baby's first bento

and first exposure to Engrish

(It's o.k baby bear, my grammar is nothing to boast about either!)

Baby Maria got bento-ed today. 

Because we were in a hurry. 

Because she was taking a nap when Enzo and I were having lunch. 

Because Enzo could not wait one second longer to get to the pool. 

So I packed her a baby lunch and made her first bento to take with us to open swim.

If you're familiar with bentos, Baby Maria's lunch will be totally underwhelming to you. Keep in mind that she is 10 months old and only has 3 teeth so everything has to be kindda plain and kindda small. 

Menu:

tiny quesadilla triangles

very soft pieces of chicken

small pieces of strawberry

small pieces of cantaloupe

She thought everything was very delicious. 

She told me so herself, in plain Engrish.

Speedy Bento

Today is the last day to submit your speedy bento to the Lunch In a Box bento forum. I totally had to quickly pack a  lunch for Enzo since Wednesdays are our over the top crazy day. So I decided to take some pictures of my speedy bento and submit it to the forum.

This whole bento took me about 5 minutes to make because I didn't have to cook anything. I did cut his cheese slices into numbers because we've been practicing numbers with him. I have number cookie cutters so that's what I used.

The top tier had sliced apples and a little container with plain yogurt, honey, and granola used for dipping his apples. The container fits perfectly inside the bento box. I had it positioned like this just for the picture.

Making fast lunches these days have been my salvation with my busy school schedule. 

Fried Zucchini Cakes

We had a nice picnic at the Santa Cruz board walk while we watched this...

the Amazing Chinese Acrobats!!!

and ate a lot of these deliciously fried things.

ZUCCHINI CAKES

• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup manioc (yucca) flour
• 1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place the grated zucchini in a kitchen towel and squeeze. Try to get as much of the water out as possible.
2. Place the zucchini in a medium bowl.
3. Put all the other ingredients in the bowl and mix with your hands.
4. Season with salt and pepper and any other spices that you like.
5. In a medium sized skillet place olive oil and let it get hot.
6. Once the oil is hot mold the cakes in you hands so that it is about 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide.
7. fry those babies up about 4-5 minutes on each side.

This recipe is a variation of the Zucchini cakes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She uses breadcrumbs instead of manioc flour and she gives A LOT more detail. Go check her out.

Bento adventure #2

Yesterday Enzo and I had a park date and I knew that we would end up strategically staying there till his nap time in the hopes that he would fall asleep in the car on the way home. I thought I had to take lunch but found out that I actually didn't because the city brings free lunches to the parks EVERYDAY in the summer. I'll leave that for a future post about why I want to live here forever but will never be able to afford it.

I got a cute Bento box from my friend who went to Japan earlier this summer to visit my sis-in-law who makes very cute Bentos herself.I made my first Bento a while back and wasn't set on doing it again. It seemed like a lot of time and energy trying to make food look like Japanese stationary. (btw that is not my Bento on the picture below in case you had any doubts of my poor bento making skills)
I then met Biggie from Lunch in a Box and am now fascinated once again about bentos. NOT time consuming bentos, that is. She even had a great post about using Brazilian food for bentos. Which I will have to try sometime next week when I have a bit more time to make salgadinhos (appetizers).


Yesterday's bento was simple. No cutting out fruit leather into heart shapes like last time! This time I just made rice and used the rice molds that I already had . I make chicken with pineapple and used my new little animal skewers to keep it together. I also had carrots, banana, and orange on the top part of the bento. Enzo was totally into the rice and eating the chicken and pineapple from the skewers. Not so into the carrots and fruit. Maybe if I had skewers for that too he would like it. Next time I'm in San Francisco I need to go get some more skewers and maybe some other bento gadgets in case I decide to make him bentos when he's off to preschool in the fall.