Today's bento has rotini pasta with sauteed baby portobellas, chicken sausage and wilted spinach, roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, carrots, grapes, a mini mandarin, more (yellow and purple) carrots and a strawberry. We got a ton of these mini mandarins from the in-laws' yard, and the kids love them because they're so cute. I don't really like them much because the have seeds and they're kind of hard to peel. I much prefer satsumas, but we have to go through two huge bagsful still. Sigh. Unless I can get them to eat a bunch at breakfast and dinner, you'll be seeing them here a lot. These purple carrots are from L.A. as well, and you can see that the purple color goes almost all the way through the whole carrot, with just a small yellow core. The ones I usually get have just a thin purple skin. These looked nearly black on the outside. Very cool!
Did you notice my cool divided bento box? I found it at Ichiban Kan (I think Daiso carries it too); the brand name is Assist. It's made of hard plastic with two moveable dividers that you can intersect in three different ways -- to create 4 equal sections, 2 big + 2 smaller (which I've done here) or 2 big + 2 tiny. There are raised tracks molded into the box to keep the dividers from moving around too much. The top of this one is light blue, and it has a rubberized gasket seal as well as a rubber vent hole that you have to pull open before you can remove the lid. It seems to be pretty watertight. The one thing I don't like about this box right away is that there aren't any fingergrips to grab onto for opening the box. The lid and box are flush all the way around. I let MisterMan practice opening it before I let him take it to school, to make sure he could handle it. The nice thing about this box, though, is that it comes with an elastic band and a zippered fabric tote to carry it in. There are a few different varieties made by this company. If you live near an Ichiban Kan you might want to check them out. It also feels pretty solid, which is good for a lunchbag-swinging kid!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
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Sigh... I wish Ichibankan still had their online shop. Used buy a lot of things from them. This is a very cool box. And those carrots are rockin!
ReplyDeleteI love Ichiban Kan. You'll have to make a shopping visit here. Thanks Debra :)
ReplyDeleteCool 4 section box! I like it divided into 2 big and 2 smaller sections, not like the usual 4 equal sections. And I agree with Debra, those 2-tones carrot flowers are fantastic! I want to go shopping bento stuffs with you ;)
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun! Thanks Lia :D
ReplyDeleteAm I late for your oranges? Hehe ^^. The bento box is cool, I never find one with four sections like that...
ReplyDeleteWow! Thats a whole lot of veggies and fruit! I wish my boys will be as keen with them! I recently started to pack a little section of fruit for my 4yo for his snack box. Hopefully over time he'll finish them up. Thanks for the inspiration -
ReplyDeleteShaz
So nice box! It is so nice when you can divide the compartments the way you want or need... so practical :)
ReplyDeleteLoved the carrots too... they look like little pansies ^__^!
i agree with everyone else, the new box is awesome! can't wait to see how you use it with different section configurations. the two-tone carrots are seriously cool looking, and that mushroom pasta would be so comforting on this (another) dreary rainy day... can you send me some, haha?
ReplyDeletesectional fun! I love having separate little compartments in a bento--it really spurs creativity! the purple carrots are so beautiful...
ReplyDeleteTatabonita, Shaz, karaimame, megan and Bentobird: thank you!
ReplyDeleteNever to late to share. This box is cool and I hope to use it regularly :)