Up to my elbows in printing!

This afternoon I was happily deep into printing.  Two and a half hours went by WOOSH!

I would have loved to do more, but supper wasn't too far away and we'd need the table.

I experimented with:

- Ink amounts and how best to get the orange peel ink texture.  The ink really needs to be in an extremely thin layer so you can the most even texture and not get roller lines.  You'll roller a while for it.  Shove alot of the ink to the top and bottom and concentrate on the middle.

- Re-stamping overly light prints. With a clear plexiglass backing it was possible to see where to lay the stamp and it worked well.

- The best way to press the stamp on the fabric and foam behind it. Straight down - don't move, even for the big "obento" word stamp.

- Mixing ink colors did not go as expected - gah!  I wanted purple, but the store had no purple.  My brain said red and blue make purple!  Screen printing ink is not so mixing friendly.  Red and blue made dark gray - hmmm.  (Will have to find the Cyan and Magenta to make proper purple I think.  Or just purple ink.)

Here's a few of the prints.

[caption id="attachment_364" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="Bento on Clouds"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_365" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption=""Obento" Textured Fabric Experiment -Re-stamped"][/caption]

Now Available in Our Etsy Store!

I'm excited to announce a new handmade bento product line - hand printed furoshiki and bento bags!

Here's a sneak peek...

[caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="378" caption="Bento Box and Chopsticks - Hand Stamped on Linen"][/caption]

These were an absolute blast to make and I plan to make more in this series!  Don't you just love the handmade look of the print?  (Kyaa!  Did I really need another hobby?)

Step Away From the PBJ #7: When You Hit the Blahs With Lunches

Blahs, doldrums, what ever you want to call them.  They hit us all.  Mine have hit the last couple weeks, just after I got to play with printing.  I don't want to cook or do much of anything!  Have the winter blahs affected you too?  What about your lunches?

Even my weekly revolving menu feels antiquated and uninviting of late.  I've been trying a few things to keep the lunches happy and bright for my kiddos.

• At the grocery store, I pick up one or two fruits that just aren't the norm.  Sometimes it's out of season produce like strawberries.  Or rarer seasonal produce like Moro Oranges.  Just one or two of these add a bit of pizazz and don't kill my budget.   (I envy those of you where produce is more abundant in the winter!  It's always a challenge here because everything is shipped in and there's not alot of variety.)


• We've been using more leftovers in lunches to add variation.  I sent an Oriental Chicken Wrap sandwich with a tiny bit of the dressing in my son's lunch earlier this week and it went over well.   We just had to assemble it that morning.  No extra cooking.  (Sorry I forgot to get a picture!)  Side note: We use broccoli slaw instead of salad greens and half the mayo in the dressing.


• I'm looking at my menus and perhaps it's time to update them a bit.  We've been using the same menu since school started in mid August.  So I dragged out my lunch ideas cookbooks.  These are my two favorites. I'd bet you could find these through inter library loan too.
  
  
  
  • Lunch Boxes and Snacks by Annabel Karmel - I like several of the ideas in this, but be warned her sandwich ideas often rely heavily on mayo.  There's quite a bit more than sandwiches in here though. ;)  This is where I got the kabobs idea from which is such a hit with my kiddos.
  
  
  • Bento Love by Kentaro Kobayashi - I want to try most of the recipes in here!  But it doesn't fit with my time schedule for making a lunch in the morning.  I've tried a few recipes for suppers and kept leftovers for lunches the next day. It went over extremely well.
  
  
  
  

I hope these ideas are of help during the doldrums for you.  What have you been doing with lunches lately to keep them feeling fresh and new?

Super Quick Tip - Organzing Recipes

As a busy mom, I need to access recipes quickly. There's not often the time to meander through cookbooks lingering over recipes.

I keep my most used recipes in OneNote. I'll scan or copy and paste interesting recipes into my digital cookbook.  It's easy to search for a recipe and find it in less than 1 minute.  It also can digitize images, so scanned recipes can be searched. My meal plans are quickly made by copying and pasting the recipes I need.  (Evernote is a great free alternative to OneNote - but you'll have to pay for a premium account to sync much with the internet if that's of interest to you.)

I print my weekly menu with recipes so they are right there where I need them each day.  I recycle the paper from last week's list and use a sheet for my shopping list.   Though, I keep my most used recipes in a magnetic box in the fridge - so I don't reprint them over and over.  i.e. The good bread and favorite cookie recipes are there - because we use them often.

My digital cookbook is automatically backed up because the OneNote files are stored in my Dropbox folder.  (Then I can access them on my little netbook when we're away, because Dropbox syncs the files between computers for me too.  This comes in very handy when visiting family and I want to make something for them.)

For those that may not be so digitally dependent err... inclined, I've seen great 3 ring binder setups.  The best I saw had protected plastic sheets where the recipe cards could be slid into little compartments.

What do you do to find recipes and make meal plans easily?

A short break from posts

Hey Everyone! I'm very busy with extra things like tax prep and camera club demos. Thought I'd let you know that we should have more "Step Away from the PBJ" posts next week. Have a great week!