No.88 'St. David's Day' bento

Happy St.David's day! Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant. St.David is the patron Saint of Wales and tomorrow, March 1st, people all over Wales will be sporting either a daffodil or a leek on their lapel to remember it. My children have little felt leeks on their school blazers and they will also have this...

My St.David's day bento! Here in the top layer are some vegetable hash browns cut into petal shapes and topped with cheddar cheese to make a daffodil. Underneath is some lettuce and coleslaw, with some chives for grass and a little spring onion chopped into a leek shape!

In the second layer is a slice of mature cheddar and caramelised onion quiche along with a yellow plum and some strawberries featuring one of my new butterfly decorative food picks. There is also a third box with some crackers to eat along with the cheese daffodil petals.

The one above is the flower in my daughter's bento lunch for tomorrow. What a busy half term holiday week I had! On the Thursday I gave a talk to members of a multicultural society about how I make my bentos and how to create healthy, attractive lunches for children. I got a very good reception and apart from some initial nerves I got stuck in and enjoyed being the presenter! I'll have to do it again some time.

Below is a picture of my bento making table that I set up at the talk last week. I was quite pleased to see everything so colourful and I topped it all off by turning up in a 1950s styled rockabilly dress with the full vintage look going on. In the last picture, taken by my daughter so a bit blurry, you can see the 'little chick' Easter themed bento, which is one of the three that I created for the presentation.

No.87 'Domo Stole My Heart' bento

Hello all! A late Valentine bento here from me. I've been too busy to post any bento pictures before now this week unfortunately, but this is one of two nice ones I've made. This one features a small portion of the meal I cooked for my family on Valentine's day. Swirly whirly pasta with a home made pasta sauce consisting of tomatoes. leeks, carrots, onion, garlic, basil and sliced green olives. Domo is stealing the heart shaped mini garlic bread (also home made - and vegan!). In the fruit layer there are strawberries, apricots and a plum.

I have had a particularly busy week and aside from work I've managed to cram in some good times! On Monday a makeup artist friend of mine gave me a 1920s inspired makeover which was lots of fun and made me feel really pampered. On Tuesday I went to a particularly energetic exercise class with two other friends and that ended up being a hilarious experience as well as being good for us. Wednesday was all work but today I have spent some quality hours with yet another of my friends (my my, haven't I been social this week?). We made ourselves a lunch of roasted garlic bulbs smooshed onto gorgeously crusty rye and spelt bread with vine ripened tomatoes, black pepper and olive oil. Divine. We've planned the same meal again for our next get together in two weeks' time.

In fact it has been a particularly big eating day for me come to think of it. For dinner today I made a large salad with a balsamic dressing and humous then for dessert we had warm vegan chocolate brownies. I just can't stop making those brownies! They're so delicious. Got to cut down though...

My daughter took these photos of Domo continuing his adventures in the kitchen after stealing the garlic bread heart. As you can see, he discovered a tin of baked beans, which happen to be his all time favourite food at our house. He looks so pleased with himself.

I'm sure our green Domo friend will come back to the kitchen another day and have similar culinary adventures. He does seem to get about the house a great deal. He's even going in to school tomorrow as a prop for the talk my daughter is giving about cute bento lunches. She's a bentoer of the future!

For this instalment of Bentovintage I have a few food reviews for you. I've been looking out for food items and brands that are about today which have been going strong since the forties and fifties and even earlier. Here are three such items that myself and my family have taste tested and approved for consumption! There's something particularly appealing to me about these products and that is their easily recognisable ingredients! Sure, there is salt and sugar, which can be considered 'bad' but there is no more salt and sugar in these items than there is in  modern food stuffs. The best bit for me is that they don't have any of those scary additives with the long names  or extra colours and chemical preservatives.

Here we have a bottle of Camp coffee which is a Scottish foodstuff first produced in 1876. It's a blend of coffee, chicory, sugar and water. I tried it mixed in with a glass of cold rice milk to make a quick and easy iced coffee. The taste is quite bitter, but only in the same way a strong good coffee is a bitter. I think I could get a taste for it. The label states that it can also be used to make hot coffee when mixed with hot milk/water and it's good for baking. I can state that the baking suggestion is certainly true. I used a dash of it to make some coffee flavoured vegan muffins and they were delicious.

This next picture is of the box of Force cereal I bought last week. It was first produced by the Force Food Company in 1901. That dandy character on the box is 'Sunny Jim', a cartoon character produced to advertise the cereal. I didn't actually get a bowl of this, since it was gobbled up by my children and husband in no time. What you get in the box is natural coloured, small, fine wheat flakes. My children inform me that it isn't very sweet (not a bad thing) and that when mixed with milk forms a loose, soft flakey breakfast similar in flavour to Weetabix. They loved it!

Last but not least is Vogel's bread, which has been produced since the 1950s. Vogel's declare themselves on the packaging to be 'Experts in seeds and grains'. The children and I laughed about this because we decided that our pet pigeon is without a doubt an expert in seeds and grains. What can I say, I'm REALLY glad I bought this bread to review it as a vintage food product because it has become a firm favourite with us. We're on our third loaf of it now and we're still not tired of it. My children adore it as much as I do and it makes great toast, sandwiches and forms a delicious base for my home made vegan garlic bread (a piece of which is featured in the bento post above where Domo is stealing it away). The slices are small, but the bread is so dense that it's incredibly filling in small quantities. It has a nutty, seedy taste but doesn't have any of those irritating large seeds that get wedged in your teeth and tend to put my children off regular seeded bread for that reason. Check out the Vogel's website if you're interested in the back story for this bread's production. There's a lot of thought been put into these loaves.

No.86 'Sian's Garden' bento

Guess what? I found that missing bunny cutter! My favourite one. Even though I had searched through my cutter jars quite thoroughly, he turned up tonight nestled under all the others. Perhaps he has been on a secret adventure... This bento is dedicated to a friend of mine who has been working extremely hard lately and could do with a tranquil little bento garden to sneak away to for a few hours! I've never thought of dedicating a bento before but it felt very lovely making this one and keeping my friend Sian in mind as I arranged it. It's a very hearty bento too, which should be filling and yummy. In the savoury base there is pasta with green pesto, some wedges of tomato, curly lettuce, some chopped vegetarian hotdog wiener and to top it all off a cheddar cheese flower and rabbit. In the dessert layer is a veritable treasure trove of jelly beans and chocolate coated raisins and I've used the divider for the bento box for the first time in a long time to keep the orange segments separate.

The top image is of my son's bento and the second one, in the strawberry shaped box, is my daughter's. Below is a picture of what they looked like with their section lids and closures. Another day, another bento! A job well done and something to feel proud of when I present these lunches to my children in the morning.

On the vintage front, I thought some of you might be interested in these free printable vintage valentines cards from Vintage Holiday Crafts (now featured in my side bar!). I'm certainly going to be printing some off and adding my own touches to them. I've seen some lovely valentines cards out this year and I often make my own, but these ones are just great! "Darn it! You gotta be my valentine!" Lovely.

Image courtesy of vintageholidaycrafts.com

No.85 Strawberry muffin and love heart bento

Tonight I cooked a vegetable curry for dinner. It's one of the things I rustle up when we have extra people in the house to feed since a pan of curry can be expanded as far as you like with an extra handful of this and that. It wasn't spicy enough for my taste, but with eight different vegetables and no added salt it was healthy and filling! While making the curry I realised that we didn't have any dessert for our guests so I quickly mixed and baked a batch of my vegan muffins. Tonight I added a little red colouring and strawberry flavouring so that they came out very bright and very yummy!

Tomorrow's bento features one of those muffins along with another portion of the feta, garlic and herb pasta parcels, some cucumber slices and a wedge of ciabatta. The savoury course has a cheese love heart with pink sprinkle eyes and mouth and the sweet section has a little red plum tucked in as a tip-of-the-hat towards a less sugary dessert.

No.84 'Ssssnakey Pasta' bento

Goodness me, here's another Monday around the corner! I've managed to fit some relaxation time into this weekend, so I'm not doing too badly, really. The bento the children are having tomorrow features a snakey friend, cut from cheddar cheese using the second of my cutters from the set I mentioned in my Rabbit in Egypt post. Unfortunately, my rabbit cutter seems to have been mislaid in the kitchen, because I can't find it at all. Hopefully the bunny will turn up during the week as things get moved about. This lunch consists of feta, garlic and herb pasta parcels, topped with sliced tomato and cheese snake (green eye made from a green sprinkle), with spinach leaves and a wedge of honey and oat ciabatta bread. In the fruit layer are chopped and stoned plums, strawberries and green grapes.

We have some home improvements going on at the moment, and that feels quite good. Work on our late 1800s cottage, much ruined by the onslaught of decades of bad taste (wood chip wallpaper, umpteen layers of gloss on everything to just begin the list), has been very slow. However, the downstairs has finally been put into a fairly attractive state in the past year with many original features brought out and plastering work done. Upstairs is next, with our daughter's bedroom top priority on the list to give her a lovely new environment of her own before she starts secondary school. These plans being put into action have meant much sorting, stacking and throwing away of things on my part. I have almost completely rid the walls of the many layers of wallpaper and a plasterer is due to come over this week to give us advice on fixing a region of dodgy wall. I must remember to get a photo of some of the earliest layers of wallpaper before I strip it away, because I have got down to a tatty but pretty hand printed wallpaper in a duck egg blue with pink roses. I'd like to record it while it's still about.

Speaking of recording things... I'm now going to attempt my first blog post about how my 1940s vintage restyle is coming along. I'll start with some product reviews.

Bentovintage! But not about vintage bento I'm afraid (although I am considering an attempt at combining the two interests now and then). As 2011 was rolling in I decided that it was time for a personal restyle, since 2010 had brought me a few woes towards it's close and sometimes a change is as good as a rest, so they say. At least, I think I've got that right. My New Year resolutions were as follows:

1. Embrace 1940s vintage

2. Maintain a Vegan diet 

3. Be spookier

To explain the second resolution, I have been vegetarian since late childhood and have discovered I am allergic to dairy. Veganism is the most sensible way forward for me, if done properly. As for the third resolution, well... that speaks for itself. Be spookier, right!? So far I am very pleased with myself. I have managed to achieve all three resolutions and kept them going for almost a whole month now.

My first move in discovering the 1940s look was to bleach my vividly pink hair (Atomic Pink by Special Effects) into an extremely pale cupcake pink. I am aiming for white blonde in time by using the Virgin Snow Toner by Manic Panic, which I have already applied after bleaching to take the last of my pink down to the very pale cupcake pink I now have. Going completely blonde is going to require at least one more chemical treatment, but I won't be attempting that for a little while. Intensive conditioning is the way forward first.

The very next day after bleaching I went in to my regular hairdresser with a set of vintage hairdressing plans that got me some odd looks and a lot of confusion. After some gentle persuasion that I really did want to have the cut exactly as the design stated, my hairdresser got stuck in. I have ended up with what I am happy to say is a great 1940s Middy cut. I love it. I have naturally curly hair so when left natural without product I've been told it takes on quite a Marilyn Monroe shape! That is her hair, not all of her... What I've been doing is setting it in old fashioned rollers after washing so that I have a more uniform curl. I find it stays 'set' for at least three days, which takes me nicely to my next hair wash. Easy peasy!

So next it had to be makeup. I found some good information online about authentic forties makeup but have had to adapt it to my personal taste. I'm extremely pale skinned so there is no way on this earth I can get away with any orangey foundation tones. I have been using small amounts of Max Factor Panstick in 'fair' which gives me just the right vintage matte base. It works for the effect I want, but it's quite a heavy foundation so might give too much of an 'unreal' look for some preferences. Unreal works for me (see New Year's Resolution No.3).

Now, as for eyeshadow and liner, I needed a small colour range which I could wear consistently each day and wouldn't take too long to apply. For a 'pinup' style makeup look I discovered I would need a white/natural/cream eyeshadow and a dark colour such as grey or even black to team it with. The pale colour covers the whole lid and then the dark colour is shaded in from the outer edge of the eye and blended half way in. The effect is a shadowy look to the outer upper lid with the pale colour making the eyes look wide and fresh. The eye shadows are finished off with a sweep of liquid liner on the upper lid that ends in a kick that comes out as far as the crease and then as much mascara as you dare. I wear a red lipstick with a matching liner that I got from the Rimmel range, but there are plenty of good reds out there. That's all there is to it for a day to day look but I'm sure I'll try something more complex when I have an evening out (helloooo, in need of an evening out here!).

The eyeshadows I've been using are:

GOSH Metallic Rose, which I have found to be a great quality powder that lasts all day just as fresh as it was put on. I've used the white and grey shades to do the look I've just described, but I've also used the pale pink instead of the white or as well as the white and it looks lovely. I bought this in a sale for 3.70 GBP but it usually retails at around 8.00GBP. GOSH is one of the more expensive brands on the High Street. I've also used the shadows in this 'FACE' makeup palette by Topshop called Black Orchid.

Another lovely quality set which gives the desired effect. So far I have only used the white and black eyeshadows, a little of the lip gloss and a dab of the blush. The quality of the packaging is nice and it feels very sturdy. The wide mirror is great if you're going to carry the palette as a compact or as your sole makeup supply for a trip. I picked it up in the sale for 3.00GBP but this palette usually retails at 15.00GBP.

The last product I want to mention that I've used in creating my vintage look is Jolen powder bleach. It comes in a little box that retails for around 4.00GBP or a larger box at around twice the price. From what I've found the smaller box will last you for a VERY long time though since you need very little of the product for the purpose I used it for - eyebrow bleaching. The product is specifically for facial hair. It comes with a pot of cream, a pot of powder, a spatula and a small plastic mixing card to mix it on. It does the job and it does the job without irritating the skin, so I can heartily recommend it.

That's it for now dolls and dames! I hope I haven't bored you with the details too much and that some of you out there found my Bentovintage ranting a little bit interesting. If not, you've now got that little warning banner that will come up after the bento post and before the vintage section. As a disclaimer, I bought the products mentioned here with my own money and the opinions stated here are entirely my own.

No.83 "Thursday Duckling" bento

Thursday's bento! This one has been added to What's For Lunch Wednesday over at What's for Lunch at Our House. Look over in the side bar to the right and you'll find a button that links directly to the site. You can add your own bento creation over on Bentolunch.net, too! It's a lovely way to share with other bento makers.

This bento has two little slices of my childrens' favourite mozzarella and tomato quiche, mini carrot and cucumber sticks, lots of olives and a cheddar cheese duckling with a strawberry leaf wing. In the second layer is the same five fruit salad I gave the children yesterday: grapes, strawberries, kiwi, satsuma and dried cranberries. Above is a picture of my daughter's bento box, since I showed my son's lunch yesterday and wanted to display a different box today. As snacks they will have flapjack and yoghurt. 

The frost has eased off on our early morning walks to school now so it's not so treacherous on the pavements, thank goodness! The frost is extremely pretty, but it's always nice to arrive at school with no broken bones. Since it has been an exam week for my daughter there has been less bird watching than usual and lots of revision questions thrown back and forth. As a treat for the end of her exams next week, she has asked for an Indian takeaway. Excellent choice my little dove! Since many things on an Indian menu are vegan and therefore suitable for your Mummy! Yay! She's not the only one looking forward to the end of her exams. Today we brought sweetie Friday forward and had a sweetie Wednesday because she had her Geography exam, which was the one she has been dreading the most. "It's Asia that gives me trouble." she stated seriously. "So large and so complicated." 

I have been letting her cross roads by herself lately. She's eleven, so some might think I have left it a little late. We've just never needed to walk apart, since we spend the majority of our time together outside of school. We also live quite a way out of town, so there has been nowhere safely accessible, at a short distance, she could walk to from home before. She's quite competent with roads as it turns out, and has picked up my daily safety routine on walks over the years. "It's like playing Frogger." she announced today after crossing the road back to me from the sweet shop, and I cringed as I responded "Ah, but on real roads you don't get three lives, my love." Oh so hard to let your little ones grow up! But she's starting secondary school after the Summer and needs and wants more independence. So she shall have it! I will just worry... She will begin walking part of the journey home herself, meeting her brother and I along the way. 

Oh look, I can see the end of the week from here!

No.82 "Little Rabbit Holidays in Egypt!" bento

Little vegetable samosas are on the menu for tomorrow's lunch, along with basmati rice, tomato wedges and cucumber slices. I pulled out my little rabbit cutter to add a decoration. It's a lovely, quality metal cutter that came in a set along with a snake and another animal that I can't quite work out. Possibly a badger... Might have to have a go with the mystery animal cutter one day soon. So I popped the little cheddar cheese rabbit into the bento, (after adding a tiny eye with the cut off end of a chocolate sprinkle), and what do you know! I immediately saw that the little fellow had gone on his hols to sunny Egypt! There he is now, admiring the sight of the distant pyramids. I wonder where else in the world he might end up on his travels? He'll have to come back home in time for Easter, of course. With 2011 being the year of the rabbit, no wonder our bunny friends are getting about a bit. 

The second layer has a five fruit salad of grapes, strawberries, kiwi, satsuma and dried cranberries. With all that fruit packed into the childrens' lunch tomorrow I know they'll be getting they're vitamins! The picture below shows the absolutely delicious batch of vegan vanilla muffins my daughter baked today. Here they are undecorated, just after coming out of the oven. Yummy.