Red Heart Risotto

Jeremy goes to school for 12 straight hours on Mondays, so that meant we definitely did not have some amazing Valentine's Day planned.  In fact a student asked Jeremy what his plans were and he told her he was in class until 7:30.  So she asked what his plans were for after that.  Jeremy said, "I dunno--maybe watch a movie?"

I told Jeremy that I'm sure he completely crushed that poor girl's dreams about life after marriage!  Because after you get married you're supposed to have romantic special Valentine's Days forever--right?!

Well since we had zero plans for actually doing anything special I thought the least I could to was make a celebratory dinner.

I saw some ideas online for using beets to make "pink" rice salads for Valentine's Day.  I loved the idea but wanted to be sure it would actually be enjoyable to eat not just look at so I really didn't want to experiment with a new recipe.   I thought about just making rice balls, but since Owen wasn't a huge fan of the beets last time I served them (just steamed with butter and salt) I thought I would need to flavor them a little more.  Then I realized the perfect recipe to use.
 

   Risotto.  My family loves risotto.  It's very basic, but the broth and cheese make it very flavorful--I knew it would be perfect to add beets to.  All I did to make it red was add the raw beets to simmer in the broth and they bled their color into the broth which I was using to cook the rice.  Thus we ended up with striking red rice.  And cute little heart-shaped beets as well. 

And it was as big a hit as I hoped for.  Owen ate the beets up (of course he did have to remind me before trying them that he didn't like beets last time), Jeremy got a special dinner, though it wasn't the candle-lit sit down dinner of anyone's dreams, and I was satisfied with a job well done--it's always nice when things turn out like you hope. 

For the sake of interest, beets aren't the only thing you can cut into hearts either.  I also put heart-shaped carrots and strawberries in Owen's lunch Monday.

I also saw some more great ideas for heart shaped food.  Next year Owen's bento box will be filled with heart-shaped food!  (I can dream.)



Red Heart Risotto

1 medium beet-washed and peeled
3 tablespoons butter-separated
1/2 cup onion-diced
1 cup rice (traditionally Arborio)
1/2 cup white wine (or substitute with more broth)
4 cups chicken broth
2oz fresh Parmesan cheese--grated (matchbook sized piece ungrated about 1/4 cup grated)

Put 2 tbsp butter in a large saute pan.  Add diced onions and cook until softened.  Meanwhile put broth in a pot over medium low heat an bring to a simmer.  Cut beets and add to simmering broth.

I cut the beet into 1/4 inch round slices.  Then cut each round like a pizza into 6 wedges.  Then shaped each wedge into a heart.  I tossed all the hearts and all the little trimmings into the broth.

When onions are softened, add the rice and stir for 1 minute to absorb any extra butter.  Add the wine and stir until rice has absorbed all the liquid.  Keeping the broth at a low simmer, adding it to the rice 1/2 cup at a time, waiting each time to add more until the liquid is mostly absorbed, stirring often.  The whole process should take about 30 minutes.  With the last 1/2 cup of broth transfer the beets into the rice pan as well.  When all the liquid is mostly absorbed turn off the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the cheese.  Add salt if needed and pepper.  Serve hot!

This is a good recipe without the beets as well.  Usually when we make it I put two tablespoons of putter in a different saute pan and 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms.  I cook those down and add them when I add the cheese.  Delicious and creamy and we'll eat it for our main dish.

October Bento

Happy First of October!

Peanut butter Pumpkin sandwich.  A ghost egg with nori eyes.  Mozzarella moons.  Sweet pepper pumpkins atop black olive fenceposts on a bed of spooky orange carrot sticks.

The Big Guns

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.   

American Bento

You know you are a strange Mom when the reason you are excited for your child to start kindergarten is because then you get to start packing him a lunch. 

This summer Jeremy bought me this book Yum-Yum Bento Box.  I've had tons of fun looking through it.  Although a lot of the food is traditional Japanese I still got lots of great ideas from the book.  It promotes the idea that lunches from home can be fun and appetizing, asside from what the term "brown bagging it" would suggest.  Also, that packing your children's lunches can be a creative outlet for parents instead of a drudgery.  It definitely fits our household food philosophy.

Jeremy tried the recipe in the book for basic rice balls and they were surprisingly tasty.  So maybe we'll make Owen rice balls once in a while.  But mostly I liked looking at the different presentations of fresh fruit and vegetables, and scoping out supplies I might want for doing Owen's lunch.  Here are my most bento-ie supplies:

Colored plastic toothpicks-- used for spearing things like grapes, cherry tomatoes, olives, or for holding sandwich layers or wraps together.

Cupcake liners--used for segmenting a smaller area off inside a larger container, and holding small pieces of food-- or I was even thinking of making pudding or jello to set up right in the cups and then put them in a box.

Sandwich cutter--Owen has had this dino sandwich cutter for a while and he loves it.  They sell other shapes at the grocery store.  You can use regular cookie cutters as well.  They also can be used for cutting cheese and lunch meats. 

Egg Molds--These are so cool.  Santa got these from e-bay for the boys' stockings last year.  You hard boil an egg then peel it while it is still hot and press it into these molds.  Here's a really bad picture of what they come out looking like:

I didn't get Owen an actual bento box.  Though I really like the Americanized "Laptop Lunchbox," and I only yesterday saw an add for these cool segmented containers.   But I think I prefer the versatility of a bunch of different containers that can fit into the lunch bag. 

Here's my stash, some are new, some are old. Those little containers with the maroon lids are from the thrift store.  I thought that smallest one might be good for dip for carrot sticks or something.  A drink bottle.  Some little hologram snack cups--these were in Owen's Schultute this year.  An insulated lunch bag.  My reusable zip-top bags. A stainless steel Thermos Funtainer (also from Owen's Schultute) for soups in the fall and winter.  And two sandwich boxes.  One was from the Target dollar spot last year--though I think they have them again--and the black one was a prize from a Tupperware party--Sweet!

Delicious and -mostly- healthy foods are placed in an assortment of containers.

And they all fit inside.  --Insert happy competent-as-a-parent feelings here--