Food Rebellion

With the conclusion of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC friday night, I thought a little food rebellion was in order! I just picked up a new Star Wars Thermos at Target this week, along with a new lunchbox and sneakers for both boys (their shoes literally fell apart within days of each other over the spring break).
Ryan's lunch: small pbj sandwich on 12 grain bread embellished with the Jedi order symbol on soy cheese; mini corn muffin; a strawberry; 2 gherkin pickles; Thermos of vegetable black bean
soup
with 8
veggies
(onion,
shallot,
carrot,
celery,
purple
topped
turnip,
parsnip,
butter-
nut
squash,
kale)...
and a
base of
vege-
table
broth
and
tomato
(which is
most definitely a fruit folks! Though technically speaking so is the butternut squash!).

If you haven't already done so, please consider signing the Food Revolution Petition to improve public school lunches in the U.S. and the support the training of cafeteria staff.

Also consider contacting Congress to urge them to support the Healthy School Meals Act. To Learn more about it you can visit the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine's Healthy School Lunches website.

In case you haven't watched Food Revolution yet, here is a YouTube link to one of the highlights! You gotta watch! It's the Jungle Flames flash mob from episode 4.

I have noticed a lot of new beginner bento bloggers popping up lately, and a resurgence of posting on other older blogs. Yay!

And just last week I received
a new award from Heather
of Don't Forget Your Lunch.
She makes lots of cute lunches
for her 3 boys using the
Laptop Lunches system.
Thanks Heather!

I love the variety of lunch
blogs out there. If you're
not feeling inspired to make
lunch some days, just get online and browse what others are doing and you're sure to come up with something healthy and delicious!

"I" scream

I've been wanting to try this for a while...keeping ice cream cool in a Thermos for lunch. "I" day was the perfect opportunity!Ryan's "I" lunch: iceberg lettuce & Tofurky sandwich; Italian pasta salad; ice cream.

Ryan said the ice cream
was only a little bit soft,
but "nice and creamy",
not soupy at all! Success!

Nate's snack: a piece of
Tofurky slice; a pickle;
baby carrots; vegetable
crackers.

a hot meal

Ryan gets so excited over foods he can have in his Thermos. Lentil soup has got to be his favourite. He feigns falling down dead when I ask him if he'd like it for lunch.

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of lentil
soup;
"cheddar"
dill roll
(made
with
Vegan-
rella
cheeze);
Tofurky
"flower";
green
bell
pepper
strips;
celery
sticks;
ginger
miso
dressing
for dipping.

Agh! Emergency!
Ryan took the last
frozen cupcake to
a birthday party
over the weekend!
I'd better get baking...
like I need an excuse.

AJ got himself into
some trouble this
weekend by sur-
rounding the tv with
stickers. He was not
happy when I made
him remove them all
before Dada returned
from his trip.

He recovered well enough
to enjoy a hike around the
reservoir. There are many
reservoirs in our area,
though the big reservoir
that supplies Boston with
most of its water is farther
west.

Late this afternoon
I was met by this
disconcerting sight on
the trail. Hmmm, I
think I'll be moving
along home now...

Unseasonably warm

The day began with wind and heavy rain. Ryan asked for "something in a Thermos". Easy, his favourite, lentil soup. And we even had oyster crackers to snaz it up a bit. But minutes before the boys left for school the sky cleared, the sun shone brightly, and it turned into a windy almost 70F degree day. In December.
Ryan's lunch: a side of oyster crackers; checkered apple slice; carrots; pickles; sauteed mushrooms; black olives; cucumber slices; a Thermos of lentil soup.
And donations for the
school food drive: tri-
coloured pasta for AJ,
sugar cookies mix for
Ryan.

The high winds took
down some big trees
in the area...
We hike a lot of trails on Sudbury Valley Trustees conservation land, including woods behind our CSA. Check out this Chia rock I found today!
And here's a little froggy
I found...







...and not 2 feet from him was
this sneaky snake. I didn't
stick around to see if the frog
became its lunch.

There
are
many
sturdy
bridges
crossing
the
small
brooks
in the
area,
built
to bear
the
weight
of
horses.
This
area
used
to be
fox
hunt
territory. But it is still frequented by trail riders.

small packages & silly boys

It was
early
release
at 1pm
for the
public
schools
today,
so a
lighter
lunch...

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of bean,
vege-
table,
barley
soup;
soy
cheese
squares;
herb crackers; a tiny Pez pack leftover from Halloween.

Next I wanted to show Nate's preschool snack, not because of the food so much as the size of the container. Bento snacks and lunches are meant to be packed efficiently, tightly arranged so that there is little excess space. This container is only holds 130ml and can fit in the palm of my hand, yet properly filled it can easily hold a nice snack for a preschooler.
Nate's snack: 2 dried apricots; 4 grape tomatoes; 3 squares of soy cheese; 3 herb crackers.

Any of you with multiple boys knows just how silly and crazy they can get. Besides the blocks and cars and toilet talk...









As I was getting Maia ready
for bed I walked in on a
conversation about "space
diapers" and they all started laughing hysterically.

And on our afternoons hike,
Ryan was "the King", AJ
was "the Queen", and...









...Nate was "the mad dragon", of course!

Don't worry, once the
snow starts to fly I won't
have all these daily
hikes to bore you all
with!

AJ wanted to climb this
pine tree. I thought this
picture looked even better
turned 90 degrees counter
clockwise, LOL.

no bento

Yesterday was 9/11. I thought since I didn't even make a proper bento, a day of blog silence was in order. Nate's preschool teacher was coming in the morning for the home visit, so I was more preoccupied with getting the house somewhat presentable than making a nice lunch!
Ryan's lunch: Tofurky mini bagel sandwich in the Wrap-N-Mat; bottle of chocolate almond milk; Thermos of potato leek soup; Badtz Maru side container of homemade strawberry nectarine applesauce (wish I'd taken a picture of the inside!).

And here's a picture of
cute Maia for good
measure. She's 14 months
old today.

I've got nothing else
to share as I just got
back from a friend's
wedding this evening!

Waiting...

At 39 weeks the wait is on.

Nothing fits, I can
barely move, I 'm
so ready to be done.
And so we wait.
(Yeah, that's me,
the pregnant whale.)


Tuesday:
CSA share:
- 12 stems kale
- 1 head green
leaf lettuce
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 pattypan squash
- 1 bunch beets with
greens
- 1 summer squash
- 1 cucumber
- 1 quart blueberries
- 1 pint red & gold
raspberries
- what's left of the
strawberries!
- 12 garlic scapes
- 1 lb. carrots
- 1 quart snow peas
- 1 quart snap peas

My husband didn't even get around to picking herbs or flowers! And right now our black raspberry bushes are at their peak; we are getting about a 1/2 pint each day.
I love a bowl of berries with some soy yogurt, mmmmm....

Wednesday:
AJ's lunch for preschool camp: Thermos of leftover tri-color pasta with zucchini, caper, olive tomato sauce; watermelon; mini corn muffin; mini pumpkin-carrot-apple muffin; peanuts; lemonade; Luna Sunrise bar for morning snack.

Thursday:

The Farmer's Market yielded it's usual: tomatoes, potatoes, bread & popcorn.

Easy summer dinner
of cold 4-bean salad;
snap peas; roasted red
potatoes.

Hopefully I'll have some
baby photos to bore you
with soon!