4 Bento #239 - Green Eggs & Ham

That's a green egg!  This is Dr. Seuss week, and also the debut of the new movie The Lorax (which we can't wait to see!)  I made these eggs very simply with some prepared basil pesto. Delicious!  I couldn't bear to color the "ham" green, (it's actually pastrami) so it appears here au naturale.

Bento #239 - Basil pesto deviled eggs, pastrami, carrot coins, and grape skewers.  Snack - organic peanut butter pretzel bites and mandarin orange.

0 Bento #202 - Vegetarian Yellow Day

Ladies & gentlemen, I think we have a theme.  Today is Yellow Day in Ella's class, and so I planned a nice lunch with all yellow(ish) foods. At least she's getting her daily doses of vitamins A, C & D. Yesterday happened to be Blue Day, but I really couldn't think of all that many natural blue foods (and I don't like to use artificial dyes.)  I let her go through the school lunch line that day for the first time, after discussing her choices.  Instead of popcorn shrimp, she decided to get a vegetarian Caesar salad, peas & carrots, mac n' cheese, cornbread and her ubiquitous water, which is her favourite drink in the entire world.  That sounds good to me!

This lunch is packed in a Greentainer.  It's a two-tier, so what you see above is all combined into one container.  I have a little yellow "Y" in the spicy yellow lentil hummus, with a sweet apricot salsa topping from Eat Well Enjoy Life that we just discovered at Costco.  Delicious!!  They also have edamame hummus which is also great.

Her snack below (which isn't yellow, unfortunately) is packed in a separate Greentainer.

Bento #202 - Fresh corn-off-the-cob with sea salt and cracked pepper, sliced yellow bell pepper, yellow lentil hummus, Pasta Prima five cheese ravioli with herb Parmesan and extra-virgin olive oil.  Snack:  Mozzarella cheese and fresh strawberries.

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11 Rainbow Leaf Chips

If you think that this picture is of a prop from Swamp Beast, you would be mistaken (a little?)  Nope, these are leaf chips, and you can make them from just about any hardy leafy veg.  I happened to have a bunch of organic rainbow chard from my CSA, and I wondered what I was going to do with it.  Let's face it - it's sort of a hard sell.  I mean sure, it's got that enticing "rainbow" right in the name, but it doesn't fool anyone for long, especially not discerning 30-something 5 year olds.  These leaf chips are crispy, salty and most importantly yummy.  Not only that, but chard packs a powerful vitamin K punch.

You'll need:

Bunch of hardy leafy greens like chard, kale or even spinach

olive oil

sea salt

cracked pepper

Parmesan cheese (opt)

Preheat the oven to 300 F.  Thoroughly wash the leaves (watch out for the sand) and pat dry with paper towels.  

Remove tough stems and tear (if needed) into large pieces and arrange on a non-stick baking sheet spritzed with a little bit of cooking spray or olive oil.

Next, lightly spritz or drizzle olive oil on the leaves.  Cover with sprinklings of fresh cracked sea salt and pepper, and cheese, if using.

Bake for about 20 minutes until crispy

and then devour.  

The chard becomes super crispy and about shatters when you take a bite.  It's got a bitter note which I really enjoy, and the saltiness which counterbalances it.  I'm dying to try this with the big bag of fresh spinach I have in the fridge.  They're ridiculously quick and easy to make, give them a try!

You'll need:

Bunch of hardy leafy greens like chard, kale or even spinach

olive oil

sea salt

cracked pepper

Parmesan cheese (opt)

-Preheat the oven to 300 F.  Thoroughly wash the leaves (watch out for the sand) and pat dry with paper towels.  Remove tough stems and tear (if needed) into large pieces and arrange on a non-stick baking sheet spritzed with a little bit of cooking spray or olive oil.

-Next, lightly spritz or drizzle olive oil on the leaves.  Cover with sprinklings of fresh cracked sea salt and pepper, and cheese, if using.

-Bake for about 20 minutes until crispy, and then devour.