Barnyard Bento

I found some cheapie cupcake picks online that make great bento decorations.

Squash, Sweet Potatoes, and Seitan

Ash Wedesday is a good day to spend cooking something healthy, after all the Valentine's food coloring and sugar. From left to right: whole grain and flax butternut squash muffins; homemade seitan; baked sweet potato falafel. R loves this pepperoni-flavored seitan. It's a great high-protein vegetarian option to have up your sleeve. And much fresher and cheaper than the grocery store versions. I put mini chocolate chips in the muffins to entice her, because they aren't the prettiest color. But they are low fat, full of beta carotene and vitamin A and C and fiber.

And here is the beginning of the salad garden. Cress is so much fun. R and I seeded it on Sunday, and here's what it looks like four days later. I have a few more flats under lights: Bloomsdale spinach; tatsoi; Salad Bowl lettuce; arugula; mizuna; chives, summer savory & thyme.

Valentine's Day Deliveries

More Valentine cookies, for neighbors this time.

Packages all ready to go.

R put together a special outfit to make her deliveries on foot.

D was off today for President's Day and we got some house projects done. Most importantly, we got some trays of indoor seedlings started. I love this time of year. The smell of the seed starting soil when it gets wet, shaking the tiny seeds out and planting them with toothpicks. Instant time travel back to previous springs since we've been married. I'm only starting some salad greens that can go outside in early March, some herbs I can keep on a windowsill until it warms up, and a few things that take a long time to germinate. I ordered my heirloom tomato seeds online yesterday.

Valentine Bento

These are the Valentines for her class. She picked the deer picture online, told me what she wanted them to look like, cut them out and glued them to index cards, carefully wrote out each kid's name, and signed them.

This is the first batch of cookies, for her teacher and for her. She had nothing to do with these. I was too tired to do a participatory baking project, and I did them myself after she went to bed.

Hair Tie Bento

Back to the plain container for today because R says she needs to practice closing her new bento box. You forget what kinds of things are stressful when you're six. The bell is ringing, and you can't get your lunch box put back together fast enough, and you're the last kid out of the cafeteria but "you can't run in the hall, but also you can't be late behind your class, so what can I do?" It's not a very complicated box, but I can see how that would be hard. Anyway, I am so restless for something new on the lunch landscape that I made a bento pick out of one of her old flower ponytail ties.

Flying Charlie

He achieves liftoff sometimes. Playing in the snow is his favorite. He and R had a ball after school today.

The pile of green fabric is the remains of his Snakey, a six foot long stuffed snake that R generously dedicated to him when he was a puppy. Snakey had a good run of it--he persevered through some rough treatment. Charlie seems to like him even more with the stuffing removed. I wonder how much Snakey stuffing is waiting for us under the snow. I'm sure we will be pulling tufts of him off branches and brambles well into summer.

Charlie is whispering, "Psssst . . . don't eat that snow. Don't ask why. Trust me."

Charlie's eyes turn the most amazing shades of brown and amber, depending on the light.



Love that little face.


Kids and dogs and snow and happiness. I ran around with them for awhile, and then I pulled a hamstring. Utterly pathetic.

New Bento Box and Swirling Snow

Looking out the kitchen window this morning.

And this is one of two new Shinzi Katoh bento boxes I bought for R. It should inspire me to be more imaginative with her lunches. I have been in such a Tupperware rut lately.

First lunch in her new box. It's the perfect size, and I love the ready-made divider in the box. I made some custom bento picks because I'm tired of the ones I have. The indoor photos are still so bad. I'll have to come up with a better lighting setup for stormy days when I can't take pictures outside.