think I'd love to be a teacher...  And then I had kids and realized that it's probably a lot more work than I'd ever realized before.  So...  At this point I have no idea what my "dream job" would be.  I'm in a holding pattern.  I'm ok with it.


4. Do you have a service oriented tattoo and if so what is it. If you don’t what would you get? submitted by The Squid’s Accomplice
Absolutely not!  I wouldn't get one!  I'm not really that kind of spouse.  If I got any tattoo at all, I'd get an ambigram of my daughters names, and nothing else.  Needles freak me out anyways.


5. Imagine a block of time has opened up in your busy day for you to take a class in anything you like. What subject would you choose?  submitted by To The Nth
I would take a creative writing class.  English always has been my favorite subject.

Katatsumuri

Packed A a snail's lunch yesterday.  She informed me several months ago (while making her hands into a snail shape) that "snail" in Japanese is "katatsumuri"!  This is one of her favorite Japanese words for some reason.  She loved this lunch and the box came home empty (except for the curly lettuce which she informed me she didn't want to eat.  Goofy kid.

A's snails are made of Pizza Pinwheels and cheese dogs with the faces cut in before cooking using the blunt end of a cocktail pick for the eyes and a cool curved exacto-knife style tool I got from the Daiso.  They're held together at the base with cocktail picks (not pictured).  The girl snail is wearing a bow pick and the boy (who she informed me must be daddy because he is "the only boy") has a couple of antennae that I jimmied up from a couple of flag picks (just cut the flags off of them and voila!)

Also included in her snail lunch was a mikan, some lightly boiled broccoli florets, edamame picks, a few carrot flowers and an apple jelly.

School's In!

A went back to school yesterday from her winter break.  I packed her a bento since it was a Tuesday.  Excited to get back into my groove.  :)

I like this snowman more than I liked the one I made a month ago.  Isn't he kawaii?  A insisted that she have hot dogs spelling out her name, the way I did with "SNOW" last time.  Unfortunately her name is a little too long to have fit them in there in a cuter way, and the bits with hearts on them (which she also insisted on) had to go underneath.  The alpha-dogs are resting on top of a half of a mikon and three lightly steamed broccoli florets.

Here is her onigiri!  He's adorned with nori details, bone picks, and a scrap of deli ham for his scarf.  His earmuffs are made of nori and M&Ms - which I fastened to his head with a bit of dry spaghetti.  His head is propped up on a couple of baby carrots.

A completely loved this lunch - I think she was so elated to get back to her school day routine and have a bento again (I didn't make enough during the winter break because we didn't really go out anywhere - Okinawa has been having a colder winter this year than we expected) that she could hardly contain herself, to be honest.  She ate all of it (! - seemed like a ton of food to me!) and raved about it afterwards.  I loved it too, to be honest.  It was fun to be back in my kitchen playing with all my cool gadgets!

This Week in Bento...

Meatball/Onigiri Santa

The Christmas season is in full swing in Okinawa - whatever that means.  This morning our temperatures were in the low 60s and I was FREEZING in my sweater!  That's how you know you've arrived in Okinawa - you start responding ridiculously to the weather.  60-65º weather should not make me shiver! I'm from a significantly colder climate than this.  Ridiculous.

Anyways, last week my husband had Friday off and with all the commotion, I didn't get A up for school.  So I made her bento for her to eat at home for lunch.  She had a meatball santa onigiri with a strawberry/mini-marshmallow hat, steamed broccoli and a reindeer marshmallow Peep.  Santa's details are nori and ketchup.  It's fortunate that she wound up eating this lunch at home because the lid wouldn't fit over Santa's hat.  I went a little bit overboard, apparently.

Santa and his elf onigiri

This is today's bento.  It's a Santa onigiri and an elf onigiri with hot dog "snowflakes", steamed broccoli, holiday marshmallows, cheese, and diced fruit.  I got the inspiration for Santa from Sonoma Bento (hers is WAY cuter!!) but I used a fruit roll up for his hat.  Looking at her bento makes me realize I should have made his cheese hat pom pom a lot bigger.  Oh well.  Santa's elf is wearing a smooth egg sheet hat (my first attempt at this technique!) and both onigiri are filled with minced teriyaki chicken.