OK, so this post has been a long time coming. We were traveling for the last few weeks of the year and my weekly bento update just slipped through the cracks.

Tuesday our cupboards were freshly stocked so I was able to send several of Wyatt’s favorites: strawberries with some sprinkles for cuteness, canned peaches, a laughing cow cheese and a hot dog bun.

Wednesday I sent some leftovers from dinner the night before: mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots and green beans), garlic bread, chicken apple gouda sausage chunks and some catsup in the little pink box.

Thursday marked the victorious return of spicy meat! I managed to resist Wyatt’s pleas to buy it for a couple of weeks, but finally caved in and got some more. I also sent garlic bread and a clementine wedges.

Daddy made the bento on Friday because I was feeling sick and slept in a bit. He sent chocolate shortbread stars, french fries, salami and a hot dog bun. Go Daddy, go!

I also sent a bento with Wyatt the Monday before we left on our trip. He got some nice Wall-E toys for Christmas from his aunt and uncle the night before, so I let Eve pose in the photo too. Here you see: baked tofu, a red pepper giraffe, clementine wedges a few grapes and some pretzel crackers.

We’re stretched a little thin this month, what with Christmas and all so I dug into the freezer today to see what treasures were tucked away inside. I came up with a total bonanza of food. Sweet! This is what we’re having:

Wednesday: Skillet goulash — this totally rocked the last time we had it and I couldn’t wait to have it again. The photo above is of the leftovers. It’s pretty tough to photograph goulash without it coming out looking like dog food. I pulled the steak for this dish out of the freezer.

Thursday: Meatloaf (I made an extra and froze it the last time we had it), baked potato wedges, veggie

Friday: Braised pork with salsa verde (the pork was in the freezer)

Saturday: Chicken with tomatoes, olives and feta, pasta

Sunday:Family dinner — I’ll probably make a soup or stew in the crock pot.

Monday: South of the Border quiche (I’ll make an extra and freeze it).

Wyatt is a boy who needs to move a lot. I suppose all four-year-olds are like that, but sometimes I think my son is like a shark — if he stops moving, he’ll die. He is constantly climbing on the furniture, running in circles through the bedrooms, spinning in circles in the kitchen and jumping, jumping, jumping! With a new baby in the house and the change from daylight savings to standard time, we’ve been having a hard time getting outside on a regular basis to let him run off all that energy. Weeknights can be especially hard because it’s too dark to play outside after preschool and I need to keep Wyatt happy and occupied while I make dinner. What’s a Mom to do?

A few weeks ago the folks at I Can Do That! Games very kindly sent me a copy of their Cat in the Hat - I Can Do That! game for Wyatt and me to review. We’ve found that this game satisfies his need to move, while simultaneously containing and channeling it into a mom-approved activity.

Wyatt was so excited when I opened the box to show him what was inside. He immediately started to rummage through the box and showed me all the pieces of the game. “Look Mom — a ball! And a fish! And a dress! You should hold that because that’s for girls to wear and you’re a girl! And a boat! Can I take that in the tub tonight? I’m going to read this book. Ha ha ha!” While he was inspecting each piece, I started chopping a pepper for the paella I was making for our dinner.

After he was done looking at it all, I grabbed the instruction card to take a look at what we needed to do to play. The first step was to assemble the “trick-a-ma-stick” (the yellow thing in the picture here. I put it together and while Wyatt crawled around under it and around it, I peeled the shrimp for the paella.

When the novelty of the trick-a-ma-stick wore off a bit, I read the instructions for the game. The premise is simple — you choose a red card (action), a blue card (object) and a yellow card (silliness) and read off the sentence they form.  For example, you might get “Take four big steps with the toy man on top of your head” or “Crawl under the trick-a-ma-stick with the book inside your clothes.” If you think you can do it, you say so and go ahead and do it. If you don’t think you can do it, you can put any of your three cards back and draw another until you find something that will work for you.

We’ve had very little success playing games with Wyatt so far because he gets bored when other people take their turns and irritated when we won’t let him take every turn. He also despises the random set-backs that seem to be a part of all games targeted at preschoolers. Drawing the gingerbread man in Candyland, dumping your bucket in Hi Ho Cherry-o! or — God forbid — landing on a chute in Chutes and Ladders can all set off a massive tantrum born of frustration. Yeah — that’s a super fun way to spend an afternoon. We’ve kept trying, but games always end with screaming involved somehow. What I like about the Cat in the Hat game is that it sets him up for success. It’s all about things that kids can do. And to take it a step further, it’s also fun that there are a lot of things that kids can do that grown-ups can’t. For example, I’ve got a bum knee and my booty is too big to go through the trick-a-ma-stick so crawling is right out for me, but Wyatt can do it with no problem. Fun!

We played a very casual game while I finished making dinner, giggling all the while. When Daddy came home from work, he joined in for a few rounds too. Wyatt happily took turns through the whole game. I think it’s pretty fun to see your mom skipping around the kitchen with a ball tucked under her chin so you don’t mind letting her play the game too. Super bonus points that our game didn’t end in tears or a tantrum!

One teeny little complaint though — the thing-a-ma-stick falls down a lot.  Frustrating when you’re trying to saute rice. All things considered though, that’s a pretty small issue. I give The Cat in the Hat - I Can Do That! a big thumbs up.

I Can Do That Games also sent us a copy of Horton Hears a Who! - You to the Rescue! We will be donating that to Toys for Tots. (Much to Wyatt’s dismay….)

I made a batch of Christmas cookies today. I don’t really remember what they are called, so I’ve dubbed them “Caramel Graham Cracker Cookies.” These cookies are awesome. My Mom used to make them every year when I was a kid. They are so delicious and sooooo bad for you. Back in the olden days we thought they were bad for us because they had a lot of butter. Now we think they’re bad for us because they have a lot of margarine in them.

Yes. Margarine.

I buy one package of margarine per year and I use one stick from that one package of margarine and I use it to make these cookies. They’re worth it. Hardened arteries be damned!

Now, you’ll note that I just mentioned butter and margarine there. This recipe calls for both. You can’t just double up one or the other because it doesn’t work.

OK so without further ado, here’s the recipe:

Caramel Graham Cracker Cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1 stick margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 package of graham crackers (this means one of the three packages inside the box — not the entire box)
• 1 cup nuts — pecans, walnuts, or almonds all work really well

Turn your oven on to 350°. Melt butter, margarine and sugar in a smallish sauce pan. While the butter mixture is melting, cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil (this saves about an hour of clean-up) and break each graham cracker along the perforations into four rectangles. Lay them out flat on the cookie sheet. Don’t get too stressed out if some of the crackers break into funny-shaped pieces.

When the butter mixture has completely melted give it a good stir and combine it thouroughly. Pour the butter mixture over the crackers and spread it out so each of the crackers is completely covered with the caramel. Sprinkle the nuts over the crackers.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the crackers to a sheet of waxed paper to cool. The crackers will be kind of floppy when you take them off the cookie sheet, but they’ll harden up as they cool. If all the nuts slid off the crackers, as will sometimes happen, just scoop them up and put a few on each cracker while the caramel is still liquid.

Yum! Yum! Don’t eat them all at once. And don’t tell your friends and family how unhealthy they are. It spoils the joy you feel while consuming them.

OK, all I can say this week is “thank God for clementines!” If it weren’t for these little Cuties I don’t think he would have had any fruits or veggies. As more and more food drop of the list of what Wyatt will eat, it’s great to be able to add something back on. And at the rate he’s been tossing these back, there’s no way he’ll be getting scurvy this winter.

Tuesday: mini blueberry muffins decorated with stars cut from fruit leather, ham cubes and a Cutie clementine, separated into wedges. I also stuck a press cookie into the lid of his bento box as a little treat.

Wednesday: hot dog, catsup, frozen peas and a cutie.

Thursday: strawberry jam on sourdough, grapes and another clementine.

Friday: I put a mini bean and cheese burrito in the thermos. I also sent along some pretzel flips crackers (OMG! Wyatt LOOOOOVES these crackers) and some mock turtle soup. Ha! Not really — it’s actually a clementine. Just checking to see if you read to the end.

BONUS GROWN-UP BENTO!

I made Zach a Mr. Bento lunch to take into Berkeley co-working on Wednesday. I sent grapes and clementines, press cookies, pretzel flips with extra-sharp cheddar cheese and a harvarti, arugula and mustard sandwich on sourdough bread.

Man, I just didn’t have time to put together a menu this week. At least not one where any creativity was involved. So what did I do? I picked a bunch of stuff out of the freezer and turned to my old Trader Joe’s stand-by’s.

Tuesday: frozen Costco falafels, whole wheat pitas, cucumber-pepper salad with lemon vinagrette and hummus

Wednesday: Carne asada tacos: meat, tortillas, arugula, sour cream (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Thursday: curried chicken tenders, garlic naan, rice, peas (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Friday: sour cream salsa chicken, brussels sprouts

Saturday: Chicken parmesan, green beans, garlic bread. Seriously, I’m going to make this this week.

Sunday: lemon pepper fettucine with lemon-artichoke tapenade and extra frozen artichoke hearts mixed in. (Trader Joe’s meal!)

Monday: I’ll dig something up — probably spaghetti.