Chicken and Broccoli Lunchbots Bento

The comfort food of my childhood shows up often in my bentomaking as an adult. How coincidental that chicken and rice is a prime combo for bento. It's delicious hot, cold, or room temp😊❣

Today's Lunchbots Clicks contain: shoyu chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, furikake rice, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes.

Lil' Sandwich Rollups EcoLunchBox Bento

Sandwich Rollups EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Even though my kids usually eat the "dinner leftovers" type of bento quite often, they are just like all other kids and love the bitesize sandwich rollups too (maybe even more). My kindergartner always prefers to eat with her fingers so a bento like this is a hit with her. Since there isn't anything saucy to drip out, a bento like this is ideal for the EcoLunchBox Solo Cube. I secure it with an elastic band and it's good to go. Besides the whole wheat spinach brie and turkey rollups (I flattened the bread with a rolling pin first), I packed a cabbage onion tomato slaw, a cup of juicy cantaloupe, a strawberry, and some blueberries. This will just about satisfy her appetite, I think!

A Tree Grows in Jooklyn Bento

A Tree Grows in Jooklyn Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Get it? Get it? Did you read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Okay then. I know it doesn't look like a tree, but this tree is stylized. (Look at the other jook tree I made). This means that you must utilize your imagination for it to take shape. I made brown rice jook (see my method and recipe here) and decorated with char siu, cilantro and scallions. You can use chicken broth to flavor the soup, and add in aromatics like tiny dried shrimp. I also sometimes use shiitake mushrooms, leftover chicken, or even fish. It's also great to make your own broth using chicken or turkey bones. I packed this bento for MisterMan in his Lunchbots Thermal jar. A side box holds: satsuma mandarin, strawberry, blueberries, house pickled cucumbers and house marinated sweet baby bell peppers.

Eggplant Curry Without Okra Panda Bento

Eggplant Curry Panda Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I packed eggplant curry for this TinySprite bento (see my method and recipe here), although I had to omit the okra (my favorite element) because I couldn't find any. Perhaps it's out of season. It was still tasty, just without the added special texture that okra brings. It's topped with chopped cilantro. The top tier of the panda bowl holds strawberries and blueberries, a baby satsuma mandarin, grapes, pumpkin seeds, and a tomato with some carrot curls. We have a short week due to the Presidents Day holiday and other activities, so after Valentines Day parties and fun we'll be closing in on the weekend. Woohoo!

Added to What's For Lunch.

Froggie Sandwich Bento

Froggie Sandwich Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

No-cook sandwich bento: salami and aged white cheddar with spring greens and pickles on crusty multigrain bread. Too bad the bread I chose didn't fit the box I chose! I had to slice off a tad bit; oops. I decorated the bread top with cucumber, salami and a halved quail egg to make a happy frog face. Two carrots filled in the gaps, and the rest of the box is stuffed with summery fruit: delicious ripe peach, strawberry, rasp- and blueberries, and grapes. Yes, it's a standard sandwich lunch, but it's still got some fun with it ^_^

Panda Somen Salad Bento

Panda Somen Salad Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Okay, starting to cook a little for bento now. Does boiling somen noodles count? It's been so hot here that somen salad is really the best thing to cool down with. I topped this one with shredded carrot, ocean salad, green onion and furikake. You could also add lettuce, egg, ham, krab, kamaboko, or whatever you like. I put some tsuyu in the round blue container for him to pour on the somen just before he eats it. To the side I put the standard three: steamed broccoli, yellow cauliflower and romanesco. In the bottom tier of this cool skinny bento I put all the fruits: cherries, white nectarines and -- yes -- lychee!! It's not summer if I don't make my traditional lychee/blueberry panda. So here he is. I also added some other panda pals too, so they can have a panda party in the skinny bento! Not sure how I feel about this shape yet. I've seen others use it so elegantly, but I feel like I have to handle it carefully or it'll flip out of my hands and fall straight on the floor. It is unique though, isn't it?

Gyoza Bento

Gyoza Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

After the wonton project, I decided to make gyoza. I used Maki's recipe on Just Hungry, and they came out pretty good. The kids liked these too, but I guess they might prefer the wontons a bit more since they are huge soup fans. Anyway, I tucked a few gyoza into a stainless steel box along with a little container of shoyu/rice vinegar sauce. He also has a cup of pickled veggies (carrots, cucumbers and daikon) and a cherry tomato for color. I used a piece of lettuce to keep the gyoza separate from the other stuff; I think this qualifies as "edible baran" for entry in hapabento's B.O.M.B. contest!

I put the fruit in a separate box: black plum, Cara Cara oranges, raspberries and blueberries in this section. Have you tried Cara Cara oranges yet? There is some controversy over whether they are in fact actual grapefruit hybrids, or just look like grapefruits with their pink flesh. Anyway, supposedly they are less acidic and more sweet than regular oranges. We tried them at the Ferry Terminal farmer's market in San Francisco last weekend and were hooked! They really do taste sweet and berrylike, and their pink flesh is rather cool.

This has turned out to be Dumpling Week over here at the Happy Little Bento house. I find that dumplings really make people happy... even the word dumpling makes me smile. You too? :)

Garlic Shrimp Bento

Garlic Shrimp Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For this bento I sauteed some shrimp in garlic, butter and lemon juice; then packed them into the box with some cilantro rice, steamed broccoli and carrot flowers. I usually use bigger shrimp ('cause I like the big ones), but the smaller ones came out pretty well too. And they cook super fast, which is a plus for me. The kids ate the shrimp for dinner with whole wheat bowtie pasta, which I cooked together with the broccoli in a single timesaving step.

I was able to find a bunch of summery fruits so I had to stick them in: along with the winter standard mandarin segments -- sliced strawberry, raspberries and blueberries.

I wanted to try making lemon risotto to go with the shrimp, since someone gifted us with a bunch of their backyard Meyer lemons, but ran out of time. Maybe I should use them for something sweet anyway, like lemon bars or some other dessert. I saw a recipe on twitter for limoncello bread pudding! Hmmm...

Lion Ravioli Bento

Lion Ravioli Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For this bento I used my new two tier panda bento box that I got at Marukai in Little Tokyo, L.A. It's so cute! I used spinach ravioli. These Costco brand ravioli have a curvy edge that always make me think of lions, so of course I had to cut out a nori face to decorate. In addition, I added a piece of steamed broccoli, some roasted asparagus and roasted grape tomatoes. Interestingly, these tomatoes were getting wrinkled in the fridge, which is why I decided to toss them in the pan with the asparagus. When I took them out, they had magically plumped back up. Now they look beautiful! What a trick, eh?

In the other tier I put some carrot flowers, a baby mandarin, some strawberries and blueberries. Doesn't it look nice? I didn't show the lid, but I did put the matching ice pack in the picture to show you. It fits under the lid and on top of the top tier, which comes with a tight-fitting plastic lid. The whole thing stacks together and fastens with a white belt. My boy loved this one, and it got lots of appreciative comments from his lunchtime pals too ^_^