Saturday, September 3, 2011

My kitchen is always messy!

Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote a blog post. I have been very busy! I knew my life would be chaotic when I got pregnant with my 2nd child but having two is busier than I ever thought possible (in a good way - nothing but joy over here :) ).

Taking pictures for this blog and actually finding the time to sit down and write a post can be challenging. However, I now have even more reasons to keep a record of part of my life, two important ones in fact, my children. I am not a keeping-a-daily-diary kind of woman so hopefully this blog will help me capture various points in my life, and my families as well.

You might be wondering what I've been up to. Why cooking of course! Before my children I used to have time to cook new dishes that I discovered on the Food Network TV channel or in cooking magazines. Those good ol' days are on hold. Now that my son, who is almost 7 months old, eats solid food I have to cook for him separetely from the rest of the family. I feel like I am standing in my kitchen all the time either cooking for everyone or cleaning up the mess I made. To add to this challenge, I now have to pack my daughter's lunch everyday. She started attending preschool for a full day beginning this September 1st. Occasionally I packed lunch for a random school picnic or trip but now that I have to pack lunch everyday I have been stressing out. I am not that good at arranging food in a tiny lunch box. I am hoping that by packing lunch everyday I will get used to it and someday it will be easy and quick.

I am relieved that my daughter has started her preschool because I know she will have a lot of fun with her friends, and I will also get to spend time alone with my son. I spent a lot of one on one time with my daughter for her first 3 years of life. We went for a lot of walks to nearby parks, and yes, our favorite place to visit Pike Place Market! I loved walking there during autumn, winter, and spring. Unlike summer, not so many people were there and it was easy to push a stroller or walk with a wobbly toddler. I know it is not possible to give the exact same experiences to my son, but I want to give him as much as I gave to my daughter.

I have thoroughly enjoyed making my daughter's lunch. Here are some pictures of her bento boxes. I miss her dearly while she is away at school and I wish daily that when she opens her lunch box she will think about me. The photos are not up to my standards, my appologies. I didn't have time to wait for daylight to shine through my windows and to arrange the food on the table and choose the right table cloths and everything else that goes into making a great shot. So these photos will have to due, and are purely for keeping a record of  an important event in my daughter's life, and mine too.



I love this lunch box!


This Mickey lunch box needs more color such as green and red.


This lunch box took a while to make. 


I need to work on the bumble bee. I told my daughter, "This is a bumble bee." She replied, "No mommy, it is not a bumble bee." Children are so honest.


P.S.

This is my son's lunch today. I made a butternut squash puree with a hint of cinnamon and pureed chicken breast for him. He loved it! 



If you have any questions, please let me know.


8 comments:

  1. You are an AWESOME mother, Ai-chan!!!!!

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  2. Maki-chan,

    Thank you! But I think most Japanese mom make bento box better than me and I know most of them don'teven have dish washers and laundry driers. I don't know how they do it.

    I miss you. Hopefully I get to see you soon! :D

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  3. These look amazing!!! Your daughter is a very lucky girl and I'm sure she really appreciates all the love you put into her lunches.

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  4. Hi Pati,

    Thank you for your lovely comment. :) How did you find my blog? I am just curious.

    I hope my daughter knows how much I love her. Maybe she will know when she becomes a mom herself. :)

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  5. I found your blog through abother blog through a link party and I have closed both windows now and can't remember the names of the other blogs! But, I am curious what is under the hello kitty face. Is it mashed potatos? And is the kitty face cheese? I have been trying to do simple, cute lunches for my kids but one of my problems is that things roll around and don't stay put. By the time they eat lunch at school things aren't quite as cute still, but they still love it! thanks for the inspiration!!

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  6. Hi Heather,

    Thank you for visiting my blog. :)

    Under the hello kitty, I put fried rice and then wrapped it with a thinly cooked eggs (like omlete cooked like crepe). I cut the thinly cooked egg with a hello kitty cookie cutter and then also I cute the cheese and put inside. I use seaweed for eyes and nose.

    I know what you mean by trying to make lunch that stays put. They key is to pack everything tight so it will stay in the same spot but it is hard. Even simple lunch box, it is so hard to arrange the food so that looks balanced (in terms of color). I am still learning and somedays are not so cute lunch boxes. Hopefully I will be good at it by the end of her school year.

    I am planning to post lunch boxes for my daughter every weekend so hopefully you will visit this blog again.

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  7. Thanks for answering my question! I am following you now, so I will definitely be stopping back by to see your other cute lunches! I figured out the link party where I found your blog. It was http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/

    Thanks again! I love your cute lunch ideas!

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  8. Hi Heather,

    Thank you for following me. :) I hope my blog will be interesting. I started updating my blog more.

    Also thank you for telling me where you found me. I was curious to know and I found out that my friend had a blog post about me and she linked to the Craftomaniac blog. :)

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