0 Bento #226 - Gyoza & Tomatoes

This one's been hanging out in my bento folder for a few weeks now.  We've been on vacation from school and work, and enjoying our time off and relaxing!  Hope everyone else has been enjoying their time too.  My husband and I spend our 10th wedding anniversary at the Brasstown Valley Resort & Spa in the North Georgia mountains for a few days.  We went horseback riding, had spa treatments, a wine tasting at a local vineyard and more.  We even had our very own fireplace in our suite.  Heaven!

For this Planetbox bento, we have E's favourite chicken gyoza here, cut in half.

E has been bugging me about fresh tomatoes for the last few weeks.  She loves Romas!

Accompanying the tomatoes and gyoza are little cute bottles of ponzu sauce and ranch dressing.

All loaded up in her Planetbox!

Bento #226 - Chicken gyoza, ponzu sauce, celery sticks, ranch dip, roma tomatoes and multi vitamins.  Snack - Focaccia croutons and dried cranberries.

0 Bento #210 - BBQ Pulled Pork & Rice

What week of school is this?  I've lost track.  Third week, I think.  The early mornings are doing a number on me.  We finally were able to do some grocery shopping, though I swear my daughter tries to find new and exciting ways to hurt herself, especially in public.  This time she stuck her hand in the back of one of my MIL's auto-closing van doors.  Oh my goodness.  I was on the other side of the van getting my baby niece out, and another passing mom ran over and was able to open the door lickety-split.  She was fine, though, thank goodness!  This child is going to give me heart palpitations. We are already having to bandage her leg daily for the next several weeks, don't need any broken bones or [more] missing teeth on top of it.

Where was I?  Oh, grocery shopping (so exciting, aren't you jealous?) at Wholefoods. Whenever I go shopping with E we spend lots of time in the fresh produce section.  I almost always encourage her pick out which veggies she wants, but now I'm going to start making a point of having her try one new fruit or vegetable each visit.  This time she chose her favorite sugar snap peas and carrots as well as some fresh green beans, which we don't usually get.

This yummy pulled pork is from our friendly neighborhood butcher who smokes the pork himself.  So good.

The veggies are sauteed carrots, bell peppers and baby portabella mushrooms, leftover from a stir-fry I did for dinner, along with some rice and sugar snap peas.

Fresh blueberries round out lunch, with a playful seal pick.

Snack consists of some of Stacy's sea salt pita chips and some fresh ground honey roasted peanut butter, which is awesome except that they don't use salted peanuts.  So...all of the fresh ground butters at Wholefoods lack that essential bit of salt.  Boo.  But, the salted pita chips ought to take care of that nicely.

Bento #210 - Smoked pulled pork with BBQ sauce, rice, sauteed bell peppers, mushrooms and carrots and fresh blueberries.  Snack - pita chips, honey roasted peanut butter and multi-vitamins.

0 Bento #201 - Steak Salad & Hello Kitty

Craaaaazy busy day yesterday!  I suffered mild sunburn all in the name of toxic shower curtains.  My local chapter of The Mommies Network was contacted by the Dr. Oz show and asked a bunch of us to come down with our old shower curtain liners and film a segment about their toxicity.  We filmed from 10am to 12:30pm!  I have several speaking lines, though who knows if my bit will ever make it on TV.  It was fun, and the show should air soon, during the next season which starts September 12th.

Goodness, my bento boxes are looking really stuffed lately!  I guess it's that snack.  This lunch consists of sliced steak and a little bit of mac n' cheese leftover from dinner and a whole lotta Hello Kitty.  The panda holds dip, and the little chickie holds two iron vitamins.  I finally found some without aspartame!!  Bluebonnet Rainforest Vitamins.

Bento #201 - Sliced steak, artisan lettuce, ranch, mac n' cheese, iron multi vitamin, and slushy applesauce. Snack: raspberries & granola bite.

0 Bento #198 - Chicken Gyoza & Bell Pepper

We are ramping up for Kindergarten over here.  Yesterday we had her screening for placement, and we also did a bunch of clothes shopping.  I'm in the poorhouse now!  I used to love getting all new clothes and school supplies when I was a kid.  I'm kind of bummed I purchased them through the school a few months ago and I don't have to go hunting for them.  School starts on August 15th, and then I'll be making school bentos every day!

Bento #198 - All natural chicken gyoza, half a sliced red bell pepper, fresh strawberries, ranch dip and three gummy vitamins.

1 Bento #183 - Earth Day Lunch

First, this lunch is in a Planet Box, and the pasta is Barilla PLUS with Omega 3s and a lot of other goodness.  I made a huge batch for the volunteers at school, and packed some for Ella as well.  It's tossed with roasted organic veggies in a balsamic butter sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Bento #183 - Vegetarian organic pasta salad, dried blueberries and cherries, pretzel sticks, roast turkey slices and vitamins.

Officially, Earth Day is today, but E's school had their Earth Day celebration on Wednesday, marked with a school-wide parade, awards, booths, activities and presentations.  It's such great fun, and so informative!  This year we had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute.  He spoke about the pollution, specifically plastic, that is inundating the Pacific with huge floating garbage patches.  He and his colleagues built a raft out of thousands of empty water bottles and an airplane cockpit and floated on it for 3 months from California to Hawaii, braving the elements and studying water and sea life along the way. It was so interesting!  Certainly makes one think twice about using disposable plastics.  One tip he gave which I hadn't even thought about was to skip the plastic straws when you go out to eat.

Dr. Eriksen speaking in front of the Earth Balloon in the community center.

Showing some of the empty cigarette lighters he picked up on remote Pacific islands that wildlife is ingesting.

A sea turtle which grew around a plastic milk jug ring.

 Later I sat with E's class as they ate.  Her friend L also brought a PlanetBox lunch!

0 Bento #180 - Grilled Ham & Cheese "Apples"

Today's a PlanetBox lunch with grilled ham & cheese cut into apples.  I think you can tell when I need to get to the store when we have dried fruit, but it's still healthy and very convenient, and they come unsweetened.  I always have a few bags on hand for lunches and as additions into quick breads.

Bento #180 - Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, carrot chips, roasted peanuts, dried blueberries, cherries and banana chips and vitamins (multi/iron, calcium and Omega-3.)