feeling better

I feel much better today, so back to making bentos! Asher also seems to be doing better again today. As I've mentioned before, he is intensely interested in food and he likes to stand on his chair and watch/help with food. Today I asked him to get down and go put his monkey slippers under his bed (they were on the kitchen floor). He said "ok" then climbed down and put the monkey slippers away. I was so shocked I went and told Curtis. It was purely wonderful.

I liked today's bento. I've been wanting to add sweet potato into our diet for awhile and I thought it would go well with today's bento. I steamed the sweet potatoes soft and then drizzled a little olive oil over them. Another good way to make them is to slice them and put them on a cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil (or another tasty oil) and bake lightly. They turn out very well!

We are being overrun with peaches in our house so I am using a lot of peaches. I put a few blueberries in there to add some color and a little tangy taste. My mom gave us some absolutely gorgeous tomatoes, so I sliced a small one and put tomato and avocado slices into the bentos. I sprinkled a little salt over them. I put a dab of homemade mayonnaise in between my tomato and avocado because I really like my mayo!

I put some carrots in for a crunch. For protein I used ham slices. These are Hillshire Farms honey ham slices and I called the company to verify that they were gf/cf. The rep told me that they are, and that all Sara Lee brand products clearly state if there is dairy or if the product has been produced in a facility where dairy is used. Nice to know.

I thought I'd share a gf/cf snack idea that worked really well -- I blended up some bananas and coconut milk, then a different fruit with each batch. I poured this mixture into popsicle molds and froze. They came out wonderful and the kids loved them! We had banana peach, banana strawberry, and banana orange (I used orange juice). Very good, and the coconut milk gave a good texture and light flavor!