Grilled Salmon with Lemon/White Balsamic Vinaigrette

There are two lunches that my children never seem to get tired of: Spam musubi and salmon. Today's salmon lunch has a lemon/white balsamic vinaigrette spooned over the top. I placed flaked pieces on baby lettuce leaves and included rice with furikake and some celery. There is a lemon wedge in there for them to squeeze over their salmon. Not pictured here is a smaller side box I included with cut up cantaloupe.

Smoked Sausage and Broccolini

Today the children got sliced, grilled smoked sausage, rice with Wakame Chazuke furikake, and sauteed broccolini. As a special treat, I included a small amount of Meyer lemon pound cake in the silicone cup.

Cornish Pasties Bento

I took advantage of leftovers today and made the kids meat pies. In the box are 2 cornish pasties, carrots, and a salad. Salad dressing is in the container. Recipe can be found on the recipe blog

new bento box

My first post of 2010!

Towards the end of January, my husband and I were in New York for a wedding. While we were there, we took a trip out to Mitsuwa in New Jersey. It's like a Japanese mini-mall. There's a huge grocery store, a food court with several restaurants, packaged confections and sweets, a hair salon, Japanese nail place, bookstore, video store, and stationary store.

Introducing my newest bento box!




It debuted last week with a Japanese-style bento with rice, napa cabbage, braised beef, and wakame (seaweed) salad.




The top compartment is divided into thirds. I took advantage of that design by packing a deconstructed Western 三色ご飯 today. It literally means three color meal. Traditionally, it's served in a bowl with rice on the bottom and the toppings in a stripe formation on the top. Today's version is kale, egg, and ground turkey. Growing up, my mom made a four color version: black shredded nori, brown ground beef, diced sauteed green peppers, and yellow scrambled eggs.

Galbi marinated skirt steak

They both ate everything!!! Enough said.

Not the prettiest bento by far, but successful indeed. Behind the giant pickle slices are thin sliced skirt steak that I marinated in a galbi marinade and grilled on the bbq last night. As you can see, there is some furikake sprinkled on the rice and I included some sauce in the container.

Asian Wing Bento

I made chicken wings for lunch, but it had to be packed to go so here is what I packed for the kiddos.

In the box: Asian inspired chicken wings and fried rice, recipe here .
Pickled cucumbers and a cherry container with extra soy sauce.

Long time no bento, bento

I used the homemade bread from yesterday to make salmon salad sandwiches. Because it is the last school day before Valentine's Day, I added some heart accents. I used a couple of heart food picks, made some heart peperoni cutouts, and used a heart-shaped Wilton food cup(it's squished in there though so you can't really see the shape).

Also in the box are plums, carrot and cucumber slices, and a mini cupcake for dessert:)

Love is in the air

I was thinking I would make a few Valentine themed lunches this month, and so I started today, the first day of February. DD loves to get pancakes in her lunch, so I made heart-shaped ones today. I colored the batter pink but forgot that the browning on the outside would hide the pink. I added a few pieces of turkey bacon, some carrots, egg flowers, and heart-shaped cantaloupe. I still really need to work on presentation. I'm always running out of time and feel rushed, so I don't take the time I should to make it all look prettier. *sigh*

Dog days

Today's bento for my daughter included a mommy and baby doggies made of rice, smoked sausage ears and nose, and nori eyes; broccoli florets; carrots; blueberries. I like bento that is cute but easy to put together.

More Pokemon

My daughter loves to watch Pokemon cartoons and movies, as well as play the Nintendo games. So today was another Pokemon themed bento. My cousin gave me the idea. It features Snorlax, made of rice and nori of course with cheese and carrot accents. I used individual rice grains to make the claws. To the side, I made a corn and egg recipe from a bento book and used hot dog to make Dugtrio. My food marker was acting up, so the eyes could have been better. I used carrot for the noses. Then I added cucumber slices, a couple of grape tomatoes, and two orange wedges. This was a hit with my daughter because she ate virtually everything. I thought for sure the tomatoes would come back home, but to my pleasant surprised she seems to now like tomatoes...after I've forced them on her enough times. hehe

Bento for 01-12-10

I'm late in posting this, but this was my daughter's lunch earlier today. I made rice balls and coated them with aonori, black sesame seeds, and roasted sesame seeds. I don't have a mortar and pestle, but really need to find one, so I can crush the seeds into a more powdery form. I held the balls together using a stick of uncooked spaghetti. I also included some shrimp, broccoli, and kinpira, with a side of orange wedges.

Breakfast for lunch

My daughter always wants to have lunch at school on days the cafeteria is serving breakfast food. I discourage her because while cafeteria food is bad enough, I think that typical American breakfast foods would be even nastier. I decided to fix her a bento today of teddy bear shaped pancakes. I used Nutella to draw on a face. I should have put it in a baggie, cut a hole in a corner, and piped on the face, but I was too lazy and running out of time. Also included is tamagoyaki with cucumber sticks; chikuwa, a tubular fish cake, with a stick of cucumber pushed down the hole in the middle and then cut; apple slices.

Happy New Year!

We are back to our normal schedule this week. I received two bento books for Christmas, and was able to purchase a few accessories. This made me excited for the chance to make bento once again.

I made this bento yesterday for my daughter. Inspiration was drawn from one of the books and a blog.

Tis the season

It's been a long time since last posting. My daughter likes to eat at school more and more. *sigh* Plus, we've all been sick at some point. Today's bento isn't anything extraordinarily special but seasonal. Roast beef sandwiches in the shape of a snowflake and in the shape of a candy cane. Added some carrots, cucumbers, and ranch dressing. Not pictured is a small piece of brownie and some orange for my daughter's fruit serving. ^^

Gotta catch 'em all!

Today was a Pokemon theme. I made Torchic about of masago with a takuwan feather on the head and nose, nori and fish cake eyes. In addition to the rice, I added salmon and the last bit of fish cake I had in the fridge.

The second tier looks messy because I didn't realize that I had grabbed a container from a different bento. I wondered why there was so much space. ^^This tier contains Korean pear and broccoli and cauliflower florets. I still really need to work on presentation. *sigh*

Meat Pie Bento

This morning I made mini meat pies. They are perfect for bento lunches.

I make several variations of this pie. This morning I made them with BBQ pork. There are some baby carrots, broccoli, and a "checkerboard" apple slice.

The kids ate a couple of the pies for breakfast too and they loved them. I will post the recipe on the recipe blog soon.

Koreanized Tonkatsu and Chirashi bento

Today I made Tonkatsu with a Korean twist:) The twist is using a gochujang mixture. I also included a mini chirashi sushi.



In one side of the box, tonkatsu. In the other side is sushi rice on the bottom, with masago, sliced cucumbers, thin sliced shrimp and a tamagoyaki heart. There is little cherry tomato flower for some added color.
I posted the recipe for my Koreanized Tonkatsu on the new recipe blog KRAJEE BENTO RECIPES. The link in on the right side of the page:)

Monday Morning Bento

Good morning! And can I just tell you that I LOVE Fall time changes! Yes I do!



Today is a simple lunch of steak bites.
In the lower tier are persimmon slices, steak cut into bite size pieces, and edamame in the piggy shaped cup. My son has a penguin shaped cup in his.
And that is not just plain furikake on their rice. It is Pokemon furikake! Can you see the little Pikachu faces?

I used a Hello Kitty bento box for my daughter and a Totoro box for my son:)

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! (blood curdling scream)

This is my semi-successful attempt at making a scary skull bento. I have to say that they looked much better BEFORE I shoved the shrimp into the box, but oh well.



I made two skulls using rice, marinated seaweed inserted into the mouth and nose cavities, and gummy eyeballs. The reason they are so big is because I was working around the rather lare eyeballs.

I added two panko breaded shrimp into the box because, frankly, I am out of veggie fillers and I couldn't just have a giant rice ball in the box.





I also included two smaller bentos to accompany the larger one. I put one more shrimp and cut up persimmons. Also added a soy sauce container for the rice.

These are far from perfect, but the kids loved them:)

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.