gluten-free bento leap year lunch!

   Happy Leap Year everyone! I couldn't let this once-in-4-years day go by without making a cute lunch. What better way to celebrate leap year than with - frogs! ( I hope you can tell they are frogs).
 This lunch contains: 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup kalua pork,  gluten -free bbq sauce, and various veggies - peppers, snap peas, and frogs made from zucchini. Here's how I made the frogs:

 I cut long slices from zucchini, and used an upside down butterfly cutter to cut the top of the head.

Then I used an upside down pumpkin cutter to cut the mouth.

I decided it looked better on the flip side. Then I added eyes made from cheese circles, and nori face details. Red bell peppers made great flowers with leaf picks, and purple potato added the perfect touch of color it needed for the words. I sliced the potato raw, microwaved it in a Zip n Steam bag for 1 minute, then cut out the letters. When I eat it for lunch, I will remove the sauce and picks, and nuke the whole lunch in the microwave for about a minute, and toss it with the bbq sauce. Yum, I can't wait!

how to get your family to drink more water

   Today I thought I would share a little tip that has worked so well in our family for several years now. Years ago, my kids would prefer juice, chocolate milk, soda, etc. over just plain old water. Water was boring. Water was blah. I decided I needed to make water drinking a bit more exciting so we could all be healthier. I thought getting cool water bottles was the answer, so I went shopping... To get water bottles for all 6 of us was going to be too expensive! And what if someone left theirs at school, or it accidentally got thrown away, or the lid got lost, etc. I didn't want to have to keep track of all those water bottles and wash and refill them every single night. I realized I could buy some sturdy, semi-disposable water bottles such as Smart Water, arrowhead, and Fiji, and just wash and re-use them a bunch of times before throwing them away. That way, we could have lots of cold water in the fridge, and if any got lost it was really not a big deal. I prefer bottles with flip top lids that stay attached over the screw on type. They are more fun to drink from, and the lids don't get lost as easily.  I prefer the smart water lids  - they are fairly sturdy, and they fit on most other bottles. I put smart water lids on Fiji bottles, since Fiji comes with screw on lids. For myself, I prefer a 1 liter Fiji bottle, since I try to drink 3 liters of water a day. That way I can keep track of how much I drink a day.
   Here's how I manage whose water bottle is whose in the fridge:

I put all our names on those big rubber bands that come with broccoli or asparagus, and stretch them over each person's bottle. These are also no big deal if they get lost or thrown away, since they're free. If you use a Sharpie marker, then they' re also very washable.

   The best way to write on them is to stretch them over an empty water bottle ( a full one is wet and the marker doesn't work well on a cold, wet, bottle) Then write the name, and pull it off and store them in a drawer or something. My kids never remember to put their names on their own bottle, but it's no biggie for me to label them. You can see that I'm almost done drinking my water for the day... ( pat myself on the back, pat,pat)
   Now I can say with all honesty that my whole family are big water drinkers. Our fridge is not complete without a load of ice cold water bottles ready to grab and go.  Summer or winter, we all love drinking cold water!

Cold Beef and Potato salad

  Today's lunch is a salad made from leftover roast beef. In the top tier is the beef, yellow and orange bell peppers, and purple sweet potato. And a baby bel cheese. In the bottom tier is mixed salad greens with radishes and lite ranch dressing. I've never had potatoes and beef in a cold salad before, but it was really delicious! I will definitely make this again.

  Morning snack was 1/2 an apple and some mixed nuts with a few dark chocolate raisins, and afternoon snack was a Right Light shake.

Baked fish and onigiri

  I felt like straying from my scheduled meal plan for the day today. I was really craving baked fish last night, so I packed the leftovers for lunch today. It was really, really, good! The fish is breaded with rice flour, tapioca starch, instant potato flakes, and spices. I also made a big batch of onigiri: I cooked the rice in chicken broth and tumeric, and filled the onigiri with broccoli and cheese. For lunch today, I grabbed one of my zip n steam bags filled with veggies and microwaved it for a minute before packing my lunch. Then at lunch time I eat the cold stuff, and microwave the meat, rice, and veggies. I do like a hot lunch.

Valentine's Day

   Ah, Valentine's Day - normally a big day for all of us who love to make bentos for our loved ones...
Yes, I had some great food plans for the day as well... but I have been struggling with knee and back injuries, and woke up late and feeling pretty sick. But I couldn't let my husband and son go out the door without a homemade lunch on Valentine's day, so I threw some things together, cut out some veggies with heart cutters, and added a little extra " I <3 U" from cheese for my husband's salad, and they rushed out the door. No pictures though. Ah, well.
   I did manage to make this cute snack for my homeschool son, and took the time to take a picture. :)
Happy Valentine's Day!

( My husband did bring me a dozen roses and took me out to dinner later that night, so it turned out to be a nice day after all )

My new love - chipotle chiles!

   Yesterday I got my lunches and snacks ready for the coming week. It's always a good feeling to get that done! For proteins, I made taco meat and chicken meatballs. For veggies I made salad, and zip n steam baggies filled with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and asparagus. For sweet snacks I made baggies of grapes, and apples with protein peanut butter. I also made chocolate protein pudding.
  But for my carbs, I made the best rice: I cooked rice in chicken broth with diced chipotle chiles stirred in - yummy!!! I've never cooked with chipotle chiles before, but now I'm hooked! I had to search for a can that didn't have added wheat flour in it, but I found a brand that was safe for me to eat. Hmmm, now what else can I cook up with those chiles....
   Today's lunch is taco salad: In the top tier is extra lean taco meat, homemade refried beans with lowfat cheese, and chipotle chile rice. In the bottom tier is mixed salad greens with cucumbers and a little more cheese. Not shown is salad dressing - fat free french mixed with a little sriracha sauce.

Tasty Italian chicken

Today's lunch is leftovers from last night's dinner - a great recipe called Tasty Italian Chicken, along with spagetti with parmesan cheese, and greek salad on the side. I will be busy doing my weekly food prep later on, so this post will be short and sweet :)
  

Happy Groundhog Day!

    Okay, I know that technically Groundhog Day is tomorrow, but I figured I'd get a jump start on this too-often-forgotten day. Really, the only times that I can remember celebrating Groundhog Day was in early grade school. I don't think it's much of a big day outside of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, but it's a great day to turn a sausage into a groundhog for lunch. :)  Or, as my husband said " the perfect thing to eat for Groundhog Day is sausage ... (ground hog)"  Ha ha ha. He is popping out of the snow ( rice) over a bed of taco meat and cheese. His face is made from cheese, nori and tomato.

   So I thought Mr. Groundhog looked a bit bland sitting there in the snow, so this time I added some colorful fruit and veggies. Which one do you like better?
   Happy Groundhog Day tomorrow, everyone!