Bento Tips

Themed lunches for all three kids for Candlemas/groundhog day.

What you can make:
– themed bento – special bento for holidays or just on any given day: if your kiddo is crazy about something, google that + bento and you’ll probably get some ideas;) Then you just adapt them to the ingredients you have at home and that’s it.
– ABC (alphabet) bento that I described above
– you can shape the bread into animals (dinosaurs, pigs, fish, whatever your kid likes) and then bake or steam it
– you can make a classic bento from a rice ball and nori algae (you could put a piece of veggies inside the ball)
– calzone or any other stuffed bread is great because it holds the ingredients nicely

One of the ABC-lunches – this one was “letter D”: dosa (Indian stuffed pancake), dates, and dahi (Indian yogurt). I can’t believe how little they ate :D.

Some tips and what to avoid (I know most are common logic but sometimes it’s good to have a reminder;)
– quickly perishable foods that get squashed easily – especially if the kiddo will walk to school and carry their lunchbox in their schoolbag
– ice cream – no need to explain, right? 😀
– putting together foods of distinct flavors that don’t play together nicely. You can include a dessert in the bento box together with fruits and veggies (separated) but put it in a separate container (separate box) if the main dish is hearty otherwise the smell from that will infuse the gentle dessert. If the main lunch is something very simple like a rice pudding and fruits and vegetables, the dessert can be in the same container but separated, of course.

A bag for carrying lunch – big enough for a thermos flask for hot food (like soup, pasta, casseroles, chili con carne, baked beans, etc…) and a lunchbox for other foods: fresh fruits and veggies,… and there’s still room for a bread roll if needed;).

How to carry a bento? Now, that my kids are bigger, I like to combine several containers – they often get a hot casserole, leftovers, or soup in the thermos bottle and something on the side in a box (usually some fruits, veggies, a bread roll, or similar and a piece of dessert – but not always everything). Above is an example of how my little one is carrying his lunch in his lunch bag and an example of what’s inside the box:)

Veggies, a bread roll, dip in a separate container on the right, and salt cookies made from buttery dough (usually used for quiches).

Bento

What is bento, you might ask? Well, simply put, that is a nicely decorated meal that you take to school or work (and you get a tutorial on how to make one tomorrow;). It usually consists of all main categories of food: carbohydrates (originally rice but now it can be anything from bread to potato, pasta, whatever), protein (originally usually fish, nowadays also meat, milk products like cheese and yogurt, nuts…), lots of vegetables and fruits.

This mermaid-themed lunch covers all the categories: protein – fish (for the tail), rice (body) and noodles (pasta), veggies – lettuce and cherry tomatoes, fruits (strawberry), and dessert (a piece of chocolate). This was a lunch for a small child;).

Dessert is optional but needless to say, I often included it (we all have a sweet tooth and homemade dessert is usually not that unhealthy;) although I sometimes include something else as well (like a piece of chocolate).

This could pass as a dessert but it’s very healthy – berries and cottage cheese with lemon juice.

This approach worked well for me because I wanted my kids to have a balanced meal – but that is more important while kids are little. The funny thing is – now they do it themselves:).

The stuffed tomatoes that kids made:).

Bento was traditionally just a layer of rice with some meats or fish and veggies aesthetically placed on top that Japanese wives made for their husbands when they went to work.

One of my first bento boxes – a classic with rice balls and nori algae:)

But in recent years it became very popular among moms who make sometimes very elaborate lunches for their kids for school lunches.

Our first bento box that the kiddo designed and I put together and it actually won a competition.

It is not known in our country because kids have lunch at school (and many workplaces have kitchens or restaurants nearby) but I still made it for my kids since they weren’t fond of school lunch and the homemade version was healthier.

Steamed bread shaped in cute shapes can be a nice addition to a bento box.

It was also a way to get my kiddo through a period of adapting to school – she was looking forward to her bento – I made a bento with foods that started on one letter that they were learning that week each week (she usually went home early and only ate lunch at school when she had extracurricular activities afterward). But more on that on Sunday when you’ll get some ideas about different bentos and what to take into account;).

Spring equinox

I have written about fall equinox in September but I like spring equinox even better, of course – because now the days are getting longer and it’s getting warmer,… and I love that!

One of the ways to celebrate equinox is by making a spring nature corner…

There are many ways to celebrate equinox – from self care routines or cleanses that some people do and modern pagans and witches celebrate it with pagan rituals as a time of fertility, creativity, and renewal.

Equinox is a time for balance…

Since equinox is a symbol of balance between the dark and the light, it might be a good time to re-evaluate our balance – wherever you need it – work-life balance, family-personal space balance, money-time balance, whatever is your challenge at the moment.
Or you can set up a spring nature corner (you can find a tutorial here) or bake something special, like bread shaped as birds… You can learn about the path of the sun, calculate the routs and angles, whatever is your jam;). What is your favourite way to welcome spring into your home?

Bird shaped bread – nothing makes home feel more homely like freshly baked bread…

Chinese New Year

^{5 minutes read – grab a hot tea or a drink of your choice and join me:)}
If you want to read about their celebrations, head to the last years post but this one will be more focused on how we celebrate in our home.
As you already know I like celebrations, holidays and all that stick. I have always loved any reason to make an ordinary day a bit different, more joyful, cook different food… But ever since I’ve had kids that aspect has gone wild (my alpha male would say that that is put very mildly) :D. When kids were little we did crafts inspired by certain holidays, we decorated our flat, cooked appropriate food and so on… We don’t do toddler crafts anymore but we still cook appropriate food and decorate a bit.

This year the only decorating were these lanterns:) But kids were thrilled!

When I was little, we only celebrated “our” holidays, we cooked “our” food and we went to a restaurant extremely rarely (we were a family of 5 and eating out is expensive;)). But there was a period of time when we went to a Chinese restaurant every year for the Chinese new year – the whole family, usually with my aunt and her family. I was amazed at how the grownups know when the date is! They just knew (this was era before internet;). I really loved that because I loved Chinese food, I admired how everything is chopped up so tiny and how different the food tastes. We never ate food from other cuisines otherwise. *And I have always loved chopsticks since the first time I saw them – they were always easy for me and I still enjoy eating with them a lot. Nowadays, we cook Asian food at home as well and since than, neither of us (my alpha male, kids and me) is so thrilled about Chinese restaurants any more. But we all love the “wok” as we call everything that we cook in it. *We have a huge cast iron wok and it gets used a lot!

At the beginning of filling the steamer:)
We got a large pot that our giant bamboo steamer fits in and we love to use it:) Veggies get that sweet bamboo flavour, steamed buns get that nice texture and jiaozi are easy to cook (we love filled food – there’s just something about it:).

Recently we even got a huge pot so our large bamboo steamer fits in it:) *Thanks, mom;). Now we are a family of five and don’t eat out often but our kids don’t want to go to restaurants (grandpa tries to get them when they are there but they prefer to cook at home – even alone in his home 😀 – go figure…) But they also love to celebrate the holidays. So we cook Asian food at home:) And any excuse for making “jiaozi” (“gaau ji” in Cantonese) is a good excuse! We love them – especially the pot-stickers (I love the word, by the way, it is so appropriate:)). On the pictures are steamed buns not jiaozi but we like those, too:).

By the time we finish everything is filled to the rim;). Shaping the buns is fun in itself! You can be creative literally with just flour, yeast and water!

We can let our creativity fly even without the expensive materials and precious time… We can do it while preparing a meal – we have to eat anyway;). So let’s combine the the necessary with creative and steal holidays from all over the world – you never know where you’ll find your favourite:). Because sometimes we really are limited just by our imagination:). What is your favourite holiday?
*If you’d like more ideas how to make days more fun, life a bit more intentional and bring some joy to the people around you in the same time, subscribe for more ;).

Merry Christmas!

It’s about time to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, right? We celebrated Christmas at my dad’s place and he’s a big bread and meat lover. Since we didn’t decorate his house (it’s his house after all and grandpas are not so keen on kids’ decorations all over the place;), we decided to decorate the food instead:)

Our first chaucherie on a beautiful wooden board.

So we made a “chaucherie“. He has this beautiful wooden board in the shape of a leaf and we filled it to the rim with cheese (normal, mozzarella, and blue cheese), meats (prosciutto and salami), veggies (carrots, cucumber, mini tomatoes,…) pickles, and herbs (sage and rosemary), and a tiny cottage from cottage cheese spread…

Christmas tree bread – healthy and very delicious!

Because I have to complicate things and because I made this once and it “instantly became a tradition” I baked a “Christmas tree bread“. I made bread dough, divided it into 23 parts and we wrapped each part around a mozzarella ball to form these cheese-stuffed bread buns. Kids loved this part – it’s so satisfying rolling the bread in your hands! Then I just arranged the balls in the shape of a pine tree and baked the bread.
When it was baked, I spread pesto all over the upper green part, added some grated cheese for the ground and on top for the star (with one more mozzarella ball), and some cherry tomatoes for the Christmas baubles.

Kids loved preparing the board together.

Kids cut the veggies, I mixed the “Liptaver” spread (cottage cheese with grated cheese and herbs) and we arranged everything onto the board (the spread was on a small plate and I tried to shape it into a house with salami roof shingles.

Our holiday lunch/dinner:) – chaucherie board and stuffed bread with pesto and tomatoes.

You see – this is not a particularly expensive lunch – but it was sure something special! Especially for the kids – who helped with making it:). They always love this tree and we’ve seen so many beautifully arranged boards with delicacies on Pinterest that we had to try it! This is how the memories are born:). The little ones – that we remember – we tend to remember things around food:D.
Happy holidays!

Diwali Tradition – Sweets

Another Diwali tradition is good food, of course! There is a lot to be said about Indian food and one of it’s characteristics are very sweet and aromatic desserts.

How could we say no to these tasty Indian desserts? *I know Indian women don’t dress this way – but the word for Inktober was tempting so…

We love halva and I make suji halva all the time because it’s one of our favourite desserts. However, today I made tapioca pudding for the first time – we have never tried that before and it’s really easy and good! Other Indian sweets you might want to try are: jelebi (I plan to fry them this diwali), laddu, kheer (it was good but the recipe was way to big for us – I made it before we even had kids :D), sandesh and rasgula are also good,… and so many more. If you need some inspiration, I pined some desserts for you here.

National day

We live in a small little European country so American patriotism is very foreign to us – we know about your 4th of July but we have a very different mindset around that. But we do have our statehood day – when our country became independent on 25th of June 1991. It used to be our last day of school but now it’s an off day so kids end school one day sooner than our generation did (and we envy them :D).

Flag cake – very simple and quick to make…

To be honest, we rarely celebrate it – but when we do, we make a flag cake – like this one – I just made it up:) Why? Because any excuse for a fruit and cream-cheese cake is a good excuse for a fruit and cream-cheese cake! I bake a cocoa sponge cake and make cream cheese and cream filling/frosting. Some jam between the layers (+ filling + berries of course) and berries on top and a nice looking cake is done:). If you need a recipe, let me know!

Lunchbox with Czech flag for our “virtual trip around the world”.

Since many countries have this three colours (red, blue and white) in their flags I thought someone might find this useful:). Just position the fruit in your order, that’s it. For yellow you could use banana or peaches (or eggs if making salty food flags – lot’s of food are yellow), for black blackberries (or nori if salty food) and mint leaves for green (or spinach for salty).
If you live in Argentina, Botswana, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, San Mario, Somalia or Micronesia with their light blue flags, I am afraid that blue spirulina or natural food dye are your only options if you really want that cerulean blue colour. In Greece, Finland and Israel, blueberries would probably do, however.

Austria’s (NOT Australia;) flag made as a healthy dessert (milk rice and berries: strawberries, red current, raspberries, pomegranate seeds,…) – strawberries were frozen since I made this one during winter…

I made quite some “food flags” for our “virtual trip around the world” during the isolation – since everybody around us craved traveling so much there was a lot of talk about it so I figured we could do it virtually – we chose one country a week and cooked their food, I made kids “sensory boxes” all about that country and we sometimes did some extra activities around that theme. I wrote about it on my Slovenian blog and it was fun but a bit too much for all of us so we got stuck in the Pacific between Indonesia and Australia and we didn’t move yet. Maybe later – write in the comments if you’d like to see this – that might just be the last straw so we bring it back;). Until than – enjoy the food flags with all the delicious berries that are in season!

St. Patrick’s day

Most of you probably know this one – St. Patrick’s day! He is the symbol of Irish culture, Irish people, Ireland – with the obligatory shamrock and everything in green, of course.

The little one (when he was really little) testing the tap we’ve made:)

My goldilocks loves everything that has to do with Ireland, Celts and of course the green elf Leprechaun that comes to visit on St. Patrick’s day. He is a bit naughty and we build a new labyrinth or trap every single year to catch him – but so far unsuccessfully. He sometimes colours our stuff in green (milk, playdough, muffins, etc…) or leaves traces or little rainbows or some mischief behind… Usually, he knocks our traps – he is incredibly skilful at running away.

I guess Leprechaun peed in our toilet…

We love rainbows and fruits and veggies so we sometimes make a veggie rainbow platter for a snack – as seen below. For the main course, we always eat colcannon every year for St. Patrick’s day because it’s an Irish dish and although Shepard’s pie is better known we prefer this one – and it’s green;).

A rainbow veggie platter – this is how you get the little kids to love veggies;)

This year – apart from the obvious mischief I dedicated 3 of my animals from my 100-day projects to Ireland – a cow, a sheep and a snake. Ireland is known for its farming of seeps and cows, we get that – but what about snakes? There are no snakes in Ireland! Exactly! The legend says that St. Patrick banned the snakes from Ireland and thy all slithered away into the sea. Of course, evolutionary speaking – snakes never occupied Ireland in the first place – it was cut off since the last glacier period and it was too cold there beforehand so they just never came. But the legend stays and so the snake is his symbol.

Did you know there are no snakes in Ireland?

Valentines day

I’m not particularly romantic and neither is my alpha male. I prefer fruits to flowers, I like practical gifts, not jewellery, it means more to me that he’s arguing with the little kiddo to do the homework or does the dishes than to compliment my clothes (I actually like that he really doesn’t care about clothes at all – that means I can wear sweatpants or tights all day and he’ll like me the same and that means I never ever have to wear makeup – which I don’t), I’m not that into poetry either (but I love good lyrics in music:)… you get the picture.

Heart-shaped spinach-ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce- because we like to show love with food;)

So, no, we’re not romantic. I’ve never dreamed of a big princess-like white dress (neither has he for that matter:D I don’t think he dreamt of any dress, to be honest:D), I thought a wedding is something you have to endure if you want to have kids and later found out it’s not how it works and you can have kids without all the marriage fuss (at least here) :D. So we’re not into that or into anniversaries either…

Sometimes we decorate something according to the occasion – like the wreath on the front doors.

But we do like to show each other that we like and love each other. I think we should never stop doing that, even after 20 something years (I think it’s 23 for us, not sure:)). So I like Valentine’s day because there are so many ideas floating around at this time of year about how to surprise your beloved. And they are useful on any normal day, too;).

Heart-shaped food – when I have no time, waffles are a very tasty alternative to the more elaborate heart-shaped foods;)

In our country, people celebrated Valentine’s day in the 1800 but later, the habit got lost. In recent years, it came in a much more commercial form with capitalism, of course. I like to take advantage of any strange holiday so naturally, I take advantage of this one as well:). We don’t need to celebrate it in a fancy restaurant with red wine, lacy underwear and lot’s of roses if that’s not our jam;). We can do it our way:). Sometimes we write love letters to each other, more often I bake something heart-shaped (a pie or a cake – because any excuse is good enough for something sweet, right?;), sometimes I make him his favourite little dessert (chocolate balls that are quite hard to make so I make them rarely), sometimes I make chocolate-covered strawberries, (yes, food is our love language, I guess 😀 Does that exist – is food one of them?) Sometimes we all forget :D. And it’s all good.

Now, that kids are older, they take care of the decoration themselves:)

Sometimes I give something to kids and sometimes my alpha male/daddy gives something to all of us. One year he wanted a painting (because he knew that I love to paint and so I will have a reason to do it:). So I painted those love birds.

We like giving gifts but that’s not necessary – sometimes they are and sometimes they aren’t. Here alpha male bought us strawberries and sweets, he got the painting he wished for and kids got paintbrushes.

Do you celebrate Valentine’s day? We have never celebrated it when we didn’t have kids – now we celebrate everything so why not this one? 😀 And what is your preferred love language? I think I wouldn’t be satisfied with just one modality:D.

A T-shirt I made years ago for Valentine’s day fair.

A paper-cut decoration we used for a long time for a few occasions (Valentine’s day, Gregory’s day,…)

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread man! As cookies, in movies – especially the one in Shreck, and we all love to make a gingerbread house (either from Hans und Grethel or just as a holiday tradition).

The worst gingerbread I ever made – sugar-free diabetic version when I had pregnancy diabetes… They were horrible – way too hard but still better than nothing:D

Gingerbread dates waaaay back to 2400 BC Greece! Chinese developed their version in 10th century and in the late middle ages, Europeans had their own recipe. nowadays it’s a staple Christmas cookie in almost all Europe (especially in the middle and north).

Gingerbread is one of the most known Christmas cookies…

In Scandinavia, pepparkakor (gingersnap cookies, similar to speculoos) are given to the old and sick in hospitals and nursing homes.
Real gingerbread is, however, most known in Germany, where they call it “Lebkuchen” and this recipe is believed to be invented in 15th century in Belgium.

There are many versions of gingerbread cookies – some are hard, others soft that melt in your mouth. Some are covered in chocolate, some decorated with sugar icing. Some contain honey as one of the main ingredients and some do without it. The honey version often needs another lever ingredient because soda and baking powder can’t handle the heavy dough. Some are elaboratively shaped in animals, men, pretzels, stars, hearts or other decorations and some are just rolled into a ball.
In Europe, the mix can even be bought in a bag and just eggs and water are added… There is no right or wrong way but it might take you a few trials to find your favourite recipe because they can be quite different in texture and taste. I dream of a year when I will have time to try 10 or even 20 different recipes at once so we could compare them and decide on our best:). In the meantime here is one we did so far:

RECIPE for classic cookies from my childhood (funny they are called gingerbread although they don’t contain ginger)

INGREDIENTS
200 g honey
170 g brown sugar
70 g butter
2 eggs
100 g ground hazelnuts or walnuts
80 g ground chocolate
100 g raisins
70 g arancini (candied tangerine peel)
30 g citronate (candied lemon peel)
grated lemon peel (of bio-lemon)
grated orange peel (of bio-orange)
2 tablespoons of rum
pinch of salt
1 heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 heaping spoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 sachet of vanilla sugar (or substitute for essence or paste)
500 g flour
1 baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS
Mix honey, sugar, butter and eggs until fluffy. Ground the nuts and chocolate if not grounded. Ground raisins and candied and normal peel. Sift flour with baking powder and spices and mix everything into a dough. Leave it to rest for 24 hours in cold (in the refrigerator or outside if it’s cold winter).
Roll out the dough to about 3-5 mm (about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch), cut out shapes, glaze them with egg and optionally decorate with almonds and candied peel. Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C (356 F).
* If you want you can decorate them with sugar glaze made of 200 g powdered sugar, 1 vanilla sugar (or essence), 1 egg-white and a couple of drops of rum.
* If you make cookies for kids, I would rather make a glaze out of sugar and lemon juice, though (no rum or raw egg;).