Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento and a Spelling Bee

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Hello again! Sorry I've been a bit negligent about posting bento here for a week or so. The day after Valentines Day, MisterMan participated in his school district Spelling Bee again this year. Last year he took home the top prize, and this year he snuck into 4th place. He was the only returning placewinner from last year. This year's competition was fierce, complete with 21 4th-grade spellers from 5 schools, multiple elimination rounds of off-list words, tie-breakers, and even parent protests. It was a nail-biter, I tell you! In the end MisterMan was tripped up by "scalene", but when he stood onstage with his ribbon he looked just as pleased as ever. I'm glad he likes words so much; I think it's quite a nice hobby to have. We're so proud of you MisterMan! To celebrate, we spent the long weekend checking out some dinosaur exhibits and cool kid museums. And yes, there were frozen desserts involved too! ^_^

Today's bento is packed in my super awesome EcoLunchBox two-tier set, with homemade pork gyoza (see my method and recipe here) in the lower part and a variety of refreshment in the upper part: baby satsuma, a smattering of grapes, strawberry, blueberries, and house-pickled cucumbers. Gyoza are guaranteed kid-pleasers, tasty with or without dipping sauce, easy-to-eat finger food, and made for bento. I made my filling with pork and chopped baby bok choy, because I'm wild like that. You can use almost anything you like: even mushroom, scallions, water chestnuts (for crunch), bean sprouts, whatever. Hope you all had a great weekend!