KK's Busy Famblog

More on Bento Lunch Making featuring Melanie Rosson!

    On my quest to learning how to make cool bento lunches I stumbled across a cool chick named Melanie Rosson on Instagram.  She posts several pics of her bento art which is really amazing by the way and her work has just been inspiring to me as I'm learning about this whole art of bento making.  Melanie has always been gracious enough to answer my questions share tips and tricks to make things that look so hard quite easy.

    The more I thought about it I figured hey since I'm getting so many inquiries lately about bento lunches and I'm all about making lunch fun and healthy for kids through my latest blog posts, why not ask Melanie to share some of her tips and tricks right here on my BusyFamblog? So here you have it people, I have the pleasure of introducing Melanie Rosson!

    Read on to see what she shared with BusyFams about how she got started with bento art and just how she does some of these amazing and tasty looking lunches. All pics you see in this post are from just some of her awesome work! 

BusyFams- How did you get into making these bento lunches? 

Melanie- A few months ago I downloaded the instagram application for the first time. I was perusing photos when I came across an adorable food creation by another bento maker. I checked out the hashtags and looked for more like it. I thought, "I want to try this." So I searched for how-to websites and researched more about it. My first attempt just utilized some cute cookie and sandwich cutters. My second, I actually tried to cut a smiley face out of nori and attached it to some spring rolls. After that, I slowly got better, and now I really enjoy and am pretty happy with almost every bento box I turn out. 

BusyFams- What are some key tools/accessories to have for people just getting started with this? 

Melanie- For charaben bento, you definitely need a straight edge to cut nori (seaweed) and other ingredients such as white cheese or deli meat. It makes things a lot easier and neater if you have some nori punches to cut out some staple shapes and faces too. It is also essential to have a few different sized silicone baking or separating cups so as to split up your food in the box. Cookie cutters also makes things easier, and shapes more uniform. You can use them to trace and cut shapes out of fruit, vegetables, cheese, and deli meat. Larger ones you can also use to shape rice balls. 

BusyFams- What are some good tricks to know as far as things to always aim for when making a bento lunch (a good rule of thumb)? 

Melanie- It can be easy to get carried away with making a bento box pretty, (I do!) but it's important to remember to make it taste good too! It is food after all. So do spend time preparing side dishes and planning what you need to pickup at the grocery store. I like to always plan that I'm making the lunch for someone else (as I often actually am) so I try to think about what would make a fulfilling lunch for them as well as be nice to look at.

BusyFams- What's the most common food/ingredient you use in your lunches? 

Melanie- The most common food you'll see in my lunches are rice balls, or onigiri. Rice balls can be shaped with your hands in plastic wrap, or with cutters or molds. Plus, a rice ball is very durable and not too messy. They're really easy to turn into faces! But I also utilize mini sandwiches sometimes. as they don't take as much time. But it's more challenging to get a clean look with sandwiches.

BusyFams- How long does it take on average to make a nice looking bento lunch? 

Melanie- When people ask me this, I say at least an hour. But for me, when I try to make a specific character, theme, or design while still putting a nice assortment of tasty prepared food in the box, it takes more like 2-3 hours. If you have most of your food and design idea prepped beforehand though, you can cut that time down immensely.

BusyFams- Do you have any recommendations of books or websites for people to learn more about making bento lunches?

Melanie- I got started with the book Yum Yum Bento Box, and did google searches for beginner's tutorials. The bento tutorial blog I've looked at the most is http://bentomonsters.com. I don't recommend The Just Bento Cookbook unless you have no interest in charaben bento.

    If you are thinking about trying this, stop thinking and go for it! Anyone can do it...look at how Melanie got started.  She was just inspired and now she is doing amazing stuff.  Again, we don't have to be all fancy with it. Get only as carried away as you like.  It doesn't take much to put together a quick, colorful, and tasty lunch for your kids or loved ones.  

    Also, a lot of people have been asking me where I got my stainless steel lunch box that I've been posting my own bento pics in.  I got that from Planet Box and if it seems too pricey I also found another great eco friendly lunchbox that is perfect for bento lunches at Laptop Lunches.They are less pricey and have a beautiful variety to choose from with links to cool creativity tools like veggies cutters and bento dividers. Check em' out! I think I'm gonna get one from them too. 

BusyFams thanks Melanie Rosson! 

For more on Melanies work follow her here: 

 FB, Twitter, and Boss Bento

  

Kids Lunch Coming Home Untouched? Jazz up Their Lunch!

                                

Ok so let me make clear that I am not an expert on fancy shmancy food presentation.  However, after my experience last year with my then 1st grader coming home with untouched lunch I needed a solution for this year.  I browsed the internet and stumbled across something really cool.  Drum roll please....Bento box lunches!  I admit I've seen this stuff many times before and would pay little
attention because I just always assumed it was too complicated and time consuming and did I mention complicated? Yeah so I finally explored this idea of making bento style lunches a bit more and came to the conclusion that it's actually easy, pretty (which can be quite irresistible to picky eaters), can be quite healthy, and fun to prepare! 

If you don't know what bento even means, here is a quick run down straight from a really user friendly site called  Lunch In a Box:

A bento lunch is a compact, balanced, visually appealing meal packed in a box. Historically, it’s a Japanese box lunch, similar in concept to the Indian tiffin, the Korean dosirak, or the Filipino baon lunch. In Japanese, “bento” or “obento” refers to the packed meal, and “bento-bako” refers to the bento box itself.

I was really inspired by all of the info out there.  I even purchased a book for just 10 bucks that seemed like an easy beginners guide for making these things. I learned that you can really pack whatever you want in a bento lunch (Any cuisine) and you can even salvage dinner leftovers in a bento lunch.  There are so many possibilities!  I even learned about how to make rice balls and sushi with whatever fillings I wanted. Molds for making shapes are really inexpensive and can be found on Amazon. I encourage you to check out the link above to Lunch In a Box and also find a book to help start you off.  I purchased a book called Yum-Yum Bento Box just because it was inexpensive and I saw good reviews on Amazon for this.  It gives a good list of supplies/accessories to use for making the various shapes and for cutting the foods. I really like that the book also gives prep times for the different lunches and lots of pictures. 

FYI- I'm not getting any kind of pay or incentive for sharing this info.  This is all out of my own desire to just share something that is working for me. There are a ton of other bento making books too that you can research on Amazon or just the internet in general.  I just like to look at the reviews to see what other people think. As far as finding a bento box or lunch container to do this with, just check out the links above as well.  As for myself, I use Planet Box. This is a really cool stainless steel (dishwasher safe!) lunch box that can serve as a bento box and my kids absolutely love it.  So far (knock on wood), this whole bento adventure is a success! 

Here are some photos (including the first one above) of how some of my stuff came out...keep in mind I'm still learning..lol! The others within my blog are from Alphamom and A Place called Joy. 

Hope you like this post and give this a shot.  If you have suggestions or knowledge on making bento lunches,please do share! I would love to know more so please please leave a comment!  Good luck!

           

                               

                                       

                                            

Here is something you can do with simple hotdogs (I used the Hebrew National brand, but you can use just about any knid).  I made a face on one and the other I just wrapped some nori around.  There is an even cuter way to make these...In the pic above I just cut the hot dog in half the long way then split open down the middle. From there I just slit like three lines along the bottoms for the legs...or whatever they are...lol. The idea is so that you have something that will look like an octopus.  After cutting the hot dog, you can boil or lightly fry until the leggy things curl.  I wrapped some fried egg around mine with nori and this could go in a bento with  rice balls and whatever else you would like.

This wasn't the best explanation so here is a link that explain better: 

For the octodog (hot dog octopus)

 

15 Ideas For Family Summer Fun

It's finally here. Summertime is in full effect.  What better time than now to start getting back outdoors? Allergies are settled down, the weather is nice, and there are so many fun things to do.  I've come up with some ideas for a Summer Bucket list that I will be exploring with my family this year and I thought I'd just share them in case anyone wants to entertain a few.  

#1 -Almost everyone lives somewhat close to a historical landmark.  If you do and haven't experienced (or if it's been a good while since you last experienced) the fun right
under your nose, go ahead and stop taking it for granted. Go walk a bridge, visit a museum, a National Park, etc. Get out and explore with the family and make a day of it.  You can teach the kiddos something while you are at it. Check the internet for local landmarks near you. 

#2 -Build a terrarium. A friend of mine inspired this one for me.  He just learned about making terrariums and quickly became awesome at it.  It is not hard at all to get started with making
terrariums. This can be fun and educational. Start out by getting a good book about how to build
terrariums and visit a local nursery for plants. How to build a terrarium.


#3 -Add a bird bath and/or bird house to your back yard. I was in an arts and crafts store the other day and saw all kinds of bird houses and baths that you could design, paint, build, or even some that were ready made.  This is surprisingly really affordable (can be under 20 bucks!) and could be a lot of fun for the kids as well as educational. See what The Bird Depot shares as well as good deals- How to make a bird house.

#4 -Make cake pops for the 4th of July. There are so many great 4th of July recipes out there right now.  Here is one that I think I'm going to try from  Taste and Tell Blog

OR if you want something a little more fruity, try blueberry/strawberry/whipped cream cups. This can also be prepared in one big dish. Red White and Blue desserts.

#5 -Go to the library to check out some good books and then read outside somewhere. 

#6 -Make a lemonade stand. You can be as creative as you want with this one as far as building a stand.  Otherwise, you can always buy one that is already made.  Making the lemonade could be a fun creative part as well.  You could even get fancy and have different flavor lemonades. Do you know some recipes for different lemonades besides lemon and strawberry? Please share!


#7 -Create an outdoor movie theatre. Project a movie outside in the backyard- have popcorn and grill up some dinner.  There are many different selections of projectors and screens. Check Amazon and Walmart for some reasonable deals. I've even just used a white sheet for a screen and that worked just fine.  


#8 -Go bowling or play miniature golf. This is easy and just plain fun; especially when you are with a good crowd. 

#9 -Have a water balloon toss/play in the sprinklers and add water guns to the mix. Sometimes its just so hot and this is a great way to cool off. Check out Amazon for a cool selection of water guns and water toys. 


#10 -Have a yard sale- Make a party out of setting it up and tearing it down at the end of the day. Who says a yard sale cant be fun? DIY life shares How to Hold a Profitable and Fun Yard Sale

#11 -Fly a kite! Simple fun that is priceless! Everything you need to know about kites.


#12 -Go bike riding to get lunch. That way you get fun time plus exercise before and after stuffing yourself! 

#13 -Go to a beach and build a sand castle. I have no idea how to build a sand castle, but I sure want to. Here is some helpful info to get you started from what you need to how to build one.

#14 -Plant a garden. Don't have a suitable area? Get a half barrel and do a small garden with summer veggies or herbs. See what Eat Close To Home says about starting a garden from scratch.

Learn from DIY Network how to make a container theme garden.


#15 -Treasure walk. Give the kids each a little bucket. Go on a walk and let them collect treasures they find along the way – leaves, rocks, flowers, bugs. Don't let those "treasures" enter the house though! See how Audra from Rediscovering Domesticity does this walk with her family.


So there you have it! Hope you try out something on this list to spread some fun into your summer this year.  I would love to know more ideas that you could add. Please share in my comments section; especially ideas that can keep families within a reasonable budget. 

Happy Summer!

Skip The "Commercial" Valentines This Year

 

I have to admit that Valentines day just feels like another overrated commercial holiday.  The cards, the candy, the flowers, and all of the stuff on sale that simply involve spending money and signing a card. yay. That just spills "I love you" all over the place huh? Dont get me wrong, I do love it when people try to make it meaningful and get creative...cook a romantic dinner or do something to spend quality time together. It's also cool when kids can get creative too and spare parents from having to go buy a box of TV character valentine cards only to be thrown away after the candy or whatever gift attached is devoured at the class Valentines Day party.

That said, this year I wanted to find a creative way for my kids to do their valentines for school, but I wasn't sure where to start. Well, thanks to my friends at Family Sponge who shared info from a really awesome site called Mustard Seeds I became inspired by the "Wood You Be My Valentine" project. Not only was it creative, but it was fun, it allowed my family to spend some quality time together, the kids learned something, and all while still achieving the valentines for my daughters 1st grade class.  

To top it off, I spent less money than I did last year and don't have the guilt of sugaring up anybody's kids! At least if I don't decide to add just a little candy...lol. Take a look! Just watch the video below or use this link to it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and so I know you stopped by!  

 Enlarge the video by clicking the bottom right corner of it.