Happy Easter Baby Chick Bento! 🐣🐰

It's not Easter yet, but one of my kids is already on school break. The other one's break is the week after Easter. Seems so late! How about your kids?

So anyway, here's my bento for the occasion. Had to make the baby chick egg, of course! If you do this, try to keep the yolk in the center. It really makes the carving much easier! My yolks were way off center so it was hard to cut neatly through so much white. In fact, the yolk was so low in the first egg I tried that I didn't even reach it at all -_-

Inside our Ecolunchbox Solo Cube: ham-spinach-tomato-enoki-furikake rice onigirazu, Okinawan sweet potato cherry blossoms, sweet baby peppers stuffed with edamame, tomato and berries.

Inside the Eco Dipper: soba, lettuce, hard boiled egg.

Happy Easter, friends!

Easter Chick Soba LunchBots EcoLunchBoxes Bento

Easter Chick Soba Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I squeezed in one last Easter theme bento: a little chickie atop a soba nest. Actually, this is a hen's egg, so it's a pretty big chick, but all the better to see his little face. Quail eggs are easier to cut, but I managed to get the "eggshell" off this one pretty much intact after a lot of finagling. The containers hold soba tsuyu and furikake for TinySprite to add to her soba at lunchtime. The LunchBots Clicks is perfect for this because it's totally leakproof; if she doesn't finish it all, it won't spill out into her lunch tote afterwards. The EcoLunchBoxes Ecodipper was a nice-sized accompaniment to hold her strawberry, Moloka'i Okinawan sweet potato, house-pickled cucumbers and carrots. I won't see you until next week, so enjoy your weekends! Happy Easter, happy Passover, or happy egg hunting!

Chick and Egg Salad Bento

Chick and Egg Salad Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I had to make egg salad since my 9-year-old informed me that he'd never had it before. What? Whoops. I remember eating egg salad sandwiches when I was about his age, with all kinds of weird stuff like sweet pickle relish inside. Or maybe those were my sardine sandwiches? My childhood friend Barb showed me how to make a sardine sandwich with relish and tabasco; I still think that sounds really good, don't you? In fact, it may be time to introduce the kiddos to a sardine sandwich! I'll try that on 'em next week, maybe. For this batch, I mixed a few hard-boiled eggs (diced up with the handy-dandy egg slicer) with plain yogurt, sweet pickle relish, mustard, onions, salt/pepper and topped with diced ham. I put it on a lettuce salad but I'd like to serve it in a pita next time (at least for MisterMan). For fun, I nestled a baby quail egg chick on top. The upper tier of her favorite panda bowl contains sliced peaches, blueberries, grapes and strawberries. For the record: they both loved it. Yay!

Salmon and Chick Bento

Salmon and Chick Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

You've seen this one before, like my kids too. So now when I make a salmon bento I feel like I have to put something extra special in here so it's not quite so ordinary. I try to feed my family salmon (or other fish) at least once a week. Luckily everyone loves fish so it's not a problem. There are lots of sauces you can make to prepare salmon, but I like the simple preparation best. I used to like misoyaki, but we're cutting out soy. Butteryaki, lemon dill and pesto are other good choices, and you can also slather the fish with kewpie mayo, sprinkle some furikake and pan-fry. I've been trying to add rice to TinySprite's bento since she's wheat-free these days, and she's not a big fan, but the furikake helps. I use an MSG-free variety. I added corn off the cob, and made her a hard-boiled beet-dyed egg decorated as a chick with nori and cute picks. She's a HUGE egg fan, by the way. The other side of this Daytrippers box contains pluots, strawberry, raspberries and blackberries. I hope she finds it delightful!

Mama and Baby Easter Chicks Bento

Mama and Baby Easter Chicks Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite asked for a Mama and Baby chicks bento, so here they are! I'm not expert with the egg white zigzag cut, especially when the yolk is so close. I'm told if you want the yolk to be perfectly centered, you must constantly roll the egg during boiling. Um, okay; that's why mine will have to be off-centered. The trick is to use a small blade and work with a light touch, but you can see that I punctured the yolk a few times. No matter, TS was still thrilled to see this duo! I'm so happy I've been able to use my supercute wings picks so much this past week. Here, the mama is flapping her wings in happiness over her hatchling chick's appearance. Aww! There's also miso butterfish (method and recipe here), roasted kabocha (tossed with parmesan) and brussels sprouts. Yes, I've taken to tossing all kinds of vegetables with parmesan, and you know what? It suddenly makes them a lot more desirable to the kiddos. The rest of the bento contains ripe strawberries, blueberries and grapes. That's it for the Easter bento at our house for this year. Hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend. Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Easter Chick Mabo Tofu Bento

Easter Chick Mabo Tofu Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Did I use this panda box for mapo tofu last time? It just goes so well. I love the recipe, but I have been trying to bridge the gap between the spicy-eaters and the nonspicy-eaters, and this time I mixed some of the spicy batch with the nonspicy batch for the kids' bentos. My girl would have none of it, but my boy actually ate the full spice version (over lots and lots of rice) this time! He probably drank a gallon of water with it, but still! I consider it a victory. The top tier contains some cooling grapes, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, and a little quail egg "Easter chick" -- wearing an Easter hat to boot! It's the week before Easter Sunday, so I thought I'd put a few spring characters in there. Did the tiny fluffy chick want to go along with his buddy?

Mochiko Chick'n Chicken Bento

Mochiko Chick'n Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made oven-roasted mochiko chicken today (see recipe and method here) and tossed some sliced kabocha wedges in there as well. There's also something in this bento that I don't usually pack. Do you see it? That's right: rice! I got the idea for satsumaimo rice from Hapa bento's Okinawan sweet potato gohan post. I cooked a mix of black and brown rice, then tossed with diced satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) which I had tossed in the rice cooker whole midway through the cycle. I cut the imo after cooking, then gently folded into the rice. After packing the peapods, red plum, corn on the cob and Okinawan sweet potato stars, I had a little spot for a tiny hard-boiled quail egg chick. I cut the "eggshell" white with my small paring knife tip, and added nori eyes and carrot beak to the yolk "chick". I have a container of precut nori eyes and such, so that I can just use what I need right away. Too late, I just noticed that the two dots are different sizes. Oops. Still cute though, right?

Taro Bread Rollups Bento

Taro Bread Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here's a bento I make quite often for TinySprite, in several variations. She likes finger foods, and rollups are a favorite of hers. Sometimes I use tortillas, sometimes sushi, and sometimes -- as here -- I use flattened bread. I've posted a tutorial of how I make the bread rollups here. The purple color of this taro bread is so pretty that I decided to use it today. It's also a nice bread to use because it's soft and fluffy. Whole grain breads are often on the dry side (it can still be used though, like I did here). After rolling the bread flat with a rolling pin, I smeared cream cheese and lay some smoked salmon on top before rolling and pressing to seal. If I had arugula I would have rolled some in there as well. I also added a golden beet-dyed hen egg decorated with a face made of carrot and nori. (Been on a kind of yellow egg roll these days. Of sorts.) There's some satsumaimo (underneath) and regular sweet potato flowers as well as steamed broccoli tucked in there. Finally, I gave her some sliced yellow peaches as a sweet treat. Cheep cheep! ^_^

Scallion Pancakes Bento

Scallion Pancake Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I made a batch of scallion pancakes for TinySprite, and decided to make more to pack for her bento. It's perfect for her light appetite, and will satisfy her carb cravings. I adapted the recipe here (from use real butter) but used half whole wheat flour for fun. It comes out a little chewier this way, but the kids don't mind. All you do is make a flour and water dough, roll it out, add chopped scallions, roll it up and roll it out flat again. Do you notice that I used the word "roll" three times in the last sentence? Yeah, it's a LOT of rolling, and it's best to roll it very thin. Now I know why I am not a baker. My arms are aching. But don't let that stop you. It's very tasty and fun to eat! Into this bento I also fit a piece of steamed corn on the cob, broccoli, a grape tomato, and a golden beet-dyed quail egg decorated with nori and a bit of carrot to look like a baby chick. The other section contains a juicy strawberry, supersweet blackberries (love these with Greek yogurt and walnuts!), carrots and grapes. All fun finger foods for my preschooler. ^_^

Mabo Tofu Chicks Bento

Mabo Tofu Chicks Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's bento has mabo tofu, one of my favorite meals which I hadn't made in a long time. When I make the kids' version I don't use any chili sauce at all, sadly, since they have no tolerance for it. This is why theirs looks so brown. After they get their serving, the adult version gets a few tablespoons of chili paste added in, which adds the nice red color that I love. For this batch I used ground chicken, and I also stirred in an egg, which is why there are yellow bits visible in the closeup. I scooped the mabo tofu over some lettuce in this bento, and I left out most of the sauce to keep it on the less drippy, bento-friendly, side. For dinner they had it served over rice, which is my favorite way to eat it. I added a red leaf and dandelion green salad with sliced grape tomatoes and feta cheese, carrots, strawberries and grapes to round out the bento. And for a final Easter touch, I put two baby chicks sitting on a leaf together. They are made of yellow carrot, with orange carrot and nori details. Cheep cheep!

Easter Egg and Jook Bento

Easter Egg and Jook Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Got the inspiration for today's bento from my very own scratchy throat and cough. The cough is especially annoying, and has been lingering for a few days now. I can tell it's getting better when I can get through a whole sentence without suddenly hacking off to the side for a couple minutes. I made jook for myself, really, but the kids love it too so I packed some for them (my basic jook recipe is here). For this batch I used white and brown rice, a mixture of organic chicken broth and water, and added baby spinach, green onion and steamed wild cod fillet into the bubbling soup. I also drizzled hot chili oil on top of mine but omitted for the kids. I packed it in our trusty Stanley thermal food jar so it'll be nice and toasty come lunchtime. He also gets a side box filled with a half mandarin, strawberry, grapes, blackberry, steamed broccoli and a cute little quail egg chick. I'd attempted to make the zig-zag egg cut before without success, so I boiled a few eggs in case I encountered trouble. This time it worked beautifully the first try. I used a sharp razor blade to make each tiny individual cut, and then pulled the two halves apart gently. If you have a thin blade paring knife, you could use that as well. Make sure your egg is boiled completely hard, to make it easier. I added nori eyes and a carrot beak, and now the little chickie is ready to pop out and be eaten!