ILoveObento's Xanga

Giveaway* and Happy Anniversary ILoveObento.com!

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:50:07 GMT

New news:
We've waited until May 20, just in case Jana may contact us, but haven't heard from her. So, went to random.org again, and came up with a new winner:

gotfortunecookies

So, congratulations gotfortunecookies, you are our new winner! Message me, and we'll work out the details.
<3
sheri

Old news:
Our lucky winner of the Shinzi Katoh water bottle chosen by random.org is entry #23, Jana! Thanks to everyone for entering! We'll try to have another giveaway soon. Jana, please message me with your address here on xanga, or email me at 'contact@iloveobento.com'.

Jana said...

I love the Laptop Lunch System in Pink (37.99).

Posted 4/11/2009 11:07 AM by Jana

This month we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of ILoveObento! How exciting! To celebrate, we'd like to host an international giveaway*. We'll be accepting entries until April 28, 2009, 11:59pm California time. Rules below. At the end of the giveaway, a winner will be chosen at random, and posted here. The winner will have to claim the prize within 10 days by emailing us name/address. The email address will be available at the time the winner is posted. We will ship this anywhere in the world that we can do so legally. This contest is void where prohibited.

Here's the scoop on the prize...
A nifty little 300ml/1.25cup water bottle by Shinzi Katoh. A little fawn wanders in the forest with blue butterflies. This is a $19.99 value.

Isn't it cute?

Blessings,
Sheri

Official Rules

1. All you do to enter is take a look at www.ILoveObento.com and tell us on this blog (a) what item you like best out of any category and (b) it's price. It's that easy.

2. You will have to check back on April 29, 2009 to see if you won.

3. Contest ends April 28, 2009, 11:59pm California time.

*It's really a "sell-away", because in order to make it perfectly legal in every state and country, we are charging a small fee. You will be billed .01¢, through paypal. If this is a problem, you can also use snailmail.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:36:41 GMT

Valentine's Day came and went here without me doing a single thing, well except making a special heart healthy dinner for everyone. I wanted it to be more special, but was only able to get the food made, and not much extra. My honey brought me my favorite color roses, aren't they beautiful?

For the kids I made dessert, another gluten free experiment which, miraculously turned out well. It's a pink bar sugar cookie with ice cream and chocolate syrup. More gluten free cooking, meal plans and recipes to come. And a happy belated Valentine's Day to all!

Bye-bye to Grains...My Favorite Food

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:50:46 GMT

Hi everybody!
I am so sorry to have taken such a long break. I've been busier than I thought I could be for the last few months. But I feel I may be able to do more food blogging soon. Maybe. By the way...does anyone out there have any experience or advice about feeding someone with Celiac Disease? We now have a tentative diagnosis for one of our boys. I must admit, the thought of trying to tailor two very different diets for two very different conditions in our family reduced me to tears. How could I possibly intertwine a diet for a heart patient and a diet for a Celiac sufferer? The answer is, I probably can't. I don't think I have the energy for it. But, we will see what happens! And thank you ahead of time for any advice or tips you have for a Celiac diet.
Love and blessings,
Sheri

My Frittata...well, minus the cheese

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:24:54 GMT

Finally! I was finally able to pack our new Laptop Lunchbox for my husband. He is very attached to his usual low-fat lunch menu, and will not part with it easily.

Due to the gargantuan bag of spinach I bought a few days ago, and a huge box of mushrooms, we've been having lots of those two things. Last night was Frittata night.

Sheri's Low Fat Frittata

Olive or Canola Oil
1 Large White Onion, diced
3 Cups Sliced Mushrooms
1 Tablespoon Chopped Green Bell Pepper (gives my honey problems, or I'd use a whole one)
1 Fresh Tomato, diced
6 Cups Whole Spinach Leaves
1 Pint of Egg Substitute, or 8 eggs
1/2 Teaspoon Cajun Seasoning, you can sub a mixture of salt/pepper/red pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Garlic Powder or 1 Clove Fresh Garlic (miam miam!)

Add seasonings to egg substitute, and set aside.

Sauté the diced onion and sliced mushrooms for a minute or two, then add the bell pepper. Keep these things cooking, moving them every minute or two, for about 10 minutes on medium heat. When the onions are nice and dark brown, and the bottom of your pan is dark brown, add the diced tomato and spinach (with the rinse water still clinging to the leaves). The liquid from these will deglaze your pan bringing lots of flavor back into your veggie mixture.

Continue to cook, keeping the mixture moving, until the spinach is nice and wilted. Since I love one pan adventures (less cleaning!), I added my egg mixture to the pan and cooked it on low, covered. This did not take long, maybe 5 minutes?

When the bottom was pretty well set, I popped it under the broiler for a few minutes to firm up the top. All done!

Now, the times will vary, mostly depending on the size pan you use. My pan is giant, so the whole mixture was less than an inch thick when done. You could also transfer the mixture to a baking pan and bake it. I'll have to look up times for that if anyone is interested.

So, he ended up with Frittata, Sliced Avocado sprayed with Balsamic Breeze Low Fat Salad Dressing, Applesauce with Dried Cherries, Baby Carrots with Cream Cheese dip*.

*Low(er) Fat Cream Cheese Dip
8 ounces Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 cup Fat Free Sour Cream, room temperature
Dried Dill
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Salt

Blend these ingredients together, tasting as you go!! If I had to guess on the seasonings, I would guess...1/4 Teaspoon of each.

Enjoy!
Sheri

Wanna see my bento store? Click here. Or click here to go directly to the Laptop Lunchbox.

Scooper Nachos!

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:18:39 GMT

Many of you know, we try to be careful what fats we eat around our house. We love olive oil, canola oil, and flax seed oil (well...maybe not the taste, but the benefits of that one!). But other oils and fats we try to keep to a minimum. Like...no fried chips. For old people like me, it is easy to remember the days before tons of variety in low-fat foods. But now! So many fun and easy choices. We have really been enjoying baked Tostitos Scoops®. They only have 3g fat per ounce, thats about 14 chips! Since we love Mexican food, I thought I'd try these nachos for a bento. This is a great recipe for using leftovers, I know, because that's what I did!

Scoops® Nachos

Tostitos Baked Scoops
Pam Cooking Spray
Fat Free Refried Beans
Jalepeños, sliced...I didn't have any =(
Chopped tomatoes, drained
Queso Fresco
...Serve with
Avocado
Fat Free Sour Cream
Shredded Lettuce
Salsa
Spanish Rice

Pick out unbroken Scoops for your nachos, and place them on a baking pan. Spray lightly with Pam. This will help keep them a little crisper.

Heat the beans a little so they'll be easier to work with, the microwave is great for this. Place about a teaspoon of beans on each chip.

Top with a slice of jalapeño, and some chopped tomato. Try not to touch the chip with any liquid.

Using your fingers crumble some Queso Fresco on top of each nacho. This recipe only needed about 1 teaspoon of this wonderful cheese, about 1.75g fat. Place in 350º oven for about 20 minutes. Let cool before packing. These are great topped with shredded lettuce, chopped Avocado mixed with salsa, fat free sour cream, and served with Spanish Rice.

Oh! AND...today is my one year Xanga birthday, and also my real birthday!! I turned 47 today, yay! I want to say how much I have truly appreciated the friends I've made here. Thank you for your friendship.
Love,
Sheri

Wanna visit my bento store? Click here.

Sandwich Cutouts

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:49:09 GMT

We had fun with this one!

One day we were having plain ol' peanut butter and jam sandwiches,
so I tried cutting fun shapes right out of the middles.

Maybe our lives are just boring, but the kids got really excited. It was a little
surprising actually. On the big kid's sandwiches, I just used cookie cutters,

and on the baby's bread and butter, I used my new heart shaped sandwich cutter. FUN!

Blessings,
Sheri

Wanna see my bento store? Click here.

Spinach Balls

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:14:44 GMT

This recipe took me almost two years to make. Tres bad, non? Here in our little town we have a wonderful Raley's grocery store. The dietitian for Raley's, Earline, used to come and do little taste testing/healthy foods classes for kids. We get a thrill out of that kind of stuff! In one of the last classes, we tasted Veggie Patch Spinach Nuggets. I told Earline I'd try making them myself and I'd email her the recipe. So, it's a little late, but finally here is my own original recipe for Spinach Balls. And, yes, I am cooking for an army!

Sheri's Spinach Balls

1 medium sized carrot
2 green onions
1 tsp salt
4 cups + 2 cups 100% whole wheat bread crumbs
16 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 eggs or 4 egg whites

Chop carrot and green onion into 1" pieces, place in food processor or blender (I'm not sure about all blenders, but mine will handle it). Process until unrecognizable as food. Then add the salt, then spinach, 4 cups at a time, to the food processor. Just before removing from food processor, add the eggs. Amazingly, it all fit nicely in the food processor. Pour the veggie mix out onto 4 cups of bread crumbs, mix with a pastry blender, or by putting batches back in food processor (1/2 the recipe at a time). This mixture seems dry, but is really nice and moist. I rolled a few balls by hand, but the easiest way to deal with lots and lots and lots of spinach balls, was to use my wonderful 1.5" ice cream scoop. I just scooped one ball at a time right into the bread crumbs...no need to dip in egg, since it was moist and already contained egg. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray, bake in preheated 350º oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until browned.

These tasted pretty similar to the ones we've bought, but I thought the bought ones were a little better. I did try freezing and reheating these...eh. They were much better fresh, but could have been redeemed by heating in a skillet with a little oil instead of re-heating in the oven. Remember, they are extremely low fat. I haven't found that I like extremely low fat foods that have been cooked, frozen and reheated.

If nothing else, these were simple. Here's the ingredient list for the Veggie Patch Spinach Nuggets (which I love, btw!):

INGREDIENTS: NUGGET: SPINACH, SOYBEAN OIL, ONIONS, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE. CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF EGG WHITES, SEA SALT, MODIFIED VEGETABLE GUM, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CHICORY FIBER (INULIN), CORN STARCH, CALCIUM CARBONATE, MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, GARLIC, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, CULTURED SKIM MILK, YEAST EXTRACT, DEXTRIN, SPICES. BATTER AND BREADING: WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, SUGAR, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, DEXTROSE, CANOLA OIL, YEAST, LEAVENING (SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, SODIUM BICARBONATE), GUAR GUM, SPICES.

I hope you really enjoy this recipe...I worked on it long enough!

Blessings,
Sheri

Wanna visit my bento store? Click here.

Invasion of the Vegetables

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:35:38 GMT

Well, my boys were making stop motion movies all week, so I wanted to make one. I've never done this before, but my husband has shown the boys how and they've made some pretty amazing cinema using playdough. I've watched and wished I had time to do it. So last night, while making pizza, I set up my stuff and went to it. It was wild!

Blessings,
Sheri

Wanna visit my bento store? Click here.

Field of Flowers

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:04:37 GMT

Just before I made the pizza, I was working on a real bento. It's a mixture of old and new ideas really. We've made what we call Birds Nests or the family name 'Holey Toast', which is a piece of bread with a hole cut out and placed in an oiled skillet, with a whole egg broken into the hole and cooked.

Here we tried a slight variation. We made cutouts of flowers and cut holes from the centers. Then poured in scrambled egg to make a center. It worked reasonably well, some of the egg leaked out of the centers, but was easily broken off after it cooled. The taste was a great surprise! It was good! Baby Spinach made beautiful leaves, and even the baby ate some straight up, no dipping sauce, because I guess it's way more fun to eat flower leaves than to eat "spinach"?

Some apples cut in the same way, Annies whole wheat bunnies, and of course the obligatory dried cranberries that seem to be so popular here amongst the raisin haters. Here's a photo of all the flowers. Just so you know, it would take a lot of these flowers to fill up a bunch of boys...have fun!

And blessed Resurrection Day to everyone!
Sheri

Wanna visit my bento store? Click here.

For Xanga ONLY!

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:39:18 GMT

We're open. We're kicking off here for our xanga friends. Check it out!

*Edit* Wow, I'm overwhelmed! Everyone's been so nice about my pizza. I'm almost sorry we ate it. Almost.