Chef Bento Noodle Contest Results

Wow - so exciting and incredible to place first in the final 10 (of 172 worldwide entries) at the Bento & Co contest! Thank you, friends, for voting for my bento! I really am appreciative and honored! 😘❤🍱

Chef Bento Noodle Contest by Bento & Co

Hello Bento Friends!

Bento & Co held a contest this past week for a Noodle Theme Bento. The contest is open to any and all, and it's a fun way to challenge yourself into making a bento using the ingredient or element called for. The company holds a similar contest every year with different themes, and I decided to enter this year (I also participated in a past contest here).

I was pleased and honored to have been selected as one of the ten finalists! 💖💖💖
You can see the other nine finalists in the collage above; they are beautiful! The ultimate ranking of the 10 bento will be determined by public vote, meaning people like you! If you are so inclined, please click over to the Bento & Co website to view the entries in closeup, and cast your vote for your favorite. Voting is open until Wednesday! If you vote for me, thank you! 😘💕

While you're there, you can check out the super cute and practical bento and kitchen items offered in the shop. I love the quality and selection of the goods offered by this Kyoto-based company!

In case you were wondering, my entry is this one (top middle in the collage): Soba Totoro Bento! 

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful week so far! 😊❤🍱

Totoro Soba Saladbook Bento!

Hello from Totoro! Yup, it's another Totoro bento. It may be true that we are in the midst of Fall, but we are still digging the cold noodle bento these days. This one is a soba salad, with chopped romaine, shredded carrot, fishcake (kamaboko), nori, grape tomatoes, and steamed Okinawan sweet potato soot sprites. I poured tsuyu directly on the noodles because the lid is gasketed and advertised to be leakproof. Spoiler: it didn't leak! This is a new lunchbox called SaladBook by Smart Planet. It's only the first time we've used it so we'll reserve judgement until we use it again. Stay tuned!

Totoro Char Siu Bao Bento!

Totoro! I was thinking about him this past week because we happened to find the My Neighbor Totoro picture book in the library. It's a little jarring to read the story and descriptives since watching the film is more of a stream of flowing imagery washing over your senses. But it is fun to look closely at the detailed illustrations. In the scene where the sisters are eating cucumbers fresh from the garden, you can see the chewed-up bits of vegetable in Mei's open mouth while she's talking about bringing corn to her mother. Anyway, here is my tribute to everyone's favorite "cross between a bear and a raccoon and an owl." Have a magical adventure today!

Also in the ECOlunchbox Solo Rectangle: grapes, cucumbers, carrots, strawberry, lettuce. Details made from fishcake, nori, soba.

Totoro Calzone Bento

Aw, it's Totoro! You may have to use your imagination, though. I made pizzas for dinner, and always try to make some kind of cute calzone at the same time. You can see my past attempts if you do a search in the blog search bar. I know, I made his chevrons wrong. Shoots! He has a spinach leaf umbrella, and a tomato balloon. I hope he's happy! And I hope you are too ^__^

Totoro Calzone Bento

Totoro Calzone Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

RAWR! It's Totoro! Yeah, I know it looks weird. But really, it is Totoro. You may have to just take my word for it. It's a nitrite-free pepperoni/mushroom/cheese calzone made with whole wheat dough. And I was pleased that the ears stayed on this time instead of snapping off. Woo! I put some tufts of garden lettuce around him to make him feel at home, and his face is made of mushroom and nori (stuck on with rice sticks). The other side of this cool divided Sistema - like box holds cantaloupe, grapes, plum, and pickled stuff. One more day and the weekend's here! \(^__^)/

Totoro and Bear Calzone Bento

Totoro Calzone Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today the kids get calzones again! I used roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, lots of cheese, and baby arugula in the meatless ones, and salami and pepperoni in the meatlover ones. Love them. MisterMan got Totoro, with radish and nori eyes and nose, and soba whiskers, and TinySprite got a brown bear.

The rest of the bentos contain broccoli, peapods, carrots, corn, plum, strawberries, blackberries and grapes. Love this pizza and calzone week. Super fun and easy, and everyone's happy! P.S. I think I'm getting the hang of shaping them now. No puffy pig snouts!

Totoro and Catbus Bentos

Totoro and Soot Sprites Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

MisterMan and TinySprite get matching Studio Ghibli bentos today; and they're both almost totally non-cook. I initially wanted to do these for a roadtrip, because wouldn't it be fun for them to eat together and chat about the movie (My Neighbor Totoro)? But I couldn't wait. I really wanted to make another Totoro, and after bento numbers one and two, I think this one looks pretty neat and sharp (if I may say so myself).

It helps to have a very smooth bun to work with. I used my small paring knife to slice off just the top brown layer for his belly, and after pre-scoring his chevron stripes I actually cut around them. They are still connected to the bun, and that way I didn't have to worry about sticking them back on. His eyes are cheese and nori, and his nori nose is stuck on with a bit of honey. I cut his ears from part of the belly and stuck them into slits I cut at the top of the bun. The eyes are secured with rice sticks to the bun.

Okinawan purple potato, when steamed and refrigerated overnight, turn a very dark shade of purple the next day, which makes them quite suitable for soot sprites. Their eyes are also cheese and nori. The rest of his bento contains the usual: broccoli, carrots, strawberry, cherries, grape tomatoes and orange slices.

TinySprite's Catbus is made from a hot dog-in-a-blanket with a potato bread face. All the facial features (Okinawan purple potato, regular sweet potato, cheese and radish) were secured with rice sticks. I hand-cut thin strips of nori for the teeth and eyes, and used bits of spaghetti for whiskers. She got a piece of corn, steamed broccoli, carrots, strawberry, cherries, and rasp-, black- and blueberries. This turned out to be too much for her and she brought the corn home to finish. They loved them!

Totoro and Girl's Day Empanadas Bento

Totoro Empanada Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

We were gifted with handmade empanadas today, so the kids get a treat for their bento. There are a variety of flavors, and they are a hit. As an enclosed baked pocket of goodies, an empanada (and other similar types of foods) makes an ideal candidate for bento. They are easy to eat, neat to pack, and require no utensils. Perfect for kids! I decorated MisterMan's as Totoro, with yellow carrot and watermelon radish details, and on the side I packed some strawberries, carrots, grapes, lightly steamed broccoli and yellow cauliflower.

TinySprite's empanada is decorated as a girl in honor of Girls' Day, which is celebrated on March 3rd. Her head is a quail egg with nori detail and a flower pick, and her kimono has yellow carrot and watermelon radish detail. I was able to squeeze in some strawberries, a carrot and some peapods as well. This bento is an enameled metal bowl (from Daiso) with a plastic sealing lid. It's lightweight and a perfect size for my 4 year old. Added this one to What's For Lunch!

Totoro Bun Bento

Totoro Bun Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This was the last field trip bento of the summer from last week. Now that school is starting already, it feels like such a long time ago! Anyway, this is another installment in the char siu bao character bento. Lest you fear my boy is tiring of char siu bao, don't worry. He would ask to eat them every day if I let him. My daughter is the same way. I don't know what the big deal is about them. Something about the sticky sweet bun, soft white bread, and sweet pork filling, I guess. Anyway, back to the bento. I've seen lots of people make Totoro out of sesame seed-tinted rice, which makes a nice gray color. Well, my kids aren't big rice eaters, so I guess this is the closest I'll be able to get. After you cut the belly circle, you can cut the ears from that part. The hardest part was cutting the "v's" and sticking them onto his belly. His eyes are radish discs and blueberries, and his nose is a grape. That's it. I also stuck in some carrots, broccoli, cherries, grapes and plum. Happy end of summer to you, bento friends!