I'm back. I'm inspired.

  

Ever since I've started this new job at Christopher's school last December, I needed to take a break from the blog to settle in.  Summer has come and gone and another school year has started.
A great time to resume blogging.

First, let me tell what how great it is to work at my kid's school.  

Some days, I stop in right after class ends and bring him a warm 

ham and cheese croissant from Cafe Tartine Francais.  It's right on the corner of the school and it's owned by a CAIS teacher.  

We share a tasty snack before his piano lesson then I got back to my office and finish up the day.

Other days, I see him in class and at recess where he is just so happy and surrounded by happy little friends chattering away.

Just watching him doing his Chinese morning excercises or practicing his Chinese characters brings a smile to my face and reminds me how lucky I am to be there.



Then, the kids notice me lurking behind the door -- their giggles becoming contagious and a distraction to their classroom activities.  The teachers say a few choice words in Chinese (I don't speak Chinese but I get what they're saying).  They shoo me away...again.

Our duties vary in many forms at the school.
For instance, our Communications Director shares the added duty of "snake-sitter" for the summer break -- having been bestowed the Middle School Science Lab's two snakes who had no teacher to care for them this summer.  After school, I brought Christopher to meet Strider and Marmalade, thinking he'd enjoy the encounter. I got my answer when I noticed the books he checked out from the school library included, How to Make Paper Airplanes, Origami Animals, and How to Care For Your Snake, Iguana, or Turtle.
 < < gulp > >

Christopher's new friend, Marmalade

Other administrative staff help with yard duty and as monitors during after-school pick-up when automobile traffic is heavy.  What duty did I get assigned? Lunch duty.

Yes, lunch duty serving as an "adult" monitor for middle school lunch. There was no half hour longer than to my day than middle school lunch duty! What a reminder of those awkward middle school years, not to mention a reminder of how old I am!  Those minutes seemed like days.  Those kids eat pretty well though.

I was fascinated with the lunches those kids bring to school. I do not remember bringing a flat of rasberries or sesame noodles to school when I was in middle school.  I do not remember those microwavable burritos looking so tasty when I had them as a kid.  And, this IS a Chinese school so there's nothing unique about kids eating with chop sticks, chinese food, or pork buns here.  But that one kid who pulled out the dumplings, noodles and veggies in separate baggies from the soup broth so he could pour them all in during lunch time -- ingenious.

 I want his mom to make my lunch. She's ingenious. 

And I am inspired to pack our kids lunch tomorrow!

Even the baby likes seaweed!

It's been a while since our last post. I've started a new job in December and am finally settling in.

So - I've been holding on to this post for a few weeks and now is a good time to share.

My kids love seaweed. In fact many more kids seem to be enjoying snacking on seaweed "nori" as it seems to be more known as these days. "Nori" is the Japanese name for it. My mother and father, who are of a different generation of Korean's, won't call it "nori."  So, for their sake, I'll call it "kimbob" (with a hard "K" sound).

Once when we had some kids over, they all sat around the table eating strips of roasted salted seaweed like they were potato chips!

So now, for both Christophe and Cory, I pack them kimbob (nori rolls).  This is Christopher's lunch. The little packet on the side is Furikake. He loves to eat it with his training chopsticks. I had an earful one day when I forgot to pack his chopsticks! Our Japanese friend absolutely hates it when we pronounce furkiake wrong. I think when I pronounce it wrong, I must be somehow saying something insulting about her mother or something...

For Cory, I roll them flatter, like a tri-folded omelet and cut them into bite size pieces. The teachers at the day care say he loves it. Who wouldn't?

cookie cutter sandwiches

Over the holidays, we had lots of fun baking and decorating holiday cookies.  When it was time for lunch, it was ham sandwiches, chicken soup and one of the pretty over-frosted over-candied cookies Christopher and his friends decorated.

Christopher had been craving a ham sandwich ever since he had to have lunch with his teacher. (Let's not get into the reason WHY he had to have lunch with Ms. Bethany...) He said she had a ham sandwich for lunch and he wanted to have a ham sandwich too.

My issue with sandwiches is the bread. Two slices just seems like too much bread for a kid. After I toasted the bread and cut the crusts off (following the mandatory "no crust" rule of my little dictator), I noticed how soft the inside of the bread still was.  So, I split the bread into 2 by slicing it through the middle -- like a pita pocket, to make lovely thin toast for his sandwich. They made for easy cutting with the cookie cutters and Christopher was a great little helper making the sandwiches too! I think I owe Ms. Bethany a thank you for this one!

   

Here are a few of the cookies the kids made. I like the angel that looks like Mr. Bill from SNL.

You Say "OCD," I Say "Organized"

Once when I opened the kitchen cabinet and a guest saw this list taped to the inside of the door, she stopped talking mid-sentence, looked at me sympathetically and said in a very understandingly way, "Oh, I understand you now...."  

   

So first, let me say if I did have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), why...oh...WHY...would I have put the canned corn, anchovies, jar of peaches and quinoa on the same shelf? They're not the same size, shape, color, texture, food group, nutritional value, or even share a similar expiration date?

I created this list when we were preparing for the birth of Cory and we needed to plan for someone to take care of Christopher at any moment -- day or night, on a weekend day or on a school day. Our dear friend (and Christopher's god-mother) Johanna Silva and her mother (Abuelita) were "on call" with plans to stay through the night with Christopher during my stay in the hospital. 

Considering Johanna does not have kids (she has a dog), and might have to pack Christopher's lunch for school, I thought I'd try to make it easier for her to prepare Christopher's meals and pack his lunch. Thus -- THE LIST was created!! 

The list itemizes all the food Christopher enjoys for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I admit the detail on HOW he likes his toast buttered was a little overboard (cold pat of butter - must be visible to the eye). The thing is, I knew whenever it was time for Lisa to take me to the hospital and all attention would be on the new baby, Christopher would need a sense of familiarity, comfort, and security.  With both parents gone and a new life of big-brotherhood on the way, why mess with the man's food, right?

I still use this list today.  Whenever I'm in a time-crunch in the morning or just don't have the mental space to think (People--you know what I'm talking about), I review this list and quickly see what I can prepare in a hurry. It's been a life saver!

Resolve to Bento in 2010!

Anyone interested in starting Bento lunches for their kids should know that every day is not a winner, necessarily. Especially with multiple lunches to pack, sometimes you've got it, and sometimes, you just don't! Too much mommy time at night - whatev. The point to keep in mind I think is that OVERALL the kids are eating much better than they would with a traditional american-sandwich lunch system. More balanced. Always fresh fruit & veg, and efficient in not only using leftovers, but no waste. So, I hope a lot of you choose to give this kind of lunching a try in 2010 & here are a couple of winners from the end of 2009. (It's a "winner" if my kids clean plate it.)

Bento #1 -- (pictured above) - has a couple of good tricks to it. I use those thin sandwich flats in a whole grain to make the peanut butter & honey sandwich cut in triangles. The foil wrapped wedge of cheese is low fat laughing cow - my kids love the do-it-themselves spreading of this. Then with the Tortillas is an individual pack of Wholly Guacamole. So there is non-green waste with the foil & the guacamole wrapper, but if it's the difference between Bento-ing and not Bento-ing on a rushed morning, it may be the best I can do!

Next up - Bento #2 -

So here is a good example of using leftovers. It isn't too hard to get in the habit of making a bit of extra food at night to have morning be a lot easier. Here is leftover pasta & the cheese wedge again, but this time with butterfly shaped crackers. Seriously, what's not to love about a butterfly!? Red peppers & carrots. Cheese is soft enough to dip veg in too. An organic sweet & salty bar for desert & a great fresh trailish mix - just fresh blackberries, grapes & almonds. Yum! I wish I treated my own lunches with such care & concern. Maybe in the New Year! :)