Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is one of my (and my kids') favorites. Sticky rice is fun to make because you don't have to stick to traditional ingredients -- well anyway, I don't. Here is my basic recipe. Today I mixed brown and white glutinous rice along with brown and white regular rice. I cooked it in pure chicken broth, and towards the end of the cooking cycle I tossed in sliced lup cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced shiitake mushrooms, chopped squash and baby bok choy. All the flavors meshed together very well in this batch. I presoaked the rice for a few hours, which is essential if you are using brown glutinous rice. Super tasty, and nice colors too. The other side turned out to be an all-red fruit section, with strawberry, grapes, blood oranges and radish. Oh, and there's a yellow carrot in there for contrast.
My fellow bento enthusiasts have come together to establish a Bento4Japan eBay auction theme. There are books, bento boxes, goodie packages and more listed there, and all the proceeds will go towards the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. So you can satisfy your bento shopping while helping a good cause at the same time. Please take a look: simply use the search term "Bento4Japan" here!

Drums and Wings Bento

Drums and Wings Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

More and more chicken tebasaki (recipe here) using wings and drumettes. If you make these, be sure to make a ton, since everyone will want a plateful and the kids will ask for them in their bento. Yes, it'll be cold but they won't care. Believe me. The two kids get almost identical bento; one side of each box filled with chicken and the other with an assortment of fruits and veggies. The purple cutouts are made from Okinawan sweet potato which I steamed. I also included some squash in my boy's bento, since there was a bit of extra room. Besides the usual grapes, strawberry, broccoli and carrot, I added seedless mandarin. I'm always afraid these will be dry and tasteless, but luckily this batch is sweet and juicy! I think I got all the colors in there. ^_^

Curry Thermal Bento

Curry Thermal Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Tonight I made curry with chicken, zucchini, onion, celery, and Indian squash. I only had medium-hot so I kept the consistency on the watery side so it wouldn't be too hot for the kids. I served it to them over rice and they loved it. I later realized it would be good for curry udon, if we had any leftovers. I'll have to remember for next time. I packed in the Stanley thermal food jar, which I really like for its heat-retention capacity. I actually did a comparison of this jar and the Zojirushi Classic bento jar and was not too surprised to learn that this one was much better at keeping the contents hot after several hours. It also has the benefit of being smaller and less unwieldy than the much larger Zojirushi. However, I had to pack the cool items in a separate bowl. This is my stainless steel bowl (Daiso) that comes with a tight-fitting plastic lid: I was able to fit in some blood oranges, a mini Fuji apple, some blueberries and a carrot. This bento will keep him warm and satisfied on a cold school day.