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!

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 Chuck Pot Roast
1 Cup of Beef Broth
1 package of dried Onion Soup Mix
2 tbs of Tomato Paste
3 Garlic Cloves minced
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Cumin
1 tbs Chili Powder
1tbs Adobo Seasoning.
Olive Oil

Mix the paprika, cumin, chili powder and adobo seasonings in a bowl and then pat over the entire piece of meat getting it completely covered. Heat a skillet on medium high with some olive oil to sear the meat so both sides are browned. Place meat in crockpot. In skillet add the beef broth and tomato paste and stir  to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer a few minutes. Place the minced garlic and onion soup mix over the meat in the crockpot and then pour the beef broth mixture on top. Cover and set the crockpot to low and cook for 7 hours. When it is finished remove the meat from the crockpot and place in a bowl using 2 forks to shred it. Once the meat is shredded put back in the crockpot with the juice so that the meat remains moist. We made soft tacos with this meat on flour tortillas topped with guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. Delicious!

Here is Penelope's new Snack Box.

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.

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 a cubed pear.

This weekend was the annual Stocking Stuffer Party at the Pratt Museum. They set up several tables with Christmas crafts for the little ones in the museum and you can visit the cabin next door and take photos with Santa.

Creating a Gingerbread House

Visitng with Santa

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 practicing for weeks! Everyday that I pick up Penelope from school I ask her what she learned and she usually answers "I don't know" or "I forgot", the little stinker!
The kids also made bite size pumpkin pies for everyone to enjoy, yum!

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 I really dislike making a turkey. I can't wait to cook a Christmas ham though!

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 here.

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, Penelope and I both love us some pomegranate.


Colby jack and cheddar cheese, salami, sliced persimmon, crackers and Caprese Salad.

Caprese Salad

1 pint of cherry tomatoes sliced in half
Fresh mozzarella sliced into small cubes
15 to 20 fresh basil leaves
Juice from 1 lemon
1 garlic clove minced
Blood orange infused olive oil, but any evoo will do.
Salt & Pepper

Put the tomatoes and cheese in a large bowl. Chop up the basil leaves and place in a smaller bowl. Mix with lemon juice and garlic and then slowly add the olive oil while mixing. Pour over the tomatoes and cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

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 Mix

Spinach Dip

Jack o Lantern Pizzas

Mummy Dogs

Nutter Butter Ghosts I also made Crab Rangoons and we had bear summer sausage and cheese and crackers! and finally...

Cute Lil' Girly Ghost

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 freezer bags for snacking later. These work well with pretty much any fruit, my faves or grapes and watermelon. Yum!

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 impressed, in fact he had his doubts but after trying one of these dogs we have both decided that this is our new favorite way to eat a hotdog.

Tijuana Hotdog

Buns
Beef hotdogs
Bacon
Beans, cooked (pinto beans not refried)
*Salsa made with chopped tomatoes, chopped jalapenos or Serrano's, chopped white onion*
Mayonnaise

Wrap a bacon strip around each hotdog and fry in a pan until crispy. Spread mayo on the bun. Put bacon wrapped hotdog in bun, top with hot beans and salsa. Enjoy!

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 costumes and  all she says is "no, I want to be a ghost". *sigh*

Fall in Alaska

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 nuts (Penelope's name for pumpkin seeds), and a gingerman cookie or Ratchet, Penelope's name for this particular gingerman. I have no idea where she got this name from but every time she would take a bite out of Ratchet the gingerman she would tell me which part of his anatomy she was eating. She's a strange little one. ;)

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 up a notch.

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 was today. I am not ready for snow yet!

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 ingredients in a bowl and mix, set aside. To form the Onigiri you can use your hands or use a mold specifically for Onigiri. I have Onigiri molds so I used a cylinder shaped one. Onigiri can also be formed into balls or triangles and filled with things like Umeboshi (Japanese preserved pickled plum), tuna and mayo, or whatever your tummy desires. They can also be wrapped with Nori (dried seaweed wrapper). If you are using your hands to form the Onigiri make sure your hands are wet so the rice does not stick to them. Once your Onigiri is formed lightly brush the sauce mixture on one side and grill in a pan sauce side down till the outside is browned and crispy. Brush sauce on the top side and then flip over to brown and crisp. These make yummy on the go snacks!
If you notice my Onigiri has egg in it. I actually added a little raw egg to the rice mixture because I thought Pen would like it better. I was right she loved her rice balls! I served them to her with some smoked salmon that a friend caught and smoked himself. Very good stuff. Penelope however was not a fan. More for me!

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 recipe below was not measured but based on the amount of flour we used will make 2 large pancakes.

Okonomiyaki

Approximately 2 Cups of flour- Kona
Baking Powder
Potato Starch- Katakuriko
1 Egg- Tamago
A couple splashes of Soy Sauce- Shoyu
A small amount of Salt- Shio
A small amount of Sugar- Sato
Water- Mizu
Shredded Cabbage- Kyabetso
Chopped Green Onion- Tamanegi
Shrimp- Ebi
Okonomiyaki Sauce
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Bonito Flakes

Mix the first seven ingredients in a large bowl, it will form a sticky dough. Then add water until it becomes the consistency of pancake batter. Then add the cabbage and green onion and mix together. On a griddle or in a large omelet or crepe pan put a little Canola oil and cook the shrimp for a few minutes till done. Spread the shrimp out on the pan and pour the batter over so they are completely covered. Let the batter cook through on one side and then flip over to finish cooking the other side. Put the pancake on a plate and top with Okonomiyaki sauce making vertical and horizontal lines. Do the same with the mayo and mustard. (Traditionally you would use a spicy Japanese mustard that I did not have.) I did not have mayo in a squeeze bottle so what I did was mix the mayo with a little mustard and then dolloped it over the pancake . Finally add the Bonito flakes on top. This is when my teacher pointed out they start dancing. :) You'll see. This was really delicious and I will be making it again and again.

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?

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 just recently we received some bear, caribou, and moose meat. Yum! Since moose meat is not all that common in the lower 48 states I thought I would share what is a very delicious meat with you. That's right you heard me, it's delicious! We received some ground moose and it looks and tastes very similar to ground beef only much better! I am not kidding. Moose is high in protein and low in fat and tastes like really really really good beef, not game-y at all. The first time I had moose meat was several years ago in Anchorage when a friend of Chris' invited us over for a spaghetti dinner. I must say I was not very excited as I am not a big spaghetti fan but let me tell you this was the best spaghetti I have ever had and guess what it was made out of moose! So tonight when I was deciding what to make with our ground moose I decided to try something similar to my first moose meal encounter and I made some moose baked ziti. SOOO GOOD!!!

Baked Ziti made with Moose Meat

1lb. Ziti Cooked
1 lb. Ground Moose (you can use beef or turkey)
1 8oz Container of Sour Cream
1 and 1/2 Jars of Marinara Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt & Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Salt
Italian Seasoning

Put cooked ziti in a large casserole dish and stir in the container of sour cream. Meanwhile brown meat and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning.  Once cooked drain any liquid and add 1 jar of Marinara sauce to it. Add the remaining 1/2 jar of sauce to the pasta in the casserole dish along with a large handful of mozzarella and some grated Parmesan and mix. Then add the meat and another handful of mozzarella and mix again. Top pasta with some Parmesan and another large handful of mozzarella and then cover and bake for 30 minutes at 375. Remove cover and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Serve with warm crusty bread and a green salad.

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!

Penelope had to create a poster for school to share a little about herself with her classmates.