itty bitty fish

To celebrate the start of the Vancouver Olympic Games, I put together a red [strawberries], white [pita triangles] and blue [blueberries] snack tray for the bitty ones. As you can see, there was also yellow [hummus], brown [honey roasted peanuts] and green [Snapea Crisps - the ONLY vegetable twofish will eat].

Onefish and twofish polished off the entire spread during the qualifying rounds of the men’s ski jumping.

Please forgive the lack of updates. We were on vacation at the beach this past week swimming with the itty bitty fishies. [And some sharks and dolphins. Yes, seriously.] Since we’ve gotten back, onefish and twofish have been monopolizing my photo editing/blog writing time. I promise many fun updates this coming week. So, stay tuned…

As this was my week to do snacks for onefish’s preschool class, I decided to make my [itty bitty kitty] honey waffles. I also made some banana flowers. You know, just in case someone didn’t want waffles.

What I didn’t plan on was how long it would take me to make an entire class-worth of [itty bitty kitty] waffles. Prepping and mixing [which I did the night before] only took about 15 min, but the actual cooking of the waffles was about an hour in the morning. It takes 4+ minutes to cook each batch of 4 [itty bitty kitty] waffles, and then about a couple minutes to take them out and refill. And, I made over 30 waffles each day. Both days, the plate came back like this:

The first day the plate came back completely empty, I was worried I hadn’t made enough waffles for the kids, but the teachers exchanged a slightly impish, knowing glance and admitted they had finished what was left over. I also overheard some of the kids talking their parents about the waffles. So, yeah… totally worth the effort.

I love bluefish. He works hard day in, day out and never expects meals to be made for him. However, I do enjoy feeding him and making things he likes to eat. So, it’s been a pleasure to see him devour almost everything I’ve made since I started this blog. One thing he loves [but doesn't make for himself because of his work schedule] is fresh cut vegetables. So, today I gave him some veggie flowers:

They were not hard to make. I just peeled and cut some carrot sticks, cut up some avocado for the “grass”, used my flower veggie cutter for the blossoms [Xan enjoyed some carrot blossoms today, as well!] and I served it with a side of sweet honey Catalina dressing. And, don’t worry about the leftover carrot being wasted. I enjoyed those pieces while I was fixing the snack!

No, not the ones about the meaning of life (though, the answer to most of those would be: to drink, be merry and eat fun food!) – the ones about the hows and wheres of my bento. Some of my friends contacted me outside of this blog to ask the following questions:

* When do you make these; night before, nap time, or with itty bitty helpers?

All of the above. And, it’s not as time consuming as it might seem. I actually find cooking even semi-complex recipes more time consuming than creating fun bento lunches/meals.

* Where did you get the plane and train shaped cutters? Did you use mini size cutters or regular size cutters?

Most of my food cutters are mini aluminum cookie cutters made by Fox Run (which I buy through Amazon.com), but R & M makes some really cute mini cutters, as well.

* What do you do with the extra bits of turkey you have left after cutting out your shapes?

I (or bluefish) eat them. Yum.

* Where did you buy the bento boxes?

My favorite place to get bento boxes is Happy Japan. They’re in Nashville, TN (in case any of you are local to that area), have tons of cute bento accessories, very reasonable/fast shipping, and great customer service. They’re currently back-ordered on some products which they said should have in stock in the next couple of weeks.

* Is there an English website that sells the egg yolk shapers?

Yes! You can get them from Happy Japan (though I believe they’re out of stock right now) and JBox.

* Where did you get that camera?

Heh. I shoot with a Canon 5D mark II. If you’re looking to get a DSLR, I would get it from a reputable seller like B&H Photo.

* Would you come be Personal Chef for my kids and me?

I bet you can cook WAY better than I can! And, bento is fun and easy to learn. It’s especially fun to make it with your little ones!

This was our dinner last night:

I wanted to make something that everyone could eat that was fun, fresh and appetizing. Onefish, bluefish and I love almost everything you see there (the turkey rolls have avocado and mozzarella inside them). Twofish, who is only 14 months old, can’t get enough of hummus and fresh fruit so she was covered with this spread. Also, that fresh garlic bread was amazing. I’m embarrassed to say it wasn’t from scratch (or even from my bread maker), but the fresh garlic butter-sauce was all mine. It was quite a hit with everyone, and everything but a couple baby carrots were gone when I carried the tray back into the kitchen.

Hello Kitty turns 35 this year! How do I know this? Well, both of us were born in 1974. Earlier this year, I bought a couple Hello Kitty shaped ice packs for the bitty fishes’ bumps and bruises. We call them boo-boo kitties. So, now onefish thinks Hello Kitty is actually called boo-boo Kitty. And, he loves boo-boo kitty. I’ve seen the hello kitty vegetable cutters and egg shapers (both are on my I Would Like list), but they are expensive for what they are… and I was really hoping for something that would make sweet treats for the kids for bento box desserts or anytime treats. I saw the Hello Kitty waffle maker on Amazon, but it was out of stock. After some searching, I found out that it has been discontinued. There are a couple being sold on Ebay for $60, but they still had some in-stock at toysRus.com (<- I was hoping to link you to the item, but they are now sold out) for $25. I snatched one up, and I'm so glad I did.

Last night we made chocolate chip Kitty, Cathy & Tippy waffles. They were so cute (as you can see) and delicious! And, Cathy and Tippy are the perfect side for toddler hands, while Kitty is the perfect size for slightly larger hands. Like mine.

I was feeling lazy yesterday so, for a late afternoon snack, I dressed up some instant Yakisoba noodles for the bitty fish. Onefish also got a hard-boiled egg (shaped with my new car egg mold) which he was so anxious to eat I couldn’t get my camera before he took a bite!

Twofish likes any and all noodles. Especially noodles with really messy sauce on them. However, she was also quite happy to nosh on these not-so-messy noodles.