Bento challenges – Balancing nutrition with fun

I’ve been making the girls bento boxes for right at a month now, without much of an update, but lots of progress has been made.

I read lots of bento blogs already, so I knew the basic concept along with the really creative, artistic side of things, but in practice, some of it was harder than expected. Here are some of the problems we’ve run into and how they were overcome.

  • Challenge – Incorrect sized bowls
    This is a biggie because the whole idea behind bento boxes is portion control. It was a spur of the moment decision to start sending them, so I made do with what we had. I had too-small bowls and too-large bowls, but nothing in between really, or at least not 3 of any given size.

So I took the too-large bowls and improvised. A slab of styrofoam wrapped in aluminum foil in the bottom of each bowl cut the room in half. Then I bought more appropriate-sized bowls over the weekend. They’re still slightly larger than they should be for kids, but I make it work.

  • Challenge – Water bottles

In that past when I’ve sent lunches, I tossed in a quarter, too, and they picked up a carton of milk. No milk means I needed to send drinks. The first couple days, I just refilled old water bottles, but those are flimsy, get squished, and the lids don’t always close the way they should.

    I assumed I’d keep using them actually, but while picking up a few other things at Dollar Tree, we found these:

 

Awesome. The best part is, the color options they had were exactly the colors I would need to match their lunch bags. No really, they were the perfect colors, see?

They’re a great size, seal well, and the girls like them, so works for me.

  • Challenge – No fancy silicone cups to separate possible messes

Ideally, I would have little cups like those to separate any potential liquidy items. Or items that would have a tendency to go all over the bento box if flipped upside down or something (because the cup tops would press tightly against the bento lid, keeping loose items in place regardless).

Instead, I’ve taken to improvising.

Here, I stacked some crackers and used a paper muffin tin liner just touch the top of the lid and help hold the contents in place.

In the same one, I also had a paper towel cradle to hold some frozen strawberries that I knew would thaw by lunch time and could be quite the mess.

^ A simple divider to help keep the pasta sauce from mixing with the greek salad dressing.

If all else fails, I have some tiny glad bowls with lids to guarantee certain foods will stay put. I’ve also used ziplocs a few times, just in case. While I enjoy doing the boxes because it cuts down on waste of things like baggies for sandwiches, chips, etc, I have no problem using a few here or there to keep things going smoothly.

Stuck in the garbage disposal? Tongs to the rescue!

Cup stuck in a garbage disposal, using tongs to remove retrieve it

We’ve had the garbage disposal for 8 months now without any major problems. Then twice in one week, this happened. Somehow, of all the dishes that were placed in the sink first, this one little plastic cup managed to slide right into the garbage disposal hole.

 

And this perfectly sized cup was also just tall enough that it couldn’t be pushed farther into the disposal so I could reach in, get a grip, and pull it out. It was also just short enough there was no lip I could grab onto it from this angle either. It was wedged as tight as can be without wanting to go up or down.

 

So tongs it was! It was still difficult to get the tongs wedged in and secure a grip, but once I did, it came right out. Well, and then right back in a few days later, but that’s beside the point…

 

Cup stuck in a garbage disposal, using tongs to remove retrieve it

Freezer beef stew in a bag

I love beef stew, but don’t always feel like making it from scratch. Actually, more often than not, beef stew ends up being the result of me making a roast with potatoes, and the following day, if there are any leftovers (there usually aren’t), then I’ll toss them in a pan, add some gravy and broth, and maybe toss in some frozen veggies.

For Christmas, though, I had a friend of the family on my gift list who always buys whatever he wants and would be upset if we bought him anything anyway. He’s not in the best of health, though, and one of the main reasons is that he doesn’t cook any more and has no one to cook for him, so he eats out. A lot.

When my mom saw him starting to make some efforts in the right direction, though, she had a brilliant idea and asked me to execute it. She wanted a freezer basket full of several homemade, slightly healthier versions of foods he already enjoys, that he could just heat up at home whenever.

“Beef stew in a bag” or “freezer beef stew” is something that I’d wanted to do for myself anyway and hadn’t gotten around to, so it was one of the first things I was sure to add to my list.

That’s the original picture I saw associated with the recipe on Once A Month Mom. It’s Real Mom Kithen’s post on her site that has the instructions and quantities, so after a bit of searching, I finally found it (yay for moving sites and redirecting….boo for all the links being broken, though).

Check out this link for the original. I didn’t follow it exactly, so here’s the best I can guess is my modified version below. I mostly just eyed it and tossed in more or less veggies, depending on what I had chopped and in front of me. This is definitely best done by chopping everything at once and then splitting amongst bags.


Freezer Beef Stew in a Bag

2 small chopped onions
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups chopped potatoes
1.5 cups chopped green beans (I used frozen in two bags and fresh in another)
1.5 cups diced celery
Whatever other veggies you might like in your stew
2 lbs preferred beef, chopped into large chunks (I had a 7ish lb roast that I split between 3 bags)
3.5 cups beef stock
3 tsp. worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. pepper
¼. tsp. thyme
1 tsp. salt
4 T. flour
1 tsp. garlic
3 tsp. tomato paste

Layer all the meat and veggies into a gallon-size ziploc freezer bag. The prettier, the better, hehe. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Mix spices, broth, and paste into a bowl and taste test before dumping into the bag as well…adjust according to your tastes. Be sure to label your bags with the date and cooking instructions.

To serve, thaw in the fridge overnight and cook in a crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. You can also do it on the stove on low for about 35-40 minutes, according to Real Mom Kitchen. Just cook until the stew is thick and the veggies are cooked thoroughly. If you like your stew thicker, mix a bit of cornstarch and cold water together, then add to the pot and keep simmering.

I considered browning and seasoning the meat first or even including it in a small ziploc bag by itself, included within the large one, so that he (or I, when I pull out mine) could brown it in hot oil before it being tossed in with the rest of the stew. Ultimately, though, it was for convenience’s sake, so it all went into the bag and is ready to all be tossed in a crockpot all day as well. Easy peasy. Except without peas.