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Bento

Snowman Bento

December 22, 2011
I know it's been awhile since I posted any bento's. Poor Penelope has been eating plain boring lunches. I decided to finally do something a little fun for her today, especially since she is getting very excited about Santa's upcoming visit. Snowman turkey and cheese sandwich, grape tomatoes, pickles, craisins, and a piece of Christmas fudge from our cookie swap. Thanks Tracy, it's delicious!...

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Recipe

Shredded Beef for Tacos and More

December 20, 2011
Today I made a yummy shredded beef in the crockpot for tonight's dinner. Even though I didn't get a picture of it I thought I would share the recipe because it was very tasty. This shredded beef can be used in tacos as well as quesadillas, burritos, salads, sandwiches, you name it! Here is the recipe. Enjoy! Crockpot Shredded Beef 4 lb. Boneless Beef...

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Snack Box

Snack Box

December 13, 2011
Here is Penelope's new Snack Box. Chopped pears, sliced kiwi, yogurt raisins, clementine, tropical fruit mix of papaya, pineapple and passion fruit. She was very excited about the kiwi as we don't get it often. Thanks to my Full Circle Farm box we got quite a few. ...

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Breakfast Smoothie

December 02, 2011
Penelope has had many smoothies in her short life but this is the first one she made all by herself! 1 Banana About 3/4 cups of frozen blueberries About 3/4 cups of yogurt About 1 cup of milk About 1 tablespoon of sugar. She made enough for the both of us and then some! Good thing it was a yummy smoothie. ...

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Snack Box

I want a snack!

November 28, 2011
I've been slacking on making Penelope a snack box lately and for the last few days she has been asking for snacks in between meals and complaining about being hungry. She finally asked me if I was going to make her a snack box. Bad mommy! So here is Penelope's healthy snack box. Grapes, mixed nuts & dried cranberries, pickles, carrot sticks and...

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!

November 23, 2011
Penelope's preschool class had a little Thanksgiving program today. It was awesome to listen to and watch her recite prayers and wonderful songs about giving thanks and the Lord. They sang quite a few songs and Chris and I were very surprised since she knew all the words and this was the first time we heard any of them. They must have been...

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Bento

Easy Lunchbox-Gobble Gobble

November 22, 2011
Here is Penelope's lunch for today. Turkey cheese quesadillas w/ sour cream, sliced apples, trail mix, chocolate covered cherry, and Sea Snax roasted and seasoned nori snack. She was not the least bit into the seaweed. :) Guess what?! I don't have to cook this Thanksgiving! We were invited over to a friends house for Thanksgiving dinner. I am pretty excited especially since...

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Muffin Tin Monday

A Happy Lunch

November 14, 2011
Penelope jumped up and down when she saw her lunch today. "You made smiley faces, you made smiley faces"!! I love that she is so easily impressed and excited. Top Row: Reese's Pieces, Apple Strawberry sauce, Cheese-its Bottom Row: Ranch (for carrots), Salami and cheese smiley face sandwiches, purle-white-orange carrots Time to head for dance class now! Check out some more muffin tins...

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Bento

New Favorite!

November 11, 2011
Yesterday we received another FCF box that included some persimmons. Today was the first time Penelope tried a persimmon and she really enjoyed it. I love that we are getting the opportunity to try new produce! My box also included some pears, mushrooms, Yukon gold potatoes, arugula, romaine lettuce, butternut squash, some cute little white, purple, and orange carrots, and a pomegranate. Mmm,...

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Last night's Halloween fun!

November 02, 2011
It snowed yesterday! That's right we had a white Halloween.We live on Halloween's busiest street so I decided to host a little Halloween get together for friends to meet up and have a snack before hitting the neighborhood for some treats. Here are just a couple of pics of the Halloween yummies I made and a cute lil' girly ghost. Enjoy! Halloween Chex...

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Recipe

Strawberry Pops

October 29, 2011
Here is a fun and healthy snack your kiddos will enjoy making and eating. Take some fresh strawberries and wash and trim off the green leaves from each. Wash and dry some popsicle sticks and let your little ones push three strawberries through each stick. Place on wax paper and freeze . Once they are frozen you can transfer your Strawberry pops into...

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Recipe

Tijuana Dogs

October 27, 2011
My mom lives in San Diego very near the Tijuana, Mexico border and she is always raving about Tijuana style hotdogs. These are sold by street vendors in Tijuana and also near the border and let me tell you they are freakin' delicious! When I told Chris I was going to make him a Tijuana hotdog for dinner he was not the least...

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Bento

Booooo I'm a Ghost!

October 26, 2011
I made Penelope a Halloween themed bento today. Bologna and cheese ghost sandwich, boo cheese letters, sliced strawberries, pomegranate fruit leather, Tahin flavored pumpkin seeds, blueberries, marshmallow, and a pumpkin spice caramel. Penelope decided she would like to be a ghost for Halloween. I really don't know what her obsession with ghosts is right now but I tried showing her some really cute...

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Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

October 26, 2011
Fall in Alaska Fall in Alaska ...

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Bento

G is for Green

October 21, 2011
This was Penelope's lunch yesterday. The letter of the week was G so I made her a G turkey and cheese sandwich over a bed of (G)reen. Romaine and snow peas and yes she even ate the lettuce. I told her she didn't have to but she said "I want to mommy, lettuce is good". She also had pear balls (I used a melon baller), pumpkin...

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Recipe

Arugula Salad

October 17, 2011
When we were in Vegas Chris and I had dinner one night at Otto in the Venetian. I had a really yummy Arugula salad, my first one. It was fresh Arugula with shaved Parmesan and an olive oil dressing. Very simple but really good. Since I had some Arugula in the fridge I decided to make a salad for dinner tonight only kicked...

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Bento

Just Another Kitty Bento

October 13, 2011
Bottom Tier: Hello Kitty apple cut-outs, chicken salad and crackers, homemade chocolate chip cookie. Top Tier: Strawberry/Apple sauce, yogurt covered raisins & dried blueberries, celery w/ Laughing Cow cheese, snow peas. I love this new bento box it has a strap that connects everything together and makes it easy to carry. We made the cookies a couple of days ago at a friends...

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Muffin Tin Monday

Muffin Tin Monday

October 10, 2011
Today we woke up to frost and a very cold morning. Time to start bundling up Penelope for school because it looks like our fall is just about over and winter is just around the corner. I decided to make Penelope a beach oasis in her muffin tin today because surprisingly, since I am not a beach person, that's where I wish I...

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Bento

Yaki Onigiri

October 09, 2011
I decided to make Penelope some Yaki Onigiri or "Grilled Rice Balls" for lunch today. Yaki Onigiri Sauce 2 tsp Soy Sauce 2 tsp Sake (rice wine) 2 tsp Mirin (similar to Sake only sweeter) 2 tsp Sesame Oil 1 tsp Furikake, Toasted Sesame and Nori flavor (Japanese rice seasoning) 1 cup of cooked Short Grain or Sushi Rice warm Combine all the sauce...

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Recipe

What You Like

October 06, 2011
Yesterday was my Japanese lesson and we incorporated another cooking lesson into it. We made Okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake. Okonomi means "what you like" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked". Here is the basic recipe for the Okonomiyaki we made but there are several variations of this dish depending on what you like. Some additions are mochi, pork, and cheese. As usual the...

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Bento

E is for Everything!

October 05, 2011
The letter of the week at Penelope's school is E. I didn't have anything that started with an E to put in the first tier of her bento other then dark chocolate covered Edamame. Does that count? Bottom Tier: Turkey and cheese E sandwiches, dark chocolate covered Edamame. Middle Tier: Prosciutto wrapped around some sea salt bread sticks, grapes. Top Tier: A medley...

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Recipe

Taste Me Tuesdays

October 04, 2011
So for today's Taste Me Tuesday I thought I would share something a little different. Living in Alaska hunting and fishing is a very popular pastime and freezers are pretty well stocked here with all kinds of fresh game and seafood. In fact we had to buy a deep freezer for our garage because our neighbor kept supplying us with halibut, salmon, and cod, and...

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It Made It!

October 04, 2011
Penelope's sunflower bloomed! She was so excited when she saw it as was I cause I was sure we would run out of sun before it flowered. I was wrong! YAY! Here it was when we first planted it. Then here when it first sprouted. Growing some more here. And here it is after we replanted it. And finally here it is today!...

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All About Me

October 03, 2011
Penelope had to create a poster for school to share a little about herself with her classmates. She chose to make her poster on red poster board because red is her favorite color. She also put a picture of herself on the first day of school and one of her dancing. She loves to dance! She also likes princesses, fairies, and Pocoyo and...

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