American Bento

I haven't actually been trying that hard on Owen's lunches.  I've been letting his new cute containers do most of the work for me thus far.     That was. . . until we had the following conversation:

Me:  Owen how do you want this carrot in your lunch?  Do you want me to cut it into carrot sticks or do you want me to leave it like this-- like a big carrot rocket?

Owen:  I don't want any carrots in my lunch.

Me:  Would you like me to put some dip in for your carrot sticks?

Owen:  I would like ketchup. . .
            with french fries. . .
            and some chicken nuggets. . .

That got no reply from me other than to turn and march myself right back into the kitchen to finish making his lunch.  This is exactly why I am making his lunches at home and sending them to school.

Kindergartners want to eat fun food.  And right now he's thinking that those french fries and chicken nuggets look fun.  That is one of the whole ideas behind bento.  People, especially children, eat with their eyes first, and if the food isn't visually appealing--they won't want to eat it.

Carrot sticks, sweet red pepper squares on toothpicks, cheese leaves, and ants on a log.  He also had a half a sandwich.  (Jeremy had made him a whole sandwich, but Jonas found it and ate one half for his breakfast.)

When I finished putting together Owen's Americanized bento box I took it over and showed him.    I got the wide-eyed expression of surprise and interest I was looking for.

"This is your lunch."  I told him.  (And no, you may not have fries with that.)

I think he enjoyed his lunch.  I definitely was excited to show it to him, and he ate most of it.  Now I just have to stop by the principle's office when I drop him off today and ask for his plastic toothpicks back.

Apparently they were confiscated for being "spaceships--flying through the hair galaxy." 

("Who's hair galaxy Owen?")

Seriously, they should be paying me to send my kid to school.  You know those teachers haven't had laughs this good in a long time.

Pork Egg Rolls

If my husband and I had a theme in our kitchen, it would probably be something along the lines of "We could make that ourselves-right?" We figure that there really shouldn't be much that they sell at the grocery stores that we shouldn't be able to make at home in our own kitchen (and a for lot cheaper for the most part.) This doesn't mean that we never buy those items, but it is kind of fun to know that you are capable of making your own granola bars, doughnuts, and even marshmallows if the need or desire arose.

So the most recent experiment was egg rolls. For some reason the only food in the Ethnic Foods section of Kansas Grocery stores is frozen burritos. Isn't there some old adage about Neccessity breeds industry or inventiveness...help me out here. Anyhow, point is, we needed some egg rolls in our diet and so I went to a favorite recipe site and looked at a few different ones and put together this recipe. (I can have whatever I want in my egg roll dangit!) Enjoy!

Homemade Pork Egg Rolls

Ingredients:1 Pkg. 7-inch Egg Roll Wrappers (found in most produce departments)

4 cups Shredded Cabbage
2 Shredded Carrots
2 Stalks of Celery diced
½ Onion diced
½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
½ lb of Ground Pork

To Make Filling:
Season the pork with the spices and some salt. Cook pork thoroughly and drain.

Sauté vegetables until mostly tender, and toss with pork.



To fill wrappers:

This is what the wrappers that they sell in my grocery store look like. You find them off on the side of the produce department by the tofu. (I can tell they are authentic based on their brand name.)

First, get a small bowl of water for wetting the edges of the wrappers. Then set up your workstation something like this:

Put a wrapper down with a corner pointing towards you.

Place ¼ C filling in the lower half.

Fold bottom corner up over filling.

Moisten the other 3 corners.



Fold the two side corners in.


Then roll tightly to secure filling inside.


Voila!



Cooking:
Pan-fry in shallow oil heated to 375* until golden brown.

Serve immediately with soy sauce or sweet & sour sauce for dipping.



You can also freeze for later use.
To reheat from frozen, preheat oven to 450 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes.

Makes 16