Sandwiches

Another scorching hot day, another attempt at a cold, somewhat refreshing lunch.



I made roasted chicken and Havarti sandwiches on whole wheat bread. Cut them up into little triangles and added some apple slices for a pop of color in the top tier.

Mini watermelon slices in the bottom tier.

And the boxes.

Grilled Chicken

Turns out that the school lunches at the new school are pretty decent:) The kids buy their lunches twice a week and I pack for them three times per week. Sounds good to me!


Today I grilled up some thin-cut chicken breasts, sliced them up and arranged them on some pretty lettuce leaves. I tossed in some sliced nectarines and blueberries in the other container. Half of a corn on the cobb and a piece of Asiago and sun-dried tomato bread to complete the meal.

Korean Doshirak (bento)

I packed Korean food for the kids today. I considered making a really pretty bibimbap presentation for them, but the thought of them trying to stir it all up in these tiny boxes and making a huge mess changed my mind. Instead, I just packed some brown rice and ban chan (side dishes).

In the lower tier there is brown rice, seasoned fish cakes, cuttle fish, and pickles in the yellow silicone cup. Bean sprouts and seaweed in the red cup...yummy!

In the smaller top tier, I packed some red grapefruit slices sprinkled with a little sugar.

Side by side view and bento boxes:)

Miso glazed pork bento

Today I pulled out the Laptop Lunchboxes again.

I filled one of the boxes with miso-glazed pork strips, an elephant shaped rice ball, a yello cherry tomato on a bed of lettuce.

In the other boxes, I put a sliced nectarine (this box comes with a lid to seal in the juices), cucumber slices with Ranch dressing in the little cup, and Korean cream cake in the last container.

Here they are side-by-side.

I always include an oshibori (moist small washcloth) for them to wipe their hands before they eat and use as a napkin during their meal.



Here it is folded up into the oshibori case.

And this is what it looks like all packed up in the case. There is an ice pack tucked into the top along with a juice box.

N.Y. Steak Bento

I've had these Laptop Lunchboxes for over a year and rarely use them. It is a shame because they are so cute and really convenient to use. It's just that for my kids, they hold too much food. And being the krajee woman I am, I can't stand to see empty spaces in their boxes. So I am packing this lunch, knowing that they will not finish it. But one can always hope, right?


Today's bentos consist of N.Y. steak slices, rice balls wrapped in Korean seaweed, corn on the cobb and grapes.

There is some edamame and a cherry tomato thrown in to fill up space and add some more color.

And these are the cases that the boxes come in. Aren't they adorable?

These are the perfect size if you have big eaters.

Chef's Salad Bento

Since it is still very warm, I thought a nice, light lunch would be nice for the kids. They don't eat a whole lot of salads (except for Caesar drenched in dressing), but they promised they would give it a shot.



I used Romaine lettuce, chopped cheese, ham flower cut-outs, and a roast beef flower with cherry tomato center. Occasionally I will throw in a boiled egg, but they didn't want eggs today.

Also, not pictured, I included a bag of parmesan pita chips and Ranch dressing in a separate container.

Second day of school lunches and snacks:)

I feel like I am always making the kids the same things over and over again. And for these boring repetitions, I appologize. But they like what they like and the whole point of all of this work is to get them to eat. So once again I bring you: Spam Musubi!


Musubi with cherry tomatoes and edamame in the top tiers.



And even more Spam Musubi in the second tiers (because they LOVE it).




In my personal bento (which was considerably larger in size today) are peaches.



And a rather sloppily arranged second tier of Spam Musubi.





Here are the cute boxes used today. Devin's pink one actually has a handle.





















Mine has a handle too and you can tell how much bigger it is when all three are placed next to eachother.







Here are their snack bentos.










Salami skewers and grape with swiss cheese skewers.











And their snack bento boxes:)

First Day of School!!!!

Yay!!! School has officially begun:) My kids are in a new school which starts almost an hour later than their previous school, which means? I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to make their lunches!! Double Yay!!!!

Moooooo!!



Lunches consisted of their favorite, salmon, a cow rice ball, two quail egg chickies, and cherry tomato lady bug and some green grapes:)

Whoops! The chick's eyes got a little lopsided.




We also broke in some new, awesome bento boxes...LOVE!


Appologies for the excessive use of exclamation marks!

summer bento

My favorite part of summer is the availability of fresh local produce. This summer marks my second participating in a CSA (community supported agriculture). If you're not familiar, you pick a CSA farm, pay in advance for shares, and get a box of produce from the farm every week. It can be risky. Some natural disaster might make the crops fail and then you're just out of money. You don't get to pick what comes in your box so it's probably not the best choice for picky eaters. The other side of that coin is you'll probably be introduced to some new veggies (I ate kohlrabi for the first time last year and saw my first-ever lemon cucumber). The veggies couldn't be fresher and you support your local economy and local business owners. Many farms will let you visit too.

Just look at this produce! So pretty.



1. zucchini flowers, 2. purple cauliflower, 3. purple cauliflower, 4. zucchini flowers


Some photos from a June visit to my CSA, Dunlooken Farms in Glencoe, MN.



1. farm, 2. chicken, 3. asparagus, 4. goat, 5. chicken, 6. chicken, 7. horse, 8. guinea hen, 9. ducks, 10. asparagus, 11. chicken, 12. where people die, 13. chick14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available


And finally, here are some bento I've made with CSA produce.



1. bento 7.17.09, 2. bento 7.20.09, 3. bento 7.22.09, 4. bento 7.23.09 -- vegan, 5. bento 7.27.09, 6. bento 7.28.09, 7. bento 7.30.09, 8. bento 7.31.09, 9. bento 8.3.09 -- vegan!


What's been in your bento this summer?

Onigiri Bento

Today's bento features onigiri made with salmon furikake, grilled/flaked salmon, corn on the cob, and edamame. The second tier has watermelon:)

Close up of the onigiri.

And the bento boxes!

Bye Bye, Ichiban Kan

So sad that our favorite and most affordable online bento (and other things) store is closing shop. According to their blog, this will be an indefinite closure although there is hope of re-opening. So goodbye Ichiban Kan! We will miss you:(

On a more cheery note, Bento Crazy is back and she is stocked up with some pretty neat things. Check it out!

Angie, she's got that Pokemon bento!

Hello

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have moved and am still unpacking all of my stuff (wow, I have a lot of stuff!) School is out for the summer so there hasn't been a need to pack their lunches, but I am getting rusty. So as soon as I can get myself situated, I will do an occasional bento and come August 17th, it's back on!

pickles in 24 hours

A few years ago, I saw a recipe for miso-yogurt pickles in a (manga) cookbook that I own. I remember thinking that it was weird at the time, but I decided to try it out. And they are DELISH. And so easy. And they don't taste overly miso-y.

Traditionally, you'd make the pickles by sticking them in straight miso, but the miso flavor can be overpowering and it's hard to submerge the veggies in there because the miso is so thick.

miso yogurt pickles
1 c miso
1 c plain yogurt
veggies

Mix the miso and yogurt together. Submerge veggies overnight. Remove veggies, rinse, and eat.


Putting napa cabbage into the mixture.




Doesn't it look like Russian dressing?




So far, I've used carrots, zucchini, radishes, celery, and napa cabbage, all of which turned out great. And the pickling mixture can be re-used until the yogurt goes bad. Every few days, add a few teaspoons of salt to the mixture, since the veggies soak up the salt and it gets less salty over time. You can also use it as a fish marinade. It works best on salmon and firm white-flesh fish. Soak overnight, remove, rinse, and broil. Though if you marinate fish, you can't put veggies in there after that without the risk of food poisoning.


The miso yogurt pickles were part of my lunch yesterday.



top: white rice with yukari
bottom: local duck sausage, carrot, zucchini, and celery miso yogurt pickles; marinated and grilled tofu and radishes; kiriboshi daikon with abura-age