Half Day = A Big Snack!

Today my 5 year old has a half day. This means no lunch. I thought I could try and increase her snack and see how she does. My friend Denise, mentioned that this is what she usually does too. 


Since my daughter decided on breakfast and lunch for her first day of school, I thought I'd let her pick what we ate for dinner. She picked pizza. Gluten-free pizza and a salad with balsamic dressing. I really love Bob's Redmill Homemade Wonderful Bread mix. I use it instead of the GF Pizza Crust mix because it tastes better in my opinion. We put onions, spinach and olives. I don't eat dairy so I made the other half without cheese. 


For her snack today, I popped in a slice of the left-over pizza, sans onions (notice the circles in the pizza?). Cut it into small bite size squares.

Added some celery sticks, a clementine and a cloth fold-over baggie filled with dried mango and trail mix. Today I used the medium container from the nesting food container set. The lid works really well as a plate so she can pour her trail mix into it and search out all the chocolate chips. :-D

Her cloth napkin is used to tie Furoshiki. I'll put it into her backpack with her Kleen Kanteen water bottle and she is ready to go! This would have worked as a lunch for her too!

*I added a little note in there to let her know how much I love her!

Outstanding for Oatmeal!

Off to storytime. The girls ate a little bit before storytime, but I know if I can pack some food, they will enjoy listening to storytime a little more. So I packed 1 instant oatmeal packet using one of the nested stainless steel food storage containers and put some organic raspberries on top. Add a spork and cloth napkin and we are set! I like the snug fit of the lid to be able to pack things like oatmeal with out leaking.
Don't know how to pack it all together? Use your cloth napkin and tie a Furoshiki wrap.
My 3 year old likes carrying it like a clutch purse....Furoshiki, what a genius idea.

I sell the stainless steel food storage containers as a set of 3, small, medium and large. This is the small size shown. They are perfect for packing leftovers or round bento boxes too! Please check out www.om-goods.com for more information on the nested stainless steel food storage containers.

Perfect breakfast for work

My husband had to go to LA for work and didn't have time to eat at home. I quickly packed him a breakfast with the 2-tier tiffin. One tier has yogurt, granola drissled with some grade B maple syrup and the other tier is bananas, strawberries and grapes. I love the handy bamboo spork, it's so small it fits in the tiffin and you don't need to pack any other utensils!


This is my 3 year old's hand, trying to sneak a bite!


Furoshiki of course! Here my 3 year old is holding his breakfast.

Play tea set with Furoshiki gift wrap

I really enjoy gift giving. I went to an antique boutique today looking for a birthday present for a 5 year old girl. I found this darling tea set.


The owner of the boutique gave me this box and I had the tissue paper.


I wanted to make her a pretty table cloth to go with her play tea set. I took half a yard of fabric and finished all the raw edges with 1/4 inch seams.


I thought this fabric complemented the gifts so well.
Used the fabric to tie furoshiki instead of using wrapping paper. Voila! Any eco-friendly gift!!

Breakfast at the zoo

My 2 1/2 year old was very hungry when she woke up and wanted to go to the zoo. We try to go to the zoo 1-2 times a week since we are members and it's only 5 miles away from where we live. So I packed our 3 tier tiffin with breakfast food and headed out to the zoo!

Here's a picture of our lunch container wrapped in a cloth napkin using Furoshiki:


The cloth napkin helps insulate the tiffin lunchbox and you have a eco-friendly napkin to tote along too. It's very easy to tie furoshiki and you can be very creative and use your imagination.

From Furoshiki.com "Originating from Japanese culture where it promotes caring for the environment and reducing waste; Furoshiki is the eco-friendly wrapping cloth. Using techniques similar to origami, it can be used for gift wrapping, grocery shopping or simply as decor. Choose from a wide variety of sizes and designs to complement your lifestyle."

Here is how I tied it:

Then I added the spoon on top and voila! You have made a furoshiki tiffin!!

My 3 year old insists on eating her meal near the elephants. We found a nice shady table by the elephant mesa, laid out her breakfast and let her have at it! I love that stainless steel is so convenient for children and doesn't leach chemicals, BPA etc. like plastic does:


This is the 3-tier tiffin, it comes with 3 containers and 2 plates in between them. For breakfast, I packed, 2 organic hard-boiled eggs, strawberries, 3 clemintines, cubed organic raw cheese, carrot sticks, a handful of cashews, hulled pumkin seeds (pepitas) and raisins. Not shown is her klean kanteen sippy cup which I just love! I think I was one of klean kanteens first customers in 2003 when I bought my kanteen!