Welcome to the World of Bento!

What does the word Bento mean?

·         The word “Bento” is common with Japanese Cuisine meaning “a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal.  Traditional Bento consisted of rice fish or meat and cooked vegetables usually in a box-shaped container. 

·         Bento has become increasingly popular in North America and has gained much popularity! The ideas and concept behind a bento box is great for the environment friendly a “reusable compact container” that holds a large assortment of food options. 

http://www.anotherlunch.com/search?q=laptop+lunches&x=0&y=0

-The photo above is a creation made by Another Lunch Blog-The container above is called “Laptop Lunches” You can find these in our online store at www.tinywiggles.com or click on the following link:

http://tinywiggles.com/category_43/BENTO-LAPTOP-LUNCHES-.htm

·         Why Bento is great for kids: Bento Boxes are trendy, cute and filled with multiple options for kids.  Kids like variety, they like to be creative and what better way to teach them portion control and eating healthy while being environmentally friendly.  Bento lunches emphasize the beauty of the content inside the box.  The texture, colors are important aspects of the bento lunch. 

·         What are exciting and great about the term “bento” are the endless bento accessories you will find on the market.  You can create food art for your kids and with your kids.

(Bento Cutters – These make your sandwiches into small bear, bunny and flower shape)

Tiny Wiggles   Link: http://tinywiggles.com/category_39/BENTO-FUN-CUTTERS-.htm

Please check out our “Bento Tutorial” Section for tips on how to use these fantastic cutters!

·         The food can be decorated like funny characters and animals, the possibilities are endless. 

·         We are proud to be one of the only Canadian stores offering a large variety of Bento Products, we hope to add new items on an ongoing basis and keep families and their kids happy by creating healthy lunches.

·         We welcome you to our new blog “Tinywiggles” and hope you enjoy the resources provided to you daily. There are some very talented people who create quite beautiful food art for those to see and we would like you to experience the talent some individuals have in putting their bento creations together and display this in traditional Japanese bento style with what we call a North American twist!

·         Children love color, shapes, animals and visually appealing things. They are bound to love their bento-lunch and food. It’s a great incentive to get them involved in the lunch making process.

Blog Makeover

Please be patient we are in the process of adding lots to our blog....... under construction!

TinyWiggles Brings Bento!

CHECK OUT ALL OUR NEW STUFF AT WWW.TINYWIGGLES.COM

Airdrie Local Business !

We are so lucky here in Airdrie Alberta. We have great local businesses around, one of them being http://www.facebook.com/AirdrieBabyCentral .  Check out this facebook page you will find great items for your little one. Lace rompers and all the cute things you have always wanted for your little girl! Great prices too!!

These are just some of the great items:

HOW CUTE ARE THESE!

CHECK OUT AIRDRIEBABYCENTRAL!

Bento fun classes and products survey

We have just ordered a bunch of  bento products to make mealtime fun like egg molds, silicone cooking molds - there not for sale yet, we are testing their effectiveness.  We were going to offer short video clips on our blog, like a cooking class but online -showing how to use the products and different ideas. Is this something that you think people would be interested in? We are hoping to start offering the products and videos by June 2012 but want to know how much interest there is as this would be a big investment as you have to mass order these products. Thanks ladies for your honest feedback! We are putting a tiny survey together on our blog at www.tiny-wiggles.blogspot.com - to log the interest we get if people could comment that would be great.

These are just some of the test products we have ordered. We have not put an mass order in as we are testing the products first. 

What is Bento?
To put it simply little ideas to perk up your kids lunches and make them fun!! (using bento accessories and tools)

What we need you to comment on?
1. Is there a need for this?
2. Would you be interested in this?
3. Would you view the videos and buy the products?

Thank you for your time everyone!!

RECIPE- Brownies with carrot and spinach

I am sure everyone has experience the task of trying to cook healthy meals for their wee ones! What a hard task it is to include all food groups, to make sure they eat their veggies, fruit meat and the list goes on.
This recipe is from a wonderful book called " Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld

Prep 15 minutes: cooking time 55 minutes: Makes 12 brownies : Packable

Non stick cooking spray
3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup of carrot puree
1/2 cup of spinach
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons transfat free soft tub magarine spread
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extra
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup of oat flour, or all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F . Coat an 8x8 inch baking pan with cooking spray
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or oven at a very low flame
3. In a large bowl , combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1-2 minutes.
4. Whisk egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt with a wooden spoon.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

These brownies are low in calories only 133 per brownie and saturated fat and 3 grams of fiber.

THIS RECIPE PROVIDES KIDS WITH TWO POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS THAT HELP KIDS STAY HEALTHY AND IS GREAT FOR HEALTHY EYES.

Thank you Mr. Carrot And Mrs. Spinach !!!!

March 2012 (New York, NY) – Celebrate Mother’s Day in the kitchen with your kids. NEW FunBites creates bite-sized mealtime magic out of any food. Try heart shaped FunBites pancakes with strawberries for breakfast in bed (see recipe below) or make fun shapes of your own together. Try on pitas, fruit, low-fat grilled cheese, veggies and more!

 FunBites® is available in two sets, Cube It! (creates 12 bite-sized squares) and Luv It! (creates heart made out of 10 geometric shapes). Let your child’s imagination create endless possibilities out of their fun-shaped bites!

To use: Just rock FunBites® quick-cutting curved blades across the healthy food of your choice and enjoy.

FunBites® was mom-invented to encourage healthy eating in her own household. Made 100% in the USA, it’s durable, dishwasher-safe and BPA-free.

www.tinywiggles.com

 

funbites     Mother’s Day Luv Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup uncooked farina (such as Cream of Wheat)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups vanilla soy milk

1/4 cup applesauce

1 large egg, lightly beaten

10 Strawberries

Honey

Preparation

Combine flours, farina, and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine milk, applesauce, and egg in a medium bowl, stirring until well blended. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until well combined. Let batter stand 5 minutes.

Heat a nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto pan. Cook 1 minute or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over, and cook 1 minute or until bottoms are lightly browned.

Rock FunBites Luv It! over pancakes to cut into fun heart shape then serve with FunBites heart shaped strawberries and honey!