Elm Bank

From time to time we've ventured down to Wellesley to Elm Bank, a 36 acre garden and grounds of the Massachusetts Horticultural Center. It really is a beautiful place when everything is in bloom, and this time it was host to the Massachusetts Marketplace Festival.

Teeming with enough vendors to empty your wallet and tempt every sweettooth, the festival celebrated New England's farmers, specialty food producers & artisans. Our personal favourite was Vision's Sown, bakers of delicious cookies made with minimally processed and ancient grains; I hope they make their way to our local farmer's market or Whole Foods soon!

I was a little disappointed after cheerfully shelling out admission for myself and four kids, that I then had to pay for separate tickets for almost every activity the kids wanted to do--I must have missed this somehow in their online advertising. I understand there was fundraising to be done, but I don't normally carry a lot of cash, even for bouncy houses and face painting.

But really, we couldn't pass up the expertise of the face painter...
























Other activities included glitter tattoos, hayride, & butterfly crafts (which were free, yay!). There were ample shaded picnic tables available for our picnic lunch...






















Butterflies seemed to be the theme of our day, with Maia choosing a butterfly design for her face, and all of the kids colouring a butterfly puppet. Right behind the butterfly table was a purple butterfly bush--and as if on cue, a beautiful one descended to the flowers for the occasion...

The kids were enthralled, and played along with their puppets...






















Much of our time at Elm Bank was spent in Weezie's Children's Garden. We have come here before to meet up with friends--it's a wonderful creatively landscaped children's play area.

If you're in the area, Elm Bank is worth a visit, festival or no!

April showers & some flowers

We've been spending lots of time outside enjoying the spring weather. Time for picnics at the park! After watching the Boston Marathon pass through our town, we walked to a nearby playground for lunch and some fun.I brought along a picnic bento of finger foods for everyone to share.

And here are some lunches from April:
Ryan & AJ's lunches: peanuts; cucumber slices; stir-fried broccoli over rice.

Maia's lunch was
similar: a strawberry;
a pickle; cucumber slices;
stir-fried broccoli over
rice.

It's trickier making a
complete lunch without
nuts for preschool.


Ryan & AJ's lunches:
cupcakes; sandwiches;
pickle; carrots.






Ryan & AJ's lunches:
Thermos' of tofu-herb
ravioli; pickle; carrots;
grapes; strawberries.





You can always tell when
the spring rains arrive--
my pics get dark & gloomy.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: somen
noodles with sesame tofu &
steamed broccoli; carrots;
grapes; apricots/raisins;
mini banana muffins.Maia's lunch: apricots; grapes; steamed broccoli; somen noodles w/sesame tofu; carrot; pickle; snap peas.
























Happy spring!

Don't Mess

...With Texas. It may have been a holiday, but Dada was off on back to back trips to Texas. So I made this snack for his flight.
Husband's snack: clementine on the side; spinach salad w/tomato slices, kalamata olives & chives w/Goddess dressing on the side; mini pumpkin muffin.

The tomatoes and chives are still from our CSA share last month! But there's only one more ripe tomato in the fruit bowl. Luckily the boys were happy to have more green tomato salsa with their lunch...
Top clockwise: sauteed Tofurky sausage & collard greens; pita chips; spinach & chive hummus; tortilla strips; green tomato salsa; waffle pretzels; baby carrots & cucumber slices.

quick!

Before the tomatoes ripen! (Please please PLEASE let the tomato crop do well this year!) It's farm pickup this afternoon, and I'm anticipating the first significant tomatoes. I had a salad for breakfast using an entire store-bought tomato in order to clean the counters, fruit bowl, fridge for whatever we might be bringing home. (Yes, I do refrigerate tomatoes only if they're very ripe...don't want to feed the fruit fly population any more than necessary.)

So back to the end of the school year...






















AJ created scrapbook pages for his kindergarten teacher, and really wanted to give her a hand-decorated mug (as cliche as it sounds, but he did a really wonderful job and I know it's something I would have loved back when I was a teacher). We filled it with zucchini brownies with a copy of the recipe.
Maia joined Nate for his end of preschool ice cream party (we brought our own vegan equivalents of course), and Nate made cards to attach to the banana-apple-strawberry muffins he helped make with strawberries from the farm.

Nate was excited to
use his bubble blower
from his teacher, and
he spent weeks looking
at his big portfolio of
artwork and photos
from his second year
at preschool.

Then a couple of days
later was a final family
picnic where the kids
got their faces painted (except for AJ, he was at a birthday party where he got a cool hat). Nate had a dragon on his cheek, but wouldn't cooperate for a picture...typical 3 year old.

























AJ's
teacher
gift:




















Ryan had three
teachers to make
gifts for, so he
just made cards
with recipes to go
with baggies of
brownies.





Ryan's last lunch of the school year included some of his most favourite items: farm strawberries; leftover Gianni's spinach, mushroom & black olive pizza; zucchini brownie.

Home Tweet Home

So I decided to make an entry for the Spring 2010 Bento Contest at JustBento. It was a lot of fun to make. I'm sure the competition will be steep, but that's okay.

I tinted the rice with home-
made beet vinegar. Other
highlights include mini grape
tomatoes nestled inside some
steamed Brussels sprouts.

We have a birdhouse on our
garage that both the birds and
the squirrels have been checking out this week. Spring is definitely here despite the flood of rain!

Stuck inside during the wet
weather, I fed the kids a
"picnic" dinner indoors and
everyone enjoyed Maia's
first showing of Toy Story 2.
She seemed to enjoy seeing
"her" Jessie doll come to
life on screen.
Ryan's lunch: asparagus maki; avocado & cucumber maki; mini rice triangles; sesame tofu; apple bunnies.

Only one more day to go before my raw 40 days are up! I cheated again this weekend when my husband arrived home from the west coast and was hungry for a good dinner. I couldn't just watch him eat it alone...

friday:
7am- Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
9am- 1 orange.
10:30am- sprouted chick peas w/lemon juice, scallion, olives, bell pepper.
12:30pm- honeydew melon.
3pm- apple slices w/almond butter.
8pm- pasta w/zucchini & olives

saturday:
7:30am- honeydew melon.
11:30am- 1 Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
1:30pm- 1 orange; mixed nut.
3pm- 1 banana; handful of baby carrots.
8:30pm- pasta w/zucchini & olives. Yep, blew it when my husband got back!

sunday:
7:30am- tomato salad: tomato, onion, olives, olive oil, sprouted chick peas
9:30am- bowl of honeydew melon.
11am- small container of raisins, sliced almonds & date pieces.
1:30pm- 2 bananas w/almond butter, agave nectar & grated coconut.
4pm- leftovers from bento prep!
6pm- a pickle; Raw Revolution spirulina & cashew bar.

"W"your appetite

It's the final week of alphabet bentos!Ryan's "W" lunch: wafer cookies; waffles (w/maple syrup, separated from the cookies by a weiner dog baran); welsh rarebit; watermelon; water chestnuts w/snap peas & chik'n strips.

The weather over the weekend was great. Though I spent much of saturday at an event indoors, sunday was spent almost entirely outside. So I made a "picnic" dinner:
top row: strawberries; snap
pea crisps; smoked Tofurky
slices; yellow bell pepper
strips & snap peas.

middle row: baby carrots;
mini bagel quarters with
peanut butter; gherkin
pickles; raisins & dried
apricots.

bottom row: roasted almonds; cucumber slices; purple grapes; popcorn.

My friday food:
7:30am- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1/2 pear, 1 T. almond butter, liquid DHA, water.
9:30am- carrots & yellow bell pepper w/cauliflower dip.
12pm- salad: romaine & bib lettuces, tomato, onion, purple cabbage, avocado, olives, lime juice.
4pm- maki sushi: sprouted quinoa, avocado, ginger, vinegar, nori, cucumber, scallion, shoyu.
5pm- small bowl of raisins, date pieces & sliced almonds.

I tried another permutation of raw sushi filling, this time with sprouted quinoa. It tasted fine, but didn't hold up that well...back to the drawing board on that one.

Luckily on saturday, I was at a potluck event, and there was plenty of fruit and raw veggies, so I didn't even touch the snack I had stashed in my backpack just in case...
7am- smoothie: 1 banana, 1 pear, 1/2 an apple, 1 T. almond butter, liquid DHA, water.
10am- a banana.
12pm- bowl of fruit: grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew melon.
2pm- bowl of veggies: baby carrots, broccoli florets, grape tomatoes.
6pm- marinated broccoli & tomatoes in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, shoyu; 1/2 an avocado.

And sunday:
7am- soaked steel cut oats w/sliced strawberries & walnut-cashew creme.
9:30am- a pickle; a banana.
12pm- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1/2 mango, 3 frozen strawberries, 1/3 starfruit, liquid DHA, water.
3:30pm- 2 dozen baby carrots; 6 olives.
6pm- 1 avocado.