Iron Chef Ryan

I had always told Ryan that when he was 8 he could start using the stove with supervision. Actually, first it was 10, but I lowered it to 8. Well, he's 7 1/2 and I caved and let him cook his own main dish for today's bento...

Ryan's
lunch:
rice w/
soy
crumbles
and
shallots;
orange
slices;
green
grapes;
almonds
and
peanuts;
peas.

The
chef
hat is
made
out of
rice
cheese,
and the smile is a piece of an Eco-Planet vegan cheddar cracker--often the smiling suns separate in the box and become a smiley face and the sun's corona.

Ryan has also been making his
own breakfasts recently. Often
by the time I bring Maia down-
stairs he's already eating, and
he gets food for his siblings too.
It took some explaining for him
to master the crazy settings on
our double wide toaster though!

Next I have to be brave and
let him use sharp knives! He
really wants to prepare more
things himself, but so much of
it requires knife skills... I think
I'll go buy some bigger band-
aids just in case!!

back to bento

Monday:May 5th was Children's Day, a holiday in Japan where carp streamers are flown to represent the family, often a larger one for the father, then smaller streamers for each child. So I cut out two carp streamer shapes out of nori and put them on either side of an onigiri triangle for AJ's snack, along with: edamame; a mini pumpkin muffin; blanched spinach; 2 cantaloupe bears.
Ryan's class was celebrating his teacher's birthday, so he brought a chocolate cupcake cone with vanilla rainbow frosting--I forgot to get a photo of it, doh!

Nate and I shared a
second breakfast of
blanched sesame
spinach and miso soup.







Lunch & dinner was a polenta lasagna. I've used rice lasagna noodles to make a gluten-free lasagna before, but using polenta really works well too! I only used half the polenta called for in the recipe though. I veganized this recipe from a Food Network show and it turned out fabulously! My husband really enjoyed it and the boys liked it too. Some of my substitutions included:
- for the sausage: Tofurky Sweet Italian Sausage with sun-dried tomatoes...I hadn't bought imitation sausage in at least a decade; this stuff was pretty good and smelled marvelous.
- for the 3 cheeses: Vegan Gourmet monterey jack; Galaxy Vegan Grated Topping for the parmesan (though I only used about 1/2 a cup instead of 2 cups); a homemade tofu ricotta of my own (this worked really well keeping the top moist so it could be cooked without covering for 50 minutes).

Tuesday:
Basketball bento for Ryan: Basketball sandwich; baked sweet potato fries; a container of ketchup; orange slices.
I recently bought some edible food coloring markers and wanted to try them out. They didn't work too smoothly writing on slippery orange soy cheese! But I have another idea which was my main reason for buying them that I will try next week....stay tuned!

I froze the remainder
of our anniversary
cake. We'll save it
to eat after the new
baby's arrival...in
only 7-12 weeks!




Here are AJ &
Ryan imitating
my 30 week
pregnant belly
with some mini
beachballs they'd
just gotten at
the garden center.
hahaha

Wednesday:
Ryan & AJ: green beans dressed with a little soy sauce; cantaloupe chunks; baked Ian's Alphatots; container of ketchup.

Friday:Ryan & AJ: grilled nutritional yeast cheeze sandwiches; mango slices; dill pickle pieces; baby carrots.

Lately Ryan has been creating some of his own meals & snacks. He calls them his Iron Chef food.

He has some very
interesting sandwich
combinations, like
sliced banana, sliced
apple, lettuce, &
cream cheese.

Or strawberries,
peanut butter, &
spinach.


What's more, he's
been handing out
sticky notes at
mealtimes so that
everyone (myself
included) can rate
the food and see
which part of the
meal is the winner!