Double Slider Field Trip Bento

It's field trip time! And you know what that means: the bento will be eaten off campus so it must be completely disposable. I asked TinySprite what she wanted to take and she said "Chili!"Well, that would be a little difficult to pack disposably. And it wouldn't be warm. "Burgers?" Burgers it is! I made her two tiny sliders inside mulitgrain mini-sandwich thins. There are romaine lettuce leaves, thin sliced red onion, and thin sliced cucumber in there too. I packed a mozzarella cheese stick as well, since it's probably her favorite snack food ever. Filling out the recycled strawberry basket container: carrots, satsuma mandarin, grape tomato, and a little cup holding a dried prune, dried Bing cherry, and dried Mission fig. Man, I can't wait until we can have these fruits in fresh form!

Have fun at the museum, TinySprite!

Beet Kohlrabi Latkes Bento

Beet Kohlrabi Latkes Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Kohlrabi: never heard of it? Me neither, but I saw other people buying it at the market so I thought, why not? Latkes I've never made either, but it seemed pretty straightforward. The recipe called for coarsely grated kohlrabi, beet, and onion mixed with a beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of flour, to be formed into round shapes and fried 4-6 minutes on each side. I added grated zucchini and some cheese, because that's how I roll. I had to squeeze quite a bit of liquid from the ingredients before forming the patties, which ended up holding together very loosely. I'm not sure if that's the way regular potato latkes look or not. I was kind of expecting a more "burger-y" type of patty, similar to the beet patties I made here. The recipe also recommended serving with a horseradish sauce, which sounds great, but I had mine with chimichurri (this stuff is very versatile!). I sprinkled some green onion on TinySprite's two patties, which I packed into the divided container along with a homegrown mesclun microgreens salad topped with shaved iberico and yellow tomatoes, some marinated mini peppers, and a selection of white peach, blueberries and a super ripe dark orange apricot.

Seeing as tomorrow is the last day of school, I made shoyu hot dogs (by request) for the kids to share at their snack party. Can't believe the year is all over and we have the long hot summer ahead of us at last! I don't know who is more excited: me or them! Counting down the hours starting now...
Added to What's For Lunch.

Rilakkuma Chicken Miniburgers LunchBots Bento

Rilakkuma Chicken Miniburgers LunchBots Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I made mini chicken burgers for TinySprite. MisterMan is in the mountains somewhere, eating cowboy stew and soudough bread or something like that. With only one bento to make, I decided to take some extra time and make a cute one. I fashioned a bear face with ears, and added nori details to a piece of mushroom to make Rilakkuma; his sidekick Kiiroitori is cut from a yellow sweet pepper. There's also a panda egg on a bed of furikake rice, some Japanese slaw (shredded napa cabbage tossed with rice vinegar, sugar, shoyu and sesame seeds) -- the kids both LOVE this salad! -- and more supersweet organic strawberries and carrots. All packed in the sky blue LunchBots Quad. Happy Wednesday!

Black Bean Burger Cheddar Jack Bento

Black Bean Burger Cheddar Jack Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Counting down the final hours before Halloween... so I guess I can fit in at least a couple more. This one has two black bean / black rice burger patties on lettuce (protein style) with a melted cheddar jack-o-lantern on top. I used the method I described here, based on the original garbanzo bean recipe I used here. I put some ketchup in the little green container, and added some blackberries, corn, carrots and a strawberry to round out the meal. If you haven't entered to win an EcoLunchboxes bento set here yet, you can take a look at the giveaway post here. You have until the stroke of midnight tomorrow.... oooo.... before I close the comment entries. I just read through the comments, and some of you have some clever ideas on how to reuse and recycle; I'm impressed! Enjoy your Halloween eve!