The Ninja Baker - kid-friendly projects

Breakfast Bento with Gluten-Free Mini Scones

NinjaBaker — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 05:15:13 +0000

The Ninja Baker’s Breakfast Bento starring mini gluten-free scones could make your munchkins smarter. No kidding. According to Rutgers University research, families who collaborate in the kitchen together show kids with higher math scores and richer vocabularies. (Sharing mealtimes also contribute to the well-being quotient.) So, take a step in the right direction with my completely cute, do-able and healthy breakfast bento.

The Ninja Baker's Breakfast Bento :
Gluten-free mini scones, bunny eggs and star-shaped strawberries.

Are you wondering how you are going to make bunny face hardboiled eggs? Easy! Amazon sells a pair of egg molds for less than 3 dollars. (So do many Japanese markets in Little Tokyos.)

Step 1. Gather fruits your children love. Strawberries, thinly sliced apples are quickly transformed into heart and star shapes with mini cookie cutters.

Step 2. Hard boil eggs. Run the eggs under cold water and peel off the shells. Carefully place into egg molds. Snap the lids shut. Plunge into ice water for 15 minutes. Gently remove from the molds and smile at your egg-quisite artistry.

Step 3. Bake the mini scones. (See the recipe below.) Enjoy plain or with jam or peanut butter or both!

Step 4. Arrange the fruits, eggs, and scones with your children.

Step 5. Watch for grins and allow the good times to flow.

Gluten-Free Mini Scones

Melt in the mouth goodness gluten-free scones. Add a touch of strawberry jam - Heaven! Your mini mes will love the Ninja Baker's gluten-free mini scones whether they are gluten sensitive or not.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice blend flour
¼ cup coconut flour + extra for rolling out the scone dough
¼ cup corn flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup superfine or caster sugar
1 egg for the dough
1 egg, beaten, for brushing the tops of the scones before baking
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons French vanilla half and half
½ cup cold butter

Directions:

1. Whisk together the flours, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl.
2. Cut the butter into cubes and work into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, two knives and/or your clean fingers.
3. When the dough resembles pea-size crumbly bits, add the egg.
4. Stir in the half and half. Keep mixing until all ingredients are well combined and clump together to form a ball.
5. Cover a cutting board with wax paper. Sprinkle coconut flour on top. Slide the dough onto the board. Sprinkle a bit more flour on top of the dough. Cover with another piece of wax paper.
6. Roll out the dough to ½ inch width. Cut out 1 ½ inch circles.
7. Place the circles onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
8. Paint the scones with the lightly beaten egg.
9. Bake for 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Or until the bottoms look golden brown.

Yields approximately 30 mini scones.

The Ninja Baker's Breakfast Bento and Mini Gluten-Free Scones recipe are also seen via the Foodie Friends Friday No Rules Party! Thank you to Joanne of What's on the List for the invite.

Wishing you a kitchen filled with warmth and chitter-chatter

The Ninja Baker

© ™ Watkinson 2012

The Ninja Baker has guest blogged and contributed recipes to numerous food sites. These additional recipes can be found here.

Tags:

Japanese bento how-tos

gluten-free scones recipes

kid-friendly projects

Immaculate Baking Japanese Bento Boxes

NinjaBaker — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 06:40:38 +0000

Love translates to food in so many languages. Meals are made with much care around the world. Yet – unwittingly – some people may be serving dishes that are making their loved ones sick. According to movies like this one found at YouTube: The culprits in many cases are products made with GMOs (genetically modified organisms.) Unfortunately, the American food supply has been flooded with GMOs (corn, wheat, soy and sugar products), while other countries seem to be much more concerned about the health of their people and have banned GMOs. (Japan is one of them.)

Takako-san (left) and Rika-san (right) prepare for a meal with care
and attention to every detail. (I took a lot of notes!)

It's gotten so bad in the U.S. that corrupt politicians in congress anonymously inserted into a recent spending package a law that now protects the chemical company that makes GMOs from being sued by their victims, even if the victims can prove in court that the company's products are unsafe! This is the same chemical company that told us their previous products were safe: DTD, PCBs, and Agent Orange, all of which turned out to be incredibly unsafe!

The passage of the law to protect the chemical company from being sued was so outrageous that on May 25, there were large protests in the streets of 52 countries and 436 cities. My husband attended one of the two protests in Los Angeles and saw this speech by bestselling (A Return to Love) author Marianne Williamson.

Instead of marching in the streets, I marched into my kitchen determined to support companies like Immaculate Baking by purchasing their non-GMO products. (Complete transparency: The $1 off coupons I received from the company do not influence my opinion. I use their products whether their coupons are in my pocket or not.) Supporting a company like Immaculate Baking, by the way, is no big hardship. Especially when aromas of heady cinnamon and butter flood my kitchen from Immaculate Baking's cinnamon rolls, scones and flaky biscuits.

Caring for our families and ourselves so that we reap the blessings of longevity can start with serving organic and non-GMO products. But fun is also an essential part of good living. So, this Ninja Baker created 3 kid-friendly Immaculate Baking Japanese bento lunch box-making projects.

Butterfly Bento Box:
In Japan, the butterfly is a symbol of joy and longevity.

What you’ll need:
• Immaculate Baking Crescent Rolls
• Chocolate Bar
• Immaculate Baking Vanilla Sugar Organic Cookie Dough
• Chocolate Frosting
• Organic Pink Jelly Beans

Directions:
1. Bake crescent rolls according to package directions. If desired, place a square of chocolate before rolling up the crescents.
2. Break off bits of cookie dough to create the body and antennas of the butterfly.
Bake until golden brown.
3. Once the rolls and cookies are cooled, assemble, frost and place on a bed of organic pink jelly beans.

Turtle Bento Box:
The turtle is a magical, wise creature and a protector of longevity in Japanese folklore.

What you’ll need:
• Immaculate Baking Blueberry Scones
• Organic Blue (for the Sea) Jelly Beans

Directions:
1. Remove blueberry scones from the package as directed and place 6 on a cookie sheet. With the 2 remaining scones, pinch off bits of dough to make the head and feet of the turtle.
2. Baking according to package instructions.
3. Place in a sea of organic blueberry jelly beans.

Rabbit Bento Box:
Japanese legend says rabbits inhabit the moon where they pound rice – the sustainer of life.

What you’ll need:
• Immaculate Baking Buttermilk Biscuits
• Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate Frosting
• Fresh Carrots

Directions:
1. Bake the biscuits according to package instructions.
2. Cut 4 of the biscuits in half to create bunny ears.
3. Pipe the frosting onto the remaining 4 biscuits to make bunny faces.
4. Garnish with fresh carrots.

Wishing you a long life blessed with health and fun.

The Ninja Baker

The Ninja Baker

© ™ Watkinson 2012

The Ninja Baker has guest blogged and contributed recipes to numerous food sites. These additional recipes can be found here.

Tags:

Japanese bento lunch boxes

Immaculate Baking

kid-friendly projects

Japanese Picnic Bento Box, #SundaySupper

NinjaBaker — Sun, 26 May 2013 06:59:26 +0000

Summer in Japan is sweltering hot. Fans work overtime. Shutters are thrown wide open. The occasional breeze will set off the sounds of the furin garden wind chimes. Light and lovely, it’s as if fairies are making music.

Furin wind chimes making fairy music
Click here for the photo credit

Sounds of rain tap dancing on rooftops are a frequent occurrence in June. The good news is that all that water encourages gorgeous flowers to flourish. So, in July and August, to escape the hot indoors and to enjoy the flora offered by a myriad of parks, families take their Sunday Supper in the great outdoors.

Brightening spirits in Japanese parks: Lemon drop yellow flowers.

Of course, picnics prevail in the U.S., the U.K. and around the world, too. So this week’s virtual #SundaySupper on Twitter at 7p.m. ET revolves around picnic goodies. Katy of Great Britain, the always-impressive force behind Happy Baking Days will host the event. Please join the international crew of food bloggers as we gather to exchange recipes and picnic stories. (Type in #SundaySupper in the Twitter search bar at 7 p.m. ET.)

My contribution is a Japanese Picnic Bento Box. The beauty of the bento box is you can tailor make every item to your liking. The Ninja Baker’s offering is potpourri of suggestions.

Picnic fare for a day in a Japanese park with the kids.

To make protein palatable for kids, plastic molds help to shape hard boiled eggs into cute bunnies and bears. The Japanese molds are readily available at Amazon.

Here's the easy how-to:

Boil eggs. (I like Food Network’s Chef Anne Burrell method: Place eggs into cold salted water and bring to a roiling boil. Turn off the heat and cover for exactly 13 minutes.)
Carefully peel off the shells and skin. (You want a smooth surface.)
Place into the molds. Snap tight.
Set the molds in ice-cold water for 10 minutes.
Unsnap.
Voilà! Bunny and bear-shaped eggs.

Egg molds and mini cookie cutters make bento-making super easy and fun!

Mini star cookie cutters are useful for transforming apples and other fruit into fun treats.
If your child or mate likes mildly spicy items, include wasabi peas. Not the healthiest kind of peas but nevertheless a vegetable.

Slices of Japanese cucumber as well as skinny stalks of carrots stuck in the middle of sushi rolls are probably a better way to present veggies. They are delicious when dipped into soy sauce. (Disclaimer: This may be an acquired taste from pouring soy sauce on practically everything from age 0.)

To make sushi rice rolls:

Cook up a pot of short grain rice.
To avoid burned fingers dotted with specks of sticky hot white rice, have a finger bowl of cold water nearby for constant dipping.
OR adopt the trick I adopted from my friend, Masako: Sprinkle a bit of cold water on a surface covered with plastic wrap. Place small mounds of rice onto the plastic and shape into little sushi balls.
Wrap with dried seaweed (nori) or soy paper.
Stick thinly sliced carrots into the rice.

Masako’s trick also works well for bigger onigiri rice balls. For this bento box, I topped the onigiri with purple perilla (shiso) seeds. The leaves of the plant are commonly used in Japanese cooking. Seeds from the flower buds are sprinkled on salads and rice.

Cold barley tea (mugicha) is a popular accompaniment to any meal in summer.
Mugicha is also said to reduce stress.

If you're wondering why the Ninja Baker hasn’t mentioned any baked goods for this outing it’s because a majority of the Japanese population opts for soft cream. Summertime springs a plethora of vendors who sell the heavenly desserts near park entrances and train stations. In Kyoto (the ancient capital of Japan) a divine green tea soft cream also abounds.

Swirly Soft Cream
Click here for the photo credit

However, if ice cream is not your sweet escape of choice, scroll down and see the irresistible dessert recipes offered by fellow food bloggers. There are spectacular cocktail and other suggestions for your picnic, too.

Salads and Slaws:

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad from Juanita’s Cocina
Caprese Spinach Salad from Small Wallet, Big Appetite
Chicken Chopped Salad from Table for Seven
Cold Pea Salad from Shockingly Delicious
Creamy Potato Salad with Roasted Pears, Cilantro and Romano Cheese from Gourmet Drizzles
German Potato Salad from The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
Hawaiian Cole Slaw from Curious Cuisiniere
Italian Chopped Salad from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
Kale Pasta Salad from Hip Foodie Mom
Mediterranean Pasta Salad from Peanut Butter and Peppers
Mizeria (Polish Cucumber Salad) from From Fast Food to Fresh Food
PA Dutch Pepper Cabbage from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
Pineapple Slaw from I Run For Wine
Spaghetti Salad from Country Girl in the Village
Tortellini Pasta Salad from Supper for a Steal

Sandwiches and Mains:

Avocado Chicken Salad Sandwich from Momma’s Meals
Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese, and Tomato Sandwich from Magnolia Days
Grilled Bratwurst and Onion Open-Face Sandwiches from The Urban Mrs
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Green Goddess Sauce from Foxes Love Lemons
Herbs-Garlic and Parmesan Croissants from Basic N Delicious
Indian Spiced Chicken Drumsticks from Soni’s Food
Japanese Picnic Bento Box from The Ninja Baker
Mini Chicken Salad, Avocado and Cheese Subs from Big Bear’s Wife
Moroccan Fried Chicken from MarocMama
Pepper, Spinach and Goat’s Cheese Quiche from Happy Baking Days
Picnic Basket Buttermilk Fried Chicken from Noshing with the Nolands
Salmon in a Jar from Healthy. Delicious.
Smoked Trout Deviled Eggs from The Wimpy Vegetarian
Spam Musubi from Kimchi Mom

Desserts:

Apricot Oat Nut Bars from Pies and Plots
Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispie Treat Pops from In The Kitchen With KP
Cocoa Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Fruit Salad from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
Fruit Salad with Honey Port Drizzle from Family Foodie
Loaded Butterscotch Bars from Vintage Kitchen
Nathan’s Cookies from What Smells So Good?
Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treat Truffles from Chocolate Moosey
Shandy Popsicles With Raspberries from Ruffles & Truffles
Texas Sheet Cake with Pecan Frosting from Food Lust People Love
Triple Chocolate Punch Bowl Cake from Neighborfood

Drinks:

Fresh Limeade with Chia Seeds from girlichef
Pineapple Sangria from Growing Up Gabel
Strawberry Basil Lemonade from The Messy Baker Blog
Strawberry Lemonade from Gotta Get Baked
Top 10 Wines for Picnic #SundaySupper from ENOFYLZ Wine blog
Watermelon Agua Fresca from Daily Dish Recipes

Wishing you whimsical days of sake wine-sipping and summer roses.

The Ninja Baker

The Ninja Baker has guest blogged and contributed recipes to numerous food sites. These additional recipes can be found here.

Tags:

Japanese bento box

kid-friendly projects

#SundaySupper