Boo!

After weeks of being sick and my daughter eating lunch at school, I got back into making bento this week...with a Halloween theme naturally.

Today, lunch was mummy dogs. I cut one hot dog in half and wrapped crescent roll dough around the dogs and baked them.

Yesterday was Frankenstein and ghost onigiris with tuna and Kewpie mayo inside. On the top tier, I included tamagoyaki, carrots shaped like pumpkins, cucumbers, and an apple wedge. I meant to make the apple wedge have teeth, but I ran out of time. :( I also couldn't come up with anything good to make the teeth. I see that people use almond slices, but my daughter's school is a nut free school.

And Monday was a pumpkin theme with rice molded into pumpkins, salmon, sweet potato (I drew faces with food markers), cucumbers, and Fuji apple bits.

Been sick

Sorry for lack of posts. I have been battling the flu and now a cold. Kids have also been sick. Will be back next week:)

Salmon with a touch of cute

Being on a tight schedule makes it difficult to make cute bentos. I like to add little touches to simple lunches just to make them cute and appetizing.


It's salmon again by request. I grilled a filet and flaked it a little to make sure there were no bones. I used a star mold for the soy sauce flavored rice balls and put them on a couple of curly lettuce leaves (my absolute favorite food divider.)

Just to add that cute factor, I made a simple mushroom out of a Babybel cheese circle. I added a slice of lemon and yellow soy sauce containers.

I also included prosciutto-wrapped green beans.
Bento boxes.

Spring theme again even though I'm going into fall ^^

After paying $13 for Wilton Food Writers, I found online, a little too late, that people don't like them because they don't write well. Very true! So I paid $4.50 for Betty Crocker Easy Writers, and while they do write/color well, the tip of the marker is not firm. It flops back and forth, and so my sandwiches for today look like a kindergartener colored them. :p

Egg salad sandwiches in the shape of a bunny and a butterfly; sweet potato tulips with cucumber stems/leaves; baby Goldfish; kiwi. I was hoping to expand the foods that my daughter likes, but she has only a few things that are her favorites, these being them. My daughter is not fond of sweet potato, but I thought I'd give it another try.

Owl Bento

Spam musubi again! But this time instead of cutting them up, I left them whole and decorated them to look like owls. Actually, the original plan was to make them look like penguins, but they morphed into owls instead.

I ran out of Kamaboko so I used cheese instead to make the whites of the eyes and wings. As you can see, they melted and warped a little. Carrot triangles for the beaks. I also packed egg rolls, grapes, tomatoes, carrot sticks and celery.

Vrooooom!

Last night was another night I'd rather forget, so I didn't cook or feel like planning out a more elaborate lunch for my daughter today. She got an egg salad sandwich in the shape of a car with cucumber tires and carrot head and tail lights; extra carrots; and kiwi. I thought the kiwi would come back home, but my daughter loved it.

Longing for spring?

In the short time I've been making bento, I've either used a book I own or scoured the Internet for ideas. I decided this morning to use some things I have but have not used. I ended up with pink, rice bunnies with cheese and takuwan flowers on their ears, cheese and egg flowers and butterflies, celery for flower stems, cucumber grass. I have mandu (Korean dumplings) under the cup of peas, radish, and grape flower, which I cut grooves into three toothpicks, arranged them in a flower/star, however you see it, and secured them with a small piece of thread.

My daughter ate lunch at school today, so this ended up being my husband's bento! lol

Different ideas for inari and quail eggs

I made two separate bento today, one for my daughter and one for my husband. I am not going to do that again. I did not allow myself the time that I needed, so I had to rush to make sure we left for school on time. As a result, my work wasn't as nice as I would have liked.

I was going to make the Totoro bento for my daughter, but when I showed her a picture from Google Images, where I got the idea, she didn't recognize Totoro right away. I wanted to make it anyway, so I made it for my husband. The chu Totoro's are made from inari skins. I used two quail eggs for the chibi Totoro's, and wrapped nori about rice balls for the makurokuroske. All have fish cake and nori detail. I took the picture before I organized more nicely. In addition, I have mushrooms, egg, and a potato, hamburger, onion, and peas concoction that was supposed to have been korroke, but I failed miserably at deep frying the korroke. However, the mixture still tasted good without being deep friend. :)

Again, I made inari and used quail eggs for heads, arms, and legs. Shredded paper thin egg for body. One quail egg has a radish for a hat. Detailed with nori. Also added cucumber, grapes, and my failed korroke. I still REALLY need to work on presentation.

Piggy bento

Today's lunch had to be quick because I woke up late.



I made a tarako rice ball, ham cutouts for nose and ears, mini shrimp spring rolls, skewered Canadian bacon, and some grapes.







New Snoopy bento box for Devin, and I lost Bryce's favorite Mario Bros bento box during our move, so I ordered a duplicate:)

Hello Kitty bento

I was pretty happy with my Hello Kitty bento from last week: the box, the cloth, and the plastic bag (which came from Target's dollar bin).



It was one of those times when I liked the look of the bento more than the contents. It was good, but not terribly filling in the end.




top left: green bean casserole made from scratch using dragon beans, green beans, and onions from my CSA
top right: home-made curry zucchini pickles, using the overabundance of zucchini from my CSA
bottom: cucumber and tomato salad (again, both ingredients from my CSA)

I'm not ready to segue into fall foods yet. I'd like a few more weeks of summer tomatoes and corn. I haven't even had watermelon yet this year!

Just a sandwich today

I was very tired yesterday and having a bad day, so I really could not force myself to stay up later last night to cook and plan out a more elaborate bento for my daughter's lunch today. So I fell back on my daughter's favorites. No, not necessarily the most nutritious bento to send, but it was easy.

A Hello Kitty shaped ham sandwich with Kewpie mayo (a big favorite right now), cheese to make the bow, and raisins for the eyes and nose; good ol' mac n cheese; grapes.

Introduction

Hello! I am excited to be a new contributor to this blog! I am a mother of two children, a four year old daughter and a two year old son. We have been New Englanders for a little over a year now. My daughter started full-time preschool this fall, and thus my adventure into creative bento began. However, I have been waiting years to have a children in which to send my lunch creations with them. ^^ I love the creativity involved, and it makes my daughter happy, even if she still doesn't eat all her lunch some days.

Today's lunch includes rice with blue food coloring, tako (octupus) shaped hot dogs, cheese fish, cucumber seaweed, some acorn squash, a broccoli floret, and some cut up Granny Smith apple.

Carnitas

Today I packed leftover carnitas from last night.


I also made some fresh salsa and added a salad. Two tortillas were folded and put in the lid. (The salsa container has a separate lid.)

When I pack things that have to be assembled, I make sure to always pack an oshibori (moist washcloth) so they can clean their hands, and a furoshiki (in this case, a bandana) so they can put together their burritos without having to lay the tortillas on the germy school tables.

Here they are all wrapped up to go:)

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.