Wendolonia

The Week in Bentos: January 30-February 3, 2012

by Wendy on February 3, 2012

Here are this week’s lunches:

Monday

Monday, I sent Wyatt to school with a squirrely lunch: salami, apple, grapes, Scrabble Cheez-its, garlic naan cut into squirrel shapes and a couple of cheese acorns — one for each squirrel. This lunch was packed in our Laptop Lunch Box.

While I was packing his lunch, Wyatt asked me to please be sure to pack the red container next to the hinge on the outer box. When I asked him why he told me he likes to take the lid off and tuck it between the red container and the wall of the bigger box and that keeps the lid from closing on his lunch while he’s eating. Clever boy! I never even thought about that.

Augie doesn’t attend preschool on Mondays so I often try to do something fun with him in the morning. This particular day, he decided that we should go to a park and have a picnic lunch. He even picked the containers we would use — kitty and panda — out of the big basket of bento boxes. Since Augie is a big eater and I’m doing Weight Watchers right now, I packed us identical lunches: tomatoes, grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and goldfish crackers. The sandwiches were slightly too big to fit in the panda and cat bento boxes, so I cut the sandwiches to fit in the box with a big beer mug.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Augie’s lunch was pineapple, apple slices, mini-sausages, garlic naan cut into circles and a few grapes.

I don’t often send apples in the boys’ lunches because if they get even a little brown they won’t usually eat them, but I had some juice leftover from the pineapple can so I dipped the apple pieces in that to keep them from oxidizing. Augie didn’t eat one of his pieces, so I took a quick picture to show how well it help up. Not too shabby!

Wyatt’s lunch was basically the same: garlic naan circles, apple chunks (also dipped in pineapple juice), mini-sausages, pineapple and goldfish crackers.

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Project 365 2012: Week 4

by Wendy on January 30, 2012

The fourth week of the year has passed and, as I imagine they say in Hollywood, Project 365 week 4 is “in the can”. This week, I had a too-many-photos problem. Despite a pretty quiet week, I took a lot of pictures I wanted to include in my album and once I had them in the slots I wasn’t left very many spaces to include the stories that I wanted to tell about them. I ended up hiding quite a bit of by jouraling as you’ll see down below.

I started out by typing the date on the intro card using my typewriter. I don’t have my typewriter out where I see it all the time because Augie tends to bang on it and jam the keys which bums me out. I have to remember to get it out and play with it more often.

Sunday’s photo is just a shot of Zach making breakfast eggs. I had two photos for Monday — one of a rainy walk home from school, the other is one Zach took of the boys and me building a birdhouse. Tuesday I was struck by how much cheese we had in our fridge (14 kinds! No exaggeration!) so I took a picture of our cheese drawer. Wednesday Augie and I went to a local preschool play place while Wyatt was visiting a friend’s house.

I included an insert for the kids’ homework again this week. Augie brought home a duck watercolor (top photo) and Wyatt had a nice piece about his Chinese zodiac sign.

Thursday’s photo shows my FitBit after I hit my goal of 10,000 steps for the day. I had a whole raft of photos for Friday — Korean dinner, cozy kids, and Augie dressing himself. And Saturday I wrote about our family outing (more below).

This was the page where I struggled to get everything I wanted to include into the page protector. Here’s how I solved that problem:

We went out for dinner at a Korean restaurant which was a risky proposition with two kids who don’t really like to try new food very much. The food was lovely though and the kids tried a ton of new things so I made a collage of photos and wrote a bit about their adventurous spirit in Photoshop Elements. After I printed it, I taped on a business card for the restaurant because it was pretty. (Shown in the photo of the page up above.)

I also wanted to talk a bit about how Augie has started dressing himself. I loved the photo with his Perry the Platypus booty showing as he pulls his pants on, so I taped it to a folded journaling card and wrote the story out around it. I love how easy it is to capture these small milestones with this project that might otherwise be overlooked. Since Augie was born, I haven’t had much time to do the big scrapbook pages I used to do, but my 365 projects capture his day to day life pretty well.

I did another bigger card to talk about our Saturday hike and include an extra photo of Wyatt. I’d also like to note that despite living in the SF Bay Area for 20+ years, I still managed to misspell “San Francisco” the first time I wrote it. Yeah.

Questions about this project? Read my introductory post here. I am putting my album together using Becky Higgins Project Life divided page protectors, the Project Life Clementine Core Kit, and lots of products from my scrapbook stash.

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The Week in Bentos: January 24-28, 2012

by Wendy on January 28, 2012

Oops! I was super busy last week and didn’t manage to get all the lunch pictures pulled together into a blog post, so I’m coming to you with a special Saturday edition of The Week in Bentos this week. Exciting!

And because I’m posting a day late, I’m including pictures of today’s lunch at home. Even more exciting!

Monday

Wow! We’ve been waking up late a lot in the past few weeks, but Monday we were really late. We were so late that even though I had Wyatt’s lunch 3/4 packed, I didn’t have time to finish filling it, so he had school lunch.

Tuesday

Tuesday, Wyatt actually got to eat that lunch. He had a whole wheat dinner roll, a clementine, raspberries, Scrabble Cheez-its, deli turkey and a few slices of salami (the remnants of lunch meat that were left in the cheese drawer from the week before). This was all packed in our Laptop Lunch Box.

Augie’s lunch for preschool was a whole wheat bun that I split and filled with homemade blackberry jam (not visible in the photo), a clementine, grapes and soy cheese cut into star shapes for a little protein. This was packed in our little bird bento box.

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School Night Dinner: Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives

by Wendy on January 25, 2012

Thank you to Hunt’s for sponsoring this post and encouraging my culinary skills! Visit Hunt’s Signature Recipe Collection to find tons of delicious ideas for using Hunt’s tomatoes in your meals.

I’m can’t put my finger on exactly what’s changed this year, but now that Wyatt is in second grade we are really busy during the week. PTA, play dates, scouts, work projects — we’ve been doing all these things for the past few years, but suddenly we’re finding that we have something going on almost every day. I’ve always been about fast and easy for our week night meals but now I’m really about fast and easy.

Chicken with tomatoes and olives is one of my favorite meals to throw together when I have to make dinner quickly. I’ve been making this dish since I was a bachelorette living over a bakery in Berkeley (say that three times fast) and it continues to be delicious and satisfying almost 20 (!!) years later.

You only need three ingredients to make this dish: kalamata olives, canned, diced tomatoes and chicken breasts or tenders. I like to use tomatoes that are pre-seasoned with basil, garlic and oregano, but you can use plain canned tomatoes and season them with spices you have on hand if you like. You can also sub green olives for the kalamatas if you prefer. And come to think of it, you can sub chicken thighs for the chicken breasts. This recipe is totally flexible!

Start by cooking the chicken over medium high heat in enough olive oil to coat the pan. Chicken tenders will only need 2-3 minutes per side. Breasts or thighs will take longer. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it to a plate.

Next, dump in two cans of diced tomatoes and as many olives as you like. I used the entire jar of olives pictured above. Drain the juice off the olives before adding them to the pan, but be sure not to drain the tomatoes because you’re going to use that juice to make a little sauce. When the tomatoes start to bubble, scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan and stir them into the sauce until they dissolve. They’ll give your sauce extra depth and flavor. Continue to cook the tomato mixture at a steady bubble until the juices have reduced and thickened to your taste.

To serve, put the chicken on a plate and top with the tomato mixture. I usually serve a steamed green veggie and some rice on the side and sometimes I sprinkle a little crumbled feta on top of the chicken which is extra delicious. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you that when I make this my kids eat the chicken and sometimes eat the tomatoes, but they always pick the olives out complaining bitterly the whole time.

What do you cook for a fast dinner on school nights?

Thank you again to Hunt’s for sponsoring my post. Find more ideas for cooking with tomatoes at Hunt’s Signature Recipe Collection. I was selected for this opportunity by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own. #HuntsRecipe #spon

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Project 365 2012: Week 3

January 23, 2012

Three weeks in and I’m still right on track with my photo a day project for this year! So far I’ve easily been taking photos ever day and often I’m taking several pictures that I want to include in my album. I’m also managing to keep up with the album about which I am pleased [...]

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The Week in Bentos: January 17-20, 2012

January 20, 2012

Before I dive into the photos I took of my kids’ lunches this week, I want to make a slight detour and share an article with all you bento packers and everyone else who is trying to feed their children healthy, appealing food. Earlier this week, my friend Whitney shared an article with me about [...]

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