Yum-Yum Bento Box

I promised a post a Bento, and here it is. Yum-Yum Bento Box by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa is full of fun, easy ideas to bring your usual boring lunchbox from meh to wow! Crystal Watanabe makes bento boxes for her two preschool-aged children; her Web site “Adventures in Bento Making” is a popular forum for bento makers worldwide. Maki Ogawa is a mother whose bentos have been featured in many Asian magazines. She lives in Japan. In Japan, Bento Box lunches are a healthy lunch where mothers and fathers get to express their creativity and their love for their children. I was so intrigued, I had to get this book. It is full of easy step-by-step recipes that are so simple. I thought it would be so hard to make the fun foods I saw in the book, but they were so easy, and fun. I am intrigued by the creativeness of the adorable Bento Box Lunch designs. They really are an art-form.

Chapters include instructions for classic bento boxes and character-driven bentos (called Kyaraben), plus shopping advice, general tips and tricks, and much more. Stop wasting money on prepackaged lunches-and start making beautiful, healthy bentos!

I have to say I was pretty impressed with my first attempts. They look (almost) like the picture. I think Yum-Yum Bento Box is perfect for adults and children alike. Who could not use a little more whimsy (and healthy, fresh, food) in their lives?

Livin' Spoonful for Happy Snacking

I often write about trying to feed my family healthier foods. It can be a slippery slope. Now that my daughter is in school a few days a week, I am faced with snack-time. You would think this would be easy, but it always turns into a conversation the night before. My daughter is a good eater, but I also want her having something healthy. Her new obsession is crackers, crackers, crackers. She loves them with goat cheese brie (don't ask!) and with fruit spreads, and even alone. After looking at the unpronounceable ingredients on a cracker box from the market, I got to researching. I found Livin' Spoonful. Mommy and baby are happy.
Livin' Spoonful makes crackers that are gluten free and nut free. They use sprouted sunflower seeds that are naturally Gluten-Free. The sprouted sunflower seeds are packed full of vitamins and enzymes that usually get destroyed by most factory processes. This makes them very digestable. The crackers are dehydrated at very low temperatures instead of baking. Dehydrating helps to preserver the fragile enzymes and vitamins in the food.

You can even see pieces of vegetables in the crackers! Because we don’t add high heat, the ingredients don’t get chemically altered. It’s just like eating straight out of the garden!
Livin' Spoonful uses the highest quality organic ingredients available, sourced locally whenever possible. When you want exceptional flavor, you have to start with exceptionally good ingredients. Our vegetables are fresher and our carbon footprint is lower. And we’re contributing to our local economy.

They taste of these crackers really speak for themselves. With flavors like Pumpkin Pesto and even Pizza, you are sure to find a winner for your family. My daughter likes Coconut Curry the best, and I am partial to the Caraway Crisps. My husband thinks the best are the Sunny Garden Herb, he says it reminds him of being in the garden harvesting out crop rather than in an office all day. Hey whatever works right?

We have used these to replace those boxes of crackers with ingredients we cannot even pronounce. I know are bodies are thanking us.

Brad's Raw Foods

I am always looking for healthy snacks for my family. I have to admit that when it comes to choosing something to snack on, healthy does not always win. We like Brad's Raw Foods when we want a delicious snack that has that crunch without all of those bad-for-you ingredients. Brad's Raw Foods was started by Brad. He realized how unhealthy he felt and because necessity is the mother of invention, he created his own line of healthy snacks to make his raw diet even more delicious. The chips are not fried or baked and are all vegan and gluten free making them a healthy snack for the entire family. You may be skeptical...can a healthy chip really taste good? You betcha! The raw chips and raw snacks from Brad's Raw Foods are all so tasty, you can fool even the most discerning toddler into forgetting they are actually eating something healthy!
Brad Says:

My mission is to inform people, young and old, of the benefits of eating raw foods.
My chips are made from vegetables grown by local farmers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (when available). Blended with sprouted flax seeds, buckwheat groats, and spices, my chips are rich in protein and enzymes.
The result is a wholesome chip that is both a delicious and complete food.

We are particularly partial to the Kale Chips. My daughter and I fight over who gets them. My four year old has a big thing for the Vampire Killer Leafy Kale Chips. She is a garlic aficionado, so this satisfies her needs for a snack with a kick. She actually taunts me with them, before she gobbles them so I cannot have any. We actually eat the Kale Chips in place of popcorn and crackers now.

I like to serve the Red Bell Pepper chips with homemade hummus. They are the perfect texture!

Be sure to check out Brad's Raw Foods on Facebook, and on Twitter for the latest news and flavors. Happy (healhty) snacking.